The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic chaos; with unemployment a nauseating 90%, public education and health care all but collapse, rocketing hyperinflation, etc. And political paralysis; we are stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship and the equally corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless opposition; is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible election.
It is now 40 years since Zimbabwe’s independence, 2 500 years since the Greek gifted mankind with democracy as a system of government to deliver stability, justice and prosperity for all, and yet we still failing to hold free, fair and credible elections. Shame! Shame! Of course, we should all hang our head in shame.
"Malawians have a fresh opportunity, courtesy of the courage and wisdom demonstrated by their judges & the support of key institutions, to have a free & fair election. Lest we forget, we here in Zimbabwe have an outstanding matter - the legitimacy of the rigged 2018 election,” comment Nelson Chamisa, President of the main opposition party, MDC Alliance.
"SADC & AU are urged to draw key lessons from events in Malawi not to rush to endorse sham elections where people have legitimate concerns over processes. SADC and the AU as institutions of resort deserve a renewal and re-orientation to defend African people’s interests.”
The people of Malawi went to the poll to elect a new president last year. The incumbent, Peter Muitarika, was declared the winner. The Constitutional Court of Malawi has nullified the election victory when it was presented with evidence of tippexed ballot paper and other voting irregularities.
Chamisa has, rightly, praised Malawi’s judiciary and other institutions for their courage, wisdom and independence in uncovering the damning vote rigging evidence and declaring the election null and void. And has, rightly too, condemned Zimbabwe’s judiciary, ZEC, Police, etc for their partisan bias that has helped Zanu PF rig elections and get away with it.
What Chamisa has refused to admit, as a matter of course, is the pivotal role he and his MDC A party have played in perpetuating the scourge of rigged elections in Zimbabwe.
It is a matter of historic record that SADC leaders forced Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore ZEC, etc. independence and thus guarantee free, fair and credible elections. MDC were the partners in the GNU tasked to ensure the reforms were implemented.
In five years of the GNU, MDC leaders to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
SADC leader have literally begged MDC not to take part in elections without first implementing the reforms. The warning was ignored.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends knew that by participating in flawed and illegal elections; elections Zanu PF, with the help of ZEC, judiciary, etc., were set to rig; MDC will, per se, be giving the illegitimate process and results some modicum of credibility.
“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,” confessed David Coltart, MDC minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, in his book The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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.”
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF party blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote (Mnangagwa reportedly won with 2.4 million vote), ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, etc. Of course, SADC and AU leaders must be ashamed they turned a blind eye to such blatant political shenanigans and it is little wonder vote rigging and bad governance still remain Africa’s greatest curse.
Still, it does not help Zimbabwe’s fight to end the curse of rigged elections if those tasked implement the reforms are corrupt and incompetent, they not only waste one golden opportunity to implement the reforms after another but have the chutzpah to blame others so they continue selling out!
The continued arrogance of Chamisa is insufferable!
ReplyDeleteIt was SADC leaders who forced Mugabe to sign the Global Political Agreement agreeing to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms. SADC leaders spend the GNU years nagging MDC leaders to implement the reforms but were ignored by Chamisa and company. It is therefore rich for Chamisa to now be pontificating to SADC and AU leaders on lessons to be learned from the Malawi judgement.
It is MDC leaders themselves, not SADC and AU, who have been sanitising Zanu PF rigged elections by participating in the elections with no reforms! Chamisa should wash his foul mouth with bleach!
United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has described the 2019 Malawi elections as successful.
ReplyDeletePompeo discussed the May 21 elections in a statement on July 6.
True the Americans had endorsed the election as free and fair but there is no doubt in my mind they will change that position now they know better!
The idea of a national political dialogue after elections is to avert and minimise disaster, said Dr Sibanda who quipped that under the POLAD, the economy continued deteriorating.
ReplyDelete"The economy continues worsening, it is not responding to POLAD because it is a dead horse. I am a student of politics and understand that dialogue is supposed to improve a situation but, in this case, the economy is not improving because their ideas are funny shaped," he said.
Dr Sibanda noted that Chamisa had received two million votes, which was a "show of faith in him, therefore he had no time or business to spend in making silly ideas."
"Firstly, Prof Madhuku did not win any amount of votes (during the 2018 elections) as people understand that his ideas are funny shaped and people came to realise that. POLAD cannot work, Zimbabweans are clear about that, SADC has been clear about that and the economy is clear about that as well," said Chamisa's spokesperson.
We are supposed to believe that if MDC meet Zanu PF and form the proposed NTA the country’s economy will finally take off. What a truck load of bull!
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. By failing to end corruption, by blatantly rigging the 2018 elections, etc. Mnangagwa confirmed Zimbabwe’s position as a pariah state. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!
Most of opposition parties have endorse the July 2018 as free, fair and credible and the Zanu PF regime as legitimate and joined POLAD, that has done nothing to change the country’s pariah state status. Even if MDC has done the same and joined POLAD that would have changed nothing.
Even if Mnangagwa was to relent and form the NTA, Chamisa has been crying for, Zimbabwe will still remain a pariah state. It is nonsense that, by shaking Mnangagwa’s hand, MDC can somehow legitimise Zanu PF and lift the pariah state curse!
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections” Chamisa boasted before the 2018 elections. The man loves grandstanding and drumming his chest like a silver-back gorilla; we all know it is all empty bluff!
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, who claims he was robbed of poll victory by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the 2018 elections, Tuesday took a dig at SADC and the African Union (AU for blindly endorsing the result of Malawi's disputed election last year, an outcome that has since been reversed by the country's Constitutional Court.
ReplyDeleteIn a series of tweets, Chamisa urged both SADC and AU and to learn from the Malawian ConCourt and not be quick to endorse elections whose results are still in dispute.
Buyer beware: cuidado con el comprador: acquirente
attenzione: etc. is as old as human civilisation itself.
In this case, MDC leaders had the chance to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections; they chose not to.
MDC leaders were warned repeatedly not to contest the elections without first implementing the democratic reforms. They ignored the warnings.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections,” boasted Nelson Chamisa before the 2018 elections.
Many election observers condemned the July 2018 elections as a farce but were powerless to do anything else because Zimbabwe’s opposition parties did not mind Zanu PF rigged the elections - they saw that as a challenge and welcomed it.
If Nelson Chamisa had gone on to win the July 2018 elections he would be boasting to this day of how he had won rigged elections. Well he did not win the rigged elections and lost the challenge! He should have never ever agreed to participated in the flawed and illegal elections.
The real tragedy here is the poor people of Zimbabwe who are paying dearly for all these decades being stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship. They suffering would have ended years ago if MDC leaders had not sold-out on reforms!
Statement by Dr Jerry Rawlings – Former President of Ghana
ReplyDeleteI have been following the elections case in Malawi.
Once again, this tiny Southern African country has proved to the whole world that it is governed by rule of law. The Court has nullified last year’s Presidential elections. You may argue with me that such similar nullification has occurred before in Kenya. But I challenge that the Malawi case is unprecedented. There were bribery allegations.
The Judges stood for the truth and could not accept any money from any politician. We are told that a sum of about US$20 million was offered to the Judges but they refused and decided to uphold the rule of law.
Could not agree with you more Dr Jerry Rawlings. In Zimbabwe both the judges and the opposition politicians are on the ruling party’s payroll! Chief Justice George Chiweshe ruled that the November 2017 military coup was “legal, justified and constitutional”.
Everyone with half a brain warned the opposition not to contest the 2018 elections without first implementing the reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The regime did not implement even one token reform and did not bother to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. All that had no effect in the opposition camp; there were a record 23 presidential candidates alone!
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections” boasted Nelson Chamisa, tired of giving feeble excuses why MDC was participating in elections everyone can see would be rigged by Zanu PF.
Zanu PF rigging the elections but was also going to allow the opposition to win a few gravy train seat and all contesting parties that win 5% plus of the cast vote would share the payout from the Political Party Finance Act. MDC got $3.4 million this financial year alone. This is what the opposition politicians were after and did not care that the elections were rigged!
Chamisa and his friends are making a big song and dance about reforms and yet they continue to pursue avenues doomed to fail. They are asking parliament to implement the reforms, for example, knowing fully well that with a 2/3 Zanu PF majority no reforms will ever see the light of day. Come the 2023 elections MDC will participate with no reforms in place and so the political pantomime continues!
Malawi’s judges have broken with tradition; Zimbabwe’s judges, Police, Army and, most important of all, opposition politicians are all fuming!
Mbeki who is famed for brokering Zimbabwe's Global Political Agreement has come under spotlight after the High Court of Malawi nullified the results of the 2019 elections and ordered a fresh election to be held by May.
ReplyDeleteMbeki, who is the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, said the Malawi election was handled with "professionalism and dedication".
In an interview with this reporter political analyst Kelvin Mazhandu said, "The nullification of the results is a sign that Africa is littered with dictators who prop up each other to cling to power. Thabo Mbeki is a classic example of a pseudo-democrat who is crafty and has been moving around the continent aiding dictators to flourish.”
There is no doubt that the Zimbabwe 2008 GPA favoured Mugabe and his Zanu PF party at the expense of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. The USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe at the time, James Mcghee, described it as having “more holes that Swiss cheese”! He and many others advised Tsvangirai not to accepted it but, as we know, they were all just wasting their breath!
After 5 years of the GNU not even one meaningful reform agreed in the GPA had seen the light of day. SADC leaders had nagged Tsvangirai again and again to implement the reforms, “to follow the GPA roadmap”, but once again they were ignored.
Whilst history will remember Thabo Mbeki for his blundering incompetence in Sudan and now Malawi; when it comes to Zimbabwe he will rightly be blamed for the GPA failing to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but most of the blame will be laid at the door of the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders who sold-out!
“Chamisa himself and his incompetent MDC colleagues were 10 years younger during the GNU than they are today, yet they failed to implement even one reform in five years.”
ReplyDeleteThis is one truth every MDC leaders has avoided addressing for decades and they all wish it could go away.
It was up to any MP, be they from Zanu PF or the two MDC factions, to submit the proposed reforms in parliament to initiate the reform process. Parliament never debated even one reform proposal because not even one reform proposal was submitted to the house. A point Zanu PF hammered home in June 2013.
At the Maputo SADC summit in June 2013, both Zanu PF and MDC were put under pressure by SADC leaders to have the coming July 2013 elections postpone to allow the implementation of reforms. Patrick Chinamasa, then Minister of Justice and Parliamentary affairs held a press conference to confirm there were no outstanding reforms for parliament to debate and so the request to postpone the elections were spurious, to say the least.
MDC members, MPs and even more so senior party leaders have yet to explain why not even one reform proposal was submitted in parliament in five years of the GNU and yet this was the primary task of the GNU.
“MDC leader were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat is total disgust at the MDC leaders’ betrayal!
"Reports from the politburo are that a furious Chiwenga stormed out of the meeting after the debate over cartels," said a senior Zanu-PF member.
ReplyDeleteWord within Zanu-PF structures is that Matutu and Tsenengamu have been suspended while youth league boss Pupurai Togarepi has been stripped of his position.
"We hear that youth secretary Tendai Chirau has been named youth league acting boss with immediate effect," said a party member.
Togarepi attacked The Herald newspaper for failing to "properly" cover Monday's press conference.
Wealth is the glue that has held Zanu PF together. Unfortunately Zanu PF members have turned out to be greedy, corrupt and incompetent and therefore very wasteful. Wealth is a limited resource and so it was just a matter of time when the party could not dish out enough loot to satisfy its members’ insatiable appetites for wealth. Without the glue, the party members started to fight each other for the scraps. The centre could no longer hold and the party started to implode!
The tragedy here is that Zanu PF greed has destroyed the nation’s economy and thus forced the rest of the population into abject poverty. Worse still, the de facto one-party Zanu PF dictatorship has given the party an iron grip on the nation leaving the people powerless to escape. Even now with the country’s economy in total economic meltdown the people are still helpless and the danger is Zanu PF will sink into the abyss and drag the nation down with it!
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe(PTUZ) Secretary General, Raymond Majongwe has said teachers can no longer abide by the Public Service Commission dress code because of Incapacitation.
ReplyDeleteMajongwe said teachers can no longer afford to buy formal wear due to the escalating economic crisis.
Zimbabwe's education service is all but dead. Government pretends to pay teachers and they in turn pretend to teach but only because they cannot get a paying job!
Lawyers for Chakwera and Saulos Chilima, another losing candidate, said correction fluid – known by the brand name Tipp-Ex – had been used on some of the tallying forms sent in by polling stations.
ReplyDeleteThe changes were made after they had been signed by party agents, they said.
The lawyers also said that in some cases polling officials sent in the wrong copy of the results sheet to the main tallying centre.
They also found some mathematical errors in a small number of cases.
Though in each case there were not a huge number of errors, the lawyers said that the evidence pointed to a flawed process.
Since the disputed results were announced last May, there have been regular anti-government protests. Some of these have resulted in looting and the destruction of property, including government offices.
Two people – one police officer and one civilian – are known to have been killed during the demonstrations.
In Zimbabwe some of the V11 forms were never issued, others were issued a day after the counting was done and with no there to verify, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc.
What made the Zimbabwe elections even more obnoxious is that the opposition knew about all these irregularities and illegalities even before the elections.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Boasted Nelson Chamisa. In other words he was not bothered that Zanu PF was rigging the elections he was there to win rigged elections!
In practice MDC knew Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats, these were what the party was after and did not mind that the elections were rigged!
@ Marailas
ReplyDelete“Doesn’t this tell you that the rhetoric of reforms is only for cheap political mileage while truth is that there is nothing to reform. Can you give us a list of the reforms that need doing?”
Of course, anything you ask! However, before I answer you, answer me this: Were the July 2018 elections free, fair and credible? (Just want to be absolutely certain we are on the same page in our reading of the history of Zimbabwe.)
But Presidential spokesperson George Charamba dismissed the call by Chamisa to involve the military in the dialogue saying it was unconstitutional.
ReplyDelete"He now seeks to introduce the military into the dialogue without realising that he is running foul to the Constitution.
At one level, you can't be saying security forces must be apolitical, but at the same time you are making them a stakeholder in a political dialogue.”
Of course, George Charamba is right. The very fact that Chamisa even suggested the involvement of the military in the political dialogue goes to show just what a shallow minded leader he is.
It should be remembered here that MDC had the opportunity to implement a raft of democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU including reforms design to end the corrupting influence of Zanu PF in the military, against the many other state institutions. MDC failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform. Not one!
Indeed, Giles Mutsekwa then MDC party’s Defence and Security Csar, reportedly promised a number of senior members in the security sectors, Police, Army, CIO and Prison Service, generous packages if they switch their allegiance from Zanu PF to MDC. Chamisa himself has gone out of his way to woo notorious war veterans like Jabulani Sibanda and Matamadanda and others when they fell out with the late Robert Mugabe.
There is no doubt that MDC pays lip-service to the constitution’s demand for those in the security services being apolitical. If MDC was to get into power the party will have the security sector; add to that the judiciary, public media, etc.; serving its selfish political interests just as Zanu PF is doing!
No wonder MDC failed to implement even one meaningful reform during the 2008 GNU, the party was cocksure it was going to win the 2013 elections with no reforms in place and so will inherited the corrupt state institutions but they will working for MDC not Zanu PF!
The only sure way to get the raft of democratic reforms fully implemented is for the country to have a competent and independent body, free of Zanu PF and MDC influence, to implement the reforms leading to the holding of the country’s first free, fair and credible elections.