So the former Sir RG Mugabe, now turned warlord and shameless dictator, fresh from demotion by the English Queen, has decided to contest himself in the Run off election. With the opposition MDC having pulled out of the election citing violence against its supporters and fearing that forcing its supporters to vote would cost them their lives, Mugabe has insisted that the election goes on… who is he contesting? Rumour coming from Harare a day after the joke of an election has it that in the cities , Mugabe has lost! He has lost to spoilt votes. Zimbabweans are not fools after all. A friend from Mabvuku tells me that at one polling station where he was an election officer, Mugabe had less votes that spoilt votes!
So, Mugabe will go ahead and declare himself winner, attend the AU with a fresh new mandate. Proud that he is not the only one among his contemporaries to force his will upon his people. He boasted on Thursday , a day before the runoff, in Chitungwiza, that he does not expect anyone to question his new mandate as none had a clean record and had thus no right to question his! Where to Zimbabwe? Where to Africa?
On the other hand, he now sounded ready to talk to the MDC, albeit, with an “upper hand”. one is forced to rewind back to 2002 when he refused to go ahead with talks if the MDC continued with its High court challenge and refused to acknowledge his legitimacy. A similar situation is poised to happen again this time around. What then could be the way forward now? Can President Mbeki reign in on Mugabe, can something be worked out? How far is the MDC willing to go in as far as making concessions is concerned?
The western world is contemplating further sanctions and isolation of the Harare regime. Tanzania and Botswana ready to move in militarily. Can both attempts at forcing a solution achieve something or worsen the situation on the ground? Can Zimbabwean masses conjure an uprising in the midst of militarization of the nation? Is the opposition and civic society ready to take leadership and direct a people’s victory to fruition, or do we have to wait for Mugabe to succumb to the will of nature…the people’s victory has been delayed enough, it cannot be delayed no more.