African election observers and others endorsed Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s victory, while Western observers, mainly the Americans and Europeans, were skeptical, stopping short of rejecting the outcome,” said Dumisani Muleya, The Zimbabwe Independent Editor, in his editorial comment.

Mr Editor, you are wrong on both counts!

Both SADC and AU did not “endorse Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s victory”. What their respective election observer teams did was confined their comments to the “peaceful campaign period including voting day”. They were very clear not to mention such glaring flaws and illegalities as the failure by ZEC to produce something as basic as the verified voters’ roll, the blatant cheating in adding up the votes, the shooting of civilians on 1^stAugust which was clearly meant to cower the populous to stop all protests against yet another rigged election, etc.

Other elections observers also noted the relative peace in this year’s elections compared to the wanton violence of say the 2008 elections. They also reported the glaring flaws and irregularities. The Americans, Canadians, the Commonwealth, the EU and almost every other observer said the elections were “biased, unfair, playing field was not level” and, most important of all, that the process “failed to meet acceptable international standards”. That is just diplomatic language for the elections were rigged and therefore Mnangagwa and Zanu PF have no mandate to govern the country.

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate, period.

It is not for SADC, the AU or anyone else in the international community to spell this out everything to us that Zanu PF is illegitimate and much less what should happens next. We must figure that one out for ourselves, admit it and, most important of all, decide what to do about it.

Are we going to bury our heads in the sand, as we have always done and pretend the elections were free, fair and credible and reward Zanu PF with absolute power as before? Or are we going to finally end the insanity of the last 38 years, admit the elections were rigged and, for once, hold Zanu PF to account for this treasonous act?

“All the while, Mnangagwa and his administration have come up with austerity measures to halt the economic tailspin. However, diplomats, from the West and East alike, say Mnangagwa’s reform agenda is all foam and no beer!” continue Muleya.

“This is where talks come in. The involvement of former Kenyan chief justice Dr Willy Mutunga, as we exclusively report in this edition, is opportune.

“Zimbabwe needs dialogue and a healing process. The form and content of the talks as well as the ultimate objective can always be discussed.”

Could not agree with you more, Dumisani; the Zanu PF’s economic policies and programmes are indeed empty rhetoric with no substance. The regime is blundering from pillar to post and meanwhile the country’s economic meltdown is getting worse and worse, dragging the nation closer and closer to the edge of the precipitous abyss.

Yes the country needs “talks” but not the talks to get Mnangagwa and Chamisa to talk to each other!

What the people of Zimbabwe need right now is the courage to confront and confound the country’s demons. The only dialogue the nation needs with Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs is to tell they rigged the recent elections, they have no mandate to rule and therefore they must step down. Any attempt to hang on to power will only be viewed as holding the nation to ransom and will not be tolerated. What happens next is for others to decide not them!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka