“The decision by the Zimbabwean government to deny President Cyril Ramphosa's envoys an opportunity to meet with opposition leaders was not only disrespectful to the office of the African Union Chairperson, which Ramaphosa currently holds, but seems to confirm that the voices of the opposition and civil society are being muzzled in Zimbabwe,” reported Bulawayo 24.
“The Democratic Alliance (DA) now calls on President Ramaphosa, in his capacity as AU Chairperson, to show leadership and go to Harare and meet with all the relevant stakeholders and get a balanced picture of the political crisis unfolding in the country.”
The decision by Mnangagwa to send back SA President Cyril Ramaphosa’s envoys without allowing them to meet any of the other stakeholders they had expressly said they wanted to meet was rude and disrespectful of the envoys and the man who had send them.
However contrary Mnangagwa’s point of view happened to be as to what is wrong in Zimbabwe, he still had to respect President Ramaphosa’s right to differ. By telling the envoys to their faces that they would not be allowed to meet anyone, after they had come this far, Mnangagwa knew he was throwing his weight around and doing so to humiliate Ramaphosa. That was uncouth and totally uncalled for!
Still, we cannot but ask why President Cyril Ramaphosa send these envoys when there is no hope of SADC getting solving the Zimbabwe crisis.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years now. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country in economic ruins and 34% of the population, according to a 2019 WB report, are living in extreme poverty.
After a particularly obnoxious 2008 election process in which Zanu PF blatantly cheated and used wanton violence to stay in power, SADC leaders refused to recognise Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs as the constitutionally elected government. The regional body pressure Mugabe to accept the need to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF cheating and using violence.
It is a great tragedy that not even one reform was implement during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The MDC led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai, who were entrusted to implement the reforms, turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent, they failed to implement even one reform in five years.
What is clear is that Mnangagwa will never implement any reforms, even if SADC could get him to agree to another power sharing arrangement with MDC. Since Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, the only option left is for the party to step down. SADC has already endorse Zanu PF as the legitimate government and so, unlike in 2008, the regional body has no leverage to force Zanu PF to step down.
So if President Cyril Ramaphosa should listen to the DA and “go to Harare and meet with all the relevant stakeholders”! Then he must be prepared to go the full hog and force Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to step down because President Ramaphosa will look really foolish if at the end of the new GNU no reforms are implemented and Zanu PF rigs the elections!
Former SA President Thabo Mbeki and SADC made many blunders in the setting up and running of Zimbabwe’s 2008 to 2013 GNU. The question we must ask is was there ever any realistic chance of the raft of democratic reforms being implemented and thus end the curse of rigged elections? The answer to that has to be yes.
ReplyDeleteThe 2008 to 2013 failed to implement even one reform because Morgan Tsvangirai and the whole MDC leadership contingent turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.
Notable personage like USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, had said in a leaked cable back to Washington that Tsvangirai “was a flawed and indecisive character, who will be an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got into power”. But not even Ambassador Dell would have ever guessed that Tsvangirai was so corrupt and incompetent he would fail to implement even one reform in five years. Much less that the over 150 MDC cabinet members, MPs and Senators, who all had the chance to propose the reforms but failed to do so, were corrupt and incompetent.
The best result President Ramaphosa can achieve here is to arm twist Mnangagwa to go into a new GNU with MDC. It really is down right stupid for anyone to expect the same MDC leaders who have already proven beyond doubt to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent to implement the reforms.
As a Zimbabwean I will denounce the formation of another Zanu PF and MDC GNU, “an elite political settlement where the usual political suspects will get into an incestuous political relationship”, as Job Sikhala, an MDC leaders who was not in the 2008 GNU, aptly called it. What Zimbabwe needs is a complete overhaul of its rotten political system and to suggest the ruling elite will reform themselves out of office is nuts!
@ Blasher Shereni
ReplyDelete“Please stop hallucinating. Zimbabwe is not a province of South Africa.”
You have a very selective memory. SA and SADC where involved in setting up and supervising the 2008 to 2013 GNU; that did not make Zimbabwe a province of SA then so why should it do so now?
Zimbabwe is in a crisis and we need a transitional arrangement whilst we sort out the problem of rigged elections. What we do want is “an elite political settlement where the usual political suspects will get into an incestuous political relationship”, as Job Sikhala aptly put it.
Mnangagwa got us into this mess by rigging the July 2018 elections. If he thinks he can hang on to power by claiming that Zimbabwe is not a province of SA then he has something else coming. He cannot hold the whole nation to ransom!
Totally agree with you Terence. The one thing SA and SADC must not do is force a foolish solution on Zimbabwe.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe's ruling elite are not going to reform themselves out of office, we know that now and so we don't need another Zanu PF and MDC GNU!
MDC-Alliance through JOB SIKALA has declared the period 10-15 August 2020, a week of action. They are once again planning to engage in popcorn demonstrations in the hope that the public will join in and make the country ungovernable. The Opposition political parties and Pressure. Groups are riding on the unstable socio- economic situation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, The ZRP has issued a statement dismissing the social media post by Professor Jonathan Moyo in in an earlier tweet in connection with alleged defying of instructions at ZRP Plumtree by police officers. According to the police, the post is false and should be dismissed with contempt which it deserves.
The real annoying thing here is that MDC now want to lead the street protest to force Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF dictatorship to resign and yet the same MDC idiots are the ones who given the regime legitimacy. First, MDC leaders failed to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Second MDC leaders have participated in all the elections since 2013 knowing Zanu was rigging the elections and that doing so would give credibility to the process and therefore legitimacy to the results.
MDC leaders are taking advantage of the suffering masses to force Mnangagwa to agree to share power with them. MDC is not interested in getting the reforms necessary to end the curse of rigged elections implemented; they would and should have got the reforms implemented during the 2008 GNU, they do not care about reforms. What MDC leaders are interested in now is consolidating their own political position as members of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite!
Zimbabwe is like Lebanon, to get out of the economic mess and political paralysis the country needs to completely overhaul its rotten political system. Zanu PF and MDC are the country’s ruling elite who got us into this mess and it is naive to expect them to reform themselves out of office!
They may .not re-interpret their mission or purpose to do any other business without undermining their status as special envoys. There is thus no sensible reason to have expected the Mufamadi-led Special Envoys to have branched out of their strict mandate defined by the two interacting Heads of State and Govt by meeting other groups inside the country.
ReplyDeleteSimply, that is not the role of Presidential Special Envoys. Second confusion is to imagine this is a sub-regional intervention. It is not. It is merely a BILATERAL interaction between two close Heads of State representing two close sister republics.
If Sadc has to get involved - and there has to be very good grounds for that outside adulterated images circulated by the hashtag nonsense - that will happen through appropriate mechanism, namely Sadc Organ.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are entitled to dismiss everything happening in the country as “hashtag nonsense”. It is clear that President Ramaphosa did not see it that way and hence the reason he send the special envoys. It is clear the special envoys had wanted to meet the opposition and other stakeholders, just to hear their side of the story. No doubt Zanu PF would have had no objections to the special envoys meeting anyone else if the party had not been so dismissive of the recent events.
“Hashtag nonsense!” What a callous rebuke to say to a “sister Head of State of a close sister republic!”
@ Dr Mavaza
ReplyDelete“So an occasion when a person or group goes somewhere to collect information about something and report back to the one who has sent them. They always go with specific mandate and must never go beyond the mandate.
“A fact-finding mission or visit is one whose purpose is to get information about a particular situation, especially for an official group. For each commission or fact-finding mission, information on the mandating authority, the mandate, the members, and links to the related resolutions and reports, where available, are provided.”
DR Mavaza you are a shameless Zanu PF apologist who has belittled and even denied the suffering and deaths of ordinary Zimbabweans in your effort to promote the regime at all cost.
George Charamba, Mnangagwa’s spokesperson and the man who can rightly claim to be Zanu PF’s chief of propaganda - and not you Mavaza a pretender - has just revealed that Mnangagwa met with President Ramaphosa’s special envoys and told them the stories of human rights violation they had come to investigate were all “hashtag nonsense!” There is no doubt that Mnangagwa was ever going to allow the envoys to investigate that and so they were escorted out of the country without being allowed to speak to anyone else.
Last December former President Thabo Mbeki met with Mnangagwa and he was allowed to meet the opposition and other interested parties. Of course, sending the special envoys without allowing them to meet anyone was a rebuke. And the world does not need a lecture from an upstart propagandist like you, Mavaza, to tell us it was the envoys who snubbed the opposition!
@ D Ndlovu
ReplyDeleteThere are some things we should agree to differ but not over the rights of other to free elections, right to life, etc. Idiots like Mavaza are the ones holding the nation back by refusing to acknowledge such simple facts as Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections and is now using brute force to remain in power!
@ Kundayi Masekesa
ReplyDelete“Envoys are people who are send somewhere to collect information about something and report back to the one who has sent them. They always go with specific mandate and must never go beyond the mandate.The envoys from SA had no mandate to meet political nobodies like Chamisa thats why they only met President Mnangagwa.”
There is no denying that you believe Chamisa was a “nobody” just as Mnangagwa had told the special envoys the reports of human rights violations were “hashtag nonsense”, according to George Charamba. The point is President Ramaphosa did not agree with you or Mnangagwa. Of course, it was very rude, to say the least, of Mnangagwa to stop the special envoys from meeting Chamisa and anybody else they wished.
It is heartbreaking that we are today 40 years after independence still fighting for the same basic things we were fighting for before 1980 - freedom and human rights, one man one vote, the right to life, etc. No wonder the white supremacists dismissed blacks as incapable of self-governing; Zimbabwe has become the stereotype failed state!
ReplyDeleteIt is a great pity that we had a few opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and we wasted them. Next time, next chance we get to end the dictatorship we must make sure we do not waste it!
Mnangagwa is promising a better standard of living for the soldiers and yet the standard of living for all Zimbabweans has declined steadily for the last 40 years. Mnangagwa is paying lip-service to reviving Zimbabwe's economy just as he is paying lip-service to ending corruption, mismanagement and, most important of all, restoring the freedoms, rights and dignity of all Zimbabweans.
ReplyDelete@ Knowledge Slinjeni
ReplyDelete“Wilbert Mukori Can I suggest you guys prepare to gather evidence come 2023 otherwise no one will listen to you. I bet you wont be ready by then because you spend all your energy crying over spilt milk. 2018 is done and dusted, All countries including the favourite west recognise ED Mnangagwa as president so its a futile exercise this rigging story. Look ahead and prepare accordingly musazotinyaudza again please.”
What evidence should we gather?
Which western nations have recognised ED as president? The EU, Americans, Canadians, etc., etc. all dismissed the July 2018 plebiscite as a farce. You cannot have free, fair and credible elections when you cannot produce even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.
The west and everyone else had no choice but to accept Mnangagwa and Zanu PF as the de facto government especially after the opposition gave the flawed and illegal process credibility by participating. Of course, Chamisa and his MDC friends knew that by participating they would give the rigged elections credibility and Zanu PF legitimacy. They did it out of greed.
If we are to end the curse of rigged elections then we must stop these MDC and opposition sell-outs who pay lip-service to implementing comprehensive reforms but when push comes to shove participate in flawed and illegal elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.
MDC leaders have been running with the povo hare and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds ever since the 2008 GNU. The ordinary Zimbabweans have yet to understand this basic historic fact and reality and hence the reason why MDC continues to enjoy political support. We need to educate the people and make them realise that MDC leaders are taking them for a rid otherwise we will never break this vicious cycle of rigged elections, bad governance, buckets of opposition crocodile tears of rigged elections and the groaning of the masses suffering the consequence of bad governance.
If the people refuse to open their eyes and minds then the next elections will be rigged, guaranteed. You can take a cow to the river but you cannot force her to drink!
Of course, I will be very disappointed that Zimbabwe has once again failed to deliver something as simple as free, fair and credible elections. I take great pride in seeing the wood from the trees and having the courage to actively seek meaningful change. The is no shame in taking the cow to the river! None!
ReplyDelete@ Knowledge Slinjeni
“Is it in SA's best interest to have a thriving Zimbabwe? Have you looked at the economics figures , never mind the talk you hear about Zim burdening SA, thats all politics. Follow the money and get the answers.”
There is no doubt that SA has benefited economically from the cheap labour, ready market, etc. resulting from the economic collapse in Zimbabwe. The is no denying that the presence of so many Zimbabweans in SA has had many negatives economic, social and political implications too. The total economic and political collapse of Zimbabwe has only meant the negatives have bloomed. How can that be said to be in SA’s best interests!
Sikhala has declared the period 10-15 August 2020, a week of action. He is planning to engage in popcorn demonstrations in the hope that the public will join in and make the country ungovernable.
ReplyDeleteThe popcorn demos have yet to pop!
Even if these demos were popping everywhere in Zimbabwe, one has to ask what exactly is MDC A hoping to accomplish? It must be remember here that it was Job Sikhala, his MDC A colleagues and the whole Zimbabwe opposition camp who have given this vote rigging Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy by participating in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections.
What is more, MDC leaders knew that by participating in the flawed and illegal elections they were giving Zanu PF legitimacy, as David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General, admitted in his book. They participated out of greed; they were after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away as bait.
Job Sikhala, Tendai Biti and David Coltart, two are MPs and the later a senator, won some of the bait seats.
The people of Zimbabwe must wake-up to the reality that MDC leaders are no longer interested in implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections, they abandoned that fight during the 2008 when they failed to implement even one reform. MDC leaders helping Zanu PF keep the dictatorship by providing the fig-leaf cover of multi-party democracy in return for a share of the spoils of power.
Sikhala’s popcorn demos are to pressure Zanu PF to give Chamisa and a few MDC A leaders cabinet positions. The claim that the demos are to end corruption, the economic meltdown, etc. is all nonsense to lure the public to join the demos!
Official sources said the Monday meeting was tense, with Mnangagwa strongly rebuking the envoys of breaching diplomatic protocol by arranging meetings with opposition parties and civil society organisations without his consent.
ReplyDeleteThe envoys expressed concern over reports of human rights abuses and the crackdown on the opposition, journalists and human rights activists. They told Mnangagwa that Ramaphosa, who is also the AU chair, was keen to know what was happening and what role he can play to diffuse tension.
Mnangagwa and Moyo, however, reportedly expressed concern over the three's conduct.
Officials said Mnangagwa and his delegation kept telling the envoys that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe, arguing that the impression that there was a crisis was coming from the countries' Western enemies working with local partners, averments he already had made in his Heroes and Defence Forces Day speeches.
"The common sentiment within was that there is unjustified pressure on government ahead of the Sadc heads of state meeting which is taking place next week, probably so that the country can be put on the security agenda. That is the main reason why they could not be allowed to get a second opinion," a source said.
"The envoys tried to argue that they had a mandate to meet the other stakeholders but were told in no uncertain terms that that would not happen and from there was nothing they could do but pack their bags and return to their country.”
There is no denying that Mnangagwa humiliated the envoys and, by extension, the man who send them - SA’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. This was utterly uncalled for especially when one considers how much Ramaphosa had been bending over backwards to please Mnangagwa. President Ramaphosa did not need to join in the nauseating business of Zimbabwe blaming sanctions for all the country’s ill; he did!
As a Zimbabwean what I want to see is a rational resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis. We want a new GNU but not one in which Zanu PF and MDC will play a part; the two parties messed up and it is insane to them as part of the solution when they are clearly the problem!