Opinion / Columnist
Mujuru, how does stopping Zanu-PF rigging elections constitute 'greatest betrayal'
04 Jul 2016 at 14:13hrs | Views
Many people have complained that Mai Mujuru and her ex-Zanu-PF friends were taking forever to launch their new political party. They finally announced the formation of their new Zim-PF party in February this year, over a year since they were booted out of Zanu-PF. This was followed by months of silence; the restive public was told the new party was "strategizing". After all that to be then told that the party will not discuss anything of substance as its plans are a "secret" makes one very suspension of Mai Mujuru and her Zim-PF friends given they insistence that they are now committed to democracy and good governance.
Have they really abandoned their corrupt and tyrannical Zanu-PF dictatorial ways in favour of open, transparent and accountable government or are they conning the nation just to get back on the gravy train! We will be very naïve to take Mai Mujuru and her friends' assurance that they have changed at face value without close scrutiny!
When Mai Mujuru was at the heart of the Zanu-PF government she was rarely seen and, even more, rarely heard except on matters of corruption. She and her late husband were very busy getting their lion's share of the looted wealth going on. The Mujurus' have amassed a fortune and very few people were surprised to hear Minister Kasukuwere say she was responsible for "a chunk" of the $15 billion of the looted Marange diamonds.
Anyone who denies that Mai Mujuru, like most of her former Zanu-PF fellow travellers, has benefited from corruption during her Zanu-PF days lives in cloud-cuckoo-land. Then they are others who would have us believe that the very dramatic events leading to her and others being unceremonious booted out of Zanu-PF was so shocking it was their Damascene transformative moment. She was cleansed of her infamy as a lazy, corrupt and incompetent simpleton to become a caring "mother Zimbabwe" keen to rebuild the nation out the ashes of Zanu-PF corrupt and uncaring destruction.
There was no Damascene transformative moment, of that I have no doubt. Mai Mujuru and her fellow ZimPF friends had seen the growing poverty affecting the rest of the populous but have never worried that they too might face the same poverty until the day they were booted out of the party. They greatest pre occupation since then is how can they get back into power again and regain the economic comfort power brings.
Mai Mujuru has changed her party name, regalia and slogan less readily as she did when she changed her maiden name, after all she was booted out of Zanu-PF; changing her persona is near impossible. She is still the same lazy, corrupt and incompetent simpleton she was during her Zanu-PF days! Mai Mujuru a democrat; what a laugh! She does not know the meaning of the word.
"Sharing with you publicly our plans, our strategy would be the greatest betrayal I would have done to our people. Suffice to say, we know the shenanigans, and we have put in place plans to counter them to ensure our supporters' votes are not put to waste," she replied when she was asked what Zim-PF was planning to do to ensure free and fair elections.
Mai Mujuru and her Zim-PF friends should know by heart, as the born-again democrats opposed to the Zanu-PF dictatorship, all the 2008 democratic reforms that must be implemented to ensure free, fair and credible elections. One of these reforms is media reform designed the freeing of the public media from the choking Zanu-PF strangle hold and to scrap all the laws that have stifled public debate, freedom of expression and association and so there is free flow of information.
Mai Mujuru knows well enough President Mugabe's secretive modus operandi where everything is considered a top secret to be kept away from cabinet members and even more so from the public which is the very antithesis of open, transparent, accountable and democratic government hence the need for media reform. Ministers and public officials must be open to public scrutiny; how can the public hold them to account if their work is all shrouded in secrecy and mystery!
One can understand why Zanu-PF would never reveal its vote rigging schemes; how can they claim the elections were free and fair if the vote rigging details were common knowledge. Why Mai Mujuru wants measures to stop Zanu-PF rigging elections kept a secret too beggars belief.
If Mai Mujuru knows how Zanu-PF rigged the last elections, as she now claims, then surely she should share this information with everyone because the more people know how the elections might be rigged the more people there will be collecting the evidence should that happen again. Knowledge is power and the more we empower the people the greater the chance of stopping vote rigging!
Mai Mujuru does not have a clue how Zanu-PF rigged the last elections and she does not no clue how to stop the regime rigging the next elections. In her feverish effort to con both Zanu-PF and the public into believing that she knows the last elections were rigged and has plans to counter the rigging, she got her feeble mind twisted and tied in knots in trying to then justify why will not tell the people the plan. Of course telling the people how to stop Zanu-PF rigging the next election DOES NOT constitutes betraying the people! On the contrary, not telling them would constitute betrayal. She is not telling the plan because she does not have one!
-----------
Patrick Guramatunhu <patguramatunhu@gmail.com
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
