By Wilbert Mukori| Mnangagwa’s continued democratic reformer pretensions are an insult to all Zimbabweans and will not fool UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson!

“Your re-election to this high office (Prime Minister) is testimony of the tremendous trust and confidence that the people of the United Kingdom have in you,” wrote Mnangagwa in his congratulatory letter.

Mnangagwa knows the result of the elections was the true reflection of the democratic wish of the people of the United Kingdom. Neither the defeated Labour party nor anyone else have cause to complain about the elections being anything else other than a free, fair and credible elections.

Everything in the election process, from the voter registration, the campaigning, voting and counting of the votes; every step was transparent, traceable and verifiability. The same could not be said of Zimbabwe’s last year elections.

Everyone, the Americans, the Commonwealth, the EU and even Zimbabwe’s own Human Rights Commission condemned Zimbabwe’s elections as a farce.

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Election Mission final report.

“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote; a very significant number considering Mnangagwa was elected by 2.4 million.

ZEC failed to produce something as basic to democratic elections as a verified voters’ roll! Of course, this was a deliberate and calculated move, Zanu PF did not want a transparent, traceable and verifiable electoral process.

“It is understandable, Right Honourable Prime Minister, that you resume your occupancy of this office as you primarily focus on completing the Brexit process that you commenced earlier on,” continued Mnangagwa.

“Zimbabwe continues to implement Political, Economic, Legislative and Electoral Reforms designed to open up political space, improve the ease of doing business and facilitate the return of Zimbabwe to the family of the progressive Global Community. It is our fervent hope therefore that these Reforms will also enable your new Government to support Zimbabwe’s return to the Commonwealth Organisation.”

Mr Mnangagwa you promised to implement the democratic reforms “to open up political space, improve the ease of doing business, etc.” soon after the November 2017 military coup, two years ago now. You have not implemented even one token reform. Not one!

Indeed, you keep talking about opening up the democratic space by day and closing it by night. “Those who we fought during the liberation struggle, the whites, are still fighting so they can claim power again … Our enemies are not resting,” said Mnangagwa addressing his supporters.

“We don’t want violence, so I said soldiers go and silence these people, they were silenced. The Legion. Sort them out … We will crush our enemies, and they are being crushed.”

The Legions were the innocent Zimbabweans who had dare to protest the soaring cost of living in January 2019. The protestors were “sorted out” alright; 17 were shot died, hundreds were injured and there followed two weeks of wanton violence in which hundreds of thousands were arrested, beaten and/or raped.

Two weeks ago, UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Melanie Robinson, made is clear that Zimbabwe’s re-engagement and application to join the Commonwealth were on the back burners and there they will stay until there is democratic changes in Zimbabwe.

Zanu PF will never implement any meaningful reforms; with its checked economic and political record of decades of corruption and tyrannical oppression, the party will never win free, fair and credible elections. So Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office.

The only way forward is for Zanu PF to step down to allow the country to appoint a body that will implement the reforms and finally give the nation a chance for a clean and democratic start.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will get the Brexit process done and dusted in one month’s time! And you, Mr Mnangagwa will never ever implement any meaningful democratic reforms so the people of Zimbabwe can finally freely choose their leaders and not have leaders imposed on them in rigged elections.

Every thinking Zimbabwean welcomed Ambassador Melanie Robinson’s firm and no nonsense stance on Zimbabwe and there is no reason to doubt that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will do anything else! Indeed, freed from the EU restrains, one hopes that PM Johnson will move swiftly and decisively reinstate the targeted sanctions imposed on the Zanu PF regime. – SOURCE: zsdemocrats.blogspot.com