Mugabe does not "believe in the rule of law" complain Matemadanda - he draw the sword. By N Garikai

When President Mugabe fell out with the war veterans led by Chris Mutsvangwa the tyrant had Mutsvangwa and a number of his follow association executive leaders booted out of the party. The tyrant tried to replace the Mutsvangwa executive with one led by Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister, Mandi Chimene. The Mutsvangwa executive challenged the move in High Court and won.

Now it seems President Mugabe has been defying the High Court ruling and allowed the Chimene group to represent war veterans at party gatherings. Anyone who knows what a devious character President Mugabe is was not surprise by this. It is the war veteran leaders’ reaction that was surprising.

“Zimbabwe is a constitutional State and it’s so sad that the ruling party is failing to obey its own and the country’s Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land,” said ZNLWVA secretary general Victor Matemadanda.

“We now have a constitutional crisis because the ruling party doesn’t believe in the rule of law. Yet, at his swearing-in ceremony, Mugabe promised to uphold the Constitution though he is now worryingly failing to do what he promised.”

President Mugabe has always violated the Zanu PF and national constitutions whenever they got in his way to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship the nation has lived under ever since independence in 1980 when he first assumed office. Indeed, Matemadanda and his fellow rogue war veterans have played their part in helping Mugabe impose his no-regime-change mantra on the nation.

Of course, the war veterans knew Zimbabwe was a multi-party democracy with a constitutional obligation to hold free, fair and credible elections. It is impossible to hold free, fair and credible elections and still impose no regime change; the two are mutually exclusive.

Zimbabwe is a lawless nation and it is rich that people like Matemadanda, Joice Mujuru and all the other Zanu PF thugs should notice this now after they were booted out of Zanu PF but failed to do so all these years they were in the party and wielded power.

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Matthew 26:25.

It is right and just that people like Matemadanda, Joice Mujuru and all the other Zanu PF thugs are finally getting a taste of the Zanu PF tyranny they have dished out to the rest of us all these years. One can only hope that they will now work for real and meaningful democratic change so we can finally bury dead this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship!

'Save' and Mujuru team against Mahofa - nothing left against Zanu PF juggernaut. By P Guramatunhu

There is one thing we can say with certainty about the 21 January 2017 Bikita West by-election - Zanu PF did not roll out its vote rigging juggernaut. The party did not deploy NIVUK to corrupt the by-election voters roll, for example. In the 2013 national elections, the Israeli company’s handwork disenfranchised nearly one million, mainly opposition, voters whilst hiding the multiple voting of Zanu PF supporters bussed from one polling station to the next. The number of polling station was increase from 2 000 to a staggering 9 000 just two days before voting day!

The Zanu PF candidate in the Bikita West by-elections does not have the cash to spend on a vote buying spree as did party heavy-weights like Professor Jonathan Moyo. In the Tsholotsho by-election the later splashed $500 000, looted from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef), buying bicycles and motorbikes for community leaders in the constituency. The Professor was in trouble for corrupt but the case was dropped after Minister Chombo, speaking on behalf of President Mugabe, said spending government money on Zanu PF business was not corruption.

When the going gets tough, Zanu PF has always resorted to the use of violence, especially in the rural areas where the party thugs run riot with impunity. Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister, Shuvai Mahofa, has reminded the opposition and Bikita West voters that Zanu PF will punish them if they do not vote wisely.

“Muno, munonetsa kutamba namo. Ukada kutamba nemadh**** pasina mvura unoshaiwa pekumagezera,” Minister Mahofa threatened. (Here (Masvingo Province) one must be very careful or they will get into serious trouble.)

Still, whatever Zanu PF has been doing in Bikita West by-election so far is not even a foretaste of what the party will do come the national elections when all the parliamentary and senatorial seats and the presidency will be up for grabs. Zanu PF will roll out its vote rigging juggernaut and then, Lord have mercy! Or as one would say in Shona, “Vane vana, sudurukai!” (Those with children, get out of the way!)

It is therefore laughable that Mai Mujuru and her Zim PF, the main challenger in the Bikita West by-election, should be panicking after hearing Minister Mahofa and are begging for MDC-T support.

"If all goes well, Save (Tsvangirai) will join Mai Mujuru when he returns from Ghana at a joint rally, on the 14th, in Bikita. We expect the president (Mujuru) and Save to share the podium as we prepare to take Zanu-PF to the cleaners come the 21^st (January),” a Zim PF official told Daily News.

"In the process, the rally will also send a message to all who are doubting the prospects of an opposition coalition that we are not about to ignore the national sentiment that we should unite."

SADC advised MDC not to take part in the 2013 election without implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Sadly, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends paid no heed to the advice and we all know what happened – Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the elections landing the nation in the mess we are in today.

Since the rigged July 2013 elections, nothing has changed, not even one reform has been implemented, and thus the SADC’s advice not to take party in the elections is valid for the 2018 elections as it was for the 2013 elections.

All this talk of presenting the opposition uniting to form the grand coalition as the panacea to counter the failure to implement democratic reforms is nonsense. How will the coalition stop NIKUV corrupting the voters roll or the plundering of diamond wealth going on right now!

Zanu PF has corrupted all the key state institutions such as the Public Media, Police, CIO, Army, Judiciary and ZEC, they now serve the regime’s selfish political interest instead of public national interests. The regime has unfettered access to the nation’s resources and wealth and thus can bribe officials and buy specialist services such as those of NIKUV.

Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are out of work and living in abject poverty, the need for meaningful economic recovery is now a matter of life and death. There is no chance of any meaningful economic recovery without a meaningful political change. The need for free, fair and credible elections is now a matter of life and death and not to be left in the hands of political day-dreams like Mujuru and Tsvangirai and their utterly useless opposition coalitions!

Mahofa threatens violence is Zanu PF lose by-election - all some can do is curse and swear. By N Garikai

In two weeks, 21 st January 2017 the people of Bikita West will casting their votes to elect a new MP. However, there is overwhelming evidence already to show the whole electoral process is not free, fair and credible and thus the outcome will not be a credible reflection of the democratic wishes of the constituency.

“Muno, munonetsa kutamba namo. Ukada kutamba nemadh**** pasina mvura unoshaiwa pekumagezera. Unofamba uchinhuwa. (This Province does not tolerate political descent and those who have dared to do so have been punished severely.)” Masvingo’s Provincial Affairs Minister, Shuvai Mahofa told the people attending a Zanu PF rally at Gwindingwi Primary School.

“This is what we are telling Mai Mujuru.  . . . acting president (Mnangagwa), we do as we say. What we want to assure you as Masvingo province is that we are going to give you the highest percentage vote. This is Bikita West, Bikita Best … let us go and vote wisely.”

Zanu PF is a party of thugs and the party’s use of all manner of vote rigging tactics including tampering with the voters’ roll and, worse still, use of wanton violence is well documented. In the 2008 elections, the most violent elections in Zimbabwe’s turbulent history, President Mugabe told his party thugs “What is achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” Hundreds of thousands of people were beaten and/or raped that year and over 500 were murdered.

The fact that Minister Mahofa evoked these murderous memories in such a matter-of-fact way and in the presence of VP Mnangagwa only goes to show that when the going gets tough Zanu PF will revert to its tried, tested and proven methods dirty tricks to rig the vote including wanton violence.

After 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship millions of our people are out of work and living in abject poverty.

The Zanu PF dictatorship controls all the state institutions like Police, ZEC, Judiciary, hence the reason why it has been impossible to hold free, fair and credible elections. The regime also controls all facets of the nation’s economic activity hence the reason there is the criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources.

To break Zanu PF’s strangle hold on the economy, a prerequisite for economic recovery, we must first end the party’s dictatorial rule by holding free, fair and credible elections.

The cure to all our economic and political problems is a simple one - we must implement the democratic reforms designed to stop all the vote rigging. Anything else is a waste of time!

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform during the GNU, when the task was significantly easier that it was since the rigged July 2013 elections, because he believed he could still deliver political and economic transformation with no reform. We all know what a waste of time that has been as Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections.

Not even one reform has been implemented since the 2013 elections; it is clear, Zanu PF will rig the 2018 elections. Uniting the opposition parties will do nothing to stop the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut!

“These guys are crazy they think they can intimidate the electorate,” commented Lameck Muronzwa in Nehanda Radio in response to Mai Mahofa’s threats. His was just one of the 70 comments or so in the first 24 hours of publishing the story, most of the comments were vulgar cursing and swearing.

Of course, the people are intimidated, if I was in Bikita West I would vote for Zanu PF and argue other to do the same. As we speak, there are many people in Bikita West are hungry and whether or not they get food aid will depend on whether or not Zanu PF win the by-election in two weeks. This is the reality these people are facing and people like Muronzwa can afford to bury their heads in the sand and deny to see it.

After 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule we need to implement the democratic reforms if we are ever to end the 90% unemployment rate and rescue the millions now living in abject poverty. We can curse and swear all we want that is not going to stop Zanu PF rigging elections or end the economic rot!