By
Blessing Vava
 |
| One man race-President Mugabe voting for himself in a sham election pitting himself |
The month of March 2013 will
mark exactly five solid years since the country held the historic harmonised
elections whose result for the first time in history were not in favour of
Robert Mugabe and his party ZANU PF.
Unlike the previous polls, it was a relatively peaceful poll with less
incidences of politically motivated violence and many Zimbabweans expected a
new government to take over from ZANU PF as indications from the ground
signalled a lose by the Mugabe regime. That election taught us about the power of
masses, it was a protest by the masses of Zimbabwe that they were tired and had
lost confidence in the Mugabe administration.
It was a big NO to a stale economy, corruption, looting, dictatorship,
violence, and intimidation all which had been the core characteristics of the
ZANU PF government since they took over Harare in 1980.
Not anyone in ZANU PF probably
expected a rejection from the electorate they were confident of securing a
victory. In fact the election result
left them in a state of shock and by that time they were clueless because they
never imagined losing an election. However, apart from losing that election,
the MDC aided ZANU PF to resuscitate itself. The MDC surrendered the people’s victory by
failing to claim victory as evidenced by its leadership including Morgan
Tsvangirai who fled the country to Botswana instead of running to state house.
During that time the masses were energised they were very much prepared for a
new government led not by ZANU PF but by the MDC. The people were prepared to
defend democracy, what was needed was a leader that would invoke revolutionary
spirit amongst the electorate and assure them they would ‘walk and live with
the masses.’
To much shock and surprise the MDC lacked a clear plan to
take over the state and they gave ZANU PF space to breathe again. The reaction
was largely that the MDC entered into a race without expecting to win. As if
that was not enough, the party pulled another shocker by pulling out of the
runoff election a week before it was conducted. The move to pull out was a
betrayal to the thousands of Zimbabweans who were beaten, incarcerated, killed
in the run-up to that June 27 make-believe. Seriously how do you pull out on
the eve of an election without a strong basis of doing so? ZANU PF’s electoral
mal-practises were reaping the negative on its bid to retain power -violence
had ceased to work in Zimbabwe’s body politic and I bet my last dollar that
Mugabe was not going to win that election. "We have resolved that we will no
longer participate in the violent, illegitimate sham of an election process. We
will not play the game of Mugabe," Tsvangirai had said at a press
conference in Harare on 22 June 2008. The irony is that little did he know that
the people had precisely protested to this electoral fraud earlier in the March
polls and with the intensification of violence between April and June the MDC
was assured of a resounding victory
Now in 2013, the talk of
elections seems topical with the MDC now being the loudest in wanting polls despite
having many disadvantages. It’s really surprising that they are so confident
that this time again they are going to form the next government yet they have
not corrected the mistakes of 2008 and made more blunders thereafter. In 2008,
they managed to get more votes than ZANU PF because the masses were energised
to their cause but still they sold the people’s victory by failing to demand
the keys to state house.
The MDC has systemically shied
away from its founding principles in the process alienating itself from the
broader Save Zimbabwe ‘former’ alliance partners namely the worker’s, the
students union and the NCA who backed their campaign in 2008. The support they
received from the three partners is unlikely in this year’s polls. This time
around it will be a different ball altogether, there is discord in the
structures, the masses are lukewarm. The
corruption, looting by councillors will also be a determining factor. In short it is the performance of the MDC in
the inclusive government which has been disastrous and dangerous which will
cost them dearly. Their stay in government has exposed them as a party
incapable of forming the next government. Despite warning from the Freedom
House survey that showed the party losing ground from its traditional support
base, the MDC chose to lash at empirical evidence.
The biggest travesty committed
by the MDC was its betrayal of its founding principles epitomised by the constitution
making process for the country. Instead
of pushing for a people driven process as articulated by the founding documents
they desperately tried to convince alliance partners, the ZCTU, NCA and ZINASU
who were strongly against the flawed politician driven process that the process
was a good one.
That’s where they lost it all, they were
short-sighted and wanted immediate power as they argued during that time that a
new constitution will get rid of Mugabe.
So funny how they imagined that ZANU PF was sincere in that short space
of time considering that it was the same party which had maimed, raped, killed
and jailed MDC supporters in the last decade, despite this trend continuing in
the GNU the MDC chooses to cast a blind eye. Apart from that the MDC has become
so much comfortable in government and have since deserted their party
headquarters and they now speak in comfort of their government offices while
the party structures are in shambles and the party more isolated than before.
The imposition of candidates
will cost them in the elections, they need to rethink and allow for democratic
processes like the holding of primary elections if they are serious in claiming
a victory over ZANU PF. What is baffling
is that the party lost the Redcliff seat in 2008 after this imposition, with
party supporters disenchanted that they threatened to stab Tsvangirai who had
to flee for cover. The current attempts to defend the imposition of candidates
by culturalising it is folly and alien in the founding documents of the party,
it will only serve as an on-go giving ZANU PF electoral advantage. The MDC
should not fool themselves into believing that this time again they will easily
wrestle power from ZANU PF in the elections. This elections is no longer about
chanting slogans but issues-based-leadership responses and implementable policy
frameworks meant at curbing corruption, taming and eliminating dictatorship
within the party and at a national scale, democratising the authoring of a new
people driven constitution, real economic resuscitation and growth, provision
of genuine health care and quality education to the masses inter alia
sustainable job creation guaranteeing minimum wages and salaries.
They must go back to the
drawing board and re-adopt the founding principles, spirit and letter to the
party’s formation in order to re-energise the masses to their cause, without
which it will be a catastrophe to enter into a race where the electorate is in
doubt and demobilised. The only certain thing at the moment is that the masses
of Zimbabwe no longer want a ZANU PF government.
NB-Views
expressed in this article are purely personal.
Blessing ‘Vuvuzela’ Vava is a blogger who
writes from Chipinge and can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com or 27849686624
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