“It’s like a father, when the father is away, children always ask, ‘Where is the father,’ but father may make an assessment that it is not opportune at that particular time to do certain things,” he said.

A father’s place is at home President Tsvangirai and so is a leader’s. Morgan Tsvangirai is quoted as having said the above by a Canadian newspaper. There was a time when Nelson Mandela was in Algeria on his way to London in the early years of the struggle. He had one more trip to do to London and his colleagues and friends, worried at what would happen to him were he to return to South Africa, urged him to ask for asylum in Britain. His response was typical Mandela arguing, that a leader’s place is with his people.

President Tsvangirai, the people who worked, campaigned and risked life and limb for you to make it to State House are being hunted down and swatted like mosquitoes. Their blood is staining the walls of Great Zimbabwe. The leadership of the MDC is nowhere in sight. One of the values of a social democratic society is solidarity with the poor and oppressed. This is an opportune time to demonstrate the courage that has won you much deserved respect the world over and that led the masses to vote for you. Do not let them down now when they need their leader.

The attempted analogy with the father is most unfortunate because many a father would not abandon their children to such a fate. Come home and stand with us as we continue to stand with you. As we did on March 11 and as we will continue to do . . . if you show the leadership and courage of Nelson Mandela. This is not the time to be shuttling the region, it is a time to be shutting Zimbabwe down. In fact, if you get arrested as you fear, such action will achieve larger results for you than the current shuttle diplomacy in some capital cities that are hostile to you.

Wondering what other Zimbabweans thought about Morgan Tsvangirai setting himself up in Botswana, we sent this text message to our subscribers:

Kubatana! Tsvangirai has based himself in Botswana claiming “It is no use going back to Zim & becoming captive. Then you are not effective.” What do you think?

Here are some of their replies:

Being captured will trigger worldwide pressure or outcry. Zimbabwe’s problems are taking long because everyone is going away.

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Yes, its ok for him to be there because Zanu lost the election. They are in heart pain and they could kill our new selected leader.

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MT must address the public because soon it will be No Hope and that will be the worst because it will nurture a defeatist attitude that will thwart any progress towards revolution.

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Aiwazve let him stand his ground. The music iz playing. He has 2face it lyk a man. Come bak Mr President u havent lost yet

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He made the wrong decision

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He has let zim down and its cowardice of Tsvangirai to do that

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50/50. Maybe cowardice creeping in. He MUST be with the pple at this hour!

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It’s a good idea. He can work out strategies better in another country than here.

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We want him back 2 finish the struggle to freedom he started we are here to support him as we showed him on 29 March

A friend emailed me this information today and it made me think of Bob and his Bad Brigade in Zimbabwe.

Laurence W. Britt wrote about the common signs of fascism in April, 2003, after researching seven fascist regimes: Hitler’s Nazi Germany; Mussolini’s Italy; Franco’s Spain; Salazar’s Portugal; Papadopoulos’ Greece; Pinochet’s Chile; Suharto’s Indonesia.

• Powerful and continuing Nationalism
• Disdain for human rights
• Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
• Supremacy of the military
• Rampant sexism
• Controlled mass media
• Obsession with national security
• Religion and government intertwined
• Corporate power protected
• Labor power suppressed
• Disdain for intellectuals & and the arts
• Obsession with crime & punishment
• Rampant cronyism & corruption
• Fraudulent elections

23 days after the election, and still no results.

Did you know . . . ?

• There is no six day limit within which election results must be announced (contrary to what Deputy Minister of Information Bright Matonga said). But, the whole vote counting process shouldn’t take more than a few hours at each polling station, and the compilation of these subtotals shouldn’t take more than a few hours after that. And, after that, results are meant to be announced “forthwith,” not days or weeks after the election.
• Cabinet may have been dissolved, but mugabe’s ministers retain their positions until the next president is sworn in.
• The presidential returns would have been received by the Chief Election Officer with the House and Senate results – so there was no reason for them not to have been announced by now.
• The fact that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission can call for a recount more than 48 hours after election results have been announced seems to be an error of misparagraphing, an oversight by the drafters of the Electoral Act, not a deliberate provision of the law.

Read The inconvenient truth: A complete guide to the delay in releasing the results of Zimbabwe’s presidential poll, and find answers to all your questions on Zimbabwe’s 2008 election procedure.

One of my favourite pieces on the travesty which is Zimbabwe: Post Election is Tawanda Mudzonga’s This state we’re in:

An election happens and weeks later, no one knows the outcome. Life goes on. But behind each pleasant greeting and each stolen glance of the past three weeks there is unease. No one says a word, but we all feel it as we pass each other in the street. The distinct sense of expectation unfulfilled. We avoid each other’s eyes. The deception lies just below the surface, eyes veiled, hearts burning, and an anger and frustration hidden deep beneath social convention. Zimbabweans, famous for their infinite patience, are in shock. As a coping mechanism and alternative to violence, we have all adopted the distinctive reveal-nothing-and-remain-composed routine we have perfected as a collective cultural trait. Instead of raising our fists with violence, we collude and pretend that all is well. Harare is a broken machine, overflowing with repressed despair and misery. Emotionally exhausted from its decline, we protect ourselves from the open wounds of Zimbabwe’s stark reality.

. . .

Speculation is rife that the state will simply insist on a run-off and do Election 2.0. This time, they’re adopting Super Rigging: guaranteed results or your money back. And the MDC? After 8 years of trying, the MDC face the prospect of being outmanoeuvred once again. ZANU have done the unthinkable and are bluffing their way through with arrogance and the threat of their many degrees of violence. On the 29th of March, the nation participated in a fairly democratic process and unequivocally asked the fist to kindly step down please. ZANU, down but not out, simply turn the other way and plan their next move.

Read more

I’ve been sifting through photographs of Zimbabweans beaten in the weeks following the 29 March Harmonised Election, and I’m feeling sick. What do I do with the outrage that boils up as I look at image after image of horrific brutality. And how do I stomach myself asking the question “which one portrays this horror ‘best’?” I’m angry with myself for even asking the question, and I’m angry with the “crisis what crisis” mentality that means I have to ask the question in the first place.

As James Hall wrote, is an African life so cheap, that 1,000 must die before there is a “crisis?”

I heard a bit of the BBC’s Hard Talk with Allan Little and Morgan Tsvangirai the other day. Little was asking Tsvangirai what the MDC was going to do about this latest election theft, and whether it was planning some sort of People Power solution like what was undertaken in Serbia or the Ukraine. Tsvangirai said no, he didn’t think that sort of approach was appropriate in Zimbabwe. Why not, asked Little. Because, Tsvangirai said, the regime in Zimbabwe is so violent, any sort of popular uprising like that would be brutally and violently crushed.

But isn’t this violent enough already? We are not already in a state of war, as MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti himself said recently. In which case, it’s about time we started fighting back.