Men are not angels, Mr President

GOOD day, President Emerson Mnangagwa. Your Excellency, the August 23 and 24 harmonised elections left no electoral fundamental standing. They were a sham and conspicuous by hollowness.

They were held with the reckless abandon, akin to the rank depravity of a corrupt bishop who defiles sacraments by consigning the eucharist, crucifix and chalice to the auction. As I see it, the elections ended with your Presidency inscribed with the dreadful mark of a beast.

No amount of solidarity from your fellow armed liberation movement governments could suffice to sanitise and legitimise your Presidency. It was appropriate that the Southern African Development Community proffered three options for resolving the crisis.

Clearly, the sham elections could not be glossed over. They were noted for gross malpractices that were openly objectionable and glaringly beyond excusable limits. No seal of legitimacy was deserved given the damaging obtrusiveness of the flawed proceedings.

Consequences of the flawed elections was bound to overwhelm your Presidency. It was deservedly that the debacle warranted the unanimous conclusion by observer missions that the elections did not meet the benchmarks for credible, free and fair elections.

Your Excellency, you sacrificed, without restraint, the honour of a lifetime of rectifying the wrongs of your predecessor, the deposed late former President Robert Mugabe for expediency. Oddly, you wantonly perpetuated the culture of disputed elections.

Methinks the European Union's reversal of US$5 million funding to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was an indictment of your Presidency. It underscored the dearth of your legitimacy. Your recent snubbing at the United Nations was telling.

There was no doubt to your deserving isolation from the rules abiding international community. Yet, the application for readmission into the Commonwealth is still pending since 2018. Also, the debt dialogue with international creditors is ongoing.

Despite the debt clearing endeavours through a high-level dialogue mission led by former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano and African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina, the mission has a correlation with the request to rejoin the Commonwealth. They both were premised on hedging on the impetus of credible elections.

It was inevitable that the failure by the elections to pass the credibility test was destined to impact negatively on the negotiations.

 After all, some previous staff-monitored programmes with the international lenders ended inconclusively due to the deficit of credibility and trust.

Your Excellency, the verity that the rule of the law, economics and politics are inseparable has stood the test of time. It is impossible to embrace one whilst you sacrifice the other. Their mutuality is the essence for socio-economic well-being.

Truly, in view of the Zimbabwe electoral travesty, methinks, the debt clearing endeavours were rendered a deadly blow. Their prospects of breakthrough diminished, wilted by the disputed elections. It is now mandatory for you to introspect and do the honourable thing.

It is also time citizenry soul searched as did the Israelites. They sat and wept by the rivers of Babylon when they remembered Zion. Zimbabweans must do likewise. Methinks Adesina rightly stated that the most difficult and sensitive reforms were the governance reforms.

His observation was pertinent. Our governance is deficient. Consequently, aspects of governance must engage the attention of citizenry. Truly, the sham elections confirm that citizenry are under the law of force than the force of the law.

Your Excellency, your response to concerns over your Cabinet selection did not portray your mantra, "The voice of the people is the voice of God." It was devoid of justice, which Justinian described as the practical endeavour to constantly render to every man his due.

Truly, the arrogance inherent in your reply, "I have re-appointed her because I am pleased with her performance. Whoever was not impressed by her can appoint someone else when they become president," was not just, neither was it Stately.

It was a wilful violation of the prerequisites of the time-honoured conventions of sound governance. It is small wonder that the American founding fathers were wary of an unaccountable government, without limits and restraint.

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men, over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must enable the government to control the governed and in the next place, oblige it to control itself," they reasoned.

It must have been against the backdrop of government reneging on its obligation to control itself that Sir Edward Coke ultimately summoned his convictions. He confronted King James and blurted, "Even the King is also under God and law!"

Aptly, the said new dispensation is guilty of failure to control itself. It has a delusional sense of entitlement which gave rise to the cult of the individual whereby the Presidency is deemed to be all-knowing and wiser than decisions based on consultation and debate.

Your Excellency, your democratic verity has long been questioned. Methinks, you have outstretched your production possibility boundary curve to breaking point. Meanwhile, the electoral debacle has intensified the Zimbabwe crisis.

 With all due respect, it is honourable for you to resign. Farewell, Comrade ED.

Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana is a public-speaking coach, motivational speaker, speechwriter and newspaper columnist.