Heal Zimbabwe condemns the arrest of journalist, Hopewell Chin'ono on 20
July 2020.According to Beatrice Mtetwa,the lawyer representing Chin'ono, the
journalist was abducted from his home after eight state security agents broke
the glass front door to gain access into his house. The state agents did not
produce any warrant of arrest and refused to produce any identification
documents. Before his arrest, Chin'ono recorded a moment of his arrest and from
the video, some men could be heard harassing the journalist and directing him
to put down his phone.
Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, a pariah state, governed by corrupt,
incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the
July 2018 elections; the regime did not even have the decency to produce something
as basic a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake.
The EU, the Americans and anyone with even half a brain dismissed the
elections as a farce.
Zimbabwe’s opposition candidates participated in the elections with zeal.
Of course, they knew that Zanu PF was rigging the elections but they also knew
that the party was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait and these they
could not resist.
It is the cold indifference of the ordinary Zimbabweans out there to
Zanu PF’s blatant rigging and the opposition’s selling-out that has forced many
people to despair on hopes of the country ever digging itself out of this hell.
Of course, these Zimbabweans should know what constitutes free and fair
elections; they just do not want to know because they do not want to have to
deal with the consequences of an illegitimate Zanu PF. Of course, they know MDC
leaders have sold-out on implementing the reforms but once again they can’t be
bothered to hold the sell-outs to account.
The arrest of Hopewell Chinono is just another reminder to the people of
Zimbabwe that the country is a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by the
whims of ruthless dictators.
Chinono is the one who exposed the US$ 60 million Drax scandal which led
to the arrest and firing of the then Minister of Health, Obadiah Moyo. There
were a lot many others who were involved in the scandal including Mnangagwa’s
own son. Of course, the regime was displeased with Chinono and his arrest is
the start of payback.
The Drax scandal has echoes of the Willowvale Motor scandal. Godfrey
Nyarota, then Chronicle Editor, documented how the ruling elite had used their
political clout to buy new vehicles at low controlled prices only to resale at
the very high black-market rate. The regime was forced to cancel the looting scheme.
Nyarota was promoted upstairs to supervise the messengers and cleaners.
Of course, there is corruption, mismanagement, vote rigging and brutal
oppression; Zimbabwe is a pariah state and corruption, etc. are the fuel and
lubricant without which the dictatorship will grind to a halt. Zanu PF cannot
afford the luxury of anything threatening to the regime’s struggle hold on
power especially now when its iron grip is shaken by the economic meltdown. Being
forced to make a hasty retreat on corruption and lose one of its key patronage
levers of power could well make the beginning of the end of the dictatorship.
Zanu PF cannot afford to let nosy journalist like Hopewell Chinono go
unpunished. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the country’s prisons
will fill with nosy journalist and other human rights activists whilst those
guilty of corruption and thuggery are allowed to go free and continue with the
corruption and thuggery.
The worst thing that can ever happen to Zimbabwe right now is for this
vote rigging Zanu PF regime to remain in office until 2023 elections. If that
was to happen, and there is nothing to suggest change, then Zanu PF will see to
it that no meaningful reforms are implemented clearing the way for the party to
rig the elections. The corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition candidates
will trip over each other fighting for the bait gravy train seats on offer.
Nations get the government they deserve; we in Zimbabwe certain deserve
this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the entourage of
equally corrupt and useless opposition parties, all 130 of them at the last
count. We have yet to define what constitute free and fair elections, in this
day and age. Well, until we do, we certainly deserve Zanu PF, the economic
meltdown and worse!
“We in Zimbabwe, we have a very fragile economy and a very fragile health system. Therefore, our capacity to fight the pandemic is inhibited by the fact that we have a fragile economy and a less developed health care service,” said Mnangagwa.
ReplyDeleteAdmitting that the country's economy and health services were fragile is one thing but accepting that Zanu PF was responsible for it is another. Indeed, Mnangagwa is only making the admission as a way of encouraging more donor assistance with no intention ever of addressing the underlying causes of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown - corruption and bad governance.
@ Roving Eagle
ReplyDelete"The guy was thrust into power just because it was his turn after having spent years being fiercely loyal to his failed predecessor but with no clue whatsoever how he was going to turn the economy around. Therein lies the tragedy of liberation struggle movements. They think and act like once in power things will somehow workout. Most good inventors know to step down from the day to day running of the businesses they founded because they know being a founder and running the business are different skill sets. Fighting a war and running an economy are even wider apart skill sets."
The liberation war was about getting Mugabe and his cronies into power so they can satisfy their insatiable greed for power, influence and wealth. The freedoms and rights of the masses were important only in helping to motivate the povo to fight against the white regime but quickly discarded as soon as Mugabe and company had their hands firmly of the levers of power. The masses have been slow in accepting this political reality but only because they are naive and gullible, more prone to accepting what they want even when they are presented with a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have proven to be no better. They were elected to bring about democratic change, as their party name implies, but as soon as they got into power they too forgot about the people and dived into the feeding trough head first and Gideon Gono's report confirmed. Sadly, our naive and gullible electorate continue to support MDC blindly; they have yet to wake up to the reality the party is now running with the hare and hunting with the hounds!
Ngarivhume is just another Zimbabwe opposition dunderhead blundering from pillar to post, so desperate for political limelight and a chance to join the gravy train he will do anything. He, like all the other opposition village idiots participated in the July 2018 elections although it was clear Zanu PF was rigging the elections. By participating they gave the flawed process credibility and the Zanu PF regime legitimacy; a political reality that a dunderhead like Ngarivhume has completely failed to comprehend!
ReplyDeleteZanu PF is in power today thanks to the village idiots who participated in the flawed July 2018 elections, so flawed there was no verified voters' roll, no free media, Zanu PF was free to rob the nation blind to bankroll its election, etc., etc.
We must now deal with the challenge of how to get Zanu PF to step down and appoint a interim administration to implement the democratic reforms BEFORE the 2023 elections or the nation will be stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship. The attention seeking antics of Ngarivhume and his fellow opposition dunderheads are but a distraction the nation could do without!
Armed members of the Zimabbwe Republic Police stormed the residence of arrested investigative journalist Hopewell Chin'ono.
ReplyDeleteAccording to reports the police are searching for gadgets which they allege he used to post tweets inciting public violence.
Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic for sure! The Police had all the evidence of the Drax US$60 million scandal and yet they agonised for weeks over the arrest of former Health Minister Obediah Moyo. And yet the same Police is descending on Hopewell Chin’ono with a sledge hammer and his crime is that he dared to uncover the details of the Drax scandal! Zimbabwe is a mad house!
@ Peter Muzira
ReplyDeleteDemocratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box. The electoral road to breakdown is dangerously deceptive. With a classic coup d'état, as in Pinochet's Chile, the death of a democracy is immediate and evident to all. The presidential palace burns. The president is killed, imprisoned or shipped off into exile. The constitution is suspended or scrapped.
On the electoral road, none of these things happen. There are no tanks in the streets. Constitutions and other nominally democratic institutions remain in place. People still vote. Elected autocrats maintain a veneer of democracy while eviscerating its substance.
Many government efforts to subvert democracy are "legal", in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy – making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption or cleaning up the electoral process.
This mindset of absolutism is the premise of killing real democracy [by most liberation movements] giving birth to the deadly deceptive democracy. They believe that waging an armed liberation struggle gives them [the autocrats] the absolute knowledge and absolute right to rule. Therefore, anyone or any organization that has and preaches a different ideology is a traitor and hence they are enemies of the state. That's the beginning of stifling democracy.
ZANU PF, now under the leadership of the despot Emmerson "The Crocodile" Mnangagwa, has strengthened and continues the idea of absolutism which started during the rule of the late president Robert Mugabe. To achieve this, deceptive democracy was established…elections are held, opposition political parties are being formed, people are "allowed" to criticize the government, etc. However, this is to cover their political dirt that drives their clinging to power.
Joseph Stalin of USSR once said, "It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes." ZANU PF has stolen elections many a time through rigging. This is because all the institutions in Zimbabwe that have to do with elections have been and are headed by ZANU PF military autocrats and hence the total control and manipulation of the electoral process to their advantage.
This was a very informative piece, thank you.
One of Mugabe and Zanu PF master stroke moves that has resurrected Zanu PF, especially after the party was forced SADC to accept the humiliation of the 2008 GNU, was convincing Tsvangirai and company that they were part of the ruling elite and therefore did not need to implement any democratic reforms.
To help Tsvangirai and company that they are indeed full member of the ruling elite, they received the ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowance and above all they too became the beneficiaries of the many grand looting schemes such as the RBZ Farm Mechanisation Programme, as detailed by Gideon Gono the former RBZ governor.
The ruling elite received hundreds of thousands of cash, money that should be used for public health, education, etc., under the guess of a loan although no one was expected to repay anything if they behaved. Tsvangirai, Khupe, Welshman Ncube and many other MDC leaders benefited from the loans. They have never repaid a single dollar because they behaved admirably throughout the GNU – they never implemented even one democratic reform. Not even one reform in five years!
Ever since the blatant sell-out during the GNU, MDC have played their part in helping Zanu PF get away with blatantly rigging the elections by participating and thus give the flawed process some modicum of credibility. Zanu PF has allowed MDC to win a few gravy train seats, the bait the opposition have found irresistible!
There is no doubt that Mnangagwa and company are very angry with Hopewell Chin'ono for uncovering corruption in the middle of the regime. Of course, Mnangagwa knows that corruption is rampant but, more significantly, he knows that it is the glue that is holding Zanu PF together and keeping him in power. Just like Mugabe before him Mnangagwa knows that he cannot afford the luxury of uprooting corruption because before sunset he will be out of office and wilting too!
ReplyDeleteYes, Chinono’s revelations left him with no choice but to act and arrest Obediah Moyo – very delicate operation given the corruption extends into his own family. No wonder the regime has been preoccupied with how to punish Chin’ono for his daring revelations. This is simple the kind of thing the regime is scared stiff of since it knows corruption is rampant and, as you rightly said is the party’s life blood!
Zanu PF is in panic mode, the regime knows the country's economic meltdown has cause heart breaking human suffering and the nation is restless for change. There is no doubt that change is coming the real tragedy here is that by denying the nation all the options of peaceful change Zanu PF has left us with no other option other than violent change. Mnangagwa and his cronies must know that they will be held to account for all the death and destruction the violence will bring!
ReplyDeleteArmed Police invade Ngarivhume's house!
ReplyDeleteZanu PF is in panic mode: Ngarivhume is just another opposition dunderhead desperate for some limelight and, hopefully, a seat on the gravy-train. By participating in the July 2018 elections Ngarivhume and other opposition candidates gave the flawed process credibility and the result legitimacy. Mnangagwa should be thankful to those blundering dunderhead but is instead kicking them in the teeth - just to give them political credibility!
At Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, the situation is equally dire with reports that critical sections, including the X-ray department, were unsupervised, while theatres were said to be closed.
ReplyDelete"The hospital is full of Nyaradzo (funeral parlour) ambulances with dead bodies to be certified. This is not working," a doctor from the hospital, who refused to be named, said.
The real surprise here is that there are people out there who genuinely expect the situation to change without the political situation changing. After 40 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship they still expect the regime to the long promised economic prosperity, well paid health care workers, well-resourced hospitals and everyone living happily ever after. Sad really, that some people refuse to open their eyes and minds and, even after 40 years, still expect a corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime to deliver peace and economic prosperity.
In a statement, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrests.
ReplyDelete"The Zimbabwe Republic Police confirms that Jacob Ngarivhume of Transform Ziimbabwe and Hopewell Chin'ono have been arrested in connection with allegations of contravening section 187(1)(a) as read with section 37(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23, ‘incitement to participate in public violence'," the statement read.
Zanu PF has slammed the door shut to peace democratic change by failing to hold free, fair and credible elections and now the regime is fearful of violent uprising which is the only way left to effect change. What Mnangagwa and his cronies must know is that they will be held accountable for all the death and destruction that comes with violent changes!