"Covid 19 is spreading in schools like wild fire, 2 weeks after reopen" - risking all for 3% pass rate P Guramatunhu

 Health care, education and everything else affecting the ordinary people have been neglected by Robert Mugabe and now by Emmerson Mnangagwa and the consequences are there for all to see, especially now with the corona virus pandemic.

“As Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) we made it categorically clear without any equivocation or ambiguity that 98% of schools were not ready for opening but Ministry Officials claimed they were ready. Just two weeks after opening COVID 19 is spreading like wild fire in Schools in Zimbabwe. Where is the propagandist Taungana Ndoro, where is Hon Cain Matema, where is Mrs Thabela. Lies have short legs,” wrote Dr Takavafira M Zhou, President of PTUZ. 

When Mugabe came into power in 1980 he was convinced he was God Almighty’s best gift ever to mankind and everything he touches will turn to gold. So when he preached about his mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as he never tired of saying it, it was no sooner said than done. Most notably, he started spending big, really big! 

Mr Big Spender was cocksure he was spending the nation to prosperity but was in fact doing the exact opposite. When he was finally convinced his scientific socialism was not working - no one would give him any more loan - and was forced to go ease on the spending he chose to cut spending of the soft targets but whilst the ruling elite continued to spend as if there was no tomorrow! Needless to say the economic decline continued. 

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he hit the ground running, so to speak. He proclaimed from the rooftops “Zimbabwe is open for business!” 

Other than the musical chairs that saw Mugabe and a few of his buddies booted out and Mnangagwa proclaiming the post Mugabe era a “Second Republic, a New dispensation” nothing had changed. The country was still a Banana Republic ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs.  

In short, there was no flood of investors in answer to his rooftop proclamation; investors are a shrewd lot they could see Zimbabwe had not change, it was still a Banana Republic. And so the big influx of investment to kick start the economy never materialised. 

Mnangagwa did not dare cut the extravagant spending of the ruling elite; his continued hold on power dependent on their loyalty and cut their access to wealth and their loyalty will quickly disappear like morning mist! And so Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, looked for the soft target to cut - health care, education and all those things affecting the poor and politically powerless. 

It comes as no surprise at all that the government has reopened school without without making adequate provision even for something as basic as corona virus test kits and, for many school, not even running water.  

“We challenge Cabinet Ministers to visit Nyamuka Primary (Manicaland), Kriste Mambo (Manicaland), Tongwe High ( Mat South), Neshangwe High (Mashonaland East), Masase High (Midlands), Chegato High (Midlands) and many other schools. Schools are running short of testing kits and in some schools after only testing ‘A’ and ‘O’ level students, more that 75 have been confirmed positive at one school. Worse still not all ‘A’ and ‘O’ level students have been tested as schools ran out of testing kits,” continued Dr Zhou. 

“There is virtually no covid abatement equipment in schools, let alone running water. The bloated classes and hostels are a cause for concern, yet medalist in verbal marathon lie through their teeth that schools are ready.”

As a rule of thumb, corona virus is not so prevalent among those below 20 years of aged. The fact that there are so many students catching the virus may be because these school have become corona virus hotspots and many are succumbing because their systems are overwhelmed. 

Few of these young people get seriously sick to require hospital treatment and fewer still die. However the long team health consequences of the corona virus infection are not known.

11 schools in Zimbabwe have so far been forced to close because the number of corona virus cases were too high for normal schooling to continue. 

We know this Zanu PF government is obsessed with appearance and does not care about substance. The country’s official covid 19 cases and deaths have remained low at 126 817 and 4 550 respectively, clearly not all the reported covid 19 cases from the school are being taken into account. 

The regime has been boasting about Zimbabwe’s low covid-19 statics, insisting it is proof of the regime’s competent management of the pandemic. This is nonsense when it is clearly a case of deliberately under reporting, especially when the price of failing to accurately accounting for the cases means many infected individuals who should otherwise be in isolation are left to spread the virus far and wide. 

In January 2019, before the corona virus outbreak, the best performing school Chiredzi South constituency for Grade 7, Form 2, 4 and 6 had 3% pass rate with the majority posting 0%! No doubt many rural school will be in the same boat as Chiredzi South. Decades of being starved of adequate funding have taken their toll. 

One has to question the rational behind the Zimbabwe government’s insistence on reopening schools, against teachers’ advice, turning them into corona virus hotspots and putting the health of students at increased health risk so the regime can brag it has managed to keep covid 19 cases low and thus reopen schools. And the students are running the risk for the sake of a 3% pass rate at best! 

"Come 2023, Chamisa will take Zimbabwe to a higher level" - by participating in flawed elections. "Zviroto, zviroto!" W Mukori

 Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation is whetting the nation’s political appetite. The next elections are just under two years away, in July 2023, but already the stalls are out and the electioneering is going through its gears. 

“A generational consensus under MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa's able leadership will take the nation to a higher level of political consciousness. It must culminate in a huge and crushing victory over Zanu-PF as people claim their liberty,” boldly proclaimed Tofara Shandu 

“We must not allow Zanu-PF to own our independence.”

This is all wishful thinking, assuming Shandu is one of the many Zimbabweans who are angry and desperate for change. 

“Zviroto, zviroto!” (Day dreams are just that day dreams!) the late Robert Mugabe would have dismissed Shandu. 

Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of Zanu PF operatives masquerading as political analysts par excellence all telling Chamisa and his MDC A friends, they have Mnangagwa and Zanu PF on the ropes; “Come 2023, Zimbabweans shall claim liberty!” When the reality on the ground tells a totally different story; it is Chamisa and company who cough blood!

The 2008 Zimbabwe elections were a watershed because that year Zanu PF showed the world the full repertoire of its vote rigging ability. The party ordered ZEC to stop the counting of the March 2008 vote after six weeks of cooking up the figures, Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73%, by Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, was whittled down to 47%. Enough to stop Tsvangirai winning out right and force a run-off. 

During the run-off Mugabe’s primary purpose was to punish the people of Zimbabwe for having rejected him in the earlier vote. The nation was subjected to some of some of the most heinous politically motivated violence the country had ever seen; second only to the violence of the Gukurahundi massacre in 1983 to 1987. 

“What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” boasted Mugabe as he barked his orders to destroy property, harass, beat, rape and kill. Over 500 innocent opposition supporters and ordinary people were murdered in the three months of the run-off. 

Mugabe garnered 84% of the vote in the run-off, up from 21% or so in the March vote. The run-off result was never in any doubt, the nation was chastised and cowed into submission. 

SADC leaders refused to endorse Mugabe’s electoral victory and would not recognised him and his Zanu PF regime as the legitimate government given the blatant cheating and wanton violence. SADC leaders managed to get Mugabe to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms with the express purpose of restoring the people’s basic freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life. 

A Government of National Unity (GNU) was appointed comprising of Zanu PF leaders and leaders from the two MDC factions headed by Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai and company were expected to implement the reforms. Robert Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings go high offices and forgot about implementing the reforms. Not even one token reform was implemented in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. 

MDC leaders have participated in flawed and illegal elections knowing fully well that with no reforms to end Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig elections; Zanu PF will rig the elections guaranteed. The MDC leaders have participated in the elections regardless out of greed - they knew Zanu PF would give away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposite and they found the bait irresistible. 

The Zanu PF propagandists’ task was to convince the naive, gullible and increasingly desperate MDC supporters and public to participate in the flawed and illegal elections even with not even one reform implemented. By participating the people have given the process credibility and the resulting Zanu PF regime legitimacy. 

It is insane to keep participating in flawed and illegal elections knowing doing so will give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. We know naive and desperate people do desperate things so desperate they are insane! 

There is growing evidence that even the naive and desperate voters are beginning to see the sheer futility of participating in these flawed and illegal elections whose result is a predetermined landslide Zanu PF victory. The public response to Zanu PF and MDC and the rest in the opposition camp’s campaign asking their supporters to register to vote has had few takers. 

ZEC launched its “massive vote registration exercise” last December. Why the country needs a massive voter registration exercise every five years is explain below. If July ZEC reported that less than 30 people had registered as voters in the whole of Masvingo Province in June 2021, an improvement on May when only 6 had registered. No doubt a few weeks before ZEC close the voter registration the number of registered voters will shoot up, especially in Zanu PF stronghold areas; it always does. 

It is impossible to verify where the surge in registered voters came from because ZEC has never ever produced a verified voters’ roll. Never ever! Although producing a verified voters’ roll is a common sense and legal requirement. If you have a cooked up voters’ roll you cannot afforded to release it for verification. No wonder, ZEC needs a massive voter registration exercise every five years, it is just another cover up for failing to produce the last voters’ roll so people can verify their details. 

There is no stopping the 2023 elections going ahead, both Zanu PF are as keen as mustard to participate, even though it is already clear Zanu PF will rig the elections. What people can do is make sure no one of any substance is left in any doubt the election process is not legal, free, fair and credible. Everyone must know that MDC A and the rest in the opposition camp know the elections would be rigged but participated regardless out of greed. 

Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections must be condemned as a farce and declared null and void; just as happened in 2008 following the blatant cheating and wanton violence. The solution out of the political limbo of failing to produce a legitimate government in 2008 was the GNU, a similar arrangement would be required in 2023 only this time competent men and women must be appointed to implement the democratic reforms. 

The root cause Zimbabwe finds itself in this man-man political and economic hell-on-earth is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. And to get out of the hell-hole, all we must do implement the democratic reforms and curse ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

“Come 2023, Nelson Chamisa's able leadership will take the nation to a higher level of political consciousness!” Yeah right; by participating in flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy! Zviroto, zviroto! 

Impoverished villagers forced to subsidise impoverished war veterans - such medieval serfs have no free vote N Garikai

 As much as Zimbabwe’s opposition would like to pretend Zimbabwe is on the same political trajectory of peaceful free, fair and credible elections as Zambia; the reality on the ground tells it own story. 

"On 22 August close to 30 villagers were forced to convene at Nyamuyaruka Business Centre, Ward 10 in Mudzi North. It is alleged that Zanu-PF activists Portia Chijaka and John Sarafunga forced villagers to convene before forcing them to contribute money to assist local war veterans and war collaborators. Villagers with no cash were told that they could support the process through providing maize grain and groundnuts," reported Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).

“Vendors were told that only Zanu-PF supporters would be allowed to sell their wares at the Murewa vegetable market."

In Chegutu district, artisanal miners, “makorokoza", have realigned themselves with the ruling party Zanu PF and are now terrorising residents.

Ever since the country’s independence in 1980, rural areas have remained Zanu PF strongholds not because the people in the rural areas have prospered in any way. Indeed, the rural people are at the bottom of the economic packing order and therefore have suffered the consequences of the country’s economic melt down the hardest. 

Zanu PF’s continue political hold on the rural populous is derived from the  party’s total control and domination of ever facade of human life in the rural areas. The party operatives have but reduced the rural people into medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing landlords - Zanu PF operatives. The villagers are frog marched to attend Zanu PF rallies and, when the time comes, to vote for the party. They do not dare do otherwise! 

"Matabeleland South province, in Silozwana village, Matobo North, a Zanu-PF activist identified as Martin Sibindi allegedly intimidated villagers telling them that they shall be monitored if they vote for the MDC Alliance,” continued the ZPP report.

"It is said that Sibindi made these remarks during a community meeting as he was encouraging people to register to vote. It is reported that Sibindi warned that a mechanism had been drawn up to monitor and punish those that might vote for other MDC Alliance and other parties.” 

This was not an empty threat as Zanu PF has devised various ways of knowing whom the individual voted for. In the 2008 elections, for example, there were 2 000 Polling Stations or 10 Polling Stations in each constituency. Each Polling Station had the same constituency voters’ roll so the voters could cast their vote in anyone of the 10 Polling Stations.

Zanu PF, without consulting anyone else, has since increased the number of Polling station to over 11 000 in 2018 or 50 Polling Station per constituency. This time there was a Polling Station specific voters’ roll and so only those of the roll could vote. With 500 or so on the voters’ roll it was much easier to guess how each one of them would have voted, especial in a rural community setting where there are few strangers. 

How can the elections be free, fair and credible when the majority of the rural voters, 50% plus of the voters, are hostages to one contestant, Zanu PF? 

Zanu PF has many other ways of ensuring electoral advantage such as denying the Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. There are 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora, a considerable number given Mnangagwa won the 2018 presidential race with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes. 

Mnangagwa promised the Zimbabweans in the diaspora will have the vote in 2023. Zanu PF has since announced the diasporans will not have the vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West on some Zanu PF leaders remain”.  Why ordinary Zimbabweans should be denied their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country over something they had no say over beggars belief!

At least 2 million of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in SADC countries or some other countries that have not imposed sanctions on the Zanu PF leaders. Why are these Zimbabweans being denied the vote too?

How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible in when 3 million Zimbabweans out of a potential 8 million voters are being blatantly denied the vote? 

President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia was elected last month with 60% of the popular vote. In 2008 Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the popular vote, by the late Robert Mugabe’s Freudian slip, and still that was not good enough to secure him the presidency. 

After 41 years of rigged elections it is clear as day that Zimbabwe will never ever hold free, fair and credible elections without first implement the democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to hold the rural voters to ransom, deny whatever segment of the electorate the vote, etc. 

There is a simple reason why Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends are ignoring the overwhelming evidence the 2023 elections will not be free, fair and credible and remain resolutely determined to participate in the elections. It is the same simple reason why Chamisa and the 21 others contested the 2018 presidential rat race. The same simple reason Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The simple reason in all above is greed. 

Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office during the GNU and they forgot about implementing the democratic reforms. Mnangagwa is dangling the offer of a few gravy train seats, a cut of the annual Political Party Finance Act payout, generous perks to the presidential candidates who join POLAD and ambassadorship to those opposition politicians who have proven particularly affable to the Zanu PF dictatorship. 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked property, livelihood, life and limb in the fight to end white colonial oppression and exploitation only to be betrayed by Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies. Zanu PF has denied the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. 

Zanu PF has murdered over 35 000 innocent Zimbabweans since independence in 1980 for the sole purpose of establishing and retaining the de facto one party dictatorship that has remained to this day.

The people of Zimbabwe have once again risked it all, personal comfort and even life, in the fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. There have been many golden opportunities to end the dictatorship but MDC leaders have wasted them all because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders are the one keeping Zanu PF in power by participating in flawed elections and thus giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

Zimbabwe has been drifting deeper and deeper into this man-made hell-on-earth for the last 41 years. As long as the country remains a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs; there is no hope of stopping the rot. We have been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime because it rigged elections and denied us, the people, a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

Nothing of any substance or meaning can ever be accomplished until we cure cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Nothing!

It is most disconcerting that the MDC leaders, the men and women nation had risked all to elect into power for the express purpose of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship, are the ones helping to perpetuate it! 

Both Zanu PF and MDC are equally determined that the 2023 elections must go ahead regardless of the overwhelming evidence Zanu PF is rigging the elections. There is little we can do to stop the elections going ahead. What we can do is making sure the elections are seen for what they are a farce and thus dismissed as null and void. 

The 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections, we must the opportunity created by the 2023 to produce a legitimate government to appoint a GNU that will implement the reforms. 

Many grown up Zimbabweans "are more Zanu PF than Zanu PF parents" - more brain-dead than Zanu PF buffoons; it's true P Guramatunhu

 "An untold but deep seated sociological truth about Zimbabwe today is that many grown up kids with ZanuPF parents are more ZanuPF than their parents. Therefore, Zimbabwe does not only need new leaders but it needs a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Kenneth Kaunda. God bless everyone!"

If by that he means the kids are have been brainwashed and therefore are more brain-dead than their parents, that I would readily concur with that. For one thing some one who had done standard six, equivalent to eight years of formal education was intellectually enlightened; they could think for themselves and talked sense. 

Today the education system is all about quantity there is no quality; you are pushed to the next grade even if you learned nothing from the present grade.  

I asked a job applicants "What is a verb?" "What is Pythagoras's theorem?" One after another they failed to answer and yet they claimed to have done "O" Mathematics and English; indeed some of them even said they had done one or two "A" level Science subjects. 

There was even a PHD University graduate and he could hardly write a sentence without a spelling or gramma mistake! 

Professor Jonathan Moyo played his part in brainwashing the people of Zimbabwe as Mugabe's Minister of Information and Publicity, Zanu PF propaganda reached new dizzying heights. The Zanu PF controlled public print and electronic media bombarded the nation with Zanu PF propaganda there was no room for anything else. 

But to be absolutely certain he had stifled all meaningful public debate, Professor Jonathan Moyo engineered the passing of Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Information and Protection of Privacy Act  (AIPPA); two obnoxious laws that hang over the heads of all who dared exercise their freedom like the Sword of Damocles.

It is said, give a man fish and you give him a meal. Teach him to fish and you have given him a livelihood. Teach him to think for himself and, if anyone can survive wherever; he will do more than just survive, he will thrive! 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. 

Forget asking Zimbabweans what is a verb or Pythagoras’s theorem! Ask them what constitute free, fair and credible elections; something that is simple and relevant to the nation’s very survival and their own. 

Zanu PF has rigged elections for the last 41 years and got away with it every time precisely because Zimbabweans themselves have no clue what constitute free, fair and credible elections. They have the vote but, like everything else, in the wrong hands it is more a curse than a blessing. 

By participating in flawed and illegal elections Zimbabweans are giving the flawed election process credibility and giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

As Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF ruling elite; they are corrupt, incompetent and murderous buffoons. When they took over from the white colonialists, Zimbabwe produced enough to feed her own people, to be the breadbasket of the region and to earn a fortune in tobacco and meat export. 

Today the nation is starving in a country that is for all intent and purpose the Garden of Eden - a damning testimonial in the sheer incompetence of the Zanu PF buffoons! 

It is no exaggeration that 40 years of Zanu PF brainwashing has reduced Zimbabwe into a nation of dimwits whose brain tissue has ossified into fat after decades of mental slumber and inactivity. 

“Grown up Zimbabweans are more Zanu PF than Zanu PF parents!” Sadly, it is true that many Zimbabweans out there are more brain-dead than Zanu PF buffoons who are lording over them! 

Chamisa and Hichilema plot to annihilate Africa old parties revealed - "Chawanzwa usaunzwa Chamisa, idare rinorira nohusiku" N Garikai

 It was natural for then Zambia opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema (HH) to meet and hobnob with a fellow opposition leader like Nelson Chamisa. But now that HH is the President of Zambia his relationship with opposition leaders will be more guarded especially after reading the report he was plotting mischief against other Africa leaders.

“The opposition MDC-Alliance and the recently elected UPND of Zambia, have reportedly developed a plan to annihilate all long-standing ruling parties, especially former Liberation Movements in Africa by 2030 a senior MDC Alliance official from Harare who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity said,” reported Bulawayo 24. 

“According to the official, the MDC-Alliance and its Zambian counterpart will initially roll out the project in East and Southern Africa. 

“The two parties are said to have already established links with opposition groups in Uganda, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Burundi.

“The official revealed that elections in 11 countries have so far been identified as providing opportunities for the project to be implemented.”

The 11 countries and the respective target political party are Angola             MPLA, Lesotho All Basotho Convention, Kenya Jubilee Party Kenya, Zimbabwe Zanu PF, Nigeria All Progressive Congress, SA ANC, Botswana Botswana Democratic Party, Namibia SWAPO, Mozambique FRELIMO, Uganda National Resistance Movement and Tanzania Chama Cha Mapinduzi. All the 11 countries will be holding national elections between 2022 and 2025. 

The report has touched raw nerves especially in regimes like Zanu PF who are paranoid about regime change and hence they have blatantly rigged elections denying their people their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. 

Zanu PF has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain the de facto one party dictatorship in Zimbabwe and the party is not about to give up power. 

The nearest Zanu PF has ever got to losing its iron grip on power was in 2008 to 2013 when the party was forced to go into Government of National Unity (GNU) following the party’s blatant cheating and wanton violence in the 2008 elections. The GNU was tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and end the curse of rigged elections.

The task of implementing the reforms was left to Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders including Nelson Chamisa who took over the leadership of the party after Tsvangirai’s death. Robert Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms. 

MDC leaders have failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years, FIVE YEARS, of the GNU. 

Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders have participated in flawed and illegal elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Zanu PF has dangled a few gravy train seats to entice MDC to participate and the later have found these irresistible.  

It is Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A that are giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in flawed and illegal elections. Even when Zanu PF has failed to produce something as basic as verified voters’ roll, MDC A have participated regardless. 

"The removal of old parties would usher in a unified, liberal and pro-Western Africa. The project has the solid support of developed democracies that want to reverse Chinese and Russian influence in Africa,” the MDC A official explained. 

“The project has solid support of developed democracies!” That is a blatant lie because when MDC failed to implement even one reform - proof of just how corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders were - the developed democracies deserted MDC in droves. 

Even if HH had discussed with Chamisa and other progressive political opposition leaders the crying need for Africa to end the curse of rigged elections - not the annihilation plot suggested here - still HH had clearly pick the wrong partner to do this in MDC. MDC had already failed to implement the reforms and end the curse failed when the party had the golden opportunity to do so, HH should know this. It was naive, to say the least, to expect MDC leaders to do any better now. 

By blubbering about a “MDC A and UPND plot to annihilate” Africa’s corrupt and tyrannical regimes the MDC A have created a diplomatic storm for Zambia and, worst of all, poisoned the debate for democratic change and free and fair elections. Zanu Pf has dismissed all demands for democratic reforms as a Western inspired regime change agenda, now they will say they have the evidence. 

“Chawanzwa usaudza Chamisa; Chamisa idare ingorira napakati pohusiku!” (When you have something important, do tell Chamisa; is a bell that will ring out and broadcast the news even in the dead of night!) To paraphrase a Shona adage! 

Muleya, if Zanu PF is blatantly rigging elections (and it is) then how can "2023 be won on voter registration" W Mukori

 Common sense is the ability to change one’s position on a subject matter when the overwhelming evidence before you support change. 

My grandparents believed the world was flat, for example; their known world did not go much beyond the distant horizon and behind and beyond that was the precipitous abyss. I do know that behind the horizon is another horizon and another and if one travelled long enough they will return where they started - proof the world is a very large spherical ball! 

Those who lack common sense will even acknowledge the overwhelming evidence before them and still maintain their erroneous position; hoping against hope the overwhelming evidence is wrong. 

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections for the last 41 years, Zanu PF has rigged the elections, leaving the nation stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime. And as long as Zanu PF remains in power the country will remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs with no hope of any meaningful political change and economic recovery. 

After 41 years of rigged elections the nation is has two choices:

1. either participate in the 2023 elections under the same conditions as in the past knowing fully well that Zanu PF was blatantly rigging the elections and that participating will give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Hoping against hope that the opposition’s winning in rigged elections (wire) strategies finally deliver long awaited change. The opposition, for their part, are banking on the economic hardships forcing the populous to “defend their vote” by staging street protests and force regime change. 

2. or admit the present political system, the Zanu PF dictatorship, has amassed so much dictatorial powers it will never ever deliver free, fair and credible elections. There is overwhelming evidence Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections and Chamisa and company’s wire strategies are just a farce. The common sense position is to implement the democratic reforms and thus guarantee free, fair and credible elections. 

What is disappointing is that a number of political analysts have acknowledged the futility of participating in flawed and illegal elections and yet still want the nation to participate in elections with no reform. This is like someone circumventing the globe and still maintain the world is flat!

“Ballot fraud remains a major weapon of rigging. Dictators believe it is not the voting that really counts, but who counts the vote. This has particularly been true in Zimbabwe where elections are stolen through ballot fraud, over and above the skewing of the whole electoral process and playing field, tipping it in favour of the ruling party and use of coercive tactics and terror.” Argued Dumisani Muleya in The News Hawks in favour of option b) above, only to contradict himself in the next breath.

“The outcome of elections is as dependent on the pre-voting processes as it is on the act of voting. An election is a process, not an event,” he claimed.

“Youths have now become the largest voting bloc in many African countries, including Zimbabwe. Zambia demonstrated that. During the 2018 elections, youths were about 44% of registered voters in Zimbabwe, but in 2023 they will surge above 50%, making them an electoral trump card.

“Civil society should encourage citizens, particularly the youth, to register and to vote. They should also design public information campaigns aimed at youth to explain the registration process and how citizens can check their entries onto the voters’ roll and monitor the voter registration process to assess its accuracy and inclusiveness.” 

The 2008 elections remain the watershed elections in Zimbabwe’s history in that both Mr Muleya’s thesis were tested to the full. 

The March 2008 election took place at the time when Zimbabwe’s economy had all but totally collapsed; hyperinflation was to so to the nauseating peak of 500 billion percent, earnings and savings lost their value, children had 23 school-days that year, etc. It was not only the youths who were motivated to vote that year, everyone was desperate for change. It is no exaggeration that if the electorate had the choice of Mugabe or donkey that year, they would have voted for the donkey. 

Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the popular vote according to Robert Mugabe’s own Freudian slip. The Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut was activated to give a graphic illustration of “it is not the voting that really counts, but who counts the vote” and worse.

Mnangagwa, by his own admission, ordered ZEC not to announce the March 2008 election results. The results were finally announce after six weeks of recounting 5 million vote and Tsvangirai’s vote count was whittling down to 47%, enough to force a run off. 

The run-off was all about punishing the people of Zimbabwe for having rejected Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe in the March vote. The party deployed the war veterans and the party’s youth militia, the green bombers, to destroy property, harass, beat and rape. The heavy-duty stuff of abducting and killing was left to the deployed Army, Police, CIO and Prison Service personal. 

“What was achieved by the bullet will not be undone by the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe! 

Mugabe garnered 84% of the votes in the run-off; his landslide victory was never ever in doubt! Never!

Both SADC and AU leaders, for the first time ever, refused to endorse Zanu PF’s electoral victory because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence. SADC leaders forced Robert Mugabe to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers and end the curse of rigged elections. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were the GNU partners tasked to implement the reforms. 

Of course, Mr Dumisani Muleya, one of the country’s well known and respected journalists knows what the GNU was about, that not even one meaningful reform was implemented in five years of the GNU because Tsvangirai and company sold-out big time. 

“International actors should provide assistance to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Whoever wins under such conditions has got the people’s genuine mandate and their express will to govern until the next elections,” concluded Mr Muleya.

Of course, SADC, EU and any international actors of substance will ignore the plea because they have provided all the assistance and advice Zimbabwe need for free, fair and credible elections - they have all advised we implement the democratic reforms and we have repeatedly ignored the advice! 

Zimbabwe’s main opposition, MDC, are driving the narrative that Zimbabwe does not need to implement any democratic reforms and pushing option a) above because to do otherwise they will be forced to admit they wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU. 

The opposition’s WIRE strategies feeble excuses to justify the folly of participating in flawed and illegal election. Implement the reforms and make sure elections are free, fair and credible and you do not need these WIRE strategies.  

Zanu PF benefited from MDC’s failure to implement the reforms during the GNU and in that the party emerged out of the GNU will all its dictatorial powers intact. By participating in flawed and illegal elections the nation is giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

“Next elections may be won or lost on voter registration!” If getting 73% of the votes was not good enough to win in 2008, what is there to suggest it will be good enough in 2023? Without implementing the reforms Zanu PF is set to rig the 2023 elections and by participating we will give the regime legitimacy. 

What Zimbabwe needs to get out of the political and economic mess the nation is stuck in is people with the common sense to admit the need to implement democratic reforms and end Zanu PF carte blanche powers to rig elections instead of the foolishness of trying to win rigged elections! 

"Zanu PF must allow diaspora vote" - for umpteenth time, Zanu PF cares not a jot about free elections N Garikai

 “People want to come back home and contribute in developing their nation but are being hindered by the ever rising cost of living, unstable economic environment, erratic power supply. The financial muscle within the diaspora can make a difference in the Zimbabwean political discourse only if they are allowed to have a say in the day to day of running the government,” argued Leonard Koni in his recent article

“The diaspora is very hungry for change and want the country to do better. Criticising the leadership does not amount to self hate.

“Zimbabweans in the diaspora have proved to be a force to reckon with. They want to be part and parcel of  this historical change.”

I totally agree with you, many Zimbabweans in the diaspora are desperate to see real change so they can finally go back to Zimbabwe. “Home is home, there is no place like home!” so goes the old adage. And it is true.

Of course, Zimbabweans in the diaspora, like many back home, know there will never be any meaningful economic change in Zimbabwe as long as Zanu PF remains in office and gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness and tyrannical rule continue to rule the land. 

It is no secret that most Zimbabweans in the diaspora blame the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship for the nation’s troubles and, naturally, these men and women will never vote for Zanu PF, come the elections. Of course, Zanu PF knows that and, more pointedly, know the party will not find it as ease to rig the diaspora vote as the local vote. And so, it was no surprise to hear Patrick Chinamasa, Acting National Political Commissar, confirm that Zanu PF will not be granting Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote in the coming 2023 elections.

It was President Mnangagwa himself who said Zimbabweans in the diaspora will vote in 2023. He made the promise during his September 2018 visit to New York for the annual UN General Assembly Heads of State and Government jamboree. 

He was desperate to win some political legitimacy given Zimbabwe had just gone through the July 2018 elections which anyone with any democratic credentials had dismissed as a farce. The regime had denied Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll! 

So when push came to shove, Mnangagwa could not honour his promise to restore the right of Zimbabweans in the diaspora to a meaningful vote. His desire to retain his iron grip on political power by rigging the elections had the better of him. 

What is really disheartening is the lack of common sense by Zimbabweans in the diaspora and at home who bury their heads in the sand and refuse to see the sheer futility of participating in these flawed and illegal elections. Beside denying 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, or 30% plus of the eligible electorate; Zanu PF has 1001 other vote rigging shenanigans. 

How can an election process in which 30% plus of the electorate are denied the vote be legal, free, fair and credible?

Zanu PF is set to rigged the 2023 elections just as blatantly as the party rigged the 2018, 2013, etc. elections. And by participating in these flawed and illegal elections the nation will give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, again for the umpteenth time! 

“The government must allow the voice of the diaspora to be heard and not not  denying them the chance to vote,” argued Koni.

After 41 years of rigged elections one would think that by now the penny would have finally dropped that this Zanu PF regime cares more about rigging elections and staying in power at all costs and does not give a damn about respecting the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. 

There will be no meaningful change in Zimbabwe until Zimbabweans open their eyes and minds to the reality that Zimbabwe is not a healthy and functioning democratic nation but rather a de facto one-party dictatorship, a pariah state. 

If we want meaningful economic and political change then we must first implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and stop the vote rigging. To pretend we can have meaningful change and still have the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship, especially after 41 years of rigged elections, is insane, to say the least!