THE tale of Jacob Zuma has been repeated in Zimbabwe. Cyril Ramaphosa unseated Zuma as South African President using unorthodox measures in order to position himself as the candidate for the 2019 election. Emmerson Mnangagwa did the same by alienating the organs of the government from Robert Mugabe. This allowed Mnangagwa to have a head-start for the 2018 elections against a background of state capture.
Imagine Mnangagwa stripped of the state and its largess. Did Zanu PF win the recent election or the government won against its people through the instrumentality of state capture?
In South Africa, allegations of state capture led to the demise of Zuma and in Zimbabwe the reality of state capture actually leads to electoral prowess. What do we learn from the elections results? We learn that money talks and state funds talk even better because there is no accountability in Zimbabwe.
It is not strange that Ramaphosa has already congratulated Mnangagwa. What are the implications of this endorsement? It means that what is and would be abnormal in SA has become normalised in Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe as has been the case for the last 38 years has and continues to be used to distort democracy and defeat the very objective of democracy. With SA on the side of tyranny, what are the choices left for all of us? Our public funds were used in a brazen manner to produce the outcomes of 2018.
Senator Jeff Flake, a co-author of the ZIDERA amendment was also an observer of a pre-cooked election in which the balance of power was tilted in favour of state actors.
The proposed amendments to ZIDERA clearly anticipated the reality of today in which more than 20 parties were financially challenged, principally because of the absence of the rule of law which have real consequences in terms of participating in transparent elections. There was no party better resourced than Zanu PF.
Will America follow the SA decision to endorse the elections? There is a clear link between the respect of the rule of law and democracy.
It is also the case that Mnangagwa was the author and practitioner of many decisions and actions that undermine the rule of law.
A number of well-meaning people in business have on record raised the issue of laws that offend the rule of law principle, including the Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies Act. That law remains on the statutes and despite being challenged in the Zimbabwe courts, the judiciary has remained impotent. If such laws have existed for the last 14 years with judicial support, what chances does any party wishing to challenge the 2018 elections through the same courts have?
Daniel Shumba is a Zimbabwean politician
