ZCHOD 7 year GNU to save Mnangagwa from rotting illegitimate albatross but at what price

The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis is 39 years of corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF dictatorship. When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he promised to end corruption and to hold free and fair elections but failed to keep his promises. 

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs and as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there is no hope of meaningful economic recovery because it is near impossible to do business in a pariah state. 

The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is to finally deal decisively with this curse of pariah state. As things stand Zimbabwe is ruled by a regime that does not have the mandate to govern since it rigged last year’s elections. So the immediate first step to dealing with our pariah state problem is to get the illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down. 

Zanu PF must step down for three good reasons:

1. the party rigged last year’s elections and, per se, has no mandate to govern. For the last 39 years we have allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and rewarded the party with absolute power; this set a very dangerous precedence and one we must now end. 

2. by step down Zanu PF will create the political space for the appointment of a independent body the nation can entrust the key task of implementing the reforms. We need the reforms implemented if we are ever to break the vicious cycle of Zanu PF rigging elections. It is naive to trust a Zanu PF regime or GNU in which Zanu PF is playing a leading role to implement any reforms because Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office. The 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to get even one reform implemented. 

3. If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in office, for whatever reason, until the next elections, whenever that happens to be; we can be 100% certain that the party go on to rig those elections. After 40 decades of rigged elections the greatest gift this generation can give to ourselves, our children and posterity is delivery free, fair and credible elections. This is why getting Zanu PF to step down and implementing the democratic reforms is the holy grail of this generation. 

Zimbabwe Christian Heads of Denominations’ (ZCHOD) call for Zimbabwe to suspend the holding of elections for seven years is but a clumsy attempt to grant the illegitimate Zanu PF legitimacy by the back door. All the political turmoil the church leaders are concerned about and from which they now seek seven years of peace were caused by Zanu PF’s failure to hold free, fail and credible elections. Whereas the nation had made the tragic folly of reward Zanu PF with political power for five years after each rigged elections the church leaders want to reward the regime with seven years with no elections. 

In other words the ZCHOD’s proposal is nothing but an appeasement to Zanu PF, even more generous than the appeasements the regime has received so far. When we should be striving to end the folly of rewarding Zanu PF for rigging elections, reason a) above, we are being pulled in the opposite directions. 

Deputy Government Spokesperson Energy Mutodi called the ZCHOD’s proposal “foolish and irrational” and even denounce them as “false prophets, Baal prophets”. Some well known Zanu PF apologists have gone one step further and suggested that it is MDC leaders who are behind the proposal, implying only MDC will stand to benefit and not Zanu PF.

This would not be the first time Zanu PF has denounced something which the party was actively promoting, just to mislead the naive and gullible. 

It was all smoke and mirrors Zanu PF trick, the party wanted the new constitution approved. It was none other than Mugabe himself who had “dictated it”, as Paul Mangwana, Zanu PF co-chair on the parliamentary committee that drafted it, boasted after the March 2013 referendum. The new constitution was approved by a staggering 95%.

For Mnangagwa, the illegitimate label has been hanging round his neck like Samuel Taylor Coleridge's albatross round the mariner’s neck. The albatross round Mnangagwa’s neck is rotting and, needless to say, he is desperate for a way out. The church leaders are offering Mnangagwa a chance to legitimise his rule now and not having to face another risky election process for seven years. 

Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis has dragged the nation to the very edge of the economic collapse and social and political instability. The nation is facing stack choice either we demand than Zanu PF steps down so we can finally end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. 

Or we foolish continue with the policy of appeasing Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF thugs, whose insatiable greed for power and wealth landed us into this mess in the first place,  whilst they drag the nation beyond the point of no return! Of course, it is insane to go down this path, especially with the mountain of evidence of the disastrous consequence of 39 years of travelling the same.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka