By Elizabeth Sitotombe
IT all backfired spectacularly.
It was a script well planned with the intent to effect regime change in the country.
CCC Nelson Chamisa called it the ‘Mango Strategy’; be green outside and yellow inside, follow them around he said; do everything with them but vote for me he commanded.
What the young quisling did not anticipate was that the very mangoes he sought to push around to do his bidding would blend in only too well in their supposed temporary environment.
Rally after rally, the country would witness the ZANU PF crowds growing larger and larger while the opposition CCC’s crowds thinned.
Still they thought they had it all covered.
The mango strategy would coincide with Chamisa’s ‘strategic ambiguity’ where he would deliberately create uncertainty on his next move. With no structures and no constitution, he kept the country guessing. Chamisa declared that ZANU PF had no room for rigging, that they had mapped all polling stations and had, during the elections, deployed polling agents to all polling stations and even had them camping at all polling stations to defend their vote.
At the same time, they were banking on some of the observer missions that would be part of the election monitors.
Nevers Mumba, head of the SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM), was appointed by the Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, the current Chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, to monitor the harmonised elections in Zimbabwe.
Mumba formerly served as Zambia’s Vice-President. He has a history of meddling in other countries’ internal affairs. In 2004 Mumba falsely claimed that a Zambian spy chief was hiding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, running the risk of sparking a diplomatic tiff between the two countries.
After thorough investigations revealed otherwise, the then President Levi Mwanawasa had to relieve Mumba of his duties.
Mumba is part of Zambia’s Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD). He was the party president who refused to resign after the end of his tenure as required by the party constitution. In 2018 he was convicted of lying to a police officer.
Nelson Chamisa and Mumba are well known buddies; even former MDC-T leader, the late Morgan Tsvangirai, with whom they formed an association of Southern African Opposition Parties that was meant to fight revolutionary parties alongside the likes of Uganda’s Bobbi Wine and South Africa’s Mmusi Maimane formally of DA.
Along with Hichilema, Mumba and Chamisa are all members of the Brenthurst Foundation. It is a think tank established by the Oppenheimer family in 2004. It funds opposition parties in a bid to dismantle revolutionary parties in the SADC region. A survey carried out six months ago by London-based Sabi Strategies Group on behalf of the Oppenheimer family-owned Brenthurst Foundation had predicted a 53 percent win for the opposition party in the 2023 harmonised general elections.
We would see Mumba play his role so well and even go overboard doing so. He was to be seen accompanying Chamisa to cast his vote in Kuwadzana.
The report released by Mumba screamed so loudly and mirrored the one released by the EU Elections Observer Mission report.
Not only was it clearly biased toward the opposition, but clearly unprofessional and unethical.
In its report, the SADC mission criticised the country’s legislative framework and all but insinuated that the judiciary was captured. How would they have known if not based on hearsay?
He crossed the line.
The code of conduct of an observer requires strict impartiality at all times; accuracy of observation and professionalism in drawing conclusions.
Prior to the elections, Chamisa and Mumba had met alongside the EU and held closed door meetings.
What was more satirical was the introduction of ‘Mandla’, a tech system that was to “…focus on parallel voter tabulation”. During the election process, Mandla was trending on social media. They called it a ‘fit baby boy’ that would grow with them beyond August 23.
They made the app sound enigmatic and supposedly heroic for, according to them, Mandla was going to lead the CCC to the promised land.
Even with all the strategies, Chamisa lost the elections. Zimbabweans proved they were ready to defend their sovereignty.
And, as expected, CCC rejected the election results. They tried to peddle false news of violence and tried to plunge the country into violence. But Zimbabweans remained calm and peaceful.
CCC, backdating to the then MDC-T, have had nothing to offer the masses except for sanctions and their poorly played out power craving dramas.
The harmonised general elections in the country were peaceful and orderly.
There was a high voter turn-out all over the country, with hundreds of people queueing at various polling stations eager to vote.
No incidences of violence were reported.
Voters cast their votes and returned home peacefully.
Now we move on, we continue to move towards Vision 2030, leaving no place and no-one behind. Five more years of service delivery and development awaits us as a country.
Under the visionary leadership of President Mnangagwa, we have witnessed massive economic and infrastructural development.
Zimbabwe will not conform to the West. Sell outs will not be tolerated in this country. Zimbabwe will never be a colony again!
