Saturday 21 January 2017

How many more rigged elections and murders will it take to convince Madhuku we need reforms. By P Guramatunhu

“We cannot say anything other than condemn those who are resorting to violence and we only hope our plea will convert them because it does not help our democracy,” said Professor Madhuku. He was reacting to the story of the beating of his NCA Bikita West by-election candidate and his manager.

Zimbabwe is NOT a democracy!

Professor Madhuku your NCA friends were lucky they were beaten and shot at and lived to tell the story. Hundreds of thousands Zimbabweans were beaten and raped and over 500 were murdered in cold blood in the 2008 elections alone. Zimbabwe is not democracy but an autocratic dictatorship which has mastered the art of rigging elections and has no qualms in using violence to retain power. It is just people like you, Tsvangirai, Joice Mujuru and all the other opposition minions out there are focused on winning the few gravy train seats Zanu PF throws at the opposition you refuse to see the political reality of the dictatorship.

“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 elections,” wrote Senator David Coltart 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.”

It was only after the rigged July 2013 elections, when many of the MDC leaders had failed to secure any seats on the gravy train, only then did MDC leaders finally saw the need to implement the reforms and boycott all future elections until the reforms are implemented. “No reform, no elections!” was rammed down the throats of Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti and all the other MDC leaders by the reality of the blatant vote rigging.

It is not that Professor Madhuku and his NCA, Joice Mujiru with her Zim PF and all the new kids on the block do not know what a democracy is and that Zimbabwe is not a democracy; they do. They are all taking part in the election knowing Zanu PF will rig the vote and commit wanton violence just to be absolutely certain there is no regime change. Madhuku and company will contest the elections for the same reason MDC contested the 2013 elections – greed.

Zanu PF will keep throwing the few seats to the opposition to keep them interested, the regime needs these token opposition to give the election process a measure of credibility and the few seats is a small price to pay.

Having a token opposition representation is not something new, Ian Smith had a few black MPs in pre-independent Zimbabwe. There were little more than talking manikins in parliament you would not know it the way these MPs drummed their chest like silverback gorillas. Ian Smith had no problem getting people to fill the talking manikin MP posts! Zanu PF too will never have to worry about the opposition boycotting elections, regardless how flawed and unfair they are, there will always be some opposition candidates fighting over the scraps!

“It is shocking to realise that as all this madness happens, Zec has not said or done anything when the nation is expecting to hear from them if they take their work seriously,” said Madhuku, adding that the electoral body risks losing credibility.

No Professor Madhuku, it is you who lost all credibility; you clearly do not have common sense to know ZEC has been corrupted the commission considers helping Zanu PF rig the elections as their primary task. 

If anyone thought that the beating of NCA officials in Bikita West has opened Professor Madhuku’s eyes they will be disappointed to know that had no effect. As long as there are scraps to be had Madhuku and company will be fighting over them.

“We cannot say anything other than condemn those who are resorting to violence and we only hope our plea will convert them because it does not help our democracy,” Madhuku said.

“We also call upon the electorate to remain steadfast and not to be intimidated into giving up. We must never reward perpetrators of violence by doing that.”


The real question for the country now is how many more innocent Zimbabweans must be beaten, raped and even murdered to finally convince people like Madhuku, Mujuru, etc. that Zimbabwe is not a democracy and elections are flawed?

10 comments:

  1. “Recent press reports to the effect that the crumbling and faction - ridden Zanu PF political party has acquired 365 brand new Ford Ranger SUV motor vehicles vindicate what we in the MDC have always been saying i.e. that the Zanu PF regime is illegally and fraudulently raiding financial and material resources from various State corporations such as ZESA Holdings, ZINARA, ZUPCO and NSSA in order to fund the operations of the ruling party,” said Obert Gutu.

    True enough MDC has been complaining about Zanu PF corruption, especially since the party was trounced in the 2013 elections and has been fighting for the spotlight. What is telling is that the party has done nothing to end the corruption. It had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended all vote rigging and corruption, they failed to get even one reform implemented because they had joined in the looting.

    MDC are a waste of time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. When the history of Zimbabwe is written, the world will know that MDC leaders sold-out big time during the GNU. It would be embarrassing to the Noble Prize Committee if history was to question how they had awarded a leading MDC leader a Noble Prize.

    In his book, Senator Coltart praised the 2013 constitution, history will judge it for what it is - a wasted opportunity! He being a lawyer and praising such rubbish begs the question of his own competency.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Get your facts right!

    It was none other than Archbishop Desmond Tutu who raised the alarm of tampering with the count when Mugabe failed to announce the result after three days and demanded that pressure should be brought to bear on Mugabe. It was none other than Tsvangirai who dismissed the warning and suggest that people must wait.

    After a week and still no result, Tsvangirai finally cooped on that there was something fishy but it was too late, he did not do anything and the world did not want to take a lead.

    In April 2008, before Zanu PF had announced the election results, Tsvangirai was already negotiating with Zanu PF on the formation of a GNU. So it was not SADC but MDC who had wanted a GNU from the word go.

    The fact that not even one reform was implemented during the five years of the GNU was not SADC's fault but MDC.

    If Zimbabwe had Gambia's Barrow and and not the blundering Tsvangirai we would not be in this mess!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Rainforest

    MDC did not lose the 2013 elections because the opposition was divided. They lost because Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the vote. SADC advised MDC not to take part in the 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first but Tsvangirai would not listen.

    Not even one reform has been implemented and you talking of taking part in the 2018 elections. Zanu PF will rigged the vote and whether the opposition are united "come rain come sun shine" it will be irrelevant! Do not say you were not warned!

    ReplyDelete
  5. If he is going to challenge Mugabe with no reforms in place then there is nothing else to be said other than he is just as foolish as all the other opposition politicians who have all fallen into Mugabe's trap. Here is another mouse who is finding the promise of holding high office so irresistible he cannot see the trap until it is too late.

    Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because our political leaders are as naive as they are greedy; they know elections are rigged but their desire for power is so compelling they cannot stop and do the obvious and common sense thing first implement the reforms so Zanu PF cannot rig the elections.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ ZUNDE

    In 2008 Zanu PF was able to turn Tsvangirai's 73% to 47% after six weeks of recounting. Since then Zanu PF has polished up on its vote rigging as we saw in the 2013 elections, MDC have the numbers but they counted for nothing as Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote.

    SADC leaders warned MDC not to take part in the elections until the reforms are implemented but, of course, Tsvangirai would not listen. Even Senator David Coltart has since admitted in his book that boycotting the 2013 elections was the obvious thing to do.

    “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 elections,” explained Senator Coltart.

    “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.”

    We all know that not even one reform was implemented since the rigged 2013 elections. We all know if Zanu PF can cook up 73% to 47% uniting the opposition will nice but it will not stop the cooking up of results or stop Zanu PF denying the opposition supporters the vote as happened in 2013.

    If the people of Zimbabwe take part in the 2018 elections KNOWING the elections will be rigged there is nothing SADC or anyone can do to stop the elections going ahead and SADC will have no choice but to accept the results just as they did in 2013.

    Can ZUNDE assure the nation the 2018 elections will be FREE, FAIR AND CREDIBLE?

    ReplyDelete
  7. President Trump is Mr Know-It-All and give some one like that executive powers and you know you are in serious trouble!

    ReplyDelete
  8. “The situation in Bikita West is cause for concern as the rights of the electorate are being flagrantly violated. The constituency has reported threat to life, physical violence, partisan food distribution, vote-buying, deployment of soldiers, unwarranted voter assistance and intimidation by traditional leaders. There are disturbing reports where the right to personal security of a candidate has been violated,” reported Zimbabwe Peace Project.

    How many more reports will it take to finally convince the people of Zimbabwe that enough is enough and implement the reforms?

    ReplyDelete
  9. "We are saying this so that newspapers do not create confusion where there is none. In 2014, we elected our president,” said Minister Chombo.

    "We said then that all those who want to be president should raise their hands. Everyone rushed to lift the president's, saying ‘we want Mugabe, he is the one we want to be president of the party'”.

    No one has ever “elected” President Mugabe in all his political life and Minister Chombo must respect facts. President Mugabe has always coerced everyone to make sure only his name was in the hat and instead of an election there was a coronation. He has done the same thing for those below him so that at the end of the day congress ended up rubber stamping his wishes. The booting out of Joice Mujuru and many others from the party was one such dirty trick to deny the party members a meaningful say.

    President Mugabe is a megalomania, he loves power and no wonder he has committed all manner of evil just to name a few. The nation is sick and tired of his corrupt and tyrannical rule. The pressure for him to go will only increase and he will go.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This was confirmed by Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) interim chairperson for Masvingo, Claudius Makova, who said regardless of the fact that on the actual voting day there was "a semblance of tranquillity", the by-election could not be viewed as "free, fair and credible by any stretch of the imagination".

    It sickens me to hear that! Zim PF were warned, if they did not figure this out for themselves (which will not be a surprise given these are not the cleverest lot on the block), that Zanu PF will rig the elections and everyone MUST boycott elections until meaningful reforms are implemented! By taking part in the elections regardless of the warning, Zim PF have legitimized the elections!

    ReplyDelete