ARE ZIMBABWEANS READY FOR ELECTIONS?

Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential elections in 2008 citing political violence against his supporters. He won the first round of elections in March 2008 but failed to get the majority to be sworn into office. There has been talk or speculation in the media of elections next year in 2011.While it is a very good thing to wish for, one question that we must not ignore is whether or not the people of Zimbabwe are really ready for elections. There is truism that the people are not ready yet. I am forced to pose this question by events that unfolded on the 25th of March at a public debate hosted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute. The debate was hinged on the subject of sanctions that have continued to dog the performance of the inclusive government. The motion put in play was whether or not the sanctions debate among the political parties in the inclusive government was going to lead to the debacle of the government. Most of the parties in the inclusive government were represented.MDC-M was represented by David Coltart,ZANU PF by Cain Mathema.Also among the panelist were Mavambo Kusile president,Dr Simba Makoni and University of Zimbabwe lecturer,Dr John Makumbe. All of the panelists gave their different opinions on whether sanctions really affected the economy. In this presentation, I am not going to dwell on which opinion is correct but rather on how their different opinions incited stark criticism.Dr Makoni presented his argument and suggested that Zimbabwe was not under sanctions but the leadership of this nation has continued to take people for granted by ignoring people’s pleas for basic services such as health facilities while government Ministers waste money on useless international trips which the government argues it does not have.For example the government argues that it does not have enough money to rehabilitate the health sector but a closer examination of government’s expenditure clearly reveals a lack of political will According to him, this was a form of sanctions against the people of Zimbabwe. Some thugs only began to bring the discussion to a stand still when Dr Makumbe and Minister Coltart began to present. One is forced to ask if this was because of their skin colour.On such a day I realized that there are some people who are still living in the past and very racist. We complain about European countries being racist but we are actually ahead of them. I overheard one saying that people should not care when a white man dies. Which Zimbabwe are we living? It’s a sad development when we have some people still inclined to this kind of thinking. Where are we going as a nation if we cannot tolerate other skin colours and races? Does being white make one less Zimbabwean? We have to be honest with ourselves especially when it comes to the issue of elections. The action by these youths opened up some critical thinking especially on the readiness of the people for an election. The youths were very militant to the extent that one even charged towards Dr Makumbe and no one knows up to now what he intended to do. Of course it would be myopic to just think they were doing this out of pure frustration or disagreement. They had their handlers who obviously are politicians who just planted them there to disturb the debate especially knowing how topical the subject of sanctions is. Here was a bunch of youths being used by politicians to incite turmoil and despondency. The youths have nothing to show for the “dangerous” activities they do except for a few trinkets in the form of beer and a few Obama dollars. These youths must be reminded not to take their frustration on the people just because they skipped school because of their academic truancy and social deviancy. What might happen this time around in the 2011 elections given the scarcity of jobs in the country at present, these “useless” and destitute youths are going to be used to unleash violence like what happened in the 2008 presidential elections. The Ministry of National healing was created to deal and rehabilitate the victims of the election violence but up to the present, it has delivered nothing. People are still angry with each other and there are a lot of obstacles which might even result in vote apathy among the populace. Measures must be put in place to make sure that structures are put in place that guarantee people’s safety especially after casting their votes. What transpired at the public debate really showed that among us there are still comrades who can still be used by politicians to further their agendas? What I was thinking all along was that since the inception of the inclusive government, people have changed but I was wrong. There are some youths among us who will kill in return for a can of beer. What I thought was going to transpire at the meeting was a free expression of views and opinions. Everyone at the debate was going to contribute something that was going to give flavour and essence to the debate. I thought Zimbabwe was now at a level where we can tolerate diverging views. If our political leaders can meet every Monday and have coffee while they talk and agree on certain things, why can’t we do it as well? The approach taken by those youths at the meeting further led me to ask whether whoever their political handler was, if such a debate was so vital to them, what more of elections? If one can dedicate and plan to disrupt such a normal debate, then they can even plan even worse for an election. Comrades and friends let us not be fooled Zimbabweans are not ready for elections and let us not be deceived by politicians by trying to rush us to elections. They can’t wait to either get in power or continue being in the drivers seat. If I am wrong, I stand to be corrected but if not then, you have every reason to begin to prepare for what lies ahead. By Rawlings Magede