"Zanu PF will never win free elections!" said CCC. True, so why is CCC the one insisting on elections with NO reforms? N Garikai

 

When it comes to elections, Zimbabwe is caught in a catch 22 situation. After 42 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule that has left the country in economic ruins, a pariah state and forced millions in abject poverty; the nation is for free and fair elections, the only sure way to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. And here is the catch 22; to remove Zanu PF we need to implement democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections, the opposition has failed to implement even one reform in the last 22 years and has all but given up the fight for reforms.

To end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance we must first implement the reforms and hold free elections. To implement the reforms we must first remove Zanu PF from power and that will never happen whilst the regime has carte blanche powers to rig elections.   

A catch 22 is a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.

The truth is Zimbabwe’s reforms and rigged elections catch 22 is not as intractable as many, especially the opposition leaders, would want us to believe.

No one would dispute that Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office. Of course, they will never do that.

Mugabe and his cronies have expended a lot of time, sweat wealth and shed over 40 000 innocent Zimbabwean lives to create and retain this de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship giving them absolute political power and all the influence and wealth. Of course, they will not want to give it all up, more so now when they have become addicted to power, have a lot of loot to lose, have too many skeletons to hide, etc.

Of course, Zanu PF will never give up its carte blanche power to rig elections and thus retain its iron grip on political power. The question then is where there any times in the last 42 years when Zanu PF’s grip on power was shaky and the carte blanche powers diluted and weak?

The answer is yes there have many times when Zanu PF’s grip on power was not solid, the 2008 to 2013 GNU was, by far, the best opportunity the nation has ever had to date to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. SADC, who were the guarantor of the agreement, forced Mugabe and Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement the reforms to end the regime’s dictatorial powers.

Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were supposed to implement the reforms and the rest is history.

Anyone who understand that the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the reforms, knows that MDC leaders sold out big time because there is no rational excuse why MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years. None! Worse still, since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders have insisted on participating in the flawed and illegal elections giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections, Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends know this and still they are hell bent on participating in the flawed elections.

"We've consistently said that each by-election is a dry run for 2023. We're keenly aware of the assisted voting, political violence, banning of CCC meetings and voter intimidation that took place in Mberengwa and Nyanga. Zanu-PF will never win a free and fair election in Zimbabwe,” said Fadzai Mahere, CCC national spokesperson. CCC was walloped by Zanu PF in the weekend two local by-election.

"We've begun our post-mortem review of these elections to examine how to sharpen our response to electoral manipulation in these areas. We have a model of how to win rural elections that has worked in places like Binga and Bulilima which we are scaling across the country.”

True, Zanu PF would never win free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe given their track record of four decades of corruption and tyranny. MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging elections during the GNU and they failed to implement even one reform. CCC have the chance to force Zanu PF implement the reforms by insisting on reforms before elections. They are insisting on participating in the flawed elections instead for the same reasons they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU – corruption and breathtakingly incompetent.

During the GNU Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, very generous salaries and allowances, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough the MDC leaders forgot about implementing reforms. They were foolish enough to think their gravy train good life will last forever. Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections and many of the MDC leaders lost their public office seats and with it their gravy train privileges.

Ever since the GNU Zanu PF has been careful to make sure the opposition wins 1/3 or so of the gravy train seats to entice them to participate and give the appearance Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy. President Mnangagwa has since created POLAD to reward losing presidential candidates.

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and CCC and the rest of the opposition camp are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats and POLAD freebees!

The ordinary Zimbabweans, who are the big losers in these fraudulent elections, must wake up to the reality CCC will never implement reforms and deliver free elections the prerequisite to stopping Zanu PF rigging elections and ending the curse of bad governance. It is for the people to denounce CCC as the sell outs they are. Deny CCC political credibility and you deny Zanu PF political legitimacy!