Chamisa refuses to testify, wants 'thanked for preserving peace' - nonsense, preserved Zanu PF, yes

The Commission of inquiry chaired by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, into the killing of seven unarmed civilians on 1 st August 2018 is now entering its home straight.

Many people have given their reasons for dismissed the Commission as a waste of time and money but the most valid reason of all is that the Commission will not establish who deployed the soldiers with orders to shoot to kill. The Commission's terms of reference and the line of questioning of the string witnesses who have appeared before the Commissioners so far would suggests finding who ordered the killing is beyond their remit.

Nelson Chamisa, the MDC Alliance presidential candidate; whose party leaders and supporters are accusers of instigating the street protests; has dismissed the Commission as a waste of time. He and his party members have, so far, refused to participate in the public hearings.

"Historically, we have been at pains to explain how Zimbabweans are living under oppression and subjugation from a captured state. It is characterised by the following;-

i. There is no iota of accountability
ii. There is total disregard of constitutionalism and the rule of law
iii. There is blatant abuse of State institutions
iv. Absence of transparency
v. Total disregard of people s rights and freedoms"

MDC said in a recent public statement. No one can ever dispute that Zimbabweans have lived these last 38 years under a corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship.

However it is not so much the historic evidence of MDC's "pains to explain how Zimbabweans are living under oppression" that is of interest here but rather the mountain of evidence of the many wasted golden opportunities MDC had to dismantle the dictatorship. As regards this ongoing Motlanthe led Commission; MDC leaders have three key questions to answer:

1)    Why has MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so? In all MDC's 19 years on the political stage, the party has failed to bring about even one democratic change.

2)    Why did MDC choose to participate in the elections knowing the process would be flawed and illegal? The party was warned countless times not to take part in the elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop vote rigging; but has ignored the warnings. The primary cause of the street protest was against yet another rigged election, something we all knew would happen.

3)    MDC knew of Zanu PF's "state capture and blatant abuse of state institutions" like ZEC and Con-Court and still Nelson Chamisa and company chose to take part in the recent election and the court challenge of the declared result presided over by the two institutions. Of course, the Motlanthe Commission was going to be subjected to the same Zanu PF political shenanigans as all the other state institutions. So having accepted the power and authority of the politically compromised ZEC, Con- Court, etc.; why is MDC now refusing to cooperate with an equally compromised Motlanthe led Commission?


Both Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti have since been "invited to share their views" with the Commission of inquiry.

"They must invite Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and Mohadi also. If Mnangagwa does not go why should I go alone? The commission is working from the answer going backwards. It is a script and the script is to decimate the opposition," Nelson Chamisa told a press conference yesterday.   

This is manna from heaven to The Herald, ZBC and all the Zanu PF controlled public media. They will whip the refusal by MDC leaders to testify as proof of guilty. They will now draw attention away from the real big issue here - Zanu PF has just once again rigged the elections and thrown away the nation's chance of getting out of the hell-hole the party landed us in.

Zanu PF and its surrogates in The Herald, etc. will be hoping to achieve their primary objective of drawing attention away from the real two burning issues here i.e. that Zanu PF has once again rigged the elections and that the shooting was a brazen Machiavellian move to silence all political dissent.

The EU, Commonwealth, the Americans, etc. all condemned the recent elections as flawed and illegal but so what. Chamisa and the other 22 opposition presidential candidates knew that still they were tripping over each other to participate. Even when the regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll; even that did not stop Chamisa et al taking part!

"Instead of being thanked for trying to preserve peace in this country, I am being attacked," Chamisa complained.

No, Mr. Chamisa by failing to implement even one democratic reforms in 19 years and participating in flawed and illegal elections you and you opposition friends have help Zanu PF keep its dictatorial powers and to rig elections and give the process some modicum of political credibility! You have help preserve the Zanu PF dictatorship and only Mnangagwa and his cronies will thank you for it!