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?

I’ve just come back from a Friday lunchtime prayer meeting organised by the Christian Alliance. When Amanda and I got to the Baptist Hall on Fife Avenue there were hardly any people in the room. We swayed to and fro listening to the singing. Soon the room filled to capacity with Zimbabweans in every chair, leaning up against the walls and sitting on the floor.

The mood was defiant and outraged. Declarations of protecting the vote thundered from the people gathered. We left just before the meeting ended and sat outside eating frozen red freezits to cool down. As the congregation emerged from the hall a procession formed making its way into town down Second Street. But around the corner came a swarm of blue uniformed, helmeted, baton and teargas wielding riot police. Menacing doesn’t come close.

My response, almost everyone’s response, was Fear. The most immediate reaction was to Run. People scattered, and then re-formed and then scattered again. In town the riot police positioned themselves in large groups at intersections, waiting and watching.

Now I’m sitting at my desk, back in the office, drinking coffee under slow turning ceiling fans and listening to that jet fighter buzz our sky again. Anger, fear, outrage, fatigue, dismay – a gamut of emotions flood me. But I’m also in awe of the people who gathered today, who were passionate enough to show up and in solidarity say, we object.

In another worrying development, we’ve heard from a Kubatana member in the legal profession that there are plans to reopen ballot boxes in Mutare West, Chimanimani West, and possibly other constituencies as well on Friday 11 April. This is ostensibly in connection with recounts for these constituencies. Apparently the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has notified the winning Members of the House of Assembly of this plan, but has not informed local observers and others with a right to witness this reopening of the ballot boxes – and the recounting of the ballot papers inside them.

However, Section 67A of the Electoral Act allows a recount only at ZEC’s own initiative, or if a complaint is made by a losing candidate or party within 48 hours. There has been no credible indication that such a complaint has been made. And ZEC has not said why it wants to reopen boxes, or what boxes it intends to open. In either case there must be reasonable grounds to believe there was a miscount. The arrests of isolated officials do not justify a recount, as any error or fraud here would have needed to have a lot of people being complicit in it, including police and party agents.

As our subscriber pointed out:

The polling process had precautions against fraud during counting and adding, with vote counting done by 11 officials in the presence of party agents, police and observers, and each result then being signed and posted at the polling station. Any fraud at either stage would have required the complicity of numerous people including the police. Every polling station record was made with 6 signed copies & under such supervision that no-one could have hoped to commit a fraud in counting or collating undetected. No complaints were heard from ZANU-Pf during this process. Various observers praised the process. ZEC delayed its own announcements confirming constituency results for days, saying it was checking all the results before doing so. When it announced them, ZANU-PF and state media still voiced no criticism.

In other words, if these recounts are occurring, is there any reasonable suspicion that votes were stolen from Zanu PF? Given the number of observers present at most polling stations, and the transparency of the process of transferring polling station level counts to constituency level tabulation forms, this seems highly unlikely.

With so public a process, there surely can be no reasonable suspicion that Robert Mugabe has been robbed by anyone. Why now open the ballot boxes?

Read more on this issue here