Burying the Zimbabwe Election 2013

The result of the 2013 harmonised elections have been released. ZANU with 61% and MDC with 33%. As suggested in my post on Zimbabwe decides I didn’t see any chance of the MDC winning the election. On the day of the election Zimbabweans were so excited and seemed so sure of victory.

Then the results started coming out! The victory margins that were coming out were scary and for me unbelievable. But I decided to write this post to give myself closure to the whole election shenanigan. This is the only election that I became so engrossed in tweeting, joining discussions and commenting.

I got caught up in the excitement and against my better judgement started to become hopeful as well. As the results continued the reality slowly set in and the mood also changed to reflect a dejected people. What was really weird at the end was that though the victory was a landslide victory, there were no spontaneous celebrations. Suspiciously there were reports of armed riot police at various points and the anti crowd water cannon driving around the city of Bulawayo. Summed up my view that was something unscrupulous about the election. But its done and we have a new government.

I won’t go into much detail about that but focus on the way forward. So I prepared three messages, one to the ruling party ZANU PF, one the the MDC T and one to the people of Zimbabwe

Message to ZANU

I guess ZANU PF have their work cut out. They say they are there legitimately, now they must show us that they really have the people of Zimbabwe at heart, and it wasn’t all just rhetoric. President Robert Mugabe, 89 years old is advanced in age, its not a secret the . Now that he has been elected by the people would it be too much too ask to tell the people what his plan for succession is. I don’t think this is just a party decision any longer but a matter of national interest that we know the succession plan and who is next in line. Therefore we ask the leaders to look to the future, we are all grateful for what was done during the liberation struggle but we cannot live in the past and constantly envoke the struggle.

Message to MDC

I commend the MDC in their spirited fight and in bringing a credible opposition to ZANU PF over the past decade. But unfortunately, and many may argue against this, joining the GNU was a grave mistake for the party as I think this marked a defeat for the party. MDC T need to go back to the drawing board as I feel they took people for granted and forgot their responsibility. For them to regain the hearts of the people, they need to put forth a new leader and rebrand completely.

They would have to change their identity from MDC T to a proper name which is not centred around an individual. The protest vote is no longer valid. One thing that they cannot blame ZANU PF in their tenure in the GNU was that all the MPs and councillors could have easily engaged their constituents in so many ways to keep their confidence, but they chose to neglect them thinking that they will always have their vote.

Message to the people of Zimbabwe

The people have done what they can in a peaceful manner. The result may not have gone in the way we may have expected. But life has to go on. We need to grow as a people and get away from personality politics. There are so many things that are within our power to change in our own spheres of influence. One is to stop expecting and paying bribes. Let us make stand, it may inconvenience us for a season but we will reap the rewards. We need to respect each other and support each other as a people.

Lets speak well of our country and our country folk. Pray for the leaders so that you live in peace, sometimes we forget this and only think about prayers on the day of election to get God to endorse what we would have decided. At the end of the day its God who allows a leader to take office, and to leave office.

Friday was a day of mourning, Saturday was the burial of the 2013 election. Sunday we are holding a memorial service ‘Nyaradzo nekugovera nhumbi dzacho’. Tomorrow is a new day in a New Zimbabwe. A luta continua. Those in power deliver and serve the people, those who have lost go back to the drawing board and do some introspection. The people of Zimbabwe will create jokes about the results to comfort themselves and prepare themselves for serious business, then back to school adverts will start and its back to the daily grind.

View my series of posters on Typographic Mood of Zimbabweans