Zimbabwe is facing very serious economic and political challenges. The country’s economy is in total meltdown sending unemployment to the nauseating heights of 90%, basic necessities such as supply of water and electricity are erratic, hospitals and schools have all but closed, etc. Poverty, hopelessness and despair rules the roost!
Zimbabwe’s economic decline has been a slow, “steady she goes”, 40 long years descend into the abyss.
It took nearly 20 years for Zimbabweans to finally wake up to the reality that Robert Mugabe’s mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as he never seemed to tire of telling nation; was turning into mass poverty. The people realised that to stop the economic rot, they will have to remove Zanu PF from office. And to do that, they needed to carry out a raft of democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
There are many reasons why the nation has failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, it has lasted 40 years and counting; one of the reasons is the failure to produce a rational narrative of how to end the dictatorship. Some people have said one thing, some said the other and yet others said something totally different. Indeed it is quite common to for some of the so called political analyst to contradict themselves in the same article and even same sentence!
“But Zimbabwe is the only country we can call ours in the whole world. We therefore need to come together regardless of our political divides. Zimbabwe now needs people to pull together,” wrote Dr Mavaza in his latest contribution in Bulawayo 24.
He is just repeating the same foolish argument Zanu PF has rammed down the nation’s throat all these last 40 years.
Mugabe waged the Gukurahundi massacre to force his chief political challenger, Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu to sign the 1987 Unity Accord to create the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship which has ruled the nation with an iron fist to this day. Zanu PF’s political dominance has been such that the party has been able to do as it pleased and so the talk of “coming together regardless of our political divides” is totally meaningless.
Zanu PF has a 2/3 majority in parliament and there is absolutely nothing that the party has failed to do because needed support from the opposition and it did not get it. Nothing.
Indeed the de facto one-party dictatorship was ruthlessly imposed on the nation; the principle goal of Gukurahundi massacre, that left over 20 000 died, was to either wipe out PF Zapu or force the party to join Zanu PF; and was ruthlessly maintained, over 10 000 more innocent civilians have been murdered since 1987. “To ensure national unity for peace and development!” the nation was told.
So the very fact that Zanu PF has managed to stay in power for 40 years since independence as the only dominant political power in the country is proof, if proof was ever required, that Zimbabwe is a one-party state with the monolithic Zanu PF dominating the political stage.
The fact that Zanu PF has failed to deliver the peace, justice, freedom, liberty, economic prosperity, etc. was not because the party faced political competition. Indeed Zanu PF was doomed to be fail delivering on any of the people’s aspiration precisely because to create the dictatorship Zanu PF denied the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Having usurped the people’s right to hold Mugabe and his cronies to account it was no surprise that corruption mismanagement and lawlessness because rampant in Zanu PF. The political rot had set in and it soon spread like cancer with the disastrous consequences we see today.
Of course, it is nonsense for anyone to be suggesting that the cure to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is political unity, the very thing that caused the economic and political chaos in the first place!
“There is a lot of sacred cows within those in power. The efforts of president Mnangagwa are being pulled down by corruption in the economic sector.” continued Dr Mavaza.
He did hit the right note in the first sentence; there are certainly many sacred cows in Zimbabwe politics. People like Mnangagwa has stayed in power for 40 years and counting, although they have nothing to show for any of those years in power. Nothing!
They are indeed the untouchable sacred cows of Zimbabwe politics but only because they are able to blatantly rig the elections.
Of course, one has to dismisses Dr Mavaza’s feeble excuse as to why Mnangagwa has failed to revive the country’s economy with the contempt it rightly deserves. Why has he allowed himself to be “pulled down by corruption” especially when he had promised “zero tolerance on corruption”!
Besides, the people of Zimbabwe never believed Mnangagwa was ever going to revive the country’s economic fortunes and hence the reason Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections as the only sure way the party would remain in power.
Of course, the nation has very good reason to be furious with Mnangagwa; he rigged the elections confident he would rig economic recovery and now finds he cannot deliver on the latter! What is he still doing in State House, he should fcuk off!
"The efforts of president Munangagwa are being pulled down by corruption in the economic sector."
ReplyDeleteOf the feeble excuses to give for Mnangagwa's failures that sure takes the biscuit! Mnangagwa is one of the Godfathers of corruption and so we are to believe he is being pulled down by the very thing he is profiteering from!!
Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections, denying the people their right to have a government of the choice. He was confident he was going to rig economic recovery and now he will not even admit he has failed and, worse still, we are stuck with the village idiot!
The 500-page ruling cited the widespread use of Tippex to alter figures, the use of duplicate result sheets and unsigned results forms, as cases that compromised the outcome of the elections.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa is a hypocrite pretending to up hold rule of law and yet rigged Zimbabwe's 2018 elections. The regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll!
Lawyers for Chakwera and Saulos Chilima, another losing candidate, said correction fluid – known by the brand name Tipp-Ex – had been used on some of the tallying forms sent in by polling stations.
ReplyDeleteThe changes were made after they had been signed by party agents, they said.
The lawyers also said that in some cases polling officials sent in the wrong copy of the results sheet to the main tallying centre.
They also found some mathematical errors in a small number of cases.
Though in each case there were not a huge number of errors, the lawyers said that the evidence pointed to a flawed process.
Since the disputed results were announced last May, there have been regular anti-government protests. Some of these have resulted in looting and the destruction of property, including government offices.
Two people – one police officer and one civilian – are known to have been killed during the demonstrations.
In Zimbabwe some of the V11 forms were never issued, others were issued a day after the counting was done and with no there to verify, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc.
What made the Zimbabwe elections even more obnoxious is that the opposition knew about all these irregularities and illegalities even before the elections.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Boasted Nelson Chamisa. In other words he was not bothered that Zanu PF was rigging the elections he was there to win rigged elections!
In practice MDC knew Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats, these were what the party was after and did not mind that the elections were rigged!
President Donald Trump has been cleared in his impeachment trial, ending a congressional bid to oust him from office that bitterly divided the US.
ReplyDeleteThe Senate, run by the president's fellow Republicans, voted to acquit him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Democrats charged Mr Trump in December with pressuring Ukraine to smear a potential White House rival.
In November, Mr Trump will be the first impeached president to go for election.
History will say that President Trump was guilty on both charges but only escaped censure because those sitting to judge him could not rise above party political loyalty to make a none partisan and impartial judgement.
Has this case strengthened or weakened America’s democracy? I would say it has strengthened it in that both President Trump, his fellow political leaders and all those to come after them know it will be very foolish for any future president to do what President Trump did and expect to get away with it. It would be equally foolish for future politicians to fail to rise above party politics in the national interest and expect to get away with it.
Time is a great thicker of things, I am convinced the American people cherish the constitutional provision to impeach a sitting president if he/she should abuse their power for selfish political gain, especially to undermine the people vote. The Trump case is a wake call for the people of America took!
This is a tragedy that could and should have been avoid if the nation had taken the challenge of having good and competent government that is accountable to the people seriously. Whilst the country's hospitals, schools, roads, etc. were left to rot due to decades of under funding the ruling elite have been building mansions, Mugabe and his Blue Roof, Chiwenga and his C&M, Chihuri and Kasukuwere have had to abandon their mansions to escape the factional heat even opposition leaders like the late Morgan Tsvangirai had his US$4 million Highlands mansion. Billions of dollars more were siphoned and spend on business empires and luxuries.
ReplyDeleteThe ruling elite did not care that education and health care services were collapsing because they have stop using local services a long time ago. Mugabe's daughter Bona did all her University studies in the Far East, she was there for seven years or so staying in a US$500 million mansion. Mugabe had all his health care checks in Singapore and in 2012 alone made 8 trips @ US$3 million! All paid by the taxpayer and money that should have been going to local education and health care institutions!
The people of Zimbabwe must now wake up to the reality that if they do not do something to restore good governance they will continue to pay dearly for it. So far they have paid in terms of lost opportunity and looted wealth; now the stakes are up, they are paying with lost future, human suffering and deaths!
@ Nobleman Runyanga
ReplyDelete“This is because the region has been baby-sitting Zimbabwe for over a decade now and the first post-Mugabe poll ushered in a golden opportunity for Zimbabweans and the region to move on, which no one would want to miss,” you said.
The first post -Mugabe poll did not usher anything new. The elections were blatantly rigged confirming the reality on the ground that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. The EU, Americans, the Commonwealth and everyone else with democratic credential worth a spit dismissed the July 2018 elections as a farce.
Chamisa has been blubbering on and on about wanting a dialogue with Mnangagwa “to resolve the legitimacy issue born out of the disputed elections”. What he has failed to explain is how their, meeting with or without, a mediator will ever resolve that.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate by virtue of the elections were flawed and illegal, ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. It is nonsensical that Chamisa should think he can declare the Zanu PF regime legitimate (in return for a few cabinet posts, naturally)!
It may well be that former President Thabo Mbeki and SADC are developing cold feet on being involved in the Zimbabwe crisis especially when the end solution is Zanu PF and MDC remaining in power. The two amigos were in the 2008 GNU and they failed to implement even one reforms and hence the reason the country is still in this mess. It is naive for anyone to think they will do any better this time round.
The only way forward is for both Zanu PF and MDC to step aside to allow an independent body to implement the reform!
We are back to the foolishness of the Mugabe years when some people would argue Mugabe was being undermined by corrupt ministers. A feeble excuse since it was none other than Mugabe himself who had appointed the ministers and, as was often the case, kept them in office for donkey years.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa has failed to end corruption because he is the Godfather of corruption.
People like Dr Mavaza will not accept a simple reality that Mnangagwa is incompetent and corrupt much less that he rigged the elections and therefore should fcuk off. When people do not accept simple facts and the truth, all discussions with them are abstract and devoid of meaning.
“Mnangagwa is pulled down by corruptions!” says Mavaza, as if corruption was the person and Mnangagwa was the inert objected being acted upon by the all powerful president of the banana republic! One minute Mnangagwa is the powerful and decisive figure the next he is as helpless as an ant being crashed underfoot!
Most of the refugees fled to Botswana following the often-violent 2008 presidential election in Zimbabwe.
ReplyDeleteSome opposition supporters were killed during that campaign, while others were beaten and left homeless.
Botswana granted asylum to the fleeing opposition supporters a decade ago. However, in 2017, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), in collaboration with the two governments, deemed the situation in Zimbabwe safe for the refugees' return.
Some of the 700 Zimbabwean refugees were repatriated in December, with at least 367 expected to return this month.
Some people were political refugees, other economics refugees but since getting a job in a country with 90% unemployment rate is hard, everyone is an economic refugee. The political situation may be safe but not for long as it is now being fuelled by the worsening economic situation.
The tragedy is that most of these refugees have done very little to help the country return to political stability. The problem of rigged elections and bad governance is a challenge for us all. Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections and many people said nothing, water off a duck’s back! Well, bad in Zimbabwe they will have plenty of time to think what to say or die in silence like sheep!
Members of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) will spend at least US$4.5 million this year visiting global capitals that include Washington, Brussels, London and Paris on what Government says is an international re-engagement drive meant to spruce up the country’s image in the face of the elusive global capital and investment.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a report by the Zimbabwe Independent, as part of its international travels, the POLAD re-engagement sub-committee will be in the US from March 24 to 26, where it will, among other tasks, lobby for the removal of sanctions.
The committee comprises Thokozani Khupe (chairperson), Willard Mugadza (deputy chairperson), Kwanele Hlabangana (rapporteur), Aplonia Munzverengwi (committee member) and Khaliphani Phugeni (spokesperson).
It will also visit South Africa, United Kingdom, and several other European countries.The team has so far met with the European Union (EU) ambassador Timo Olkkonen, British ambassador Melanie Robinson and American embassy officials.
According to a POLAD handbook, the removal of sanctions “will go a long way in diffusing perceptions about Zimbabwe and give a new impetus to both the economy and opportunities for its people”.
Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba said the cost associated with the POLAD re-engagement committee’s mission was nothing compared to the cost of Western sanctions.
“Now you say ZW$80 million. How much is that compared with the cost of sanctions? They are chasing a programme to have the sanctions removed. And remember they are going to be paying in United States dollars where they are going, they need to pay for accommodation, food, travel,” Charamba said.
Zanu PF has never had any problems recruiting individuals to do its bidding from murderous war veteran thugs like Jabulani Sibanda and Joseph Chinotimba, intellectuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube and Jonathan Moyo to spruce up the party’s image and craft its propaganda messages to sell-out opposition politicians falling over each other to contest in elections they know are being rigged just for the scraps Zanu PF is offering as bait.
Zimbabwe is facing very serious economic hardships; unemployment has remained 80% plus for two decades now, the country’s education and health care have all but collapsed, 34% of the population now live in abject poverty, etc.; and all because the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical dictatorship for 40 years. The people have failed to remove Zanu PF from office because the party rigs the the elections.
Zanu PF has been blaming the country’s economic problems on drought and sanctions but never mention the man-made causes of corruption and misrule. It is infuriating that the nation’s efforts to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance should be undermined by these sell-out POLAD members wittering about sanctions.
The USA, UK, EU and all the western nation and embassies visited by these POLAD members must shun them and, better still, slap them by adding them on the Zanu PF sanctions list! Just as they are being paid thirty pieces of silver we must also show them they will too pay a heavy price for selling out.
It is pleasing to hear that the Americans have been reminding SADC leaders that Zimbabwe’s economic problems are due to corruption and mismanagement and not sanction.
Zimbabwe has more than its fair share of sell-outs this is serious problem the nation must now address with a sense of purpose. Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged elections.
@ Moyo Ndizvo
ReplyDeleteWe must not forget that Khupe and the rest of the MDC leaders sold-out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU by failing to implement the democratic reforms. They all sold-out in participating in July 2018 elections with no reforms in place. If Chamisa gets the cabinet post he is after, he and the other MDC A leaders will be joining Khupe and others on these jaunts!
“Do not stay in power when you are not able to lead.
ReplyDelete“What are you doing?
“You say 2030 you will be there; doing what, when people are dying of hunger?” Thomas Mapfumo queried, referring Mnangagwa.
It is true that MDC should not have participated in the July 2018 without implementing the reforms. MDC should not participate in the 2023 elections without reforms. Amen!
People should demand a thorough investigation what happened to the US$ 15 billion. Why are Zimbabweans saying nothing!
Mnangagwa and his cronies stole from the people and are determined to stay in power to hide their crimes.
Female students at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo College in Gwanda have turned to gold panning and mopane worm harvesting in a bid to raise the soaring rental and college fees as the institution has threatened them with expulsion if they fail to raise the required amounts.
ReplyDeleteWe should all hang our heads in shame to read such stories.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because of 40 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. We could not remove the party from office because it rigged the elections.
In the long run the people get the government they deserve, we certainly deserve this corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF thugs complete with their equally corrupt and incompetent opposition acolytes.
Ask yourself what have you ever done to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, many of us have looked to others to do something and cannot even say what exactly we expected them to do!
Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections and many people out there have no clue what happened. MDC leaders have the opportunity to implement the reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections, again many have no clue what I am talking about. These things are not rocket science if you do know then you deserve to suffer.
It is a real tragedy that the children suffer for the sins of their fathers and mothers. It is a great pity that so many Zimbabweans out there are being denied a decent education, for example these young girls gold panning when they should studying and playing, for no fault of their own.