Zimbabwe holds its general elections every five years and the nextelections will be held on or just before 31 July, 2018.
Apart from that, one way of telling the imminent approach of elections in Zimbabwe is to watch the steady increase in politically motivated violence in the country ÔÇô a situation that is already unfolding.
All elections we have held since independence in 1980 have been severely flawed and rigged to the detriment of not only our nation but of the region.
In 36 years of independence, the only free and fair elections we have ever had were the 1980 elections, which we were not in charge of but which ushered inmajority rule.
Since then, all our elections have been bogus – even in the tainted eyes of the devil.
Needless to say, Mugabe’s arrival on the scene changed and destroyed lives, caused thousands of the deaths of our compatriots and collapsed our economy.
The rot still continues.
But the carnage must stop nowin respectful honour of the innocently maimed and killed in Mugabe’s name; it must be stopped so that our region and our neighbours can concentrate on issues affecting our communities instead of a whole region being held captive by a man who never had a vision for a village, let alone for a nation.
The United Nations and other international organizations must join key members of the world community and demand to monitor the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe.
For 36 years, results of stolen elections have claimed the lives of our compatriots with no penalties.
If the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the international communitychoose to, once again, watch from a distance, they wouldbe underwriting the continued murder of innocent people and the strangling of a nation.
They must all step in with authority and with the best of intentions.
Zimbabweans are resilient and they will never stop fighting for themselves and their children.
You see, the reason we still have not won our fight against Robert Mugabe, after all these years, is that we are not fighting againstMugabe only; we are fighting many countries who support him.
We are fighting South Africa, China, Singapore, Malaysia, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the European Union, the Americans, the British, the Russians, North Koreans and a host of other countries, including African countries, who lend support to Mugabe in one form or other.
SADC and the AU,including the international community, must get relevant and put people of the region first; they must demand meaningful involvement in the forthcomingelections in Zimbabwe.
Time is of essence since we are already witnessing violence associated with these elections that are still over a year away.
Holding Zimbabwe by the collar and intervening has nothing to do with violating the sovereignty of a nation but has everything to do with upholding the survival and decency of people who unwittingly found themselves under the sadistic rule of a murderous mob of bloodthirst politicians.
Above all else, we learned from the Khmer Rouge that no nation or leader has the right to abuse millions and kill thousands of their citizens in cold blood.
Why should Mugabe be allowed to perpetrate so much harm not only to Zimbabwe but to the region?
Mugabe’s wife even had the temerity to declare on Thursday that they “will field Mugabe in elections even if he dies” before elections.
The Mugabe family and its close associates intend to evade genocide trials; hiding behind the presidency, they are motivated by a survivalist’s desire to protect their ill-gotten wealth. Butthe majority of Zimbabweans isonly motivated by an aphrodisiac called ‘freedom’.
Why are the deaths of thousands and the abuse of millions by one man of so little concern to the outside world, let alone to our region and continent?
All along, I thought the tongue always turns to the aching tooth; why doesn’t the world, especially Africa, recognize the hopeless misery of a nation such as ours?
Obviously, we need help, outside help, just like Mugabe is receiving outside help to kill us.
Soon after independence was won, our leaders refused to listen to us and today we find ourselves more polarized than ever before – every day trying to break free of the political and economic cobwebs spun around us.
Our nation cries for help ÔÇô just a short nudge to make us regain control from a continuous and persistent nightmare.
The imposition of sanctions on Mugabe and his top brass was an attempt, rightly or wrongly, to slow down Zimbabwe’s murderous kleptomaniacs.
The winner of the next electoral contest is not so much as important as how he or she wins the presidency.
If the people of Zimbabwe, without intimidation, freely go to the polls and, out of a clean election, produce Mugabe as a legitimately elected winner, kudos to us – the people would have spoken; we would have chosen our leader but in a free and fair election before, during and after the election.
This is why the international community is of importance because we, too, belong to the family of nations.
How can governments and international organisations, whose primary reasons for existence are to protect, assist the people and promote good governance, watch as companies like Nikuv of Israel or South Africa’s Executive Outcomes (reportedly dissolved) make a mockery of political decency in Africa?
The late notorious French mercenary, Bob Denard, caused havoc in Africa, staging endless military coups while the UN and the Organisation of African Unity were spouting “democracy” on one hand and, on the other, the UN always asking for money and rushing to set up camps for refugees from those ‘executive outcomes’.
But, today, it is prohibited “interference” to intervene and stop a dictator from murdering his own people.
Sometimes you just can’t take it anymore.Julius Nyerere had the temerity to invade Uganda in 1979 and ousted its president,”His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”.
We seem to deliberately create crises so as to profit from them.
The UN, AU, SADC and other concerned groups must push for inclusion and get themselves into position to monitor Zimbabwe’s elections.
They must start doing so right away and not offer excuses tomorrow for either themselves or for Zimbabwe.
A lot of time, money and lives are being lost every day because of stray governance. We allow bad presidents to fester around us then, later, see UN, AU and other meaningless officials making fiery but useless speeches at endless UN meetings around the world, demanding democracy for that country, denouncing dictatorships in others.
The UN, AU and SADC must collectively monitor the damn 2018 elections; we take these elections very seriously and expect clean executive outcomes.
Congratulations to whoever wins; we just want it to be free and fair and, today, that can only be achieved in the presence of neutral arbitrators.
