“War veterans are surviving on US0.48c a day and nothing has been done yet everyone and everybody who could be driving a Mercedes Benz, living in a nice house and things like that; it came from the war veterans,” complained Douglas Mahiya, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.
“But when we speak or ask about our welfare, we are told there is no money.”
Yes, Comrade Mahiya there are some Zimbabweans out there who are driving posh cars, live in palatial mansions and are filth rich. What you have clearly failed to grasp is that these are the filthy rich ruling elite whose insatiable greed for political power and wealth has destroyed the country’s economy making themselves power and filthy rich at the expense of the overwhelming majority whom they, the ruling, denied the freedoms and rights and forced into a life of abject poverty.
Whilst you, Mahiya, and the overwhelming majority of your follow war veterans live in abject poverty too, same as the povo; there our roads part ways. Whilst the ordinary Zimbabweans have been fighting for the restoration of all Zimbabweans’ basic freedoms and rights; you and your rogue war veterans (there are many who have remained faithful to the liberation war values of freedom to all and not just the powerful few) have actively supported the oppressive and corrupt Zanu PF ruling elite.
It is important to note that unlike the colonial regime that generated wealth and our quarrel with the whites was that the wealth must be shared fairly; with this Zanu PF regime, our immediate task is dismantle the dictatorship and stop the criminal waste of resources through corrupt and mismanagement. You lot want to keep the dictatorship as long as you get a share of the looted wealth. You do not even have the common sense to see that the country’s economy has been shrinking!
Most Zimbabweans have long realised that the root cause of the country’s economic problems is the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF rule and they have also realised that they can never remove the party from office as long as it retains its dictatorial power to rig elections. And hence the reason they have called for democratic changes since the late 1990s. It is a great disappointment that these economic and political realities have remained a mystery with the war veterans.
Indeed, Robert Mugabe and the rest of the Zanu PF leadership have continued to exploit the war veterans’ political naivety, using them as the party’s foot-soldiers in harassing, intimidating, beating, raping and even murdering people for selfish political gain. This is all contrary to the values and principles for which they, the war veterans, and the nation at large fought, and many died, for!
How you, Mahiya, and your fellow rogue war veterans have remained, even today with all the benefit of hindsight, shallow, thick and slow is a matter of the deepest regret and national shame! Of course, the nation is ashamed that the generation that liberated the nation from white colonial oppression has itself become the new oppressors and so the nation is once again having to fight for the same freedoms and rights.
“The war veterans again are advocating for a Ministry that will look after their own affairs because we don’t understand why it is not happening when the President has already agreed to it,” continued Mahiya.
“So why can’t we have our own Minister who probably will look at issues that affect war veterans.”
So you think if there was an autonomous government ministry for war veterans; all war veterans will all be driving posh cars; live in Blue Roof type mansions; since the country’s health care has all but collapsed, fly each and everyone of you to China or Singapore for your health care needs; etc. I am speechless!
In his book, Alice in wonderland, Lewis Carroll gives an insightful glimpse into something akin to the rat race Zimbabwe has been stuck in!
ReplyDeleteAlice is constantly running but remaining in the same spot:
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the (Red) Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Let us just say in Zimbabwe the nation has been running twice as fast and sinking further and faster into the dark ages! But, of course, those “Red Queens” with their heavy boot on the nation’s neck holding us down in the gutter insist the nation is making progress.
It is heart breaking that the nation should be fighting for the same freedoms and rights it sacrificed so much in resources, human suffering and human lives to win from the white colonialists. What a rat race!
How is it possible that anyone cannot see that the Zanu PF dictatorship is a betrayal of all the nation fought for and dreamt of. Even when Mahiya’s has had his nose rubbed into the s***t, the idiot is as poor as a church mouse just like the millions of others in the country, and yet he still fails to see the dictatorship has failed and must be changed.
People like Mahiya are braindead, decades of idleness and Zanu PF brainwashing has resulted in his brain atrophied into useless fatty tissue. Idiots like him are willing but dangerous tools in tyrants like Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s hands.
The challenge for us is to fight the tyrants and their braindead goons; we must get out of this rat race!
MDC leader threaten Ruhanya for criticising the party.
ReplyDeleteIt is totally acceptable that are having to fight Zanu PF thugs for freedom of expression and a free media. It is alarming that very people we risked life and limb to elect into power to fight for these freedoms are themselves now behaving like the Zanu PF thugs!
MDC leaders sold-out big time by failing to implement even one democratic reform when they had the chance to do so. They have not been held to account for that, a mistake that must never be allowed to happen ever again. The MDC leaders' response to being held to account is to threaten the critics to silence them; that is not acceptable and must be slammed down forcefully!
For the umpteenth time: as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs the country's economic meltdown will only get worse! No one wants to do business with thugs!
ReplyDeleteAnd as long as the economic meltdown continues there will be unrest in the land. If what one is paid is not enough to cover their transport costs let alone everything else then it is naive to expect people to continue to work! The doctors are going on strike and they will not be alone in that!
For the umpteenth time: Zanu PF rigged last year's elections confirming Zimbabwe's pariah state status. The regime has no mandate to govern and it must now step down!
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC party's call for National Transition Authority will get the MDC leaders back on the gravy-train but will change very little. The 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to get even one reform implemented and this NTA will not do any better. The NTA will be a Zanu PF regime with a few MDC leaders for window dressing; no one will be fooled by that.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is serious and it demands decisive action and not another meaningless NTA gimmick. Zanu PF must be told in no uncertain terms that it is illegitimate and must step down.
After 39 years of Zanu PF rigging elections and allowed to get away with it dragging the nation deeper and deeper into this nightmare; the madness must now stop. We cannot afford to appease Zanu PF for even one more day! Zanu PF must step down; period!
Video inside the Boeing 777 jet Mnangagwa used for the trip to Japan blowing US$17 million.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear why Mnangagwa rigged last year's elections; here was someone whose appetite for the gravy-train lifestyle is insatiable. We have a country whose health service has all but completely collapsed, even the country's main hospitals like Mpilo and Parerenyatwa Hospitals often run-out of something as basic as pain killers. How can the same nation be squandering US$17 million on two day trip for the ruling elite!
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are a curse to the nation. They rigged last year's elections and all pressure must now be brought to bear for the regime to step down. MDC's proposed National Transition Authority is just a waste of time; it will earn the MDC leaders a seat on the gravy-train but will never end the greed and waste!
ZIMBABWE’S state-owned power utility Zesa Holdings (Zesa) is on the brink of collapse due to a plethora of problems.
ReplyDeleteIt is beset by multiple crippling factors, including rampant power theft, non-payment of electricity bills, vandalisation of infrastructure, as well as insufficient foreign currency, an explosive internal report reveals.
If ZESA was a private company it would have collapse a long, long time ago. The taxpayer will be forced to bail the company and the mismanagement and looting will continue!
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown will continue and, until we finally bite the bullet and get a competent and accountable government, get worse. Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and should never been allowed to get back into power. Never!
The war of independence was NOT about ending the oppression and exploitation of the blacks, this was just a convenient cover. As far as Mugabe and his cronies are concerned it was about securing absolute power for themselves. Before the nation could even hold her first elections, Zanu PF had already ditched “One man, one vote!” The people were left in no doubt that if Zanu PF failed to win the elections in 1980, the civil war would continue.
ReplyDeleteMugabe conned the ordinary Zimbabweans but he also conned the freedom fighters like Mahiya who have done the regime’s dirty work of denying the people their freedoms and rights. The war veterans were made to believe that as the freedom fighters they were a cut above the masses and had a share in the spoils of power. Living on US$0.48 per day it is clear Mahiya and company are no better off than the rest us povo.
Even with all the evidence of the country’s economic meltdown it is shocking that Mahiya and company still believe they too would be driving posh cars, living in Blue Roof mansions, etc. if they can get a Minister of War Veterans. How anyone can be that stupid to believe all that rubbish is the real mystery here.
Mugabe not only conned povo and war veterans by conned the party’s leaders too. Mugabe denied povo “One man, one vote!” but has done the same thing in the party.
Ever since Mugabe assumed the leadership of the party, he has never allowed the party members to have a meaningful say in the selection of the party leaders. He has always manipulated the process to ensure where there should have been an election it was always a coronation. His coronation of those around him who then were beholden to him. The leaders were promised the lion’s share of the spoils of the dictatorship only to get a drip-feed. Many of the Zanu PF grandees like Nathan Shamuyarira, Enos Nkala, etc. have died in abject poverty.
It is amazing the easy with which Mugabe and now Mnangagwa was able to twist these freedom fighters and Zanu PF leaders round his little finger. Even now, after four decades of being toyed with, many of the Zanu PF members still fail to see the folly of the blind loyalty to the dictatorship.
With idiots like Mahiya and the Zanu PF leaders ruling the country, there is no doubt that we are in serious, serious trouble.
Japan is joining the world in calling for reforms in Zimbabwe because the Japanese are smart enough to know Zimbabwe is going nowhere without reforms! There will be no Japanese investors coming to Zimbabwe until there is change!
ReplyDeleteJapan has humiliated ZANU PF President Emmerson Mnangagwa over reforms and democracy.
ReplyDeleteThe powerful Asian giant said this is a necessity for business to thrive.
Mnangagwa went to Japan with the usual expectation of signing mega deals with Japan. What the Japanese have done is tell him why they are not going
to invest in Zimbabwe. If Mnangagwa was “humiliated” by hearing the truth then it is his problem and not the Japanese’s.
With the country’s economy in total meltdown, Zimbabwe needs to hear the truth and not the usual Chinese lies of signing mega deals and then nothing comes out of it!
The trouble with these Zanu PF thugs is that they will never accept that they have failed and they must allow other people to have a say. They believe they and they alone know what is best. What is more, they would rather kill than give up power!
ReplyDeleteIt is ironic that the rural areas are considered Zanu PF stronghold for no other reason than that this is the area where poverty is at its worst and the electorate are dependent on Zanu PF handouts and other vote buying tricks.
Minister Obadiah Moyo knows that government spending millions if not billions of dollars on flights, hotel and hospital bills flying the ruling elite out of the country for their medical care whilst the country’s own local health service has collapsed for lack of funds is a pretty dumb thing to do. He also knows that this is a very popular thing for the ruling elite.
ReplyDeleteIt is almost certain that Minister Moyo reminded Mnangagwa of the sheer madness of this criminal waste of resources and making sure the whole world knows about the reminder will be a feather in the Minister’s cap, after this is an idea that is gaining a lot of public support.
Besides, the Minister Moyo’s reminder had a double-edged sword, he wanted Mnangagwa to know he could make his life very difficult if he is not treated well. Inviting the Minister on the luxury jet to Japanese trip would have been one sure way of buying the Minister’s silence on the matter! Minister Moyo would not be the first or last Zanu PF leaders to blackmail Zanu PF leaders. Afterall Zanu PF is a party of cut-throat thugs in which blackmail and backstabbing is the norm!
@ Jealous Mawarire
ReplyDelete"Problem with @daddyhope is making sweeping statements & pushing grand narratives.That pple like @daddyhope , Mutambara,Chamisa, Tsvangirai, Mahere, Mwonzora, Mujuru etc. supported the coup doesn’t make all Zimbabweans book educated & not streetwise," you said.
Whilst it is true that there many other people who foresaw the folly of the November 2017 military coup, still the people listed above did support the coup and so did the hundreds of thousands of others. Most of the above listed politicians are guilty of failing to implement even one reforms during the last GNU. They all went on to participate in the 2018 elections although they were warned of the folly of doing so.
In short we have the great misfortune of having seasoned political blunderers who are really should not be on the national political stage! And your whole article is premised on the idea that they made a mistake and it does not matter and we should just forget it and move on is therefore political folly in its own right!
According to the Japanese government, Abe "mentioned the importance of institutional reforms for promoting business".
ReplyDeleteHe is quoted as having said: "We hope that reform will be promoted and democratisation will be advanced in Zimbabwe under the leadership of President Mnangagwa."
After almost two years of promising sweeping political and economic reforms, Mnangagwa's government has started giving unreasonable excuses for its lethargic approach to dismantling the Robert Mugabe legacy.
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi recently told the European Union that it cannot expect the government to "respect the rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe when sanctions are still there".
The poor investment climate in the country and the unaccounted for millions of dollars fed to a company whose owner has close links to the president under the murky command agriculture have nothing to do with sanctions.
Zimbabwe will remain in the doldrums as long as the country's leadership does not realise the urgency of genuine economic and political reforms.
There is no single country that will throw its money into a country where the rule of law is not respected and corruption is celebrated.
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and it is not the first time the party has done this. It has routinely rigged elections ever since the country gained her independence back in 1980. The party has managed to get away with rigged elections in the past but not so this time.
The four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy with unemployment a nauseating 90%, most basic services such as health care all but collapsed, etc.; it is clear the economic situation is unsustainable. The only way the economy can be fixed is for the country to cast away its pariah state persona.
By blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Zanu PF confirmed that Zimbabwe is still the same old pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. The regime is illegal and has no legitimacy. There are those who think that if Mnangagwa was to implement the reforms that would spruce up the regime’s image and make it legitimate; they are wrong. There are no reforms he can ever implement that can ever change the reality that last year’s elections were rigged.
No implemented reforms can make the illegitimate Zanu PF regime legitimate.
Nelson Chamisa has offered to “resolve Zanu PF’s legitimacy problem” if Mnangagwa agreed to go into a power sharing arrangement with MDC. This is just nonsense because it is not for MDC to grant Zanu PF or anyone else legitimacy. This is an exclusive prerogative of the people of Zimbabwe in a free, fair and credible elections.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections and any idea the party should be rewarded by being allowed to stay in power under whatever disguise is laughable! The country is in this mess precisely because for 39 years the country has followed the foolish policy of appeasing Zanu PF thugs. The number one reform the country must implement is to never again appease tyrants!
Zanu PF is illegitimate and the only way out is for the regime to step down.
Chief Svosve, Mnangagwa would have been judged illegitimate following Zanu PF's blatant rigging of last year's elections and would have been put under immediate international pressure for him to step down. The pressure never materialized because by participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC and the rest of Zimbabwe's opposition parties, all 130 of them, and candidate, all 22 of them in the presidential race alone, gave credibility to the process.
ReplyDeleteIt must be said too that MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. If MDC leaders had do so then Zanu PF vote rigging would have been stopped by now!
It is annoying, to say the least, for you to be making all these empty and meaningless threat of "Mnangagwa must resign to avoid humiliation!" when it is none other than your MDC party that is actively helping Zanu PF stay in power!