By Patrick Guramatunhu- “Good pple there is need to teach ZANU PF a big lesson once and for all in 2023. They talk a lot of nonsense as if this country belongs to their mothers. They have got arrogance of a coward.

There must be mass demonstration of our sovereign by voting them out in our millions in 2023…

Haa vanhu vazviramba. When I was leaving the High Court today I met a group of pple who greeted me by the gate and said “mudhara rambai makashinga. Nyangwe Mnangagwa akatipa US$1 million each hatichada.”

These are bold declarations I get everywhere I go.

Mnangagwa will be kicked out,” Honourable Job Sikhala, MDC A MP, wrote on Twitter.

Politics dzana Job Sikhala, Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti nerudende rweMDC, ibhora rokudhibhi. Munotamba zura rese pasina agohwesa nokuti hapana magende! (MDC politics is like amateur football at its chaotic worst; where you can play all day without ever scoring a goal because there are no set teams and no set goals!)  

After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC leaders cannot name even one democratic change they have accomplished in all those years and yet still call themselves movement for democratic change.   

Whilst the individual MDC leaders have had a chance to enjoy the good life of the ruling elite on the gravy train, especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when many climbed up the ladder to be ministers. The MDC leaders loved their GNU lives so much they did not want to upset their host, Robert Mugabe, by implement the democratic reforms. Not even one token reform was implemented. 

In 2008 Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 73% of the popular vote, according to Mugabe’s own Freudian slip of the tongue and Mnangagwa and his Joint Operation Command (JOC) junta stepped in and ordered ZEC not to announce the results. The results were announce six weeks later and Tsvangirai’s vote count had been whittled down to 47%, enough to force a run-off. 

JOC launched military style Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) whose primary objective was to punish the people of Zimbabwe for daring to reject Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March 2008 vote. And the people were punished! 

“What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be undone with the ballot!” thundered Robert Mugabe, cheering along those who were destroying property, intimidating, beating, raping, abducting and over 500 were murdered in cold blood. 

“Zanu PF has declared war on the people!” cried Tsvangirai as he announced his withdrawal from the run-off. 

The primary reason for setting up the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence witnessed in 2008. Zanu PF has emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched because MDC leaders took their eyes off the reforms agenda. 

Mnangagwa and his cronies in the National Army arm of JOC flexed their dictatorial powers to ouster Robert Mugabe in the November 2017 military coup. Mugabe had his own supporters in the junta, the Police and CIO, but they were outgunned and outmanoeuvred. 

Only the very naive and gullible believed that the 2018 elections would be free, fair and credible. Mnangagwa and his Junta were never going to stage a coup to seize power and then eight months later risk losing it in free election particularly when they still had the dictatorial powers to rig the elections. They are rigging the 2023 elections as we speak! 

“There must be mass demonstration of our sovereign by voting them out in our millions in 2023!” says Sikhala. Well Zanu PF, for its part has denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Remember Mnangagwa supposedly won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million voters or 50.8% of the cast votes and so the diaspora vote is very significant indeed!

The truth is Zimbabwe is in this pathetic situation of trying to win rigged elections for no other reason other than the fact that MDC leaders are ashamed to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections because they will have to admit they wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. 

The overwhelming majority of the ordinary Zimbabweans have yet to figure it out that MDC leaders sold-out big time during the GNU by failing to implement even one reform. And so MDC leaders are taking full advantage of the naive and gullible public that reforms are not necessary. 

Zanu PF is the chief beneficiary of holding these flawed elections because the party does not have to worry about implement the reforms and so continues to blatantly rig the elections. And by participating the people give the flawed process credibility and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

Job Sikhala and the fellow opposition politicians are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait to the opposition to participate. Zanu PF needs the participation to get legitimacy and the few gravy train seats are a small price to pay for it. 

Of course, Job Sikhala, Nelson Chamisa and the rest in the opposition camp would love to to form the next government. They know that Zanu PF will never lose an elections in which they have carte blanche powers to rig. 

Chamisa and company are banking on mass street protest, to protest the economic hardship, rigged elections anything, to propel them to State House. Meanwhile the opposition will be content with the few gravy train seats and all the other titbits the get from Zanu PF.

Zanu PF are not going to reform themselves out of office, the party has the carte blanche powers to rig elections and, of course, they will never give up these powers nor will they stop using them to retain power. 

There is no doubt that the Zanu PF dictatorship will collapse one of these fine days, it is rotten to the core and MDC leaders should have delivered the coup de grace a long time ago if they had not been so corrupt and incompetent. Still, the Zanu PF dictatorship will end through violence, another military coup or street protest. 

The demise of Zanu PF will not bring the democratic changes the nation has been dying for all these years; the new regime will only be keen to consolidate its own grip on power and so would be tempted to keep the dictatorial powers for itself. 

What the people of Zimbabwe should need to do is to wake up to the political reality that they have nothing to win from participating in these flawed and illegal elections. The opposition are taunting the public to protest with claims of stolen elections when the opposition themselves are the one aiding and abetting Zanu PF to rig elections by failing to implement reforms even when it was in their power to do so. 

The best course of action for the ordinary people is to put their foot down and demand the implementation of the democratic reforms before elections. Free elections is a right and not a privilege and so why should they have to participate in flawed and illegal elections especially after 41 years of rigged election.