Sunday 5 June 2016

To end cash crunch, grant diaspora vote, "that simple" argues Mashiri - wish it was that simple! By Nomusa Garikai


“However, Mr Mugabe could easily get more than US$200 million if he changed his mind on granting the estimated 3-4 million Zimbabweans abroad the right to vote and dual citizenship. At the stroke of the pen of doing so money and investments will pour into the country and one does not need to be one of those several self-appointed prophets to know that. It's just that simple,” wrote Dr Clifford Chitupa Mashiri. See Bulawayo opinion, How Zimbabwe can solve its current debilitating cash shortages.

 

 

Dr Mashiri, I wish things were indeed “that simple”; the truth is that there are not that simple.

 

 

How many Zimbabweans who are in the country and have been since independence and yet have yet to cast a free, fair and democratic vote? They have either been intimidated, harassed, beaten, raped and many have long since lost their very lives as the regime forced them to vote for President Mugabe and Zanu PF. Even when the individual has risked life and limp to vote for the candidate and party of their choice; the regime has always had other ways of denying them the vote by tampering with the voters roll and/or neutralizing the vote by bussing in Zanu PF supporters to cast multiple votes.

 

 

So Dr Mashiri what makes you so sure that President Mugabe will not devise devious ways of denying and/or rigging the diaspora vote just as he has done with the local vote?

 

 

I think you are exaggerating the finance prowess of the people in the diaspora; I do not believe “money and investments will pour into the country”, putting aside the issue of those in the diaspora trusting Mugabe not to rig the vote. Zimbabweans in the diaspora are already sending billions of dollars back home; the diaspora dollar is now a very significant part of the country’s GPA, making Zimbabwe the Philippines of Africa.

 

 

There are reports that Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, accompanied by a high powered delegation, is visiting the UK with a proposal to entice people in the diaspora to send even more money back home. This is just a waste of time because most people in the diaspora are giving as much assistance as they can already.

 

 

Indeed, Zimbabweans in the diaspora want free and fair elections and good and competent government in Zimbabwe a.s.a.p. because they want to see an end to the economic misery 36 years of Zanu PF mismanagement and corruption have brought. They know their diaspora dollar has help alleviate the suffering but nonetheless the situation has grown worse and worse because the misrule has too got worse and worse. The people in the diaspora want to see meaningful political change in the country because they know this is the only way of ending the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe.

 

 

As for the people in the diaspora investing in Zimbabwe (again assuming there are many Zimbabweans with millions of dollars to invest); they do not have to worry about the obnoxious indigenisation law but they too will have to face the other challenges of bureaucratic red-tape, corrupt officials whose palms must be greased, collapsing economic infrastructure, etc. that other would-be investor are facing.

 

 

To the people in the diaspora the right to vote and to dual citizenship are important but what they must understand that unless the country implements the comprehensive democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections, the diaspora vote will be just as worthless as the local vote.

 

 

As for the solution to Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown, the cash crunch is just one of the symptoms; Zimbabwe must end the criminal waste of human and material resources brought on by the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness. Since it is the misrule by President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies that brought on this criminal waste and it is nonsense that they can end it since the situation has got progressively worse not better with each passing year. The country needs to make its own decision who will rule without the regime imposing itself on the nation.

 

 

The short term, medium term, long term and, indeed, only solution to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political chaos is for the country to implement ALL the 2008 GPA democratic reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections!

5 comments:

  1. This is typical of our corrupt and incompetent leaders from both PF Zapu, Zanu PF, the unified Zanu PF and all those who have fallen by the way side at one point or another – they all do not want to accept responsibility for the country’s mess although they have played their part in creating it.
    We have all heard of Didymus Mutasa, Simba Makoni, Joice Mujuru and now Dumiso Dabengwa castigating Zanu PF as if they were never part and parcel of the tyrannical dictatorship!
    Dr Dumiso Dabengwa was a senior member of Zanu PF regime from 1987 “when ZAPU was swallowed into ZANU-PF and lost its independent existence until we revived it in 2010” as he said. Throughout all those years he has played his part is the corruption, incompetence and political repression are the hallmarks of Zanu PF and took his share of the spoils in terms of absolute power and the looted wealth. As minister he had the power to stop the rot and create the Zimbabwe he is now talking about and yet he did nothing.
    The whole country is suffering from the economic meltdown and singling out one province or village is mischievous. There are other corrupt and incompetent leaders who are seeking political relevance by playing the tribal, regional, racial or some such card; that is not going to get the nation out of the mess but only drag the nation into worse trouble. Stop it!

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  2. “As we were going round and when Laubster was explaining why we have this liquidity crunch in the country, he said Zimbabwe was a fishing pond for hard currency. So we are a fishing pond for the Southern African region to acquire and access hard currency. Therefore, we must find some methods to implement to reduce the country from being a fishing pond for the US dollar. One other measure is the introduction of bond notes. This won’t trade in other countries in the region but locally it can trade and facilitate commercial transactions. Bond notes will oil commercial transactions in the country,” said VP Mnangagwa.

    Yes bond notes “will oil commercial transactions in the country,” but what will the people by trad-ing? Zimbabwe is a net importer of the goods people are trading right now and since they cannot use the bond notes to pay for the imports it follows that there will be less and less imported goods and therefore less and less trading!

    Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections and was confident of rigging the economic recovery; now the regime is learning that was easier said than done!

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  3. The people in the diaspora have played a key role in keeping the nation going throughout these very difficult years and to deny them a vote is totally meaningless. However given that this regime has denied everyone else regardless whether they are in the country or outside a meaningful vote is the context in which the diaspora vote must be demanded. To get the diaspora vote whilst nothing is been done to ensure free, fair and credible elections is meaningless.
    The fight for diaspora vote and the fight for free, fair and credible are in fact a lot more than two sides of the same coin; securing the former without the latter is an empty victory whereas securing the latter will help secure the former, at the very least.

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    1. I agree, the fight for free, fair and credible elections is the battle royal here as long as long as Mugabe is able to rig elections what ever concession he grands anyone of us be it a vote for those in the diaspora will count for nothing. Even if he cannot rig the diaspora vote but can rig the local vote, Zanu PF will still rig the national election!

      We must focus our attention on implementing ALL the democratic reforms and must not allow ourselves to be divided to fight separate battles.The nation's primary objective is to implement the reforms necessary for free and fair elections; we must keep our eyes on that ball.

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  4. ZANU-PF yesterday described as "mischief makers" members and affiliate organisations who are stoking the succession debate in the private media at a time President Robert Mugabe has asserted that he will continue leading the country and the revolutionary party at the pleasure of the electorate.

    The revolutionary party's spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo, said President Mugabe's statement during the One Million Man March last month should guide all progressive Zanu-PF cadres.

    Kaya-Moyo must stop pedaling the lie that President Mugabe was elected by anyone! He has bullied the Zanu PF members into endorsing as the only candidate the odd occasion the party has had an elective congress. As for the rest of the populous, he has rigged national elections for the last 36 years!

    Mugabe’s corrupt and tyrannical rule is alpha and omega of Zimbabwe crippling economic meltdown and chaotic political situation that has cause untold human misery and now threatens the very survival of this nation. Every day Mugabe remains in office brings the nation closer and closer to tipping over the edge into the precipice. Enough is bloody enough; Mugabe is a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant, he must go now!

    If Khaya-Moyo and all the other minions in Zanu PF think the people are going to continue suffering and dying in silence to gratify Mugabe and his cronies’ insatiable appetites for power and wealth then they are in for a surprise!

    Poor Khaya-Moyo Zanu PF is imploding and the idiot still believes that Zanu PF will rule “until don-keys have horns!”

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