This second instalment of the ZBR comes in a week that has seen two notably interesting events that talk to the theme of the #2018Resistance. The first one was the statement issued by the MDC-T Youth Assembly wherein they said “Mnangagwa will never fool us” as they called for the restoration of legitimacy. The second one was the highly anticipated HardTalk interview of Professor Jonathan Moyo, and in particular the coup conspirators and terrorist junta’s efforts to postpone elections for three years.
By Honourable Patrick Zhuwao on 14th January 2018
For the #2018Resistance, the one common theme, albeit manifested differently, is the issue of understanding the message regardless of the messenger. The ZBR was particularly moved by the MDC-T Youth Assembly’s raising of the issue of Kudzai Chipanga who was arrested for calling on the robbers and pirates within the coup conspirators and military junta to account for the missing US$15 billion that they looted and plundered from the diamond fields of Marange. These young people displayed commendable principle by rising above partisanship to defend a fellow young patriot’s right to call even those with the machinery of murder to account.
Furthermore, the MDC-T Youth Assembly has correctly set itself the noble, progressive and revolutionary objective of restoring legitimacy. This recognition that the regime in power and control of government in Zimbabwe is illegitimate puts to shame several senior people who have been shamefully reticent about boldly declaring that the coup perpetrated in Zimbabwe is illegal. Hava svodi zvachose; they ought to be ashamed of themselves. The ZBR commends and congratulates the MDC-T Youth Assembly for performing better than such well-staffed and resourced institutions like SADC, the AU and the UN.
This approach by the MDC-T Youth Assembly has also contrasted quite significantly with some of the initial approaches that were taken by ostensibly more senior compatriots who chose to focus on Professor Jonathan Moyo as a person as opposed to interrogating the issues he articulated during the HardTalk interview. The season of kuitiswa (being played like a puppet) will continue with us as Zimbabweans for as long as we do not allow ourselves the opportunity to hear what the other person is saying despite having preconceived notions and prejudices about them.
The initial kneejerk reactions of dismissing Professor Moyo had to be revisited when Charamba confirmed that the issue of postponing elections was a major discussion point when the terrible twins of the coup conspirators and terrorist junta, Mnangagwa and Chiwenga, visited the MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. Charamba lied and sought to claim that Tsvangirai wanted the elections postponed.
In effect, the so-called postponement of elections is in reality an effort at the perpetuating an illegality. For Chiwenga and Mnangagwa to request such a perpetuation of an illegality is akin to a thief seeking to continue using and benefitting from a product that they would have stolen. It is incorrigibly deplorable. The ZBR can prove that the issue of postponing elections, and hence perpetuating a gross illegality, is an agenda of the coup conspirators and terrorist junta by making some observations and raising a few questions.
The impromptu visit by Chiwenga and Mnangagwa came after Mutsvangwa and Eddie Cross had an initial breakfast meeting at the Bronte Hotel that same morning to strategize on how best to convince Tsvangirai to agree to a postponement of the elections. Cross is one of the five renegade MDC-T legislators that the coup conspirators and military junta wanted to co-opt into government without the knowledge of the MDC-T as a party, let alone its leader Tsvangirai.
Secondly, the presence of Nelson Chamisa at the visit by Chiwenga and Mnangagwa raises the question on whether Chamisa has already been compromised by the coup conspirators and military junta. Chamisa was the only member of the MDC-T leadership who was at the meeting. The question of whether Chamisa is a Lacoste plant and mole in the MDC-T has consistently been gaining traction since the meeting between Tsvangirai, Komichi and Major General Rugeje where he pushed for the appointment of Chamisa as a Vice President in MDC-T. Is it true that when Tsvangirai dilly dallied about appointing Chamisa as a VP, he was put under immense pressure by Elizabeth? Could such a view of Chamisa as an undercover agent have been made worse by Elizabeth’s closeness to both Chamisa and Marry Chiwenga?
The view that Chamisa is a military project could also explain why Chiwenga not only accompanied Mnangagwa to visit Tsvangirai, but was the one who was taking notes of the election postponement meeting. Chiwenga’s view of himself as a political commissar par excellence, coupled by his lack of confidence in Mnangagwa’s capabilities, forced him to make sure that he was at this important election postponement meeting that was meant to buy an extra three years for the coup conspirators and terrorist junta. After all, Rugeje’s mission of having Chamisa elevated to VP in the MDC-T was a military project disguised by historical fact of Rugeje, Komochi and Tsvangirai having attended the same school.
I like Chamisa. Ndisekuru vangu vaChitova ava; he is my uncle. I am hoping that his presence at the election postponement meeting was a result of him being manipulated without his knowledge. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he did not realise that the coup conspirators and military junta wanted to create a narrative of him as the successor of Morgan Tsvangirai. I also want to believe that he would not agree to a postponement of the elections.
The Constitution provides, in Section 158 sub-section 1 paragraph (a) that elections must be held not more than thirty days before the expiry of the five year term of Parliament as determined by the date on which a President-elect is sworn in. This means that elections MUST be held between 23rd July 2018 and 22nd August 2018 since President Mugabe was sworn in on 22nd August 2013. That provision is peremptory and MUST be complied with.
A reality that the coup conspirators and military junta are painfully aware of is that they are unelectable. How can EDiots who had to roll out tanks after having lost a simple internal contestation within one political party even contemplate electoral victory in a whole nation with a multitude of opposition formations and voices? They are therefore pinning their hopes on a postponement of the elections. However, such a postponement requires an amendment of the Constitution.
The Constitution can only be amended by an affirmative vote of two thirds of the membership of the National Assembly and the Senate in terms of Sections 328. This therefore means that the coup conspirators and terrorist junta require the support of MDC-T legislators to have the elections postponed. They are hoping to hoodwink the MDC-T into supporting such an amendment.
However, the coup conspirators and military junta are also aware that Tsvangirai is not a fool; to borrow from a statement by President Mugabe during the Bindura Youth Interface Rally last year, “Hachina kupusaka Tsvangirai chiye”. An MDC-T that is led by Tsvangirai would not make the second mistake of supporting another project of the coup conspirators and military junta as they did during the military takeover only to be discarded without obtaining any meaningful concessions and real value.
Consequently, the coup conspirators and military junta want to influence succession within MDC-T by giving Chamisa the feeling that they can deliver the MDC-T Presidency to him. Chamisa would then be beholden to the coup conspirators and military junta such that he will deliver the MDC-T legislators to them for a constitutional amendment to postpone the elections.
The coup conspirators and terrorist junta are also worried that their continual purging of perceived G40 legislators will deny them the numbers required for the constitutional amendment necessary to postpone elections. This actually played out in the coup conspirators and military junta’s politburo meeting this week when Chiwenga attempted, without success, to persuade the Lacoste elements therein to desist from having the legislators recalled from parliament. He knew his strategy but the rest of them did not know.
The MDC-T Youth Assembly has provided very important lessons this week over and above the principled stand they have taken on the issue of Kudzai Chipanga. They have refused to be fooled by the coup conspirators and terrorist junta and called for a restoration of legitimacy. I hope that my sekuru Chitova Nelson Chamisa will also refuse to be fooled and call for the restoration of legitimacy by not being part of the subterfuge of postponing elections as we all contribute within our various spaces toward #2018Resistance.
Asante Sana. Mina lawe silom’sebenzi. Iwe neni tine basa
