Its 11 Days Still Zimbabweans Are Waiting To Exhale

Its 11 days after the polls closed the ZEC have only announced the parliamentary and the senate results, there are no signs of the Presidential result. What has become very clear though in the days gone since the nation dumped Zanu PF for change on the 29th of March is the fact that Mugabe and Zanu PF have no intention whatsoever to relinquish power despite suffering a humiliating defeat to Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC. When MDC participated in these elections they did so with a heavy heart, after collapse of the mediation talks brokered by Mbeki at the behest of SADC, Mugabe just gave MDC three months to prepare for the harmonised elections which elected Councilors, MPs, Senators and the President all in one go. MDC pleaded for the elections to be postponed and Mugabe refused, if that was not enough Mugabe and his illegal government then drew up new boundaries of constituencies reducing the number of constituencies in urban areas at the same time increasing the rural constituencies that they purportedly thought supported them as a strategy to their unfounded myth that MDC is only an urban based party. Despite MDC's misgivings that too passed, then came the threats from Chihuri Zimbabwe's Chief of Police that they will not allow puppets to rule Zimbabwe in reference to Tsvangirai and MDC and his counterpart at Prison Service Zimondi urging prison guards to vote Mugabe and Zanu PF. Zanu PF continued to dominate the state-run media, on the other hand Mugabe was busy vote buying giving doctors cars and farming implements to the rural folk, printing money to increase the wages of civil servants from soldiers to teachers. As always Zanu PF maintained the culture of violence and intimidation, though the incidences never gained media attention does not mean it cannot be mentioned ask Knox Danda the MDC candidate for Zvimba who was placed under house arrest by his compatriot the Zanu Pf candidate Nelson Samkange the former Governor for Mashonaland West, two weeks prior to that half of his house had been burnt by Samkange's hired thugs the police as usually refused to know. Mugabe had also refused International observers to monitor the elections and banned all foreign media he opted instead for African based observers such those from the SADC who endorsed the election as free and fair meaning that his illegal claim to power will be without the backing of his African brethren. Since 2000 Mugabe's claim to power has been through rigged elections, political violence, harassment, voter intimidation, abductions, unlawful imprisonment, using food as a political tool and killing of political opponents all orchestrated by the state. This year's elections proved difficult to rig mainly due to a pre-election agreement that of posting the results outside every polling station as agreed during the failed negotiations between MDC and Zanu PF. So instead of waiting for the partisan body which had served its master so well to announce the results, MDC collated and even photographed all the election results and pre-emptied ZEC's announcement making it impossible for them to fiddle with the figures as they had done since 2000 in favour of Mugabe. As all the results of the 2008 harmonised elections were posted outside the polling stations a few hours after the polls had closed what Zimbabweans were awaiting was the official acknowledgment that indeed Mugabe and Zanu PF had been beaten by Tsvangirai and MDC respectively just as they did in 2000, 2002 and 2005. If MDC knew that they were victors hours after the polls had closed so did Mugabe and his Zanu PF that they had been beaten. The drip-feeding of the election results that accompanied the announcement of the parliamentary results and the senate only served to confirm the obvious that Mugabe had lost dismally at the polls and the announcement of one MDC seat for every Zanu PF one was meant as a damage limitation exricise in the face of Zanu PF's defeat. Today 10 days after the polls closed the nation is still waiting for the announcement of the Presidential election results officially. MDC has had to file urgent petition with the Zimbabwean High Court to force the ZEC to announce the poll results which ZEC has known since last Saturday. What is baffling about this whole depressing scenario is that Zanu PF through its propaganda mouthpieces (The Herald & Sunday Times) are already gearing people for a Presidential re-run even though the results are unknown there even talks of a Presidential ballot recount on what figures are they basing these claims and why should Zanu PF's meeting before the announcement of the Presidential results have a bearing on the actual Presidential results? You can pick clues like for instance Zanu PF has already endorsed Mugabe as their candidate for the run-off and vowed to fight all the way, how do they know there is going to be a runoff? In a true fashion to drama there has been a twisting scenario, Mugabe's illegal government arrested and charged 7 officials from the ZEC for allegedly doctoring results in favour of Morgan Tsvangirai. Yet the composition of ZEC is made up of securocrats handpicked by Mugabe's henchman (Bonyongwe, Chiwenga, Chihuri, Zimondi & Shiri), vetted extremely to make sure that only those that will toe Mugabe's line are employed. Who would have thought that Mugabe known for rigging every election would cry foul over an election body that he himself picked up. Mugabe has always maintained that Zimbabwe is a democracy now he finds himself in political corner with little room to escape.

We also have a the mobilsation the of the military elements of Zanu PF mostly young men in their twenties that purport to have fought in the liberation war to free Zimbabwe from white settlers that have already started to unleash violence (the 75% effort that they said they did not apply before March 29), invading farms as I write 100 farms have been invaded in a space of 3 days. Its the reverse of the purported return by white farmers that the government propaganda newspapers will have had you to believe, its in fact the return of the dreaded farm invasion in the guise of land redistribution that characterised the 2000 & 2002 elections and led the widespread hunger and famine that have engulfed Zimbabwe since then. There are only 450 commercial farmers left that have dwindled from 3000 just before 2000, there has been immense pressure on those left to provide food for the Zimbabwe's 7.3 million people. Zimbabwe will soon run out of food within weeks as the farm invasions stop the maize harvest in mid-flow and threaten the future of wheat crops with only four weeks left for planting. Zanu PF must know this and are doing so in order to deliberately starve the people that voted them out of power and at the same time dissuade them from voting Tsvangirai if ever there is ever going to be a runoff.

Mbeki does not care about Zimbabwean people the victims of Mugabe's ruinous rule, from the 6.5 million that face food shortages to the 3000 victims of AIDS that die every week in Zimbabwe, neither does he care about the 4.5 million that have forced to flee their homes in search of political and economic refugee, he does not care about Zimbabwe's world record inflation of 400000%, it does not matter to him if the life expectancy in Zimbabwe has dropped to 35 for men and 34 for women. Even though he hawked to the Western governments tirelessly his Marshall Plan inspired renaissance of Africa called NEPAD, it does not bother him that the constitutional crisis incurred by Mugabe's refusal to concede defeat in the presence of irrefutable proof that he lost is an affront to democracy and good governance the very cornerstone of his NEPAD dream. Thats why he was quick to stop international intervention in Zimbabwe thats could have halted Zimbabwe tipping over as it staggers on the edge of precipice. Its no doubt that Mbeki was against regime change in Zimbabwe, early in 2000 Mugabe told Mbeki that MDC was a puppet of the British people bent on re-colonising Africa, he believed it as the bible truth, it never occurred to him that after 20 years of mediocre achievements that masked Mugabe's rule the people of Zimbabwe wanted change. When the violent farm invasions , the political killings and persecutions were at their height, Mbeki met Bush of America in South Africa whom he assured all was well in Zimbabwe we are getting the two sides to talk to each other blah blah blah, he told the same bare faced lie to The Commonwealth as he was part of the Troika tasked to seek solution to Zimbabwe's political crisis. He also used he rotating Chairmanship of the UN Security Council, that South Africa held in 2005 to block the UN intervention in Zimbabwe following Mugabe's depopulation of urban areas by cruelly destroying homes and livelihoods of more than 2 million people in guise of urban clean-up called Murambatsvina which was indeed a precursor to rig the 2008 harmonised elections as the very same people had voted MDC since 2000. Then when Mugabe unleashed his goons on more than 60 opposition leaders including Morgan Tsvangirai which left him with a suspected skull fracture, the SADC tasked Mbeki to broker talks between MDC and Zanu PF which broke down in December. Its plain to see that Mbeki supports Mugabe and Zanu PF, not only does he offer no loud criticism in his so called "Quite Diplomacy" he also provides Mugabe with the financial support they so desperately needs. Yes its true that Mbeki can force changes in Zimbabwe if he really wants, just like his predecessor did during apartheid. When the world got tired of Smith they imposed sanctions which were only circumvented by South Africa's support. The then South African President Vorster keen to get American to support on their apartheid policy fell for Henry Kissinger's promise that he would support him if he helped bring down Smith's regime in Rhodesia, so in 1979 South Africa stopped supplying the Rhodesian government much needed gasoline which was crucial in Rhodesia's fight against the black freedom fighters. Smith was forced to start negotiations which culminated in the Lancaster House Conference which in turn gave birth to Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe today relies a lot more on South Africa than Rhodesia did, almost 60&% of businesses operating in Zimbabwe are South African Owned, the largest being Delta Corporation which part owned by SAB Miller. So Mbeki can do something if he cares for the people of Zimbabwe other than those that he seeks to protect who are cushioned from the everyday life of agony.

As for Africa, its a bit optimistic really to think that Africa will come to the aid of Zimbabweans. Africa is littered with dictators who will not say a word for fear that they might encourage political change in their own countries. If you did not read my piece I wrote last year click below to grasp why Africa Finds It Hard To Support MDC, it will make you understand why its hopeless to think that SADC or AU will come to the aid of Zimbabweans. Western condemnation of Mugabe has no effect on his behaviour it enhances his anti-colonial icon.

However, Zimbabweans are a remarkable nation which that has avoided a lot of violent clashes, genocides that have characterised conflicts in Africa, we have been resilient in the face of extreme provocation, we have done everything peacefully in order to avoid being tagged as violent thereby give Mugabe an excuse to unleash his dogs of war on unarmed civilians. Let me take you back again to the height of political persecution and farm invasions that started earnestly in 2000, the world's attention was diverted by other events, there was America's September Eleven, then when Mugabe bulldozed the homes of more than two million people, Britain and America were invading Iraq. Now Zimbabwe again has the media's attention what will you do to help the people of Zimbabwe. Our families, friends and fellow country men and women did they part to vote Mugabe out of power, only for him to engineer a scheme to steal the will of the people. Zimbabweans all over the world are waiting to exhale, we might never say shoo if the world does not help remove Mugabe who has becoming like an albatross on our necks threatening to takes down with him.