Opinion / Columnist
'Pasi nemhandu!' (To death with traitors!) came the Mnangagwa fatwa on free election
08 Feb 2018 at 22:42hrs | Views
"Pasi nezvimbwa sungata! Pasi nemhandu! Pamberi neZanu PF!" (To death to traitors! To death with enemies of the state! Forward with Zanu PF!) Canted President Emmerson Mnangagwa with the passion and relish of one who had missed saying these things for far too long! (Since President Mnangagwa's inaugural speech in November last year, the party had banished the "To death" bit of the party's slogan, at least in public, to promote its new image of democratic tolerance and promise to hold free, fair and credible elections.) So, what has happened to free Mnangagwa from this self-imposed censorship!
"Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere and other G40 members are meeting with Joice Mujuru in Cape Town, SA to plan how they can topple Zanu PF from power," President Mnangagwa told his audience.
True enough there is a conference in Cape Town attended by Mai Mujuru, MDC-T leaders and all the other usual suspects in the opposition camp. Thanks to Zimeye.com who have streamed photographs of the conference attendees, the objectives of the meeting and other details. Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere or any of the known G40 members are certainly not in any of the photographs.
Indeed, even if G40 members should team up with Mai Mujuru and all the other 75 opposition parties that have sprouted grass after the first rains with a view to challenge President Mnangagwa and his coup cabal for the right to form the next government; that is NOT a crime. President Mnangagwa's promise to hold free and fair elections this year is premised on three fundaments:
a) Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy; just because Zanu PF has successfully imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship does not make those who dare to oppose the regime criminals.
b) President Mnangagwa and his fellow 15 November 2017 coup plotters were aware of how much the people of Zimbabwe and the world at large were sick and tired of Robert Mugabe and were very pleased to see the tyrant finally remove from office – even if the removal was itself a treasonous act, a coup.
c) The November coup was illegal and no amount of finessing can ever change that political reality and therefore per se President Mnangagwa's regime is illegitimate. President Mnangagwa is painfully aware of this political reality and hence his and his regime's charm offensive to rebrand with all this talk of new dispensation of a party upholding the rule of law, restoring property rights and promising to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Before the November coup, Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, vote rigging and coup staging thugs; it was therefore naïve to expect the party after the coup to be radically different since those who staged the coup and thus took over control of the party are the same individuals who had masterminded and executed all the mischief and thuggery before the 15 November coup. However much they, themselves realized the need to embrace democratic change for the sake of economic recovery and for their own political legitimacy; when their hold on power was threatened they reverted to thuggery at the drop of a hat!
It is no secret that President Mnangagwa and his coup cabal now view G40 members as the greatest threat to their hold on power. People like Professor Jonathan Moyo know a lot of past, present and, no doubt, future dirty secrets on Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and other coup leaders. Knowledge is power. President Mnangagwa and his regime have accused Professor Moyo and his G40 friends of corruption and misuse of power but there is no one in Zanu PF, including Mnangagwa himself, who is not guilty of the same crimes and worse in some cases. The real reason why the coup cabal are hunting G40 members down is political – they want the threat posed by G40 members eliminated completely and hence labelling them enemies of the state! Having declared G40 members enemies of the State, Zanu PF is now extending the net to catch every other opposition party they do not want by claiming they are working in cahoots with G40. All those political parties who attended the conference in Cape Town, will now have an impossible task to prove they are not working with G40 directly or indirectly.
"Pasi nezvimbwa sungata! Pasi nemhandu!" Came the fatwa on G40, the opposition and, worst of, free, fair and verifiable elections!
"Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere and other G40 members are meeting with Joice Mujuru in Cape Town, SA to plan how they can topple Zanu PF from power," President Mnangagwa told his audience.
True enough there is a conference in Cape Town attended by Mai Mujuru, MDC-T leaders and all the other usual suspects in the opposition camp. Thanks to Zimeye.com who have streamed photographs of the conference attendees, the objectives of the meeting and other details. Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere or any of the known G40 members are certainly not in any of the photographs.
Indeed, even if G40 members should team up with Mai Mujuru and all the other 75 opposition parties that have sprouted grass after the first rains with a view to challenge President Mnangagwa and his coup cabal for the right to form the next government; that is NOT a crime. President Mnangagwa's promise to hold free and fair elections this year is premised on three fundaments:
a) Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy; just because Zanu PF has successfully imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship does not make those who dare to oppose the regime criminals.
c) The November coup was illegal and no amount of finessing can ever change that political reality and therefore per se President Mnangagwa's regime is illegitimate. President Mnangagwa is painfully aware of this political reality and hence his and his regime's charm offensive to rebrand with all this talk of new dispensation of a party upholding the rule of law, restoring property rights and promising to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Before the November coup, Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, vote rigging and coup staging thugs; it was therefore naïve to expect the party after the coup to be radically different since those who staged the coup and thus took over control of the party are the same individuals who had masterminded and executed all the mischief and thuggery before the 15 November coup. However much they, themselves realized the need to embrace democratic change for the sake of economic recovery and for their own political legitimacy; when their hold on power was threatened they reverted to thuggery at the drop of a hat!
It is no secret that President Mnangagwa and his coup cabal now view G40 members as the greatest threat to their hold on power. People like Professor Jonathan Moyo know a lot of past, present and, no doubt, future dirty secrets on Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and other coup leaders. Knowledge is power. President Mnangagwa and his regime have accused Professor Moyo and his G40 friends of corruption and misuse of power but there is no one in Zanu PF, including Mnangagwa himself, who is not guilty of the same crimes and worse in some cases. The real reason why the coup cabal are hunting G40 members down is political – they want the threat posed by G40 members eliminated completely and hence labelling them enemies of the state! Having declared G40 members enemies of the State, Zanu PF is now extending the net to catch every other opposition party they do not want by claiming they are working in cahoots with G40. All those political parties who attended the conference in Cape Town, will now have an impossible task to prove they are not working with G40 directly or indirectly.
"Pasi nezvimbwa sungata! Pasi nemhandu!" Came the fatwa on G40, the opposition and, worst of, free, fair and verifiable elections!
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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