"I prefer big bang economic reforms" says Ncube - hurt poorest hardest, sure it works P Guramatunhu

“My preference is a fiscal shock, but there is what you call the political collar or the politics of policy making, which then slows you down. My preference would be more of a big bang approach because every day counts in terms of cost,” Ncube told journalists on the side-lines of an investor conference in New York, the United States.

There is no doubt that getting Zimbabwe’s economy back on track is not going to be a walk in the park. The minister’s “big bang” economic reform programme will meaning people being asked to tighten the belts; the bigger the bang the tighter the belt!

The people of Zimbabwe were asked to go through two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP) in the 1990s and they were asked to tighten their belts and they did, at least the poor did. The ruling elite did the exact opposite, they loosened the belts and started to grow pot-bellies and piling up the pounds in weight and wealth. The economic recovery the nation was promised never materialized for obvious reasons.

Zimbabwe’s political set up was cast in the 1990s and has existed to this day; the ruling elite have absolute political power and with it unfettered access to the nation’s wealth and resources, they have grown filthy rich. The ruling elite have ridden roughshod of the masses, denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life itself. The poor have grown filthy poor.

Zimbabweans have fallen from their perch of being in the top five rich nations in Africa in 1980 with very prospect of being the South Korea of Africa to being the poorest nation on the continent. 75% of our people live on US$1.00 or less a day!

There is no doubt that Minister Ncube’s “big bang” reforms will, one way or the other, affect the poorest of the poor. Load shedding the bloated civil service, army, parastatals, etc., for example, which many agree is necessary and long overdue, will mean the hundreds of their poor dependents will be force to live on US$1.00 or less a week! After making such a life and death sacrifice it would be outrageous to then discover it was all for nothing, the expected economic recovery never happen because the fundamentals were all wrong as happened in the 1990s!

The tragedy with people like Minister Ncube is that ever since their promotion to the post of Minister of Finance their have become big headed so much so they cannot see the trees from the woods. He is one character who has refused to accept that this Zanu PF junta’s failure to keep its promise to hold free, fair and credible elections has very serious economic implications.

Like it or not the much hoped for flood of investors whose financial input is key to in helping to kick-start the economy will never materialize. Investors do not like to invest in a pariah state whose next regime change is another military coup or worse, a blood bath.

The regime has already shown that its thirsty for shedding innocent blood is unquenchable and it is also clear that the people’s anger at the inhuman conditions there are forced to live under, bottled for all these years, will burst out sending a tsunami wave that even the soldiers with their “shoot to kill” orders will fail to contain.   

Chamisa demand "free election safeguard" from ED - never conceded to any in past, now or ever N Garikai

“OPPOSITION MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said he was ready to weigh any offers tabled by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to enable them to work together for the good of the country, but cautioned that dialogue would be centred around five key issues his party wants addressed first,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“The five key issues Chamisa wants to discuss with Mnangagwa include ensuring that future elections are safeguarded so that they are held in a transparent manner and can never be disputed again, that there are moves to ensure the country returns to legitimacy and normalcy following what the opposition claims was a stolen July 30 election.

“The opposition leader also wants to have dialogue centred around the economy to avert a complete meltdown.

“The fourth issue is around national healing, starting from the Gukurahundi massacres to the August 1 shootings.

“The MDC Alliance leader also wants measures put in place to allow constitutional Chapter 12 and 13 institutions — the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, among others, — to have complete independence without undue influence from political players.”

The offer from Mnangagwa is a bribe to buy the opposition off given the regime is already under pressure from all the democratic nations who have pointedly refused to accept the 30 July elections as free, fair and credible. It is bad enough to have to deal with the illegitimate question coming from outsiders without Chamisa adding salt to the open wound!

As for Chamisa’s five demands since when has MDC leaders ever stuck to their guns on anything.

“Morgan Tsvangirai was stupid to go into the 2013 elections with no verified voters’ roll! I will not make the same mistake!” said Chamisa before this year’s elections. The idiot went into the elections with no verified voters’ roll!

If the MDC failed to get even one democratic reforms implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when MDC had the majority in parliament and SADC backing what hope is there of getting any reform implemented now with no SADC and with Zanu PF having 2/3 majority in parliament.

The only hope of getting the reforms implemented now is by forcing Zanu PF to step down; the party rigged the elections and, per se, it is illegitimate. If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power until 2023 then we can be certain of one thing – the party will see to it that no meaningful reforms are implemented leaving the door open for it to rig the elections.

Zanu PF rigged the 30^th July 2018 elections, that is a historic fact. The only way we are ever going to stop the culture of rigged elections is by refusing to recognise and support any party that rigs elections because it is, per se, illegitimate.

MDC leaders are sell-outs; they sold-out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU by failing to implement even one reform in five years. They sold-out by participating in the 2013 and this year’s elections, disregarding the warning not to until reforms are implemented. Whatever deal they make with this illegitimate Zanu PF junta we can be certain that it is NOT in the national interest.

We have a unique opportunity to pressure this illegitimate Zanu PF junta to step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the reforms and hold the nation’s first ever free, fair and credible elections.

Mnangagwa is hoping that Chamisa will accept his bribe and thus get some modicum of political credibility and legitimacy. This is just a divide and rule tactic and we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, must not fall for it. Chamisa and a few MDC leaders will get ministerial limos, generous salaries, etc. And we, povo, will get nothing other than another five years of command agriculture, corruption, etc. and, to crown it all, another rigged election in 2023!

ED offers Chamisa "opposition leader recognition" to buy legitimacy - a hyena is a hyena with or without ticks W Mukori

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged the 30 July 2018 elections, that is a fundament truth at issue here. 

If the truth must be told; here, the truth will be told even if it makes some people black as coal or pink with embarrassment; these elections should have never taken place not without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. After the blatant cheating and wanton violence in the 2008 elections no one with even half a brain was left in any doubt that Zanu PF would ever lose any future elections as long as the party continued to enjoy its carte blanche powers to rig the elections. 

The principle purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms SADC had arm-twisted Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to agree to. The task of implementing the reforms fell on to the late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. Sadly, they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not one!

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves in the GNU, they forgot what they were there for!” remarked one SADC leaders in disgust at the MDC leaders’ GNU betrayal.

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance friends were warned not to participate in this year’s elections without making sure the reforms are implement first. But once again they refused to listen. “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” insisted Chamisa. The village idiots did not even have the common sense to insist on ZEC releasing a verified voters’ roll, a legal requirement!

Chamisa and his friends agreed to take part in these flawed and illegal elections for the sake of winning the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF gave away to entice the opposition to participate. However, Chamisa is naïve and foolish enough to have believed he could win a rigged election! No one in their right mind ever subscribed to his foolish argument that the “elections would be judged free and fair if he wins and rigged if he does not!”

As we now and had said would happen, President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta blatantly rigged the 30^th July 2018 elections, just as they have done in the previous elections. 

A number of the 30 or so individuals/ nations /organisations from democratic nations who were in Zimbabwe to observe the elections have condemned the process as flawed and illegal. Those who rig elections are, per se, illegitimate and cannot expect international community recognition or support. 

Kate Hoey, a British MP who was in Zimbabwe to observe the elections dismissed the process as having been “cleverly rigged”. “We, in the international community cannot accept the result of the election and the UK government must take a lead to ensure that the Zimbabwean government is seen for what it is a mark 2 Mugabe regime and one that deserves no support whatsoever,” she argued.

The Americans, who too observed the elections, have expressed their outrage at the blatant cheating and confirmed the targeted sanction against the Zanu PF leaders will stay. 

Nelson Chamisa, being the opportunistic parasite that he is, is milking the situation for all its worth by refusing to recognise Mnangagwa as the winner of the rigged elections; much to the latter’s added political discomfort, the curse of illegitimacy is not only coming from outsiders but from within Zimbabwe too. 

“Under our Commonwealth parliamentary democracy, the opposition is recognised; we recognise the leader of the opposition in Parliament. This is what we are going to do ourselves,” said President Mnangagwa on Bloomberg TV in US.

“But under the former administration, there was no formal recognition of the opposition leader but now under my administration, we are embracing the Commonwealth approach to parliamentary democracy where we recognise the leader of the opposition who is given certain conditions and perks in Parliament.”

Of course, this is a bribe pure and simple! 

Whether Chamisa and his MDC Alliance accept the bribe or not is neither here or there; what matters here is that nothing will change the political reality that Mnangagwa and his junta rigged the 30^th July 2018 elections and so the regime will still remain illegitimate regardless. And, worst of all, if Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office for the next five years, the party will rig the 2023 elections too. 

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 38 years. As long as nothing is done to implement the reforms Zanu PF will continue to rig elections and stay in power and President Mnangagwa is determined to stay in power till 2023 and bribing Chamisa is a small price to pay to get what he wants!

We, the long suffering people of Zimbabwe, must be clear what we want – to break this cycle of rigged elections and being stuck with the same corrupt and tyrannical regime. The only sure way to break the cycle is to refuse to recognise and support and party that rigs elections and what better time to do that than right now. 

Zanu PF rigged the 30^th July 2018 election and is, per se, illegitimate and must, per se, be denied all recognition and support regardless of whether the regime picks up a few more parasitic ticks and opportunists, it is still illegitimate! 

A hyena is still a hyena regardless of whether it has a ticks or not! This Zanu PF junta is illegitimate regardless of whether it has officially recognised opposition leaders or not!

"His Excellency assured American investors" said Minister Ncube - hollow title for one who is illegitimate P Guramatunhu

Poor Professor Mthuli Ncube, ever since his appointment as Minister of Finance, he has clearly lost whatever intellectual ability he had until that point.

"His Excellency ... Mnangagwa assured the American investors that their investments will be safe in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe will never be the same again," he said.

1)    Mnangagwa has just blatantly rigged the recent elections and thus confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a de facto one-party dictatorship whose next regime change must be a military coup or following a bloodbath since the regime has just demonstrated it will not hesitate to shoot to kill to silence all dissent.

2)    Does Minister Ncube think investors are that naïve not to have noticed Zanu PF rigged the elections and, if they did, they will be naïve to believe that their investments could ever be safe in a politically and economically unstable country as Zimbabwe.  

3)    “Zimbabwe will never be the same again!” Yeah right! Zimbabwe is still under the iron grip of a corrupt and ruthless dictatorship, the same thugs are still in charge or be it they have change the top dog from Robert Mugabe to Emmerson Mnangagwa. Zimbabwe is no more than a whitewashed tomb, no among of whitewash can ever change the reality of the tomb being full of rot and decay!

I had a good laugh when I received the following on my social media network: “The brain is the most outstanding organ. It works 24 hours: 365 days: year in year out long before one is even born until the day one dies. Or, for those foolish enough to make that mistake, the day you join Zanu PF!”

Given the mess Zimbabwe is in, some of the blunders Zanu PF has made over the years defies logic; whoever wrote the above comment he/she hit the nail on the head.

Professor Ncube was sworn in as minister only few weeks ago and already he is blabbering the “His Excellency” in true tradition of the “Great Leader”. Professor Ncube, take off the rosy tinted Minister glass and see Mnangagwa for the corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs he is. His Excellency sounds so hollow and stupid when it is used on someone unworthy and who could be more unworthy than he who is illegitimate!