By Nomusa Garikai- Zanu PF stall: Readmit Zimbabwe into Commonwealth before 2023 elections and lift the sanctions soon thereafter.
The number one priority to Zanu PF is to retain its iron grip on political power at all costs. Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness have left the country in economic ruins and a failed pariah state.
Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty, basic services such as health care and education have collapsed; the people are so desperate for change they would vote for a donkey if the alternative was to vote for Zanu PF. And so, to retain its grip on power Zanu PF has no choice but to rig the 2023 elections!
Robert Mugabe weather the storm of the 2008 to 2013 GNU without getting even one token democratic reform implemented thanks to the breath-taking incompetence of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC banded mongooses! Mnangagwa is hoping he too can pull-off a major diplomatic coup by getting Zimbabwe to be readmitted into the Commonwealth without the regime giving up any of its carte blanche dictatorial powers over which it was booted out in the first place.
Zanu PF has its own explanation why Zimbabwe’s application for re-admission into the club is being held up – sanctions. But of course – the regime has blamed everything else that has gone wrong on sanctions, so why not it being booted out of the Commonwealth!
“Our problem with re-admission should be coming from those countries which imposed sanctions against us and who are members of the club.
“They have to decide whether they want to lift the sanctions, if they agreed to have us re-admitted it would follow that they will lift sanctions. We think that is where the problem may be.”
The so-called Second Republic promised to hold free and fair elections in 2018 but refused to implement even one token reform and went on to blatantly rig those election. The Commonwealth had a team of election observers who would have recommended readmission if the regime had kept its promise.
Zanu PF has not implemented even one token reform since 2018 and is it is rigging the 2023 elections right now. The regime has failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for example.
If Zimbabwe was readmitted into the Commonwealth ahead of the 2023 elections; the Commonwealth will, at worst, express its disappointment with some elections irregularities but still endorse the rigged elections granting Zanu PF legitimacy. The last thing the Commonwealth will want to do is readmit Zimbabwe and a few months down the line kick the country out again, particularly over issues the organisation was aware of all along!
Of course, if Zanu PF is readmitted into the Commonwealth the regime will redouble its efforts to have the sanctions lifted. The regime will take the lifting of the sanction as proof of the party’s principled stand and claim that the country’s economic development will now finally take-off. Meanwhile the party will continue to use its dictatorial powers to silence its opponents, critics and the voiceless masses.
If Zanu PF is readmitted into the Commonwealth our fight for liberty, human rights and dignity will be that much harder if not impossible. It is therefore incumbent on us, all thinking Zimbabweans, to fight for our liberty and the fight starts right here and now – fight to stop Zanu PF being readmitted into the Commonwealth!
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety,” a Benjamin Franklin truism!
These who have callously failed to defend their liberty have not only lost their liberty but the economic rights too! If you have ever wondered why Zimbabwe is in this seemingly bottomless pit: now you know!