“No amount of judicial gymnastics can change fact that no judge can order a person into political affection,” was Professor Welshman Ncube, MDC A VP.
The Court ruled that Chamisa’s ascendance was not legal. Professor Ncube and many of the MDC A leaders are pointedly avoiding addressing this point because they all know that Chamisa did was messy, to say the least!
Yes, Zanu PF is thrilled to bits with the judgement more so because Mnangagwa has Khupe and her followers in his pocket through POLAD. Even if there was no POLAD, the judgement has divided MDC and weakened it into utterly uselessness.
As since its formation in 1999 MDC has broken up and divided every few years. But this division may well be the coup de grace. And for it to happen at the time when the country is going through its greatest trial of all times because of the corona virus. Given the ruling party, Zanu PF, is a corrupt and incompetent and certain to blunder from pillar to post, the nation was hoping even a mediocre MDC will help stop Zanu PF go off the rail completely. What a time for MDC to choose to commit hara-kiri!
My guess is Komichi, Khupe, Mwonzora and others will call the extra-ordinary congress a.s.a.p. Chamisa and those around him will not attend as they will still be torn between recognising the court ruling and defying it. So, Khupe and company will emerge as the new leaders.
Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, David Coltart and others who joined MDC-T to form MDC A cannot attend the congress since they were not members of MDC-T in February 2014.
The reconstituted MDC will inherit all the MDC A MPs, Senators and Councillors and offer them the option to retain their post if they swear allegiance to the new leadership. Many will accept but others like MP Biti and Senator Coltart will this too bitter a pill to swallow. It will be the second time Biti is booted out of parliament because the party whip was withdrawn.
If the truth be told MDC leaders themselves were gloriously happy to see Zanu PF implode in 2014 with the booting out of Mai Mujuru and her followers. As soon as she was out, two new Zanu PF factions emerge, one led by Mnangagwa, Lactose, and another G40 led by Grace Mugabe with her husband as the faction’s Godfather. The November 2017 military coup settled Mnangagwa and his lot as the winners.
A month before the November 2017 coup Grace Mugabe complained that her husband was so fearful of a coup he “slept with one eye open!” Well it is now Mnangagwa’s turn to sleep with one eye open. Many people believe another coup is on the cards.
Mnangagwa’s failure to revive the Zimbabwe economy has made the ordinary Zimbabweans themselves restless, they are desperate for real change as contrast to the recycling of the same corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless leaders by Zanu PF and MDC.
Both Zanu PF and MDC are imploding and for exactly the same reason – the lack of democratic competition within the party has allowed corrupt and incompetent leaders to overstay and thuggery as the only way to gain power. Both political leaders love power and the material wealth it brings. They do not give a damn about freedom, justice and the suffering masses.
Professor Welshman Ncube and his fellow MDC friends failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU because they had secured seats on the gravy train and Mugabe offered them the trappings of high office. With their snouts in the feeding trough they forgot about the democratic changes. Where was his “political affection” then?
With corona virus, the country is facing its greatest challenge ever and it is frightening to think Zanu PF will be in government through these difficult months. The regime dragged us into this economic and political mess and one can only imagine the new depths of depravity the regime will drag us into now! Cannot think of a more corrupt and incompetent government than this Zanu PF!
ReplyDeleteSupporters of Chamisa accuse the ruling ZANU-PF party of using the courts to emasculate the MDC and to force him to accept Mnangagwa as legitimately elected.
ReplyDeleteTuesday’s ruling follows a similar judgment by a lower court last year when Chamisa was acting head of the party. Chamisa appealed against that ruling. He would have to raise constitutional issues with the Constitutional Court to appeal against this judgment
No one can ever say that Chamisa's take over after Tsvangirai was a democratic process and so MDC have only themselves to blame for this mess!
Lockdown on its own will accomplish nothing. Government should have carries out testing of people to establish who has corona virus and tracing to identify the epicenters and only then impose a lockdown. It is possible that some infected people have traveled to their rural homes just before the lockdown and thus are spreading the virus even more widely!
ReplyDelete“It’s better to get coronavirus while looking for money than to sit at home and die from hunger,” Kampira said, to loud approval from other vendors.
ReplyDeleteThe grime tragedy that millions of people should be forced into making such a grime choice! 40 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has left Zimbabwe in economic ruins. 34% of Zimbabweans are living in extreme poverty compared to single digit figures in all the other countries in the region, according to WB report. If Zimbabweans had their thinking caps on then they will be demanding a change of government going into the nightmare of the corona virus, it is madness to allow Zanu PF to remain in office!
The scene is played out all over greater Harare.
ReplyDeleteCity authorities have struggled to constantly supply water to the capital city of 4.5 million residents for many years.
Across town in Mbare, the largest high density township, the queue is even longer.
Unsafe drinking water
There are many people milling around.
Housewife Epiphania Moyo had been in the queue for a good part of the morning and is well aware of the need for better hygiene to halt the spread of the virus.
“Of course, we have heard about coronavirus, and we try as much as we can to wash our hands, but sometimes we would rather put it to other domestic uses.”
Hand sanitisers are a luxury she cannot afford.
“That’s for the rich, not for us who live in the ghetto.”
Coronavirus has brought Harare’s perennial water woes under the spotlight.
Some parts of the city have gone for almost two decades without running water.
The well-to-do have drilled boreholes in their properties while the enterprising make money vending and delivering water in mobile tankers to those who can afford it.
For the majority, public boreholes are the only option.
A 2019 recent study by South Africa-based Nanotech Water Solutions found that Harare’s water contains toxins that can cause diseases of the liver and affect the central nervous system.
While the underground water from boreholes is widely believed to be safe to drink, a 2018 cholera outbreak which killed nearly 50, was traced to a borehole in a Kuwadzana township.
An underground sewer pipe had contaminated the water.
Around 4 000 people died and at least 100 000 people fell ill in another cholera outbreak in 2008.
The water distribution pipes date back to more than five 50 years ago, and half of the purified water is estimated to be lost through pipes bursting.
The government has been silent on how it will provide water to those whose taps have been dry for years or those whose supply is sporadic.
There is so much a competent government can do to reduce the spread of corona virus such as making sure there is clean running water if there was political will. It is all futile to be imposing a lockdown and yet people are then forced to queue for water, they are not able to wash their hands regularly because there is no running water, etc.
Corona virus is going to present its own challenges but the breath-taking incompetence of our political leaders is only things a hell lot worse!
“In terms of Section 92 of the Constitution, the presidential candidate chooses running mates who upon election become the national Vice Presidents,” the LSZ said in a recent statement.
ReplyDelete“The rationale for these provisions was to introduce non-disruptive succession planning whilst ensuring that in the event of the Vice President taking over office of President, he would be having the people’s mandate.
“This removes the transparency and democratic process sought to be achieved in relation to the assumption of these important offices. In addition, the Vice President’s tenure will be at the pleasure of the President. An amendment is expected to cure a problem or mischief. This is not apparent in the present case,” the lawyers said.
However, defending the Bill, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, a top Mnangagwa ally, has said there was no need of creating two centres of power in government.
“You do not want to create two centres of power; that is something we need to avoid at all costs,” said Ziyambi.
“Naturally, the head of the executive is the President; what then does it mean when we have three people who are elected by the masses into the executive, who will be more powerful? It is another issue that needs debate, and I think we need to take it out.”
The President appoints all his cabinet members, senior members of the various security services and a hell lot other key players without scrutiny from parliament or senate as in other countries. Having an VP elected by the people will mean at least one senior leader is not totally beholden to the President for his position.
One of the many weakness of our constitution is there are no checks and balances on the presidential powers, he has absolute power. Zimbabwe does not have strong and independent democratic institutions much less individuals with such strong character and foresight to uphold such values. A constitution with a head of state and head of government would have been better for Zimbabwe and not have the two rolled into one, executive president. An elected VP will dilute some of the absolute power!
@ New York Times
ReplyDeleteLeaders around the world have passed emergency decrees and legislation expanding their reach during the pandemic. Will they ever relinquish them?
Last Friday, the Zimbabwe government published new laws governing the flow of information around coronavirus, with a 20-year jail term for violators in addition to the earlier rules imposing a 21-day lockdown in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, an operation which will be enforced by the police and military.
In Hungary, the prime minister can now rule by decree. In Britain, ministers have what a critic called "eye-watering" power to detain people and close borders.
Israel's prime minister has shut down courts and begun an intrusive surveillance of citizens. Chile has sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters. Bolivia has postponed elections.
As the coronavirus pandemic brings the world to a juddering halt and anxious citizens demand action, leaders across the globe are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance.
Some of the autocratic measure are clearly meant to consolidate the regime’s iron grip on power by deliberately denying the people information on the spread of the virus. This Zanu PF regime is corrupt and incompetent and knows that corona virus is spreading and the nation will not be amused to see how badly the regime has let the nation down. It is super sensitive about its image and hence the reason it is passing the draconian SI 83 of 2020 to muzzle all who dare expose its failure.
Whereas countries like South Korea was testing 10 000 a day at the onset of the virus’ outbreak compared to Zimbabwe that has tested only 16 as of 20 March 20202. Zimbabwe is insisting there are only 7 covid-19 cases in the country but the number is a lot worse but without testing – no one will ever know the true number.
The tragedy is under reporting the number of those suffering from corona virus means only a fraction of the infected are being dealt with whilst the rest are free to spread the virus.
When Chamisa seized the presidency following Tsvangirai's death many people, including known MDC members and none members who had no ax to grind, expressed their disappointment at the cloak and dagger nature of the process, Nelson Chamisa was quizzed on that point by Stephen Sackar on BBC Hardtalk and made a complete arse of himself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvVIVxOAOE.
ReplyDeleteOnly those incapable of separating the individuals from the case, who cannot be objective and are prone to be distracted by the side and immaterial issues at the cost of the substantive core issue are surprised that the judge ruled Chamisa's seizure of power was illegal. Chamisa hang himself the day he decided to seize power.
Many people said at the time that the messy seizure of power was going to divide MDC and make it even weaker than it was already. This has come to pass and the timing could not have been worse. Zimbabwe is facing its greatest challenge ever in this corona virus outbreak and to have the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF in power and no opposition is just a nightmare in a nightmare.
"What FOOL wrote this piece? Throughout the judgment, the party whose leadership is contested is the MDC (T). Nelson Chamisa is the president of the MDC (A). The judgment has NOTHING to do with his party. Furthermore, this judgment has been overtaken by events. Both the MDC (T) and the MDC (A) have since held their congresses. MDC (T) chose Khupe as their president while MDC (A) chose Chamisa. Those are the FACTS."
ReplyDeleteMoyondizvo, please read the judgement again. The seizure of the leadership of the party by Chamisa was illegal and all he has done with the party after that was null and void.
Think of a thief stealing your car and have it spray painted another colour and even added some features so that it looks different. The engine number, chess number, etc. are still the same and the Courts are satisfied this is indeed the same stolen car. It is futile for the thief to urge that the car before us is a different car especially when he cannot produce the stolen car.
@ Chamimba
ReplyDeleteAnd yet I would challenge you to name one country that would have given a different judgement based on the facts of the case alone!
As the Movement for Democratic Change South Africa External Assembly we wish to categorically state that we are not moved by the Supreme Court judgement of today 31 March 2020 where they imposed Thokozani Khupe on us.
ReplyDeleteYou were not moved when Chamisa imposed himself on the party following Tsvangirai’s death. If you were men and women of honour, you should have stood up then. You did not and lost credibility and now you are standing up as discredited individuals defending the indefensible!
The account alleges that the ruling Zanu PF uses what is called a “bait and bleed” strategy in which they induce rival factions to engage in a protracted war of attrition against each other “so that they bleed each other white”.
ReplyDeleteThe warnings from the account come at a time when the opposition MDC seems deeply fractured and in disarray following a ruling by the Supreme Court which said that Nelson Chamisa is not the legitimate leader of the party.
Of course, Zanu PF would do everything it can to weaken its political opponents but to suggest that it is the one behind this case is down right stupid. Chamisa shot himself in the foot; he is capable of doing such a foolish thing and did. We should snap out of this Zanu PF mentality of attributing all the nation’s problems to outsiders as if we are totally helpless and can do nothing cause the problems much less solve them.
When other world leaders are demonstrating genuine governance against a common enemy COVID-19, Zanu PF is deploying resources to fight against its own people. Once again ED and his leadership have shown how insensitive they are. When action should be taken towards providing safety, field hospitals, testing, PPE’s and food, action is being taken against those very people leaders are supposed to protect.
ReplyDeleteMDC – NORTH AMERICA PROVINCE is not surprised though by the judgement passed by the ZANU-PF captured Supreme court giving Khupe of MDC-T leadership of MDC. NAP members, unapologetically and unequivocally, state that the judgement will not sway them from MDC objectives and the obligations to the ZANU-PF oppressed citizens of Zimbabwe. MDC-NAP does not abide by any unenforceable ruling that is not legally binding.
Chief Svosve you are a very confused individual and so what you say does not make any sense.
Corona virus is a serious problem and Zimbabwe’s handling of this virus is woefully inadequate. One has to take issue with your criticism of Zanu PF when MDC leaders are the ones who have cheering and applauding the regime’s inapt response.
Chamisa is on record expressing his approval of the Wilkins Hospital’s “preparedness” to take corona virus patients, for example. A few days after his twitter, the Hospital did admit its first patient, Zororo Makamba, only to find there Hospital had no medicine, no ventilator, no equipped staff, no running water and for a toilet, a bucket. You said nothing then and say nothing now about MDC’s complacency in the matter.
Indeed, it seems you have only woken up to the unfolding corona virus disaster now after the Supreme Court judgement declaring Chamisa’s 2018 seizure of the MDC presidency illegal. The corona virus and MDC presidency dispute are two unrelated issues and to suggest otherwise is foolish.
On the Supreme Court judgement, many people including MDC members and none members pointed out that Chamisa’s seizure of the presidency was messy and the Court clearly agrees. Chamisa shot himself in the foot. Any suggestion that Zanu PF is tantamount to accepting that Chamisa is incapable of doing foolish things when that is indeed the one thing he is expert at!
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies want to be seen as powerful and decisive leaders. Yet when it comes to the economy and many other teething national problems they pretend they are as innocent and helpless as infants and instead blame “the British imperialists and their western allies.”
We should be mature enough to take responsibility of the mess Zimbabwe is in and stop this foolishness of Zanu PF blaming the West and MDC blaming Zanu PF for everything. Chamisa shot himself in the foot and in doing so has divided and weakened MDC, it was weak and feeble before and is worse now.
No one in his/her right mind can ever pretend that Chamisa's seizure of power in 2018 was an open, free, fair and democratic process. Chamisa shot himself in the foot.
ReplyDeleteIronically there was nothing legal about Mugabe’s booting out of Mai Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa and other out of Zanu PF in 2014. And then there Mnangagwa’s November 2017 military coup to boot out Mugabe. Mugabe told Didymus Mutasa “in whose courts will you tender the legal challenge!” Justice George Chiweshe ruled the November 2017 coup was “justified, legal and constitutional!”
Chamisa and his supporters can only claim foul play on the dodgy grounds that the Courts should have disregarded the law and common justice in his case as they did with Mugabe and Mnangagwa. No one fighting for the restoration of the rule of law can ever endorse such nonsense!
United Nations Zimbabwe has donated US$770 million UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Zimbabwe.
ReplyDeleteAccording to government sources the money seeks to support Zimbabwe deal with the drought situation, health, education as well as response to the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.
Past experience has shown that Zimbabwe has not always spend donations wisely, to put it diplomatically, and there is nothing to make one believe this donation will not suffer the same fate.
If there is one thing the country needed desperately in these times of the deadly corona virus it is a competent and accountable government. This Zanu PF regime is corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless!
THE MDC Alliance’s Bulawayo structures have scorned party leader Nelson Chamisa’s ouster in a watershed Supreme Court ruling Tuesday and further expressed unwavering support for the under-fire opposition politician.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, the Supreme Court confirmed an earlier High Court ruling Chamisa’s rise to the helm of the country’s main opposition violated the MDC’s constitution.
How ironic that these members scorn the Court’s ruling today but failed to scorn Chamisa’s illegal seizure of power in 2018!
Funeral parlours will now remove bodies from homes under guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.
ReplyDeleteIn this regard, all bodies are being treated as Covid-19 contaminated. Nyaradzo Group is already implementing the Government directive, which compels deceased people to be buried within 24 hours.
Zimbabwe must step up on testing, without testing we are just shooting in the dark! As of 20 March, Zimbabwe had tested a total of 16 people that is simple inadequate considering other nations like South Korea were testing 10 000 a day.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) has expressed concern over the number of suspected Covi-19 cases that have been tested as of March 30.
ReplyDeleteIn a statement the Commission says the number may be ‘too small’ considering the number of people who arrived in the country since the Corona it’s outbreak.
“According to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Television (ZBC TV) updates only 194 suspected cases had been tested by 30 March 2020. This number is too small given that there are thousands of people who arrived into the country since the outbreak, some of them from high risk countries and regions. This means that our national statistics may not be very accurate,” read the statement
Decentralisation of the testing facilities, the Commission said was another area of concern as there was slow movement.
“There is concern on the slow pace of decentralisation of testing facilities to all provinces. By now provinces should have been sharing daily updates of their tested cases and the respective results so that the nation has a holistic picture of the situation.”
Measures taken to address the spread of corona virus must be based on known facts and not just shooting in the dark. The 21-day lockdown can end up having the opposite effect of spreading the virus if the corona virus epicentres were in urban centre, for example. Many people migrated to their rural homes just before the lockdown and so spread the virus to all the corners of the country.
The regime has passed a law, Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020 whose primary purpose is to muzzle the everyone with a threat of 20 years in prison for reporting corona virus details. Even if someone had all the symptoms of corona virus; no one, except the regime’s official, is allowed to say so. The regime wants the nation to die of ignorance than have to explain why it is not testing all these suspected cases!
MDC National Organizing Secretary Amos Chibaya has described the Supreme Court ruling on the dispute between MDC A leader Nelson Chamisa and Thokozani Khupe as ” a high sounding nothing.”
ReplyDeleteMDC leaders betrayed the nation big time when they failed to implement even one democratic reforms in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and the rest was history!
It is almost certain that Chamisa would have won the three-horse race to be the leader of MDC after Tsvangirai's death. But instead of conducting an open and democratic race he chose to cheat, just to be absolutely certain he come up on top. He divided the party then and this Court ruling declaring his seizure of power illegal has divided the party straight down the middle.
The tragedy is MDC is imploding at the very time when the nation is facing THE TOUGHEST challenge ever brought about by this corona virus outbreak. The nation is weak and feeble, 40 years of Zanu PF misrule have left the economic in ruins, the health services has all but collapsed and millions are living in abject poverty. It is tough enough to have this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime, the corona virus will make the situation even tougher and have not even a mediocre opposition at such a time will make the situation even tougher still!
The human suffering and deaths as the corona virus spread like a veldt fire in going to be shocking. The years of rebuilding the economy to follow will backbreaking!