Zimbabwe is in this
economic and political mess for one over-riding reason – ignorance. What makes
ignorance such a difficult, a near impossible, failing to cure is that the
ignorant are rarely aware of their fault. Indeed, the ignorant often consider
themselves the fountain of wisdom.
Zimbabwe’s worsening
economic situation has galvanized the nation to search for a solution. Nelson
Chamisa and his MDC friends have proposed the formation of a new Zanu PF and
MDC GNU and has called out for street protests on 16 August to press Mnangagwa
and Zanu PF into accepting the proposal.
MDC are insisting the new
GNU will implement the “comprehensive democratic reforms” necessary to end the
curse of rigged elections and pariah state. In this, Chamisa and company are tacitly
accepting that implementing the democratic reforms are the cure to the economic
mess and political paralysis killing the nation. What the MDC leaders have
failed to do explain why the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement even on
reform and why this new GNU would do better.
Chamisa insists the new
GNU will succeed were the last one failed because it is the solution “ordained
by God”, following his week-long call for prayer and fasting. We are to believe
God ordained the new GNU because Chamisa said so! It is all nonsense of course,
given it was the same Zanu PF and MDC leaders who failed to get even one reform
implemented last time although they were under pressure from SADC then they will
be this time.
Still, there has been a flurry
of activity in support of MDC’s 16 August 2019 demos. Most of the support has
one thing in common – ignorance.
“In the month of April,
1506 the great Italian polymath Learnardo da Vinci once said, “Nothing
strengthens authority so much as silence”. The silence of the oppressed, is a
weakness that many governments are using to capture the liberty of their
citizens,” wrote Erasmus Pongo in Zimeye.
“Since the attainment of
independence in Zimbabwe, the government has created a system which suppresses
freedom of expression. Nemine contradicentre, here is why public protests are
Zimbabwe’s only hope;
“The provision of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe amendment no. 20 of 2013. The Constitution of Zimbabwe
(amendment no. 20, 2013) guarantees freedom of expression and media, but
journalist are subject to arbitrary arrest, harassment and intimidation when
reporting about protests.”
No one would deny that
Zanu PF is corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical regime. But to
dwell of the regime’s brutality, vote rigging, etc. to justify why it has
remained in power all these last 39 years is to miss the point completely. The
point being, how many excellent opportunities did the many have to end the
dictatorship in the 39 years? And more significantly, why did we waste these
opportunities?
If the truth be told, we
had, or rather Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had, the get out of jail
card during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. All they had to do was implement the
democratic reforms which SADC had already managed to get Mugabe and Zanu PF to
agree to. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not even
one reform!
In a country with a
trigger-happy regime staging the demos presents a serious challenge but the
more reason people make sure they are not risking life and limb for the wrong
thing. The people have not been as silent as people like Pongo would have us
believe. Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to election MDC into power but
only to be betrayed as they have failed to bring about even one reform in two
decades.
Since last year’s elections
failed to produce a legitimate government because Zanu PF rigged the elections;
there is a need for GNU. People should be demanding a GNU led by competent
individuals the nation can trust to implement the reform and not ask for Zanu
PF and MDC one that failed to get even one reform implemented last time.
When the nation has had
and wasted many get out of jail cards; reasonable people will ask why this
happened and actively seek to put that right. Only fools will continue to dwell
on how thick the walls and floors are, the razor wire, the mine fields, etc.
"Kusaziva inyama yegakava!" (The ignorant are as stubborn as tendon meat!) Before independence many Zimbabweans were convinced Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were the nation's liberation heroes, the people simply refused to see the many tell-tale signs of the dictatorial tendencies of the black nationalists. The freedom fighters' policy of forcing rural peasants to fill cattle dip-tanks, for example, was deeply unpopular with the rural people because it was hurting the peasants and served no military purpose. At night, freedom fighters forced the peasants to fill the dip-tanks with earth and stones and by day, white regime's soldiers will force the same peasants clean-up the tanks and fill them with water.
ReplyDeleteThe people's fixation with Mugabe and his cronies as heroes blinded them hence the reason why it was not until the late 1990s that many Zimbabweans finally accept that the Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Even with the knowledge of the Gukurahundi massacres in the early 1980s, Mugabe remain the father of the nation per excellence!
Now the pendulum has swung to the other side, Zanu PF are the villains and MDC are the heroes who will do no wrong. The people’s fixation with MDC as the liberators is nauseating in its stupidity. MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU and they failed to do so. For the last 20 years the people have been calling for democratic changes but clearly had no clue what those changes are and so when MDC sold-out on implementing the reforms the people failed to notice.
The new power sharing arrangement MDC is calling for here is more a coalition than GNU in that Zanu PF will be accepted as the legitimate winner of last year’s election. In the 2008 to 2013 GNU had people like Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister, respectively, although the two had not won any elected position because the 2008 elections were null and void. Morgan Tsvangirai could have demanded more influential positions in the GNU but did not out of weakness and naivety.
In this proposed new arrangement Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs would be accepted as the legitimate winners of last year’s elections and MDC are joining them as junior partners. There will be no Global Political Agreement, is in 2008, in which Zanu PF will agree to the implementation of the comprehensive reforms and certainly no SADC as guarantor the agreement. It is naïve for anyone to therefore expect this new arrangement to implement any reforms.
It is only the blind fixation, born out of stubborn ignorance, of MDC as the party to bring change that is stopping people seeing MDC for the corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs they are.
PF rigged last year’s elections, the regime is illegitimate and the regime would have been forced to step down as happened in 2008 if a consensus decision on the rigged elections had been reached straight after 31 July 2018 elections. Whilst the EU, Americans, Commonwealth and all level-headed Zimbabweans out there had condemned last year’s elections; MDC and their fellow opposition parties and candidates had all given the process credibility by participating in the elections regardless of the blatant rigging!
The opposition have maintained their foolish position confident the herd of their confused followers will back them up no matter what and that is exactly what has happened.
Seemingly reasonable people like Erasmus Pongo have the fixation with the thickness of the jail walls, the razor wire fence, etc. and are ignoring the get out of jail card the rigged elections are offering. These MDC idiots are the ones helping Zanu PF stay in power illegally and making a fuss over street protests!
Now people are watching closely Zacc and Matanda-Moyo's next moves. Will they intensify the anti-corruption campaign by arresting notorious criminals out there or just go for the small fish? If Zacc is to win public confidence and support, it must go for the big fish, not frogs.
ReplyDeleteAdvocate Thabani Mpofu yesterday offered to render his services for free to prosecute and bring to book criminals who stole public resources in various sectors, particularly diamonds and command agriculture.
If Mnangagwa is to be taken seriously on combating corruption, he must go for greedy scoundrels and their networks — some of whom his critics say are linked to him — without fear or favour. We are watching.
Matanda-Moyo is the wife of Foreign Minister and former Army Major Sibusiso Moyo. We all know the Army has been is one of the major players in the wholesale looting of the country's diamonds and other minerals. The Army top brass, Chiwenga, Perence Shiri and, no doubt, S Moyo, are the chief beneficiaries. Only the very naive would believe that ZACC does not know the Army's looting activities and to expect ZACC to arrest the top brass!
ZACC will continue to arrest frogs and will never arrest the big fish!
@ Zvangendaba
ReplyDelete“Again you make it look like MDC had all the chance and authority to implement reforms during GNU and they failed due to complacency. That is not true MDC was forced into a GNU which favoured ZANU they had no authority what soever ZANU rejected all the efforts. The only mistake MDC made in 2013 was to go for an election with no reforms. Remember how the constitution was written ZANU ignored and opposed all propositions that would have made it easy for reforms.”
MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented during the last GNU because they sold-out, “we sat, ate and did nothing” as Chamisa admitted. If you cannot get your head round what really happened during the GNU with all the benefit of hindsight and detailed explanation it must be because you just do not want to admit the truth. Or you are just one of those people mentally challenged no amount of explaining will make a difference.
Going into the 2013 elections with no reforms was not the only mistake MDC made, they repeated the same mistake last year!
If MDC was forced into the 2008 GNU then why are they the ones staging street protests to push for the new GNU now?
@ Zunzanyika
ReplyDeleteActually the one who is either very stupid or playing dumb is you! Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections it is nonsense to claim otherwise. The regime denied 3 million Zimbabwean in the diaspora the vote, for example. Mnangagwa has since promised to allow them to vote "next time"! What right did he have to deny them the vote in 2018?
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. No one likes to do business with thugs and as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the economic meltdown will only get worse!
Yes, I have ideas to help the economic recovery: Zanu PF is illegitimate and must step down. Inflation is now 175.6% by government's own admission although other like Professor Steve Hanke say it is 558% either figure shows the country is well and truly on the slippery of hyperinflation and the regime has no clue what to do. The economic situation is not sustainable and in the end this regime will fall!
Toll gate fees went up from $2 to $8 one week or two ago and now they are going up again to $10. Minister Ncube has let the inflation gene out of the bottle and now it is ruling the roost!
ReplyDeleteIn a healthy and functioning democracy Minister Ncube and this whole illegitimate regime would have been forced to resign a long, long time ago! Zimbabwe is not a democracy Mnangagwa and his cronies rig elections and so they are not accountable to anyone. Still, the economic hardships the nation is facing is making Zimbabwe dangerously unstable because there is a limit to how much people can suffer and die and say and do nothing like sheep in a slaughter house. That limit has clearly been reach and anyone who thinks this madness can continue with no consequences is dreaming!
Zimbabwe is a ticking time bomb and the time to defuse it is running out!
Let me guess, Mnangagwa rigged last year's elections so he can be the one to repel the oppressive laws! How considerate of him!
ReplyDeleteThe people of Zimbabwe are caught between a rock and the deep blue sea. The economic meltdown is causing untold suffering and deaths and yet to protest in demand for change will attract brutal repression from the regime. The more reason the people must be careful and make sure they risk life and limb and bring real change this time.
ReplyDeleteIf people protest bring about a new Zanu and MDC GNU, then it is a wasted opportunity because that will bring about no change just as the 2008 GNU brought no change. People need to learn from the past and not repeat the same stupid mistakes!