Zimbabweans love burying their heads in the sand and see and hear only what they want to see and hear – even in the face of a mountain of evidence saying otherwise. There is a dear price to be paid for such foolishness and we have and are paying for it!

“Chamisa has done a lot of great things, like his remarkable showings in 2018 and 2023 against a formidable Zanu-PF machinery, backed by the state and millions of dollars, which gave the country hope for change. That is why he remains the main authentic voice of the opposition and plausible alternative. Everything else is wishful thinking – at least for now,” Newshawk/ Bulawayo 24 reported.

Newshawk has written many very informative contributions to the economic and political discourse in Zimbabwe; this article is completely off the mark!

Zanu PF would have lost the elections to a troop of monkeys years ago if the elections were free, fair and credible and the monkeys were the only alternative to Zanu PF. For such has been the nation’s desperate desire for change. 

Zanu PF has managed to stay in power all these years only because the party has retained its carte blanche power to rig elections. 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked livelihoods, limb and even lives to elect MDC/CCC leaders into office for the primary purpose of implementing the necessary democratic reforms to restore the people’ freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. After 23 years, including 5 in the GNU, Nelson Chamisa and company have failed to implement even one token democratic change. Not one!

Worst of all, ever since the GNU debacle, MDC/CCC leaders have participated in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. What is more the opposition leaders themselves have known this all along.

“Look, you can’t keep on participating in flawed electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimising these sham elections which don’t deliver,” said Tendai Biti in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

“So you can’t continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes where their hopes just get crushed.”

David Coltart went one step more and revealed the reason why the opposition were hell bent on participating in these flawed elections to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship.

“The (2013) electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

So the opposition leaders could not withdraw from the flawed elections even when it was clearly the only rational thing to do because they “feared the others would remain and win the (gravy train) seats”. Greed!

When Chamisa was asked repeatedly why MDC A was participating in the 2018 elections when ZEC had failed to produce something as basic for elections as a verified voters’ roll. “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.” he answered.

Fast forward to 2023, when he was asked the same searching questions he claimed that he had “plugged all the vote rigging loop holes”. 

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 and 2023 elections, as we all know, Chamisa was lying to hide the real reason why he and his friends were participating in these flawed elections “no matter what” was greed. 

It is therefore shocking that the article singled out Chamisa’s treasonous participation in the flawed 2018 and 2023 elections as one of Chamisa’s “great things” achievements!

“Yet he has made a lot of mistakes. The main reason is that he is trying,” the article argued, with name one of these acknowledged mistakes. 

Well failing to implement even one democratic reform in five long years was NOT a mistake. And his continued participation in these flawed elections out of greed and then lying to hide his greed shows he has not learned much less repented from his treasonous betrayal.

Zimbabweans have knack for burying our heads in the sand so we see only what we want to see even in the face of a mountain of evidence proving otherwise. In 1980s and early 1990s many Zimbabweans would bend over backwards to blame ministers around Robert Mugabe for the country’s worsen economic and political situation. They would not accept that Mugabe himself was to blame even when he was the one appointing and keeping these incompetent and corrupt ministers.  

It took nearly 20 years before the nation finally accepted that Mugabe himself was a corrupt and ruthless dictator but it was too late because by then de facto one party dictatorship was deeply entrenched in Zimbabwe society. Up rooting it was never going to be a walk in the park and certainly not with these corrupt and incompetent CCC leaders.

Zimbabwe is seemingly stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship not because the party is “formidable” but because the opposition has turned out to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Chamisa and company have failed to implement even one democratic reform in 23 years especially during the GNU when they had the trump cards, it is naive, to say the least, to expect them to do so not when Zanu PF holds all the trump cards. 

Chamisa and his CCC friends are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent showering them with praise will not change that reality and more significantly, will not get the country out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF landed us in. We need competent opposition leaders who will implement the democratic reforms Chamisa et al are not up to the task!