"We have noted social media platforms to plan and organise violent protests and overthrow a constitutionally elected government," said Zanu PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa following the Zanu PF politburo meeting.
"Let me say to (MDC Alliance leader Nelson) Chamisa and those who are calling for demonstrations on July 31, what happened (protesting) on August 1, 2018 will not happen again, what happened on January 16, 2019 will not happen again.
"We want to send this warning loud and clear to Chamisa that whatever you're threatening on July 31, we say, come to the front and face the risk."
"Let me say to (MDC Alliance leader Nelson) Chamisa and those who are calling for demonstrations on July 31, what happened (protesting) on August 1, 2018 will not happen again, what happened on January 16, 2019 will not happen again.
"We want to send this warning loud and clear to Chamisa that whatever you're threatening on July 31, we say, come to the front and face the risk."
There are three points to be noted here:
1) Zanu PF can claim to be “the constitutionally elected government” from the roof top of every house and hut in the land that will not change the reality on the ground – the party blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a common sense and legal requirement. The July 2018 elections were no more legal than the November 2017 military coup that preceded it and that too was declared “legal, justified and constitutional.
2) MDC and the rest of the opposition participated in the 2018 elections regardless of all the warning not to and evidence the elections will be rigged because Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy-train seats. So, it was the enthusiastic participation of the opposition that gave the flawed elections the modicum of credibility and by extension the otherwise illegitimate Zanu PF regime the modicum of legitimacy.
After all if Zimbabweans, or be it the greed and corrupt opposition, have no objections to having elections without even a verified voters’ roll; throwing the door wide open to many voters being denied the vote, to multiple voting, etc.; there is little outsiders can do about it. The country is once again paying dearly for the folly of having a corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition.
When MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU the party lost all political credibility and we, the people of Zimbabwe, should have deserted the party in droves. We did not and now the party is the one giving legitimacy to the vote rigging and illegitimate Zanu PF!
3) 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have reduced Zimbabwe into a Banana Republic whose economy is in ruins and up to 34% of the people now live in abject poverty. The corona virus outbreak is dragging the nation into even greater economic despair and humanitarian crisis. The economic and humanitarian situation is socially and morally unsustainable. The country is crying for meaningful political and economic change and an end to all the madness that has brought up all this mess.
4) Change is nature and it is very naïve of this Zanu PF regime to think it can stop change. By blatantly rigging the elections Zanu PF delayed change but more significantly it has blocked peaceful change and left the country in this precarious situation where violence is the only way to bring about change. The need for change is now so urgent that no amount of violence by Zanu PF will stop change. Indeed, the brutality by the regime will only add to the bottled anger and frustration against the regime and thus justify the violence to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.
"We shall never quiver or capitulate in the face of these machinations. Zanu-PF is a revolutionary party, a party of liberation, a party with a rich ideology, a rich history and a vision for the future," said Mnangagwa.
34% of the people live is abject poverty, they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less the other basic necessities such as education for their children and health care. No matter how many more innocent protestors are gunned down by the regime, they will never accept that abject poverty was what they aspired for much less their vision of the future!
Change is coming, it is a great tragedy that Zanu PF has forced the nation into a corner where violence is the only way to remove the regime from office. Those advocating violence will be held to account for all the death and destruction violent change brings!
Those who will not live by the law will die by the law! Zanu PF's reign of terror is drawing to a close.
This is just a nightmare: Zanu PF imposed itself on the nation by rigging the elections, it has since failed to stop the economic meltdown and now is stopping the people demanding change under the pretext they are overthrowing the constitutionally elected government!
ReplyDeleteZIMBABWE Council of Churches (ZCC) secretary-general Kenneth Mtata has revealed that political parties invited to the church's mediated dialogue on Monday next week have submitted conditions for their participation.
ReplyDeleteMtata early this week said the churches wanted to bring together all political parties, including protagonists President Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zanu-PF) and MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa to dialogue as part of efforts to end the political and economic crisis in the country.
This is just flogging a dead horse! A Zanu PF led GNU will accomplish nothing of substance!
TN: Tell me, do you think brown envelope journalism is a big thing in Zimbabwe?
ReplyDeleteHC: It is a big problem. It cuts across the stables. It's not necessarily found in state media, it's also found in the private media.
You would find that the only papers that published the corruption exposure the past four weeks are only your newspapers.
I cannot imagine anything else rather than brown envelope journalism taking place.
TN: Do you think that there might be fear in certain quarters to publish corruption stories rather than brown envelope journalism?
HC: I think the fear is driven in certain instances by the editors and it filters down to journalists.
But the motivating factor for the editor to generate that fear is not necessarily fear itself, but it's some kind of capture that would have taken place between the political elites and the editors.
The journalists can only submit stories to the editors and the editor decides what they want to publish.
That was a huge opportunity to turn the fortunes of this country around, but it was lost because of greediness.
We are where we are today and the country is in a worse situation and worse than what Robert Mugabe left and this didn't have to be this way.
Comparing Mnangagwa to Mugabe is as futile as comparing a black mamba to a cobra, both are deadly snakes; just focus on how to get rid of the danger and not waste time! Chinono was one of the thousands of Zimbabweans who were naïve and gullible to think the November 2017 military coup would bring about meaningful change.
They wanted to give Mnangagwa “a chance”! He took it and used it to consolidate his struggle hold on power. They thought him better than Mugabe and no doubt they will now happily revert to a Mugabe look-alike now that the dictator is dead.
As long as we have such shallow minded people who cannot see the futility of comparing a black mamba to a cobra the nation will never get out of this mess! Nevers!
@Dng Ndlovu
Delete“@Mukori, when you become desperate, you stop using your head but your heart. The toxic rulership of Mugabe made people believe that anyone could do better than him. When a river sweeps you, a reed you find due to desperation, you can hold onto it hoping that it can help stop you from being swept away.
While it is true that Mugabe and ED are all the same, but one is less evil than the other. With no doubt in my mind NOW, the former was better.”
I understand that but after 37 years of Mnangagwa as a senior member of Mugabe’s successive governments, the man the dictator trusted with all his dirty work. To view Mnangagwa as anything other than a danger is nothing short of swimming from one crocodile straight for another in the hope the second is a vegetarian!
Right now the same naïve and gullible people are talking of MDC as the answer to the nation’s problems regardless of the fact that they too have sold-out big time. Those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat the same mistakes over ang over again!
@ Dng Ndlovu
Delete“Wilbert Mukori I get that, but in your view what do you think should be the way forward in respect of normalising the country?”
We need to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship which gives Zanu PF, who ever else who gets into power, the carte blanche dictatorial powers including power to rig the elections.
I admit that SADC leaders made many blunders following the 2008 rigged elections but they got two things right. The first was to refuse to accept Mugabe and Zanu PF’s claim as the legitimate government. This forced Mugabe to agree to the need for GNU.
The second thing was to get the parties to the GNU to agree to the need for implementing democratic reforms.
The fact that not even one reform saw the light of day was because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out. SADC leaders reminded MDC to implement the reforms but were ignored.
There are two things we have to do now to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible; the first is to implement the reforms. Zanu PF and MDC failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 GNU and since. Let us get some other people to do it.
The second thing is to accept the political reality that as long as Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power, be it on its own or in a new GNU, no reforms will be implemented and the party will go on to rig the next elections.
Zimbabwe is in serious economic and political trouble after 40 years of Zanu PF corrupt, tyrannical and murderous rule. The irony is the Zanu PF thugs have kept up their liberation heroes mantra with not sense of shame, completely oblivious of the economic mess and tragic humanitarian situation that has left 34% of our people in abject poverty.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@ Ken Mufuka
ReplyDeleteWhen Roman emperor Diocletian issued his list of maximum prices for goods and services, including haircuts and prostitution, the rhetorician Lactantitius of nicodemida (301 aD) had a field day. entire towns failed to produce goods they had formerly produced for export, those with fixed salaries, (especially soldiers) found that their money was increasingly worthless as artificial prices did not reflect actual costs.
Prostitutes and barbers particularly found the going insufferable as their efforts had been underpriced.
There is nothing new under the sun. Ncube should have educated his masters or resigned. Having failed to do either, he finds himself riding a tiger.
Underpriced or overpriced it is all one! After all one has only one head and therefore need only one haircut be it a half price and at double the price will not ask for half a head hair cut!
Professor Mthuli Ncube’s greatest sin is greed. He saw the chance to enhance his CV with the illustrious title “Finance Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe” and like a mouse hypnotised by the pea nut butter smell, he walked straight into the trap. Of course, Ncube knew Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and he knew that by accepting the appointment he would be endorsing the elections as free, fair and credible. Having accept the illegitimate regime as legitimate the rest was ease. He accepted he could revive the Zimbabwe economy and still allow the corrupt ruling elite to continue with the wholesale looting, etc.
Asking Mthuli Ncube to go will solve nothing since there are many, many other Zimbabwean professionals who would happily take his place and kiss Mnangagwa’s hand in gratitude. Tendai Biti is certainly one candidate who has been fishing for that job!
Zimbabwe has more than he fair share of sell-outs and unless we do something to show these people that they cannot have their glory at the nation’s price and get away with it we will never get out of the hell-hole we are stuck in.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has pampered soldiers and the police, giving them between $5 000 and $8 000 COVID-19 allowances which critics say are meant to appease them ahead of the planned July 31 protests by opposition and civic groups.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, teachers were awarded $1 200.
Mnangagwa last month awarded government workers a 50% salary hike and a nontaxable US$75 three months COVID-19 allowance to cushion them from the economic crisis that has eroded earnings and savings.
With inflation running at 786% and the prices of basic commodities rising daily, workers are demanding United States dollar salaries and rejected the government offer
When you are in a hole, stop digging. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies crossed the point of no return a long, long time ago; dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship is no longer a realistic option for them. They have enjoyed absolute power and all the wealth and good life it provided for the last 40 years and they have shed the blood of many innocent lives along the way; all these things make a clean start impossible!
You cannot hold on to your looted wealth in the middle of grinding poverty of those whose wealth you looted. The only person you can trust to keep the dirty past under wraps is yourself and no one else.
Zanu PF is not giving up power. The regime is doing everything it can to consolidate its struggle hold on power. It has given up reviving the economy, since the worsening economic meltdown is really the driving force for meaningful change, Zanu PF it digging itself into an even deeper hole.
LEADERS of Christian denominations under the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) have said they will today meet the country's main political leaders to enable them to find common ground in a move meant to forestall anti-government protests planned for July 31.
ReplyDeleteThe worsening economic situation in Zimbabwe which has forced 34% of the population into abject poverty is socially, morally and politically unsustainable. This is a man-made crisis and things would have never reached these nauseating heights if Zanu PF had not ruthlessly blocked all routes for peaceful democratic change by blatantly rigging the elections and using wanton violence to silence dissent. By blocking peaceful democratic change, the regime has left the nation with no other option but violent change.
Even now, the 59th minute of 11th hour, the nation can step back from the brink and seek a peaceful way out. The street protests will cause death and destruction and, worst of all, will not delivered the desired outcome of a democratic and stable Zimbabwe. But as long as Zanu PF refuses to step down then the street violence is unavoidable just as the economic meltdown itself is unsustainable.
It must be stated here and now that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will be held to account for having blocked all options to peaceful change. They will be held to account for all the death and destruction that violent protests will bring.
By rigging the elections and using violence to silence dissent Zanu PF has left the nation with no other way to achieve change other than the use of violence. Zanu PF has sown the wind and now the nation must reap the whirlwind. The nation will hold the Zanu PF thugs to account for all the death and destruction the violence will bring!
ReplyDeleteZanu PF can claim to be the democratically elected government but the political reality says otherwise. The party was reminded it must first implement the democratic reforms if the elections are going to be free, fair and credible. It failed to implement even one meaningful reform. Not one!
ReplyDeleteThe regime failed to produce something as basic and fundamental to free elections as a verified voters' roll.
The saving grace for Zanu PF is that the party knew it would count on the opposition to participate in the elections regardless how blatantly flawed and illegal the process got, as long as Zanu PF assures them of winning a few gravy train seats!
It is tragic that the same opposition sell-outs who gave Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in flawed and illegal elections are the ones sabre rattling for violent street protests! So the village idiots undermined the peaceful and democratic means to bring about change so they can promote the violent route set to bring death and destruction and, worst of all, with no guarantee of delivering the democratic changes the nation has been dying for.