By Nomusa Garikai | “Zanu-PF tricked MDCs on running mates, says Charamba” screamed the headlines, accompanied by a photograph of the president’s spokesperson smiling from ear to ear.

“In a master stroke, Zanu-PF agreed to this contentious clause on proviso that it would be held in abeyance for 10 years. It now appears the opposition, clearly out of depth as always, thought Zanu-PF had given in to their law-making whim,” boasted George Charamba

“It never occurred to them Zanu-PF merely conceded without ceding an inch of strategic ground. The running mate clause was unacceptable to Zanu-PF both on grounds of principle and because of unsavoury experiences of the same.”

He was commenting of the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 2, recently passed by parliament, which has effectively amended 27 different sections of the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitutions. One of the amendments scraps the need for presidential candidates to have running mates. An elected VP will have the electoral mandate and confidence to assert his/her independence; as contrast to one appointed by the President and whose tenure can be terminated at the drop of a hat.

“I point this out to expose the fallacy which is being touted by easy journalists and commentators that the current President is responsible for scrapping of the running mate in order to consolidate his hold on power and to block Vice-President Chiwenga in Zanu-PF succession matrix,” explained Charamba.

“Of course, I am charmed to note that these commentators in that false reasoning admit that the future belongs to Zanu-PF. On that aspect alone, they are very right!

“What the current President is doing is merely accomplishing Zanu-PF’s will which was agreed on, under the then late President Robert Mugabe’s leadership.”

In other words, Zanu PF outwitted MDC to have a clause suspending the running mate clause for ten years 2013 to 2023 and now, before the suspension period was over, passed an amendment scrapping the clause altogether. Job done!

“Amendment Bill Number 2 is the single deadliest blow to our constitutionalism so far,” charged Dzikamai Bere, ZimRights National Director.

“It is a tragedy that the people who claim to represent the people of Zimbabwe are acting with impunity against the very people they purport to represent. I hope the people will punish them for this treasonous act.”

Treasonous act! This is just stupidity personified!

Right or wrong, the MPs have the constitutional power and authority to amend the country’s constitution. How can they be guilty of treason for exercising their constitutional power?

However it would be a different matter if Bere said the MPs are committing high treason because they are usurpers; they do not have the people’s democratic mandate to govern the country because the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible. There is no denying Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections.

“The (Zimbabwe) electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report.

3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote and ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake!

George Charamba is not the first Zanu PF official to boast of outwitting the MDC opposition with disastrous consequences to the nation. As soon as it was clear the nation had approved the 2013 Constitution; Paul Mangwana, Zanu PF co-chairperson on the parliamentary committee that drafted the document, boasted that Mugabe “dictated” the constitution.

MDC leaders had campaigned for a yes vote in the referendum on the new Constitution. Morgan Tsvangirai even claimed the new constitution was “an MDC child”! All nonsense, of course as the new constitution failed its most important litmus test – deliver free, fair and credible elections. And now it is clear even those few clauses that Zanu PF had allowed to be included in the constitution the party was using its dictatorial powers to rig elections and secure absolute majority to amend at leisure!

“As ZimRights, we are against the attempt to push back into the Constitution what the people had rejected during the Constitution-making process,” argued ZimRights national chairperson Takesure Musiiwa.

Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution has failed to deliver or guarantee any of our democratic freedoms and rights notable the right to free, fair and credible elections. Whatever freedoms and rights it gives in one section it takes them all away in the next; it is a dictator’s creed. It is naïve, to say the least, to expect a dictator like Mugabe to dictate a democratic constitution.

The real clever bit is that Zanu PF not only sold the nation a dictator’s creed disguised as a democratic constitution but that even now with all the evidence of rigged elections some people still pretend the elections were free and fair and the dictator’s creed is an exemplary democratic constitution!
There is no one more blind that he who would close his eyes and mind to the truth! It is bad enough anyone should close their eyes to the truth Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs precisely because we have a dictator’s creed for a constitution. It is little wonder Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess, the entire opposition camp, civic society and millions of ordinary citizens have all elected to close their eyes and minds. And, worst of all, there no hope of escaping from the mess until we open our eyes and deal with the curse of rigged elections and pariah state.- SOURCE: zsdemocrats.blogspot.com