… condemn rigged elections too
By Patrick Guramatunhu | “The #January8statement at @MYANC’s 110th anniversary by @CyrilRamaphosa called for the unconditional lifting of sanctions against Cuba, solidarity with Palestine and Western Sahara, but was silent on #ZimSanctions: @MYANC/@ZANUPF_Official relations are now in smoke,” revealed Professor Jonathan Moyo, the self-exiled former Zanu PF Cabinet Minister, on twitter.
If SA is finally waking up to the reality that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not cause by sanctions, as Zanu PF would have everyone believe, but decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has the country labelled a pariah state. One hopes that SA is also waking up to the reality that Zanu PF has been rigging elections to stay in power.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections “went well”. He was lying, of course. How can an election process that failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll be anything but a farce!
If SA was to refuse to endorse Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections, which Zanu PF is rigging already by denying 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote “until the West imposed sanctions are lifted”, for example. It is a feeble excuse; why should Zimbabweans in the diaspora be denied their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country over a matter in which they had no say. Worse still, why deny the vote to Zimbabweans in SA and other nation that have not imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Considering Mnangagwa “won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million vote or 50.8% of the cast votes.
The 3 million diaspora vote is very significant: 3 out of a possible 8 million registered voters or 37% of the electorate. How can the elections be anything else but a farce if one of the contestants is allowed to cherry pick and deny 37% of the electorate the vote!
If SA and one or two other SADC countries were to refuse to endorse Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections as a free and fair process and thus endorse Zanu PF’s legitimacy this will put Zimbabwe back in the situation it was in after the 2008 rigged elections. Zanu PF was forced then to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free, fair and credible elections.
Alas, the 2008 to 2013 GNU comprising of Zanu PF and the two MDC factions led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara failed to implement even one reform in five years. The world can be rest assured no stone will be left unturned to make sure competent men and women are given the task of implementing the reforms this time! – SOURCE: zimbabwelight.blogspot.com