Electorate must vote out criminal MPs

This is an unedited article published by The Times of Swaziland under the "As I See It" column on Jyly 31, 2013.

By Vusi Sibisi

This morning Zimbabwe goes to what could be an historic election that might see the last of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe , one of Africa’s dwindling elite class of dictators, and for this and no other reason I had elected to focus this column on that country’s election until the Tinkhundla parliament last week did the unthinkable, unlawfully gave passage to the Elections Bill.

To students of old and contemporary history, interest in the subject of Zimbabwe and Mugabe need no emphasis. This is double so at this point in time when Africa, slated to be poised to become the world’s new economic development powerhouse, is doing everything possible to clean up its political and social image and as such does not need the dictatorial relics of the past that Mugabe and a few other surviving despots represent. But then again Mugabe somewhat illuminates the kaleidoscope of the political and socio-economic intercourse that existed and still exists between the continent and its former colonial masters extending to the rest of the world.

As I see it, that Mugabe survived the 2008 elections when he appeared to have lost to Morgan Tsvangirai and has still managed to bulldoze this election on his people when the conditions on the ground are hardly conducive, with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that was overseeing the transition managed by a government of national unity, just shows the measure of the man. The African Union (AU) was the first to pronounce on the elections, saying it believed the conditions were in place for a free, fair and credible vote.

Apparently the AU statement of approval may have been premature because it has just emerged that the voters roll is still a secret of the electoral commission. Perhaps on that basis, the SADC observer mission has ruled out the possibility of a fair and credible election. The voters roll is probably the heart of any election simply because it brings the human face to the process and without it there can be no free, fair and credible elections. Similarly, the voters roll can be manipulated in numerous ways, including but not limited to resuscitating the dead to vote, to give leverage to one party of another in a multiparty democracy.

These contradictory positions from the AU and SADC tell the whole story about Mugabe and his Zimbabwe. Oh yes, he is fond of referring to “My Zimbabwe” whenever politically fencing with the British former colonial masters he blames for everything bad that ever befell Zimbabwe. As for the AU, it seems even under new leadership of the African Commission nothing changes, it remains the relic of the old Organisation of African Unity that nurtured despots and dictatorships across the continent.

As for SADC, it lost the plot when it allowed Mugabe free reign at the end of the term of the government of national unity. Now it is rather too late in the day to cry foul. Mugabe has once more prevailed as he did through an orgy of violence after he was defeated by Tsvangirai in the 2008 presidential elections.

As I see it, SADC’s failure to rein-in Mugabe can partially be attributable to inherent dictatorial tendencies among African leaders. While they may publicly vilify Mugabe, privately they envy him for the brutality he seasonally unleashes across his country in every election year to ensure his political longevity in office. Privately that is what a majority of SADC, indeed AU, leaders aspire for but is out of reach for a majority of them because the roots of democracy are far too stronger in their countries to do as they please like Mugabe does in his Zimbabwe.

Enough about Mugabe and his Zimbabwe and back to the home front; By now even the most devoted of the obtaining political hegemony, the Tinkhundla political system that is, must be disillusioned at the wake of the latest howler by parliament in being bullied to pass the Elections Bill last week without the requisite quorum to make the passage legal. This is a sure sign that Tinkhundla political system is progressively imploding.

A joint sitting of the Houses of Assembly and Senate was last week ordered by His Majesty King Mswati III ostensibly to deliberate on the Elections Bill after disagreements between the two Houses on some aspects of the contentious proposed law. But what transpired during the joint sitting was in many ways instructive on the grim reality of the obtaining political oligarchy. It is hardly anything to be proud of in a system that has tenaciously, but falsely, claimed grassroots democratic credentials. And presiding Senate president Gelane Zwane best captured the moment, indeed embodied the virtues of the Tinkhundla political hegemony, when she declared “I have the final say, I rule”.

As I see it, the question of whether or not the proposed law will finally be enacted into law by the King and Ingwenyama even when it was unlawfully passed by the joint sitting is but academic. After all I have lost country on the number of times laws had been broken in the furtherance of private agendas of those straddling the kingdom’s political centre of power. As such I should not focus on the leadership to do the right thing because it is incapable of doing so simply because the obtaining Swazi polity is incompatible with the rule of law.

As we are in the middle of an election season, it is the electorate that needs to refocus on the kind of individuals they would like to see representing themselves in the next parliament. With an exception of a few, the majority of the current lawmakers do not deserve a second chance because they have failed the people who entrusted them with whatever little power is enjoyed by parliament. The electorate must punish these no hopers by denying them the vote as we head to elections proper in the next month or so.

On the casualty list should be those MPs who use food and money to buy votes because they suffer from intellectual deficiency to be effective in parliament and invariably are the ones who are forced to break the law at the behest of the political establishment. That is why last year’s vote of no confidence resolution on Cabinet was illegally withdrawn. That is why last week they became criminal co-conspirators with the leadership by unlawfully passing the Elections Bill. As we are by now all aware, some of the raft of proposed election laws is aimed at derailing the political careers of certain individuals who are a thorn to the ruling elite.