Opinion / Columnist
CCC duplicity, hell bent on participating in 2023 with not cat in hell chance on winning, has exposed SADC duplicity
07 Feb 2023 at 09:52hrs | Views
Yes, Zimbabwe is heading for yet another rigged elections. Zanu PF has learned the lessons from the past and by putting these into practice, the party is hoping to get political legitimacy from SADC and AU and thus get away with the rigging. Zanu PF was forced to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, accepting the need for implementing the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the carte blanche dictatorial powers that had kept the party in power since independence in 1980. And to accept to share power with MDC in the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
Zanu PF expected SADC and the AU to turn a blind eye to the cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections as the regional and continental bodies had done in the past. Of course Mugabe was shocked that they not only refused to grant him legitimacy but had the audacity to impose the GPA on him knowing fully well that if implemented that would end his Zanu PF dictatorship.
Mugabe learned three important lessons during the GNU:
1) That the days of the de facto one-party state were over and so he embraced the concept of Zimbabwe as a multi-party democracy. And so, whilst Zanu PF has done everything in its power to retain and benefit from the exercise of its dictatorial powers it has been extra careful to maintain the new multi-party façade.
2) Even as he signed the 2008 GPA, agreeing to the democratic reforms, Mugabe must have been hatching schemes to make sure as few as possible meaningful reforms ever see the light of day. Of course, he was pleasantly surprised that not even one meaningful reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues turned out to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. He bribed them with the trappings of high office and the rest is history!
3) Mugabe learned, and so too has Mnangagwa after him, that he can cheat and use wanton violence to retain absolute power as long as he gives up the sweeteners to guarantee MDC/CCC participation in the elections no matter how flawed the process got. Mnangagwa has learned that lesson so well he has even created POLAD to reward losing elections candidates. Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends are hell bent on participating in these elections regardless of the mounting evidence the process is flawed. CCC's repeated claims of having winning in rigged election strategies have fooled some in the past but not this time. The truth is CCC are hell bent on participating in these elections out of greed, a fact first admitted by David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
"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," confessed 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."
So SADC granted Zanu PF political legitimacy in 2013 and then again in 2018 rigged elections on the basis MDC's participation. Now that there is irrefutable evidence MDC/CCC is participating in these flawed elections out of greed, there will be no finger behind which SADC can hide.
CCC has lost political credibility so how their participation give the 2023 election process credibility and Zanu PF political legitimacy?
Ever since the 2008 GNU, Zanu PF has had to perform a very delict balancing act; continue to blatantly rig the elections as the only sure way the party would retain its iron grip on absolute power, on the one hand. On the other hand down play its dictatorial practices, even prop up the opposition, to keep the appearance Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy.
Zimbabwe was a de facto one-party dictatorship before the 2008 GNU. Zanu PF emerged at the end of the GNU in 2013 with all its dictatorial powers intact with just the de facto one-party state persona replaced with multi-party state façade. The November 2017 military coup gave Mnangagwa a chance to promote Zanu PF's transformation from a one-party dictatorship to a multi-party democracy. He renamed the country a Second Republic, new dispensation and he even promised to hold free and fair elections. All lies of course, he blatantly rigged the 2018 elections just as he is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections.
Well, Zanu PF's high stakes balancing act is now over. MDC/CCC has been exposed as a discredited opposition party that failed to implement even one reform in 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU and is hell bent on participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed.
The truth of Zanu PF as a de facto one-party dictatorship masquerading as multi-party democracy with the help of the corrupt and incompetent MDC/CCC sell outs was bound to come out. And now that it in out, the gene is out of the bottle, it cannot be put back.
"Renemanyanga hariputirwi!" as one would say in Shona!
Zanu PF expected SADC and the AU to turn a blind eye to the cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections as the regional and continental bodies had done in the past. Of course Mugabe was shocked that they not only refused to grant him legitimacy but had the audacity to impose the GPA on him knowing fully well that if implemented that would end his Zanu PF dictatorship.
Mugabe learned three important lessons during the GNU:
1) That the days of the de facto one-party state were over and so he embraced the concept of Zimbabwe as a multi-party democracy. And so, whilst Zanu PF has done everything in its power to retain and benefit from the exercise of its dictatorial powers it has been extra careful to maintain the new multi-party façade.
2) Even as he signed the 2008 GPA, agreeing to the democratic reforms, Mugabe must have been hatching schemes to make sure as few as possible meaningful reforms ever see the light of day. Of course, he was pleasantly surprised that not even one meaningful reform was implemented in the five years of the GNU. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues turned out to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. He bribed them with the trappings of high office and the rest is history!
3) Mugabe learned, and so too has Mnangagwa after him, that he can cheat and use wanton violence to retain absolute power as long as he gives up the sweeteners to guarantee MDC/CCC participation in the elections no matter how flawed the process got. Mnangagwa has learned that lesson so well he has even created POLAD to reward losing elections candidates. Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends are hell bent on participating in these elections regardless of the mounting evidence the process is flawed. CCC's repeated claims of having winning in rigged election strategies have fooled some in the past but not this time. The truth is CCC are hell bent on participating in these elections out of greed, a fact first admitted by David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
"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," confessed 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."
So SADC granted Zanu PF political legitimacy in 2013 and then again in 2018 rigged elections on the basis MDC's participation. Now that there is irrefutable evidence MDC/CCC is participating in these flawed elections out of greed, there will be no finger behind which SADC can hide.
CCC has lost political credibility so how their participation give the 2023 election process credibility and Zanu PF political legitimacy?
Ever since the 2008 GNU, Zanu PF has had to perform a very delict balancing act; continue to blatantly rig the elections as the only sure way the party would retain its iron grip on absolute power, on the one hand. On the other hand down play its dictatorial practices, even prop up the opposition, to keep the appearance Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy.
Zimbabwe was a de facto one-party dictatorship before the 2008 GNU. Zanu PF emerged at the end of the GNU in 2013 with all its dictatorial powers intact with just the de facto one-party state persona replaced with multi-party state façade. The November 2017 military coup gave Mnangagwa a chance to promote Zanu PF's transformation from a one-party dictatorship to a multi-party democracy. He renamed the country a Second Republic, new dispensation and he even promised to hold free and fair elections. All lies of course, he blatantly rigged the 2018 elections just as he is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections.
Well, Zanu PF's high stakes balancing act is now over. MDC/CCC has been exposed as a discredited opposition party that failed to implement even one reform in 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU and is hell bent on participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed.
The truth of Zanu PF as a de facto one-party dictatorship masquerading as multi-party democracy with the help of the corrupt and incompetent MDC/CCC sell outs was bound to come out. And now that it in out, the gene is out of the bottle, it cannot be put back.
"Renemanyanga hariputirwi!" as one would say in Shona!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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