Work! The one great sacrament of humanity from which all other things flow – security, leisure, joy, art, literature, even divinity itself. – Sean O’Casey (1884-1964)

Traditionally May Day has been left to the labour unions to commemorate in Zimbabwe. This year we ALL need to use this opportunity to protest the state of our nation post-election.

Our society is blessed with a diversity of skills and opinion – we need now more than ever to harness our efforts and ideas to bring peace and prosperity to our nation. To this end we need to be able to share information and ideas in a way that mobilises us to act positively. The weeks post-election have been filled with violence, intimidation and propaganda. We need to frame these dark realities in a motivational way, for if we don’t, we will instead spread fear, alarm and anxiety.

We would like to encourage you and your organisation/business/family/church to prepare for International Workers’ Day. Let us convert our outrage at the government’s attempts to subvert the electoral process into positive peaceful action.

Some ideas:

• hold a special church service that celebrates our right to work
• publish adverts that demand our right to a democratically elected government
• circulate fliers that remind our communities that we cannot rest until our labour for change is done
• invite friends to your home to celebrate friendship and discuss how we can continue to work for change
• organise a gathering of women to discuss how women labour for love and a better future for our families
• host a music concert that integrates messages of solidarity for those targeted by the regime’s agents of violence
• participate in a sporting event that dedicates its efforts to democracy in Zimbabwe
• hold a sponsored walk/talk/kiss-in – anything – to raise funds to assist the victims of post-election violence

Most important of all – do something that inspires you and those around you.

In an earlier post I remarked on how the Zimbabwe dollar had devalued hugely on the parallel market in the run up to Zimbabwe’s ‘harmonised’ elections.

Who wanted foreign currency badly enough to pay hand over fist for it? The businesses and organizations whose foreign currency accounts (FCAs) had been robbed by Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank at the end of 2007? Hardly likely as there aren’t enough of these local businesses operating at sufficient capacity to finance a jump from paying 4.75 million to 65 million Zimbabwe dollars for 1 US dollar, in 8 weeks.

Funny how there was suddenly farm equipment galore to give away in the weeks before the election. And plenty of helicopter trips for Mugabe to address the nation at uncountable rallies before the March 29 elections. Seems there must be a connection.

Straight after the elections were held, the rate ‘plummeted’ for a week – down to 30 million to 1 US dollar.

Today, the rate is 85 million to the US dollar and rising fast.

So, what’s driving it back up again?

My feeling is that the regime is spending quadrillions on preparing the nation (especially the rural areas) for a runoff. Beating the rural population doesn’t come cheap. That kind of deployment requires fuel for transport, food for militias and army responsible for the beatings, extra wages – who would commit this kind of violence on their usual pay cheque?

Fuel & food are in short supply in Zimbabwe – but Zim dollars are easy to print – so our illegitimate government is the most likely to be driving the rate up.

Oh and don’t forget the innumerable times our one and a half jets have flown to and fro above our heads in the past week. That’s an expensive exercise in a country without foreign currency inflows.

I haven’t begun to talk about the reserves of tear gas they’ll need to be building up to ‘manage’ everyone when they wrap up their final subversion of the ‘harmonised’ election through re-counts and a runoff.

We need to put our heads together and work our how to starve the beast that beats us.

The rollercoaster ride that has ensued since we cast our ballots in the March 29, 2008 “Harmonised” elections has left many of us dejected and demoralized.

We saw Zanu (PF) briefly lost for words as the magnitude of their defeat became apparent in the first few days of counting. Unhappily for us they have recovered their poisonous form and have now set their shoulder to the task of formally rigging the results.

Much criticism can be directed at the MDC(Tsvangirai), MDC(Mutambara) and Makoni camps for letting Zanu (PF) take a breathe and regroup. The fact that they have still not formed a coalition to resist Zanu (PF)’s determined attempts to steal the election is self-defeating.

As much as any of the opposition constructs may be able to lay claims to the most votes or the most integrity or the most internal Zanu (PF) support, none of them, on their own, is a match for the desperate regime that still clings to power.

What legitimacy does Robert Mugabe or his interim ‘cabinet’ have? None but that which we as a nation accord them by continuing to work through the discredited entities they have set up or influence.

• The High Court as evidenced by Justice Tendai Uchena’s reluctance to act swiftly in the face of impending electoral fraud is undermined and not worthy of our participation.
• The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission headed by High Court judge Justice George Mutandwa Chiweshe has acted in a manner that leaves no doubt that they are heavily biased towards Zanu (PF) and totally spineless.
• The police force set to guard the ballot boxes after voting day is notoriously partisan and inclined to ‘follow orders’.
• The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings is Zanu (PF)’s propaganda umbrella for radio, television and print media and purports to inform the nation on the ‘truth of the matter’.
• SADC, epitomised by Thabo Mbeki, is a deaf, blind, mute construct determined to allow the worst kind of white collar crime – electoral fraud – to be perpetuated. They would have us believe that unless blood is spilled in volumes here, there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. In fact, their paucity of vision and leadership epitomises the crisis we have in Africa.

So here comes the hard part. We have to pool our collective imagination, stamina and determination to resist Zanu (PF)’s attempts to ‘claim’ these elections through their corrupt entities and efforts. As tired as we may feel, this time we have to beat Zanu (PF) at their game.

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!

This lunatic competition has taken another crazy turn.

According to the MDC’s latest press statement the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has disbanded the National Command Centre and shifted the ‘verification process’ to an undisclosed location.

“The MDC secretary-general told journalists in Harare that Lovemore Sekeramayi, the ZEC chief elections officer, had told President Tsvangirai’s chief election agents Chris Mbanga and Morgan Komichi, that verification was now being at another place outside the Harare International Conference Centre. He refused to disclose who was now carrying out the collation and verification exercise and the place where the exercise was now being carried out.”

At this point, only one candidate could benefit from this chicanery – Robert Mugabe.

It’s time he was disqualified. Thabo Mbeki – please raise your red card.

If anyone was the least confused before, surely all must know the truth by now.

Robert Mugabe has lost the presidential elections in Zimbabwe and his party is doing its best to falsify the results.

There can be no other reason for withholding the results 10 days after polls closed at 7pm on March 29, 2008.

Give us the results, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and join us in the new Zimbabwe.