Cde George Galloway MP, on 29 January 2013 - 05:30 PM, said:
MDC can never win free and fair elections in Zimbabwe
Dambudzo Mapuranga
There has never been an election which the MDC formation of Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai has voluntarily participated in. Instead each time there is an election the MDC leadership has tried by hook and crook to deny the people of Zimbabwe the right to go to the polls and choose their national leaders. Zimbabweans have been held hostage by a group of men who time and again have proved that their desired avenue to attain power is through undemocratic means. Remember the days of final push, the various calls for military intervention, the attempt to form a government in exile and the outstanding GPA issue of sanctions. The MDC will use any means possible to ensure that elections are not held in Zimbabwe because it knows that it could never win free and fair elections.
The MDC was founded as a force to tackle what EU commissioners termed “the Mugabe problem”. Who can forget that clip of Morgan Tsvangirai gladly accepting cheques to bring back order and sanity to Zimbabwe’s white farming community? It was never the intention of the founders of the MDC to bring “democracy and rule of law” to Zimbabwe, not that it was lacking, but their goal was to remove President Mugabe and all he stands for. The first song in the MDC hymn book calls for the restoration of property rights and security sector reform. These are the two things that matter the most to the real force behind the MDC, getting back their means of production and neutralizing Zimbabwe’s military born out of an ideology committed to national independence.
Security Sector Reform
Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the developing world whose military has neither been trained nor received significant weapons of war from the West. In cases where the local military has received support from the west more often than not the military will support the imperialists against their own people. This is one of the reasons why the MDC, its international partners and certain members of the media have been pushing for security sector reform. Zimbabwe’s security sector is teeming with the very individuals whom the MDC stand against “nationalists”. It is these men and women who remain loyal to Mugabe and his nationalist goals that have been a major stumbling block to the regime change agenda in Zimbabwe.
To quote one political analyst “every picture of bruised buttocks, injured bodies is given Zimbabwean citizenship as a means to perpetuate the complete demonization of not only President Mugabe but Zimbabwe’s security forces.” The New York Times, the Times of London and Newsweek learnt the hard way after they were duped by certain elements who masquerade as Zimbabwe’s civic society into printing a story about a baby whose legs were broken by ZANU militia, it turns out the poor boy had rickets. In December 2009 Nelson Chamisa lied to the international press that Tsvangirai’s former bodyguard Nhamo Musekiwa, had died of injuries sustained when he was allegedly assaulted and tortured by police in Mbare. The truth was revealed by Roy Bennet who said “Musekiwa has died due to HIV/AIDS related illness, it does not serve any purpose to lie and say he has died due to beatings by the ZRP, the truth according to hospital documents is that he has died as a result of HIV-related illness.” Musekiwa was suspended from the MDC after the party’s disciplinary committee found him guilty of leading a violent assault on senior party officials at the MDC headquarters in Harare but Tsvangirai undemocratically reversed this suspension.
Over the past six months every other headline in Zimbabwe’s so called independent press has been prophesying of the imminent war, violence against civilians, threats of Egypt like uprising, and my favorite that the service chiefs are running the country and holding President Mugabe hostage. One can only conclude that Zimbabweans are being prepared for an event which is meant to finally push the security sector to react in a manner that will leave the US and its Allies with no choice but to intervene militarily in Zimbabwe. When this is done there will be no need for elections and the MDC will naturally be handed power by “Zimbabwe’s liberators”. It’s a good plan we have seen it work in Afghanistan, Iraq, who knows Zimbabwe might be joining the list of success stories of the new colonialism. It’s hard to miss that the last three ambassadors America has sent to Zimbabwe are from the military, CIA operative Christopher Dell, James McGee was in the US Air Force; Charles Ray retired Major United States Army.
MDC and the Politics of Violence
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai threatened President Mugabe in 2000 that if he did not go on his own then the MDC would remove him violently. A man is judged by the company he keeps, one of Morgan Tsvangirai’s closest friends Raila Odinga had this to say about Zimbabwe in 2008 “Foreign troops should be prepared to intervene in Zimbabwe. If no troops are available, then the AU must allow the UN to send its forces into Harare with immediate effect to take over control of the country.” Mr. Odinga came into power through a bloodbath that saw some 2000 Kenyans butchered in cold blood as his followers ravaged Kenya at his behest. Birds of the same feather fly together that’s for sure.
The violent streak has been within the MDC since its formation. Looking at its silent backers; Rhodies, selous scouts and white farmers it becomes evident that to them the war is not yet over and the MDC is a vehicle for them to fight “Mugabe and his bunch of terrorists”. Anyone who opposes the MDC President is faced by massive brutality. Even within the party dissenters are violently silenced, face coups, beaten out of the party, and after what happened to Secretary General Biti a few weeks back, petrol bombing, is no longer a tactic reserved for the police. I for one would rather have them knife each other, torch each other and leave the rest of Zimbabwe to go on with their lives. Unfortunately this is not possible because the only way for the MDC to achieve its goals is through violating the people of Zimbabwe. After all is said and done what is astounding is that the MDC has the nerve to claim that its members are victims of violence.
“Let me reiterate that the MDC has never been afraid of elections.We cannot possibly be afraid of elections when we are, arguably, the best-supported and most popular political party in Zimbabwe at this juncture. The MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is not going to sit aside and watch whilst Zanu PF runs amok and prepares for a bloodbath camouflaged as an election.” by Senator Obert Gutu in an article written in January 2011 titled MDC ready for poll. Senator Gutu could do well to furnish the people of Zimbabwe with the report on what exactly happened to Trudy Stevenson in 2005 up to all the beatings, assaults among MDC members during the run up to the party’s national congress in Bulawayo in April 2011 which ironically had Raila Odinga as guest of honor, befitting one can say.
Elections will take place whether or not the MDC wants them
Morgan Tsvangirai is afraid of elections, putting elections on the national agenda must definitely send chills up his weak spine. Every time elections come around his party has a long list of demands, objections or worse it declares they are boycotting and then a few days from the actual date of elections they decide to take part. I remember in February this year Tendai Biti had a list with 18 demands that had to be met before the MDC would take part in any election.
For a party that claims to have the backing of the majority of Zimbabweans it’s amazing that the MDC still fails to garner the figure neccesary to win a presidential election. Its party leadership can shout from the rooftops all they want, throwing accusations left right and centre but the truth is this each and every Zimbabwean registered to vote gets into that booth alone and cast their vote alone. Those with more than half a brain in the MDC realized this which is why they resorted to bribing election officials to falsify figures and then hurriedly declared their leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the winner because they were very much aware that the only way to rig the election is through falsified figured and they had already taken care of it.
Elections are part of the democratic process and as such they will take place, it is up to the MDC to get its house in order. Judging from how they conducted their congress it comes with no surprise that the party will have to be dragged to elections. Unfortunately for them in national elections one can’t turn to beatings, assaults, torture, manipulation, vote buying, or even voting under the cover of darkness as in the various MDC elections that took place at provincial level in April.
Even with sanctions snarling like a ferocious dog at Zimbabweans in 2008 the MDC failed to win, this time around their chances have dwindled as their incompetency has been exposed and their popularity is at an all time low.
Zim finance minister dismisses proposal to settle farmers' claims
http://mg.co.za/
24 JAN 2013 20:58 - INYASHA CHIVARA
Zimbabwe's government is unlikely to entertain a proposal by a farmers'
union, with Finance Minister Tendai Biti calling it an "elitist solution".
The proposal by the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) seeks the valuation of
their former farms, followed by the issuance of bonds underwritten by an
international financial institution.
The union's president, Charles Taffs, said that there had been broad
consultations about the issue for the past two years, which had included the
government, international finance institutions and the black farmers
occupying the land. “We are re-establishing the value of what has been lost
[and] we are monetising that value and placing it back into the economy,” he
said.
But Taffs would not reveal the name of the institution that would underwrite
the bonds. “If it [the proposal] was going to be engaged as a policy of
government, we would be getting Bretton Woods institutions coming to the
table,” he said.
But Finance Minister Tendai Biti said that compensation was a national issue
and could not be restricted to a
“clique of people”.
The issue of the white farmers, whether legitimate or not, Biti said, could
not override inclusive national programmes.
“These are neoliberal solutions that look at one race, one sector of the
economy. I have a problem with an elitist solution to things,” Biti said.
“What is required is a broad majority solution that creates a win solution.
“The whole country needs compensation. I know thousands of people whose
homes were burnt by RF. I know of many homes that were destroyed.
The
issue of compensation is a national issue which cannot be restricted to
white people only.”
Taffs said the major concern was “the fear that we want to turn back the
clock”. He said the CFU “knows that is not a reality and we don’t actually
want that”.
“We want to go forward in a pragmatic manner … where every Zimbabwean has
to be treated equally,” he said.
CFU's proposal
Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Minister Herbert Murerwa said he had not
yet received the proposal.
Under the CFU’s proposal, bonds would be issued and managed by a recognised
accounting firm.
A land bank would be created to handle the more than 5 000 title deeds held
by former farmers, which would be ceded to the bank. The bonds, which will
be assigned a value, would be offered for sale to the current beneficiaries
on the land.
The CFU believes its affected members would be able to reinvest in the
economy and mentor the new beneficiaries and help to guarantee food
security.
The land bank, the proposal says, will receive initial financing from donors
and international finance institutions.
Litigation
Commercial farmers have sued the Zimbabwean government in South Africa and
at the International Court for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
The Zimbabwean government’s international assets could go under the hammer
to settle compensation arrears for other white farmers.
The CFU argues that such litigation could be halted if their proposal were
to be adopted.
African Investment Markets’ Farayi Dyirakumunda said, for the CFU’s proposal
to succeed, the underwriter would have to be known to instil market
confidence in the initiative.
“The proposed bond will only work if there can be a reputable foreign
underwriter because the local market will not have the capacity or appetite
for such a transcation. On that basis, I do not see this materialising in
the foreseeable future,” he said.
“It also remains unclear who the underwriter will be or the specific
indentures and covenants that would make the bond attractive for both the
issuer and holder.”
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