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The 2008 harmonized elections: Is it much ado about nothing?
Thomas Tirivangani, Africa Files
March 08, 2008

http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=17434

"You can understand people and relate to most people better if you look at them - no matter how impressive they maybe - as if they were children. For most us never really grow up or mature all that much - we simply grow taller. Oh, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still described by fairly tales."
- Leo Rosten

Change, this is the buzzword everywhere. The research I have been doing shows that in America today, the word change is spoken literally every minute. It-s a word and a vocabulary that hardly leaves the minds of people. It-s a very popular word. By the way, it-s not a word that was first coined by Barack Obama. But Barack Obama has given the word a new lease of life as he dares to bring hope for millions of Americans. Barack Obama has done what has never been in America before. He has, by just participating and coming this far in the elections brought change in America.

While America is gripped by the fever of the hope for change, I have been agonizing about the need for change in my country Zimbabwe. It-s been so painful for me to listen to many people talking about the possibilities of change in Zimbabwe. It is a change we all deserve. The fact that we need change in Zimbabwe is not debatable, as even Kindergarten kids in Zimbabwe know that change is what we need. We all know that our salvation as a nation can only come when Mugabe is out of the political equation, the sooner the better. But the disappointing thing that everyone is talking about the obvious, that they need change.

The missing wisdom about this whole issue is that, "given the prevailing circumstances in Zimbabwe is change possible?" Our hope should be placed on whether change is possible. I dare ladies and gentleman to hope about the possibilities of political change in our country in very difficult circumstances. To quote my famous friend, Albert Schweitzer, "to the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic".

There is a lot of idealism and illusion in this present election in Zimbabwe, which is not, informed either by knowledge of the candidates, the extent of the power the Mugabe regime wields and how elections are conducted in Zimbabwe. Do I want change in Zimbabwe? The answer is, yes. Is Change coming?, the answer is, yes and no. Do I, therefore, contradict myself? Judge it yourself as you read this article.

In hoping for change I choose not be naive, this is the only choice at least Zimbabweans still have where the Mugabe regime has literally strangled the institutions of freedom in the country. Although Mugabe tried, he has failed to discipline our memory; it-s too early for us to forget the happenings, between 1980 and 2008. Now the question I want to address is this, does the entry into the political contest by Simba Makoni herald a new era in Zimbabwean politics as projected by the international media?

Do we expect a new government after 30 March 2008? The truth of the matter is this no one knows except God. For now what we can do is good guesswork. But what must underpin our guesswork must be a serious knowledge of the political system in Zimbabwe and the dynamics of the electorate.

One of my professors, Upendra Baxi, a great human being indeed of our time, taught me that in all political debates, it is important to recognize that there is space between what politicians say and do, and there in that space lies who really politicians are. I personally do not know whether to congratulate Simba Makoni or condemn him. I do not know who he is, is he ZANU PF or not. I heard him with my ears telling the nation even at a time he declared to stand for presidency that he was still ZANU PF.

Apart from our knowledge that ZANU PF is a political party; ZANU PF is also an ideology. Making it simple, I mean it is a way of doing things. So hang on a second, is Simba Makoni still ZANU PF? The political posturing we have seen in the past few weeks, is it simple naivety or deception?

One of the big political problems in Zimbabwe is selfishness and self-centeredness. This is when political candidates think that it-s them who matter, their ability, or capability not the people. So as long as it-s me, people will vote for me. I do not think that people in Zimbabwe are naïve. Where was this people-s hero all along? I am told he was fired in 2002, so what stopped him from leaving ZANU PF then that is if indeed he has left. Why appear in a political contest a few weeks just before such a crucial poll. I believe it is to take the electorate for granted.

Is this the action of a leader, is this leadership when you sit on the fence watching and suddenly when you realize you can also make money you jump and start making noise. So whose candidate is Simba Makoni is he a creation of Kudzai Mbudzi and Ibbo Mandaza as it seems to appear from the press? If this is true this is very dangerous. This is the ugly monster of Zimbabwean politics we have been fighting against. Imposing candidates on the electorate and in the end expropriating the people-s right to choose who must represent them is typical of ZANU PF.

Coming to an election at midnight, is this kind of political sacrifice our hero, Simba Makoni has decided to make? Michel Foucault once said and this I believe is a fitting analysis to Makoni, "People know what they do, they frequently know why they do what they do, but what they do not know is what what they do does".

By simply throwing himself in the political contest, whether we want to accept it now or not, Makoni has made it difficult to remove Mugabe from power or if I am going to be candid, he has handed the election victory to Mugabe. By the way Simba Makoni is not the first person from ZANU PF to challenge Mugabe. Edgar Tekere and Margaret Dongo tried it. We remember what the people were saying then; but it came to nothing. People might argue that things were not as bad as they are now, so Simba can do it, it-s the right time. They could have been a possibility of winning this election by the opposition if there had been enough preparation and extensive lobbying among the voters.

The most dangerous thing in this election is a split vote. It is dangerous because it is a reality weighing against the wishes of the people to remove Mugabe from power. The voters who are backing Tsvangirai are the same voters who are backing Makoni. Will they translate into votes numerically important to unseat Mugabe from power? I doubt now. The great opportunity that had presented itself in 2008 to unseat Mugabe has been squandered by careless ambitions, faulty planning and thinking and selfish idealism even before the Election Day by Makoni and Tsvangirai. Even a few weeks before the elections the opposition appears confused and meandering.

It is not enough to be educated and smart; you need to be pragmatic, weighing your decisions and their implications before making them. Leaders know the timing and how to handle the timing. Leaders know the difference between reality and utopia. A mature leader also knows that his popularity alone is not everything but he must be bold with himself, confronting himself with reality each time when his popularity seems being inflated beyond what is real. When you squander that opportunity, there is no other one to come your way. Makoni has naively buried himself in political oblivion; we only have two weeks to witness this. What we needed was a winning margin that would have made it difficult for Mugabe to stuff ballot boxes.

We cannot talk as if our elections are free. Talking about free and fair elections in Zimbabwe is political hallucination. Mugabe has complete control on the election machinery. He controls those who are responsible for the delimitation exercise, those who prepare the voter-s roll, those who design the ballot boxes, the ballot papers, those who are going to decide whether you vote or not, what time you are going to vote, those who count the votes and those who announce the results, the police and the army. Unfortunately most of these people are very loyal to Mugabe. They benefit from Mugabe-s system and there is no indication that Mugabe-s cohorts are prepared to relinquish those privileges.

The other point that people who try tackling Mugabe forget is this: Mugabe is not just an individual. There is, apart from Mugabe the person, Mugabe the system or the ideology, and the cult that has many followers in and outside the country. Mugabe-s followers in the country are prepared even to kill people, rig an election and ultimately refuse any election result that does not favour Mugabe.

Simba Makoni came into the system at the age of 30 and now he is 57. Most of his political mentorship came from the system. For him he had the privilege to sit in a cabinet and politburo that failed Zimbabweans. Great Zimbabweans who worked with Mugabe could not agree and stand Mugabe both the person and the system, they left. Remember Prof Walter Kamba, Nkosana Moyo and Bernard Chidzero, just to name a few. Simba sat there and had the audacity to draw a salary from the system. He has no right to come and confuse the voters at a crucial time such as this.

If he had not been in this system for so long, we could easily have pardoned him, if he had come to the election earlier enough to give people enough time to look at his manifesto and question him on it, we could have been forgiving. He is relying on his past popularity but the people of Zimbabwe need someone who simply does not know what is wrong with the economy, but how to correct what is wrong. Inflation stands at 100 000%, no food, no jobs, no electricity, no freedom, no drugs in hospitals and people dying of curable diseases.

It-s a case of national bankruptcy. This is a serious challenge that requires serious leadership. Makoni does not have a team, is he ready to form a government?. Poor soul, he thinks he can do it alone. It-s not like that when you have got to confront the demonic powers in Zimbabwe. They say when you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. I felt so ashamed by the allegations of plagiarizing section 5 of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001.

Apart from this Makoni-s manifesto shows little knowledge or clout on how to change what is wrong, he is repeating the obvious and is lacking the mind of a good leader, who asks and answers the how question. For Simba, it-s too late for him to answer the HOW question, his campaign for presidency is case of naïve courage. Tekere, Dongo, Dabengwa, Kudzai Mbudzi, Ibbo Mandaza have no significant political influence at the moment in their constituencies, in fact they were rejected by the people in the last election. For me it does not matter whether one wants to argue that it is ZANU PF that made them loose; that is what they are. We feel betrayed, and betrayal this is what it is.

I will end this first part of my article with this story. "During the course of his duties in August 1977, a Dutch veterinary surgeon was required to treat an ailing cow. To investigate its internal gases he inserted a tube into that end of the animal not capable of facial expression and struck a match. The jet of flame set fire first to some bales of hay and then to the whole farm causing damage estimated at $45 000. The vet was later fined $140 for starting a fire in a manner surprising to magistrates. The cow escaped with shock". I do not know whether you will make of the story of what I did.

*The writer is a Zimbabwean Human rights lawyer, political activist, author, and commentator.

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