“Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), has labeled the upcoming by-elections, which aim to fill 14 National Assembly vacancies and 17 local authority seats, as a farcical "Muppet Show." He announced in an interview released on Wednesday that his party intends to boycott these elections,” reported Bulawayo 24.
“Chamisa's stance might create friction with some of his party's representatives who were controversially removed from their positions by an individual claiming to be the party's interim secretary general. This person, Sengezo Tshabangu, was dismissed as an imposter by Chamisa but has effectively taken control of the party. This week, Tshabangu wrote to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, asserting that only he and two others have the authority to approve CCC candidates for the by-elections scheduled for December 9.
“When asked whether the recalled MPs and councillors would participate in the election, Chamisa stated, "We have no interest in engaging in sideshows; the primary focus should be on establishing a legitimate government and conducting proper elections in Zimbabwe. All these other activities are distractions. Do we appear to be individuals who would take part in a circus-like 'Muppet Show'?
“We should not waste time on unconstitutional and criminal actions. We do not engage in unlawful activities. It would be a different situation if this scenario had arisen through a lawful process. However, one cannot unlawfully create an imposter, a fraudster, or a fake recall that has no association with the CCC.”
If the recall of the MPs was illegal; how much worse is the participating in a flawed electoral process; “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw,” as David Coltart so aptly put it?
It is Chamisa and company who engaged in an utterly meaningless side show. They have forgotten why the people of Zimbabwe elected them into office and clearly needs to be reminded why!
The primary purpose for the MDC/CCC was to deliver the democratic changes necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and end the dictatorship. The party's original name said it all - Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the party to deliver change.
It is very unfortunately that most ordinary Zimbabweans have never taken the trouble to know what these democratic change were much less how these changes were to come about. Many have clamoured for change but that was just a empty slogan for slogan’s sake. And so whilst MDC/CCC leaders sold out by failed to bring about even one token reforms in 23 years, the masses have not even notice!
MDC leaders had the golden chance to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they failed to get even one reform implemented. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and the rest was history.
In the last parliament, the 2018 to 2023, MDC A were totally ineffective as they were dogged by the in fighting over the party leadership. A High Court judged ruled that Nelson Chamisa’s takeover of the party following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai was had violated the party’s constitution. The party leadership went from Chamisa to Thokozani Khope and then to Douglas Mwonzora. Each leadership change resulted in many elected MDC A officials being recalled as each new leader weeded off those whose loyalty to him/her was questionable.
When Nelson Chamisa launched his new political party, CCC, in January, he lauded the very fact that he had given up the old party name, party office, everything to have a fresh start. He clearly thought the utterly pointless bickering of the last parliament was behind him. Getting rid of the corruption and breath-taking incompetence of the GNU years was a tail order since these are in the DNA of the Chamisa and his colleagues. As it happened the pointless bickering started off straight away with the recall of 15 CCC MPs and a number of councillors.
The truth is MDC/CCC leaders have all but given up on implementing any democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Ever since the GNU they have participated in flawed elections knowing doing so would give Zanu PF legitimacy. They still participated regardless out of greed; they knew Zanu PF was offering a few gravy train seats as a bait and one they found irresistible.
MDC/CCC have got away with failing to implement even one token reform in 23 years purely because the people of Zimbabwe have failed to understand what reforms are much less how they are to be implemented. Even now with the benefit of hindsight, they still have no clue. The democratic reforms are common sense, not rocket science, and therefore the failure to have a working understanding of the reforms, at the very least, is unforgivable.
A healthy and functioning democracy demands an informed and diligent electorate. Zimbabweans are by and large an ignorant and naive lot and deserve this dysfunctional Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the corrupt and incompetent MDC/CCC side kick.
Zimbabwe is a failed state and the nation is desperate for real political and economic change. The nation is desperate to end the economic ruin, the political paralysis and the tragic human suffering the failed state has brought. Instead of MDC/CCC delivering the democratic changes all the nation will ever get from MDC/CCC leaders is the selling out and endless bickering. What a nightmare!
@ ZEMIAN
ReplyDelete“I agree with your analysis of the MDC/CCC. The party has failed to deliver on its promise of democratic change, and its leaders have been more interested in enriching themselves than in serving the people of Zimbabwe.
The MDC/CCC has had several opportunities to implement democratic reforms, but it has failed to do so. This is because the party's leaders are more interested in power and patronage than in democracy. They are also afraid of ZANU-PF, which has a history of using violence and intimidation to maintain its power.
The MDC/CCC's participation in flawed elections has given ZANU-PF legitimacy and has helped to perpetuate the dictatorship. The party's leaders have justified their participation in these elections by arguing that it is important to have a presence in government, even if it is only a token presence. However, their participation in these elections has only served to legitimise ZANU-PF's rule and to make it more difficult to achieve democratic change.
The MDC/CCC's leaders are also corrupt and incompetent. They have enriched themselves through nepotism, patronage, and corruption. They have also failed to provide basic services to the people of Zimbabwe.
The people of Zimbabwe deserve a better government. They deserve a government that is committed to democracy, good governance, and the rule of law. The MDC/CCC is not that government.
*What can the people of Zimbabwe do?*
The people of Zimbabwe need to hold the MDC/CCC accountable for its failures. They need to demand that the party's leaders implement democratic reforms and end the dictatorship. They also need to elect a new government that is committed to democracy, good governance, and the rule of law.
The people of Zimbabwe also need to educate themselves about democracy and human rights. They need to understand what these things are and how they can be achieved. They also need to be vigilant and to resist any attempts by the government to undermine democracy and human rights.
The people of Zimbabwe have the power to change their country for the better. They need to use that power wisely.”
After 43 years of the Zanu PF rigging the elections it was shocking just how many Zimbabweans were conned by Chamisa into giving up reforms and with it their right to free, fair and credible elections because he claimed to have plugged all the vote-rigging loop-holes. When he did not even have the common sense to demand a verified voters’ roll. When you considered many of the conned are university graduates and professionals, it underlines just how naive and stupid the Zimbabwe electorate is!
Where does one start educating some one with brain has all but ossified into fat after a life-time of slothful slumber?
Albert Einstein said insanity was repeating the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I don’t think he ever imagine the whole nation participating in flawed elections, “so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw”, as David Coltart readily admitted expecting an opposition win for 43 years!
The irony is pointing out the sheer futility of participating in these flawed elections has not forced the brain dead to think but, instead, triggered them to go into their defensive mode, defending Chamisa Chete Chete! How any human being can ever consider any other mortal infallible much less one with a well documented track record of corruption and breath-taking incompetence as Chamisa and company - underline the sorry state of the intellectual ossification!
What makes our situation really hopeless is the brain dead have the vote and buffoons in power today are taking full advantage of that! Zanu PF and MDC/CCC have never been more united than in keeping the nation’s wealth to themselves and in ensuring the voters are NOT educated!
You don't even know what the democratic reforms are much less how they are to be implemented. All you know is Chamisa Chete Chete and will defend everything he does! How any human being can be so shallow thick and slow as to consider a mere mortal infallible especially one who has already proven to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent beggars belief!
ReplyDelete“A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand. Bertrand Russell
ReplyDeleteYou must be very careful when it comes to trusting what other people say. Character, honor, integrity, and intelligence matter in every area of life. If someone does not have the intelligence to correctly interpret the information he hears or reads, then he is unable to correctly relay accurate information to someone else. After all, one cannot correctly translate or share something if he does not understand it accurately.
Most people have seen the exercise in school where the teacher whispers some information into one student’s ear, he whispers it to the next student, and this continues until every student has heard the “secret.” By the time the last student receives the information, it is nothing like what the teacher originally whispered to the first student.
This is because of how each student processes the information that he or she passes on to the next student. As that information is processed differently, the original meaning gets twisted or even completely lost. And, as this process continues, inaccurate information continues to be shared, misunderstood, and processed differently.
This exercise does not simply apply to students in school; the same principle applies to every area of life. If someone is not intelligent enough to correctly comprehend the original report, then what he shares to someone else will not be accurate. And the more that information gets shared to other people, the more distorted that information becomes.
The less intelligent someone is, the more that information gets diluted and the original meaning becomes lost. This is why you should always consider the source when it comes to what someone says to you. When you hear news or information on a specific subject, don’t take it to heart until you do you own research and confirm that what you heard is correct.
Acting on incorrect information can cost you in many ways. Never be to eager to act on any information until you have verified it for yourself. Blindly trusting what someone says is almost never a smart move. Be wise and be slow to trust anyone. Never trust anyone completely; verify everything for yourself!”
In a country like Zimbabwe with no freedom of expression and a free media our people are ill informs at best and brain washed as the norm. Such issues as the sanctions and free elections have been on the national agenda for donkey years and yet the public are not any wiser! The people’s intellectual ability is very limited and so they have never struggle to understand what is going on and so they have been conned to believe whatever Zanu PF or CCC leaders wanted them to believe.
Change in Zimbabwe will remain an illusion as long as the majority of the people remain ignorant and as malleable as mud.
@ Dumani
ReplyDelete"It is a common cause in politics that you do not necessarily have to like each other or even trust each other internally, but you have to work together, nonetheless.
This is achieved by finding a convergence of interests and creating spaces for elite accommodation. Mugabe was a master at this. He could co-habit with his internal rivals so long as it continued to serve the interests of the party.
Former US President Lyndon B. Johnson's tent analogy is apt: "Better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in".
There is no such thing as "the elite" providing the intellectual direction and purpose in MDC/CCC this is why the party has accomplished nothing of note in 23 years even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU! The leaders are fighting over the scraps that Zanu PF is offering as bait - nothing more nothing less!
A person who knows not
ReplyDeleteAnd knows not that they know not
Is foolish - disregard them
A person who knows not
And knows that they know not
Is simple - teach them
A person who knows not
And believes that they know
Is dangerous - avoid them
A person who knows
And know not that they know
Is asleep - awaken them
A person who knows
And knows that they know
Is wise - follow them
All of these persons reside in you
Know Thy Self
And to Maat be true
- Ancient Kemetic Proverb
@ John Munetsi
ReplyDelete“You hear someone saying MDC did not know political reforms,” you say.
In his book, Animal Farm, George Orwell talked of Boxer, the horse, who took just as long to learn the first four letters of the alphabet as other animals took to learn all the 26 letters. He took just as long to learn the next four. Alas! By the time he had done so he had forgotten the first four letters. I never thought there would be human equivalent but now I know better!
You, John, and your fellow howling monkeys troop have struggled to learn what the reforms are. Not even one! You would have learned at least one or two reforms, if you paid attention. Instead of paying attention you have wasting time and effort on pretending to be wise and on howling to stifle debate.
So name one democratic reform MDC/CCC has implemented in 23 years!
Indeed in you case, in your case it is unkind to ask you to name one democratic reform implemented when you have no idea what the reforms are much less how they are implemented.
We have been talking about reforms for 23 years and you still do not know what we are talking about. Even if you were to live another 230 years you will still be none the wiser. The worst thing for Zimbabwe is that the brain-dead not only think they are wiser than King Solomon but to crown it all they have the vote. And so in their stupidity the village idiots are the ones doing the great disservice of keeping the buffoons, on both sides of the political divide, in power.
After decades of bull from ANC, especially the party's SG, Fikile Mbalula, some rational news. ANC is NOT going to continue giving Zanu PF its blind loyalty. This is coming on the eve of SADC heads of state's decision on whether to uphold the damning SADC election report on Zimbabwe or sweep it under the carpet.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF leaders and apologists must be quaking in their boots!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJHTdH6v59E
Chin’ono’s strong criticism of Chamisa and the CCC reached a peak just last Sunday when he tweeted, suggesting that the party’s leadership has divided Zimbabweans. His persistent repetition of the phrase “opposition has done nothing” both before and after his dramatic arrest in July 2020, has raised questions about the motives behind his high-profile detainment by ZANU PF.
ReplyDeleteMorgan Tsvangirai is a flawed and indecisive character. He who would become an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got into power!” wrote USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, in a leaked cable back to Washington. Events have proven beyond all doubt that the ambassador was spot-on.
The ambassador came to this conclusion after meeting Tsvangirai a few times. Alas! Even with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans have yet to acknowledge that the MDC/CCC have been a total failure. Like Chin’ono or not it is a historic fact that the “opposition has done nothing”.
By the late 1990s the people of Zimbabwe finally accepted the reality that Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs and, as long as the party was able to rig elections, the nation would never end the dictatorship. The number one task for the country was to implement the democratic changes, reforms, necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked treasure, livelihoods, limb and even life itself to elect MDC/CCC leaders on the promise they would implement the democratic reforms. They have failed to implement even one token reform in 23 years, including 5 in the GNU! Not even one!
The very fact that many Zimbabweans still continue to place their faith in MDC/CCC leaders regardless of the party’s track record of treasonous betrayal explains why Zimbabwe is a failed state. An electorate that is so ignorant and naive it cannot discern a corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent leader even after decades of been dragged into the depths of hell is a doomed nation!
No Zimbabwean should even be doubting Chin’ono, regardless of his motives, that the opposition has achieved nothing; how can they doubt their own eyes!
Did you anticipate that SADC election observers would dismiss Zimbabwe's 23 August 2023 as flawed and illegal? That sounded more farfetched than what I have said here!
ReplyDeleteSome people have failed to understand what the changes we needed are much less how they were to be implemented and so have never blamed MDC/CCC for failing to deliver even one reform. Thse people poretend to know what the reforms are and, indeed, shout the loudest for change. Ignorance is one of the curses in Zimbabwe society today because the buffoons on both side of the political divide have exploited this weakness to keep the masses chanting meaningless slogans whilst they drag the nation deeper and deeper into hell!
ReplyDeleteThe elections left the country, region and international community more polarised and deeply divided amid deepening economic deterioration gripping the country.
ReplyDeleteLike it or not SADC will lose political credibility if it should sweep the SADC election report under the carpet and grant Zanu PF political legitimacy. Needless to say doing so will be a hammer blow for Zimbabwe because if the country cannot get regime change even after Zanu PF blatantly rigs the elections there is only one solution left - violence.
The country will need another coup, violent street protests or a combination of the two! And whilst the country waits for the violent change the country will continue to sink deeper and deeper into economic and political despair and chaos. SADC leaders must know that they played a part in leaving Zimbabwe with no other option!
@ Satellite
ReplyDelete“As much as zanu pf has failed dismally CCC is being run like a tuckshop what so we expect from such
Hopewell say it as it is
When he criticise zani pf he is a sellout
When he criticise CCC he has been bribed (kutengwa ne zanu pf
I respect chin'ono he says things as they are believe it or not that wont change the truth nomatter you can labell him in whichever way you want
He is more like tsikamutanda wegauro anoreva chokwadi sezvachiri.”
It is a pity that many Zimbabweans are totally incapable of see anything beyond the trivial and so they see monochrome in a world where others see all the colours of the rainbow. They can only see black or white, right or wrong.
In their world there is only Zanu PF or CCC, one is wrong and the other is right and having pigeon holed them, the right can do no wrong and vice versa.
Indeed, the right are considered incapable of doing wrong which is, of course, nonsense considering these leaders a mere mortals who have already proven to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent, in case of CCC and add oppressive and murderous in the case of Zanu PF leaders.
MDC/CCC leaders have given up hope for implementing reforms, this should be self -evident after 23 years with not even one reform in place. The people continue to place all the hopes for reforms and change in CCC because they cannot comprehend what has happened much less judge MDC/CCC leaders as corrupt and incompetent! These people have no clue what the reforms are and so cannot blame Chamisa and company for failing to implement something they do not even know much less how it was to be implemented.
Chamisa and company have taken full advantage of povo’s ignorance by promising to win rigged elections - an oxymoronic nonsense! What matters is the people believe such nonsense.
SADC summit endorse vote rigging Zanu PF!
ReplyDeleteThis is a sad day and all flags in all the SADC nation should be flying at half mast because SADC Extra-Ordinary Summit has endorsed vote rigging Zanu PF in disregard of the regional body's own damning election report. They have set a dangerous precedence for Zimbabwe and the entire region whose consequences will be felt for generations to come. Of all SADC leaders' foolish decision this takes the biscuit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ozU97NpbA