The real reason why Zimbabwe’s election results have been delayed.

It’s 124 hours since polling closed in Zimbabwe’s 29 March Harmonised Election, and I’m angry. Sure, I’m also tired from too many weeks of too long hours working. And I’m overwhelmed by the amount of work the new government will have to do to turn this country back around again. And I’m subdued when I think of how flawed any political system is, and how flawed any politician is, and how much vigilance it will continue to require to hold government accountable.

But mostly I’m angry. The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission released the first 10 out of 59 results for the contested Senate seats an hour ago. The results so far show the same now familiar pattern of an even split – this time it’s 5 seats to the MDC (Tsvangirai), 5 seats to Zanu PF. ZEC claims that the delay in announcement is due to logistical constraints, but if that were the case, why did the 5am news this morning claim they would start announcing results “early this morning.”

The real reason they’ve been so delayed, I’m sure, is because there is some kind of deal making and negotiation going on behind the scenes. Both parties claim they’re not. But there’s talk that the MDC, Zanu PF and the security forces are in negotiations. There are hints that Zanu PF is “deciding” whether they’ll take the election to a run-off. But it’s not for them to decide – it’s been decided already, in the numbers of votes cast for each presidential candidate.

I’ve been concerned about an elite deal deciding Zimbabwe’s future for years. But to subvert an election into a negotiation is insulting and infuriating. We cast our vote in an election, full knowing it might well be rigged. But we didn’t sign up for a negotiation. I’m sure it sounds naive and perhaps unrealistic to hold to some idealistic principle like “the will of the people, as reflected in a democratic election.” But isn’t that the point? It’s time for ZEC to announce the result of the election – flawed as it might have been, and unpopular as its outcome might be to some.

Ohh! That incorrigible Chronicle! “Charamba warns MDC” – ‘don’t announce results before end of elections.’ And the Charamba fellow is still referred to as “the Secretary of Information and Publicity”! In whose government we dare to ask? Popular sentiment as manifested in the ballot itself shows to all and sundry that Charamba does not speak for anybody but Bob the former president. Many here are dreaming of a Zimbabwe without a straitjacketed civil servant whose loyalties have been fettered by the liberation war motif, and have already said they will not be stopped from celebrating the dawn of new era.

It is that kind of speechifying that only emboldens the people who inevitably imagine their vote for better life and a new beginning is not being taken seriously and take to the streets to reclaim “people power.” Remember the Orange Revolution that shook these types? No wonder some opposition political parties elsewhere in Africa have gone on the vengeance once they assumed power. It is because of these so-called civil servants who make every effort to go against the grain and attempt to defy the will of the people. But alas to no avail. These are the same people who cry wolf when they are arraigned before the law courts and made to account for the wealth they accumulated during the aggrandisement years when they formed government.

Zimbabweans are ready to see the fossilisation of the men and women who took up arms during the war years. And this not because the neo-Zimbos are sell-outs, but simply because they want to get rid of the neo-colonialists who since 1980 have emerged in the form of Charamba and the regime he has attempted loyally serve all this time – until now!

Here is more of what ordinary Zimbabweans want to see change in a free Zimbabwe. This information comes from feedback from a Kubatana.net email newsletter in which we asked for ideas . . . food for thought:

• Remove the army from the National Botanic Gardens. We will never be able to replace the wonderful 200 year old musasa trees that they destroyed but get them to clear up their mess.

• Scrap AIPPA forthwith.

• Put someone who knows something about broadcasting into the hot seat at deadBC and transform it into ZBC. I suggest Gerry Jackson.

• Clear out the dead wood presenters in ZBC. You know who they are.

• Get rid of the party apparatchiks everywhere.

• Get the Daily News back up and running.

• As soon as parliament reopens overhaul the legislation of the last 28 years with one question – what can be done to this legislation to enhance the prosperity of Zimbabweans.

• Retire all those who have contributed to the collapse of our economy.

• There are many who have gotten away with contempt of the High Court for too long. Affect the warrants against them now.

• President Tsvangirai when it comes time for you to hand over power to new blood, please do so for a dignified exit.

• No more presidential birthdays – we all have birthdays. It’s a waste of our tax monies. Eating cake on national television when people are starving to death.

• Make sure diplomats get paid. It is so cruel to ask someone to pack his or her life and move to another country/continent and don’t get paid forcing them to beg.

• And when the soon to be first lady goes shopping, we the people who voted for you do not need to be locked out of shops because your wife is shopping.

• When we wave at you in your motorcade, don’t order your security to shoot us – after all it’s because of us you are there.

• We want teachers to get paid well – the future of our children is in their hands.

• Introduce a National Thanksgiving Day.

• Introduce a national emblem, outside of the national flag, to include a song, national color/s to promote bringing together of all of us.

• One presidential term for 7 or 8 years no more.

• Limited use of national airline for Presidential trips and payments should be made.

• Review exchange control and investment regulations to guarantee rule of law, security of foreign investments, and security of foreign currency accounts, etc.

• Create a conducive investment environment so that citizens abroad invest in Zimbabwe. This will build confidence in the Government and enable the 3million plus zimbos abroad to bring money back home. Assuming each brings back US$5 000 once-off the total inflow will be about US$15 billion. (Currently they are remitting only US$100 for groceries most of which are bought in South Africa making the net inflow almost zero). The 15 billion should be more than enough to stabilise the balance of payments, kill the black market for forex, and arrest the rampant inflation which is exchange rate driven.

• People who brought our economy down should be prosecuted and deported if possible. They must not think that they can get away with anything. This will teach the future leaders that they cannot mess us up and if people feel they have no confidence in the leader they should boot him out before he ruins us.

• I would like the new Zimbabwe to have an independent electoral commission that is non partisan, which is not appointed by the President, preferably with a few members appointed from other bodies such as the Pan African movement.

• I would like the anti-defamation of the president clause revoked. He or she should be open to the same praise and constructive criticism as any other citizen of Zimbabwe.

• We need help from donors. Politicians should not put restrictions on donors and must not campaign using food donated by donors.

• We need development in every constituency. Each must have its decentralized budget, the old government failed to realize this. That’s why they were voted out by under developed regions of the country.

• A good government must be measured by the well being of the economy as well as its people not by causing havoc on farms and the liberation struggle.

• Give people land to put up homesteads and leave commercial land to farmers to feed the nation and for export. Not everyone is a farmer.

• Create a good environment for investors.

• Do not shout policies before thinking of the effect on the people and the business community.

• Do not make promises you cannot keep, for example Zambezi water project for Matebeleland.

• Do not make the people who voted you into power be afraid of you.

• Do not cheat in elections or prevent the opposition (Zanu PF) from campaigning freely.

• Take good ideas from opposition (Zanu PF).

• A president must have two terms only.

• Accept criticism.

• Change some of the laws passed by the previous regime.

• Build capital assets like dams for cities, energy stations, construct good roads.

• Botswana survives on diamonds, do the same for Zimbabwe we have diamonds in Marange.

• We need help from the IMF and World Bank.

• To improve output on farms, start by sponsoring say twenty commercial farmers with tractors, combine harvestors, irrigation equipment and inputs in each province. Monitor them by providing Arex officers and auditors. These people will be able to feed the nation and to repay these loans after only two seasons and finance the next batch of farmers. Let us not cry about drought and we cannot give everyone free inputs year after year. Farms are like industries do not put unproductive people on the land.

Last night I saw two jeeps full of soldiers parked in Newlands Shopping Centre – outside a fast food restaurant. The soldiers were sitting in the back wearing their white crash helmets . . . these two jeeps of military personnel usually accompany Mugabe’s motorcade as it powers its way through Harare. Its no wonder that they wear crash helmets because the motorcade travels faster than a speeding bullet. So it was quite strange to see these jeeps without Mugabe’s Mercedes. Or maybe Mugabe was lying on the floor of one of the jeeps clutching his takeaway chicken and chips – who’s to know?

A section of 7th Street is closed between 6pm and 6am because this is where State House is situated. Years ago Mugabe got scared so each night the regime puts up barriers at the corner of the 7th Street and Josiah Tongogara Avenue, and Zimbabweans are forced to detour. Last night saw an interesting addition to their usual arsenal of barriers, spikes and patrolling soldiers with guns and bayonets. Positioned facing what would be the direction of approaching protesters was a water canon.

When I saw this I was reminded of a quote from Howard Zinn:

Political power, however formidable, is more fragile than we think. Note how nervous are those who hold it.

In Zimbabwe, TV channel 138 is Zimbabwe’s state television station. Channels 280, 281 and 282 bring us the BBC, CNN and Sky News. You could be forgiven for going completely mad flicking between Mugabe’s state television and the western media – chalk and cheese, and then some. The western media gives us the impression that Mugabe has packed his bags and if he hasn’t already left, then he’s on his way to the airport – whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess, but everyone’s hope. Zimbabwe state television gives the impression that Zanu PF is still in control.

Yesterday during one of the breaks in the announcement of House of Assembly results, the dj started to spin Bob Marley’s song Zimbabwe and we all thought, maybe this is it – the revolution is being broadcast. Unfortunately it wasn’t. But I’d like to invite our fellow Zimbabweans working at the state broadcasters to interrupt the stream of propaganda that they’re spewing. Zimbabwean djs are on the frontline – help put a spanner in Mugabe’s media machine and stop being their messengers of lies. If you have a friend or family member working at ZTV or ZBC ask them to, as Bob Marley sings, liberate Zimbabwe.