If MDC’s last “deal”- 18 amendment of the Zimbabwe Constitution - is anything to go by, then every Zimbabwean must be really worried to hear MDC is discussing a deal for Mugabe to step down. Least people forget Mugabe is a corrupt and brutal dictator who has cause a lot of suffering and death in Zimbabwe. MDC did not have any Mugabe deal in their manifesto. I fear Zimbabweans will once again be short charged!

So much pressure is put on South Africa to be perfect and sort out all of Africa’s problems. We do not have Godly powers. We should help and be more outspoken on condemning Mugabe, but at the same time, Zimbabweans need to also fight for their country themselves instead of running away to South Africa.

Hopefully MDC will prevail and Zimbabwe will get back on track. A prosperous Zimbabwe is good for all of southern Africa. Zimbabweans need to start taking responsibility for themselves, go back and help rebulid their country.

BBC News 24 20.18 1st April 2008

Zanu PF propagandist, George Shire.
“2002 election was free and fair,” Shire maintains. He still maintains the delays in declaring the results is because the ZEC is doing its job “properly”. 28 years of absolute power has produced in Zanu PF a group of people who really think they are gods on earth! The need to send a clear message to Zanu PF that no one is above the law is paramount, for this is the underlying reason why Zimbabwe is in such a mess today. This is a historic chance for Zimbabwe to make the bold move that will put the nation on a firm path to democracy and rule pf law. I hope and pray MDC will NOT let this opportunity slip through its fingers for dubious magnanimous reasons!

Mugabe, you piece of crap. Its time for you to go.
This time you will not be able to rig the election.

We have family in Zimbabwe and they stayed so they could vote. She said that the line waiting to find out why they were not on the voters roll this time was longer than the line to vote. This was in Chisipite.

Zimbabweans have been through this many times so don’t expect Mugabe to go quietly. By the way Mugabe’s wife and children were on the plane to Malaysia just before the elections. Not staying to support her husband me thinks.

Zimbabweans are by nature peaceful and patient people so a few more days won’t be too much to wait.

hehehehe…. William, it’s easy to say all that you’re saying but given the opportunity, I bet you’d do the same as Tsvangirai. I don’t want to draw conclusions or think of Zimbabwe in the Kenyan context but you know what? I can’t help myself.
Here, it was Raila Odinga we were looking up to and hoping to win last years widely disputesd general elections; he didn’t — at least not according to the electoral commission. Now that he’s Prime Minister Designate, the bulldog that was barking at all the offences and corruption and what have you before is beginning to become very friendly with his once percieved political enemies. The ODM are no longer worth my support because they seem to have become quite irrelevant as far as am concerned. Of course we must give them time but this is just a big dissapointment you know. We can only continue to hope that they’ll keep up with the momentum they once had and try bring the much desired and needed change that we Kenyans want in our country.
I can only wish the same for Zimbabwe especially now at this very critical time.

Mugabe is out for himself! NOT THE PEOPLE!! I lived there in the 90’s and left because this tyrant made it impossible for WHITES in Zimbabwe. Once the bread basket of Africa they now can’t even feed themselves! I feel sorry for the average person in Zimbabwe (Black or White). I fear that the only way Mugabe will go is by death! He will rig this election and the next by intimidation, fear, and any other means it takes to stay in office. I hope the MDC is protecting Tsvangirai or he will end up dead by Mugabe’s orders! The rest of the world knows Mugabe is a terrorist to his own people.”He just doesn’t care!”

No one expected Mugabe be running neck and neck with MDC given the state of the Zimbabwe economy. ZEC stage-managed the release of results to underline that fact. MDC has had to revise its 67% win forecast for their candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai downwards to 50.3%.

Mugabe is walking tall and so are his henchmen. He will be telling his party today that he is back and he is still the BOSS. The old grumble of the last few months will not be heard this time. They will all be cowed down. With his absolute authrity reasserted he face a presidential re-run with complete confidence. He may even have the ZEC declare him the out right winner!

Whatever Mugabe does next would only be “tying up the lose ends” compared to the election stunt he has pulled!

It is obvius to all of us now that all this wasting of time we are hearing of is for stealing this election. This man is a shame for our continent. He must go now we cannot just have to wait for him to die and to take millions more with him.

Just because the Zimbabweans have had a general election does not necessarily mean that the regime will change for the better. Corruption is endemic at all official levels and has been so for many years and it would be naive to assume that the ‘feathering of nests’ will stop. I would like to think that a new government would change all that but one might as well whistle at the moon. Ilived in the former Rhodesia, before Ian Smith, when the country had a favourable trading balance. To blame the present status on the British Colonial Rule is to live in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Robert Mugabe has has 30 years correct whatever he perceives as his colonial legacy but his inadequate rule has brought the country to its knees.

It looks like Mbeki is quite happy with the situation as it is today in Zimbabwe.him, and Mugabe’s cronies my be the only ones!
Is people not worry of the bloodshed that can result of the repression that Mugabe would apply if there is another call to the polls?
It is just madening to see that our gobernements won’t put any pressure to defend the democracy in certain countries while they don’t spare human lives to bring that same principle to countries that, funny in off were not even asking for it!

The truth is the solution to Zimbabwe’s political problem has to come from within Zimbabwe itself. The rest of the world will give all the diplomatic support they can but nothing more. Tsvangirai has to accept that there will be no meaningful help Africa, particularly SA.

MDC should stage peaceful and well organised public protest- the only option open them. In capable hands, public protests work. Ever since MDC’s failed “Final Push” the fear of another flop has paralysed it into inactivity.

Mugabe can see Tsvangirai is not going to do anything and he has now seized the initiative. He will force a re-run. And yes, this time he will step up the intimidation- he is on a war footing- to ensure he wins. The voting public are in for a grilling time!

Meanwhile Tsvangirai is like a rabit caught in the headlights- frozen to the spot with fear when the public are looking up to him for decisive action. Hardly what would expect from a leader to see Zimbabwe through such difficult and trying times. Many Zimbabweans must be regretting already that they voted for such a wimp!

MDC you have done a good job to remove this crazy fool,he is just shy to step down coz the Teaboy gave him some nice blows by the groin whilst he was busy scratching Mogiza,now he wants to use the army to intimidate the innocent suffering people,Bob Marley sang ONLY TIME WILL TELL & Jimmy Cliff sang MAJORITY RULE ,mugabe you should listen to these songs i know you like tambawoga’s war-veterinary songs

I am not sure if we will ever find the real result now.

I agree with the commenter who wrote that Zimbabweans have to take responsibility for THEMSELVES and for THEIR country. Collectively, it is THEY THEMSELVES who have allowed the situation there to become what it is now. Mugabe is a tyrant and brutal dictator but he is not GOD! In my view, it is absolutely ridiculous and an absolute crying shame that a once such prosperous and highly regarded African nation could have been brought to its knees in this way and one person alone, no matter how seemingly powerful politically, cannot be blamed in entirety for this. Twenty-eight years in power is a long time and the Zimbabweans should have done something about this long, long ago. I also do not believe the MDC will do much better. I am half Zimbabwean and half Nigerian but let’s not go there!!!

Even nuns, monks, singers, youths, educated and uneducated people in Tibet and Burma have managed to stage protests against juntas, dictators yet Zimbabweans are still waiting for SADC to rescue them. Sorry Zims it’s time you took your own fate into your hands.
Even God helps those who help themselves. If you are so scared of violence, guns, militia then you’ll die suffering with Mugabe in power.

Why are the British so obsessed with Zimbabwe? Do they have an agenda?

Let the people of Zimbabwe solve their own problems.

Why this blanket propaganda by the BBC and the Western media? Why this attempt to demonize Mbeki for not intervening?

Britain and America should lift their devastating ECONOMIC SANCTIONS and stop supporting one side against the other.

Why is Mugabe a tyrant/dictator and Tony Blair and George Bush are not?

Britain and America should focus on forcing their favorite African dictators to hold elections and not just the leaders like Mugabe that refuse to do their bidding:

Omar Bongo - 1967 (Gabon) - 41 years
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo - 1969 (Equatorial Guinea) - 39 years
Muammer Gadaffi - 1969 (Libya) - 39 years
Hosni Mubarak - 1981 (Egypt) - 27 years
Paul Biya - 1982 (Cameroon) - 26 years
Lansana Conté - 1984 (Guinea) - 24 years
Yoweri Museveni - 1986 (Uganda) - 22 years
Ben Ali - 1987 (Tunisia) - 21 years
Blaise Compaoré - 1987 (Burkina Faso) - 21 years
.

Vincent

It was the ordinary men and women of Zimbabwe who, in their millions, voted for some one else and not Mugabe. The British and American leaders have called for Zimbabwe’s election results to be made public. Surely it was the Zimbabwe electorate’s vote, their say, and not what the British or Americans have said which counts in determining whether or not Mugabe should stay in office. You have the Mugabe mentality, like him you want to ignore the people of Zimbabwe as if whatever they have to say is not worth hearing, their suffering should not be taken seriously and their very lives are no more valuable than that of ants trodden under foot.

I feel sorry for anyone who should ever have to suffer under a dictatorship. Even if the dictatorship lasted a day, it is a day too long. I know exactly what life under a dictatorship is like! Still I fail to see the point Vincent is driving at. Are you saying people should not seek to replace dictators wherever they may be until the tyrants on your list have been deposed? Well; there are some really mentally sick people in this world and you, Vincent, are one of them!

So very sad to see my home being destroyed by an insane old tyrant, and even more sad to see Mbeki and the ANC ignoring it. Where would you be today, Mr. Mbeki, if the world had ignored the atrocities of apartheid? Still hiding at the University of Surrey? Shame on all of you for putting mythical black solidarity above all human principles. Shame on you for not having the courage to speak out against that old monster Mugabe. And shame on me for not having had the courage to mix up enough fertiliser and diesel to assist his exit to hell.

Vincent

I am sorry, but you whole argument is founded on one thing and one thing only: that the ordinary man and woman in Zimbabwe want Mugabe and if they say anything different it must be because they do not mean it. I say the people of Zimbabwe have a democratic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe. And a meaningful say here means to free and fair elections and, having cast that vote, for the result to be honoured and validated.

Ever since Mugabe came into power in 1980 he has never held free and fair election; that is a historic fact. That is totally, totally unacceptable.

You have to forget Mugabe’s posturing on the land issue, he deliberately throw that in to confuse. Even if the opposition were “puppets” of the West who would let the white farmers keep the land will that justify why Zimbabweans were to be denied their democratic right to a free vote? NO!

For your own information, Vincent, Mugabe had been in power for 20 years before he, sudden like, realise that the white farmers still owned a lot of land in Zimbabwe. Well on that score alone the people of Zimbabwe had every reason to vote him out of office – 20 years is a long time to wait!

For your own information, Vincent, the land was seized to be distributed to the landless peasants. The reality on the ground it something else – it is the cronies of Mugabe who now own most of the seized farms. Now that Mugabe is finally on his way out – you will be ashamed to see what a clever conman Mugabe is.

Even if Mugabe had seized the land and redistributed it to the landless, still that would be no excuse for failing to hold free and fair elections.

The targeted economic sanction is yet another rogue Mugabe has thrown to boost his “victim of bulling by West” image. Zimbabwe can freely trade with the rest of world so why does she? The Zimbabwe economy has been derailed by the years of gross economic mismanagement and rampant corruption. The country hardly producing anything and therefore has nothing to trade. It cannot even produce enough food to feed its own people and yet it used to be the breadbasket of the region!

Vincent, the only other reason left why you think Mugabe should defy the expressed will of the Zimbabwe people and continue as President is because Mugabe “is not delivering Zimbabwe to the West and the white settlers”. That seems to make Mugabe a “better” dictator than the rest on your list. As a Zimbabwean, what I really care about first and far most is that Mugabe failed to deliver Zimbabwe to the people of Zimbabwe.

Do you serious think you would win my sympathy and support by telling me I should continue to suffer under Mugabe’s oppressive rule just because there are worse dictators out there? That is a ridiculous proposition! My suffering matters to me and if you are not going to give me your sympathy and support; that is your prerogative! But if think I will thank you for belittling my suffering on the basis of some pathetic Dictator’s League Chart you dreamt up, then you are very much mistaken!

Vincent,

Does anyone actually believe that this is about white farm ownership? Does anyone actually believe that Britain will ride in and simply take land away from the people of a sovereign state? Apparently you do! Britain would never do this and the fact is there are other options if it is so important for “the people” to won the land. Mozambique welcomed the Zim white farmers with open arms, granted them 99 year land leases (see the land still belongs to the people) and the rest is history. Those “colonialist, racist” white farmers have created thousands of jobs, created an abundance of food and are now contributing members of society. most people just want to get on with there lives, contribute to society and live a comfortable life. The white farms have not stolen in excess of $20 billion (US not Zim dollars) but Mugabe has. When they had their fuel crisis a few years ago all they needed was $20 million to buy fuel. Did Mugabe pay out of his stolen billions? No, it was better to let the people suffer. This is the man you defend?

It has not been about white anything for over 20 years. It has been about plundering a country. This is what you defend?

80% unemployment? This is what you defend?

Well done! If this is the majority rule then Africa deserves everything it has.

BTW the new “colonialist” are the Chinese. For them a corrupt government is the best thing. They are buying up whole industries and will soon “own” many countries for a pitance and a few bribes. What will happen in 20 years? Will the Africans then talk about being colonised by the Chinese and demand everything back when their leaders ( I use the term loosely) have sold of all of the assets? I think not. Zimbabwe is more than just a single election now. It is the barometer by which the rest of the world is judging Africa, hence the interest by the UK and to a lesser extent the US and EU. There now remains only one country in Sub Saharan africa that has not had a war or two in the last 20 years (I count the Matabeleland massacres in the 80’s as war) and that is Botswana. and the difference between the zim situation and the other long serving dictatorships is here the people have had the guts to demand change while the rest just wallow in misery feeling sorry for themselves. That is why the international community wants to help, not because of any recolonisation aspirations. Please also remember that international add contributes more to the Zim economy that their mining sector so stop biting the hand that feeds you (literally).

I am not defending anyone. I am just exposing the lies peddled by Britain and the white farmers, who are economically starving the people of Zimbabwe in a bid to force them to vote for the MDC vehicle backed by the West and the white farmers.

The people of Zimbabwe deserve freedom, not just political but also economic. Yes, Mugabe has stayed too long, but the reason for 100,000% inflation in a country where there is no war is Western economic sanctions.

What they called targeted sanctions is just Western propaganda. The USA and Britain have cut Zimbabwe off from international financial institutions simply because Zimbabwe refuses to be their economic colony. Sanctions are the reason for 100,000% inflation. Even worse-managed African countries and war-ravaged countries like Liberia and Congo do not have 100,000% inflation.

The United States legislative act called ZIDERA is not about “targeted sanctions” but real, devastating economic sanctions aimed at effecting regime change in Zimbabwe by starving the people into voting for the MDC.

All these crocodile tears that Britain and white settlers are shedding is not because they lover the average Zimbabwean but because Mugabe has taken their privileges away. Before then, Mugabe was their darling. He was awarded an honorary knighthood and honorary degrees from British universities.

As soon as he stopped maintaining the status quo, he became a monster.

Mugabe could not do anything about the land issue for 20 years because that the Lancaster Agreement that granted Zimbabwe independence embargoed land re-distribution for 20 years and required Britain to finance land re-distribution after that period. Britain reneged on this agreement and refused to pay up. The white farmers refused to sell, even though they held 80% of the best land. The so-called white farmers included absentee landlords who were members of the British House of Lords.

Zimbabwe was never the breadbasket of anybody. That is rubbish propaganda spread by pro-Ian Smith Nazis who claim that the Nazi era was a great time in Zimbabwe. There is no evidence that the region or the entire Africa (as some claim) bought food from Zimbabwe. The country’s major crops were tobacco and maize, and I do not know any African country that used tobacco to produce bread.

Regarding the person who described China as the new colonialists: this is yet another propaganda spread by Western governments seeking to maintain their economic stranglehold on African countries. The reason they are demonizing China is that it is offering an alternative to the devastating, one-sided economic ties between Africa and the West.

The Chinese are not colonizing anyone. They are offering alternative/better trading terms than the slave terms that the West has offered Africa for 100 years, which has impoverished and underdeveloped Africa and burdened the continent with debts that several generations cannot pay.

If the Chinese are so bad, why is the West trading with it and Africa cannot? Why are George Bush and Gordon Brown rushing to Beijing to sign trade deals?

You all say nice things and pretend to love Africa while you continue your racist behavior right there in Zimbabwe and South Africa. You all pretend to care about democracy while the only thing you care about is regaining your privileges over the average black native, who you have raped for years and want to continue raping.

Yes, Mugabe must leave power. The people of Zimbabwe must have freedom. But the white settlers must not be allowed to reestablish their economic colonialism of the people (not through the MDC or the puppet called Tsvangirai).

Mugabe must establish “facts on the ground” by implementing GENUINE land reform that cannot be overturned even if the Western-sponsored MDC comes to power.

If Tsvangirai is hoping that SADC will rein Mugabe on Saturday he may well find himself the one eating humble pie!

The good election results should have left Tsvangirai buoyant and full of self confidence and decisive. If they did, the effect did not last very long. Ever since Mugabe has shown that he was not ready to give up power Tsvangirai has looked down cast, confused and weak.

The people of Zimbabwe had voted for change but, it seems, it is Tsvangirai himself who was not ready for change. I believe the people would have come out in their millions to defend their vote if MDC had called for mass protest. It was not impossible to ensure the protest were peaceful and well organised so that even Mugabe would have hesitated using violence; particularly with the whole world watching. MDC could have gone for stay-away and shut down the whole country and force ZEC to release the results.

By doing nothing and discarding the only real options he had Tsvangirai left himself looking weak and helpless.

Mugabe has since seized the initiative. He has deployed the war veterans, his shock-foot troop. There are reports of Police, CIO, Army and the other state security forces who are know to double up as Zanu PF election agents are been deployed country wide. Most of these people, particularly the low ranking individuals, probably voted MDC and Tsvangirai on 29 March 2008 – after all it is only the high ranks who are benefiting from the Mugabe patronage now. But now with Mugabe back on the ascendance they are now forced to tow the line.

Mugabe’s thugs are ready to flex their muscles to remind all who is boss. He is now in a position to serious security problem nationwide. If Tsvangirai had mobilise the people Mugabe who be sweating worrying about their resolve and determination- he had underestimated it on 29 March and would not want to do that again! As things stand he does not have to worry about that!

Tsvangirai will NOT be able to maintain law and order if Mugabe thugs should step up their lawlessness. No SADC nation will want to be sucked into Zimbabwe’s chaotic situation. Come Saturday Mugabe will be back in the driving seat.

He will want two things: 1) the result of the vote recount in the 21 Parliamentary Constituencies Zanu PF has already ordered be honoured (a result that would give back Zanu PF the parliamentary majority) 2) that there must be a presidential run-off. As a sop to SADC, Mugabe will order the immediate release of the presidential result – no candidate will have the 50% plus 1.

SADC will force Tsvangirai to accept Mugabe’s demands. After all his scuttle diplomacy arguing SADC to mediate Tsvangirai is hardly in a position to now reject SADC’s recommendations. MDC is on record saying any vote recount now is unconstitutional. And the party has also said Tsvangirai was NOT going to take part in any run-off because Tsvangirai won the election “hands down”. MDC may well be the ones dining of humble pie.

As a sop to Tsvangirai, SADC leaders will promise an election monitoring team – but we all know what a paper tiger that is!

By ruling out mass-action Tsvangirai shot himself in the leg – that was his only hand and it was a winning hand too. And by going to SADC he may well have executed a perfect coup de grace on himself!

Now I have time, I owe it to the readers who read Vincent’s various contributions on this blog. (I noticed I reproduced his the last contribution, by mistake under my own name – I would die of shame to pen such nonsense!

It is not the targeted sanction against Mugabe and his cronies that are causing Zimbabwe’s hype inflation. The seed of the hype inflation was sown back in 1980 when Mugabe took power. His spend, spend and spend policies resulted in the country’s public expenditure bloom beyond all proportion. Add to that mismanagement and corruption. This was simply economically unsustainable.

In 1990 the regime accepted the WB and IMF sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) to readdress all these economic imbalances. That programme failed and so too did the 1995 ESAP programme that followed because the Mugabe regime did not implement the agreed reforms. The excessive spending continued and the mismanagement and corruption became rampant.

In 2000 the WB and IMF stopped extending loans and other financial support to the Zimbabwe Gvt. The country’s foreign currency situation got even worse when the Mugabe regime started seizing commercial farms and thus disrupting one of the country’s major foreign currency earners – tobacco.

The Zimbabwe economy has literally collapsed when it found itself squeezing from all directions; excessive public expenditure, waste due to mismanagement and corruption, shortage of foreign currency, etc. Economic production had fallen and the Mugabe has continued to spend as if there is no tomorrow – a recipe for hype inflation!

It is not true that the Mugabe regime could not do anything about the land redistribution for the first 20 years of Zimbabwe’s independence because of constrains in the Lancaster Agreement. All constitution constrains fell away in 1990. That year the Mugabe regime changed the constitution so that the office of Prime Minister and that of State President were combined to create the Executive President. No prices for guessing who was to occupy that office.

Mugabe also tried to change the constitution to do away with the multi-party system and replace it with a one-party system. He failed- thank God. What he did was to create a de facto one-party state with all powers vested in the Executive President – HIM!

Land redistribution was important plank in the fight to end white domination and oppression in Zimbabwe for three reasons: 1) to redress the injustice of successive white gvt which had forceful removed blacks from their ancestral land to give to white farmers 2) from a purely land management perspective; soil erosion in the overcrowded rural areas was alarming and resettling people out of these areas was the solution and 3) last but more important of all the humanitarian question, resettle would give the poor access to the only resource available they could use to improve their economic well being.

In the economic argument was important in 1980 when most family had at least one family member working and earning a very good wage, it became urgent in 2000 when unemployment was high and the wages were being eroded away with the soaring cost of living. Today with unemployment pegged at over 80% and inflation at 150 000% the need to settle the growing multitude of the destitute is a matter of life and death.

In 2000 the Mugabe regimes stated seizing farms from the white farmers ostensibly to resettle the growing multitude of destitute. In practice it is the Mugabe cronies who now occupy the farms. This has made a bad situation ever worse for the ordinary Zimbabweans in that the dramatic drop in agricultural production had an equally dramatic negative effect economy and has caused food shortages.

I do not need the West to tell me whether Zimbabwe was producing bumper crops before independence or not. I saw the vast fields of maize, wheat and tobacco for myself. The country exported it surplus to other countries in the region and that earned Zimbabwe’s “bread basket” name. Open your eyes, Vincent, there are pictures of Zimbabwe shops with empty shelves on TV every day. If Zimbabwe is still producing bumper crops what is Mugabe doing with, where is he hiding it and why?

I would agree with you that China is not seeking to colonise Africa, not in the 19 centaury sense of the word at least. None the less China has propped up corrupt and oppressive regimes in Africa and else round the world. Mugabe has always counted on China to block an censor for his numerous transgressions.

When Mugabe fell out with the West he came up with his “Look East” policies. He was hoping that China would bankroll his spending spree. It is widely believed that China assisted Mugabe’s recent election campaign but that was it. China is increasing if spheres of influence and milking the countries in return for its continued support of these dictators. That is the modern day form of colonialism- subtle but just as crippling as 19 centaury one.

Do tell me the Chinese Communist party is just as repressive of its own people, I know that; I have my eyes open unlike some people. I hope and pray that the Chinese people will one day enjoy the human rights and dignity denied them all these years. Their struggle, our struggle in Zimbabwe and the struggle the world over for justice and freedom is one and the same!

Mugabe has done a good job hiding the true nature of his corrupt and oppressive regime for many years but slowly the truth is coming out. Of course there are those who considered him a hero and for egotistic reasons refuse to see him as the brutal dictator he is. For years many Zimbabweans too did not want to see Mugabe as anything else other than a great national hero. But life at the cutting edge of the 150 000% inflation, the constant fear of Zanu PF thugs who destroy property and murder with impunity, etc. has prized open your eyes!

Zimbabweans must not let Mugabe get away with his contemptuous disregard of their expressed electoral wishes on 29 March 2008. If Mugabe thinks Zimbabweans will just roll over and let him ride, rough shod, all over them as he has done so many times in the past then he should know; not this time.

There is only one logical explanation why two, three days maximum after the 29 March elections the nation still did not know the results- Mugabe did not like the results and hence did not want them made public. Eve the “dumbest” can see what is going on, said former Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Election are not about what Mugabe or anybody else for that matter liked; it is what the electorate want that matters.

When Mugabe cheats, it is not just Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC members and supporters he is cheating. He is cheating the whole nation. There are certain values which go beyond party-politics and fair play in public office is one of them. Fair play, justice, respect for human life, etc. these are values we must uphold and defend because the well being of the whole nation depends on it. And anyone who fails to up holds these values then he or she must be roundly condemned.

There has been a lot of talk of whether or not there would be the same violence in Zimbabwe as happened in Kenya following the disputed elections early this year. The general consensus was that this would not happen because “Zimbabweans are peace-loving people!” Zimbabweans have shown great patience and tolerance, rightly or wrongly, with Mugabe’s oppressive regime. It would be a great leap of faith to believe their failure to react as proof that they will never ever react. In fact the is historic support for the contrary; Zimbabweans took part in a bitter war to end white colonial oppression. And they are rightly proud of that!

No nation should ever rule out any option, including the option of direct action, in defence of the core values without which nationhood and life itself can not stand. The decision of direct action is not one to be taken lightly, admittedly, but which if the situation demands must nonetheless MUST be taken. Woe the man or woman who forces the nation’s hand to take such a tough decision.

There is a economic reason too why Zimbabweans must now act against Mugabe’s recent electoral fraud. Zimbabwe’s economic is in total melt down. Mugabe is responsible for this and as long as he remains in power things will get even worse. The Zimbabwe economy will need outside help to get it back on track and none such help will be forthcoming as long as Mugabe or his self appointed stooge remains in State House. And secondly, Mugabe is going to “reward” the few individuals who have helped him in subverting the electoral will of the electorate. He will give them ownership of the few functioning factories and shop, the only thing left for him to give away - all in the name of black empowerment.

Mugabe has show great skill and mental agility in the way he has always managed to use the historic fact of white colonial oppression to justify or cover for his over dictatorial oppression. He has managed to twist black Zimbabweans’ cry for freedom, justice and human dignity into one of “puppets” calling for the return of the white colonial masters. All his wizardry will not change one iota of the Zimbabwe economic reality of hype inflation, empty shops and a destitute nation!

It is intolerable that Zimbabweans should ever have to endure such tough and miserable lives. And many have died. We do not have to endure another day of this let alone another year - Mugabe did not rig this election only to hand over power to his chosen stooge a week later.

Zimbabweans can cut short Mugabe’s rule by simply staying home and bring the whole country to a complete stand still. In this days when many live from hand to mouth it would cause great hardships, yes. But whatever the hardship, these would be nothing compared to the sum total of what we all have to endure- many will not live to tell the story – of one more year of this mess!

The stay away will last as long as it takes to convince Mugabe and his cronies that the game is up! The full knowledge that victory is ourselves should see us through all the trials and tribulation. Our goal and victory is end Mugabe’s dictatorial rule so that as a nation we can, at last, start addressing the country’s many problems in a meaningful and purposeful way. Whilst Mugabe and his cronies occupy all the best land seized from the whites, for example, this very important resource will not be put to productive use – a key plank in Zimbabwe’s future economic recovery programme.

MDC should refuse to take part in the presidential run-off, it will foolish to do. Whilst the top leaders will be safe the same can not be said of their poor party officials and supporters who will have to face the War Veterans and other Zanu PF thugs in the remote rural areas. Already the meaningless murders have started as recent Reuter press reports show. The elected MDC official must boycott parliament- the one thing Mugabe would not want right now is the prospect of a bye-election in half the parliamentary seats!

MDC should show they are a force worthy of the people’s support by taking some initiative and not be so naïve and predictable. A change of leadership is long over due!

There is a time in every nation’s history when it must make a stand: for Zimbabwe this is that time! Even the dumbest can see we are being short changed, the question is, are we going to let Mugabe get away with it?

I thinks Mugabe is the best thing that could ever have happened to Zimbabwe. He kicked all those evil White people off their farms and put in the poor peasant farmers so they can revert to their simple lifestyle - as it should be. Mugabe has the guts to shake his fist at the rest of the world and stand up for what he believes in. So what if he’s one of the richest men in the world - he obviously earned evey dollar honestly. He was also reasonable in having his brave soldiers shoot the White survivors of the Viscount that was shot down during the Liberation war. Mugabe is a true African!