Punish Mugabe for forced rally attendance
Opinion By Benjamin Chitate
Media and social network sites reports that Zanu PF is forcing people to attend its rallies make me sad.
While Zanu PF may have scaled down on large scale planned state sponsored violence as a campaign tool, forcing people to attend its rallies is not a better method to gain votes, and is a form of human rights and economic abuse.
Vendors loose revenue when they are forced to close shop and add to the crowds as Zanu PF rallies. Businesses lose revenue when they are forced to close shop, and consumers are forced to do without certain services and products, sometimes when they need them most – all in the name of a 89 year old man who wants to be life president of Zimbabwe.
In actual fact, a vote for Mugabe is a vote for the more ruthless Emerson Munangagwa, if rumour coming from the Zanu PF circles is anything to go by. My sources in Zanu PF – I have friends and relatives in that party – tell me the plan is that if Mugabe wins, he will retire and appoint a replacement.
This is provided in the constitution of Zimbabwe which states that If the President dies, resigns or is removed from office the First Vice-President takes over for the remainder of the former President’s term of office.
Word has it that if Mugabe wins, he will hand over to Emerson Munangagwa, who some think is more ruthless than Mugabe. Do we want anyone more ruthless than Mugabe?
Sometimes Zanu PF rounds up passers-by and frog marches them to attend their rallies. This I know very well after escaping death by a whisker after refusing to attend a Zanu PF rally.
I had attended an MDC rally at Chibuku stadium in the run-up to a by-election pitting Christopher Chigumba and James Makore. I decided to walk from Chibuku stadium to my aunt who lives in Zengeza. After walking for a while, I came across youth who asked me to go back where I was coming from.
In no time I realized who they were, and had to run for dear life with the youths in hot pursuit.
My advice to people who find themselves in a similar situation, just go to the rallies if you see it is safe for you to do so, get all the free handouts they may have on offer, enjoy music by Sulumani Chimbetu, Jah Prayzha or whoever musician will have been hired to entertain at that particular rally, and go back to your home in one piece.
But remember on election day to vote for whoever you want to be your councilor, your member of parliament and your president. If you still want dictator Mugabe even after being forced to attend his rally, its your democratic choice which you are entitled to, but I have been telling all my friends and family in Zanu PF to dump the dictator for the attempt on my life on that day.
Come on Zimbabweans, life will be worse than it was in 2008 with Mugabe or another Zanu PF leader in power. Let us vent our anger on Mugabe on 31 July 2013. Remember that your vote is your secret – and no one will ever know who you voted for.
I know the people’s enemy Zanu PF will come up with so many funny stories to make you believe someone will know who you voted for. That is a lie which you must never believe.
Go all the peace loving people of Zimbabwe , go in your numbers, and make your choice. Vote for whoever you like.
But remember as you make your choice, that your vote must contribute towards the political demise of Mugabe and Zanu PF, vote for whoever you think has a realistic chance of beating Mugabe without going into a re-run, because you all know that things may happen the way they did in 2008, and the re-run may be as chaotic as it was in 2008.
Forget about partisan choices, do the good thing and vote for the person with a realistic chance of beating Mugabe hands down – provided their policies once in government have potential to move the country forward.
Benjamin Chitate, New Zealand
