'Mbare demolitions is a call for people to converge' argue Chamisa - converge to think or to panic

"They don't even make an effort to create jobs and when people try to survive peacefully and patriotically, they go after them. It is cruel, heartless, irresponsible and incapable leadership. Central government is inflicting terror on the people while putting on the mask of the city council," Nelson Chamisa said.

He said the "brutality and barbarism" by the government was a call for people to converge.

MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. They failed to get even one reform implemented because Mugabe bribed them with the trapping of high office and, with their snout in the feeding trough, they forgot about reforms and the long suffering masses.

SADC leaders saw the sheer futility of going ahead with the 2013 elections when it was clear, with no reforms in place, Zanu PF would once again rig the elections. They tried to have the elections postponed until reforms are implemented.

"In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there," Dr Ibbo Mandaza, Director of SAPES, told the Journalist Violet Gonda.

"I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

"And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done'."

Morgan Tsvangirai and company paid no heed because they had their eyes on the few gravy train seats Mugabe was offering to those who would participate in the flawed elections. Mugabe knew the MDC leaders would find the bait irresistible, just as they had found the high office bribes irresistible.

By participating in the flawed elections in defiance of SADC leaders' advice, MDC leaders were giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

What is so infuriating about MDC leaders is their hypocrisy because they have known all along about their selling-out on failing to implement reforms and, worst of all, that they continued participation in flawed and illegal elections was giving the flawed "process credibility" as David Coltart readily admitted in his book.

"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 (2013) elections," wrote 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."

By participating in the flawed elections MDC gave the process credibility and, by extension, gave the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy in 2013 and 2018. With not even a token reform implemented since 2013, it is clear the 2023 elections will be history repeating itself.

The economic, political and social situation in Zimbabwe is desperate and both Zanu PF and MDC leaders' corrupt and breath taking incompetence have landed the nation in this mess. Desperate people do desperate things and participating in the flawed elections is not only an act of desperation but, after 43 years of rigged elections, it is insane. The rational and obvious solution out of this mess is demand free, fair and credible elections.

SADC leaders were right in calling for the 2013 elections to be postponed until reforms are in place. It is for the ordinary Zimbabweans to now demand that 2023 elections must not go ahead until reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections are in place.

With no reforms in place, "the 2023 elections are done"; Chamisa knows that! The only reason he still wants Zimbabweans to participate in these elections is so his MDC A can win the few gravy train Zanu PF gives away as bait and thus claim the bragging rights as Zimbabwe's main opposition leader.

"We can get angry and condemn this, but the issue is it is now time for people's convergence to end all this. It is no longer about political parties when our humanity and dignity is under attack. There is no better time to converge than now. People can't wait for any other signal. The oppressors are giving us a signal. This is a call for citizens to converge and a new consensus to save ourselves. You cannot finish poverty by finishing the poor," argued Nelson Chamisa.

The number one priority for the people of Zimbabwe is to make sure the next elections are free, fair and credible; this is the nation's guarantee to ending the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. It will be unforgivable for the nation to forfeit yet another chance to end the Zanu PF dictatorship by  participating in another flawed elections for the purpose of settling Chamisa vs Mwonzora goat fight. "Kutungana kwembudzi!"