There is no denying the fact that Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown the much hoped for economic recovery of the post Mugabe era has not materialised.
When Emmerson Mnangagwa took over power following the November 2017 coup that booted Mugabe out of office, he, Mnangagwa, promised to end corruption; hold free, fair and credible elections; etc. The promises, if kept, would have ended the country’s pariah state status, the root cause of the country’s economic meltdown. Sadly, none of the promises were ever honoured.
Corruption is such areas as the diamond sector is still rampant, Mnangagwa has yet to arrest even one of those responsible. Worse still, Mnangagwa failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform necessary for free, fair and credible elections. He was reminded of the need to implement reforms but ignored the warnings.
By blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Mnangagwa confirmed beyond all reasonable doubt that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs.
It is no surprise that the much heralded economic recovery post November 2017 coup has not materialised - how can it when the country is still a pariah state!
Zimbabwe Heads Of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) have proposed dissolving the current illegitimate Zanu PF government in favour of a new Government of National Unity (GNU) just to get round this nagging pariah state curse.
President Mnangagwa has shot down the GNU proposal on the grounds that last year’s elections were free, fair and credible.
“Let me emphatically state, at the outset, that my office is a creature of the Constitution and laws of Zimbabwe, both of which I am sworn to uphold, defend, obey and respect to their letter and spirit,” stated Mnangagwa.
“Our July 2018, harmonised elections were adjudged to be largely transparent, free, fair and credible (and an) expression of the will of the people of Zimbabwe.”
Well the EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and many other individuals, nations and organisation who observed the 2018 elections condemned the elections as a farce hence the reason the pariah state stigma has remained to this day, over a year since the July 2018 election. A video documentary, Excelgate, by Journalist Edmund Kudzayi shedding new light of how Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections. The video has gone viral and reinvigorated the debate on the rigged elections.
In its affidavit submission in response to Chamisa’s court challenge of the presidential election, ZEC stated that the commission command centre verified 10 985 original V11 forms (Polling Station list of all contestants in presidential, parliamentary and local election races and votes received), for example. ZEC inputted data from these V11 forms into excel sheets the results of which were then used to decide the winner of the parliamentary and presidential races.
EU Election Observer Mission witnessed a ZEC official, own his own filling a V11 form two days after this task should have been done and dusted and thus confirming the existence of extra V11 forms.
Kudzai explained in detail that V11 forms are generated at Polling Station level only. Original of the V11 form is put in the ballot box together with cast ballots, unused ballots and all the other residue of the electoral material. The ballot box is then sealed and election officials and contestant’s election agents affix their signatures.
The first copy of the V11 form is placed in a envelop which is sealed and election officials and contestant’s election agents affix their signatures.
The second copy of the V11 form is displayed at each Polling Station for everyone to see. About 10% of the Polling Stations failed to display the V11 forms and EU and other observers have confirmed this. ZEC has failed to explain why.
The sealed envelop with the first copy of the V11 is then taken, under Police escort, to a designated command centre for each local election ward. The same election officials and contestant’s election agents from each Polling Station who had affixed their signatures to the sealed envelop will be asked to confirm the seal was not tampered with. The seal is then broken and the V11 handed over to the ward election officials and contestant election agents.
The ward election officials will total the votes received by each contestant in the presidential, parliamentary and council elections races. A new summary sheet, V23A, will produced.
The original V23A form will be placed in a new Box together with all the first copy V11 forms and all other election material residue. The box will be sealed and the ward election officials and agents will affix their signatures.
The first copy of the V23A form will be placed in an envelop, sealed and signatures affixed.
The ward returning officer will declare the winner of the council ward election.
The second copy of the V23 A form in be posted for all to see.
The sealed envelop with the first copy of the V23A will then taken, under Police escort, to the constituency command centre. A similar procedure to that at ward command centre will be repeated at constituency centre. The constituency officials total votes of each of parliamentary and presidential to produce a V23 B form.
The original of the V23 B form plus the first copy of the V23A and other election residues will be placed in a constituency box which will be sealed and witnessed as before.
The first copy of the V23 B form will the sealed and witnessed as before.
The second copy of the V23 B will posted for all to see.
The sealed envelop with the first copy V23B form is then taken to ZEC command centre, under Police escort. The envelops are then opened and the V23B form handed to the ZEC officials and corresponding ZEC command centre contestant agents. ZEC officials will total the votes cast for each of the presidential from each of the country’s 210 parliamentary constituencies.
So against each presidential candidate one expected 210 entries not 10 895!
ZEC command centre was not supposed to receive any V11 forms. Not even one!
In 25% of the 11 100 or so declared Polling Stations, or 2 775, failed to display the V11 forms as required. If we assume these copies found their way to ZEC command centre, still where did the other 8 210 come from?
We know from the EU report that a ZEC official was seen completing a V11 form two days after this supported to be completed.
There is nothing in the ZEC’s affidavit or Chamisa or anyone else to suggest the above procedure was abandoned and so one call only conclude that the 10 985 V11 forms received by ZEC command centre were generated without the knowledge and scrutiny of contestants, their agents, election observers, contrary to accepted practice and, most important of all, in violation of the country’s law!
"The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission claims it verified 10,985 original V11 forms at its National Command Centre. This impossible claim is the 2018 election rigging smoking gun,” concluded Edmond Kudzayi.
There is no doubt that Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections and this is a nation issue we must now deal with as a matter of urgency.
Rigging elections is not just any crime, this is a crime against the nation with the potential to destabilise the country causing untold suffering and even death to thousands if not millions of people. Those who try and/or rig elections are committing high treason!
Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections, there is a mountain of evidence to prove it, Excelgate provide just another train load of evidence of fresh evidence.
We do not expect this Zanu PF regime to impeach Mnangagwa, after all, many, if not all the 2/3 majority MPs and senators are themselves beneficiaries of the rigged elections. Beside the V11 scandal, the regime denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and frog marched rural voters to vote for Zanu PF, for example. Still, all pressure will be brought to bear on this illegitimate regime to step down.
Kudzayi is known to many Zimbabweans as Baba Jukwa, whose juicy social media gossip on Zanu PF leaders were a sensation. This Excelgate video is based on the book by former Zanu PF minister and propagandist, Professor Jonathan Moyo. He is now in exile running away from Mnangagwa who tried to have him killed during the November 2017 coup.
There is no doubt Excelgate expose will make Mnangagwa squill and Professor Moyo must be rubbing his hands with glee!
The greatest pressure on this Mnangagwa regime is coming from the country’s worsening economic meltdown. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, the economic meltdown will only get worse.
In the end Mnangagwa et al will step down. Mark my word!
(Excelgate video is available on Bulawayo 24 or Google search)
Professor Jonathan Moyo has alleged that the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation uses false information in their operations and does not accept true information from credible sources.
ReplyDeleteSaid Moyo, "Zimbabwe's approach to human intelligence since Mnangagwa's gukurahundi years as CIO minister is based on DISINFORMATION. They want to be told what they want to hear. Tell them the truth they dismiss you by claiming to know better from their sources or by calling you an alarmist!”
Zimbabwe is in a real mess because for the last 39 years the country has been governed by a bunch of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. It is no surprise that there is not even one individual with the CIO who can be called intelligent, they are all first class thugs.
After 40 years of Zanu PF thuggery it is no surprise that these thugs are everywhere and many of them have grown rich and powerful. The sheer breath taking incompetence and corruption by the opposition shows Tsvangirai House is full of embedded CIO agents masquerading as opposition.
Unravelling Zimbabwe’s institutionalised thuggery is the greatest challenge of our time. So far the thugs have the upper hand and they have dragged the nation deeper and deeper into the abyss!
Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi has been petitioned to charge finance minister Mthuli Ncube with criminal abuse of office over a series of actions that have caused Zimbabweans financial losses in the billions of dollars.
ReplyDeleteShould he decline to prosecute the minister, activist Mfundo Mlilo – who in September won a court challenge to Ncube's illegal imposition of a 2 percent tax on electronic transactions – says he has instructed prominent lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu to initiate a private prosecution.
This illegitimate (least we forget Zanu PF rigged last year's elections) Zanu PF regime has no clue what it is doing and it shows - Zimbabwe's economy is in total meltdown thanks to the regime's gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and inapt governance!
THE Zimbabwean government has splurged US$800 000 on London-based lobby and public relations (PR) firm BTP Advisers in a desperate bid to spruce up its battered international image and bolster a diplomatic re-engagement drive that has gone off the rails amid a growing backlash over the deteriorating political and economic rights situation in the country, the Zimbabwe Independent can report.
ReplyDeleteThe hefty payment by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government follows hot on the heels of yet another payout of US$500 000 in February to United States-based lobby firm Ballard. The PR companies were tasked with canvassing for the removal of targeted sanctions imposed on the country.
Zimbabwe in June struck a similar arrangement with Avenue Strategies Global LLC to the tune of US$1 million. The company was tasked with lobbying the US government to drop sanctions against the country.
Another US PR firm, Mercury International Limited, has a contract that runs until May 31, 2020.An official in the Ministry of Finance told the Independent that government paid US$800 000 to the British PR firm.
Mnangagwa is a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thug; whilst in Zimbabwe he has continued to behave like a corrupt and murderous thug he is; he, nonetheless, believes that PR companies can falsify the truth and present him as just, competent and exemplary democratic leader.
PR company never refuse any assignment, as long as they are assured of the payment, the more generous the payout the more they will actively seek to take the job regardless of how hopeless the cause might be; they are like lawyers.
You cannot make a silk purse out of sow’s ear! The tragedy here is the people of Zimbabwe, who ultimately pay not just the PR’s bill but worse still pay for the consequences of the continued Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule, are paying the king’s ransom for something they already know!
JUNIOR officers in the spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) are reportedly not happy with the huge salary gap between them and their bosses, NewsDay has learnt.
ReplyDeleteThis paper is reliably informed that about three weeks ago, their bosses, starting from the district intelligence officer (DIO) going up, had their monthly salaries increased to more than $18 000, a situation which has ruffled feathers among the juniors, who feel they were being hard done.
The DIOs are reportedly now getting a little more than $18 000, up from $2 500, while the provincial intelligence officers had their salaries hiked to $23 000, up from $3 500.
Below the DIOs are senior intelligence officers, who are reportedly getting between $2 500 and $2 800, while the rest are in the region of $2 000.
Well, well! The CIO thought they were part of the Zanu PF ruling elite but when the going gets tough; these are tough economic times and, as long as Zanu PF remains in power, things are set to get even tougher; the rank and file CIO is thrown away like used toilet paper.
Comrades, you have helped to create this Zanu PF monster that created this hell-on-earth. We, the victims of the corrupt and tyranny, have warned you against creating a de facto one party dictatorship but you would not listen. The regime has used you and now you are being thrown into the hell you helped create. Welcome comrades!
Elections in Zimbabwe continue to be the source of political conflict and instability rather than good governance and prosperity. SADC has failed to stamp its authority and authenticity in ensuring an effective policy framework that promotes genuine elections as an expression of sovereignty, that will provide the basis for the authority and legitimacy of a government acknowledged and given consent by the citizens. Genuine democratic elections serve to be internationally recognised as well as good human rights practices, and are central to the maintenance of peace and stability. Where government’s are legitimised through overwhelming consent of their citizens, the scope for non democratic challenges to power is reduced.
ReplyDeleteYou are 100% correct.
In the recent Excelgate video, Edmond Kudzayi, gave details of how Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections. SADC and AU had elections observer teams in Zimbabwe and they gave the elections process their thumbs up. ZEC admitted that ZEC command centre received 10 985 V11 forms (summary listing all the contestants and the vote received at each Polling Station) and it turns out the command centre was not supposed to receive even one V11 form. What is the point of having election observers if they are this blind and stupid not to see such a blatant act!
SADC and AU leaders must hang their heads in shame for having endorsed Zimbabwe's rigged elections last year.
The regional and continental bodies' decision to support Zanu PF's call to end sanctions under the pretext they are the ones causing Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is yet another foolishness! No wonder Africa has endless problems, with such idiotic leaders, what else!
@ Chronicle
ReplyDeleteSadc rallied in resounding fashion against Western sanctions on Zimbabwe yesterday. The events across the region marked the climax of a process that started with the declaration, on 18 August this year, of 25 October as the day when all Sadc member states would undertake various activities to strongly denounce the illegal, ruinous sanctions and demand their unconditional removal.
In their respective speeches at the 39th Ordinary Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, regional leaders expressed dismay over the continuing US and European Union sanctions on Zimbabwe.
To get SADC to back Zimbabwe’s position on sanctions; Mnangagwa must have send one envoy after another and even engaged the services of one or two of these expensive PR company the regime has on its book on a permanent basis to lobby the regional leaders. He has tried to do the same with the people of Zimbabwe but they voted with their feet; the stayed away from his rallies.
Mnangagwa addressed his “Enough is enough!” speech to an empty stadium! The few who bothered to attend had gone there for the free food and free T-shirts and many of them were leaving without listening to a word Mnangagwa said.
Zimbabweans know Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and they want the regime to step down. They know the economic meltdown is cause by the regime’s decades of mismanagement and corruption and as long as the regime remain office the economic situation will only get worse.
The sanctions are helping pressure the regime to step down and that is why the people want the sanctions to remain. Indeed, the sanctions must the increased in the light of the worsening economic situation and the regime’s use of brute force to hang on to power.