By Patrick Guramatunhu- To herald the 2008 to 2013 GNU as a success is a grotesque misrepresentation of historic facts that will not be allowed to go unchallenged!
“Mbeki – who helped to broker the stability-inducing 2008 government of national unity between opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ex-president Robert Mugabe, who are both late – was in the country last December to try and nudge Mnangagwa and Chamisa to hold talks,” reported a local publication.
Rubbish!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU principle purpose was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, the reforms were designed to ensure future elections in Zimbabwe were free, fair and credible elections and not a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008! Sadly, not even one of the reforms saw the light of day. Not one!
SADC leaders made one last desperate effort to have the 2013 elections postponed until the reforms are implemented.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there. I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Violet Gonda.
The SADC leaders got Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, away from Mugabe, and warned them “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!”
As we know MDC leaders ignored the warning for exactly the same reason they had ignored implementing the reforms for the last five years – greed, as David Coltart, MDC minister during the GNU, ready confessed in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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 (2013) elections,” confessed Coltart.
“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.”
Greed had the better of the MDC again in 2018 as they went on to contest the elections knowing fully well that not even one reforms had been implemented since the rigged elections of 2013 and therefore Zanu PF will rig those elections too. And that is exactly what happened.
By participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC has given some modicum of credibility and legality, as Coltart admitted, to the vote rigging and, per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime.
The Constitutional Court challenge of the 2018 presidential race result by MDC on the grounds that the vote counting process was flawed was an exercise in futility. The whole process was flawed and illegal and not just the counting.
”We now have fresh evidence after the Constitutional Court determination of the dispute between us and Mnangagwa, particularly in the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) report that was tabled in Parliament, wherein the commission is indicating that they flouted the law and the procedures of elections in announcing the elections of 2018,” said Chamisa in a recent SABC interview.
“We don’t want to have a recycling of the same old problems. This is a vicious cycle that has to be curbed so that we will have credible elections.”
ZEC had flouted the law by failing to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, at least a month before nomination day. Chamisa and his MDC friends knew this and ignored this and many other blatant violations in the election process only to pick on the counting of the vote. This is just a time wasting gimmick, bolting the door when the horse has bolted.
Chamisa is in SA to meet both President Cyril Ramaphosa and former President Thambo Mbeki “in a last ditch effort to foster dialogue between him and President Emmerson Mnangagwa”, according to the Daily News.
The economic recovery President Mnangagwa had hoped for with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra has not materialised. The success of his mantra was premised on him keeping his promise to end corruption, to hold free and fair elections, etc., etc. He has failed to honour any of these promises and thus confirming that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state or be it under new management following the November 2017 coup.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs, there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!
Chamisa is taking advantage of the worsening economic situation to advance a false narrative that the country would be enjoying economic recovery if he had been declared the winner of the July 2018 presidential race. As a way forward, he is proposing a dialogue with Mnangagwa, presided over by a mediator, to negotiate a power sharing arrangement, Nation Transition Authority (NTA).
Since the electoral dispute is over the presidential result, MDC is proposing the party must share cabinet and presidential power with Zanu PF. Zanu PF will keep its parliamentary 2/3 majority since the parliamentary results are not disputed.
As the main selling pitch, Chamisa insists the NTA will implement “comprehensive democratic reforms and end the curse of disputed elections”. This is nonsense.
The NTA is a watered down version of the 2008 to 2013 GNU; with the same key players, Zanu PF and MDC, but with Zanu PF, with its 2/3 majority in parliament, holds the trump cards. The GNU failed to get ever one reform implemented in five years it is naive to believe the NTA will do any better.
It is a lie to suggest that the 2008 GNU produced stability and worse still to suggest the NTA with Zanu PF and MDC, GNU mark 2, will do any better. The way forward is for the vote rigging, and per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down so we can appoint an independent and competent interim administration to implement the reform leading to free and fair elections.