Opinion / Columnist
'2018 elections were free and Mnangagwa won; Americans know it.' claimed Cross. A lie, dismissed with contempt it deserve
25 Mar 2024 at 16:18hrs | Views
I have heard Eddie Cross say a lot of rubbish over the years but his latest claim that the 2018 elections were free, fair and credible, Mnangagwa won and the Americans knew it; takes the biscuit. He made the outrageous claims in "Inside ED Mnangagwa's presidency #Freetalk" with journalist Dhara Blessing Mhlanga.
Mr Eddie Cross was one of the late Morgan Tsvangirai's most trusted advisers in MDC and only crossed the floor, as it were, soon after his death to become Mnangagwa's ally. He has even has the singular honour of writing the Zanu PF dictator's biography. (I have not read the book but from the snippets I have read; it is a flattering tale of no historic merit.)
If the interview with Dhara Blessed Mhlanga he talked about events in 2008 and then jumped to 2018 without so much as a passing comment on the GNU years. So it is to what he did not say that I wish to focus.
In all Eddie Cross's blubbering over the years I have never ever heard him acknowledge that the primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms. He is clearly not stupid because he has covered many of the other minor events details.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was not a fair and agreeable arrangement but one thing is beyond dispute - it was the best get out of jail ticket the nation has ever had since independence. The Zanu PF dictatorship could and would have been totally dismantle IF Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not sold out!
Robert Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the very generous salaries and allowance, the US$4 million mansion for Save himself, etc., etc. And to return the favour, the MDC forgot about the reforms.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" boasted the Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing any reforms. Of course, they cronies were right, after all they were victims of the same honey-pot trap themselves.
"Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!" Margaret Dongo had described her fellow Zanu PF MPs, Ministers and other party leaders in sheer exasperation at how they all grovelled before Mugabe. Mugabe had introduced the political patronage system, bribing leaders with the same ministerial limos, etc. and in return for the leaders' dogged loyalty to him!
Of course, Eddie Cross was well aware that he and his MDC friends have sold out big time by not only failing to implement the reforms but by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Even if one was to accept that Mr Cross is not as clever as he looks, he is just a modern man with the intellect of homo neanderthalensis. Still he would have read what others like his MDC colleague David Coltart have said on the subject.
"The (2013) 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," confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
The bottom line is the 2008 to 2013 GNU was the get out of jail card for Zimbabwe. We are still in jail because ever since the GNU MDC/CCC leaders had their snouts in the gravy train feeding troughs they have all but given up on implementing reforms. Eddie Cross's claim that we can have free, fair and credible elections without first implementing reforms, we can be free whilst we still remain in jail, must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserve.
To deny the central importance go 2008 to 2013 GNU in the fight to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance is as meaningless as a solar system without the sun. The sun is not just the centre of the solar system and round which everything else revolve but, more significantly, the earth and all the other planets and we and all the other living things would not be here without the sun!!
Mr Eddie Cross was one of the late Morgan Tsvangirai's most trusted advisers in MDC and only crossed the floor, as it were, soon after his death to become Mnangagwa's ally. He has even has the singular honour of writing the Zanu PF dictator's biography. (I have not read the book but from the snippets I have read; it is a flattering tale of no historic merit.)
If the interview with Dhara Blessed Mhlanga he talked about events in 2008 and then jumped to 2018 without so much as a passing comment on the GNU years. So it is to what he did not say that I wish to focus.
In all Eddie Cross's blubbering over the years I have never ever heard him acknowledge that the primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms. He is clearly not stupid because he has covered many of the other minor events details.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was not a fair and agreeable arrangement but one thing is beyond dispute - it was the best get out of jail ticket the nation has ever had since independence. The Zanu PF dictatorship could and would have been totally dismantle IF Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not sold out!
Robert Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the very generous salaries and allowance, the US$4 million mansion for Save himself, etc., etc. And to return the favour, the MDC forgot about the reforms.
"Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!" Margaret Dongo had described her fellow Zanu PF MPs, Ministers and other party leaders in sheer exasperation at how they all grovelled before Mugabe. Mugabe had introduced the political patronage system, bribing leaders with the same ministerial limos, etc. and in return for the leaders' dogged loyalty to him!
Of course, Eddie Cross was well aware that he and his MDC friends have sold out big time by not only failing to implement the reforms but by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Even if one was to accept that Mr Cross is not as clever as he looks, he is just a modern man with the intellect of homo neanderthalensis. Still he would have read what others like his MDC colleague David Coltart have said on the subject.
"The (2013) 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," confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
The bottom line is the 2008 to 2013 GNU was the get out of jail card for Zimbabwe. We are still in jail because ever since the GNU MDC/CCC leaders had their snouts in the gravy train feeding troughs they have all but given up on implementing reforms. Eddie Cross's claim that we can have free, fair and credible elections without first implementing reforms, we can be free whilst we still remain in jail, must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserve.
To deny the central importance go 2008 to 2013 GNU in the fight to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance is as meaningless as a solar system without the sun. The sun is not just the centre of the solar system and round which everything else revolve but, more significantly, the earth and all the other planets and we and all the other living things would not be here without the sun!!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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