We must confront Zanu PF regime to save the nation from collapse - Job Sikhala

The MDC-T senior official Job Wiwa Sikhala has warned his party and other opposition parties that they must confront the Zanu PF regime to save the nation from total collapse and also gain credibility as savers of life.

He said the 2018 elections are so crucial and cruel to all of the people who have been in the business of fighting to remove the Zanu PF regime from power.

"They are crucial in that if we fail to deal a decisive blow to the regime that will be the end of the road. Zimbabweans will look straight up into our eyes and tell us that we have been given endless chances that we have failed to utilise, and that we have been wasting the people's time and that we are so useless that we did not translate and use their votes to bring change," he said.

"They will look and go for a new generation of leaders and we will be left holding rotting flies in our palms. What should we do both as political leaders and Zimbabweans for us not to miss it again in 2018; There is a new voter registration process that is commencing in May to run for a whole year to produce a new Biometric Voters' Roll. I am no expect on Biometric Voters' Roll but my two cents knowledge of it is that it is an electronic registration system of voters where the characters and features of a voter such as his farcical and finger prints will be recorded so that the voter will not be able to vote multiple times."
 
Sikhala said this system has its own advantages and disadvantages.

"The main advantage is its preventive character of double and multiple voting. A voter will not be able to vote twice because it will be reflected in the system throughout all voting points in the country that such a person has already exercised his right to vote at such place and time," he said.

"Its major and frightening disadvantage is the fear of the unknown by our fearful and ignorant electorate in the rural areas. They will be told that as you have been recorded your face and fingerprint we will know where you have voted and you will know the consequences of "voting wrongly". This is where we would need the input and effort of everyone to tell our relatives and friends that it is a lie that they will detect whom you have voted for."

He said the problem they have with those who complain daily about the failures of this regime and how life has become unbearable is that they don't register to vote.

"They complain seated in the Bars and Tarvens. The young potential voter is a hopeless and a confused lot. They are a disinterested lot. They wake up in the morning to seat on the corners of the streets contemplating how to get a job or next dollar for cigarettes or beer. Even those who are unemployed graduates from college and universities seem to have resigned to fate. They don't seem to realise the importance of their vote and participation in the governance issues of their country," Sikhala said.

"It is then my and your duty, Dear Zimbabwean to mobilise and teach everyone about the importance of their participation in the voter registration and voting processes of their country to make things happen. Let all of us urge everyone to participate in the forthcoming voter registration process to have their names captured in the Voter's Roll so as to be able to vote and elect leaders of their choice. This task is not only for political parties. It is everyone's task, at an individual, institutional and political level. Let's urge our relatives, friends and neighbours to participate in this important process please."

The vibrant  politician said their failure in collective lot will not absolve anyone from the dereliction of their collective duty of care and responsibility.

"We will all be responsible for the failures of 2018 if they materialise. We also who are in the game of politics must be oblivious of the painful and cruel reality that failure in 2018 will mark the end of the road for all of us. No one will listen to us. No one will even notice our presence in the social gatherings because the whole Zimbabwean population will see us as a bunch of useless failures who have wasted their time. People will whisper bad things behind our backs on our presence while the reckless ones will even confront for our failure to reward them with the leadership they deserve after decades of sacrifice," he said.