By Wilbert Mukori
We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats welcome the MDC-Renewal Team’s call for SADC to “provide curatorship towards economic reform and a roadmap to free and fair elections”.
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown demands the regional group’s serious attention.
However, we believe SADC should play a supporting role give that it’s GNU solution of 2008 to 2013 failed to deliver the desired free and fair elections.
We dismiss with contempt the MDC-Renewal Team’s call for SADC to revisit the group’s Election Observer Mission’s report on Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections as a futile exercise.
“We call upon progressive members of SADC to do the right thing and come out in the open in condemning the electoral farce that we saw in Zimbabwe on July 31,” said MDC- Renewal document.
“We know that this report has not been universally endorsed by all SADC member states and that there were dissenting voices even in the Observer Mission itself.”
Whilst it is true that the President Mugabe rigged the elections to review what happened during the elections alone would, at best, paint half the picture. To get the full picture, one has to look into why the MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in their five years in the GNU.
If Mr Tendai Biti and Mr Morgan Tsvangirai are serious about moving Zimbabwe forward then they must explain to SADC, the world at large and most important of all to the people of Zimbabwe why they failed to get even one reform implemented in their five years in the GNU. Not one!
It was the breath-taking incompetence of MDC leaders including Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti himself who allowed President Mugabe to once again rig the elections landing the nation in this political and economic mess. Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders are the authors of Zimbabwe’s problems, they are the problem and per se they cannot be the solution too!
We propose that SADC and the international community should dwell on Mugabe to accept the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is the holding of free, fair and credible elections. He should step down to allow the formation of an interim administrative body whose primary task will be to implement all the democratic reforms and oversee the holding of free and fair elections.
The UN or some such country like Norway or Netherlands with past experience in nation building can facilitate the formation of the interim administration.
The people of Zimbabwe have suffered greatly and they deserve to see the country’s political problem of bad governance, which is the root cause of the economic crisis, finally addressed robustly and decisively.
After their breathtaking incompetence of the last five years no one can ever trust any of MDC leaders; all they are after is how to get back on the gravy train. Zimbabweans are sick and tired of leaders who only care about their selfish interests at the expense of the very people they claim to represent.
Wilbert Mukori is the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Social Democrats. He can be reached via [email protected]
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