Good morning my fellow compatriots,
Zimbabwe was never a democracy, and it is still not a democracy.That means it would be foolish for anyone of us to have expected a Free, Fair and Credible election from ZANUPF.
It is known the world over that ZANUPF doesn’t do free, fair and credible elections.Instead of harping on about what ZANUPF did unfairly to the opposition, a clever people should be looking at what the opposition didn’t do to stop ZANUPF from doing what it did, in order to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
There are many people who today would want to lap onto populist narratives, but such narratives don’t make the opposition grow or become wiser or positively evolve.
A society remains in arrested development mode if it refuses to introspect on what it did, and what it could have done better in order to ensure better outcomes in the future.
Each election cycle, the opposition should emerge stronger, but that was not the case in Zimbabwe because the opposition and its supporters refuse to engage freely, fairly and more importantly, honestly.
One of my mentors, Dr Nkosana Moyo taught me never to say “but ZANUPF did this to me and that all my problems are ZANUPF centred.”
He taught me to take responsibility for the things that I have control over and not to expose myself to my enemy’s advantage.
He told me that ZANUPF has no obligation to make life easier for its competitors, critics or opponents, and added that it would be weird if it did so.
He used the English expression, “…all is fair in love and war,” to explain ZANUPF’s attitude towards its opponents, that is who ZANUPF is, and that is who ZANUPF will always be.
So when you are fighting ZANUPF, expect the worst conditions to prevail, that is who ZANUPF will always be.
One of Zimbabwe’s leading public intellectuals of our time, Dr Alex Magaisa also reminded us when he said;
“….think of the worst case scenario, and expect ZANUPF to do something worse than that.”
From Drs Alex Magaisa and Nkosana Moyo’s wisdom, we should have prepared for the worst case scenarios to come from ZANUPF.
Did we prepare, were we warned numerously about our state of preparedness, did we take such counsel seriously or we believed in divine miracles?
You see, it brings our quality of education into question if we always focus on what our enemy has done to us instead of focusing on what we should do to make sure that we don’t have a repeat of the past.
During the build up to this rigged election I asked just THREE questions based on the 2018 rigged election result, and I was insulted.
My questions were;
1. Does CCC have agents at every polling station?
2. Did CCC raise the required money.
CCC leader said that he had the money.
3. My third question was whether CCC had done scenario planning for the worst case probabilities like voter suppression.
All these questions were answered with one answer;
“There is a plan, this time Mnangagwa will never rig, relax.”
I am not a member of CCC, it is up to CCC to reflect on what happened and see how it progresses.
I personally refuse to be an emotional wreck over things that I repeatedly warned about.
A person who learnt nothing from the 2018 election lost 5 years of their life.
Today after Mnangagwa/ZANUPF’s rigged victories, Zimbabwe still doesn’t have a working radiotherapy machine, hospitals still don’t have medication, our inflation is still the highest in the word, unemployment is still at 95%, you still don’t have clean drinking water in your homes, Job Sikhala and Jacob Ngarivhume are still political prisoners.
This election was never about one man and his friends, it was about everyone, that is why we all cared and asked questions.
Diasporans will still need to send money home, that is why they cared and asked tough questions.
Learn whatever you choose to learn from this debacle, choose whether you want to evolve or remain in the ditch!
When you fall into a hole, don’t make life comfortable there, get out. Credit Hopewell Chinono