Opinion / Columnist
MDC-T plus 15 to lobby President Khama on electoral reforms - he is too shrewd to back losers!
01 Nov 2015 at 17:37hrs | Views
"MDC-T says it has struck an agreement with other opposition parties, including a lobby linked to former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, to present a united front in its demands for electoral reforms ahead of the crucial 2018 elections," reported Bulawayo 24.
"MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said the parties, including the People First (PF) movement linked to Mujuru, would start its joint campaign with a meeting with Botswana President Ian Khama."
The one SADC leader MDC will find difficult if not impossible to hoodwink is Botswana's President Ian Khama, especially on matters relating to democratic reforms and free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. He is the one leader who has followed Zimbabwe's political crisis closely and knows the ins and outs of the subject better than the back of his hand!
"He (President Khama) was the lone voice in criticising the 2013 elections whose outcome was rejected by MDC-T," noted the Bulawayo 24 Staff reporter. He did and a lot more beside!
There is no doubt that President Khama was one of the SADC leaders who had pushed MDC leaders hard to implement the democratic reforms throughout the five years of the GNU.
When GNU finally produced its long awaited COPAC constitution in July 2012; President Khama was the only world leaders who publicly pointed out the serious shortcomings of that constitution and said it would not deliver free and fair elections. Needless to say he annoyed MDC and Zanu PF alike. The former had wasted the GNU years and failed to get even one democratic reform implemented and therefore were keen to have at least one feather in their cap; Tsvangirai claimed the document was an "MDC child!"
Zanu PF's COPAC co-chairman, Paul Mangwana, boasted that Mugabe had "dictated" the new constitution. Of course Mugabe was furious with President Khama for exposing his carefully laid undemocratic and tyrannical plans.
Indeed the GNU itself came about because leaders like President Khama and the late Zambian President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa had refused recognise Mugabe as the democratically elected president following the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence in the 2008 Zimbabwe elections. Mugabe had no choice then but to agree to the GPA democratic reforms which, if implemented, were designed to dismantle his dictatorship and ensure the next elections were free and fair. Mugabe was fuming and he is not one to hide his feelings!
"We do not want war with any of our neighbours. But there are some who are itching for a fight. Let them try it. They will taste the salt of the fight," Mugabe threatened.
"We failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also made a mistake," admitted former MDC Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo last year. President Khama was one of those who had advised MDC.
There is no doubt that President Khama was very disappointed with MDC leaders' breath-taking incompetence throughout the GNU. Of all the SADC leaders President Khama would know that the electoral reforms MDC-T is calling for are "inadequate and incomplete" as Veritas, a Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters, has already said.
When President Khama took over as SADC chairman for Mugabe a few weeks ago, he vowed to push for meaningful democratic change in the region. He is under no illusion that he will need reliable and competent partners to achieve this. By pushing for inadequate and incomplete electoral reforms instead of the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA, President Khama know Zimbabwe's opposition is not the reliable and competent partner he is looking for.
"Gutu said the initiative to lobby the region on Zimbabwe's electoral reforms was mooted by more than 15 opposition parties that recently met in Harare," continued the Bulawayo 24 report.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are losers President Khama is a shrewd leader; he will not be fooled by MDC's obsession with quantity, he will not waste his time with losers!
The one SADC leader MDC will find difficult if not impossible to hoodwink is Botswana's President Ian Khama, especially on matters relating to democratic reforms and free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. He is the one leader who has followed Zimbabwe's political crisis closely and knows the ins and outs of the subject better than the back of his hand!
"He (President Khama) was the lone voice in criticising the 2013 elections whose outcome was rejected by MDC-T," noted the Bulawayo 24 Staff reporter. He did and a lot more beside!
There is no doubt that President Khama was one of the SADC leaders who had pushed MDC leaders hard to implement the democratic reforms throughout the five years of the GNU.
When GNU finally produced its long awaited COPAC constitution in July 2012; President Khama was the only world leaders who publicly pointed out the serious shortcomings of that constitution and said it would not deliver free and fair elections. Needless to say he annoyed MDC and Zanu PF alike. The former had wasted the GNU years and failed to get even one democratic reform implemented and therefore were keen to have at least one feather in their cap; Tsvangirai claimed the document was an "MDC child!"
Zanu PF's COPAC co-chairman, Paul Mangwana, boasted that Mugabe had "dictated" the new constitution. Of course Mugabe was furious with President Khama for exposing his carefully laid undemocratic and tyrannical plans.
"We do not want war with any of our neighbours. But there are some who are itching for a fight. Let them try it. They will taste the salt of the fight," Mugabe threatened.
"We failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also made a mistake," admitted former MDC Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo last year. President Khama was one of those who had advised MDC.
There is no doubt that President Khama was very disappointed with MDC leaders' breath-taking incompetence throughout the GNU. Of all the SADC leaders President Khama would know that the electoral reforms MDC-T is calling for are "inadequate and incomplete" as Veritas, a Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters, has already said.
When President Khama took over as SADC chairman for Mugabe a few weeks ago, he vowed to push for meaningful democratic change in the region. He is under no illusion that he will need reliable and competent partners to achieve this. By pushing for inadequate and incomplete electoral reforms instead of the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA, President Khama know Zimbabwe's opposition is not the reliable and competent partner he is looking for.
"Gutu said the initiative to lobby the region on Zimbabwe's electoral reforms was mooted by more than 15 opposition parties that recently met in Harare," continued the Bulawayo 24 report.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are losers President Khama is a shrewd leader; he will not be fooled by MDC's obsession with quantity, he will not waste his time with losers!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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