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Richard R Mahomva-Correspondent

The ideological clarity to re-collect, remember and re-possess national dignity must be mutually supported by a great deal of strong political will to disconnect from neo-colonialism. 

There should be Africa’s confrontational standpoint in dealing with imperialism whenever it shows its ugly head in our affairs. 

Zimbabwe won’t turn the other cheek 

The bold response to the European Union (EU) 2023 Election Observer (EOM) Mission Report by the Government crystallises this important point.

The Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Dr Jenfan Muswere’s remarks reflect Zimbabwe’s condemnation of colonial condescension by the EU EOM. 

In clear terms, Dr Muswere declared, “The Government is aware of the colonial traditional reactionary aspersions of those perennially inclined to subvert the will of our people by misrepresenting facts about Zimbabwe’s political environment before, during and after the elections”. 

The maturation of our democracy as underpinned on its nationalist inceptions must be the defining merit for why we go to vote. 

Dr Muswere further posits, “Do you think we are having elections to satisfy the European Union aspirations? We have elections to strengthen our democracy. So we do elections in order to consolidate our democracy … in order to support self-determination and not to please the European Union. While posing as the moral beckon of democracy, the same EU was at the centre of electoral fraud and clandestine hobnobbing to steal the election in favour of their preferred surrogate party and proxy.” 

To this end, Dr Muswere made it known that, “Government is fully aware of the EU EOM’s irregular nocturnal meetings with opposition political players outside conventional election observation parameters. 

“We also know that the EU EOM disbursed campaign funds to a particular opposition party in flagrant violation of the Political Parties Finances Act. We also have substantial evidence of the EU EOM’s clandestine operations with other Election Observer Missions (EOMs) for the purposes of manipulating their reports to discredit the election outcome.” 

Such a position inspires confidence that Zimbabwe is still on the right path in disentangling its national question from institutions that have perennially undermined Black dignity. 

While our Government took the initiative to invite the EU to observe the 2023 harmonised elections, our national dignity and the integrity of our processes must not be disparaged to justify why a preferred political of colonial actors lost elections. 

The West’s preferred political outfit is characterised by endless fights emanating from the absence of structures and relevant internal governing principles, hence the recalls by the Sengezo Tshabangu of the CCC.

The Tshabangu wave and impediments to democracy 

As by-elections triggered by CCC factional wrangles have been declared, it is imperative to underscore the need for political party registration to be made compulsory in terms of the law. 

This is also influenced by the need to arrest the financial implications of the recall fiasco happening in the CCC. 

The current recalls emanating from the factional wars of the opposition and its disorganisation crisis serve as an assault to our democracy. 

Moreover, the blame transfer for the internal fights in the opposition to ZANU PF is reputation damaging to the ruling party. 

It is noted with concern that ZANU PF is the biggest victim of these recalls as it is forced to engage in financially straining campaigns to win the seats made vacant due to this unrestrained menace. 

This victimisation also extends to other political parties in Zimbabwe. 

Parliament business is also being sabotaged, subsequently creating a constitutional void which should have been avoided had the opposition respected the integrity of the arms of the state. 

To prevent this, a law must be instituted to regulate all parties to have structures and leaders.

It is a disservice to our democracy to have political players whose participation in our national process cannot be institutionally accounted for. 

This goes against common tenets of the law as each entity or grouping existing in any state must be a legal persona. On the contrary, the CCC is constitution-less, leaderless and structureless.

 The CCC is an embodiment of anarchy which has been allowed to defile the sacrosanct personality of our national democracy. 

Therefore, normalcy must be restored to our political playing field with immediate effect if the electoral system is to protected from its current vulnerabilities owing to the absent of a law that eradicates such flagrant threats to democracy. 

Without that decisive action, Zimbabwe’s democracy is under danger and it takes patriotic courage to salvage the nation from this quagmire. 

The CCC internal contradictions disenfranchise the will of the people expressed through the recent harmonised elections. The recalls are also a cost to the public given that some constituencies have to undergo fresh elections.

 The logistical burden of this exercise falls directly on the tax payer and this is abusive to the citizenry, hence the need for government to protect the public from this grand prejudice. 

The continued election-mode snaring antics have a potentially overarching effect of delaying focus on accelerated policy implementation by the Second-Republic. 

Therefore, a law must be put in place to arrest this mischief. 

However, President Mnangagwa must be commended for his consistency in delivering on the aspirations of national development in the context of these circumstances. 

Given the multi-pronged effect of the CCC factional fights and their threat to national interests, the Government must take stern measures to ensure that political parties operate within legally prescribed parameters. 

This will be important in restoring dignity to our national democracy.

Richard Runyararo Mahomva is the Director International Communication Services, Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services. He writes in his own capacity.