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THE state of affairs in Zimbabwe is that the March 29 presidential election has failed to produce a clear winner and a run-off is, therefore, imminent.

 

Morgan Tsvangirayi is clearly leading with 47.9 percent of the vote, with Mugabe trailing behind for the first time since independence with 43.2 percent. Never mind the glaringly obvious rigging by Zanu-PF, the current reality as things stand, is back to the ballot.

 

Given this scenario, some of the weak-hearted in the corridors of power, long subjugated to being victims of Zanu-PF, are developing cold feet over the impending second round. In my view, the first round of any human endeavour serves the purpose of a light engagement. It is from the second round that combatants usually start knocking each other out.

 

In this short article, I want to outline why Zimbabweans should not be scared of the second round but should rather endeavour to ice the cake for sweeter victory.

 

Let me start by saluting the MDC, civil society and the generality of Zimbabweans for knocking down the dictator in the very first round. Now the people should be on guard against falling into the defeatism mode for the greatest weapon of the tyranny is the mind of the oppressed. Let us remove the culture of fear. The dogma of Mugabe’s infallibility is no more. The dictator has been defeated and everybody can see that he is fallible. Never mind his dream of being life President of Zimbabwe signaled when he signed a secret agreement to create a secret army in October 1981 with Kim Sung 11 of North Korea.

 

Now it is almost impossible for Mugabe to recover from the floor given his age. My friend who is studying biology told me that scientifically it is more realistic for a 56 year old to recover for a second round bout than an 84 year old. It’s almost impossible to carry the endurance of the second round at that age.

 

As if that was not enough, Mugabe has no panacea for the comatose economy between now and the next round. The economy continues to bleed, with inflation officially put at 165 000 percent and more chaos in the foreign exchange market fuelled by Gideon Gono’s ill-advised monetary policy. In as much as Mugabe is able to arrest the MDC party members there is no way he can send his dreaded securocrats to arrest the economy. So in the latter he remains with a lethal opposition he can not deal with.

 

On top of that, MDC has made a commonsensical step by re-uniting towards the second round. This means that the split vote between Mutambara and Tsvangirai is going to be consolidated toward the latter. Consequentially, Tsvangirai is most likely to double his vote in Bulawayo Province and triple his vote in parts of Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South. Further from that, the 10 constituencies that Zanu-PF won by default because of the then MDC split will be rightfully re-claimed by Tsvangirai. This means Mugabe would be left to battle it out in less than 87 constituencies’ visa-a-vis Tsvangirai’s 123 constituencies.

 

Now, what’s the fear? Violence at its maxim failed to yield ballot victory for Mugabe in 2000 and 2002. From the verification process held at the behest of the High Court following the disputed 2002 presidential election it was clear that Tsvangirai won the election by 70 000 votes. Ask David Coltart who participated in that re-count. Even though, if voter turn out had been 66 percent in all constituencies, given the same voting trend for both MDC and Zanu-PF, the former could have won an outright victory.

 

The cake has been baked and all that is needed for Zimbabweans is to believe and adjust to what Musaemura Zimunya calls the cultural shock. The icing of the cake would include a more unified working approach with a robust civil society and bonus points from the likes of Ibbo Mandaza and Edgar Tekere. The battle is now for every vote. The gospel now should be, “Come now let us reason together” Isaiah 1 vs. 18.