Free vote by a free people will decide next Zim President, forget security chiefs wittering

We read with despondence and alarm that the country's security chiefs have said "Zimbabwe can only be led by a Zanu PF politician who not just participated in the liberation war against British Colonial rule, but also attended the historic Lancaster House Conference in 1979, which paved way for Independence," according to The Telescope News.

"The top commanders of the military, have made it clear that, Zimbabwe's next leader is one who not just participated during the bush war against Ian Smith's regime, but must have also attended the Lancaster House Conference," said a Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) public relations officer in Harare who requested anonymity during a weekend telephonic briefing with The Telescope.



"General Chiwenga has been clear about that, and many of us here are in support of his stance. This position has been communicated to the presidency, after being adopted last month at a Joint Operations Command (JOC) meeting outside the capital."

For the last 34 years ordinary Zimbabweans have been denying a meaningful say in the governance of the country with the disastrous economic and political consequences. Gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and all-out looting in the last 15 years have destroyed the nation's once prosperous economy forcing millions into a life of abject poverty and despair. Zanu PF has resorted to brutal political repression to establish and maintain its de facto one-party dictatorship; millions have been intimidated, beaten and/or raped and over 30 000 have been murdered for selfish political gain.

President Mugabe and Zanu PF have failed to bring mass prosperity, "gutsa ruzhinji" as President Mugabe said, peace, freedom and liberty. They have brought mass poverty human misery and endless strive.

This nation is at a crossroad either to discard this Zanu PF dictatorship that has brought so much suffering and despair to millions and benefited only a few or to continue with the same failed system and throw even more of people into new depths of suffering and despair. By presuming to dictate who should rule the nation the security chiefs are opting for the failed system. Of course that does not make any sense and is totally unacceptable.

The only person to succeed Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe will have to meet one criterion and one criterion only: he or she must win the majority vote in a free, fair and credible election.

Please note that before the free, fair and credible elections can be held Zimbabwe will need to implement ALL the democratic reforms that should have been implemented during the GNU but were not implemented because MDC leaders' breath-taking incompetence. The reforms include  key national institutions like Police, Army, Judiciary, public media, etc. to give them the democratic independence to carry out their duties in a none partisan way.

Serving security chiefs and all office bearers in the reformed institutions who will not subscribe to the new democratic dispensation will, of course, be free to resign from their posts.

The Joint Operations Command and many such bodies that have wielded a lot of political power but are neither properly constituted and accountable nor relevant in a healthy democracy will be disbanded.  

Zimbabwe has the chance to end the autocratic system of government that has clearly failed the nation and it would be folly not to seize on this opportunity just to appease a select few who are only concerned about their selfish interest at the expense of the common and national interests.

From now on, Zimbabwe will be ruled by law and with the democratic will of a free people expressed in free, fair and credible elections and never again ruled by the whims of a tyrant and his/her hard-line cronies. There are some things people can talk and negotiate about; the free vote of a free people will decide who will be president, that is not negotiable!