Opinion / Columnist
'Postpone 2023 until implement reforms' advised SADC - village idiot paid no heed then or now
13 Aug 2021 at 21:09hrs | Views
For the record; I, Wilbert Mukori, have no grudge against the run of the mill village idiots! None!
Many of my relatives and friends are village idiots; I am not proud of that nor am I ashamed. I am admitting as a matter of fact, much the same way one would admit mankind's distant ancestor, a few hundred million years ago, was a slug!
My beef is against the village idiots out there who are masquerading as geniuses, especially when their buffoonery is at the expense of the innocent or helpless; there I draw the double red lines and the idiot who dares cross the lines, cross swords with me. Right now, I am fuming at the Zanu PF and MDC village idiots who between them have dragged the nation into this economic and political hell-on-earth and are hold the nation hostage to fortune!
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political paralysis is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies make it crystal clear that if the party lost the 1980 elections, the country's first elections in which the black majority would vote, the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the bush war. And so, just like that (snap of the fingers), Zanu PF denied the people the long promised "One man, one vote!"
Once in power Zanu PF has systematically corrupted the state institutions such as the Police, Army and Judiciary; turning them Zanu PF party departments in all but name. In their pursuit of absolute power, Zanu PF leaders have ridden roughshod of the people denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life!
As far as Zanu PF thugs are concerned the people do not have the right to free and fair elections, they never did; this is a privilege that they, Zanu PF leaders, can and will deny if granting it threatens the party's iron grip on political power. As far as Zanu PF thugs are concerned, they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe and that right takes precedence over other rights!
Zimbabwe had its best ever golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have dismantled the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship and restore the individual freedoms and right and democratic rule during the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU). Sadly, the opportunity was wasted.
SADC leaders refused to recognise Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party as the legitimate government following the blatant cheating and use of wanton violence by the party in the 2008 elections. The regional leaders forced Mugabe to accept the need for democratic reforms and Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, who joined Zanu PF in the GNU, were tasked to implement the reforms. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU. Not even one reform!
SADC leaders understood the sheer folly of participating in the elections with no reforms to stop the cheating and violence. They regional leaders told both Zanu PF and MDC leaders that the 2013 elections must be postponed until reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections 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 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'."
Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders ignored SADC leaders' pleas and the elections went ahead. Zanu PF, as SADC leaders had predicted, blatantly rigged the 2013 elections.
If anyone thought the rigged 2013 elections will force the proverbial penny to finally drop in the empty MDC leaders' head, they were to be disappointed. MDC leaders went on to participate in the 2018 elections with no reforms in place. Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A, who constituted the main opposition party then, did not even have the common sense to insist on ZEC producing something as basic for free, fair and credible elections as a verified voters' roll!
The 2018 election culminated in the bizarre Constitutional Court challenge of the election results, a scene straight out of Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. ZEC declared Mnangagwa the winner of the presidential race.
In its affidavit ZEC had three different tallies for the candidates after taking five days to add up the figures from the V11 forms (counting of the votes was done at each of over 11 000 Polling Stations and recorded on V11); proof the V11 figures were being change and even ZEC lost track. Indeed, ZEC failed to produce all the V11 forms to show where its totals came from.
The failure by ZEC to produce the V11 forms did not stop Mnangagwa, Tweedledum, claiming the elections were free, fair and credible and he was the winner!
Nelson Chamisa, Tweedledee, appealed to the Constitutional Court to either declare him the winner because he had more votes than Tweedledum (although he too failed to produce the V11 forms to back his claim) or declare the elections null and void because of the many flaws and illegalities in the election process.
Both Tweedledum and Tweedledee claimed the elections were free, fair and credible only if they are declared the winner. Of course, that is a nonsensical position because one does not judge an election on the basis of the result but on the process!
What has been worrying to all thinking Zimbabweans out there is SADC leaders' judgement of the 2013 and 2018 elections. Whilst the regional leaders had rightly demanding that the 2013 elections, at least, must be postponed because Zanu PF was set to rig the process – which is exactly what happened – the strange thing is the SADC leaders endorse Zanu PF as the legitimate government.
Some people have said SADC leaders were so disappointed by MDC leaders' failure to implement even one reform during the GNU and, to add insult to injury, ignored the advice not to participate in the flawed elections. All this is true but one should not forget that MDC leaders did not betray SADC leaders alone; they betrayed Americans, EU and other nations/bodies who took have been calling for reforms to be implemented.
"The electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," EU Election Observer Mission stated in its final report.
"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."
In short, the EU leaders condemned the 2018 elections and the 2013 elections before that because the process did not meet the internationally accepted standards for free, fair and credible elections. By falsely endorsing rigged Zimbabwe elections to punish MDC leaders, SADC are not only punishing MDC leaders but the ordinary Zimbabweans who are the ones who are paying most dearly for MDC leaders' betrayal.
Zanu PF has just announced the party will not do anything to enable the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote in the 2023 elections. President Mnangagwa himself promise the diaspora vote in September 2018, confirming the denying of the vote was just the lack of political will. The 2023 elections "are done"! How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible when 30% plus of the eligible voters are denied the vote?
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections just as they have always done regardless how flawed and illegal the process happen to be. Chamisa claims that he has "a solid plan to deliver real change". What solid plan will give the Zimbabweans in the diaspora their vote? This is just another feeble excuse to justify participating and giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
There are many ordinary Zimbabweans who accept the SADC leaders' advice to postpone Zimbabwean elections until the democratic reforms are implemented. After 41 years and counting of rigged elections it is insane to let this continue and they are taking the Zanu PF and MDC leaders, the village idiots behind this madness head-on.
We ask SADC leaders to be consist with their own 2013 advice, to postpone Zimbabwe's flawed and illegal elections until reforms are implemented, and, after failing to heed the advice, condemn the elections for what they are – a farce.
By consistently indorsing Zimbabwe's rigged elections as free, fair and credible, SADC leaders have devalued Zimbabweans' right to free, fair and credible elections by measured that right with a foot-long yard stick! The right to free, fair and credible elections is a universal right and per se must be measured with the same yard stick and not some improvised foot-long yard stick!
Many of my relatives and friends are village idiots; I am not proud of that nor am I ashamed. I am admitting as a matter of fact, much the same way one would admit mankind's distant ancestor, a few hundred million years ago, was a slug!
My beef is against the village idiots out there who are masquerading as geniuses, especially when their buffoonery is at the expense of the innocent or helpless; there I draw the double red lines and the idiot who dares cross the lines, cross swords with me. Right now, I am fuming at the Zanu PF and MDC village idiots who between them have dragged the nation into this economic and political hell-on-earth and are hold the nation hostage to fortune!
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political paralysis is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies make it crystal clear that if the party lost the 1980 elections, the country's first elections in which the black majority would vote, the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the bush war. And so, just like that (snap of the fingers), Zanu PF denied the people the long promised "One man, one vote!"
Once in power Zanu PF has systematically corrupted the state institutions such as the Police, Army and Judiciary; turning them Zanu PF party departments in all but name. In their pursuit of absolute power, Zanu PF leaders have ridden roughshod of the people denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life!
As far as Zanu PF thugs are concerned the people do not have the right to free and fair elections, they never did; this is a privilege that they, Zanu PF leaders, can and will deny if granting it threatens the party's iron grip on political power. As far as Zanu PF thugs are concerned, they have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe and that right takes precedence over other rights!
Zimbabwe had its best ever golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have dismantled the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship and restore the individual freedoms and right and democratic rule during the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU). Sadly, the opportunity was wasted.
SADC leaders refused to recognise Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party as the legitimate government following the blatant cheating and use of wanton violence by the party in the 2008 elections. The regional leaders forced Mugabe to accept the need for democratic reforms and Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, who joined Zanu PF in the GNU, were tasked to implement the reforms. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU. Not even one reform!
SADC leaders understood the sheer folly of participating in the elections with no reforms to stop the cheating and violence. They regional leaders told both Zanu PF and MDC leaders that the 2013 elections must be postponed until reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections 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 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'."
Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders ignored SADC leaders' pleas and the elections went ahead. Zanu PF, as SADC leaders had predicted, blatantly rigged the 2013 elections.
If anyone thought the rigged 2013 elections will force the proverbial penny to finally drop in the empty MDC leaders' head, they were to be disappointed. MDC leaders went on to participate in the 2018 elections with no reforms in place. Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A, who constituted the main opposition party then, did not even have the common sense to insist on ZEC producing something as basic for free, fair and credible elections as a verified voters' roll!
The 2018 election culminated in the bizarre Constitutional Court challenge of the election results, a scene straight out of Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. ZEC declared Mnangagwa the winner of the presidential race.
In its affidavit ZEC had three different tallies for the candidates after taking five days to add up the figures from the V11 forms (counting of the votes was done at each of over 11 000 Polling Stations and recorded on V11); proof the V11 figures were being change and even ZEC lost track. Indeed, ZEC failed to produce all the V11 forms to show where its totals came from.
The failure by ZEC to produce the V11 forms did not stop Mnangagwa, Tweedledum, claiming the elections were free, fair and credible and he was the winner!
Nelson Chamisa, Tweedledee, appealed to the Constitutional Court to either declare him the winner because he had more votes than Tweedledum (although he too failed to produce the V11 forms to back his claim) or declare the elections null and void because of the many flaws and illegalities in the election process.
Both Tweedledum and Tweedledee claimed the elections were free, fair and credible only if they are declared the winner. Of course, that is a nonsensical position because one does not judge an election on the basis of the result but on the process!
What has been worrying to all thinking Zimbabweans out there is SADC leaders' judgement of the 2013 and 2018 elections. Whilst the regional leaders had rightly demanding that the 2013 elections, at least, must be postponed because Zanu PF was set to rig the process – which is exactly what happened – the strange thing is the SADC leaders endorse Zanu PF as the legitimate government.
Some people have said SADC leaders were so disappointed by MDC leaders' failure to implement even one reform during the GNU and, to add insult to injury, ignored the advice not to participate in the flawed elections. All this is true but one should not forget that MDC leaders did not betray SADC leaders alone; they betrayed Americans, EU and other nations/bodies who took have been calling for reforms to be implemented.
"The electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," EU Election Observer Mission stated in its final report.
"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."
In short, the EU leaders condemned the 2018 elections and the 2013 elections before that because the process did not meet the internationally accepted standards for free, fair and credible elections. By falsely endorsing rigged Zimbabwe elections to punish MDC leaders, SADC are not only punishing MDC leaders but the ordinary Zimbabweans who are the ones who are paying most dearly for MDC leaders' betrayal.
Zanu PF has just announced the party will not do anything to enable the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote in the 2023 elections. President Mnangagwa himself promise the diaspora vote in September 2018, confirming the denying of the vote was just the lack of political will. The 2023 elections "are done"! How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible when 30% plus of the eligible voters are denied the vote?
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections just as they have always done regardless how flawed and illegal the process happen to be. Chamisa claims that he has "a solid plan to deliver real change". What solid plan will give the Zimbabweans in the diaspora their vote? This is just another feeble excuse to justify participating and giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
There are many ordinary Zimbabweans who accept the SADC leaders' advice to postpone Zimbabwean elections until the democratic reforms are implemented. After 41 years and counting of rigged elections it is insane to let this continue and they are taking the Zanu PF and MDC leaders, the village idiots behind this madness head-on.
We ask SADC leaders to be consist with their own 2013 advice, to postpone Zimbabwe's flawed and illegal elections until reforms are implemented, and, after failing to heed the advice, condemn the elections for what they are – a farce.
By consistently indorsing Zimbabwe's rigged elections as free, fair and credible, SADC leaders have devalued Zimbabweans' right to free, fair and credible elections by measured that right with a foot-long yard stick! The right to free, fair and credible elections is a universal right and per se must be measured with the same yard stick and not some improvised foot-long yard stick!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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