The referendum on the Constitution of Zimbabwe came and went on March 16th, 2013. It is amazing that in those few hours of last Saturday, Zimbabwean history turned a corner as events in that country will show, starting now.
If we are to believe media pronouncements, the draft Constitution was approved “by an overwhelming majority”.
Zimbabwe has a population of between 13 and 14 million people. It beats me how 3.3 million who turned up to vote can be considered an overwhelming majority.
They were not a majority, let alone overwhelming.
But where was everybody? Surely, a quarter of the population cannot make such gestures for electoral permanency on behalf of the majority and the nation.
This is the kind of thing that causes the nation misery when things surrounding this referendum start going wrong.
Clearly, all the political parties must be very worried about the turn out and how it interprets within a democratic dispensation. I have always been made to believe that ZANU-PF had much more supporters than the miserable number that came out to vote.
I had always believed that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC had managed to get into the people’s psyches well enough to have over four million supporters by now.
So, am I to believe that the 3, 259, 454 who voted and the 56, 627 who spoilt the ballots add up to represent the total number of hardcore supporters of the three political parties in government?
But just how do you get such a high number of spoilt ballots? And, oh, 12 million ballot papers had been printed “to accommodate unregistered voters”. Excluding the millions in the Diaspora, that’s more than the number of people in the country!
Anyway, I am trying to think why people did not come out in droves as requested by all the principals in government. Could there be some meaning in this? Is it possible that people are just tired of these three men and do not really believe these elections and referendum will solve our problems?
For whatever reason, the turnout should be of great concern to the leaders and to us as well because we cannot really rejoice over an outcome that is mapped and executed for the nation by a quarter of the population when more than 9 million did not vote for whatever reason. And the reasons are many.
People suffered violence when they attempted to give their input towards the writing of the draft constitution and fewer people then bothered to venture out to contribute towards the new draft.
There was hardly any voter education and people were not given enough time to go over the draft constitution with those who gathered to have it interpreted and explained to them being beaten up, chased around or arrested.
People also wondered why the three political parties that have been in incessant acrimony since forming a government of national unity about four years ago all of a sudden were holding hands and urging the people to vote for the adoption of the draft constitution.
I am not yet ready to rejoice and say things went peacefully because there were a lot of incidences that occurred which should just be as much cause for concern as counting those killed in political violence.
We have watched as violence, harassment and arrest of ZANU-PF opponents steadily grew to large numbers as we approached the referendum. Indeed, before, during and after the referendum, this trend continues.
People, human rights lawyers, officials of opposing political parties, NGO officials and others were being picked up by the partisan police force in such large numbers and frequency as to “jolt South African President Jacob Zuma into action”.
And Zuma’s action comprised of sending the same useless team of non-achievers for unfruitful consultations, barren talks and hiding information from the very people they had purportedly come to save.
“We are in the country, but we are not talking about that now (arrest of human rights lawyers and others) as we are still busy. So I can’t tell you anything,” Lindiwe Zulu, Zuma’s chief emissary to Zimbabwe said a day after the referendum when asked about what had prompted their visit.
The human rights lawyer and those she was meant to represent are still locked up and are being denied bail.
Be that as it may, I am hoping that the ‘overwhelming approval’ given the referendum was not the signal ZANU-PF was waiting for to escalate violence, to commence confusion as can be seen in contradictory statements concerning the holding of elections, to arrest and hold innocent people on trumped up charges.
It is a fear founded on reality.
We Zimbabweans should wonder about our country and our security when our national Police Commissioner defies court orders to release suspects.
On this referendum, the people of Zimbabwe responded by giving the three principals in government what they wanted, in spite of the fact that the three gentlemen have not been honest with the people since the formation of the unity government.
“It is extremely urgent that all matters agreed upon in terms of the Global Political Agreement are implemented speedily so that adequate preparations are made for a level playing field for the forthcoming elections,” said Jacob Zuma, yet the just concluded referendum was held under the same unacceptable conditions while he watched.
Things have reached a point of no return in Zimbabwe and Mr Tsvangirai must ensure that he did not mislead the people with this draft constitution and by his urging of them to vote for it although just after the referendum, he conceded to the visiting South Africans that his party “is under siege from a partisan police force”.
I know what this statement means; I hope he does too.
Whatever the outcome, whatever happens, with barely a quarter of the population bothering to vote during the referendum, Zimbabwe has reached a point of no return and I hope that this whole exercise will, in the end, confirm whether we have real leaders or charlatans who use people for their own ends.
I still do not support the draft constitution; I would have voted ‘No’ if the MDC had bothered to fight and secure the legal inclusion for those in the Diaspora to vote.
But now, we move on to the next battles and we hope we get what has been eluding us since our so-called independence.
My country deserves a pleasant surprise for a change, wouldn’t you say?
