Opinion / Letters
Boycotting Zimbabwean elections is the best political tool
06 Aug 2021 at 05:05hrs | Views
Greetings to all!
As I greet you all as diverse Mthwakazi citizens, wherever you are, I am compelled to respond to an article from Phuthego (3-7 August 2021 Issue), author unknown, and titled "Before Talking About Boycotting the Elections, Let Us Organise Ourselves First".
This unidentified author begins his/her argument by accusing those calling for boycotting Zimbabwean elections as "tiny organisations". He/she argues that they would not have minded if such calls for boycotting the elections came from what they refer to as "leading powerful organizations". He/she then goes on to refer to boycotting the elections as "missed priorities". Added to these few themes, this person further argues that rather than talking about boycotting the elections, people should instead "organize and grow the membership base and let the people decide the policy direction of the party".
But this person does not stop there, he/she then states prescriptively that:
"Most political parties in Matebelelnad are in a huge state of complete disrepair and dysfunctionality. They are poorly organized, under-funded and in urgent need for an engine overhaul. A great number of them are parked on top of a pile of bricks. They have no fuel, no wheels, no engine, and no driver. Some exist only on [...] social media and are not in a position to mount a sustained and meaningful electoral campaign that can deliver Parliamentary and council seats even in the freest of elections. Of course there are a few that we can build on that are exhibiting signs of leadership, that with proper maintenance, time, and policy clarity they stand a relatively better chance of growth, maybe not fast enough to deliver on the next elections, but still far better than some who exist in name only. Accordingly in such a state of party-political paralysis, it makes zero sense, zero, to even talk about boycotting elections. In their current capacities, very few of our parties would attract the attention of voters. Therefore, it is not the absence of conditions for free and fair elections that such parties should worry about but the absence of support from the people they purport to speak for. The lack of support is because they have done very little beyond the noise and insults on [...] social media to attract support. Many of them are not even known to the people who should potentially support them".
Citizens of Mthwakazi, please kindly note that I have tried to capture the key points from that long and rather unfortunate article. I now turn to rebuke this prescriptive analysis of this person about our people. To begin with, to rubbish social media in the manner the writer did shows that this person is still living in the yester century.
Secondly, our people have long given up on participating in elections whose outcomes are given and which have consistently relegated them to non-citizens in their own land. To then say that Mthwakazi political parties should go door to door telling our people to vote in a Zimbabwe election is like telling them that putting their hands in fire will not burn them. The people of Mthwakazi have a history and experience in participating in Zimbabwean elections, the history and experience of which have compelled them in large numbers to stop participating in any of those elections. They do not need any political organisation to convince them to reject Zimbabwean political projects.
A great number of our people have voted with their feet to seek survival in foreign lands because of the predicted. It is foolhardy therefore to try and convince our people to keep trying to see if Zimbabwean elections are free, let alone that they have a stake in the Zimbabwean political project that pursues nothing but Shona hegemony. It is time that the people of Mthwakazi started focusing on the Mthwakazi project and completely rejected all foreign (Zimbabwean) political processes.
Not only is the argument for boycotting the Zimbabwe elections very strong and entirely reasonable, but it is an affirmation of what has already been taking place ever since ZAPU was utterly and completely destroyed by ZANU-PF through the sham unity of 1987. From that day, the majority of people gave up on the Zimbabwean political project, especially its electoral processes. Statistics do not lie!
Boycotting Zimbabwean elections is the best political tool that citizens of Mthwakazi can ever wield. The people of Mthwakazi do not need any political fool to tell them about the pros of participating in Zimbabwean elections. They (at least some of them) have been there before and they know all the facts about their involvement in the Zimbabwe elections and what has transpired every time during and after those elections. They have actually lived the pros and cons of the reality of such elections. What more evidence do we need in the face of this lived reality? Therefore, those who still want to convince our people about participating in Zimbabwean elections, yet at the same time identifying themselves as Mthwakazians, are in the service of our oppressors and are intent on benefitting as individuals at the expense of the livelihoods and survival of the people of Mthwakazi.
As a matter of fact, these fake Mthwakazi politicians are bent on destroying the Mthwakazi liberation spirit and are in the paid service of the Zimbabwean regime in its various manifestations. They enjoy the subjugation, domination, and humiliation of our people by consistently and without shame appearing at every election cycle to hoodwink our people from their lived reality of suffering in Zimbabwe.
Boycotting Zimbabwean elections is in fact a powerful tool of survival. It is a realistic rejection, among other strategies, of subjugation, domination, and humiliation. In the final analysis, our people will not die by not voting, rather they will not give legitimacy to their enslavement and thereby compel the world to pay attention to their plight. Therefore, given that the people of Mthwakazi have long boycotted the elections in Zimbabwe, it is high time we formalized it as the only vehicle that will trigger other processes aimed at our complete and irreversible separation from Zimbabwe.
In conclusion, of the two arguments, for and against the elections in Zimbabwe, the latter carries more weight. The fake politicians who proclaim Mthwakazi during the day, yet they wine and dine with ZANU-PF and others who pursue the Shona Zimbabwean hegemony project are nothing but wolves in sheep skin. They are bent on sanitizing the Zimbabwean political project in the eyes of the international community, at the same time pushing their people to perpetual political subjugation.
Dear people of Mthwakazi, this is your time to make your cause known throughout the length and breadth of the world. Let us boycott Zimbabwean elections going forward. Let us start building our own institutions and setting in motion our own political processes. Things are already happening in our midst. Let those with eyes see. The Mthwakazi dream is unstoppable.
I thank you.
Dr Churchill Mpiyesizwe Guduza
Mthwakazi Liberation Front and Acting Federal Republic of Mthwakazi President
As I greet you all as diverse Mthwakazi citizens, wherever you are, I am compelled to respond to an article from Phuthego (3-7 August 2021 Issue), author unknown, and titled "Before Talking About Boycotting the Elections, Let Us Organise Ourselves First".
This unidentified author begins his/her argument by accusing those calling for boycotting Zimbabwean elections as "tiny organisations". He/she argues that they would not have minded if such calls for boycotting the elections came from what they refer to as "leading powerful organizations". He/she then goes on to refer to boycotting the elections as "missed priorities". Added to these few themes, this person further argues that rather than talking about boycotting the elections, people should instead "organize and grow the membership base and let the people decide the policy direction of the party".
But this person does not stop there, he/she then states prescriptively that:
"Most political parties in Matebelelnad are in a huge state of complete disrepair and dysfunctionality. They are poorly organized, under-funded and in urgent need for an engine overhaul. A great number of them are parked on top of a pile of bricks. They have no fuel, no wheels, no engine, and no driver. Some exist only on [...] social media and are not in a position to mount a sustained and meaningful electoral campaign that can deliver Parliamentary and council seats even in the freest of elections. Of course there are a few that we can build on that are exhibiting signs of leadership, that with proper maintenance, time, and policy clarity they stand a relatively better chance of growth, maybe not fast enough to deliver on the next elections, but still far better than some who exist in name only. Accordingly in such a state of party-political paralysis, it makes zero sense, zero, to even talk about boycotting elections. In their current capacities, very few of our parties would attract the attention of voters. Therefore, it is not the absence of conditions for free and fair elections that such parties should worry about but the absence of support from the people they purport to speak for. The lack of support is because they have done very little beyond the noise and insults on [...] social media to attract support. Many of them are not even known to the people who should potentially support them".
Citizens of Mthwakazi, please kindly note that I have tried to capture the key points from that long and rather unfortunate article. I now turn to rebuke this prescriptive analysis of this person about our people. To begin with, to rubbish social media in the manner the writer did shows that this person is still living in the yester century.
Secondly, our people have long given up on participating in elections whose outcomes are given and which have consistently relegated them to non-citizens in their own land. To then say that Mthwakazi political parties should go door to door telling our people to vote in a Zimbabwe election is like telling them that putting their hands in fire will not burn them. The people of Mthwakazi have a history and experience in participating in Zimbabwean elections, the history and experience of which have compelled them in large numbers to stop participating in any of those elections. They do not need any political organisation to convince them to reject Zimbabwean political projects.
A great number of our people have voted with their feet to seek survival in foreign lands because of the predicted. It is foolhardy therefore to try and convince our people to keep trying to see if Zimbabwean elections are free, let alone that they have a stake in the Zimbabwean political project that pursues nothing but Shona hegemony. It is time that the people of Mthwakazi started focusing on the Mthwakazi project and completely rejected all foreign (Zimbabwean) political processes.
Not only is the argument for boycotting the Zimbabwe elections very strong and entirely reasonable, but it is an affirmation of what has already been taking place ever since ZAPU was utterly and completely destroyed by ZANU-PF through the sham unity of 1987. From that day, the majority of people gave up on the Zimbabwean political project, especially its electoral processes. Statistics do not lie!
Boycotting Zimbabwean elections is the best political tool that citizens of Mthwakazi can ever wield. The people of Mthwakazi do not need any political fool to tell them about the pros of participating in Zimbabwean elections. They (at least some of them) have been there before and they know all the facts about their involvement in the Zimbabwe elections and what has transpired every time during and after those elections. They have actually lived the pros and cons of the reality of such elections. What more evidence do we need in the face of this lived reality? Therefore, those who still want to convince our people about participating in Zimbabwean elections, yet at the same time identifying themselves as Mthwakazians, are in the service of our oppressors and are intent on benefitting as individuals at the expense of the livelihoods and survival of the people of Mthwakazi.
As a matter of fact, these fake Mthwakazi politicians are bent on destroying the Mthwakazi liberation spirit and are in the paid service of the Zimbabwean regime in its various manifestations. They enjoy the subjugation, domination, and humiliation of our people by consistently and without shame appearing at every election cycle to hoodwink our people from their lived reality of suffering in Zimbabwe.
Boycotting Zimbabwean elections is in fact a powerful tool of survival. It is a realistic rejection, among other strategies, of subjugation, domination, and humiliation. In the final analysis, our people will not die by not voting, rather they will not give legitimacy to their enslavement and thereby compel the world to pay attention to their plight. Therefore, given that the people of Mthwakazi have long boycotted the elections in Zimbabwe, it is high time we formalized it as the only vehicle that will trigger other processes aimed at our complete and irreversible separation from Zimbabwe.
In conclusion, of the two arguments, for and against the elections in Zimbabwe, the latter carries more weight. The fake politicians who proclaim Mthwakazi during the day, yet they wine and dine with ZANU-PF and others who pursue the Shona Zimbabwean hegemony project are nothing but wolves in sheep skin. They are bent on sanitizing the Zimbabwean political project in the eyes of the international community, at the same time pushing their people to perpetual political subjugation.
Dear people of Mthwakazi, this is your time to make your cause known throughout the length and breadth of the world. Let us boycott Zimbabwean elections going forward. Let us start building our own institutions and setting in motion our own political processes. Things are already happening in our midst. Let those with eyes see. The Mthwakazi dream is unstoppable.
I thank you.
Dr Churchill Mpiyesizwe Guduza
Mthwakazi Liberation Front and Acting Federal Republic of Mthwakazi President
Source - Dr Churchill Mpiyesizwe Guduza
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