By Wilbert Mukori- In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill paraphrased Santayana when he said ‘Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.’
Zimbabwe had all the potential to become the South Korea of Africa, a free democratic and prosperous nation, as the Japanese school Ken Yamamoto observed soon after Zimbabwe’s independence. Instead, after 43 years, he have become just another failed African country; a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have stayed in power all these years because the rigged elections.
Let’s face it; we are a failed state because we have failed to learn from history and have and continue to pay dearly for it.
It took Zimbabweans nearly 20 years to accept the political reality that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Having embrace the Zanu PF men and women as the nation’s liberation heroes and heroines it was a bitter pill to swallow that the same men and women would deny the people their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.
The evidence that Mugabe and company did not care about the freedoms and rights of the ordinary people were there all along; it was the people who refused see and believe their own eyes. During the fight to end white colonial rule, Mugabe and his Zanu PF nationalists had promised “One man, one vote!” for example. And yet Zanu PF made it clear that if the regime was to lose the 1980 elections, the bush war would continue.
Of course, the people voted to end the war and, in doing so, lost their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country to this day!
It was not until the late 1990s, nearly 20 years after Zanu PF rigged the 1980 elections to impose a de facto one-party dictatorship, that the nation finally reached the consensus on the need to implement democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights.
After the blatant betrayal by Zanu PF thugs, one would have thought Zimbabweans would be diligent in their selection of the men and women they would entrust the task of implementing the reforms. Or, at the very least, not repeat the same mistake of treating these leaders as demigods who must not be questioned much less held to democratic account, as they did with Mugabe et al. Alas! That was not to be!
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC/CCC leaders into power on the promise they would implement the democratic changes the nation was dying for. After 23 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends have failed to implement even one token reform. Worse still, they have been participating in these flawed elections, perpetuating the dictatorship – the very thing they were entrusted to end – out of greed.
If Zimbabwean had been diligent and attentive then they would have realised that MDC/CCC leaders had sold out by failing to implement any reforms during the GNU. Or, at the very least, figured out for themselves at the sheer futility of participating in these flawed elections without first implementing reforms.
“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.
Coltart’s confession has not helped the penny drop. Whilst most Zimbabweans accept that Zanu PF is rigging these elections, they are participating in the flawed elections because they believe CCC’s oxymoronic claim that the party has winning in rigged elections strategies (WIRES).
These WIRES and claims that CCC will “win big” are just hot air to hide the real reasons why Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating no matter how flawed and legal the process got – greed and incompetence. It was the same reasons why MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU.
It is insane that anyone, much less the whole populous, would believe in these WIRES nonsense, especially after 43 years of Zanu PF mafiosi rigging elections. We really are a nation refusing to learn from history!
Still, these people who are ignoring the warning and insist on participating in the flawed elections will sober up on the 24 August 2023, the day after voting day, as Zanu PF claims yet another landslide victory. They will complaining that Zanu PF rigged the elections, conveniently forgetting they had rejected the advice to have reforms before elections because they had a winning strategy to each and every vote rigging Zanu PF shenanigan.
By insisting on participating in these flawed elections Zimbabweans are not only giving legitimacy to Zanu PF but are forfeiting the right to complain about the rigged elections. Voter beware! Buyer beware! Caveat emptor!
It is too late to get the elections postponed. The opposition leaders’ last chance to pressure Zanu PF to clean up the election was by refusing to participate without the verified voters’ roll. They topped over each other to submit their nomination papers and the chance was lost.
Still, the ordinary Zimbabwean can register their disapproval of the flawed and illegal election process by refusing to attend with Zanu PF and opposition rallies and refusing to vote. They will do even better by publicly denouncing the flawed process and the opposition for selling out. It is not too late to let the whole world know but especially SADC that these elections are flawed and that Zanu PF must not be granted legitimacy.
After 43 years of rigged elections, 2 500 years after the Greeks gave mankind democracy as a system of government; we should know that these flawed and illegal 2023 Zimbabwean elections are a farce. And should have the common sense to demand an end to this insanity.
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