Zimbabweans have received praise galore for their patience as they wait interminably for the results of the presidential election held on March 29, 2008. Pity there is no prospect of bestowing kudos on SADC leaders as they met in Lusaka to consider the ‘crisis’ in Zimbabwe. They couldn’t even agree to use a word as strong as ‘crisis’ to describe this debacle.

Luckily, the light is dawning for many of us that our patience could be our downfall.

Consider this ridiculous scenario. Mugabe’s government gets to:

• Set the election date
• Handpick the head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (an old friend)
• Set the constituency boundaries
• Monopolise government-run radio and television
• Accredit press and election observers
• Undermine uniformed forces’ right to a secret ballot
• Raid foreign currency accounts to finance their well-timed pre-election giveaway of tractors, scotch carts and fuel etc
• Use a politicized and discredited police force to ‘guard’ the ballot boxes – they’ve had at least 12 days free and clear to tamper with the contents of the ballot boxes
• Print money to pay all and sundry – Since the announcement on Jan 25, 2008 of the date for the 2008 ‘Harmonised’ elections the parallel rate for the Zimbabwe dollar to the USD has gone from 4,750,000 to 65,000,000.

And then they have the cheek to claim they’ve been disadvantaged by a system of their own design!

One thing is clear – in spite of all their advantages, Zanu (PF) and Mugabe have lost their gerrymandered elections.

Now we know:

• The Mugabe regime will not leave quietly
• SADC will be of no assistance
• Mbeki is unbecomingly biased towards Didymus Mutasa’s ‘dear old man‘ – Robert Mugabe
• We can no longer afford to wait patiently for Zanu(PF) to rig its way around the Zimbabwean people’s vote for change

In spite of our many differences, the people of Zimbabwe now more than ever need to pull together to demand that our voices, raised through the recent elections be respected.

The MDC have apparently called for a rolling national strike from Tuesday April 15 in the event the presidential election results have not yet been announced by then. At this point in time it seems impossible to accept any further result that comes from the discredited ZEC – whether or not it is delivered on Monday, April 14. Should the impossible happen and the ZEC declares Morgan Tsvangirai President of Zimbabwe I will happily apologise for doubting them!

A book worth having a flip through is Kurt Schock’s Unarmed Insurrections: people power movements in nondemocracies. In a section on multiple channels of resistance, he has this to say . . .

Participation in a nondemocratic regime’s channels of political participation is not likely to succeed unless combined with noninstitutional pressure. In the Philippines, segments of the oppostion participated in Marcos’s institutionalised channels, yet they continued to exert noninstitutional pressure as well. In Burma, by contrast, after the military crackdown the opposition focused on the regime-controlled election campaigning leading up to the May 1990 elections without maintaining sufficient noninstitutional pressure against the regime. The opposition won the elections, but was demobilised and unable to force the government to step down as in the Philippines, where campaigns of nonviolent action were implemented concomitantly with participation in elections, and civil disobedience was implemented when Marcos refused to step aside.

The power to disrupt is vital to a challenge, and it should not be given up in exchange for participation in channels controlled by the state.

Words of advice for the pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwe?

Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are just no match for Mugabe and his Zanu PF cohorts. Sad but true. Let’s reflect on the last few weeks:

- The MDC campaigned brilliantly in the election
- Zimbabweans voted out Mugabe and Zanu PF
- The MDC claimed victory, and sat back
- Zanu PF delayed the announcement of election results to facilitate their rigging and to find a way to stay in power
- Zanu PF reverts to the tried and tested pattern of resorting to the courts – really a smokescreen for even longer delays and provides for the mollification of our regional neighbours

In the meantime everyone in the pro-democracy movement and the political opposition in Zimbabwe say that “patience” is needed.

The net result of this patience has been a loss of momentum from a victorious declaration.

The loss of momentum and no clear plan on the part of the MDC has seen a strengthened Zanu PF.

This patience has given Zanu PF time to ban political meetings and rallies.

This patience has given Zanu PF time to deploy police and military on our streets, in the townships and rural areas.

This patience has given Zanu PF time to implement a campaign of violence and fresh land invasions.

What is clear is that the MDC yet again thought that an election alone would guarantee Mugabe’s exit.

Now we have word that the MDC has called for a general strike starting on Tuesday. Apparently the MDC has distributed some fliers publicising this strike and had intended to use a rally today to give it further publicity.

But it is yet another MDC initiative launched from satellite TV, doomed to fail because they haven’t engaged the necessary advocacy and lobbying of key stakeholders – business leaders, transport operators, banks (etc). Ask any regular person walking the streets of Harare today and they’ll give you a blank stare when you mention the general strike.

So then some suggestions . . .

1) Prepare properly for a general strike
2) Lead rolling sit-ins at the location where ZEC will be recounting the 23 constituencies
3) Groups of Zanu PF youth should hand out information materials at all intersections in major cities to keep people up to date on developments
4) The approximately 130 opposition MPs and Senators must unify and publicly protest the subversion of the recent election
5) Civil society coalitions should come together to inspire public participation in non-violent public initiatives demanding the immediate announcement of the presidential result
6) Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC leadership must be seen on the streets of Zimbabwe… our freedom will not be secured through regional and international intervention; it will be won by Zimbabweans

Just as many of us went out to vote for change a couple of weeks ago, now we must unify and give Mugabe what he really doesn’t want, or expect: mass civil disobedience.

Our “patience” helps him more than it helps us.

Looking back at our blogs – the persistent theme is “waiting” . . . and I was reminded of a beautiful piece of writing from Fools & other stories by Njabulo S Ndebele:

If the fish in a river
boiled by the midday sun
can wait for the coming of evening,
we too can wait
in this wind-frosted land,
the spring will come,
the spring will come.

If the reeds in winter
can dry up
and seem dead
and then rise in the spring,
we too will survive the fire that is coming
the fire that is coming,
we too will survive the fire that is coming.

Went to the biggest supermarket in town this morning.

Shoppers curse as they pass aisles of empty shelves; cotton wool here, baked beans there, snacks here, stacks of beer there; young men pass the crates of lager and salivate; they head for another section where they grab the take-me-quick-liver-melting spirits; they curse the president; none pays attention; they move on; next, fetid empty fridges; once upon a time the home of cheese, ice cream, fish, beef, pork, offals – that old favourite of many, chicken – why did the chicken cross the road; why did the chicken leave the supermarket fridge; used to be music serenading shoppers from an in-store record bar; all is gone; who can afford to buy music; can you eat a CD or cassette; 28 tills, only two being manned by tired looking operators; give us a re-run, I heard them say; a replay of shelves perhaps?

My grandfather used to tell me that if you want to die a miserable death, join politics, and that politics is a dirty game. The way we play draughts (tsoro), that’s the same way politics is, creating space in order to be the winner.

“When you join in a political fight by way of an election you must be prepared to lose,” President Mugabe told a rally in Nyanga, just three days before the elections. “You must accept it. If Zanu PF wins you must accept it, if you (MDC) win we will accept,” he said.

On election day, he reiterated his assertions, saying he would not sleep with a “clear conscience” knowing he had won the elections through rigging. “There was no language of rigging in this country until the (arrival of the) MDC,” he said in Nyanga.

What surprises me now is that up to 12 days, no Presidential results have been announced. Who is not accepting defeat?

So what became of Mugabe’s promise that they would accept the election results? Where are those results? Why has the ZEC stopped the pretense of scrutinising them?