Case was more than Chamisa vs Mnangagwa it was People vs Zanu PF - we were cheated again

The single most important issue raised in Nelson Chamisa's Con-Court challenge of Emmerson Mnangagwa's electoral victory was that the election process was not free, fair and credible. This is important because it is our repeated failure to hold free elections has landed us in this economic and political mess. And, of immediate importance to us all, until we hold free and fair elections, we are not getting out of the mess.

Given Zimbabwe's checked history of rigged elections and the tragic and dire consequences this repeated failure to hold free, fair and credible elections have brought to the entire nation. It was therefore wrong for Chief Justice Luke Malaba and his fellow eight Chief Justices to consider the case before the court mere as a Chamisa vs Mnangagwa and ZEC. It was a lot more than that, it was The People of Zimbabwe vs Zanu PF and its surrogate undemocratic institutions.

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess, no one can ever dispute that point, with unemployment a nauseating 90% and 3 out of 4 Zimbabweans living on US$1.00 or less a day. It is a well-established fact the country is in this mess because of 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, which even the hardliner Zanu PF supporters like President Mnangagwa and his junta have since accepted and hence their justification for staging the coup last November.

"We are only targeting criminals around (Mugabe), who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country, in order to bring them to justice," the coup spokesman, Major General and now Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sibusiso Moyo announced in the small hours of 15 November 2017.

Ever since the coup President Mnangagwa and the junta have again and again tried to put distance between the Mugabe era and the post-coup era, insisting this was a new democratic dispensation. They have even promised to hold free, fair and credible elections, to underline their commitment to democratic rule and values.

So the importance of Zimbabwe holding free, fair and credible elections as the only sure way to end the country's very serious economic situation in obvious to all especially the country's learned and who is more so than a Con-Court judges. The issue of whether these elections were free, fair and credible was of great national importance; far beyond the individual or party political interest of Nelson Chamisa and MDC Alliance and Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF respectively. To listen to Chief Justice Malaba deliver the Con-Court decision one could not help but feel the Chief Justice considered the case a personal matter.

Whilst the Chief Justice did not deny that there were very serious irregularities in the conduct of these elections such as ZEC's failure to release a clean and verified voters' roll although this is a legal requirement; ZEC's failure to record cases where individuals had requested and were allowed to cast the presidential vote only, also a legal requirement; etc. He went to town in explaining that the full import of these irregularities were lost because the applicant, Nelson Chamisa, had failed to demand that the sealed ballot boxes must be opened so the quality of the voters' roll could be ascertained, that no record of those casting presidential ballots only was kept, etc.

It is a historic fact that Zanu PF did bus its supporters around in the 2013 elections who were able to cast multiple votes but with no verified voters' roll, the smoking gun, it was impossible to prove anything. With no verified voters' roll again this year there is a distinct possibility that Zanu PF would have tried the same or similar vote rigging tactics.

Agreed, Chamisa should have exercised his right as the applicant to demand access to the contents of the sealed ballot boxes, "primary source evidence," as the Chief Justice called it, and based his court challenge on that evidence. He did not and so his case collapsed and rightly so too!

But since this case was a lot more than Chamisa vs Mnangagwa but The people of Zimbabwe vs the Zanu PF dictatorship it was incumbent on the judges to demand that the sealed ballot boxes must be opened so that the court's judgement on this matter is itself based on the primary source evidence.

Whilst underlining the reason why Chamisa's case had failed because it failed to produce "primary source evidence" one tell that no one was more relieved that no ballot boxes had been opened that the Chief Justice himself and his fellow eight judges. Of course, they know that the elections were rigged and opening those 11 000 plus ballot boxes would have been the equivalent of opening the graves of 11 000 mass murder victims. Each with its own individual identity and its own gruesome horror tale to tell! The stench would have been nauseating.

It is common knowledge that these elections were rigged. By failing to keep his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections President Mnangagwa and his coup junta friends have consolidated their iron grip on power but at a very high price. They have also reaffirmed to the world that his new democratic dispensation was a lie, Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by vote-rigging thugs.

Justice was not served by Con-Court confirming Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa as the duly elected president when the court itself, not just Chamisa, failed to bring out the primary source evidence everyone knows would have proven beyond doubt that the elections were rigged. Indeed, the betrayal by both Chamisa and Con-Court in demanding the opening of ballot boxes will go down in history as yet another golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship that was wasted!