"Zanu PF will not allow diaspora vote" - this time, will not escape “Caesar Caesaris esse non dubitat!” W Mukori

 

In September 2018, just weeks after being sworn in as President of Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa was in New York, USA to attend the annual UN General Assembly heads of state and government jamboree where each leader is allocated a slot to crow. In all 37 years of Zanu PF rule, Robert Mugabe had never allowed a cabinet meeting to go ahead unless he was there to chair it and, as one can well imagine, the dictator had never allowed anyone else to the UN jamboree! Mnangagwa was not going to miss his first chance to occupy centre stage together with other world leaders. 

The fly in the ailment for Mnangagwa was his legitimacy. All the election observers with any democratic credentials worth a spit had condemned Zimbabwe’s 31st July 2018 as a farce. And the elections were indeed a farce. 

The regime had denied some 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote; a very significant number considering Mnangagwa was declared the winner with 2.4 million votes. The regime had, yet again, failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, etc., etc.

Following the November military coup that had topple Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. How can the elections be lawful, free, fair and credible when more people are denied the vote than the winning candidate?

How can Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa be the legitimate President of Zimbabwe when he clearly does not the mandate of the people of Zimbabwe because the July 2018 elections were not legal, free, fair and credible?

The UN is a ruled based organisation and to be a respected member of the UN one must live by its founding rules.

“Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

1. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

1. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

States Article 21 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

By failing to hold legal, free, fair and credible elections, Mnangagwa was flouting the UN rules. As much as he wanted to hobnob with other world leaders and to be treated as their equal, he must have known he was nothing but the naked Emperor in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, 'The Emperor's New Clothes’. 

CNN and many other free world media houses could not resist reminding the naked Mnangagwa of his democratic deficiencies. Before he left New York, Mnangagwa announce that Zimbabweans in the diaspora will have their right to vote restored by the next elections! 

At the time, some of us expressed our doubts on Mnangagwa’s sincerity and willingness to deal with this thorny issue of diaspora vote. After all he had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections, stamp out corruption and many, many other things after the November 2017 military coup but had never honoured any of these promises for the simple reason that doing so would risk Zanu PF losing its iron grip on power. The party has since confirmed the doubters right. 

“If you want a diaspora vote, first level the playing field by removing sanctions, so that Zanu-PF can go there and campaign freely without being vetted against sanctions,” announced Zanu PF Acting Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa.

"We will not allow those in the diaspora the right to vote because we are under sanctions in those countries.

"I cannot go to campaign in the United Kingdom because of sanctions as we all know and as long as that situation persists, we will say no vote to people in the diaspora because we will be allowing only those who have been asking for sanctions to have access to that electorate.”

All nonsense, of course! Zimbabweans in the diaspora did not impose the sanctions and so why are they being punished for something they did not do. In any case, there are millions of Zimbabweans in SADC and other countries that have not imposed any sanctions of Zanu PF leaders, why are they too being denied the vote?

The truth is Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF friends do not recognise the right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country, as articulated in Article 21 of the UN’s UDHR, as an inalienable right that cannot and must never ever be denied without due legal process. Sadly Zanu PF thugs are not alone in this! 

Nelson Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders has paid lip service to call for diaspora vote, a verified voters’ roll and all the other democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Chamisa and company had failed to implement even one reform to ensure diaspora vote, etc. even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. 

Worse still, Chamisa et al have been participating in elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF has arbitrarily and illegally denied Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc., etc.; proof the opposition too consider the right to free, fair and credible elections a privilege and not an inalienable right! 

Indeed, the right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country, article 21, is the most important and precious of all the freedoms and rights in the UN UDHR because without it, we have failed to secure and guarantee the other 29.  

“Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you”, said Ghana's first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. He was right!

The right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country; the right to legal, free, fair and credible elections; is worth risking everything for, including one’s very life. While we live here on earth, the right to free, fair and credible elections, is the “one pearl of great price” we must all seek!

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Matthew 13:45-46

It is as clear as day that there are many like Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa and many others in Zanu PF who would want us to believe they who risked it all in the fight to end white colonial oppression and exploitation for freedom and human dignity for all Zimbabweans. We now know better; they risked it all so they can take the place of the white colonial oppressors and became the new oppressors. 

Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies do not believe in extending the freedoms and rights articulated in the UN UDHR to the majority of Zimbabweans no more than Ian Smith and his Rhodesia Front white racists did. 

Still, one is persuaded to believe there, in very generation, there have been, are and will be true blood liberation heroes and heroines, black and white, before and after independence, who have fought to end the oppression regardless its racial source. These are the true blood heroes and heroines to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for risking all for freedom and human dignity. We will let them down if we allowed these Zanu PF thugs continue to ride roughshod over us and deny us our freedoms and rights. 

Besides, we owe it to ourselves and posterity to boldly demand our freedoms and rights. 

“Zanu PF will not allow those in the diaspora the right to vote!” The right to a meaningful vote is THE one pearl of great price the nation has risked all to secure no one, especially the vote rigging Zanu PF, has no power or authority to take that right away. 

If the 3 millionZimbabweans in the diaspora are denied the vote then the 2023 elections cannot be legal, free, fair and credible. And, this time, Zanu PF will not be allowed to get away with a rigged elections; Zanu PF will be illegitimate and will not be allowed to get away with illegitimacy!  

The president of Zimbabwe must be have the mandate of the people of Zimbabwe expressed through legal, free, fair and credible elections and must never have his power, authority and stature tinted by suspicion of rigged elections.  

“Caesar Caesaris esse non dubitat!” (Caesar must be Caesar without shadowing it with doubts!) as the Romans so aptly put it! 

SA back on lockdown and Ramaphosa criticised for slow vaccine rollout - Zimbabwean duped into complacence P Guramatunhu

Pressure is mounting on SA’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to contain the corona virus pandemic as he places the country back on a strict level-4 lockdown, with restrictions including a ban on all alcohol sales and gathering of more than 50, for the next 14 days.

The restrictions may then be extended further, pending a review of the situation.

"In considering what new measures we have to take we have drawn on international best practice. Our priority is to break the chain of transmission by reducing person-to-person contact, like we did with the first wave and the second wave,” said President Ramaphosa. 

The only sure way to contain the corona virus pandemic is by vaccinating as many people as quickly as possible. SA’s vaccination programme must be one of the slowest amount the middle income nations! Indeed some of the poorest and corrupt nations like Zimbabwe are doing a hell lot better than SA!

Cyril Ramamposa is not corrupt, at least not as corrupt as Zuma, and Alas that is all one can say of him. At a lime like this, SA needed a visionary leader and find herself ruled by a man who does not even have common sense! 

In Zimbabwe we have had the great misfortune of being stuck for 41 years and counting with corrupt, incompetent, murderous and vote rigging thugs. We had the opportunity to end the dictatorship but the corrupt and incompetent MDC sell-outs wasted it. To find oneself ruled by buffoons during devastating pandemic like this corona virus is the stuff of hell-on-earth! 

Zimbabwe’s official per capita corona virus cases and deaths are infinitely better than those of SA but that in because Zimbabwe has not been testing for the virus. At the peak of the last wave, when SA was doing over 44 000 tests per day and Zimbabwe, with 1/4 SA’s population, should have been doing over 11 000 test. We very rarely did more than 1 500 test per day!

Zimbabwe’s real per capita corona virus cases and deaths are far worse than the Zanu PF regime is letting on. 

SA’s health care system is basic in most cases but at least it is still there. Zimbabwe’s health care service has all but collapsed after decades of under funding. Most of the time health care workers are on strike, protesting their slave wages, and most have left the country in search of a living wage. 

“The biggest referral hospital in Zimbabwe, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, cancelled 1 688 surgical operations in one year, owing to a lack of medical equipment,” reported Bridget Mananavire in The News Hawks last week.

“In her 2019 audit report on state enterprises and parastatals, Auditor-General Mildred Chiri said this may compromise health service delivery. She also found that during the year under review (2018) the hospital did not have adequate monitors in anaesthetic rooms and recovery areas, with only eight out of 18 stations in use.

“The hospital’s management, in response to the audit findings, said the cancellation of surgical operations had also been influenced by job action by the health sector, poor preparation of patients and shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, among other challenges.”

If the referral hospitals have no equipment and staff, how much worse off are the provincial hospital, district hospitals, etc. If the health service can not deal with the run of the mill illnesses, they certainly cannot deal with the more demand corona virus cases. It is therefore not surprising that most hospitals in Zimbabwe have been sending away corona virus patients! 

There is heavy human traffic, both legal and illegal, between Zimbabwe and SA. It must be said, most of the travellers are Zimbabweans. Ever since Zimbabwe’s dramatic economic collapse in 2000 to 2008, when inflation peak at 500 billion per cent, many Zimbabweans left the country for SA as political and/or economic refugees or worked as cross border vendors. And it is therefore not surprising that the corona virus pandemic outbreak in the two countries have been a mirror image one the other. The corona virus cases and deaths in the two countries should therefore be similar too.

According Johns Hopkins corona virus tracking report, as of today 28 June 2021 SA has 1 928 897 cases and 59 900 deaths and Zimbabwe, with 1/4 SA’s population, should have over 457 000 cases and 14 000 deaths. Johns Hopkins report says the country has 46 442 cases and 1 736 deaths; roughly 10%. What is really shocking is that many Zimbabweans have accepted the official Zanu PF figures as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but truth. 

Whilst there is growing pressure on SA’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to accelerate the country’s vaccination programme there is no such pressure on Mnangagwa. Zimbabweans have been duped into believing a country whose health care has collapsed, is hardly testing for the virus, etc. is doing a better job of contain the corona virus that the countries with working health care services and are at least making a concerted effort to follow the WHO testing and tracking guidelines. 

If President Cyril Ramaphosa does not pull up his socks, then he and, if need be, his ANC regime will be booted out of office. Thank God SA is still very much a healthy and functioning democratic nation. Sadly, the same cannot be said about Zimbabwe. 

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime have rigged elections since the country’s independence in 1980 and with not even one token reform on place Zanu PF is set to rig the 2023 elections. 

Indeed, the party has just confirmed that Zimbabweans in the diaspora will once again be denied the vote. 

"I cannot go to campaign in the United Kingdom because of sanctions as we all know and as long as that situation persists, we will say no vote to people in the diaspora because we will be allowing only those who have been asking for sanctions to have access to that electorate,” announced Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF’s national political commissar.

"That of course is not acceptable, and we will not allow it. Sanctions must fall and then we will start talking about diaspora vote.”

Of course, this is nonsense! The majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in the SADC countries and Chinamasa and his Zanu PF colleagues are free to travel in all these countries. So why are Zimbabweans in these countries being denied their right to vote too! 

The right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country is a birth and an inalienable right that cannot be denied at a the whim of a dictator. 

The real reason Zanu PF is denying Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote is because most of them are political and/or economic refugees. They blame Zanu PF for this and are therefore not likely to vote for the party. And Zanu PF has very few opportunities to rig the diaspora vote, unlike the rural voters back in Zimbabwe the party corral like cattle. 

There are 3 to 5 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora or 40% of the potential vote. How can the elections be lawful, free, fair and credible when one contestant can cherry pick and deny 40% the electorate the vote!

Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections have been rigged in advance. 

The only reason why Chamisa and his fellow opposition opportunists insist in participate in these flawed elections is because they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait. By participating in the flawed election Chamisa et all are giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

It is bad enough that Zimbabwe was already in a serious economic and political mess at the on set of the corona virus in February 2020. Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic will make the situation even worse than if we had a competent and democratically accountable government. 

The prospect of having this Zanu PF dictatorship beyond the 2023 elections is real and frightens the hell out of me! If Zimbabweans participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms then they will be giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. It is insane to believe the opposition can win rigged elections! 

"Project a 66% Mwonzora victory, we have the strategies" claim MDC-T - "2023 are done", another Mnangagwa victory N Garikai

 “When we make projections of 66 %, we know what we are talking about,” said MDC-T spokesperson Witness Dube.

“We have a strategy to turn around the fortunes of the party from what we were in 2018.

“I may not be at liberty to dissect and go all exactly on how that strategy is going to play out. We are still a distance from the elections, it’s unwise to do so.”

MDC has always gone into every election super confident that the party will win but has always fallen short. The party has always ignored the problem of Zanu PF rigging the elections before the elections only to complain about stolen elections thereafter! 

Ever since the disastrous betrayal of the people during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform in five years, MDC leaders have settled for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait to entice the opposition to continue participating in flawed and illegal elections. Mwonzora is projecting to win 66% of the 1/3 or so gravy train seat Zanu PF gives away so he will be the leader of the country’s main opposition. 

Of course, he does not care that the elections are rigged to give Zanu PF’s 2/3 majority and the presidency. Worst of all, Mwonzora does not care that the nation will still be stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical regime.

Mwonzora and Chamisa are going to participate in the 2023 election knowing Zanu PF will rig the elections. What they are fighting over is the bragging rights which one of them will be the leader of the opposition. 

The people of Zimbabwe have been fighting for democratic change leading to free, fair and credible elections, the prerequisite for good governance. We should not take our eyes off the ball by participating in these meaningless elections just to indulge Zanu PF and the sell-out MDC leaders!

SADC leaders wanted Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented because they realised the sheer futility of participating in elections whose outcome is predetermined before the ballots are cast and therefore are not the people’s democratic wish. 

“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist Violet Gonda.

“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends paid no heed to the SADC leaders’ warning. The simple and concise message the ordinary Zimbabweans must send to the SADC leaders is that they totally agree that the 2023 elections must be postponed until the reforms and implemented. And to back their message, Zimbabweans must have nothing to do with the electoral farce Zanu PF and MDC leaders are staging.

"Africans looking down upon themselves are holding back Africa" - it's leaders refusing they are fallible and accountable P Guramatunhu

“PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa Friday took time to criticise some Africans he accused of continuously looking down upon themselves while apportioning high regard for Western ways of doing things,” reported New Zimbabwe

“Let me explain to you why it is called Victoria Falls. There was a man called David Livingstone who visited this area and found some people who told him it is called Mosi-oa-Tunya and he couldn’t comprehend. He named it after his Queen Victoria Falls who was sitting somewhere back there in his country. If we advertise saying visit Mosi-oa-Tunya you don’t come, but if we say come to Victoria Falls you come. That is the tragedy of Africa,” said Mnangagwa.

Actually the real tragedy of Africa is that we, especially our domineering “Misstra Know It All” leaders, make mountains out of mole-hills. 

If calling the falls, Victoria Falls brings in tourists in the hundreds the and with them the wealth to the local community and the nation at large; and calling it Mosi-oa-Tunya only brings in a few tourists. Then call it Victoria Falls.

It was China’s Chairman Deng Xiaoping who famously said "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.” 

Many Africans’ anti-West rhetoric is the antithesis of the inferiority complex brought on by the white supremacists’ racist rhetoric. The rhetoric has become an obsession admitting failure in anything, even in the face of a mountain of evidence to prove the failure, is tantamount to acknowledging one’s racial inferiority. 

Of course, that is nonsense because we all make mistakes regardless of our race, gender, etc. And therefore to refuse to being fallible is to refuse to being human. It is bad enough for an individual to bury one’s head in the sand and refuse to admit to one’s failures but when the individual is in a position of power and authority, is a national leader, the consequences of a nation blundering from pillar to post will drag the whole nation into the gutter!

41 years and counting of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness has dragged Zimbabwe deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have usurped the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. And so Zanu PF has dragged the nation into this hell-hole and we, the people have been helpless to stop it.

Mnangagwa said Pan Africa Postal Union should play a developmental role in uplifting standards of living in line with aspirations of the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063.

Typical, he is always looking into the distant future, chasing a mirage; he will not talk about the present of the historic past because he knows they all point to a totally, totally different future to Africa’s cuckoo land Agenda 2063! 

By ignoring the present and the past Africa is failing to learn from the past and so is making the same foolish mistakes over and over again. Problems that should be nipped in the bud are allowed to grown out of proportion. 

For example, Zimbabwe has swept corruption under the carpet for decades and now it has become so rampant, it is overwhelming the nation. A recent Auditor General report revealed that only 1% of US$4.5 billion in cash and material donated to the Cyclone Ida relief was put to good use the rest was looted or wasted. The country’s future is grime, given such criminal waste of human and material resources.

Many independent African countries now look at the colonial years with begrudging nostalgia as the country’s golden age. It is a damning testimonial of independent Africa’s failure to govern ourselves. 

Africa is being dragged back into the dark-ages not by Africans leaders who inflated ego and overarching inferiority complex will not allow them to admit they are fallible and are therefore subject to democratic scrutiny and accountability. They will not allow regime change because, to them, that is tantamount to "looking down upon themselves”!

The day Zimbabwe is able to hold free, fair and credible elections will be the greatest day in the country’s history because it will mark the day the country has finally emerged from the dark of corruption and tyranny into the light of freedom and democracy. That will be a quantum leap and one Zanu PF is hell bend on resisting at all cost!

"Zanu PF - ZNA bond is unbreakable" says Chinamasa - 2017 coup broke it and now fearful of another W Mukori

Zimbabwe is not the first and only country to gain her independence and sovereignty after a bitter armed struggle; many other nations have in Africa, Asia, North and South America, etc. have had a similar history. Whilst many countries have successfully transitioned from liberation struggle to an independent, sovereign and democratic nation in which the freedoms and rights of all the citizens are honoured and sacred. And these nations have enjoyed justice, peace, liberty and economic prosperity. Zimbabwe and a few other nations have taken a different route. 

It is no exaggeration that Zanu PF has never allowed the nation to transition from the liberation war mode after independence. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies made it abundantly that if the party lost the 1980 elections then the bush war was going to continue. In other words Zanu PF had won the war to end white colonial oppression and was now turning the guns on the ordinary people in the fight to impose the Zanu PF dictatorship. 

Of course, the people voted to end the war. You do as you are told; it is foolish to argue looking up the business end of the AK47 rifle. 

Some people have argued that the 1980 Zanu PF threat to continue the bush war was completely justified; they did not trust the British and the surrogate white Rhodesians to hold free, fair and credible elections. All these doubts about Zanu PF’s dictatorial ambitions were laid to rest when the party launched the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre whose principle purpose was to force the now late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu to disband and join Zanu PF to create the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the nation with an iron fist to this day.  

 “Always be mindful that there is this unbreakable continuity between the liberation struggle and Zanu PF, between the armies of liberation Zipra and Zanla and the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) of independence,” said Zanu PF National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa.

“Any notion which seeks to break this bond should be rejected outright.” 

“It (leadership of ZNA) speaks for itself who are the commanders of the army, who is the CDF [Commander Defence Forces], Cde Valerio Sibanda. Who was he? He was a leading general in Zipra. Who is the commander of the national army, Cde Edzayi Chimonyo? Who was he? He was a leading commander in Zanla. That culture of defending the sovereignty of this country will continue,” he said. 

Of course, this is nonsense! The country’s independence and sovereignty would not be compromised in any way if the bond between Zanu PF, the political party, and Zimbabwe National Army was broken. The later is a national institution, as long as the nation of Zimbabwe exists it will have a national army. Zanu PF is a political party and the party’s continued existence will depend on continued public support and that could be there today and gone tomorrow. 

The fight to end white colonial rule was fight for freedom, “One man, one vote!”, liberty, etc. These were the rallying cries of the liberation war dating back to the days of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi. It was Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF who have changed and corrupted the goals and objectives of the revolution to suit their own selfish agenda. 

Millions of Zimbabweans from all walks of life have suffered in the fight for freedom and human rights and dignity for all and hundreds of thousands have died for this cause. Of course, they have been turning in their graves to see how Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life! 

Mugabe and his Zanu PF ruling elite have highjacked the revolution dumped all the values and principles the nation had cherished; all Mugabe and company wanted is absolute power for themselves. All Zimbabwe had done was to replace the whites oppressors with the black oppressor. 

To make sure the top brass in the ZNA supported Mugabe and his cronies’ blatant betrayal of the revolution’s ideals, Mugabe did what he had done with his own party leaders was to do with Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends - bribe the Army top brass. It is no secret that the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services have received generous salaries and allowance and are the principle beneficiaries of the wholesale looping of the nation’s resources including the Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds. 

The 41 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule has brought economic ruin to the nation. Basic services such as education and health care have all but collapse and 50% of the population now lives in abject poverty. 

In their desperate attempt to secure their own economic future the, looting in the Zanu PF ruling elite and their securocrat partners has gone into overdrive. The increased looting has been fuel to furnace behind the economic meltdown. 

Whilst the worsening economic situation has brought Zanu PF and the securocrats together, they both know regime change now will end the looting and where will they be without the looting. Still, even the dim witted amongst them know this looting is what is destroying the economy and is, therefore, unsustainable. 

The de facto Zanu PF dictatorship is serving the selfish interests of the few ruling elite at the expense of the long suffering majority. Zanu PF has failed to deliver freedom and human rights to the people and, even with the help of the corrupted ZNA, the party cannot hang on to power and hold the nation to ransom forever.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have implemented the democratic reforms, including reforms to break Zanu PF - ZNA bonds, during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when the country had the golden opportunity to do so. Unfortunately Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders and the opportunity was wasted. 

As the national economic cake shrunk with the worsen economic situation the fight amongst the ruling elite and their ZNA partners over the scraps has intensified. The 2017 military coup that toppled Robert Mugabe and replace him with Mnangagwa was triggered by the fear of losing power and sinking into poverty. 

Justice George Chiweshe ruled the 2017 coup was “justified, legal and constitutional”, to get Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters off the hook. Sadly, that has opened a Pandora Box. The regime is fearful on another military coup.

The safe and preferred way to bringing about meaningful change is for the people to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and refuse to participate in the 2023 elections until all the democratic reforms are implemented. Educating the masses on the folly of participating in flawed elections is proving to be a real challenge but not mission impossible. Watch this space!  

“Zanu PF - ZNA bond is unbreakable!” The country’s worsening economic meltdown, the dog-eat-dong factional fighting amongst the Zanu PF ruling elite, the regime’s own frantic attempts to corral the people, the November 2017 coup, etc. are all proof the Zanu PF-ZNA bond is breaking and regime change is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow. 

"ZACC has failed and must be reformed" demand MDC A - posturing, what reforms did GNU implement P Guramatunhu

 "ZACC should be disbanded if it does not have the capacity and the political will to investigate the chronic corruption that is killing us, if it cannot act independently, of course this must be part of a raft of wider political reforms as we repeatedly demand in the MDC Alliance," said Fadzayi Mahere, MDC A spokesperson.

"On corruption, the (2019) Auditor-General's (Mildred Chiri) report has come out and it tells a sad and ongoing tale of looting. It is the citizens that pay the price of looting and so we demand answers and urgent investigations into the outcome of that report. Citizens bear the brunt of bad governance, so we demand accountability. Corruption is killing us," Mahere said.

This is just political posturing on the part of MDC A! 

Mahere is wittering about reforming ZACC as “part of a raft of wider political reforms as we repeatedly demand in the MDC Alliance!” And yet during the 2008 to 2013 GNU MDC leaders had the opportunity to implement the raft of reforms themselves. They failed to get even one token reform implemented in five years!

Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends with the trappings of high office; the posh ministerial limousines, very generous salaries and allowances, a US$ 4 million Highland mansion for Save (as MDC supporter fondly called Tsvangirai), etc., etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders forgot about the reforms for the five years of the GNU. 

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC idiots have learned to enjoy the trappings of power, they will never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the raft of reforms. 

Post the GNU, Mugabe defy SADC leaders’ call to have the 2013 elections postponed until reforms necessary to ensure free and fair elections were implemented. He dangled the bait of a few gravy train seats to entice MDC to participate in the flawed and illegal elections. It worked! 

“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 (2013) elections,” admitted David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General, in his book.

“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.”

MDC did form a strong coalition, the MDC A, before the 2018 elections and they still participated in the elections for the same reason - greed. 

"Operation Murambatsvina 2 (demolition of Mbare vendor stalls in Harare last week) is a stark reminder of the unquestionable fact that Zanu-PF is against the people, it is at war with the people and it does not have the people at heart," said Mahere.

True enough, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are heartless alright. 

“Mazivanhu eZanu PF adzidza kare kudya anyerere!” (Zanu PF thugs learned a long time ago (1980) to enjoy the trapping of high office; they would not rock the boat!) to paraphrase the boasting Zanu PF crony above. 

Zanu PF thugs like Mnangagwa were busy enjoying the trappings of high office they not only said nothing but played their assigned role in the blatant rigging of elections, the Gukurahundi massacre, etc.!

However, it is sheer hypocrisy for MDC leaders to be accusing Zanu PF leaders of being heartless in their pursuit to gratify their insatiable greed when the MDC leaders themselves guilty of the same thing! 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will implement the reforms to end Zanu PF oppression and greed. After 21 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC have not only failed to deliver any change but are the ones helping Zanu PF to stay in power.

Since the 2008 GNU, MDC leaders have been running with the povo hare by day and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds by night. It is for the ordinary people to open their eyes and see they are being taken for fools! 

Chamisa and his MDC A are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections regardless the evidence Zanu PF will once again rig elections, regardless of all the posturing about reforms, etc. MDC A leaders have their eyes fixed on the few gravy train seats they do not care the price tag of the nation, once again, forfeiting free, fair and credible election and being stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship for another five more years.  

It is insane for the ordinary Zimbabweans to keep participating in elections “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical and obvious thing to do is boycott”; particularly when participating only gives legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF!

"Mnangagwa must learn to embrace democracy" - after 41 years, it's for us to learn to confound elephant in the room N Garikai

“An elephant in the room! means a very large issue that everyone is acutely aware of, but nobody wants to talk about. Perhaps a sore spot, perhaps politically incorrect, or perhaps a political hot potato, it's something that no one wants to touch with a ten foot pole,” according to Urban Dictionary. 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, political paralysis and the heartbreaking human suffering and deaths is 41 years and counting of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. As much as the people know that Zanu PF misrule is at the heart of all the nation’s economic, political and social problems and they cannot remove the regime from office because it rigs elections; very few Zimbabweans have had the guts to say so. 

Zanu PF rigging elections is the elephant in the room for Zimbabwe.

“The second republic led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa needs to be proactive than being reactive and employing knee jerk policies,” wrote Leonard Koni in Zimeye.

“This cold winter have seen the government giving a thumb up to the demolition of people’s homes and livelihoods in Mbare Harare.

“A country run on partisan grounds and nepotism will struggle to stand on its feet. President Emmerson Mnangagwa must learn to embrace  a diverse, dynamic and democratic youthful and streamlined cabinet with new ideas, skills and experience required to achieve our goals.”

After 41 years of dishing out all this advice, most of it is common sense really; it is clear Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are not listening and/or learning nothing. Comrade Koni, it is us, the people of Zimbabwe, you should be asking why we have failed to learn the simple and obvious lesson that Zanu PF leaders are not listening and/or are refusing to learn?

We have not dared ask why Zanu PF is ignoring us because we fear the followup question: after 41 years of being ignored, what are we going to about about it? After 41 years of the regime rigging the elections to stay in power, what are we going to do to end this curse?

The right to free, fair and credible elections is at the very heart of good governance and that is why the right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country is included in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) along with the freedom of expression and the right to life. 

By rigging elections Zanu PF has effectively denied the ordinary Zimbabweans their right to a meaningful vote and governance of the country. The party has turned the right into a privilege it can deny to some as the regime sees fit. 

In September 2018, President Mnangagwa promised that the 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora will have their right to vote restored (proof the only reason they were denied the vote until then was the lack of political will on the part of the Zanu PF leaders). With two years to go to the 2023 elections it is too late to do anything to get the 3 million in the diaspora to register; they will, once again, be denied the vote. 

The regime had the time to amend the constitution in no fewer than 30 different sections to consolidate President Mnangagwa’s dictatorial strangle hold on power but it failed to amend the electoral law to extend the postal vote to the Zimbabweans in the diaspora. 

President Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes. The 3 million diaspora votes are therefore 3 out of 8 potential voters or 38% - a very significant number indeed. 

By denying the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, Zanu PF has already rigged the 2023 elections long before the first ballot is cast. It is almost certain Zanu PF will push for the 2023 elections to go ahead with no democratic reforms in place. 

The 2023 elections have been rigged in advance and therefore must be condemned in advance. Participating in an election process that has already been rigged in advance is an act of idiotic folly!  

The people of Zimbabwe have ignored the elephant in the room, the curse of rigged elections, and the nation has paid for this folly in terms of the economic mess, political chaos and the tragic human misery and deaths. We must confront and confound the elephant in the room. 

The people of Zimbabwe must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. Just because Zanu PF and MDC have failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections these last 41 years does not mean no one else can do so.