I can understand why millions of
ordinary Zimbabweans have embraced President Mnangagwa and his coup-cabinet as
the real thing, the answer to all their prayers to be liberated from the
corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyranny of the last 37 years. These are simple
people who believe that all the corruption, vote rigging, etc. were the work of
one-man, Robert Gabriel Mugabe; and thus removing him, would ended all their
problems.
One expects someone sober,
learned and sophisticated as Ambassador Philippe Van Damme to know
that corruption, incompetence and tyrannical tendencies of the Zanu PF
dictatorship was not doing to disappear overnight just because Mugabe was no
longer President, particularly when the reins of power have been passed on to
the thugs who had carried out all the dirty work. The Zanu PF dictatorship was
more than Mugabe, its figure head. Indeed, the removal of Mugabe was nothing
more than a black mamba shedding off its old coat; it is still a deadly snake.
The first thing President
Mnangagwa and his coup plotters did after forcing Mugabe to resign was share
out the spoils of power. The appointment of known political thugs like
Commander Chiwenga, veteran of Joint Operation Command (JOC), the Junta
responsible for all the vote riggings and 2008 coup to stop MDC getting power,
as VP. Air Marshall Perrance Shiri, another JOC veteran and Gukurahundi
commander, is now Minister of Lands.
Major General Sibusiso Moyo, the
man who will go down in Zimbabwe history as the coup spokesman who woke up the
nation at 04.30 am on 15 November 2017 to announce the putsch but insisted it “was
not a coup”. He is now Minister of Foreign Affairs. Chris Mutsvangwa, the
leader of the rogue war veterans who have played a major role in imposing the
Zanu PF dictatorship on the nation; they firmly believe that whilst everyone
else has a vote they alone have the veto on who rules Zimbabwe. He is now President
Mnangagwa’s special advisor!
President Mnangagwa appointed
retired Lt. General Engelbert Rugeje to the very influential position of ZANU
PF national political commissar. Rugeje is a liberation war veteran who, like his
fellow rogues Mutsvangwa, Jabulani Sibanda, not only believe Zanu PF’s divine
right to rule but have ruthlessly imposed their dogma on the populous. Rugeje
earned his notoriety in the 2008 elections when he spearheaded Zanu PF’s
Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) in Masvingo Province.
Retired Lt General Engelbert
Rugeje, reminded the nation at large why he is Zanu PF Political Commissar,
entrusted by President Mnangagwa to carry out the very important task of
mobilising the people to ensure Zanu PF landslide victory using the party’s
tried, tested and proven-to-work strategies.
"We are getting towards important elections this year,”
Rugeje reminded the people at Mawungwa Business Centre in Gutu, according to
the Masvingo Mirror. “I came here in 2008 when things were bad. I don't know
where Masvingo had got this spirit and I came and sorted things out.
“I came back again in 2013 and led the campaign team and I moved
around the province addressing rallies and the results were impressive and this
saw the current Party president giving Masvingo the post of political
commissar. I expect you to give Zanu PF all seats in Masvingo now that I am full
time in politics."
All talk of free, fair and credible elections; thrown straight
out of the window!
“Chiri mumusakasaka chinonzwira!” (Those with ears, let them
hear!) Even the naïve simpletons have ears; they cannot say they did not know the
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF before the coup is still the same after the coup,
“If really what he (Rugeje) said, needs public condemnation by @zanu_pf
leadership! Intimidation incompatible with commitment 2free& fair
elections.” Was the twittered response from the EU Representative to Zimbabwe
Philippe Van Damme.
I am shocked that the Ambassador is so naïve, to doubt Rugeje would
boast about Zanu PF’s culture of vote rigging and wanton violence when President
Mugabe himself has publicly edged and praised the party thugs and none of them had
any qualms carrying these heinous acts. Worse still, is the ambassador really that
naïve to believe “public condemnation by @zanu-pf leadership” would be enough
to deliver free, fair and credible elections?
For the umpteenth time, ambassador Damme; Zimbabwe will have
free, fair and credible elections on one condition and one condition only – all
the democratic reforms are implemented before the elections. So far President
Mnangagwa has paid lip-service to free elections by making empty promises
whilst doing nothing to implement even one token reform. Indeed, by surrounding
himself with the party’s hardliners, the veterans of the party’s vote rigging
and wanton political violence he is showing that he has no intention of holding
free, fair and credible elections.
Mugabe promised the Chiefs new cars to buy their loyalty to the party, the Chiefs and the other traditional leaders are the ones who have threatened the people with expulsion from their homes if Zanu Pf lost the elections. Mnangagwa knows only too well how this has been very effective in frog marching the people, especially rural people, to attending Zanu PF rallies and to vote for the party. He is giving away the cars for the same reason, vote buying.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF has no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections. President Mnangagwa keep saying the elections will be free and fair and yet continues to do all the things the party has always done to buy votes or intimidate the voters to vote for the party.
People like Ambassador Damme are setting the democratic standard so low that it is impossible to see how we can ever hold free and fair elections. Rugeje is not the only one who has said Zanu PF will be using its usual dirty vote rigging tricks. President Mnangagwa has dished out 52 new twin cab Isuzu trucks to some of the Chiefs with the balance to be distributed by March. The Chiefs get the carrot and the ordinary people will get the stick.
ReplyDeleteRugeje is doing exactly what President Mnangagwa appointed him to do, whip the people into line! He will be working with the Chiefs to deliver the votes. There is no doubt that Rugeje will be called and asked to carry on with his excellent work only that he should talk peace and act war.
@ Chikotikoti
ReplyDeleteIf we can make sure that the reforms are implemented and elections are free, fair and credible that will be a excellent starting point for Zimbabwe and it does not matter who wins the elections then, the important thing is we would have opened the door to free and fair elections in future too. The reason why President Mnangagwa will not implement any reforms now, even if he was cocksure of winning the elections, which he is not but even if he was, is because he knows that once the gene is out of the bag he will find it hard to put it back. Once the reforms are implemented it will be hard to undo the changes.
@ Lloyd Msipa
ReplyDeleteLet us make this very clear from the outset, there is no legal basis for postponing elections and in your article you have not offered any such basis. The constitution is very clear that there must be regular elections and we would be most unwise to set a dangerous precedence of postponing elections because future regimes will do the same for no better reason than that they fear losing the vote.
“What good will it do us as a country to rush into an election that may result in a disputed outcome considering the abnormalities that face Zimbabwe,” you have argued.
“Will it not be prudent for the political parties, civic groups and the generality of Zimbabweans to work out and agree on a national road map in the national interest. The reality of Zimbabwe economically and politically doesn’t speak of a country that is ready for elections.”
Whatever these “abnormalities” are you talking should have been fixed by the government of the day of the last five years the very fact that there are there is proof of the last government’s failure and thus the need for elections to get a competent government.
I agree that holding elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop vote rigging is bound to produce disputed results. Postponing elections will not solve anything if the same Zanu PF and MDC people who failed to implement even one reform during the last GNU are going to be in power.
If you think you will ever get Zanu PF and MDC to postpone elections and get them to step down you are wasting your time.
The elections must go ahead as planned; if Zanu PF does not implement the reforms necessary for free and fair elections then the people of Zimbabwe must not take part in the flawed and illegal elections and demand that they are declared null and void. This will form a legal basis for creating an interim administration similar to the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Present Mnangagwa can spare the nation the expense of holding another meaningless election by announcing that his party has failed to carry out its set task of holding free and fair elections.
Whatever happens, Zimbabwe must emerge out of the coming elections knowing the reforms were implemented or will be implemented by an interim administration - a clear and viable roadmap forward - and not just another political fudge! Postponing the elections with no clear roadmap to ensure all the democratic reforms will be implemented is just another waste of time.
@ E Cross
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy is that Mugabe’s ruinous reign of death and destruction could and should have been brought to an end in 2008 or 2013 at the very latest if MDC leaders had not been so hopelessly corrupt and incompetent. MP Cross has never given the people of Zimbabwe a satisfactory answer to the question: why did MDC fail to get even one democratic reform implemented in the five years of the GNU?
“Politically-connected people drive around in luxury cars that would turn heads in London or New York. A month ago, one of Mugabe’s sons was seen in Bulawayo driving a brand-new Rolls Royce convertible with friends — drinking in public with radio blaring out music. He had never worked in his life. The image of former first lady Grace Mugabe spending US$150 000 in cash on a single visit to a store in a major city — screaming obscenities at a journalist who tried to capture the scene on camera, will not be forgotten,” you tell us.
The nation would have been spared such loses if MDC had implemented the reforms!
SADC leaders have already said Zimbabwe should not hold elections without first implementing the democratic reforms and now the EU are suggesting the reforms are not necessary as long as Zanu PF talk of free and fair election, they do not have to do anything else, just talk about it. It is high time Zimbabweans take the problem of good governance with the seriousness the matter demands. If we did that it will be clear that EU’s position is nonsensical, we need all the reforms implemented BEFORE the elections are held.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that President Mnangagwa know that there is simple no time left for his regime to implement the reforms, even if they had the political will to do so. The EU, if they were paying any attention, knows time to implement the reforms has run out. We know there will be no meaningful reforms implemented BEFORE the elections and therefore can say with certainty the elections will NOT be free, fair and credible.
“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,” SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in June 2013. We can say the say thing today six months before the elections.
The campaign now is not to contest the flawed and illegal 2018 elections. MDC did not pay heed to Zanu PF’s warning in 2013 and all they did by participating is give the process the modicum of credibility. It would be folly to allow MDC and the rest of the opposition drag into yet another meaningless election. We know the opposition participated in the July 2013 elections out of greed, as David Coltart admitted in his Book.
“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.”
If we cannot stop MDC and the other opportunistic opposition politicians taking part in this year’s flawed elections then we must see to it that the world knows they are participating out of greed and they have no political credibility. NONE!
You have not said who what tasks the administration will be asked to perform in the interim period, who will be constitute that administration, who will supervise the said administration, etc. You clearly have not thought this one through because if you did you would have realised that if the SADC supervised GNU accomplished nothing what chance will a GNU in which Zanu PF is boss have of doing anything useful.
ReplyDeleteIf we are going to have a GNU then it must be because Zanu PF failed to deliver free and fair elections as happened in 2008!
The people of Zimbabwe were so glad just to see the back of Mugabe they hugged Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest of the coup plotters; forgetting or forgiving or both that these are the thugs who had imposed Mugabe on the nation and kept him in power all these years. Some people were already talking about giving President Mnangagwa a chance, to prove he was not a different man from the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant Mugabe.
ReplyDeleteEverything Mnangagwa has done in the last two months has pointed to one thing - that Mnangagwa and his regimes are seasoned thugs. The evidence is piling up and the people of Zimbabwe will soon know it is folly to pretend Mnangagwa was an innocent, honest and decent man who was for 37 years under the spell of the evil Mugabe. People will know the coming elections will not be about giving President Mnangagwa a chance to prove him but rather about stopping the regime entrenching himself into power.
The last thing we want is to allow Zanu PF to get back into power with all its vote rigging powers intact because Mnangagwa and company will use these powers to entrench themselves just as they have done these last 38 years. The nation has had to wait 37 years plus a coup to finally get rid of Mugabe.
We should have got rid of the whole Zanu PF cabal and can still do so by insisting on implementing the reforms before holding the elections. Mnangagwa is blatantly refusing to implement reforms for no other reason than to keep Zanu PF's undemocratic strangle hold on power. It is imperative that we do not allow him to get away with it!