MDC Alliance in yet another political U-turn! A
few weeks ago the party resolved that its MPs and Senators would boycott
parliamentary activities to protest the recall of some of their members by Dr
Thokozani Khupe faction. Fearful of being recalled too, the seating members
ignore the party’s instruction and the resolution was quickly reversed. Now the
party is making yet another U-turn and, as usual, offering a feeble excuse for
it.
The MDC A party spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere has
just announce the party’s MPs and Senators, who until now have disrupted parliamentary
proceeding attended by Mnangagwa, will not disrupt this Thursday’s Minister of
Finance supplementary budget presentation even if Mnangagwa attended.
“The MDC Alliance notes that Mr Emmerson
Mnangagwa may be present at this event. We maintain that Mr
Mnangagwa is illegitimate and the total collapse of the economy under his
imposed tenure is evidence of this. However, given the grave humanitarian
stalemate Zimbabwe finds itself in, it would be imprudent for us to let his
presence quash the voice of the people at this critical time. The centre is
failing to hold,” said Mahere.
Yes, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are
illegitimate and the thin veneer of legitimacy the regime is hiding under is
derived from none other than Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A colleagues. By
participating in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections MDC A gave the
process some modicum of credibility and, by extension, modicum of legitimacy.
What is so annoying here is that MDC leaders knew this was a Zanu PF trap, as
David Coltart admitted in his book.
In his Book, The Struggle Continues
50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, former MDC – Ncube
Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, gave details of how Zanu PF
was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear
the elections would not be free, fair and credible.
“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 elections,” wrote Senator Coltart.
“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.”
A number of MDC factions and other opposition
parties did unite to form the MDC Alliance before the 2018 elections but
boycotting those elections was never ever raised even though it was evident
Zanu PF was going to rig the elections. They were all as determined to take
part in the elections as in 2013 for the exact same reason – greed.
Indeed, MDC leaders were so determined to
contest the July 2018 regardless of the glaring irregularities and illegalities,
they even claimed to have ways to stop the rigging. “MDC has stringent measures
to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” claimed Chamisa.
Having agreed to take part in the July 2018 elections
knowing that ZEC had failed to produce something a basic as a verified voters’
roll, Chamisa could not challenge Mnangagwa’s victory of the same election
flaws and illegalities. The Constitutional Court would have asked him why he
had ignored these things and participated?
Chamisa’s Constitutional Court challenge of the
July 2018 presidential result was subtle but foolish. He challenged ZEC to
produce the V11 forms, the summary of the vote count at each Polling Station,
to prove were they had obtained the Mnangagwa votes. ZEC had 10 987 V11 forms
and 10% or so were missing hence the reason ZEC had three different figures of
Mnangagwa’s votes. Chamisa’s challenge was foolish in that he asked the Court
to declare him the winner although he too did not have all the V11 forms to
prove where his 2.6 million votes came from.
Chamisa and Mnangagwa are two peas out of the
same pod; they do not care that the election process in not free, fair and
credible as long as they are declared the winner! This is why both Zanu PF and
MDC are now not only irrelevant in the nation’s quest to implement the reforms
and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance; they want to retain
the status quo and thus a serious hindrance to progress.
Yes, the Zanu PF regime’s, and not just
Mnangagwa’s, illegitimacy is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s total economic
collapse. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote
rigging and murderous tyrants. 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant
corruption and rank lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins and it is
near impossible to conduct any lawful business activity in such a country.
What Zimbabwe needs is to bite the bullet
implement the democratic reforms, the pre-requisites for free, fair and
credible elections, and thus end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state.
MDC leaders are the ones who have allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and maintain
the pariah state by failing to implement the reforms and by giving the regime
legitimacy by participating in flawed elections.
“It would be imprudent for us to let Mnangagwa’s
presence quash the voice of the people at this critical time!” By blatantly
rigging the elections Zanu PF quashed the people’s voices and it is nonsense to
suggest the mouse’s voice of the few opposition sell-outs can ever be the
people’s voice.
During his recent e-rally, Nelson Chamisa
promised “to stop the 2023 elections until reforms are implemented”. No doubt,
MDC will participate in those elections and give “the prudent need to give
people a voice” as the excuse for that U-turn! MDC leaders have perpetuated the
Zanu PF dictatorship out of greed and only use concern for the people’s
suffering as a thin veneer to hide their greed.
ZIMBABWE continued on its march back to hyperinflation in June, adding to the nation's economic woes.
ReplyDeleteWhile annual inflation slowed for the first time in five months to 737.3% from 785.6% in May, the monthly inflation rate more than doubled to 31.7%, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency said Tuesday on Twitter.
International Monetary Fund studies define hyperinflation as beginning when monthly price increases exceed 50%.
I do not know how relevant all this inflation figures are considering unemployment in Zimbabwe has been 90% plus for donkey years and so most of the people are subsistent vendors or peasants who are not included in the IMF calculation. A more meaningful figure is how many Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty.
According to WB 2019 report, 34% of our people were living in extreme poverty, they could not afford one decent meal a day much less the other necessities such as education for the children, health care, etc. So whilst we wait for the 50% hyperinflation, the number of people living in abject poverty have gone up!
@ Eddie Cross
ReplyDelete“Today, only about 10% of all adult Zimbabweans have a formal job; we have no safety net here, no means of meeting essential basic needs except a bit of food aid and we do not see the usual signs of abject poverty and hunger that you see in many other countries and places, how does 90% of our adult population survive? Again, no rational economic reasons are given.”
Please sit down and speak to one of the vendors outside your gate and ask him/her how much money they make a day, how much they spend on transport and on buying whatever they are selling. Most of these vendors will be lucky to earn US$2 a day. And from this meagre income they have to pay for their food, shelter, school fees for children, etc.
The rural people are often even more worse off than their urban cousins!
According to a 2019 WB report. 34% of the people in Zimbabwe were living in extreme poverty, i.e. they could not afford one decent meal a day much less other necessities as education for the children and health care. I have relatives in the low density suburbs and in the rural areas and I know how desperately poor they are.
I notice you have said nothing about why MDC failed to implement even one democratic reforms during the GNU. This was the number one task MDC leaders were supposed to carry out! If you had implemented the reforms Zanu PF would not be in power today. MDC leaders sold-out on implementing the reforms and the nation will never ever forgive you lot for the betrayal!
"They are aimed at unfairly using the security establishment to drum up support for their planned illegal anti-Government protests. It should be noted that, as a professional, loyal and patriotic Defence Force, the ZDF does not involve itself in anti-people activities that are designed to achieve anti-Government political and economic objectives by some malcontents within our citizenry."
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who is behind the organisation of the protests, told journalists that, "Bad leaders need to take their feet off our neck, we can't breathe. We demand all public leaders to immediately step down."
History will remember that it was none other than Jacob Ngarivhume and his fellow corrupt and incompetent opposition candidates who gave the Zanu PF regime the modicum of legitimacy it is now flaunting by participating in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections. The economic situation in Zimbabwe has left 34% of the people living in abject poverty, this is socially, morally and politically unsustainable.
There is a lot of bottled up anger and one can see why these street protests can easily escalate into an orgy of violence, death and destruction. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will be held to account for having slammed the door shut to peaceful change by repeatedly rigging the elections. Ngarivhume and his fellow opposition sell-outs must account for their role in giving Zanu PF the legitimacy the regime did not deserve!
In its latest report, the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) said Zanu-PF will win the polls due to its dominance of the country's political landscape.
ReplyDeleteThe EIU also forecast an advancement in Zimbabwe's economic performance anchored on improvements in power generation, agriculture and mining, among other factors.
"The next presidential and legislative elections are due in 2023," said the EIU.
"We expect President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF to win, given their stranglehold on the political scene."
The EIU further noted: "From 2022 onwards, the economic crisis will slowly abate, driven by improvements in energy production and in agriculture and mining output. This will improve Zimbabwe's foreign reserves position, supporting the currency and moderating inflation."
Even if the forecasted economic improvements from 2022 onward were not going to materialised, Zanu PF will still romp to victory in the 2023 elections as long as no meaningful reforms have been implemented. If Zanu PF is still in power, be it own its own or in some fudged GNU, the party will see to it that no meaningful reforms are implemented.
With no reforms Zanu PF’s election victory is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow!
@ Vince
ReplyDeleteWell you will be very pleased to hear that Zanu PF will romp to victory in the 2023 elections, according to some British Think Tank, Economic Intelligence Unit. With no democratic reforms in place of course Zanu PF’s victory was as certain as the sun rising tomorrow!
I told you that we should focus on getting Zanu PF to step down so we can finally implement the democratic reforms but, of course, you would not listen. Chandagwinyira!
Well you must now be pleased that no reforms will be implemented and Zanu PF will romp with another electoral victory. Are you going to Shake-Shake House to sell your 10 part Radical Economic Structural Transformation-REST thesis to Mnangagwa then. And you think Mnangagwa will stop the wholesale looting in Marange and Chiadzwa because he has seen REST! You really are naïve!
The MDC Alliance Secretary General, Charlton Hwende has insisted that their 2019 resolution on the legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa remains unchanged despite their decision to attend the mid-term budget review session today.
ReplyDeleteThe MDC Alliance since the 2018 elections have always walked on Mnangagwa each time he attends parliament, a move that once forced Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda to withhold their allowances at some point.
The boycott was just an empty gimmick to plicate the naïve and gullible MDC supporters. The one thing that boosted Mnangagwa’s legitimacy was the opposition’s participation in the July 2018 elections regardless of all the glaring irregularities and illegalities. Such was the determination of the opposition to take part in the elections no matter what that they even claimed to have “devised strategies of Winning In Rigged Elections, WIRE for short”, claimed Obert Gutu MDC Chamisa party spokesperson at the time.
It is now clear we are stuck with Zanu PF that will never implement any meaningful reforms because the party knows that the opposition will always participate in the elections regardless of the flaws and illegalities.
So, if we are ever to see the reforms finally implemented, we must other stop the opposition participating (an impossible task given the opposition’s greed have made them impervious to reason). Or else explain to their naïve and gullible followers that the opposition parties are no longer acting in the common interest. There is a mountain of evidence to show the opposition are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs but it all means nothing to someone who struggles to string two ideas together much less the complexities of life!
Chamisa, Hwende, Biti, Coltart, etc., etc. will be participating in the 2023 elections with not even one reform in place. Of that we can be 100% certain!
MDC A's attendance or otherwise is just symbolic it will make no difference to how the country is governed given Zanu PF's 2/3 majority! Zanu PF would have never got the 2/3 majority if the elections were free, fair and credible. Mnangagwa was able to blatantly rig the elections for two reasons:
ReplyDelete1) MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
2) MDC leaders have continued participating in elections against all advice not to out of greed. They knew Zanu PF would give away a few gravy train seats as bait and they have found the bait irresistible! Leaders like Biti, Coltart, Mahere, Chamisa, Khupe, etc. will participate in the 2023 elections even if not even one token reform is implemented. Short of shooting them dead, they will participate!
Tajamuka leader Promise Mkwananzi has urged Zimbabweans to come out in full force on the 31st of July to support the nationwide protests against corruption.
ReplyDeleteAddressing his supporters Mkwananzi said President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his lieutenants were pillaging the country’s resources while the masses were suffering.
“Tajamuka! Zvachose!” (We are enlightened! Finally!) If you were enlightened then you should know that the people of Zimbabwe did not elect Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies into power. The thugs have been rigging elections ever since the country’s independence in 1980. You should therefore confront Zanu PF as an illegitimate regime.
Stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and corruption and all the other problems will go!
The other reason why Zanu PF has rigged elections and got away with it is that MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms even when the party had the golden opportunity to do so. Zanu PF is enjoying some measure of legitimacy right now because MDC and the other corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition leaders gave the regime legitimacy by participating in flawed and illegal elections.
You can claim to be enlightened but the reality is you have no clue what you want. Even if the 31 July street protests were to force Zanu PF out of office; you want to replace the regime with MDC? What is the difference from removing Mugabe and replacing him with Mnangagwa!
“Tajamuka! Zvachose!” (We are enlightened! Finally!) Yeah right!
ORGANISERS of the July 31 protests said nothing, including plans to lock down Harare and Bulawayo and threats to unleash security personnel will stop the "people's action".
ReplyDeleteTransform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who is behind the organisation of the protests, told journalists yesterday that they will stop at nothing in their plan to end corruption.
His calls came amid arrests and threats of a clampdown on opposition activists who have endorsed the protests.
The trouble with village idiots like Jacob Ngarivhume and his fellow opposition candidates is that they still do not understand that it was their participation in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections that gave Zanu PF legitimacy. And now, in their unfathomed stupidity the idiots are asking the people to engage in a violent confrontation to remove the regime!
Come 2023 elections Jacob Ngarivhume will participate in those elections even if Zanu PF has not implemented even one reforms and we will be back to the mess we are in right now – stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship being kept in power by the equally corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition leaders.
We want to break this vicious cycle of corrupt Zanu PF being kept in office by the pretentious opposition. Yes let us confront Zanu PF corruption and illegitimacy but let us also confront opposition corruption and greed keeping Zanu PF in power!
Ngarivhume must explain why he participated in the flawed and illegitimate July 2018 elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy! If he cannot explain it then he should not be leading the protest because he is a sell-out!
@ Dng Ndlovu
Delete“Our country is hijacked, looted and ruined by thugs while folding our arms hoping a miracle to help us. For how long people been dying, pushed to beggars?”
I totally agree with you, our country has been “hijacked, looted and ruined by thugs” but we must also admit that in the last 20 years we have had many golden opportunities to boot the Zanu PF thugs out of office. We have failed to do so because MDC and the rest of the opposition politicians have sold-out. It is a fact that by participating in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections the opposition gave Zanu PF legitimacy.
To get out of this political and economic mess we need to implement the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections but Zanu PF will never ever let that happen as long as the party knows that the country’s corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition will participate in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal.
Ngarivhume, Chamisa and all the other opposition candidates who participated in the 2018 elections sold-out and are responsible for landing us in this mess. These village idiots are part of the problem and therefore can never be part of the solution too!
“The baton sticks with the police are not for display. Police are there to maintain law and order and if there is anyone who wants to cause problems, they (the police) have a right to use force.”
ReplyDeleteHe added, “We will not stand and watch. On July 31, go to work if you are in business. As the people of Zimbabwe, together with our police officers, we will not tolerate violence.
“We recognise President Mnangagwa as our president and he is working night and day to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. But you find others wanting to remove him from power.”
This is going to be a very messy business! The irony is it was none other than the opposition who gave Mnangagwa legitimacy by participating in a flawed and illegal election process. And now the same village idiots want to remove him from office by taking the tyrant head-on in his own game of violence. "Zanu PF has seven degrees in violence!" as Mugabe once boasted!
The opposition leaders are involved in the street brawls because they are incapable of thinking of anything more strategic. The country would have been saved all this foolishness in MDC had implemented the democratic reforms or refused to participate in flawed and illegal elections!
The recall of 21 or so MDC MPs and Senators has forced them all to tone down their political rhetoric. After all they participated in the flawed and illegal elections out of greed and not principles and now that they secured a gravy train seat it will be nonsense to lose it all under a false banner of standing for principles!
ReplyDeleteHaving participated in the 2013 and 2018 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections it will be strange for anyone of the opposition candidates to try to boycott the 2023 elections. They would have a tough time explaining why the 2023 and not the other elections?
The most rational reason why some would boycott is lack of money. The opposition have lost a lot of political credibility and with it financial backing.
My money is on Chamisa, Biti, Coltart, Mahere, Khupe, and all the usual opposition opportunists will participate in the 2023 elections no matter what! Greed will get the better of them as usual!