Zimbabweans must stop blaming SADC for rigged elections and, at long last, own up to our own foolishness

"Zimbabwe is one of those countries that has benefited immensely from this "see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil" policy maintained by SADC," argued Tendai Mbofana in his recent article in Bulawayo 24.

"That is why, in spite of a damning election observer mission report by SADC itself on the August 2023 harmonised elections, the regional body did not take any stern action or even strongly condemn Zimbabwe.

"The heads of State preferred to pretend as if all was well in Zimbabwe. As it turns out, the country is even taking over the SADC chair in August this year."

There was much more to why SADC let Mnangagwa off the hook after the rigged 2023 elections than the "see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil" policy.

After Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2008 Zimbabwe elections, SADC did deny Zanu PF political legitimacy and forced the regime to agree to the 2008 Global Political Agreement and the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

There are four reasons why SADC did not repeat the 2008 punishment and deny Zanu PF legitimacy regardless of the damning 2023 election reports from both AU and SADC;

1) millions of Zimbabweans participated in the flawed elections knowing fully well the process was flawed and participating would give Zanu PF legitimacy; they soldiered on regardless because they believed Chamisa's lies of plugging all the vote rigging loop holes.

2) The winning CCC leaders took up their gravy seats even after SADC and AU had condemned the election process. They insisted the won seats were in liberated zones where elections were free and fair and not the gravy train seats given out by Zanu PF as bait. All nonsense.

ZEC's failure to produce a verified voters' roll, for example, affected all constituencies. Chamisa and company participated in the flawed elections out of greed and the claim of liberated zones is just a smoke screen to hide the real reason they were hell bent on participating - greed.

3) As soon as the election results were out, before SADC leaders had had any chance to digest the results much less what to do about Zanu PF rigging the elections, CCC leaders started fighting amongst themselves over few gravy train seats the party had won. Self designated CCC Secretary General, Sengezo Tshabangu, started recalling elected officials.  CCC imploded!

4) There are some SADC leaders, notably SA's ANC, who would back a vote rigging Zanu PF rather than see regime change in Zimbabwe. The three reasons above provided the excuse for the do-nothing camp in the regional body to prevail.

There are reports that some people are planning to hold protest demonstrations during the forthcoming SADC Summit in Harare in August 2024. What is it exactly these people be protesting against?

Some people say they will be protesting against SADC leaders for failing to deny Zanu PF legitimacy after SADC election observers condemned the 2023 elections. And for rewarding the vote rigging Mnangagwa with the chairmanship of the regional grouping. True, but - it is a big but!

But these protestors are forgetting that it was SADC leaders who created the golden opportunity for Zimbabweans to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC/CCC leaders sold out big time not only by failed to implement even one token reform but have been participating in flawed elections out of greed.

And we, the Zimbabwean public have played our part in this tragic political and economic crisis that has befallen our country by doing very little to hold both vote rigging Zanu PF and sell out MDC/CCC to account.

Zimbabwe is a failed state, stuck in a rut. 44 years after independence, we are still failing to hold free, fair and credible elections! One of the reasons why we are stuck is our repeated failure to define and understand our problems and hence the reason why we are always blundering from pillar to post. We have no clue where we are going.

Zimbabweans are protesting against SADC for doing nothing to punish Zanu PF for the rigged 2023 elections and yet they have said nothing about Chamisa and company who participated out of greed and about their folly in being easily conned to participate. We really have no clue what is going on, SADC are NOT responsible for our failure to implement the necessary reforms to ensure  free, fair and credible elections. We are! By blaming SADC for our own folly, we are only showing the world that we are not yet ready to be masters of our own destiny.