To compare Kenya’s Raila
Odinga with Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai is like comparing tasty wholesome
Swiss cheese of the finest quality with cheese coloured chalk impregnated with deadly
cyanide, even a whiff of chalk dust alone is enough of kill you. The two are
politicians just as the cheese and the chalk have the same colour but apart
from that the two are totally different. and opposite as would be fatal, with nourishing
wholesome Swiss cheese of the finest quality!
1)
Odinga is as smart as whip whilst Tsvangirai is as dumb as dung beetle
in a pit. Whilst, Odinga implement many
far reaching democratic reforms when he was Prime Minister in Kenya’s GNU following
the disputed elections in 2007. Tsvangirai has failed to get even one token
democratic reform implemented when he was PM in Zimbabwe’s GNU following the
country’s own disputed 2008 elections.
2)
Odinga is pro-active, Tsvangirai have to sit on hot ambers to
get him to react. Kenya’s Supreme Court declared null and void the results of
the August presidential elections because Odinga and his team were presented
the courts with detailed evidence of how the electoral system had been hack to
make sure Uhuru Kenyatta are 11% lead regardless what the actual result was.
President
Mugabe blatantly rigged the July 2013 elections as nearly one million voters
were denied the vote because their details were either deleted from the voters’
roll or else posted in some other constituent voters’ roll other than the one
they expected. The regime increased the number of polling stations from 2 000
to 9 000 just two days before voting day. There is YouTube video evidence of
hooded Zanu PF being bussed from one polling station to the next cast multiple
votes.
Although Tsvangirai
initially challenged the election result in court and the production of the
voters’ roll would have proven the above vote rigging irregularities plus many,
many more beside. The voters’ roll was the smoking gun. Why Tsvangirai had
accepted contesting the elections without the voters’ roll in the first place,
itself a constitutional requirement, beggars belief. But even the most
forgiving fall off their chair when the learnt that Tsvangirai had withdrawn
the legal challenge of the result because “ZEC had failed to furnish us with
the voters’ roll,” he announced. That was nonsense of course; it was for the
court to compel ZEC to release the voters’ roll. How could the nation have
conducted a nation-wide election with no voters’ roll!
3)
Odinga is strategic and Tsvangirai does not even have common
sense. Following the Kenya Supreme Court ruling annulling the August result,
Odinga has already called for the present Election Commissioners, who allowed
the fraud to happen in the first place, “resign and face criminal prosecution”.
Uhuru Kenyatta is insisting that the same commissioners must preside over the
re-run.
SADC
leaders warned Tsvangirai he should not contest the July 2013 elections with no
democratic reforms in place. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2008 elections and
with no reforms in place to stop the vote rigging is was clear the party would
rig the vote; that was obvious. MDC leaders ignored the warning and lo and
behold Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections.
Since the rigged July
2013 elections, the opposition have failed to get even one reform implemented.
Not one! And yet the opposition is gearing to contest next year’s election regardless.
They readily accept the elections will be rigged and claim to have devised a
Win In Rigged Election (WIRE) strategy. It turns out these are nothing but rehashed
voter education and mobilisation plans that have had little success against
Zanu PF’s well-funded and sophisticated vote rigging schemes.
The reckless folly of
Tsvangirai and his opposition friends defies common sense!
Kenya had failed to
live up to its full economic potential because of gross mismanagement and
rampant corruption under the de facto one-party dictatorship Jommo Kenyatta,
the country’s first post-independence president fostered on the nation. Just as
Zimbabwe has failed to live up to her full economic potential under this
corrupt and tyrannical one-party dictatorship President Mugabe has fostered on
the nation.
When Raila Odinga was
given the golden opportunity to dismantle Kenya’s entrenched dictatorship during
the GNU, he seized the opportunity with both hands and laid a solid foundation for
a healthy and functional democracy. Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai wasted his chance
to implement reforms when he was given a similar chance. He is insisting in
contesting a flawed election on the basis of mind-numbing logic that he can win
rigged elections.
So, instead of
implementing the democratic reforms and put the nation on a solid democratic
footing in which the issue of free, fair and credible election is finally
settled leaving the nation to focus of other pressing matters like economic
policies. There will be no reforms implemented and the incumbent regime will
have the licence to rig the vote and the challenge for the opposition is to win
rigged elections.
Instead of Tsvangirai
delivering democratic change to end the Zanu PF dictatorship he has given the
dictatorship a democratic façade and a new lease of life! He has thrown out the
traditional demand for elections to free, fair and credible, he has devised
strategies of winning rigged elections! Zimbabweans can look forward to many,
many rigged elections. Why bother implement an reforms and deny the opposition
the challenge of devising strategies of winning rigged elections!
Of all the stupid
ideas, I have ever heard winning rigged elections takes the biscuit!
The people of Zimbabwe have a golden opportunity right here of finally dismantling the entrenched the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a healthy and functional democratic system of government. All they have to do is say no to the holding of elections without reforms. For the people to forfeit that golden opportunity, again as they did in 2013, because they were taken in by MDC’s morbid “Win In Rigged Elections Strategies” will in itself show how naïve, gullible and morbid they, the people, are.
ReplyDeleteA healthy and functional democracy will never survive, even if one fostered it, let alone thrive when those who are supposed to make it work are naïve, gullible and morbid.
Each time we have tried to foster democracy in Zimbabwe the democratic institution were quickly choked off like the seed that fell among the thorn bushes. Again and again the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms have been wasted; the seed that fell on the path and the birds of the air snapped them up.
If we are serious about wanting a health and functional democracy then we must first turn this naïve, gullible and morbid electorate into a diligent and free thinking populous who not only appreciate knowledge but relish it!
Zimbabwe has a simple choice of implementing the reforms so there are free, fair and credible elections and only a first-class idiot would freely choose to do nothing about the reforms and time and time again contest flawed elections. Only MDC leaders would come up with something as morbid as “winning in rigged elections” to justify their foolish decision to contest yet another flawed election!
With first-class idiots for the opposition there is no chance of this lot dislodging this corrupt, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship. The dictatorship is imploding but even then, it remains strong compared to the confused opposition. We are in deep, deep trouble!
So, you became hooked on the gramma and spelling mistakes and completely failed to appreciate the important points in the article. The fact that the nation is being drawn into yet another pointless election by MDC because they failed to implement the democratic reforms is of such monumental importance, the very destiny of the nation hangs on it. I would rather read about this in "the worst ENGRISH" than anything else in the best Shakespeare verse!
ReplyDeleteIf you are one of the 90% unemployed or the 72.3% living on one dollar or less a day then you would want to hear what is being done to address your problems. Two finger salute to those who are offering nothing but a chance to show off that they are more British than the British, the nose-brigade. Just remember it was my looted tax that paid for your very expensive education!
Get out your red pen and correct that but the one thing you will never correct - for all your perfect Oxford English spelling and gramma – is that you are an empty head devoid of any sense. To me your perfect Oxford English is only useful if it helped Zimbabwe get out of the mess it is in. All you have done above is correct the spelling and gramma bur offered absolute nothing to the key national issues raised. Zimbabwe needs people with ideas of what to do to solve the country’s problems and not up-tight morons with nothing of substance to say.
"Spare us the agony of reading." So, you think that the agony spelling mistakes is worse than the agony of being unemployed? Your myopic foolishness certainly takes the biscuit!
Tsvangirai failed to get even one democratic reform implemented and that is why we are still talking about elections will not be free, fair and credible.
ReplyDeleteOdinga presented the judges with the evidence of vote rigging and they nullified the elections on the basis of the evidence put before them, that will never happen in Zimbabwe because no judiciary reforms were implemented during the GNU.
This country is not going anyway until we implement the democratic reforms. Keep your eyes on the ball!
@ Taona
ReplyDeleteMukori has accused Tsvangirai of failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU, that is pretty specific. If you disagree then say so and tell the reforms Tsvangirai implemented.
"Usa era nyoka negavhi iyo iripo!" (Do not beat about the bush!) as one would say in Shona.
Zimbabwe is in a serious mess and we the ordinary people have played our part in allowing this to happen by following leaders blindly like sheep to the slaughter. Tsvangirai has made some very serious blunders and we need to deal with these problems and not sweep them under the carpet.
SADC advised MDC not to contest the 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first; that advice is even more relevant today. It would be folly to allow MDC drag us into yet another meaningless election.
Tsvangirai's WIRE strategy is just a lot of hot air that will do nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
@ Chiremba
ReplyDeleteTrue enough Tsvangirai launch his MDC party, has been PM, lives in a $4 million mansion, etc., etc. and Mukori has never disputed all those facts. What he has said and very clearly, is that Tsvangirai sold-out in failing to implement even one democratic reform. The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect him and his MDC friends into office to bring about democratic change.
Name one democratic reform MDC have brought in their 17 years on the political stage?
Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis is worse today than it was 17 years ago because MDC failed to keep their promise on reforms. If you are one of the 90% plus unemployed and\or one of the 72.3% living on one dollar or less a day you will be pissed off to know all your hardship could have been a thing of the past if MDC leaders had not sold-out and, worse still, continue to sell-out.
There is no excuse for contesting next year's elections with no reforms in place; MDC leaders are doing it because they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to bribe the opposition to contest.
The one thing all Zanu PF members do not want to hear about is demands for reforms to be implemented and yet that is the one thing Mukori has hammered on again and again. How anyone can then call him a "Zanu PF sympathiser" or goes to show you really do not know what you are talking about.
Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged election that is a fundamental fact. And the only sure way to avoid another rigged election is by implementing the reforms BEFORE the elections. Forget the MDC WIRE strategy, it is nonsense.
“This is behaviour that does honour to Africa and proves that democracy is now installed on the continent,” African Union chief Alpha Conde, who is also president of Guinea, said on Monday.
ReplyDeleteIn Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections the AU election observer team report did not give President Mugabe a resounding endorsement of his election victory. The report never ever said the elections were free, fair and credible and noted instead a number of “election irregularities”. One of the irregularities was the failure to release a verified voters’ roll a month before the voting day as is required by law.
Please note, Zanu PF has failed to release the 2013 voters’ roll to this day in spite the numerous requests to ZEC to do so.
It is almost certain that the regime will not release a verifiable voters’ roll again for the 2018 elections. The people of Zimbabwe will now want to see is the AU is serious about wanting democratic elections in Africa or this is just paying lip service to democratic value because events in Kenya caught the organisation flat footed!
The nation is sick to the back teeth of Tsvangirai, the man is not only useless but, worse still, he a curse to the nation because does not listen. He told supporters that there should be "clear reforms" in place ahead of the next election to avoid disputes.
ReplyDeleteHow many times did SADC leaders tell him to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU but for five years he would not listen.
SADC leaders warned not to contest the July 2013 elections with no reforms in place but again he paid no heed to the warning.
There is less than a year to go to next year’s elections and even with the best political will in the world, something Zanu PF does not have anywhere, there is no way any meaningful reforms can be implemented now. And yet Tsvangirai still talks of the reforms being implemented, proof he has not been paying attention.
Meanwhile his party spokesman announces that MDC has given up hope of reforms being implemented but will still contest next year’s elections regardless. The party has adopted Win In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies. This is just the latest excuse for the party to contest next year’s flawed elections is total disregard of SADC leaders’ warning and the party’s own 2014 “No reform, no election!” resolution.
“Some sins (abuse of all forms, moral failure, murder, and so on) require immediate removal from a position of authority. David sinned by taking advantage of Bathsheba and murdering her husband (2 Sam. 11). While he was repentant, his child still died as a consequence of his failure (2 Sam. 12: 18 -19). Sin has consequences, even for leaders,” wrote Courtney Reissing.
Tsvangirai is corrupt and incompetent and he should have been kicked off the political stage years ago. The nation has paid dearly for his many blunders over the years and to continue to follow his blindly like sheep to the slaughter is collective madness of the worst kind!
This nation is in deep, deep political and economic trouble already because of our failure to deal with the problem of bad governance with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. A failed leader like Tsvangirai is not going to get out of the hell-hole we now find ourselves in but will drag us even deeper into the abyss!
"The alliance we are forming must offer deliverables to the people of Zimbabwe, a tangible program to the people of Zimbabwe, the first thing we will do is to write a program of action on the economy, we will present the document to the people of Zimbabwe," said Tendai Biti.
ReplyDeleteYour election manifesto will make a lot of sense compared to whatever Zanu PF produces. Last time anyone with half a brain said Zanu PF’s 2013 ZimAsset with its ambitious promise of 2.2 million new jobs, for example, was just political hot air. As we know the regime has failed to create any new jobs and instead the nation has continued to lose hundreds of existing jobs every year pushing unemployment to the nauseating heights of 90% plus.
Zanu PF won the 31 July 2013 elections not because the electorate like its election manifesto more than it the MDC’s; the elections were rigged, the electorate’s dislike or otherwise had nothing to do with the election result. With no democratic reforms in place, Zanu PF is set to rig next year’s elections just as readily as it rigged the July 2013 elections.
So asking you, Mr Tendai Biti, what is the purpose of you writing a detailed election manifesto when you know it will never see the light of day because Zanu PF will rig the vote and continue implementing its voodoo-economic as before. All you are doing is doing your bit to create this façade that this is a normal democratic elections complete with election manifestoes when you know this is just a sham.
SADC leaders warned you, Tendai Biti, and the rest of the MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place.
“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,” SADC leaders warned at the Maputo summit.
You ignored the warning and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the elections as SADC leaders had rightly predicted.
SADC leaders’ warning is even more relevant today because the elections are once again going to be rig and the country’s economic and political position is so delicate another rigged election can push the nation into political instability with tragic consequences.
DO NOT GO INTO NEXT YEAR’S ELECTION, YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE: THE ELECTIONS ARE DONE!
Do not say you were not warned, because if you participate and lose; this time, you will be held to account!
I do apologise for making so many gramma and spelling mistakes, even making one would be one too many! It is a good idea to revise one's or have someone else proof read it before publication but these things are not always possible.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that I would like to make it very clear, however, that I am accept that languages have never been my great strength and therefore know that I will never compete with the talented William Shakespeares of the old and of our day. I doff my cap to them all and to you too Spare us the agony! Having paid my homage to the great and talented, I will not let my fear of making mistakes or poor mastery of the flowery language stop me from expressing my views. NEVER!
I will shout my barbaric YALP, spelling and gramma mistakes and all, from the roof of the world; especial on matters I care passionately about! I would rather be engaged in discussing ideas, they are far more important than syntax. If syntax is going to trump ideas then I will say it here and loud - fcuk syntax!
Our whole education system has failed the nation because it has been gear to value presentation over substance. We have been educated to write beautifully, we can write volume upon volume of essays, books, etc. but all saying absolutely nothing of substance! It was all very well before independence when the whites filled in the gap and supplied the substance; after independence when the whites were forced to step aside we have been hopeless lost.
ReplyDeleteOur friend here could have written pages on syntax but had absolutely nothing to say of any of the issues raised in the article. Such is Zimbabwe's curse, we have Oxford and Cambridge educated morons! We have so many people with university degrees, PhDs (some after three months), Professors, etc. but, sadly, very few Zimbabweans have common sense and hence the reason Zimbabweans are the poorest people in Africa. Our economic performance mirrors our intellectual performance! All form and no substance!
@ wrong again
ReplyDeleteWhy are you obsessed about syntax?
I am not interested in competing with the William Shakespeares of yesteryears or today. Yes, one should revise one's work to avoid spelling and grammatical errors but that is not always possible. I doff my cap to you for your mastery of the English language. Having paid my homage to the great and talented, I will not let my fear of making mistakes or poor mastery of the flowery language stop me from expressing my views. NEVER!
I would rather engage you on what we should do to make sure we have free, fair and credible elections next year, which is the heart and soul of what the article is about, than waste time on spelling, gramma and syntax. I am more interested in substance and not presentation. You have not said any substantive in your criticism. If syntax is going to trump ideas then I will say it here, now and loud - fcuk syntax!
I will shout my barbaric YALP, spelling and gramma mistakes and all, from the roof of the world; especial on matters I care passionately about!
@ Chiremba
ReplyDeleteThe decision by the Zimbabwe Social Democrats (ZSD) never to contest flawed elections and focus instead on getting the democratic reforms implemented before the elections are held; was a truly inspired and visionary decision. If you are not going to contest elections, you do not need to waste time recruiting members and so can focus your undivided attention on the task on hand - stopping the holding of flawed elections.
We needed to educate the Zimbabwe populous on what the reforms are about and then on the folly of participating in flawed elections. These are national issues, not partisan, and therefore best explained without waving one’s own partisan interest in the public’s face.
Many Zimbabweans know that MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU in failing to implement the democratic reforms, know that MDC leaders were warned by SADC not to contest the July 2013 elections with no reforms, etc. Many Zimbabweans are questioning the wisdom of contest next year’s elections with no reforms in place like never before and by the time the elections result are declared it will be clear the whole process was a farce. The most important thing here is to make sure everyone, especially SADC leaders, know the whole election process was a farce!
None of the ZSD members hold any public office, not even council position in Zimbabwe’s rural back waters but they have forced Zimbabweans to think for themselves which is more than Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have done in all their 17 years in politics and holding many public offices from councillor right up to Prime Minister!
The only universally accepted strategies to stop vote rigging is to get everyone to agree the rules governing the conduct of the elections before elections and making sure the rules are rigorously enforced throughout the electoral process. The fact that Zanu PF is refusing to implement the reforms is itself a test of the opposition and the nation’s commitment to free, fair and credible elections. There are red lines, principled positions, one must never ever cross, the demand for free, fair and credible elections is a double red line!
Tsvangirai & co. have made complete asses of themselves in failing to implement the reforms during the GNU, in contesting flawed elections in July 2013 and now want to repeat the same foolish mistake in next year’s elections. MDC’s latest Win In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies is just a nonsensical excuse to contest next year’s elections with no reform in place. Everyone with even half a brain can see WIRE is just an empty gimmick not even worth another look!
Chiremba, you have tried in the past to get ZSD to join the rest of the opposition wildebeest herd and contest the coming elections with no reforms in place and you are trying to do so again. You are wasting your time, ZSD did not agonise over the decision to boycott elections until reforms are implemented because it was and still is the obvious decision. And time is proving that it was indeed the right decision.
@ Chiremba
ReplyDelete@ Chiremba
If the new constitution was "the mother of all reforms" then why did it fail to deliver free, fair and credible elections in July 2013? Why is Tsvangirai himself still talking of the need to implement reforms before next year's elections?
ZSD has never said it was going to be launch as a political party, it is people like you who have demanding that. We said we did not need to be a political party but just remain a grouping focused on getting the reforms implemented BEFORE the elections. If the powers that be press on with holding elections with no reform ZSD will show the people of Zimbabwe and the world these are sham elections. We are doing a great job on both fronts.
I am not "pained" that Tsvangirai is living in a $4 million mansion per se but pained that he got the mansion by selling-out on implementing the democratic reforms necessary to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
Am I more concerned about Tsvangirai's $4 m mansion than Mugabe's $4 b (not $12 m, as you say) blue roof mansion. I know Mugabe's loot and continued looting is doing the nation serious harm but am smart enough to know that the only effective way to stop it is making sure we have free, fair and credible elections. It is not Mugabe but Tsvangirai who is stop the nation from having free and fair elections by his blundering incompetence. Right now Mugabe is bribing the village idiot and his friends and encourage them to contest flawed elections.
To stop Mugabe's reign of terror and crippling misrule we must stop Tsvangirai contesting flawed election and/or show the world the election is a sham! ZSD is doing a great job! Even you, Chiremba, a simpleton will be forced to admit that ZSD is doing a great job; even if you cannot see this yet, you will see it soon enough!
The Zimbabwe political amoeba has the propensity to subdivide, merge and subdivide again in endless cycles never accomplish anything! We are about to witness one of these stages. There is no point in asking why they are merging because none of them will be able to say why?
ReplyDelete@wrong again
ReplyDeleteGreat, now we have English language teachers on the internet going around correcting spelling mistakes, punctuation, etc. The country is in total economic meltdown, millions are out o work, millions are starving, hundreds if not thousands are dying unnecessarily every week, etc., etc. Only very few people are raising the alarm only to be shot down by our internet who want everything said in perfect English. They have become more English than the English themselves!
Talk of being penny wise but pound foolish! We are really obsessed about trivial matters! No wonder the country is in a real mess and, as long as, we remain this foolish there is no hope of us ever getting out of this hell-hole! None!
"Should you need help in correcting the English!" you offer. We need help to ensure next year's elections are free, fair and credible. If you can do that, the nation will not care that you do not know the difference between noun and a verb!