Opinion / Columnist
'Tsvangirai will be an albatross round your neck' Dell predicted - he was right, now it is ED and Chamisa
23 Dec 2018 at 17:32hrs | Views
"Morgan Tsvangirai a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment," wrote then USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell in a leaked cable.
"He is an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery."
What Ambassador Dell said of Tsvangirai is equally true of all the other Zimbabwean leaders; Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, etc. They all have one thing in common; they are individuals of little intellect with bloated egos.
Put them into positions of power and their egos swell to the size of hot air balloon. The more power they have the more they want and once they have absolute power their ego swells to the size of the Zeppelin Airship full of flammable hydrogen. Their fall from power is dramatic and deadly just like the Hindenburg Zeppelin.
Someone who is "not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement" also has no clue what they are doing, where they are, where they are going and how to get there! They just blunder from pillar to post. They will never admit they do not know what they are doing much less admit their failures, even in the face of a mountain of evidence to prove it. Their ballooning egos get in the way.
It is painful to have to listen to these brain-dead individuals blubbering on and on, often repeating themselves like a scratched vinyl record.
"Opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has vowed to increase pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the New Year, revealing that 2019 is the year to implement the transformation agenda and resolve the country's legitimacy crisis," reported the Standard.
"We have to put a full stop to tyranny, dictatorship and be on the path to reform, nation building and peace building. It will be a turnaround year," said Chamisa.
"It is a take-off year, remedying the ailment affecting our country."
Mr Chamisa, the issue of legitimacy is a very important one but one you have clearly failed to understand.
"The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner," reported EU Zimbabwe Election Mission in its final report.
"The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards."
There can be no question that Mnangagwa and his junta blatantly rigged the recent elections and therefore have no mandate to rule Zimbabwe. Zanu PF is illegitimate, period.
Your suggestion, Mr Chamisa, that Zanu PF and MDC should form the GNU as a way to resolve the illegitimacy problem shows you still do not understand the concept of the people's mandate as the only basis of legitimacy.
"The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will, shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures." to quote the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Zimbabwe's recent elections were a mockery to what free, fair and credible elections should be. Zanu PF deliberately set out to subvert the democratic will of the people. The suggestion that MDC and Zanu PF should just come to some amicable political arrangement and legitimise the blatant vote rigging and usurping of the people's inalienable right to a meaningful vote is not just absurd, it will resolve nothing!
It should be restated here, that you, Mr Chamisa, and your fellow MDC Alliance and the rest of the opposition parties and candidates who contested in the recent elections were warned NOT to participate in these elections without first implementing the reforms. You all paid no heed to the warning.
"MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" you, Chamisa boasted.
The opposition KNEW with no reforms in place Zanu PF would rig the elections and yet they still participated for the sake of the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF was giving away as David Coltart readily admitted in his book.
In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouted the electoral rules and that it was clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. He admitted that talks to unite the two MDC factions to fight the elections as one were going nowhere.
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections," wrote Senator Coltart.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
Coltart was talking about the 2013 elections. The main MDC factions did unite to form the MDC Alliance for this year's elections and yet they still participated!
So the Zanu PF and MDC Alliance GNU would be to reward the illegitimate Zanu PF for blatantly rigging the elections and MDC Alliance for failing to "do the obvious - withdraw from the elections". How anyone can ever argue that will produce a legitimate regime beggars belief!
One of the greatest mistakes this nation has ever made was that Zanu PF rigged the 1980 elections and the nation allowed the party to get away with it. (It is no secret that Zanu PF did not withdraw all its freedom fighters to assembly points as agreed, for example. The fighters were then deployed to intimidate the people, forcing them to vote for the party.) Once in power Zanu PF used its position to erode the people's democratic freedoms and rights to deny them their right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 38 years the nation has been ruled by a regime that has repeatedly rigged elections to stay in power. The economic situation in the country is now dire with unemployment soaring to dizzying heights of 90%, 75% of the people now live on US$1.00 a day and the economic meltdown is getting worse with the unending shortages of fuel, medicine, etc. The country needs a real solution, not a gimmick, to get out of this mess.
Zanu PF is illegitimate, the party must step down. The suggestion to "legitimising" the regime by forming the GNU is a dangerous gimmick designed to extend the country's brain-dead politicians' stay in power to message their misplaced egos!
Chamisa and Mnangagwa are the albatross round the nation's neck just as Tsvangirai and Mugabe were a year or so ago!
The 2019 New Year resolution for the people of Zimbabwe: "We demand free, fair and credible elections as a birth-right and not a privilege. And all those who rig elections or are complacent in flawed elections must be punished and never ever again be rewarded with high office!"
The day this nation secures the right to free, fair and credible elections will be the day the nation moved from the darkness of tyranny, fear, ignorance and misery into the daylight of free, justice, knowledge and prosperity. That will be the day the people were liberated. 18 April 1980 is the day Zanu PF thugs liberated the land to make themselves its new tyrannical masters!
The people of Zimbabwe must commemorate the day the nation holds its first ever free, fair and credible elections, much the same way the Jews commemorate Passover; to remind themselves of the heavy price this nation has paid for allowing these illegitimate Zanu PF thugs and their sell-outs oppositions acolytes to rule this nation!
"He is an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery."
What Ambassador Dell said of Tsvangirai is equally true of all the other Zimbabwean leaders; Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, etc. They all have one thing in common; they are individuals of little intellect with bloated egos.
Put them into positions of power and their egos swell to the size of hot air balloon. The more power they have the more they want and once they have absolute power their ego swells to the size of the Zeppelin Airship full of flammable hydrogen. Their fall from power is dramatic and deadly just like the Hindenburg Zeppelin.
Someone who is "not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement" also has no clue what they are doing, where they are, where they are going and how to get there! They just blunder from pillar to post. They will never admit they do not know what they are doing much less admit their failures, even in the face of a mountain of evidence to prove it. Their ballooning egos get in the way.
It is painful to have to listen to these brain-dead individuals blubbering on and on, often repeating themselves like a scratched vinyl record.
"Opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has vowed to increase pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the New Year, revealing that 2019 is the year to implement the transformation agenda and resolve the country's legitimacy crisis," reported the Standard.
"We have to put a full stop to tyranny, dictatorship and be on the path to reform, nation building and peace building. It will be a turnaround year," said Chamisa.
"It is a take-off year, remedying the ailment affecting our country."
Mr Chamisa, the issue of legitimacy is a very important one but one you have clearly failed to understand.
"The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner," reported EU Zimbabwe Election Mission in its final report.
"The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards."
There can be no question that Mnangagwa and his junta blatantly rigged the recent elections and therefore have no mandate to rule Zimbabwe. Zanu PF is illegitimate, period.
Your suggestion, Mr Chamisa, that Zanu PF and MDC should form the GNU as a way to resolve the illegitimacy problem shows you still do not understand the concept of the people's mandate as the only basis of legitimacy.
"The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will, shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures." to quote the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Zimbabwe's recent elections were a mockery to what free, fair and credible elections should be. Zanu PF deliberately set out to subvert the democratic will of the people. The suggestion that MDC and Zanu PF should just come to some amicable political arrangement and legitimise the blatant vote rigging and usurping of the people's inalienable right to a meaningful vote is not just absurd, it will resolve nothing!
It should be restated here, that you, Mr Chamisa, and your fellow MDC Alliance and the rest of the opposition parties and candidates who contested in the recent elections were warned NOT to participate in these elections without first implementing the reforms. You all paid no heed to the warning.
"MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" you, Chamisa boasted.
The opposition KNEW with no reforms in place Zanu PF would rig the elections and yet they still participated for the sake of the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF was giving away as David Coltart readily admitted in his book.
In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouted the electoral rules and that it was clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. He admitted that talks to unite the two MDC factions to fight the elections as one were going nowhere.
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections," wrote Senator Coltart.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
Coltart was talking about the 2013 elections. The main MDC factions did unite to form the MDC Alliance for this year's elections and yet they still participated!
So the Zanu PF and MDC Alliance GNU would be to reward the illegitimate Zanu PF for blatantly rigging the elections and MDC Alliance for failing to "do the obvious - withdraw from the elections". How anyone can ever argue that will produce a legitimate regime beggars belief!
One of the greatest mistakes this nation has ever made was that Zanu PF rigged the 1980 elections and the nation allowed the party to get away with it. (It is no secret that Zanu PF did not withdraw all its freedom fighters to assembly points as agreed, for example. The fighters were then deployed to intimidate the people, forcing them to vote for the party.) Once in power Zanu PF used its position to erode the people's democratic freedoms and rights to deny them their right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 38 years the nation has been ruled by a regime that has repeatedly rigged elections to stay in power. The economic situation in the country is now dire with unemployment soaring to dizzying heights of 90%, 75% of the people now live on US$1.00 a day and the economic meltdown is getting worse with the unending shortages of fuel, medicine, etc. The country needs a real solution, not a gimmick, to get out of this mess.
Zanu PF is illegitimate, the party must step down. The suggestion to "legitimising" the regime by forming the GNU is a dangerous gimmick designed to extend the country's brain-dead politicians' stay in power to message their misplaced egos!
Chamisa and Mnangagwa are the albatross round the nation's neck just as Tsvangirai and Mugabe were a year or so ago!
The 2019 New Year resolution for the people of Zimbabwe: "We demand free, fair and credible elections as a birth-right and not a privilege. And all those who rig elections or are complacent in flawed elections must be punished and never ever again be rewarded with high office!"
The day this nation secures the right to free, fair and credible elections will be the day the nation moved from the darkness of tyranny, fear, ignorance and misery into the daylight of free, justice, knowledge and prosperity. That will be the day the people were liberated. 18 April 1980 is the day Zanu PF thugs liberated the land to make themselves its new tyrannical masters!
The people of Zimbabwe must commemorate the day the nation holds its first ever free, fair and credible elections, much the same way the Jews commemorate Passover; to remind themselves of the heavy price this nation has paid for allowing these illegitimate Zanu PF thugs and their sell-outs oppositions acolytes to rule this nation!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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