Zimbabwe Under Mnangagwa

Of course, Zanu PF rigged the recent elections; if the truth be told the EU, USA and everyone with any understanding of Zimbabwe politics did not expect anything else.

“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated EU Election Observer Mission final report.

“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

Think of the country Zimbabwe as a bus; President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta are the owners and operators and the rest of us are passengers. The bus owners and operators are the stockholders, they decide everything; they have the bus keys, own the petrol stations, own the roads, etc.; have the veto.

We, the passengers are stakeholders, we have an interest in where the bus is going, can complain of delays, etc. but can do very little else for fear of being thrown off the bus.

Democratic elections are about giving everyone an equal share and equal say in everything and, when necessary, allow the majority view carry the day. All these thing are anathema to President Mnangagwa and his junta; they have bus keys and control everything the idea of giving these up because the majority voted for someone else to be the driver, etc. is out of the questions.

What is worrying for Zimbabwe is Mnangagwa rigged the elections to impose himself as the bus driver the tragedy is he has no clue what he is doing. The Zimbabwe bus is in a sorry state because of the decades on the road with no proper service. The battery has no power, fuel filter and air filter are completely clogged up, the foot brakes have to be pumped to get them to work, have to fight to change gears, etc. For the last 38 years Zimbabwe Bus Service has needed a push to start it and topped up with engine oil and water a few hours.

Here are the six reasons why President Mnangagwa must not be allowed to remain as the Zimbabwe Bus Service driver:

1)   He agrees that the 37 years of Mugabe rule have been a complete disaster and his counter claim that he had nothing to do with the failures must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserve. He was a senior member of the Zanu PF regime and should have resigned, at the very least, and not waited 37 years until 5 th November 2017 when he was fired.

2)   Mnangagwa cannot disown what happened during the Mugabe days because he not only benefited from the misrule but was one of its principle designer and enforcer.

3)   President Mnangagwa has gone to town about post November 2017 coup as a fresh start for Zimbabwe, “a new era, new dispensation,” he called it. And yet the corrupt, the political tyranny, vote rigging and all the other Zanu PF dictatorial hallmarks have remained unchanged. By rigging the recent elections Mnangagwa has shown that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state.

4)   Zimbabwe needs a big injection of foreign investment to kick start the comatose economy and those are the very people Mnangagwa has just chased away. As everyone knows, investors do not do business in pariah states. This is an ominous start for the new driver of Zimbabwe Bus Service, he is asking us the passengers to push-start the bus uphill with the fuel tank empty – the bus is going nowhere!

5)   After 38 years of the Zanu PF dictatorship in which we, the people of Zimbabwe, the rightful owners, have been reduced to helpless passengers; it is time for us to demand what is rightfully ours, more so now when we know the country is sinking deeper and deeper into despair.

6)   Zimbabwe is not the first nation to be ruled by tyrants, many nations have suffered the same fate. In the end the people have always risen and demanded their freedoms and basic human rights and a life in dignity. The days of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule, of rigging elections with impunity, etc. are numbered. Meaningful change is long overdue!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka