Tuesday 9 May 2017

People "trust Mugabe," says Afrobarometer - nonsense, "stuck" and "trust" are not synonymous. N Garikai

“Afrobarometer, polled 1 200 adults in Zimbabwe’s urban and rural areas in January and February. It discovered that more than half consider their personal living conditions to be “very bad” or “fairly bad”, reported News24.


“But 64% of Zimbabweans surveyed said they still put their trust in Mugabe, who has been in power since independence in 1980 and says he will stand in next year’s polls.


“There is more trust in the president in rural areas (69%) than urban centres (55%),” Afrobarometer said in a press release to accompany the findings.


I would readily believe Afrobarometer’s finding if the researchers whom did the people believe would win the next elections.


As long as Zanu PF has total control of the whole electoral process and has billions of dollars looted from Marange and Chiadzwa Diamond Fields to bankroll its vote rigging schemes; it is inconceivable that the party will rig the vote and lose the elections.

The truth is Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians have themselves resigned to the reality of Zanu PF rigging the elections. Of course, they will never publicly admit that they are resigned to Zanu PF rigging elections. And so, with each election Tsvangirai and company have had to put up a brace face, tell the public all manner of lies to justify why they are going to win regardless of the vote rigging. This time the lies are wafer thin, most Zimbabweans are not fooled, they can see right through them!

After nearly two decades of Tsvangirai and company promising to bring democratic change and having nothing to show for it, it is easy to see why most Zimbabweans have rightly lost confidence in this opposition. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the necessary democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented. They lied when the promised the people the 2013 elections will be free and fair as Tsvangirai himself has since readily admitted that Zanu PF "stole" the elections.
After the rigged July 2013 elections Tsvangirai & co. admitted they had made a serious mistake of contesting the elections with no reforms. They told the nation they would never again contest any future elections until the reforms are implemented.

Zanu PF leaders like Professor Jonathan Moyo and VP Mnangagwa have made it clear that "Zanu PF will never reform itself out of power".

The right to free, fair and credible elections is not a privilege to be given to some and denied to others. Zanu PF’s past record of failing to hold free and fair elections is per se a serious human rights violation and the restitution of this basic and fundamental right is therefore a constitutional and moral imperative.
Implementing all the democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights, including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself is constitutional and moral imperative. As such, implementing the reforms is not subject to negotiation or compromise not certainly not subject to Zanu PF’s dictatorial whim!
Frankly, if Tsvangirai & co. were not so corrupt and incompetent, one expected them to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU when SADC had President Mugabe in the sin-bin. After wasting five years of the GNU Tsvangirai & co. had the opportunity to redeem themselves in the dying months of the GNU by boycotting the flawed elections to force the implementation of the reforms, as David Coltart rightly noted in his book.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained former MDC Minister and Senator in the GNU, David Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

 If the case for boycotting the elections to force the implementing of the reforms was “obvious” in 2013 it is a moral imperative today. Tsvangirai and company have no excuse for discarding their own "No reform, no elections!" party resolutions. None, other than same feeble 2013 excuse of fighting over the scraps Zanu PF throws at the opposition to entice them to contest the flawed elections.

Of course, the people of Zimbabwe are not going to risk life and limp to elect an opposition whose sole ambition is the bragging rights to being the country's main opposition party.

Zimbabwe’s political and economic situation is now more desperate than ever; unemployment has soared to 90%; basic services like health, education, water and electricity supply have all but collapsed; etc. Millions of Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty; the kind that kills because they cannot afford decent a meal, medicine, etc.

“We don’t like bond notes but we do trust Mugabe,” Zimbabweans said, according to Afrobarometer report.
The people “trust Mugabe”; what is there for them to trust in the tyrant? There is not even one Zimbabwean out there who does not know that the country is in a serious, serious economic and political mess. The people do not like bond notes but they are the ones spending hours queuing at the bank for a misery 50 bond notes! They are stuck with the bond notes; whether they like them or not is academic!
“We are not a poor country and we can’t be a fragile country. I can call America fragile – they went on their knees to China,” President Mugabe told a forum in SA last week. “Zimbabwe is the most highly developed country in Africa after South Africa.”

So not only is President Mugabe in denial of Zimbabwe’s economic plight and thus denying responsibility for the economic meltdown but, worst of all, he is doing nothing about it. The people of Zimbabwe are in this economic and political mess because, for the last 37 years, the nation has been stuck with the corrupt and murderous tyrant, Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

The only way the people of Zimbabwe are going to end President Mugabe’s tyrannical rule and thus end the economic and political crisis gripping the nation, is by standing firm in demanding the implementation of all the democratic reforms BEFORE the next elections. There is no other way out!
The people are desperate for meaningful democratic change and many of them now know that Tsvangirai will never deliver that change. NEVER EVER! The people “trust Mugabe!”; yeah right! Since when has “stuck” become synonymous with trust!

10 comments:

  1. @ Ben Freeth

    After 17 years, the compensation issue for jambanjad (taken over by force, often violently) commercial farms in Zimbabwe is back in the spotlight.

    We recently received information that John Laurie, a former president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, had addressed an "Inaugural Stakeholders Meeting" with Government on 6 April at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare. The meeting catered for approximately fifty attendees and the agenda was only made available at the event. The meeting was chaired by the Government's Permanent Secretary for Lands and Rural Resettlement, Grace Mutandiro.

    The idea that the taxpayer should bear the burden of paying the compensation when the individuals and/or those who benefited from the seized properties are still there will be a gross miscarriage of justice. The taxpayers suffered directly and indirectly as the farm seizure triggered the economic collapse whilst the recipients of the seized farms benefited from getting assets they never work for and many have since benefited from the many dodgy farmer assistant schemes run by the regime.

    The issue of the seized white owned farms is an important issue that must be addressed; what Zanu PF is doing here is compounding the issue by negotiating in bad faith and by allowing those responsible for the mess to double dip!

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  2. “‘The 2018 election results are already declared’, said former Finance Minister Tendai Biti at a meeting in Parliament in London. He said he could not support Tsvangirai and was in favour of a transitional authority to rescue the wreckage of Zimbabwe and prepare for real elections. He insisted that Mnangagwa – the favourite of the West – could play no prominent role in Zimbabwe’s future because of his bloodstained record,” reported Zimvigil.

    The question then arises; why is Tendai Biti and his PDP friends preparing, like everyone else in the opposition, to contest the 2018 elections?

    Tendai Biti and the rest of the MDC leaders were warned Zanu PF would rig the 2013 elections but they all still contested these elections. Biti is saying one thing in London and doing the opposition as soon as he is back in Zimbabwe.

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  3. “Zanu utilizes fear, so rural villagers are afraid to attend our rallies, knowing the history of murder, rape, arson and beatings meted out before elections,” MDC spokesman Obert Gutu said. “Villagers are being threatened with violence if they attend MDC meetings and being told that support for any opposition amounts to treason, which will lead to beatings and other forms of victimization.”

    The people have good reasons to fear Zanu PF thugs and it is good to see that MDC leaders like Gutu accept this problem. The tragedy is that MDC know intimidation is a serious problem but have so far failed to offer the nation a way out! Fighting back, which is at present MDC-T’s current answer is stupid because Zanu PF thugs will have the whole state machinery backing them.

    The only effective way to end violence and all the other vote rigging tactics is by implementing the democratic reforms; something MDC have had many opportunities to do but has failed to do because the leaders are corrupt and incompetent.

    To continue contesting flawed elections is proof of insanity!

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  4. What is $9 million to Zimbabwe! Mugabe has just flown to Singapore for his regular medical check-up at the usual cost of $3 million each trip. Sometimes he has made as many as four such trips in one month! Last week it was reported the country was spending $20 million on new cars for its top civil servants!

    Over a year ago Mugabe admitted the country was "swindled" out of $15 billions in diamond revenue. Up to now still not one person has been arrested and one dollar recovered. The swindling is still going on!

    There is evidence to show Mai Mujuru and her last husband swindled $15 billions in diamonds alone.

    There are reports that the Americans are cutting aid to Zimbabwe and who can blame them! Zimbabwe is filthy rich the only reason millions of our people are poor and we are not paying our debts is corruption. The country’s wealth is being creamed off by the filthy rich ruling elite. It is unfair to expect other nations to save our millions living in poverty from starvation, etc. whilst our rich ruling elite continue to waste money of luxuries. We, Zimbabweans, must step up and stop the madness!

    If ESKOM switch-off power to Zimbabwe, we have had this coming for decades but paid no attention. A few more nights in darkness may be what we needed – force us to think!

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  5. After Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai must be the worst curse this nation has ever had; Zimbabwe would have started the climb out of this hell-hole Mugabe landed us into years ago if it was not for Tsvangirai's blundering incompetence.

    Tsvangirai and his MDC friends wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU. They were warned not to contest the 2013 with no reforms in place but they would not listen.

    They made their own party resolution of "No reform, no elections!" after the 2013 elections fiasco. Not even one single reform has been implemented since the resolution and yet they are all queuing to contest the 2018 elections as if they do not know the elections will once again be rigged.

    Tsvangirai was elected on a ticket to bring about democratic change, as his party name indicates, and yet after nearly two decades in politics he cannot name even one democratic change he has brought. By participating in a flawed election, he is not just wasting another opportunity to force the change but worse still he is giving the whole flawed process a modicum of democratic credibility and acceptance. Tsvangirai’s crying “wolf” after the elections has not fooled anyone because he was warned beforehand the election will rigged.

    No stone should be left unturned in the effort to stop the people of Zimbabwe being short changed by the holding of yet another flawed election. Tsvangirai and his opposition friends must be pressure to honour their own party resolution of "No reform, no elections!"

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  6. Well the people of Zimbabwe did not care "what Tsvangirai did after the foolish act" of contesting the 2013 elections. They have been preoccupied paying dearly for the foolishness as the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange lost 35% of its value on hearing of the Zanu PF return to power. The economy has continued on its nosedive decline to this day.

    Zimbabwe's unemployment has soared to 90% plus, a world record.

    Unemployment has soared to 80% on the back of the chaotic farm seizures and the country's hyperinflation. Zimbabwe unemployment has been 80% plus for the longest continuous period - another world record.

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  7. @ Steve

    Steve, you are contradicting yourself here. You are asking the opposition to build rural structures, one minute, and, the next minute you admit Zanu PF opposition "activists are murdered, raped and have their houses burnt down". How then can opposition have any foot hold in the rural areas if the price of being an opposition activist is one's very life!

    Tsvangirai is not going to opt out of the 2018 elections just as he did not do so in 2013 because he and his friends are fighting for the few seats Zanu PF gives away to the opposition during such elections. Tsvangirai knows he will not win the presidency but as long as his party win x% of the parliamentary seats MDC will get x% of whatever Zanu PF gives away in the Political Party Finance Act. MDC will pay Tsvangirai some of that money which, so far, constitute his total earning!

    Tsvangirai and MDC sold-out during the GNU and lost their chance to get the reforms implemented. They know they have no hope of getting Zanu PF to implement any reforms now and so they are selling out on the only other way to get the reforms implemented - by boycotting elections - by participating in the elections for the scraps Zanu PF gives away.

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  8. Minister Walter Mzembi has lost the race to be United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Secretary General.

    Having worked with a corrupt and murderous tyrant like Robert Mugabe for all these years is not a recommendation but a curse. Mzembi is not as squeaky clean as he pretends to be. Zanu PF has been rigging elections all these years, using some of the most barbaric methods to do so. It is inconceivable that Mzembi did not know about these dirty tricks much less deny that he has benefited from it.

    The UN, when it is not badly compromised, is supposed to stand for human rights, freedom, justice and peace. How then can someone who has made a political career out of denying his own fellow countrymen their humanity and dignity be a UN employee!

    It is bad enough that tyrants, like President Mugabe, are allowed to use the UN platforms to pontificate to no end about nonsense. It is an insult that the tyrants’ apologists and cronies should too be rewarded for their years of corrupt and tyrannical oppression.

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  9. It is hard to see any MDC leader involved in the GNU as anything else other than just another corrupt and incompetent political sell-out! But then the AU itself is full of corrupt and useless busy bodies, Mashakada will be in good company there!

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  10. @ Steve blomefield

    Interesting argument but that is the same argument someone can use to repeat the same thing over and over again hoping to get a different result. Tsvangirai has failed to deliver not even one democratic change in the last 20 years of main stream opposition because he is corrupt and incompetent. And not because he needs to shed more "blood of the martyrs"! 

    We do not need to waste one more Zimbabwean's live propping up a corrupt and incompetent opposition. The only opposition worthy of our support is the one demanding the implementation of reforms now and not waste a day or dollar on trivial pursuit.

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