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Stephen Mpofu

Ultimatums given by authorities to correct anti-social behaviour can be said to be aromatic, the concept in italics serving as a metaphor that points to something positive.

However, either — ors that give off an impression of an authoritarian mind often meet with resistance by intended targets.

In the case in point, a 10-point ultimatum given to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government by the new leader of the MDC-T, Mr Nelson Chamisa would appear to suggest that an either or is a mark of political machismo; otherwise he would not have threatened “to stop” the forthcoming harmonised elections taking place if his demands are not met.

It stands to reason that any human being with all the senses intact and in place is bound to feel antagonised by ultimatums rather than persuaded to act harmoniously for the good of both parties as well as for the nation as a whole.

One of Mr Chamisa’s key demands is that Zimbabweans in the diaspora must be facilitated to cast their votes out there, without necessarily coming home to vote in loco as is demanded by Zimbabwe’s electoral laws.

The demands for Zimbabweans self-rusticated in foreign lands, particularly in the capitals of the imperialist West should not surprise those at home.

These are the people who ran away from their native land, driven by their hate for the Zanu-PF government and Mr Chamisa knows only too well that given the opportunity in their host countries they will vote en mass against Zanu-PF to defeat it and oust it from power.

Or is the demand for Zimbabweans to vote in absentia a conditionality that Mr Chamisa and his MDC-T Alliance colleagues including Mr Tendai Biti were advised by their host American government to give to the government here in a bid to wreck the elections by disrupting them should the government not allow exiles to vote?

As for the reform of electoral laws, President Mnangagwa has already stated that aligning the laws to the constitution was a move already underway and so Mr Chamisa’s demand in that regard is a non-starter as are the other demands for chiefs to not align themselves with other political parties.

The traditional leaders, while being servants of the state, if you like, are people with individual likes and dislikes which they should be given the free will to exercise.

The traditional leaders and their followers should therefore be allowed to exercise their rights by voting for which ever party and leader who appeals to their  fancy as positive contributors to societal emancipation as a whole.

The media — both print and electronic — should not be turned into kites that go with the wind but should remain firmly anchored on the ground to expose the good or the bad across the political divide so that people are given truthful information to make informed decisions in moving their country forward.

Only inverted journalists kow-tow to one side or the other across the political divide and in that way turn themselves into lackeys rather than neutral catalysts in the social, economic and political development of the nation as a whole.

Mr Chamisa is on record earlier this week as saying that if his demands are not met he would organise Zimbabweans at home as well as other unspecified powers abroad to stop the elections taking place.

Implicit in his warning is that his party or the MDC Alliance would violently prevent people from going to cast their votes.

Now, should his party bar people going to vote, it would be the height of naivety for anyone to believe that the thousands of other, peace–and democracy-loving Zimbabweans will stop, make U-turns and walk languidly back home, their arms folded and heads lowered, cowered by opposition thugs patrolling the ways to the polling stations.

As anyone is bound to conclude, any ensuing violent confrontation will be blamed on Zanu-PF and its government by opponents eager to see the opposition getting into power.

With the exciting responses from abroad to the new political dispensation, especially with regard to foreign investors making a bee-line to this country, it behoves on all patriotic and peace-loving Zimbabweans to rally behind the government of President Mnangagwa so that there is not only an even keel to our economy but that the transformation evident after Operation Restore Legacy is supported by all in both words and deeds to take Zimbabwe to a brave new world with smiles replacing the wrinkles that appear to have taken permanent residence on the faces of millions of our fellow Zimbabweans as the result of the economy being brought virtually to its knees by illegal economic and financial sanctions imposed by the West to reverse land reform and exacerbated by looters externalising millions of dollars.

Therefore, any political organisation or individuals working in cahoots to ruin the forthcoming elections by hook or crook should not be allowed to have their way.