apartheid Pretoria Botha regime sent insurgences to destabilise Zimbabwe, decolonisation and democracy.

Zimbabwe like South Africa is a sovereign country and they remain “sister” countries and members of Sadc.

During the reign of Thabo Mbeki, Tshwane or Pretoria maintained what was regarded as quiet diplomacy despite being pressured from all angles to take a hardline stance against Harare.

Mbeki, a more experienced statesman and his advisors were well versed in what is meant by state sovereignty. What must be understood and pointed out from the onset is that Presidents Mugabe and Jacob Zuma are two different leaders with different leadership styles.

It will be a serious error for any Zimbabweans in their right frame of mind to allow President Zuma to dabble into Zimbabwe’s internal affairs and wittingly or unwittingly influence the date when elections must be held.

The crux of the matter is that President Mugabe has to abide by the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court. People within Zimbabwe or outside, citizens of this country or foreigners; must not forget that Zimbabwe is a sovereign state and Sadc is an Inter-governmental organisation and so can-not have power over a state.

To say “with or without the court ruling an election roadmap has to be agreed before elections are held” is political romanticism and utter nonsense and naiveté that Zimbabweans will never agree to.

Zanu-PF as a political party has always respected the Constitution and this explains why it allowed multi-partyism and the holding of elections regularly which in itself is one of the major tenets of a democratic country.

In 2008, Zanu-PF revolutionary party participated in the election despite all odds that were meant to foster regime change. Supermarket shelves were empty, the western-sponsored media was in overdrive demonising the party for the “economic crisis” that had engulfed the country and yet it was a crisis that had been engineered by Britain and its allies.

Inflation was like a dog with rabies let loose while many people were hungry and angry.

Zanu-PF had indeed been forced into a corner but it agreed to participate in the election when it knew fully well that it was committing political suicide.

The party only had to thank all progressive Zimbabweans who did not turn their backs on the party during these trying times.

Zanu-PF had to agree on an election runoff since none of the presidential aspirants had garnered the required votes to occupy the highest office.

What is surprising is that the opposition is already saying that it is too early for elections when they are supposed to show not only the region but the international community that they are the ‘party of the moment.’

The truth of the matter is that they know that they have already lost the election.

MDC has made a lot of blunders and the electorate is definitely going to punish them. How can a party leader say that when he gets into power he is going to close government owned print media, and reverse the land reform programme and the indigenisation and empowerment exercise? This is indeed an injury to the pride of all progressive Zimbabweans, something that must never be allowed.

Ambuya Nehanda prophesied that her bones “would one day rise” and they did.

This is why we are enjoying the fruits of the liberation struggle. We would be dupes to allow even some of our own to mortgage our heritage for a few pieces of silver.

Our heritage is ours and it must be defended and the Security Sector is part of the equation. Our Security Sector has got every right to see to it that this remains a reality.

For Tsvangirai to say that he can reverse the gains of the revolution is not only nonsensical. His careless utterances are in fact the connotations of a political charlatan who is speaking from the political grave yard of fools and sell-outs just like Moise Tshombe and Morrison Nyati.

All progressive Zimbabweans who have sound minds in sound bodies must never allow such insults on our departed heroes and heroines. The Security Sector must ensure that Zimbabweans enjoy the fruits of their hard won liberation struggle that our gallant sons and daughters died for.

They must be allowed to rest in eternal peace. Dear reader, what is the essence of trying to follow stupid advice from a political party whose support base has continued to wane?

Zimbabweans have realised that the MDC-T is a political party that is retrogressive, suffers from political and economic amnesia explaining why it has to be ideologically foreign fed and not visionary.

Its record is there for all to see. What have they done since they joined the inclusive Government?

Let them tell the electorate.

They are simply an elite political party that does not understand the needs of the common man and woman in the street.

What they were simply good at was telling the general populace to embark on mass stay-aways that crippled industries. They were advocating a scenario were the economy would be grounded so that Tsvangirai would be the ‘hero’ of the day.

This is why he wanted to create images of people dying of hunger in his speeches, terrify them so that they would go into the streets and he would march to the state house foolishly smiling from ear to ear.

The truth is that they have remained strangers to the electorate who erroneously voted for them.

They have not yet come to grips with the fact that treachery is an evil and dishonour to all who are involved in it.

They must know that “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again and that the land is the economy and the economy the land.” They have never tried to think how these slogans came to be put forward.

They were put forward in the light of Zimbabwe’s specific conditions, on the basis of the recognition that Zimbabwe is still fighting against a neo-imperialist onslaught.

Zimbabwe through the visionary leadership of President Mugabe has been very bold and has extricated itself from the West’s avowed relationship of estranged poverty.

Through the 1st 2nd and 3rd Chimurengas, the message has been loud and clear, we cannot continue to be collectors of water and wood, we refuse to be employees but employers.

Zimbabweans under the guidance of President Mugabe have become educationally and mentally liberated and cannot allow themselves to be under any economic, political or mental servitude. This is what distinguishes Zimbabweans from other Africans in the Diaspora.

This is expressed in the educational, political and economic form of emancipation of the Zimbabwean people.

The economic and political and mental emancipation in Zimbabweans contains the yearning for universal African emancipation for all those who are still to be proud of themselves, who are yet to stand as a people with dignity and be beneficiaries of their own God given resources.

It must be noted that fighting against mental, economic or any other form of exploitation is like being vaccinated. One must be brave enough to overcome the storm and the stress of struggle until one becomes victorious.

Paradoxically one develops greater immunity from disease as a result of vaccination.

All progressive Zimbabweans must therefore democratically shake themselves off the influence of domestic and foreign reactionaries through the ballot. The Western sponsored MDC-T has already shown signs of having lost legitimacy in the eyes of all progressive Zimbabweans.

Because of incompetence, poor performance and corruption there has been undoubtedly an erosion of popular support that they had enjoyed in 2000 and 2008.

People no longer have political ‘cataracts’ that had almost politically blinded them and also the political fog that had engulfed them has since cleared.

There is internal turmoil and fissures within the party and this explains why the so called MDC-gurus are very reluctant to go for elections. The party has also been rocked by what is known as a political discordant syndrome.

This is a western sponsored syndrome whereby married couples belong to different political parties because they have irreconcilable political ideological differences. Does this not explain the pathetic voter turn up during the MDC-T primaries?

This is the same with what happened in one African country where a father was the president of a political party.

The father had six children and on the morning of the election, the husband, the wife and the six children all went to cast their votes.

When the election results were announced what was intriguing was that this man’s party had a single vote. You can imagine who had cast that vote and yet each claimed that he/she was the one who had cast the vote.

At one point the late Zaire leader Mobutu Sese Seko during an interview was asked what happens to a can of worms that is shaken.

His reply was that “if you shake a can of worms you get dizzy worms.” In the same fashion what do you think happens to a shaken and terrified Western sponsored political party?

Arguably a terrified and shaken political party that has been shaken to the bone marrow would definitely cry foul and come up with a lot of excuses to try and delay an impending political exit.

The machinations by the MDC-T and other like-minded political parties are therefore not surprising but then they can-not go against the Constitutional Court ruling.

It is the right of every Zimbabwean citizen to participate in the forth-coming elections that can never be moved to October 2013.

They might try to garner support from everywhere, be it in the country, regionally or internationally but they must not be oblivious to the fact that the decision of a thousand fools or more will never equal that of a single wise man.

A citizen’s right can therefore not be reduced to some kind of experimental or emotional right as dictated by the aspirations or appetites of certain political leaders. It must be understood that justice is arguably a product or expression of human nature and justice can be analysed in terms of rights.

The rights of the citizens must be respected; the Constitutional Court showed that the rights of even a single Zimbabwean citizen must always be upheld after all Noah in the bible proved the majority wrong.

Mr Jealousy Mawarire won the case justifying why the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe must announce the dates when the harmonised elections must be held. This should be before the end of the life of parliament on the June 2013.

It should be known that MDC-T, Dr Dabengwa’s Zapu and Dr Simba Makoni’s Mavambo are not the only political parties in Zimbabwe. There are many political parties whose leaders and supporters do not want their right to vote to be postponed to October for political expedience of certain political charlatans.

The Constitutional Court’s judgment is therefore binding. We wish President Mugabe and all progressive Africans as well as the open minded others who are going to participate in the forth-coming harmonised elections well.

They must take heed of the late Vice President John Nkomo’s call that, “peace begins with me, peace begins with you and peace begins with all of us.”

Darlington N. Mahuku and Bowden B. C. Mbanje are lecturers in international relations and peace and governance with Bindura University of Science Education.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey