Make your vote count on July 31

In June 2008 there was a belief that Simba Makoni had a chance of winning the Presidential election. People invested their votes in him. He garnered 8.3% of the valid votes. It turned out that these votes were the difference between Tsvangirai winning a majority in the first round and the country going to a run off. There are clear parallels between the situation in 2008 and the situation obtaining in 2013.

I am not suggesting that in 2008 Simba Makoni was a bad presidential candidate but that he was not a viable candidate. He did not have a realistic chance of winning the election. The coalition between Welshman Ncube and Dumiso Dabengwa creates a situation similar to the 2008 scenario. It brings into the election a presidential candidate with little or no chance of winning the 2013 election; a candidate whose share of the vote will be small but significant in stopping the march to a new Zimbabwe. There are people who are planning on investing their votes in Welshman Ncube as a presidential candidate. While there is nothing to suggest that Ncube is a bad presidential candidate there is clear evidence that he has no realistic chance of winning the July 31 election. Whether we like it or not this election is a two horse race between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. The other candidates are just spoilers. This has nothing to do with abilities or inabilities of Welshman Ncube as a candidate but reflects the realities on the ground.

Recent utterances by Dabengwa in Chikomba should concern all those who are trying to vote for change. At a rally in Chikomba Dabengwa claimed that he supported Makoni in 2008 in order to block the imminent win by Tsvangirai. Dabengwa is reported to have said, “I think we achieved what we had set ourselves to achieve and that is to make sure Morgan did not win that election…” One can read in this that Dabengwa knew that Makoni was not going to win election but wanted to stop the march towards a new Zimbabwe. Dabengwa has chosen to endorse and support Welshman Ncube knowing very well that he has no chance of winning the presidential election. Is this another attempt by Dabengwa to stop Tsvangirai from winning the election? I believe it is.

I advise the people of Zimbabwe not to vote for Welshman Ncube as a presidential candidate. Our target in this election is to stop ZANU PF from winning power again. We should not help ZANU PF in rigging these elections by voting for Welshman Ncube whose agenda is to stop Tsvangirai winning the election. The selfishness exhibited by Dabengwa in 2008 appears to be the same selfishness driving Ncube in 2013. Dabengwa hoped to get into government through the back door by ensuring that there was no overall winner of the 2008 presidential election. It would appear Ncube is hoping for a similar outcome.

Voting for Welshman Ncube is voting for Robert Mugabe. While the people who will vote for him are not directly voting for Robert Mugabe they are definitely giving Robert Mugabe an advantage. I know that all people who are planning to vote for Welshman Ncube want change; they want a new Zimbabwe. The people voting for Welshman Ncube are patriotic Zimbabweans who are fed up with ZANU PF rule. It is for these reasons that they should make the difficult decision to support the only viable alternative to Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai has enough nationwide support to defeat Mugabe. No other candidate in this election has the national stature to win against Mugabe. Despite loud pronouncements that Ncube is in this election to win it, we all know that he can only come a distant third to Tsvangirai and Mugabe. Dr Simba Makoni has put the nation before his ambition and has endorsed Morgan Tsvangirai. Makoni is arguably the best President that Zimbabwe never had but he is not selfish. He knows that the democratic struggle is about removing the thieving, corrupt and murdering ZANU PF regime from power. He also knows that the man capable of removing Robert Mugabe at this present time is Morgan Tsvangirai. He is the most popular political party leader in Zimbabwe at this time. That is why Dr Makoni has chosen to support Morgan Tsvangirai.

A friend once said ‘I absolutely hate Morgan Tsvangirai but I am going to vote for him and the MDC in order to remove ZANU PF from power’. This is the attitude that Zimbabweans need in this election. In order to make our votes count against ZANU PF we must vote for Morgan Tsvangirai in the forthcoming elections. All those who want to see change in Zimbabwe must cast their vote for Morgan Tsvangirai. Make your vote count!

No more slogans

As Zimbabwe hurtles towards another election whose outcome is likely to be contested I sat down to reflect on the political journey that we have been on for more than thirty-three years. The Zimbabwe that we helped bring to life has not turned out the way we thought it would. Like midwives Zimbabweans prepared for the delivery of the new country. We were there during all stages of pregnancy, labour and the early postnatal period; a community of midwives with each of us doing our part in bringing about the birth of Zimbabwe.

In 1980 the baby finally arrived. We were ecstatic. It was, therefore, fitting that at the ‘baby welcome party’ a legend performed to welcome this special baby. Bob Marley did not just perform but he also wrote a special tribute to the new baby. The song ‘Zimbabwe’ sums up what drove communities - men, women, young and old – to take up arms against a system that made them second class citizens in the land of their birth. The opening lines, ‘Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny, / And in this judgement there is no partiality’ were poignant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7g-niDevcU

Once we were free we started the difficult task of transforming our nation, the laws, the public services, the education system, the health system, etc. We did a brilliant job in those early years; major improvements in education and health led to the improvement in the quality of life for all Zimbabweans. The five year development plans and other slogans summed up what we were trying to achieve as a nation. Then we caught the bug; the bug that infects those who have been in power for too long – self-preservation and the desire to keep power at all costs. The tune changed. It all became about slogans- ‘Pasi na…’, ‘Pasi ne…’, ‘Pamberi na…’, ‘Pamberi ne…’ etc. The baby turned on the midwives! Instead of transforming lives the government now focussed on preserving power. Action was replaced by slogans and jingles – we were sucked into a cultist support for those in power.

As we reflect on the last thirty-three years we now need to say to the party that has ruled us for all this time – slogans will not be enough. We need to make it clear to them that we do not eat slogans. For thirty-three years they have stripped us of the power that we fought for; they have lined their own pockets from the public purse. For more than thirty years they have used slogans to entice us to support them; those who refused were beaten, maimed or killed. Chenjerai Hove deals with the idea of sloganeering effectively in the Mail and Guardian article titled ‘Zimbabwe's war of empty slogans’. Hove poignantly observes that, ‘As the country faints under heavy economic and political burdens, the politicians would rather punch the air with empty slogans and worthless promises that are so unrealistic  that even illiterate villagers wonder how a politician can be so dumb as to promise a bridge where there is not even a  river.’

It is now time to say we will not be swayed by empty slogans. Zimbabweans need to demand actions rather than slogans; they need to demand the right to determine their own destiny. We must not allow the violent slogans to distract us from our collective search for the freedom that we fleetingly enjoyed in the 1980s. Some politicians believe that Zimbabweans are stupid, passive and incapable of seeing through their empty slogans. It is now time to say ‘We won’t take your slogans no more!’ We need to state clearly that we are not going to be swayed by violence, threats or slogans – we are going to be swayed by policies, ideas and actions. I have written elsewhere about the need for us to disabuse ourselves of the notion that we are unable to change our situation. Once we reject the sloganeering and we vote for policies and practical ideas then we will force our politics and politicians to change.

It is to the legendary Bob Marley that I turn to once again. His song ‘Slogans - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZSihzPBt2A ’ says,

  Wipe out the paintings of slogans all over the streets (ooh, ooh, ooh), confusing the people while your asphalt burns our tired feet.

 I see borders and barriers, segregation, demonstration and riots (ooh, ooh, ooh),    a-sufferation of the refugees, oh-oh, when, when will we be free?

We can stop the asphalt burning our tired feet, we can refuse to be confused by empty slogans, we can refuse to be divided by a cabal of politicians’ slogans and we can take down the ‘borders and barriers’ that stop us working as a collective to achieve real freedom. The answer to Marley’s ‘When will we be free?’ lies in us refusing to be used, refusing to accept empty slogans and in working together. The individuality and selfishness promoted by belonging to political parties needs to be subservient to the needs of our country. We must sing like Marley:

Oh-oh-oh, we can't take your slogans no more,

 can't take your slogans no more,

 can't take your slogans no more,

 no more sweet talk from-a culprit,

 no more sweet talk from the hypocrites.

As Hove states, ‘When Zimbabwean parties campaign, they usually produce a chain of newly invented, juicy slogans and clever political sayings rather than persuading voters with substantive issues, analysis of community and national problems and solutions.’ For a long time we have allowed ourselves to be sweet talked into voting people into power; for a long time we have taken slogans without question. We need to vote for people who engage with the substantive issues of our time; those who diagnose community and national problems in order to come up with practical solutions. The time has come to say to our politicians ‘Can’t take your slogans no more!’

It is difficult to believe in Kick It Out

For the ‘Kick It Out’ Campaign to be effective black players have to believe in it...

Most football managers in the English Premier League have criticised Reading’s Jason Roberts for refusing to wear the Kick It Out warm up T-shirts. The thinking seems to be that all players and managers should support the campaign even though it has clearly failed. Black players are the victims of racism in football. To force them to support a campaign that has clearly failed in its mandate is to misunderstand the reason why the campaign was set up in the first place. Listening to Sir Alex Ferguson talk about how he was embarrassed by Rio Ferdinand’s refusal to wear the T-shirt you would think that he is the one whose family has been subjected to twelve months of abuse. As I watched Alex Ferguson’s interview in which he promised to punish Rio Ferdinand for daring to stand up for his personal beliefs I realised how it has escaped our largely white male football managers that black players are the victims. Alex Ferguson does not seem to care that, despite denials Rio Ferdinand’s England career was effectively ended in order to prolong John Terry’s. Very few commentators believed Roy Hodgson when he said that Rio had been left out for ‘football reasons’. It seems to have escaped him that Chelsea FC chose the first weekend of the Kick It Out campaign week to announce that John Terry would remain their captain. What message does this send to black players in the game? What message is it sending to our children? What does it say about the commitment to eradicate racism in our football?

Premier League managers need to come down from their high horses to realise that this campaign has become a joke. Even those black players who wore the warm up T-shirts have no faith in the campaign. Most did it for fear of being subjected to disciplinary action by their clubs. At Manchester United they probably feared the famed hair dryer treatment from Sir Alex. If his reaction to Rio Ferdinand’s snub is anything to go by then God help any player who chooses to go against Ferguson’s wishes. As a black person, if I was a footballer, I would not wear the disgraced T-shirts.

There is a feeling among football fans in some sections of society that the FA kicked John Terry’s disciplinary case into the long grass for almost a year because they wanted him to play at the European Championships. The revelations this week that the police and the Crown Prosecution Service did not tell the FA to delay their disciplinary proceedings against Terry lend credence to this conspiracy theory. The four match ban also reinforces the view that the FA treated Terry with kid gloves. The way the John Terry case has been dealt by both the FA and Chelsea FC leaves a lot to be desired.

The Kick It Out campaign has shown that it has neither the power nor the influence to bring about change in the plight of players suffering racist abuse. When the campaign’s name changed from ‘Kick Out Racism from Football’ to just ‘Kick It Out’ it may have lost its focus on racism. Kick It Out helps those in positions of authority at different clubs in England and Wales to feel good about themselves because they are doing something about racism in football. The fact that the organisation is a toothless bull dog does not matter because clubs can point to the campaign as leading the fight against racism in football. Fighting racism is not about T-shirts or about campaigns. It is about attitudes; about actions. Clubs should not force players to do what is against their conscience just so that they feel good about themselves. This is too serious an issue to be trivialised like that!

This madness must stop

Robert Mugabe’s God complex is beyond ridiculous. We all know that he believes that he was divinely ordained to rule over Zimbabweans; that his supporters and cronies believe that he is the messiah but this law that forbids us from calling him whatever names we choose is manifestly stupid. A Stalinist law that stops Zimbabweans in a free and independent Zimbabwe from candidly criticising the Head of State of their country has no place in a democratic society. Even the messiah was called names.

In the past year many Zimbabweans from all walks of life have been arrested and charged for insulting Robert Mugabe. Many have languished in police cells for weeks or even months just for sharing their honest opinion of Robert Mugabe. Many opposition activists, MPs and political leaders have been picked up by the police for calling Mugabe names. And yet ZANU PF wonders why Zimbabweans have deserted their party in droves! The people of Zimbabwe have no interest in a leader who has ‘an unshakable belief characterized by consistently inflated feelings of personal ability, privilege, or infallibility’. They do not want a leader who refuses to admit the possibility of error or failure, or who regards their personal opinions as unquestionably correct (Adapted from Wikipedia). They want a human being who accepts that he can fail and that people have right to criticise him.

Why shouldn’t we be able to say ‘Mugabe is old and senile’ or ‘Mugabe must go’ or ‘Mugabe chibva; Mugabe chifa; Mugabe chienda’? Why shouldn’t we wish him dead to avenge our relatives, friends or colleagues who were killed by his supporters for refusing to support him? Is there any justification for a law that protects an individual from criticism when they occupy the highest political office in our land? Mugabe’s hubristic view of himself has created the mess that Zimbabwe faces today and we should be free to call him ‘stupid, deranged, or old’. If we want to pray for his death then so be it. If we want to engender feelings of hostility towards or cause hatred, contempt or ridicule of the person of Robert Mugabe or make abusive, indecent or obscene statements about or concerning him then it is a free country. That is what we fought for. That is why we supported the liberation struggle. We did not participate in the liberation struggle to engender the supremacy of an individual or group of individuals; we participated to create an egalitarian society in which all men (women) are equal.

We have allowed Mugabe to get away with so many things. It is now time to tell him that he is not a god or a messiah; that we will call him whatever we please because Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.         

Now they are on top!

Much has been written about the recent Freedom House/ Mass Public Opinion Institute opinion poll survey which has shown that ZANU PF (ZPF) is now, arguably, the most popular party in Zimbabwe; that Robert Mugabe will easily win the next election against Morgan Tsvangirai. The survey shows that Mugabe has a 12 point lead on Tsvangirai. The caveat is that 40% of the respondents to the survey refused to reveal their voting intentions. It is not clear whether those polled are registered voters or what impact the fear of political violence has had on the results. There are people on both sides of the debate who have dissected and analysed the results of this survey as well as the implications of this survey on the Zimbabwean body politic so I will not go down this well trodden path. I want to focus on the impact these results could have on the philosophy, policies and actions of ZPF. I present here a very hypothetical scenario!

ZPF has used coercion and violence since the 1985 elections. On the explicit instructions of the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe people were ‘evicted’ from their homes in Glen View, Glen Norah, Highfields and other high density suburbs because they were suspected of being supporters of Nkomo and Muzorewa. Violence and intimidation have been ZPF’s modus operandi and have progressively become worse as their fortunes waned. Those who have had the misfortune of being the target of ZPF thugs will know that they were prepared to do anything to shore up their party’s fortune. Many civil servants in rural areas were forced to buy ZPF cards, attend ZPF rallies and to contribute financially to the upkeep of the party in order to be safe. Refusing to do so was a death wish. At one point the MDC even encouraged its members to buy ZPF cards as an insurance policy against violence. Now that they have a double digit lead in the opinion polls the time has come for ZPF to renounce violence; to disown Chipangano, rogue war veterans and other merchants of death. ZPF has used the intelligence, defence and security personnel from the CIO, the ZRP and the ZDF to terrorise people in cities and villages into voting for them.

Now they are on top! They are, arguably, the most popular party in Zimbabwe so we expect them to build on this momentum without resorting to violence. If ZPF believes the results of this survey and if they believe that their ‘star’ is rising once again then they will stop intimidating people into supporting them. If Mugabe is sure to win then there is no need for violence. We can now look forward to the party not trying to stay in power through manipulating the Constitution making process or deploying violent thugs to beat people into submission. We can now look forward to elections where soldiers stay in the barracks; where the police are defenders of people rights rather than violators of human rights. This survey gives ZPF an opportunity to redeem itself by fighting elections on the basis of ideas rather than fists, knobkerries and machetes. As the most popular party in the country they know that the majority of the people support them so they just need to consolidate this support without burning people’s homes.

The silver lining to these results may be that Zimbabwe can be healed from the violence that has blighted our nation for more than ten years. The results of this survey give us a chance to have a peaceful general election. When the MDC was the top party in Zimbabwe they didn’t need to force people to attend their rallies. People attended even at great personal risk because they supported the party. ZPF, having made a spectacular rise to the top of the rankings, will no longer need to round up people to attend their rallies; they will no longer need to force teachers and school children to attend their rallies. People will come because they genuinely support the party. But it all depends on ZPF. Their actions will tell us whether the results of this survey are to be believed. If violence and intimidation of political opponents continues then Zimbabweans will make their minds up as to whether to believe the results of Freedom House/ Mass Public Opinion Institute opinion poll. We live in hope.