By Nomusa Garikai- “We have noted social media platforms to plan and organise violent protests and overthrow a constitutionally elected government,” said Zanu PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa following the Zanu PF politburo meeting.
“Let me say to (MDC Alliance leader Nelson) Chamisa and those who are calling for demonstrations on July 31, what happened (protesting) on August 1, 2018 will not happen again, what happened on January 16, 2019 will not happen again.
“We want to send this warning loud and clear to Chamisa that whatever you’re threatening on July 31, we say, come to the front and face the risk.”
There are three points to be noted here:
1) Zanu PF can claim to be “the constitutionally elected government” from the roof top of every house and hut in the land that will not change the reality on the ground – the party blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a common sense and legal requirement. The July 2018 elections were no more legal than the November 2017 military coup that preceded it and that too was declared “legal, justified and constitutional.
2) MDC and the rest of the opposition participated in the 2018 elections regardless of all the warning not to and evidence the elections will be rigged because Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy-train seats. So, it was the enthusiastic participation of the opposition that gave the flawed elections the modicum of credibility and by extension the otherwise illegitimate Zanu PF regime the modicum of legitimacy.
After all if Zimbabweans, or be it the greed and corrupt opposition, have no objections to having elections without even a verified voters’ roll; throwing the door wide open to many voters being denied the vote, to multiple voting, etc.; there is little outsiders can do about it. The country is once again paying dearly for the folly of having a corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition.
When MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU the party lost all political credibility and we, the people of Zimbabwe, should have deserted the party in droves. We did not and now the party is the one giving legitimacy to the vote rigging and illegitimate Zanu PF!
3) 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have reduced Zimbabwe into a Banana Republic whose economy is in ruins and up to 34% of the people now live in abject poverty. The corona virus outbreak is dragging the nation into even greater economic despair and humanitarian crisis. The economic and humanitarian situation is socially and morally unsustainable. The country is crying for meaningful political and economic change and an end to all the madness that has brought up all this mess.
Change is nature and it is very naïve of this Zanu PF regime to think it can stop change. By blatantly rigging the elections Zanu PF delayed change but more significantly it has blocked peaceful change and left the country in this precarious situation where violence is the only way to bring about change. The need for change is now so urgent that no amount of violence by Zanu PF will stop change. Indeed, the brutality by the regime will only add to the bottled anger and frustration against the regime and thus justify the violence to end the Zanu PF dictators
“We shall never quiver or capitulate in the face of these machinations. Zanu-PF is a revolutionary party, a party of liberation, a party with a rich ideology, a rich history and a vision for the future,” said Mnangagwa.
34% of the people live is abject poverty, they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less the other basic necessities such as education for their children and health care. No matter how many more innocent protestors are gunned down by the regime, they will never accept that abject poverty was what they aspired for much less their vision of the future!
Change is coming, it is a great tragedy that Zanu PF has forced the nation into a corner where violence is the only way to remove the regime from office. Those advocating violence, will be held to account for all the death and destruction the violence brings!
Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections, denying the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It is nonsense to rig elections and then use brute force to impose itself.