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Was Egypt’s election of Morsi a mistake of majority will? Is it not the same Egyptian majority that elected Morsi, that now sees him so unceremoniously and undemocratically deposed?

What did they not know about him and his Muslim Brotherhood party’s record then, that now displeases them barely a year later? Was their will so ignorant then, to only be enlightened now?

They beautify his ouster and the coup that deposes their duly elected president. Their irony is applauding a military intervention against the democratic authority they gave to Morsi. Egypt signed for democracy with ink upon ballot papers, only to now recall it with the barrel of a gun. This thing, democracy? But enough about Egypt. We can only observe, to learn.

We have more pertinent matters in our own home were we must determine our momentum for democracy. Our majority must cast its will over candidates now presenting themselves for a seat in government.

But we are not called upon to merely draw ink upon ballots and cast votes are we? Our will must be well informed. The question that must provoke its free electoral expression is, “Upon what track record shall we exercise our democratic will, to sway it in favour of one candidate/political party against the other?”

We must look deeper than the words and writings in political manifestos now launched, behind their promises that charm our hand to be ushered into five year political matrimony. There must be more, upon which our will is to be won over to guarantee political and economic sustainability.

The manifestos of the two main parties seeking to charm our majority will are founded on promises of an economic nature. Ours is an economic vote, of confidence in one economic policy against the other. We must look then to the speakers of those promises, the drafters of the manifestos. It is their credibility that must win over our electoral will, their track record.

Zanu-PF’s record is that of struggle, an endeavour always for the emancipation of the indigenous majority. It is within that party’s DNA, a habit, a political way of life that always manifests itself in national matters, for the majority’s national interest.

Hence our past decade has been shaped by Zanu-PF’s economic ideology. They led in land reform now acknowledged to be reaping harvest for the new majority black farmers. They lead in indigenisation already evident in its economic benefits to a majority within communities and to employees.

During the launch of his party’s manifesto on 5 July 2013 President Robert Mugabe summed it all up, that “The essence of Zanu-PF’s ideology is to economically empower the indigenous people of Zimbabwe by enabling them to fully own their country’s God-given natural resources and the means of production to unlock or create value from those resources.

The Zanu-PF manifesto speaks of the party’s economic policy that has been certain, unchanging in its pursuit for real socio-economic guarantees and prosperity for the indigenous majority. Meanwhile its MDC-T rival’s economic ship has remained inconsistent. At the heart of the MDC-Ts economic ship has a western compass that has dictated our course, always navigating us into tempests, casting our indigenous economic aspirations against the rocks, to be shattered for the west to make pickings on the rich cargo that is our vast natural resources.

The MDC-T launched its own manifesto on July 7 2013, promising yet another 100-day economic turnaround and the benevolence of Western donors and investors. Tsvangirai does not learn does he, having been bundled back home empty-handed after similar promises when he became Prime Minister in 2009.

Mr Tsvangirai promises to convene an international conference to mobilise financial support from broke Western economies which in fact want to secure their economic revival on our resources. Tsvangirai would trade our billions in natural resources wealth for jobs that will end upon exhaustion of those resources. That is the baffling wisdom of the MDC-Ts manifesto.

The MDC-T’s manifesto amounts to economic fraud, promising economic prosperity to our indigenous majority yet would have our natural resources and means of production retained in foreign hands, in the name of respecting ill gotten property rights.

MDC-T has no credibility, to be our economic guarantor? They have lacked any sense of indigenous good will and patronage, instead played to the hand of western interests.  Their conduct and record reveals an MDC-T party born suckling the thumb of crisis, wreaking havoc within our indigenous majority to gain political power.

Crisis was MDC-T’s first cry at birth, a sharp shrill that has chilled this nation’s political and economic spine. The MDC-T’s pursuit for so called “democratic change” has been drawn on a blue print of crisis. They have sought to entice souls frightened by their gospel of despair and doom.

Like vultures they have sought rich political pickings on our tormented souls. Tsvangirai and his lot have forced Zimbabwe into crisis mode.
Faced with the resolve of a nation that pursues economic emancipation the MDC-T aligned itself with western economic interests against which we have sought economic emancipation.

Unlike Zanu-PF, which in 2000 aligned itself with and led the majority’s economic empowerment pursuit in the form of land reform, MDC-T hastened to Capitol Hill. There they conspired in the imposition of sanctions legislation that has had this country in economic crisis for more than a decade.

They sowed economic crisis, all calculated to cause our majority to “scream”, which screaming was designed to echo political tremors. Our screams in economic pain were to cause a political crisis against a Zanu-PF government whose economic policies had become a threat to American interest.

The economic crisis that sanctions nurtured was to put our indigenous majority on collision course with the Zanu-PF government. Remember Morgan Tsvangirai, telling a nation in economic despair at the height of sanctions that we had not suffered enough yet, that more was to still come.

He knew of the extent of the economic crisis his party had played a hand in. He knew of the health care and education collapse, the destroyed livelihoods he hoped would provoke a political crisis calculated to depose Zanu-PF from government and place him and his party in the seat of political power.

Now he thinks us fools to believe his party’s manifesto that they will remedy in 100 days what their sanctions destroyed in a decade. Chikwambo chipi chinongosimuka chikaenda chambodanwa mumusha? Our economy requires more than a 100-day exorcism by those that imposed the curse in the first place.

The MDC-T sought to thrive politically upon our sanctioned economy and the socio-economic crisis it had amplified by its NGO and human rights defender allies. It was like a chess game, upon which our entire nation was to be manoeuvred into a humanitarian and human rights crisis.

Having failed to depose of Zanu-PF on the back of political crisis, a human rights crisis was embarked upon to build a case justifying western intervention through the Security Council. It has been indeed a decade of MDC-T orchestrated crisis, their hand always capacitated by Western economic interest.

Fifteen years into its political life, four years of which it spent in the inclusive Government, the MDC-T has refused to be weaned off its crisis daily bread. Faced with elections against a rejuvenated Zanu-PF whose economic policies are winning over the people the MDC-T again preaches crisis.

Now it is electoral crisis. They demand electoral reforms at this final hour, having sat idle and fattened in a four-year-long inclusive Government.
Their NGO allies allege “shocking voters roll”, strategise to flood the courts with election litigation in preparation for a disputed election result, after an anticipated MDC-T loss.

They courted Sadc, hoping for its intervention to stop an election spelling doom for their political careers. From Mozambique they returned claiming a disgraced Mugabe, that Sadc had confirmed an election crisis at hand. It was another fraud calculated to sow confusion chaos within the electorate.

But then their crisis gospel has not dispelled July 31 2013 has it, a date for which they so hastily prepare while screaming foul. They would allege the coming rape of the election result yet still dress up to attend and indulge that fateful date.

But the will to be expressed is ours isn’t it, our indigenous majority. We are now well informed aren’t we; well aware of the ideologies, conduct and intent of those that would have such will swayed in their favour upon economic promises.

It shall not be a mistaken will that is to establish our new economic democracy
Unlike in Egypt, our army shall stay its hand, remain in their barracks. They shall simply observe, take note and reassure our new indigenous economic democracy that shall begin to take strong root come 1 August 2013.

Rangu Nyamurundira is a lawyer and indigenisation/empowerment consultant based in Harare.