Will Zim get over the 2018 elections

It’s almost two weeks since ZEC announced the results for the Zimbabwean presidential elections. It seems there is very little fuss over the parliamentary results. The MDC Alliance has since lodged a court application against the presidential results, which has led to a delay in inaugurating a new president. The post-election period has been marred by violence with innocent lives lost. I was engaged in a number of social media debates over the post-election violence that took place in Harare. It’s no doubt that the violence was a regrettable occurrence, equally regrettable was the alleged incisive messages by the opposition, which later on refuted that the violence was instigated by their party supporters.

The images of the army firing shots in the streets of Harare, took me back to the November "coup not coup" period. Zimbabweans marched, celebrated and took selfies with the military as the people celebrated the fall of Robert Mugabe. Ironically, no one would have thought the same heroes would turn into villains a few months later. Even former General Constantine Chiwenga was wildly seen as a hero after the November coup, yet on the harsh twitter roads he is today criticised for the gunning down of the post-election protestors. With Zimbabwe's history of election rigging and violence, the deaths on the streets of Harare have done much harm than good not only for the political elite as a whole, but for Zimbabwe that is reeling in an economic mess. 

The opposition MDC Alliance has chosen to stand its ground claiming that they won the presidential race despite ZEC's official results. The police even tried to stop a press conference by the opposition at The Bronte hotel in the glare of the world's cameras and observers. The intimidation by the police also seemed to further tarnish the image of the country. As if that was not enough, Tendai Biti was deported from Zambia seeking political asylum to face charges in Zimbabwe for his role in political violence. He was released on bail, with President elect Emmerson Mnangagwa tweeting that he had enabled the release of Biti. 

The Biti saga showed the naivety of Zim politics. Prior to the post-election violence Biti had claimed he was ready to defend his vote over claims of a Chamisa victory, yet when the situation got heated up he was the first to run away. It therefore hinders on the notion that political leaders in Zimbabwe are mostly in it, for selfish gains and would rather not fight or sacrifice themselves if need be for the current struggle. Servant leadership is definitely not in the vocabulary of Zimbabwe’s two main political parties. Nelson Chamisa claims he has evidence behind his Chamisa's claims of victory, and the star-studded mostly SA based advocates will prove in court. Yet, Chamisa is aware that he may no longer have a seat in parliament and a loss in the presidential race is bound to be an end to his political career, hence the need to fight it to the end to maintain relevance and gain sympathy among supporters and the international community. Equally prepostrous too, are the messages peddled on social and public media regarding the president elect. Though Mnangagwa has tried to create a different image of Zimbabwe under his rule, the post-election violence and the army's role clearly demonstrated that the faces in leadership may have changed but its ruthful characteristics may just start emerging in a very dark caricature of the false reality we have known since November last year.

The past elections have considerably shown that we are a broken nation. Zimbabweans should be able to put their country first before personal and selfish gains. If we can move the country forward as a united nation, surely there will be no queues at banks or any other every day challenge faced by our people. The bad publicity generated over the past weeks for the sake of cheap political points has only but generated more problems for the ordinary man on the ground. Both Chamisa and Mnangagwa or most of the political elites will not feel as much pain as the ordinary Zimbabweans. The two won't queue for cash, no go to sleep hungry, or know how it feels being jobless, it is us the ordinary people who feel Zimbabwe's pain. I therefore hope that my brothers and sisters will know that no life is worth being lost for any politician. Whatever the courts decide regarding the Zim presidential election, I hope all my kith and kin will respect it, so as to move the country forward, for we have already lost too much ground already. Signing out GenerationX18.