Musicians are indeed modern day prophets! The late Jamaican rock reggae icon Gregory Isaacs had a prophetic message for the rest of the Third World including the famed new republic and new dispensation in Zimbabwe curiously ushered in through the parading of tankers around the capital, Harare.
Taurai K Mabhachi
In one of his many albums titled Gregory Isaacs and Friends, his friend Baja Jad forewarned: “Hey you Third World people, open your eyes and close your ears when you see a politician coming.”
Jamaicans have been fooled by many politicians and learnt very fast, but thousands of Zimbabweans thronged the streets in November 2017 with the vain hope that something better was on the horizon.
Alas, this was not to be as worse things were to come and wipe all hype and hope.
What transpired was a well-executed and sustained decimation of the credible opposition through what many have described as the genesis of a pliant Judiciary-created opposition.
Many citizens now are without their elected representatives mostly through re-calls or death and there is no hope that they will ever elect them, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the transfer of power to vote or hold elections from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to the Health and Child Care ministry, in short the Executive arm of the State.
According to a statement by women groups in April 2021, through re-calls from Parliament, local councils and deaths in the years 2020 to 2021, 26 constituencies and 80 wards are unrepresented, a violation of the democratic principles outlined in the Constitution.
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As the late American rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur prophesised in one of his song Changes — some things never change — indeed some things never change in Zimbabwe.
It looks like the change can only be for the worse, which of course the marginalised black people have become accustomed to since 1890 through to 1980.
While the post-President Robert Mugabe government is on a rat race to suffocate opposition voices and constrain the democratic space in brazen ways, the global COVID-19 pandemic came in handy as a form of excuse to suspend elections indefinitely under the guise of saving lives.
On March 25, 2020 Zec suspended the holding of by-elections. This ban is unreasonable, unfair and unjustifiable in a democratic society and violates Section 67 of the Constitution which guarantees political participation.
Initially, some citizens thought this was a noble gesture, but when other countries in Africa such as Ethiopia which is embroiled in civil strife amidst the COVID-19 pandemic are holding elections, many Zimbabweans now feel that the new rulers are violating their rights to vote as stipulated in the Constitution.
The Constitution acknowledges that free, fair and regular elections are a principle of good governance, which is a founding value of Zimbabwe as enshrined in section 3 of the Constitution which binds the State and all institutions and agencies of government at every level.
In particular, section 158(3) of the Constitution is very clear that polling in by-elections to fill vacancies in Parliament and local authorities must take place within 90 days after the vacancies occurred, unless the vacancies occur within nine months before a general election.
According to various women’s groups, this provision cannot be overturned by any other legal action and Zec and the Executive need to respect it
The continued suspension of by-elections is by all means a sustained assault and violation of the people’s right to vote and goes against good governance, constitutionalism and equal participation in civic and electoral affairs.
The government’s justification of the suspension of elections which are hinged on COVID-19 and regulations against crowding does not hold any water as a dozen countries in Africa with much higher infection rates have been able to hold elections amidst the pandemic.
Countries such as Malawi, Tanzania, Guinea, Benin and Burundi join the list of countries that have successfully held elections under similar circumstances.
Amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic, 13 African countries are slated to hold elections, roughly half of those are inside the Horn and the significant Sahel.
Burundi, France and South Korea held their elections by taking steps and implementing measures to reduce the risk of voters and election officials contracting COVID-19.
On the international front and even here in Zimbabwe, there are a lot activities such as the opening of schools, universities, markets and mass transport systems where crowds gather and have potential to spread the coronavirus more than elections which can be systematic and prevent the spread of the diseases.
Zimbabweans now feel the pinch of not having elected representatives as they have nowhere to turn to for help or demand accountability as authorities unjustifiably hide behind the COVID-19 pandemic.
To say elections cannot be held as a result of the pandemic is unfounded to our country. You can see that many countries are having elections under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
