'I will not concede defeat,' said Tsvangirai - but why contest flawed elections in the first place!

There is a time and place for everything; there is a time to plough, time to sow and a time to tender crops. The richness of your harvest will be a measure of your diligence in keeping the rhythm of the seasons and how hard you have work.

Morgan Tsvangirai the lazy farmer who will not listen to the advice of others, who will sow his seed in poor sandy soil because it is easy to work and then spends the rest of his time boasting of the richness of the harvest he is expecting. When it does not happen; he will blame his poor harvest on army-worms, his ancestors and curse the Gods for his bad lucky. Zimbabwe has a new election next year and Tsvangirai is already full throttle with his expected landslide electoral victory.  

"We won't agree on an outcome that is not my victory. Like [US President Donald] Trump, if I don't win I will not concede. How does a fragmented minority win over a united majority now that we are all wiser than in 2013 because of the grinding poverty," Tsvangirai told a workers day gathering.

Anyone with any common sense would asked Tsvangirai; "If Mugabe cheated in 2013, why did you do something to stop him cheating then? And, more significantly, what have you done this time to make sure he does not cheat you again?"

Even if one accepts the notion that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends could not be trusted to figure out for themselves the details of democratic changes necessary to ensure free, fair and credible elections. SADC, in formulating the agreement that led to the creation of the country's 2008 to 2013 GNU, produced a raft of reforms to be implemented to ensure Zimbabwe's future elections will never again be rigged.

Instead of MDC leaders implemented the reforms they wasted time gallivanting round the round and enjoying the trappings of high office. The GNU was initial chalked in to last 18 months, in the end it lasted 60 months and still MDC failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!

Throughout the five years SADC leaders reminded Tsvangirai & co. to implement the reforms but they were ignored. In a desperate last minute bid to stop the elections going ahead with no reforms, SADC leaders told the MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections, at the SADC summit in Maputo.

"I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they (MDC leaders) were told "if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done", Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Violet Gonda in an interview last week.

Needless to say MDC leaders once again ignored the warning. And needless to say Mugabe went on to rig the 2013 elections.

After the rigged July 2013 elections Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders promised the nation they will never again take part in future elections until reforms are implemented. "No reform, no elections!" they promised.

We are now approaching the 2018 elections and still not even one democratic reform has been implemented. Not one!  

"He (Mugabe) wants to cheat. He thinks he can get away with cheating to victory. As Nera, we know what you (Mugabe) are doing and want to repeat what you did in 2013, but this time around it won't be successful," Tsvangirai told the naïve and gullible crowd.

Ask him to name even one meaningful reform that NERA implemented and one is greeted with a blank face. NERA has wasted a lot of time, effort and treasure on voter mobilization, coalition building, BVR kits, etc., etc.; the easy stuff, the sandy soil work. None of these activities are even mentioned in the SADC raft of reforms because they not stop the rigging.

What is the point of getting the best BVR kits, for example, and then hand it over to a corrupt ZEC?

"If he [Mugabe] refuses to go we have plan B. I can't divulge the details because I don't know who is here, but I can assure you that Mugabe will not steal the vote again," MDC-T VP Thokozani Khupe told an equally gullible audience in Slough, UK.

In other words, MDC-T and their opposition partners are asking the nation to take part in yet another election knowing fully well that nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done to stop Mugabe and Zanu PF rigging the vote. The people are being asked to hope against hope that Zanu PF will rig the vote and, somehow – not even Tsvangirai or any of the other leaders can explain how, MDC-T will win the election.

What the people of Zimbabwe must understand is that by participating in an election process after they have been warned repeatedly the process is flawed, they cannot afterwards reject the result on the grounds the process was flawed especially when we have the chance to implement the reforms and stop the rigging.

In his book, David Coltart spelt out the primary reason why MDC leaders ignore SADC leaders and contested the 2013 elections even when they (MDC leaders) themselves had the evidence the elections were rigged before even the first ballot was cast – greed.

"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."

The grand coalition in the opposition camp is, first and foremost, to present a united front to gain some measure of credibility, lost by their insistence in contesting the elections when they know not even one reform has been implemented. The second reason for the coalition is a lot more subtle; in the past Zanu PF has "won" seats in opposition strong-holds because the later had split the votes. The opposition parties, especially the briefcase ones, are hoping the coalition will be the gentlemen's agreement on how the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away are to be shared.

People must not allow themselves to be fooled by Tsvangirai's empty promises of "refusing to concede defeat". He did that in 2002 and in all other elections thereafter; all to no avail. Where was Ms Khupe and her plan B on all those occasions?

People must demand to know why Tsvangirai and others have abandoned "No reform, no elections!" And stop listening to his cheap grandstanding political posturing; the boastful dog claiming he will put out the forest fire with "his puny fart", as the great African Novelist Chinua Achebe would put it.

Zimbabweans are to today the poorest in Africa according to a recent AfrAsia report. The evidence of our poverty is there for all to see; soaring unemployment, health and education services have all but collapsed, etc.

The root cause of our poverty and hopelessness is nearly four decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule. What the AfrAsia report should have said but did not is that Zimbabwe's ruling elite are some of the richest people in the whole world. There is documentary evidence to show that Mai Mujuru and her late husband, for example, tried to sell $15.8 billions in diamonds alone. Of course, the two were not the only ones who have been looting and plundering Zimbabwe's wealth.

The bottom line is to address the problem of growing poverty, Zimbabweans must first address the problem bad governance with the sense of urgency and seriousness the matter demands. And the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is at the very heart of our problem of bad governance.

We must have free and fair elections; there is no excuse why previous elections have not been free and fair and it is folly to allow this meaningless charade to continue one more time!

The people must stand up now and demand the implementation of all the democratic reforms BEFORE the elections.  It people allow next year's elections to proceed with no reforms the economic and political consequences of their folly will be grime. Be warned!