“It is time that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and finance Mthuli Ncube wake up to reality. Both Leaders do not have a strategic and plausible solution to the economic problems prevailing in Zimbabwe. The reality is that Zimbabwe's economic problems are even worsening. The more they make promises the more Zimbabwean economy sinks.” wrote Simbarashe J Jingo, MDC UK/ROHR Member
What you are saying is true and, the truth be told, we have known this for the last 20 years, at least. By the late 1990s many Zimbabweans not only accepted that Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs were corrupt and incompetent but also accepted the political reality that the nation would need to implement democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and staying in power against the people’s democratic will.
For the last 20 years Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect the late Morgan Tsvangirai and now Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends into power on the understanding the party will deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for. Sadly, MDC has failed to deliver even one democratic change even when the party had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Not even one reform!
It is futile for anyone to still be harping on and on about Zanu PF leaders being corrupt and incompetent; a reality the nation has known for the last 20 years, at least. What people should be asking is: why has the nation failed to get even one reform implemented. Why is Zanu PF still able to rig elections willy-nilly?
The short answer: we have a breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent opposition, especially the main opposition party, MDC!
During the 2008 to 2013 GNU, Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends with ministerial limos, the generous salaries and allowances, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. Once the MDC leaders had their snouts in the feeding trough, they completely forgot about implementing reforms! Mugabe set the honey trap and MDC leaders dived in head first and from a great height. They knocked themselves senseless and have never recovered.
Having a corrupt and incompetent opposition is now Zimbabwe’s worst curse, second only to the curse having a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical ruling party, Zanu PF!
It took many Zimbabwe 20 years or so to accept the political reality that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Even with a mountain of evidence of the economic decline and, worst of all, the over 20 000 massacred during the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi madness; some people still refused to accept Zanu PF leaders were corrupt and murderous thugs.
The nation had embraced Mugabe and company as the nation’s liberation heroes per excellence and it was a very bitter pill to swallow to accept these heroes as murderous tyrants. But even after 20 years of denying the truth, the people did finally accept the bitter reality - Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs.
Zimbabwe is still stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF thugs because MDC leaders have failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform these last 20 years. Worse still, by participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC is giving the illegitimate Zanu PF regime the modicum of political credibility - MDC leaders knows this too.
“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 (2013) elections,” admitted Senator David Coltart, MDC cabinet minister in the GNU.
“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.”
“Zimbabwe is a country without a strategic leader. A leader who cannot impose authority on failing government departments. A leader who cannot curb corruption. The time of blaming everything on sanctions is over,” concluded Jingo.
Actually the time for harping on about Zanu PF being corrupt and incompetent is over, we established that 20 years ago. The real question now is why has MDC failed to implement the necessary reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, 20 years after the nation risked all to elect them into power?
Chamisa in 2018 rejected the outcome of the national polls won by Mnangagwa accusing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of colluding with Zanu-PF to rig the polls.
ReplyDeleteThe MDC Alliance leader has also blamed the country's economic turmoil on the "illegitimacy" of Mnangagwa over the disputed polls.
There is overwhelming evidence to prove that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections but no one of substance has ever supported Chamisa’s political posturing for three good reasons:
1) the whole election process was flawed and not just the counting of the presidential votes as Chamisa claims. 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, ZEC command centre received 10 985 V11 forms (Polling Station summary sheet listing all the contestants and the votes they received) when the laid down legal procedure says they were not supposed to receive even one V11, etc. Chamisa would have accepted the elections as free, fair and credible if he was declared the winner regardless of the process being flawed. No one with any democratic credibility would endorse such a compromised judgement.
2) The failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is a serious matter and should not be resolved by Zanu PF and MDC alone as Chamisa is suggesting.
3) The power sharing arrangement involving Zanu PF and MDC, Chamisa is proposing, will not implement the reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging future elections. The proposed National Transition Authority (NTA) is a watered down version of the 2008 GNU which failed to get even one reform implemented, it is naive to believe the NTA will do any better!
"It is not hatred of each other that will take our country out of this challenge, but a need to collectively confront the elephant in the room. The pain in our society is deep and sharp. Let's accept our failings and correct our steps. It's the economy and politics," said Kasukuwere.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba claimed recently that Kasukuwere tried to hold meetings with senior members of the ANC in South Africa to try and convince them to support his bid but the ANC would not lend him an ear.
All the decades you were in power did you ever “accept your failings and correct your steps?” You did no such thing and hence the reason Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess.
What Zimbabwe needs is to appoint a group of competent individuals who will implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the de facto Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a healthy and functional democratic system of government. No one in Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF, MDC, Kasukuwere, G40, etc. will be included in the group; all those involved in the 2008 to 2013 GNU must be excluded, they messed up then and should not be allowed to do so again.
Zimbabweans, the SADC region, other organs and countries joined hands on the 25th of October calling for the removal of the illegally EU-US-imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. The US camp responded with conceit and added State Security Minister Owen Ncube to the sanctions list based on unsubstantiated claims of human rights abuses.
ReplyDeleteWhat human rights violations have Minister Ncube perpetuated one may ask? That is one pertinent question that even the Americans themselves have no response to. As far as everyone knows, Minister Ncube minds his own business and does his Ministerial duties professionally and efficiently.
Of late, the US has been making decisions on Zimbabwe based on unfounded allegations in its bid to pile up pressure on the Second Republic. One is reminded of the banning of our diamonds alleging that forced labour is being used. The US Harare embassy even distanced itself from the allegation admitting that no proof was available of such an occurrence.
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections all the Zanu PF ministers and party officials must be added to the sanctions list! Those working for this illegitimate regime and criminals too!
This comes after Washington delivered a strong message to Zimbabwe as the march was getting underway - slapping State Security minister Owen Ncube with sanctions over allegations of gross human rights violations.
ReplyDeleteDaily News sources confirmed that the Mnangagwa led government would tackle Nichols head-on as it was not amused by Washington's statements last week which strongly rebuffed suggestions that sanctions were behind the country's deepening economic rot.
In this regard, sources also said, Nichols would soon be summoned and rebuked by the Foreign Affairs Department through a note verbale - a formal diplomatic note.
However, government spokesperson Nick Mangwana opted to choose his words carefully, saying Zimbabwe would stick to the Vienna Convention in its engagements with other nations - which sets parameters for diplomatic etiquette - adding that it expected countries like the US to do the same.
Zanu PF will honour the rule of law, Vienna Convention, etc. only when it suits the regime to do so. The party blatantly rigged last year’s elections; it deny 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, it contemptuous disregarded the laid down procedure for counting the votes with ZEC ending up generating spurious 10 985 V11 forms (Polling Station vote count summary sheet), etc. The party ignores all these glaring flaws and illegalities and insist the elections were free, fair and credible.
The sanctions were imposed for failing to hold free, fair and credible elections and so the sanctions were kept after last year’s rigged elections.
Ambassador Brian Nicholas has explained the sanctions are about the failure to hold free and fair elections. Zanu PF is twisting the issue and want it portrayed as a diplomatic row. This is just a deliberate act to draw attention away from the rigged elections and Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation; a well known Zanu PF dirty tactic. The party has been blaming sanctions for the country’s economic problems, for example, to draw attention away from the real causes - corruption, mismanagement and the country’s pariah state.
As long as Zimbabwe remains under the clutches of a illegitimate regime, sanctions will remain. We should remain focused and not allow ourselves to be side tracked!
Of course, Zanu PF leaders are clueless on how to run the economy, the country would not be in this sorry economic state, for example. Some of the policies pursued by Zanu PF defy common sense, a case of voodoo economics.
ReplyDeleteWhen Professor Mthuli Ncube was appointed Minister of Finance, most people thought he would bring a breath of fresh air but a year latter it is clear he has made no difference. He has foolish enough to tax the poorest of the poor whilst doing nothing to stop the jugular vein haemorrhage cause by corruption and mismanagement! He was nothing more than a teaspoon of milk to a glass of sewage - you still have a glass of sewage!
Whilst there is no question that Mugabe was corrupt, incompetent and a murderous tyrant; still one cannot deny that he did twist Tsvangirai and all his MDC friends round his little finger with ease. Mnangagwa has successfully managed to pull off the same trick with Chamisa! For a clueless Mnangagwa to con Chamisa and all his brigade of lawyers, engineers and the entire MDC wildebeest held into participating in elections they can see are being blatantly rigged; speaks volumes about Chamisa et al - they must be brain dead!
I leave it to the reader to make his/her own conclusion as to what the political reality says about the Zimbabwean people. We are a nation governed by a ruling party of clueless, corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs and an opposition party of brain dead sell-outs!
Nations get the government they deserve, we in Zimbabwe certain do deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of utterly useless opposition parties!
When the Wing Commander told him that he could not be retained as deputy editor, @TichZindoga begged to be demoted to his earlier position of political editor. An irritated Sithole then barked at him: “Chief you are not listening to me. You are not wanted here. Just go!”
ReplyDeleteEarlier, Sithole had assigned his 1980s @Zimpapers editorial colleague, Davison Maruziva, to assess @TichZindoga as #Herald editor. Maruziva’s report was a big NO. He found that Zindoga had no capacity and that he referred everything to @nickmangwana, who also has no capacity!
After Sithole told @TichZindoga to go and clear his office where his dismissal letter would be sent in 15 minutes, the sun fell down on him. He phoned @nickmangwana who said he was in Egypt and could not help. Nick later texted some officials calling Zindoga “stupid and reckless”!
When he did not get any joy from @nickmangwana, a devastated @TichZindoga phoned information minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, asking her to intercede for him. Monica expressed indignant surprise: “Uchiripo ikoko? Awusi kudiwa. Kana vakuru varamba. Chienda. Chibva ipapo iwe”
As a backdrop, @TichZindoga had read the writing on the wall and saw the trouble coming. He sought help from Auxillia Mnangagwa who hit the roof and said “urimutengesi iwe”. Shocked, Zindoga went to Isaac Moyo, CIO Director General, to ask for “protection”. It was a long shot!
The moral of this story is Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs.
A hungry hyena is so shortsighted instead of seeing another hyena it will see a goat and will start salivating, the point of no return, the target will not only look like a goat but smile like one too.
Zanu PF thugs are as ruthless as hyenas and the ever shrinking national economy means there is very little loot to satisfy all and so the thugs are always hungry. Let’s just say that Tich Zindonga found himself surrounded by a whole clan of hungry hyenas and stripped of his clan protection he was a goat!
The Herald is known for its blind loyalty to Zanu PF at the expense of the truth and freedom of expression. No doubt Zindonga has done his best to promote this Zanu PF ethos just as many others before him have done. Many of them, notably the late Nathan Shamuyarira, who is credited for creating the corrupt public media we have today, were used and then thrown away like used toilet paper. Shamuyarira died a pauper!
The Zanu PF dictatorship would not last a day if it is not for individuals like Zindonga, Shamuyarira, etc. who work hard for the de facto one-party dictatorship, deny the ordinary people their basic freedoms and human rights, for a share of the spoils of power.
Zimbabwe has more than its fair share of sell-outs and it is little wonder we are up to our eyes in this hell on earth of our own making.
"Equally important is to continue building the necessary linkages between humanitarian and development support in which the United Nations has been delivering over US$400 million annually (representing over 60% of official development assistance to the country) under the 2016-2021 Zimbabwe UN Development Assistance Framework," she said.
ReplyDeleteThe UN was also was working with government in strengthening safety nets for vulnerable groups in the provision of basic services such as health and education.
"I also recognise the critical importance of social safety net for the vulnerable groups to cushion the impact of the economic austerity measures. The UN is jointly working with the government to strengthen the social safety net – including provision of basis services in health and education – and scale up social protection programmes as well as efforts to build resilience of at-risk communities," the UN diplomat said.
Ribeiro, an Irish national, has over 30 years of humanitarian and development leadership experience in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with the United Nations and other international organisations.
Zimbabwe needs humanitarian assistance but mainly because the country has the chronic problem of bad governance. The UN has done little if anything at all to help Zimbabwe solve it’s bad governance problem.
Indeed the UN has prop up this illegitimate Zanu PF regime by turning a blind eye to the political reality of rigged elections!
Please, please give us the help we need so we can help ourselves and not the help that only leaves us totally helpless! We need to end the curse of bad governance; why is this so incomprehensible to the UN!!!!!
A group of Zimbabweans calling themselves #TysonWabantu Movement have unveiled a video which details a manifesto that they claim is an embodiment of the aspirations of the exiled former Politiburo member Saviour Kasukuwere who is holed up in South Africa.
ReplyDeleteThis is a sick joke! How can Kasukuwere claim to end corruption when he is just as corrupt as Mnangagwa and everyone else in both the Lacoste and G40 factions. Mnangagwa has failed to stamp out corruption because he is corrupt, Kasukuwere will too fail for the same reason.
Kasukuwere is itching to get back into power just like the other G40 leaders so they can pick up the looting from where they left off when they ruled the roost. He and his G40 friends are not interested in ending the Zanu PF dictatorship per se only in replacing the Mnangagwa regime. They do not mind if the dictatorship remains, they will use some of their looted wealth to bribe their way back into power and once there, loot to replenish their wealth.
The people of Zimbabwe are desperate to see an end to the country’s economic mess and desperate people do desperate things. Still, it would be a great tragedy if they allow themselves to be conned into believe that the likes of Kasukuwere will ever get the nation out of the political and economic mess Zanu PF has landed them!
Controversial Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity Broadcasting Services, Energy Mutodi has warned that striking doctors risk being blacklisted.
ReplyDeleteMutodi also warned that once they have been blacklisted they will not be employed anywhere in the world.
This typical of this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime. The regime is not paying the workers a living wage and yet expect the workers to continue working regardless.
By rigging last year's elections, Zanu PF lost political legitimacy. By behaving like a village bully the regime has lost moral legitimacy too.