ZANU PF YAKARUMWA NECHEKUCHERA

I had already made up my mind that I was going to vote for Emmerson Mnangagwa but for MP would vote for an MDC MP since we do not have a credible independent MP in our constituency of Goromonzi South. That was before Chamisa came up with his manifesto that was anti Palestine people and I decided that I would vote for a Zanu-PF MP. It is very difficult to be objective once you have chosen a side but at times something has to give. The opposition has been making a lot of noise about the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and I never took it seriously until the postal voting in Bulawayo involving the police and the recent interview between Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa and Justice Priscilla Chigumba. I have also taken note of what Christopher Mutsvangwa the War Veterans Chairman said about them not allowing Chamisa to assume power should he win the 30 July 2018 election.

A question I asked myself after pondering over the answers by Justice Chigumba in the interview, is the ZEC chairperson or ZEC itself free from government control and by extension free from Zanu-PF control? I looked to my past accounting studies for the definition of independence:

Independence is: (a) Independence of mind – the state of mind that permits the expression of a conclusion without being affected by influences that compromise professional judgment, thereby allowing an individual to act with integrity, and exercise objectivity and professional scepticism; (b) Independence in appearance – the avoidance of facts and circumstances that are so significant that a reasonable and informed third party would be likely to conclude, weighing all the specific facts and circumstances, that a firm’s, or a member of the audit or assurance team’s, integrity, objectivity or professional scepticism has been compromised (CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT FOR CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS)


In the insurance industry when it comes to a tricky claims adjudication that may or not involve non disclosure of material facts presented before an insurance contract was entered into , we have a similar measure simply called a reasonable man test. In simple terms would mean, if you call an ordinary and neutral person and present the facts of the scenario to him or her what would their interpretation be of the question asked at inception stage and the answer provided e.t.c? Given the conduct of ZEC would one say they are independent and care about competence. My impression is that the conduct of ZEC does not inspire confidence and they are not truly independent of Zanu-PF. Hopefully with the advent of social media citizens will be able to continue exposing any weaknesses in their systems and their conduct and shining light on all the deeds being done in the dark.

The more Justice Chigumba tried to explain the Bulawayo Postal voting the more I became worried, she kept on saying it is the law and it got me thinking. For god’s sake the justice is different from other people who have presided over our election since 2000, people such as Mariyawanda Nzuwa and Tobaiwa mudede, she is actually a judge of The High Court whose job is to interpret laws and deliver impartial judgements. My understanding is that Zimbabwe is a constitutional democracy and hence we have constitutional sovereignty and not parliamentary sovereignty. In simple terms it means laws passed by parliament such as the electoral laws if they violate the constitution they can be declared as invalid by our courts. This insistence of, “ it’s the law “, sounds hollow as we have heard it before for example Slavery was legal, Apartheid was legal and Holocaust was legal.  As the Justice herself does she think the process is fair and what is she doing to bring about confidence in the whole process?

Let us remind ourselves how we got here. On the morning Saturday 18 November 2017, I landed in Harare to a different atmosphere. Finally Robert Mugabe was on his way out and there was no going back. In the afternoon, I also participated in the demonstration to State House and it was a time of great hope. Zimbabweans of all social classes and races came together that day to demand Mugabe’s resignation. People were carrying photos of Emmerson Mnangagwa and General Chiwenga. These were our heroes as they were finally helping us to get rid of Robert Mugabe. Millions of Zimbabweans were resigned to the fact that Mugabe would rule us until his death and his crazy wife Grace Mugabe would take over and there was nothing anyone could do so we thought until the generals rolled military tanks on the streets of Harare. There was so much goodwill for Mnangagwa and Chiwenga the heroes of the moment.

The biggest opposition to Zanu-PF rule has always been the economy so many people assumed that when Mnangagwa became president he would put together a unity government for a few years and sort out the economy. In true Zanu-PF arrogant style he retained much of the dead wood from Mugabe era in the cabinet and put back Chinamasa in finance and announced that the 2018 elections would go on as scheduled. Chinamasa and Mangudya the authors of the bond note were now back in charge. The decision to introduce bond notes was not a considered decision as it has created more problems for the economy and I still maintain that it must be scrapped (http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/12/why-zimbabwe-needs-to-discard-bond-note.html . With elections around the corner it means money has to be found for campaigning, money that the country does not have. We saw chiefs getting new cars, increments for civil service, funding ZEC and a lot of other spending by the government. The budget deficit is getting wider and we are back to the Mugabe way of managing the economy.

The transfer rate in Zimbabwe is almost 1:2 and prices are rising in tandem and it might get worse and one is reminded of the immortal words from the late Morgan Tsvangirai, “Zanu-PF can rig the election, but they cannot rig the economy”. Now Zanu-PF is panicking but the problem is of their making. For money to pour into the country the elections must be free and fair but on the other end a free election means that Zanu-PF might lose power. How can a person sleeping in bank queue day in and day out vote for Zanu-PF. Already the election is not really free when one considers that millions of Zimbabweans will not be allowed to vote unless they come back to Zimbabwe. ZEC already is showing the whole world that it is not impartial.  Over the weekend I had a twitter exchange with a comrade and the consensus was whoever wins must win outright in the first round because if this election goes to a run off, the military will remove their mask and there will be pain.

I have to say I do not feel sorry for Zanu-PF as they are clearly panicking but this is of their own making. All I have to say to about ED, akarumwa nechekuchera, he thought he held all the cards. If he wins a disputed election there won’t be meaningful investment both from the international community as well as the diaspora community. Who wants to pour their hard earned money in a failing economy? I was not going to vote for Chamisa as he is clearly not qualified but now these are not normal times. If he wins he must assume power and our country can move forward.