Zimbabwe is in this serious economic mess and political paralysis; having
Zanu PF on the one hand and an equally corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless
opposition on the other; because, for 40 years and counting, the country been
stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. All those who
thought the November 2017 military coup would bring about the economic and
political changes the nation has been dying for were to be disappointed.
Zanu PF has mastered the art of double Dutch, particularly in its use as
a smoke screen to hide the obvious in plain sight.
“We wish to make it abundantly clear that this is not a military
takeover,” announced the sweaty and overexcited Major General Sibusiso Busi
Moyo on ZBC TV in the small hours of the morning of 15 November 2017. He was
marking the climax of coup that toppled Robert Gabriel Mugabe from office after
37 years in power.
Of course, this was a military coup, all the key players in the drama; Commander
C Chiwenga, Air Marshall P Shiri, the sweaty S B Moyo, etc. were all to brass military
officers; this was a military coup in every respect except those staging it
insisted it was not a coup! All double Dutch!
What is curious about Zanu PF’s “hiding the obvious from plain sight” is
that the party clearly believes the have successfully hidden whatever it is and
thus proceed with their plan confident it will work.
Ever since his appointment as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Professor
Mthuli Ncube, has promised to get the IMF, WB, AfDB and all the other international
and national financial institutions back on board and bankrolling Zimbabwe’s
economic recovery. The IMF, WB, etc. cut-back their financial assistance to
Zimbabwe back in the late 1990s and Harare had to meet a number of conditions before
their resume funding. Ending Zimbabwe’s rampant corruption was one such IMF
condition.
Minister Ncube has not only done nothing to stop the wholesale looting costing
the nation “US$ 15 billion in lost diamond revenue”, according to the late
Robert Mugabe. Worse still, he has not even forced the looters to pay a single
dollar in tax on their loot! Yet he has been nagging the IMF and others to
restart the financial assistance, confident he had hoodwinked them all!
The IMF has not given Zimbabwe any financial assistance since the 1990s.
And, following IMF staff visit in February, the institute made it clear that
Zimbabwe had not meet any of the conditions and so will get no finance
assistance. None!
Now we hear Minister Mthuli Ncube wrote to the Paris Club begging for a
bailout!
“Paris Club members insist on the fact that the government of Zimbabwe’s
desire to normalise its relations with the international community can only
advance following the implementation of substantive and sustainable political
and economic reforms, in particular the respect for human rights, especially
the freedom of assembly and expression,” was Renaud-Basso, Paris Club president’s
reply to Minister Ncube.
“In addition, Paris Club be closely monitoring international financial
support to Zimbabwe for Covid-19 assistance programmes which should be
implemented transparently, and in full compliance with its goals and rules.
Once the country has met these criteria, it can request to enter formal
discussions with the Paris Club for debt restructuring.”
We, the people of Zimbabwe, must demand that Zanu PF steps down so the
country can appoint an interim administration that can be trusted to implement
the economic and political reforms. Zanu PF will never implement the reforms
and the party’s double Dutch is fooling no one and costing us, the people, the
economic meltdown. And now the price of bad governance has
increased considerably; the international community’s reluctance to give
Zimbabwe financial and material assistance in the fight against corona virus is
going to cost the nation dear in human suffering and lost lives!
@ Susan Mbombela
ReplyDelete“REFORMS -REFORMS -REFORMS.PLEASE CAN YOU SPECIFY THE REFORMS?”
Well I am glad you have asked because this is something close to my heart and I have worked on for many, many moons.
You would agree with me that for 40 years and counting, Zimbabwe has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. Indeed, the country is in this economic and political mess precisely because we have been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years. We could not remove it from office because it rigged elections denying us, the people, our right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Ever since the day Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies got into office in April 1980 they have worked tirelessly to undermine and corrupt the country’s state institutions such as the Police, judiciary, ZEC, Army, Parliament, etc., etc. Instead of these institutions carrying out their democratic duties of saving the people, safeguarding their freedoms and rights; they now helped Mugabe create and impose a de facto one-party dictatorship with the carte blanche powers to rig elections.
As long as we have a corrupt and compromise ZEC that cannot produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for example, we will never have free, fair and credible elections.
An independent Constitutional Court would have declared the July 2018 elections null and void because ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, a common sense and legal requirement. This is the same corrupt judiciary that had ruled the November 2017 military coup “legal, justified and constitutional!” If a military coup is constitutional; then, hell, rigging elections for the umpteenth time is certainly legal, justified and constitutional too!
If we are serious about ending the curse of rigged elections and bad governance then we must implement the democratic reforms to free Police, judiciary, etc. from the corrupting influence of Zanu PF.
There should be reforms empowering a parliamentary committee, for example, to ask Justice Chingumba and her ZEC members and Justice Luke Malaba and his ConCourt buffoons why they ignored the legal requirement to produce a verified voters’ roll. The committee will then demand their dismissal! At present only the State President has the power to hire and fired all the top brass in the Police, judiciary, ZEC, etc., etc.
I know what you are going to ask me next: how are you going to get such reforms implement because Zanu PF with its 2/3 majority in parliament will never implement them? True but this is why MDC should have implemented the reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Of course, MDC leaders sold-out big time!
We are where we are. The only way we are going to get the reforms implemented now is by demanding that Zanu PF steps down.
There are three pressure points to force Mnangagwa and his cronies to step down:
1) Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections the regime has no democratic mandate to govern, it is illegitimate. Zanu PF’s fake legitimacy is derived from MDC’s participation the flawed election process. We must demand a legitimate government and as for MDC, they have lost political credibility.
2) Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is set to get worse because as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there is nothing anyone can do to help. Nothing!
3) Mnangagwa has the mentality of Libya’s late dictator. Muammar Gaddafi, he will hang on to power to the bitter end. Zimbabwe could be the next Libya and time is running out for us to stop that happening!
@Susan Mbombela
DeleteWilbert Mukori why should you spend a lot of time WRITING NONSENSE. I WANT SIMPLE SPECIFICATIONS OF REFORMS WHICH THESE WESTERN IMPERIALISTS ARE DEMANDING
RIGING ELECTION, FALSE AND TRUE HISTORIAL ACCUSATIONS ARE NOT REFORMS...CZ I SEE ZIMBABWE IS UNDER SANCTIONS UNDER A PRETEXT OF UNSPECIFIED REFORMS IF NOT HYPOCRITIC.
Can you have free, fair and credible elections without something as basic as a verified voters' roll?
Surely we do not need anyone else to tell that we need a verified voters' roll for meaningful elections. The electoral laws say ZEC must produce a verified voters' roll at least one month before nomination day. That did not happen!
What did the sanctions have to do with ZEC's failure to produce a verified voters' roll or the ConCourt's ignoring there was no verified voters' roll?