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JOHN MWALE • mwalej@yahoo.com
Subject: THE SHARP CORRECTION WILL BE A SHOCK FOR PRESIDENT ROBERT G.MUGABE.
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:19:52 • In a blatant act of bravado, to highlight to all who care to note the fact he is still very much in business, President Mugabe last month announced the election date for 2008, 29th March. To those of us who have longed for peace and stability the 29th day of March should be the cornerstone of the wearisome times and I for one would like to call the day SUPER SATURDAY.
For a politician who has become used to plotting an ever-rising curve on his personal, political wealth graph, the 29th of March should herald President Mugabe’s demise and we as voters should ensure through our choices that the day marks the start of a sharp correction and a shocking one. One senior political said: Mugabe has fought his way up from small beginnings so he knows how rough it can be out there.’ It is time he felt the pinch.
For the last two and a half decades the name Mugabe has become a by-word in the political arena. And after years of playing the political world and establishing sound relations with his colonial master with an aplomb that earned him admiration and envy in equal measure, what until a few years ago had looked like lucrative economic and political strategies has gone spectacularly pear shaped.
We need a competitive culture, the most vital part of moving to democracy. The task at hand for the candidates is daunting. They now have to puddle-hop from town to town and province to province, covering vast distances in perhaps hired 4x4’s a desperate reflection of a less well-funded party, constantly adjusting schedules to take account of the latest polling and budget constraints. The campaign will get nastier, the TV advertising will get more negative, the speeches will get more grandiose and the press coverage more confusing. Despite the country’s economic problems, state media reported last month that the ruling party had bought 220 vehicles for the election campaign.
Over and above this, in a proclamation published in an extraordinary government gazette, 8 February 2008, President Mugabe got his party backing to extend his reign over Zimbabwe.
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Factionalism-Will the Leaders Lead?
Indeed, the history of ZANU-PF has been about strategies to co-opt potential opposition rather than any attempts to share power. At a time when the Opposition has gone from strength to strength factionalism is the last we want. A united front just for the 29th and not beyond will even aggravate the situation and bring with it political vexation. For us who share the agony and anguish caused by the Mugabe’s regime, we are calling for a United Front not only for the 29th of March but for the future.
We hope that a Unity deal for a complete political and leadership visibility, will work-out between its two rival factions after an acrimonious collapse last month. With that the only way we are going to render Mugabe and his team good for nothing is through boosting voter confidence in the party and leadership, and by setting out a clear message about the United Front and what it is set to achieve for the betterment of the future. Until all is clear, voters will withdraw and may result in Mugabe’s electoral procession again. We need votes from the supporters – MDC supporters. About 5,6 million Zimbabweans have so far registered for the polls in which Mugabe -- who turned 84 last week and has ruled since Independence in 1980 -- has been controversially endorsed as the ruling party’s presidential candidate that the reason why want the day to mark a sharp correction and a shocking one.
Organisations such as Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) have called for urgent refocus on the planning if the elections are to be held successfully in March. It also calls for urgent measures to ensure an environment conducive for the holding free and fair elections to be put in place. It is ZESN’s considered view that, politically and administratively, the situation is inimical to the holding of credible, legitimate, free and fair elections.
I have decided to throw my enthusiastic support behind Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). I therefore, hope before God and Man that the campaign leading to Super Saturday the 29th of March will peaceful and will herald great achievements in favour of the opposition. After all has been said and done the meetings and rallies ended, and the voting open and public, in that, every voice will be heard. Every individual has the potential to change Zimbabwe’s Political and Economic situation.
PRESIDENT MUGABE MUST NOT JUST GO, BUT SYSTMATICALLY OUSTED.
WRITES: JOHN MWALE
MDC SECRETARY (INTERIM COMMITTEE) BOURNEMOUTH BRANCH
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