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Mugabe lost and he has to step down if the country is to move forward
Mutsa Murenje
May 05, 2008

Article 21 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in no uncertain terms that: Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. This has to be ostensibly because it is only the will of the people that shall be the basis of the authority of government. This will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures as Article 21 (3) of the aforesaid declaration also states. In this contribution, it is my innermost conviction that I have a patriotic duty to serve my national community by placing my physical and intellectual abilities at its service. For this reason, I would want to bring to the fore the fact that the geriatric and octogenarian dictator Robert Mugabe lost the presidential election to the charismatic, enigmatic and democratic leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai. There was just no philosophical justification to vote for Mugabe. Those would have been 'wasted- votes.

From the foregoing, it can therefore be deduced that presidential election results as announced by ZEC do not at all reflect the clear will of the people of Zimbabwe because of manipulation. The will of the people is to have an MDC-led government and to have Tsvangirai as its head. Some people in the opposition party (ZANU PF) started talking about election rerun well before the results were announced and yet the ZRP is keen to interview Tendai Biti for announcing the correct results of the presidential election! What hypocrisy! I would want to know what will happen to people like Patrick Chinamasa who told the media lies that there was no clear winner in the presidential election. My honest and candid opinion therefore is that accepting the results that were announced by ZEC is illogical at best and grossly irresponsible at worst. This regime has just gone too far. We can-t afford to have ZANU PF and the disgraced dictator as our representatives again. Never ever!

The problem with the rejected and ousted dictator is that he doesn-t fear anybody. For a leader not to fear anybody is, however, a terrible thing; it leaves society vulnerable to dictatorial tendencies in him. Mugabe has to be humbled by the fact that leadership is only a privilege given to us by the people we lead and not a natural right from God. While we can retire on our own, the people have also reserved the right to retire us and they have since exercised this right when they overwhelmingly voted for the ruling party (MDC) on the 29th of March 2008. We can-t have Mugabe forever. Moreover, it is a sad commentary to his legacy if we are to believe that he has failed to produce a successor for the 28 years he has been in power!

The people have spoken with one voice that the dictator-s time is up. With a unified voice we spoke because we all know, don-t we, that poverty is experienced by families and individuals rather than by countries or even regions. It-s individual people who may die of starvation, not entire nations. And yet we aren-t oblivious of the fact that the Mugabe regime has been greatly preoccupied with its own survival rather than the welfare of the people. The suffering we have been subjected to all these years is unjustifiable no matter what angle you look at it.

At the present moment more than 3000 people have been displaced and 10 or so people have also lost their lives in the hands of the murderous regime. A rerun of the presidential poll under these circumstances is therefore handing over victory to the despot and his despised regime. How many times do we have to repeat that Mugabe is now a liability to the nation? Ko iye zvaanogara achingopopota seakairwa ega hondo yacho? The immediate thing that we want as Zimbabweans is for Mugabe to step down for the country to move forward. The fate of a country cannot be left to one man. No matter how important! We have to defend our hard won victory with the assistance of the international community. I for one am prepared to do whatever it takes to save Zimbabwe from Mugabe and his murderous party. After all, one can die only once and it is better to die in pursuit of what is right. I put it to you dear Zimbabweans.

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