"THE RIGGING OF ZIM ELECTIONS!" by Rev M S Hove.

The rigging of the Zimbabwean Elections (2000 to 2007)

 

Preamble:

 

I think the fact that the Zim Elections were being systematically rigged from the year 2000 to date is one that has either to be accepted or contested.

 

It can never the duty of a single individual to relate how the Elections were (and are) rigged in Zimbabwe .

 

Then there are  also the following questions:

 

What difference does it make if we get thousands of witnesses giving their testimonies?

 

Will Mr Robert Mugabe then resign?

 

Will it change the manner in which Mr Thabo Mbeki handles the Zim crisis?

 

Why are Elections Rigged?

 

1. Elections are rigged because it is believed that if they are done in a completely "free and fair" manner, a certain "undesirable' resilt will arise.
2. They are also rigged because the "undesirable" contestants command a clearly greater support than the Establishment are "comfortable" with.
3. Elections are therefore rigged because the Establishment is under certain pressures. They have to hold Elections to gain credibility but on the other hand they would be "out of power" if they did not engage in various nefarious activities to suppress the true will of the people!

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FORMS OF RIGGING!

 

Please note that I have to promise that everything I will write in this submission is "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!"

 

I have to promise this because many of you may be shocked at the things that I will mention!

 

FIRSTLY:

 

The MDC is described as a group of "sell-outs"who have been bought by the former Colonial Powers.

 

Any students of Revolutionary Movements know that to be labelled a "sell-out" is the same as being sentenced to death. Any member of the Public who abuses, harms or even murders an identified "sell-out" is not only protected but also commended by the Establishment!

 

In my submission "THE THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES OF A FORMER ZANU-PF CADRE", I tried to highlight that Robert Matibili (Mugabe) has always "destroyed" (or to use his own words-"CRUSHED") all his "opponents" presenting them to a simplistic, gullible Electorate as "sell-outs" and "saboteurs."

 

We can go back to Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Dr Joshua Nkomo, the Rev Ndabaningi Sithole and Mr Edgar Tekere.

 

 Mr Morgan Tsvangirai should have expected the same treatment when he formed "THE MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE."

 

Unfortunately for the MDC, although they had millions of workers and peasants on their side, the other forces that combined efforts with them included employers and commercial farmers.

 

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the MDC getting support from the widest spectrum possible! Only ZANU-PF got a field day "soiling" them with their favourite "SELL-OUT" LABEL.

 

One can read the true version of events that led to the formation of the MDC from a submission entitled "THE SAD STORY OF THE MDC (1999 to 2006)" which one can get the link thereof at www.finalpushzim.blogspot.com .

 

The NCA ( The National Constitutional Assembly) successfully mobilized the Nation to reject the ZANU-PF  Constitution early 2000. ZANU-PF then claimed that the Nation had been misled into rejecting that Draft Constitution because the "whites" had seen a clause on the Land Issue!

 

This was too simplistic for any serious intellectual to believe!

 

No black person (not even one) would refuse that the land issue had to addressed sooner or later!

 

The main "bone of contention" was the post of Executive President with its immense powers which Robert Mugabe had been seen periodically abusing and there were other clauses which needed repealing or modifying.

 

 

When ZANU-PF tasted "NATIONAL REJECTION" for the first time since their coming into power in 1980, then the very worst was waiting for the "Opposition Forces!"

 

ZANU-PF held an Emergency Congress at the resort town of Victoria Falls .

 

This Congress was the "water-shed" where ZANU-PF had to "pull up their socks" because they had seen how far "the enemy" had gone into the "house" while everyone was "asleep!"

 

All the evil strategies of "crushing" the MDC were discussed there!

 

The very fact that the MDC was labelled as "Blair's Formation" ("svikiro raBlair") justified any evil method that was used to "crush" them.

 

The psychological aspect of the rigging stems from the fact that the survivors of the Liberation War of the 70s and the "Fifth Brigade Massacres" of the 80s knew what it meant to provoke Mugabe and ZANU-PF to anger.

 

That in itself is enough to woo a sizable number of votes (esp in the rural areas) to desist from even thinking of voting for any other Political Party except ZANU-PF.

 

 SECONDLY:

 

ZANU-PF then started to draft lists of farms for "compulsory acquisition". Lists of names of "beneficiaries" flooded the State-owned "The Herald" and "The Sunday Mail."

 

The MDC was therefore presented as the misguided Movement which was committed to derail this noble revolutionary thrust.

 

The MDC did not make the situation any better by their issuing conflicting "Policy Statements" as far as this "disastrous so-called 'fast-track' Land Acquisition Exercise" was concerned!

 

BUT I DO NOT BLAME THEM AT ALL!

 

ZANU-PF was too desperate and they were doing their things too quickly and too violently and there was no room for a "cool-headed" look at the results of these "revolutionary" activities.

 

Morgan Tsvangirai's warnings that these haphazard methods of "rectifying the Colonial Imbalances" would have disastrous consequences were deliberately distorted to the perplexed, confused Nation as words from "Blair's Mouthpiece."

 

Prof Jonathan Moyo sarcastically called it "HIS MASTER'S VOICE."

 

Tsvangirai's statement that "vanhu vari kungomera sehohwa pese-pese" ("settlers are just 'mushrooming' all over the Commercial Farms") was presented to the Electorate as words from an "insensitive, misguided sell-out."

 

Now….as they say… "The chickens have come home to roost" and Tsvangirai's "prophecies" have all come true!

 

THIRDLY:

 

The presentation of quotes without presenting the whole context is a very favourite ZANU-PF trick!

 

Relying on the fact that the majority of Zimbabweans do not have access to OTHER Media outlets, ZANU-PF "doctors" their presentations and then "distort" the so-called "quotes" so that their own intended meaning is the resultant "menu!"

 

For instance, when the MDC Leader in 1999 said, "WHAT WE WANT TO TELL MUGABE TODAY: GO PEACEFULLY OR WE WILL REMOVE YOU VIOLENTLY!"……what's terribly missing is the context!

 

What was the content of the whole speech?

 

Why had Mugabe to be removed?

 

Even now millions do not have a copy of the whole speech. I,personally, would be grateful to have the whole speech so I can post it to my website!

 

So before we look at the PHYSICAL forms of rigging, we must appreciate the PSYCHOLOGICAL side!

 

The (mainly, urban) supporters of the MDC were therefore presented as "vanhu vasina kuiona hondo" ("people who did not see the Liberation War") who therefore had the luxury of being "sell-outs" without awareness of the consequences of taking this posture.

 

Above all, they were "spoilt" by the white man and did not see themselves as anything beyond being the white man's servants.

 

The primary slogan was, "UTHAND 'UKHULINYELWA!" ("YOU WANT OTHERS TO PLOUGH AND PRODUCE FOOD FOR YOU!")

 

These simplistic slogans are what confused even CDE Thabo Mbeki, and apparently that's where he is still "stuck" up to now!

 

@@@@ next….THE PHYSICAL FORMS OF RIGGING!@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

 

 

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