By Patrick Guramatunhu| Earlier today I received a letter signed by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda inviting me and the other candidates who participated in the 2018 election to a meeting with the President at Munhumutapa Offices on Thursday the 7th of February at 10:00 am to discuss “The Framework for Post Election Dialogue by Political Parties.” said Dr Noah Manyika

“Let me state clearly and unequivocally that I don’t believe the president has created the right conditions for dialogue, something that is in his power to do. I will attend this meeting to hear if he is now prepared to do so and will only be prepared to join any continuing dialogue if this is clearly the case.”

Dr Manyika, please do not waste our time with the usual foolish political apologies and posturing. You and your fellow opposition candidates who participated in last year’s elections are tripping over each other for a seat on the gravy train and that is all you have ever care about.

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC Alliance Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, admitted no one in the opposition should have participated in the 2013 elections because it was clear as day that Zanu PF was going to rig those elections. However he and his fellow travellers in the opposition did participate regardless because of greed.

“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 elections,” explained Senator Coltart, in the book.

“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.”

With not even one reform implemented since the last elections it was clear Zanu PF was going to rig the 2018 elections. This time, a number of the opposition parties had come together to form the MDC Alliance still there was no talk of boycotting the elections.

Dr Manyika, Dr Nkosana Moyo and many others joined in the what one can only describe as the scrum for the scraps they knew Zanu PF would throw to entice them to participate. The opposition candidate did not even have the common sense to demand that ZEC release a verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement.

All the election observers from organisation and nations with any democratic election credentials have all dismissed last year’s elections as unfair and not to acceptable international standards. In short, Mnangagwa rigged the last elections, he has no mandate to rule. This Zanu PF regime is illegitimate!

Still, it is true that by participating, there were 23 presidential candidates alone, Zimbabwe opposition are “giving the process credibility!” In other words it is these foolish and greedy opposition candidates and parties who are giving some modicum of legitimacy to any otherwise illegitimate Mnangagwa regime.

The over the top crackdown by Zimbabwe’s security forces last month in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were beaten or raped, thousands arrested and 12 shot dead has the illegitimate Mnangagwa regime under the spotlight. There is an AU summit coming up and the regime is desperate to show the world it is engaging all Zimbabweans stakeholders in a national dialogue.

This is just nonsense! Zanu PF has repeatedly rigged elections and used brute violence to impose themselves on the nation. In November 2017 Mnangagwa and his junta friends forced Mugabe to resign at gun point.

This is Zanu PF modus operandi, the party will negotiate on its terms, Mnangagwa wants to be recognised as the legitimately elected head of state, for example. And, just to be absolutely certain regime’s claim to power is never ever threatened, the party is holding the gun to the nation’s head. The 1st August 2018 and last month’s barbarism were all a timely reminder of what the regime will do to retain its iron grip on power.

No nation worth its salt would ever allow itself to be held to ransom especially after 38 years of appeasing the same thugs with disastrous consequences we can see all round us. However, Mnangagwa knows that there will be no shortage of participants to his proposed gun-point national dialogue as long as he offers a few gravy train seats.

What Zimbabwe needs, and has been dying for decades, is for the country to implement the democratic reforms as agreed at the on set of the 2008 GNU and lay a solid foundation for a democratic Zimbabwe in which the freedoms and rights of all including the right to free elections and right to life itself are guaranteed.

Sadly, it is not just Mnangagwa and his junta who are holding the nation to ransom; the junta is being helped private individuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube and the opposition are ignoring the political reality that Mnangagwa rigged the elections for their own selfish gains.

The British Parliamentary Committee of Zimbabwe met to review the UK’s policies on Zimbabwe in light of the rigged July 2018 elections, the brutal violence by the Zimbabwe security services of 1st August and last month. One of the many positive recommendations to the Committee was that the British government should review the targeted sanctions on Zanu PF leaders with the view making them tougher. Great idea!

The likes of Professor Mthuli Ncube, Kirsty Coventry, the 24 President Advisory Council members, opposition leaders like Chamisa and Manyika, etc. who all continued to frustrate efforts to pressure Zanu PF to step down must all be added to the revised sanctions list.

These individuals know Mnangagwa is illegitimate but as long as it helps them gratify their own insatiable greed for power and influence, they continue to prop it up. Imposing sanctions on them will send a clear message that they cannot a continue to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare.

If Zanu PF remains in office till 2023, we can be certain of one thing – the regime will rig those elections too. This is why Zanu PF must be forced to step down a.s.a.p. After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule, the nation needs the time and space to implement the democratic reforms. Nothing of any substance can ever be accomplished until Zimbabwe is cured of the curse of rigged elections and pariah state.