By Dr Masimba Mavaza | As we enter into 2022 our eyes look further to election time in 2023. But our eyes will see what 2021 taught us. Jonathan Moyo the G40 guru and a sworn enemy of ED Mnangagwa described the MDC A as a party which has lost its priorities and leading itself astray. He wrote on twitter “On the MDC-A’s priorities, it’s common cause that the party is in dire straits: no office; no budget; no party workers; no cars with party logos out there; no visible nationwide party activity: therefore basically, no institutional capacity and no administrative support!”
Alongside campaigning for office, political parties also undertake other preparation for what they will do if they win an election and get into power.
In the Zimbabwe any change of government can happen rapidly once a general election result is known. When there is a new majority government the handover of power is often the morning after the result, and new governments want to get going immediately. If a party has no priorities it will not be able to run a country.
This means that much of the preparation that opposition parties might undertake for government considering any changes they want to make to departments or understanding what it is like to be a minister – has to occur before they take office. Other countries have transition periods to allow a new government to consider some of these issues. But with the MDC A who fail to plan for a simple name change it will be a disaster to even consider them for government.
The behaviour of the MDC A clearly shows the conditions under which political parties pay attention to important issues. It compares the dominant partisan perspective, which proposes that attention to issues is shaped by party competition, to an interest group perspective, which proposes that strong interest groups, in particular when their power is institutionalized in corporatist systems, can force parties to pay attention to their issue. The party attention to issues should not isolate party competition from the influence of other political actors.
It is not new to realise that the MDC A and their allies who finance them have prioritised to make sure Zimbabwe becomes a state that promotes neo colonialism and white supremacy saying Zanu have captured all the organs of the state from police, judiciary, army etc. the MDC A is not planning to lead but to be led by their financiers. The major plan in the MDC agenda is only to please their leader and handover the country to the strangers.
Zimbabwe needs independent thinkers who are not oblivious to reality. Any party which knows that the opposition is plotting to reverse the gains of independence cannot be blamed for standing on guard to protect the gains of independence. Looking at this case on the round you will be be inclined nit to blame Zanu pf on what they are being accused of doing.
After polarization of Zimbabweans using poverty subjected to Zimbabweans through imposition of illegal sanctions Zanu pf will still leave the doors open for MDC and their imperial allies to destroy them, that will not happen.
ZANU OF and MDC A have long held differing views about policy solutions, but throughout most of the recent past there was rough partisan agreement about the set of issues that were the top priorities for the nation.
However, that is less and less the case. ZANU OF and MDC have been moving further apart not just in their political values and approaches to addressing the issues facing the country, but also on the issues they identify as top priorities for the president and parliament to address.
For more than two decades, MDC has lost the public’s priorities, including in their own party politics.
While many issues are considered high priorities by majorities in Zimbabwe today, there is virtually no common ground in the priorities that rise to the top of the lists for MDC. All on the top of the list is to grab power. There is no plan on what to do with power once it is given to them. With that shallowness displayed by the MDC it remains for the ZANU PF and Zimbabweans to defend the country and its values against the MDC and its handlers.
ZANU PF has prioritised
independents, health care costs, education, the environment, Medicare and assistance for poor and needy people top the list of priorities, while MDC has fixed is eyes on glorifying a-boy called Chamisa. Health, education job creation stabilising economy none of these is among the five leading top priorities for MDC. Their priority is on power and nothing else. Their slogan speaks volumes of their priorities.
The partisan gap is particularly wide for a handful of issues. For instance, MDC A has no office. Has no name has no visibility yet they take the little donations they have to buy a bullet proof car for Chamisa. The change is used to buy the motor cycles for his convoy before he is even made the country’s president.
This exhibits the twisted priorities of MDC A.
MDC A has failed to condemn the sanctions to this day. They have encouraged more sanctions and only want sanctions to be removed once Chamisa is in power. Who on earth could wish his own people to suffer under these sanctions.
Whatever Zanu pf does after imposition of illegal sanctions is just act of self defence nse and national interest. America regardless of imposing themselves as the world’s police they have failed to push ZANU PF out of office. This is because the roots of ZANU PF are plunged in the people.
Americans believe that Zimbabwe Zanu pf is using state institutions to remain in power, this belief is the only explanation Americans can have for dismally failing to sway Zimbabweans against their party.
Americans will do Zimbabweans a great favour if they just remove their illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe which where imposed to bully a sovereignty state.
As long as Americans illegal sanctions stay, Zimbabweans will rally behind Zanu pf and it will have all the reasons to remain in control of state institutions and using them for the survival of the nation.
Americans are simply saying to ZANU PF reform your electoral laws so that it becomes easy for any stranger to play with your seat of power. Who on earth could accept that.
Zimbabweans are aware that there is a team of puppets already put on standby to take over power on behalf of their handlers. Zimbabwe is more wiser than that. A free and fair election involves political freedoms and fair processes leading up to the vote, a fair count of eligible voters who cast a ballot (including such aspects as electoral fraud or voter suppression), and acceptance of election results by all parties.
If one party benefits from the mighty of superpowers against a small national party, then these are not free or fair elections.
Elections are a central feature of democracy. For elections to express the will of the electorate, they must be ‘free and fair’.
‘Free’ means that all those entitled to vote have the right to be registered and to vote and must be free to make their choice. In Zimbabwe every citizen over the age of 18 is entitled to vote. An election is considered ‘free’ when you can decide whether or not to vote and vote freely for the candidate or party of your choice without fear or intimidation. A ‘free’ election is also one where you are confident that who you vote for remains your secret.
‘Fair’ means that all registered political parties have an equal right to contest the elections, campaign for voter support and hold meetings and rallies. This gives them a fair chance to convince voters to vote for them. A fair election is also one in which all voters have an equal opportunity to register, where all votes are counted, and where the announced results reflect the actual vote totals.
But in Zimbabwe MDC is given all the international support and international space yet ZANU PF is squashed and squeezed into isolation. Its supporters are starved and its leaders are targeted for sanctions.
There is great duress on Zimbabwean people. They are given no choice at all and asked to vote ZANU PF out or starve through sanctions.
This is not democracy and its unfairness to the core.
As we move to the new year Zimbabweans will not forget whose priorities counts.
ZANU PF has the best interest of its people at heart.