"I have key to unlock Mnangagwa's illegitimacy" boasted Chamisa - yet cannot unlock his own N Garikai

"The appointments of the second and third respondents (Chamisa and Mudzuri) as deputy presidents of the MDC party were unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void. The appointment of second respondent (Chamisa) as acting president, and president of the MDC party were unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void,” said High Court Justice Edith Mushore.

"All appointments and/or reassignments and all actions of the second respondent in his purported capacity as deputy/acting or incumbent president were unconstitutional and,

therefore, null and void."

This is a mess of MDC’s own making because even those with one drop of democratic blood in the veins raised their eye-brows at the blatant disregard of common decency and decorum shown by Chamisa is seizing power after Tsvangirai’s death. The chickens have come home to root. 

"Plainly speaking, therefore, … the duty to call (for) the extra-ordinary congress for such an election would have been that of the fourth respondent (Khupe). The constitution is specific about this requirement …," said Justice Mushore. She ruled that the said extra-ordinary congress should be called with in a month. 

Nelson Chamisa’s reaction to the Court judgement has been confusion, to say the least. He has vowed that the party congress organised by him and not Khupe as stipulated in the judgement above will go ahead and thus is defying the Court ruling. He has also said he will appeal the Court ruling and thus suggesting he is recognising the power and authority of the Court. He clearly cannot made up his own mind! This is typical MDC blundering incompetency. 

By participating in last year’s elections, knowing fully well that with no meaningful reforms in place Zanu PF will rig the elections, MDC and the rest of the opposition entourage gave the flawed and illegal process some credibility as David Coltart readily admitted in his book. 

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, gave details of how Zanu PF flouted the electoral rules, it clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. Meanwhile talks of uniting the two MDC factions to fight the elections as one were going nowhere.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

All the election observers worth their salt have condemned Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections. 

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” reported the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission final report. 

“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

ZEC had failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, something as essential to elections as water is to fish. 

The election process was full of irregularities and illegalities, the opposition parties and candidate to the man and woman should have all, unanimously, condemned the elections. Sadly, blinded by greed and incompetency, the opposition have unanimously endorsed the fraudulent elections and declared Mnangagwa legitimate; all that is, except Chamisa.  

Chamisa has ignored all the flaws and illegalities noted by everyone else and picked one the one, he claims ZEC's vote counts for Mnangagwa and himself are wrong in giving the former more votes than himself. Elections are judge on the basis of the process, in this case given it “contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability”, as the EU Mission report state; the elections have been rightly condemned. Chamisa want the elections to be judged on result; if he is declared the winner the elections were free, fair and credible and otherwise if Mnangagwa is the winner. No one in their right mind would ever subscribe to such nonsense! 

If all the opposition parties and candidates had joined everyone else in condemning last July’s elections as rigged elections, this have would focused pressure on Zanu PF to step down. The focused political pressure plus the economic pressure due to the worsening economic situation would have gone a long way by now in forcing Zanu PF to step down. 

By participating in the flawed and illegal elections the opposition parties have given the process some modicum of credibility and by failing to condemn the process even in the face of the overwhelming evidence the process was flawed the opposition have mudded the political waters. Mnangagwa and his junta have benefited from the opposition's blundering incompetency and greed. The mess created by Justice Mushore's judgement will only distract MDC and the nation from the problems of problems of worsening economic situation and Zanu PF's illegitimacy. 

Chamisa has declared Mnangagwa illegitimate but only as a negotiating tactic to get the latter to grant him a gravy train seat. “I have the key to unlock Mnangagwa’s illegitimacy!” Chamisa has often boated. Now that Chamisa is himself illegitimate, he has to unlock his own illegitimacy first. 

MDC should sort out the leadership mess once and once for all the nation has the pressing matter of implementing the democratic reforms before 2023 to stop Zanu PF rigging those elections too. Given the confused stance of defying the Court ruling and honouring the Court's power by appealing the judgement this mess will not be sorted in a hurry. Time is the one commodity Zimbabwe can ill afford to waste! 

If Zanu PF is still in power come the 2023 elections we can be 100% certain the party will blatantly rig that year’s elections extending the regime's corrupt and tyrannical rule. We must stop this happening and the only sure way to do so is for the nation to acknowledge that Chamisa and his MDC friends are no longer championing the common cause of implementing the democratic reforms. They are now part and parcel of the problem whose blundering incompetency and greed are undermining our efforts to bring about meaningful democratic change. 

As much as some people will not want to admit it the truth is Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends are corrupt and incompetent political thugs no different from the Zanu PF thugs they are trying to remove from office. Yes of course, Mnangagwa is illegitimate but then is Chamisa and Mnangagwa knows it and will never remind Chamisa of this at every turn. 

If we are serious about removing Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs from office then we must some other people to do it not Chamisa et al. Chamisa and his friends sold-out big time during the GNU and continue to do so to this day. Chamis is not only illegitimate as leader of MDC he is also corrupt, incompetent and a sell-out. As long as Chamisa and his MDC friends continue to spearhead our fight for democratic change Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will know their continued rule is secure. Fact!