Let SADC intervene after we have done something: Nyikadzino

By Nixon Nyikadzino

When I woke in the early hours of July 31, 2013, I had all the hopes and belief that my vote this time around would put the final nail on the dictator’s coffin. I made sure that I was going to be one of the first people to cast the vote against dictatorship, autocracy and tyranny.

Having participated in elections as a voter since 2000, I had the full sense and knowledge that this election was going to be different and that the people’s expression through the ballot would insulate their choice and concretise the irreversibility of such a bold decision.

But alas it was never to be. The dictator and his coterie of looters and heatless spin doctors had other thoughts. They wanted to entrench their stay in power with impunity.

When people are hurt, traumatised or wounded, they find different healing solutions. At one point I wanted to hit my head against the wall but I said to myself that would hurt me further.

Then I thought of partaking alcohol to the extreme and I found it to be absurd since I would be hurt further by the hangover. I thought of skipping the border and head south but I said then who shall face this reality and do something different for the people’s sake.

The final solution was to glue my eyes on my laptop and start a process of healing based on anger management through the stroke of the pen. Words are mightier than the sword and they can heal you if you vent your anger by telling the dictator the truth and shun silence.

When we are hurt, we tend to use our emotions and supress reason, a part which is very critical at the peak of anger, depression and disappointment. We tend to engage in actions that we regret after the fact. We do ludicrous things just to please the flesh and consequently become victims of our own actions.

When you are dealing with heartless thieves and looters, you must always remember that they find victory in your pain and suffering. The more you cry and show gullibility, alienation and frustration they simply drive you to a corner so that you are pressed against the wall.

They will push you harder so that you can do the stupidest thing. In this instance Zanu pf wanted us to respond by flooding the streets so that they could legitimise themselves by simply telling the whole world that we are merchants of violence. But we chose the right stratagem.

When your enemy attacks fearlessly and with all his weapons you retreat, strategize and then wage a faultless war against the adversary. At times silence is the best voice that when one can use to send a message.

Maybe even the Zanu pf supporters were also shocked by the miraculous victory and they chose silence as the best way to communicate their shock. Definitely it was shocking. Maybe even for the talkative Mugabe the resounding victory was shocking too hard to believe. The man is still quiet.

On Friday I passed through some drinking hole in the avenues. There were about five Zanu PF supporters celebrating. Instead of people joining them, people decided to drive off and have a drink elsewhere. Zvaiita sekuti vainhuwa.

People were not amused and they did not find any reason to celebrate mediocrity, lootocracy and madness. This victory is not worth celebrating because it is against the will of the people.

The Daily News had predicted that Morgan Richard Tsvangirai would romp to victory with clear and clean margin of about 61%. Those responsible for vote manipulation and chicanery decided otherwise and handed Mugabe the 61%.

They really wanted to teach us a lesson that Bob is the man and they do not call him diehard for nothing.

Now that Zanu pf has once again stolen the election and those who hoped for the better and something different are down and under. It is a bullet we will have to bite bitterly as it may sound but we have to move on. But as we move on we cannot pretend that things are fine and that this election was credible. No it was not credible. The election was simply free and peaceful.

More to this we need to find solace in statements being released by our solidarity networks in the region and our brothers and sisters in the international community who have refused to endorse an election that failed the credibility test, itself being the epitome of the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections and the African Charter on democracy, elections and governance.

We tried our best to stop this election. We went to court and pleaded with them to give us extra time and opportunity to implement the reforms before the election. We went to SADC and gave them the state of politics in Zimbabwe and they recommended that an election date extension was the best way forward.

But instead some using the powers that be and derisive in their approach sought to reverse that decision through the courts. The Judiciary was used to endorse an election date whose outcome was already written on the wall.

We refuse to believe that the Courts in Zimbabwe are impartial. We refuse that notion and the courts are being used to fight political battles and that they are infested with political animals in judicial garb.

Going to the courts to seek recourse on the election outcome is simply to endorse the electoral theft. This matter is political and any avenues sought must be cognisant of the political nature of this problem. Any panacea to this problem must be people driven.

SADC simply told us this time around that Zimbabwean problems are best solved by Zimbabweans themselves.  Let SADC intervene after we have done something. We refuse to be subjected to another five years of corruption, suppression, exploitation, bad governance among other vices.

We deserve better and a Zanu PF government is not the option.