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Zimbabweans, in their millions, spoke on July 31 in electing President Mugabe to the highest office in the land, and giving Zanu-PF a crushing two-thirds majority in Parliament and a near clean sweep of local authorities.Africa and the progressive world were at hand to witness the rout that Zanu-PF achieved inspite of the West’s illegal economic sanctions regime that was imposed in a bid to influence voting patterns.
The biggest loser, MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai approached the courts, which again unequivocally upheld President Mugabe’s re-election and laid into the MDC-T leader and his legal team for approaching the courts with dirty hands.
Not only that, Sadc leaders at their recent summit in Lilongwe, Malawi, not only upheld President Mugabe’s re-election but moved Zimbabwe from an agenda item to the leadership of the organisation.
Surely all these people are not dunces.
President Mugabe and Zanu-PF won the elections fair and square, and if Mr Tsvangirai wants to be respected as a potential occupant of the country’s highest office, he needs to be magnanimous in defeat.
It’s high time he conceded and congratulated President Mugabe.
Elections are not zero-sum games as they yield three possible outcomes, a win, a loss or a stalemate.
For every win, someone must fail and it so happened to be the MDC-T leader who failed again.
He should be magnanimous in this third and most emphatic defeat.
This day, however, is not about winners or losers but is a celebration of our democratic tradition that came at the cost of thousands of lives of innocent men, women and children who waged a war that Tsvangirai had no stomach for against the Rhodesian regime.
The fact that the MDC-T leader clogged his party’s rank and file with the ex-Rhodies who not only denied our people the vote yesterday, but decimated our people for daring to demand their birthright is the reason why he does not walk onto the dais to take the oath of office today.
Let this be his day of introspection.
Only a dimwit would believe that Mbuya Nehanda was referring to Giles Mutsekwa or Roy Bennett when she told her executioners of April 27 1898 that “my bones will rise again”.
The oath of office President-elect Robert Gabriel Mugabe takes today bids him to safeguard our nation and its founding values, and he has consistently proved he is equal to the task from the days of the liberation struggle to present, which explains the overwhelming endorsement he received.
Let this be a lesson to friend and foe alike. Zimbabwe has a rich and proud history of stolid, defiant resistance to all forms of neo-colonialism; and any askaris will be thrown to the dustbin by discerning voters.
Our advice to Mr Tsvangirai is: Look in the mirror, recognise your warts and do something about them: The politically ugly will never sway the Zimbabwean voter.
In your years in the inclusive Government, if you had any of the brains God promised the grasshopper, you will have realised why the Zimbabwean voter is enamoured by President Mugabe.
To this end, be man enough and give credit where it is due. You lost to a better man, and unless you become the change you profess to champion, you shall always watch from the sidelines.
Online Reporter