"I wish to unequivocally state that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe as elections were held in July 2018 and a winner was declared in terms of the country's Constitution,” stated Emmerson Mnangagwa.
"All contestants were invited to join this dialogue in the national interest. The door is still open for those outside (POLAD). Let me say the challenges facing our country call for continued unity of purpose across the political divide.”
Zimbabwe’s 2018 election was a farce and Mnangagwa can claim it was otherwise all he wants that will not change the reality. Of course, it was a farce when there was no verified voters’ roll, 3 million Zimbabweans is the diaspora were denied a vote (compared to the 2.4 and 2.6 million votes both Mnangagwa and Chamisa respectively claim the garnered), millions of rural voters were reduced to nothing but medieval serfs beholden to Zanu PF chefs and their proxies, etc.
Chamisa and his various MDC faction member and the rest of the opposition candidates participated in the flawed and illegal elections out of greed as David Coltart readily admitted is his book.
In the 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.”
It is a crying shame that the MDC leaders and the rest of the opposition participants in the July 2018 knew their participation in the flawed and illegal elections would give the process some credibility and, by extension, give the vote rigging Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy.
Still all the individuals, nations, organisations who observed the Zimbabwe July 2018 elections and have any democratic credentials worth the spit have unanimously condemned the whole election process.
“The electoral commission (Zimbabwe Election Commission) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Election Mission final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Zimbabwe was judged to be a pariah state precisely because the July 2018 elections “failed to meet international standards”!
Zimbabwe’s economy is in total meltdown precisely because the international community have found it near impossible to do business in Zimbabwe, a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs!
The mistrust of the Zanu PF regime has reached rock bottom that IMF, WB, AfDB, Paris Club and many other international and national institutions have stopped giving Zimbabwe any financial or material assistance for fear the donation will be wasted through mismanagement and/or corruption.
“Ongoing mismanagement and corruption mean it is “out of the question” that the European Union will resume aid directly to the government of Zimbabwe anytime soon, according to the bloc’s ambassador to the country,” reported Spotlight Zimbabwe three days ago.
“The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has “indicated that they would be interested in reverting back to budget support,” EU Ambassador Timo Olkkonen told Devex in an interview last week. “I can’t prejudge, of course, what happens with the [EU’s upcoming development assistance] programming exercise — but I would say, from my personal perspective, I think it would be impossible.”
Zimbabwe has not been spared by the worldwide corona virus pandemic. The Zanu PF regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the virus has only made the situation worse. The regime ignored the WHO’s advice of testing aggressively, for example. Zimbabwe has done only 20% and many tests per capita as our neighbour, SA. Our per capita confirmed covid-19 cases is a fraction that of SA but only because we have not been testing. By failing to identify those with the virus and putting them into isolation, means many infected people have been left to spread the virus.
Zimbabwe’s economy was already in total meltdown before the corona virus outbreak, the pandemic has only made it even worse. In 2019, 34% of the population were living in abject poverty, according a WB report at the time. The figure living in abject poverty today will have gone up.
Of course, Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic crisis and, as long as the country remains a pariah state, there is no way out of this crisis. After 40 years of rigged elections the people of Zimbabwe must finally bite the proverbial bullet and deal with the curse of rigged elections and pariah state.
“Let me say the challenges facing our country call for continued unity of purpose across the political divide!” No challenges call for an honest admission that Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections condemning the nation to this pariah state status. Zanu PF has held the nation to ransom for 40 years, this must now stop!
Tyrants like Emmerson Mnangagwa and before him Robert Mugabe have no respect for the truth, reality, reason, empathy for others and all the other niceties of what makes us human beings human. To the tyrant truth, reality, etc. is what THEY say it is and if that has no bearing with what everyone else says or the facts on the ground then everyone else is wrong and the facts on the ground must be discarded.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa insists the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible because that is what HE said. He has never acknowledged or denied that ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, that millions were dined the vote, etc., etc. All these things are irrelevant as far as he is concerned, it is what HE says that matters and he has said the elections were free, fair and credible. Subject closed!
Mnangagwa says there is no economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe and it must be so because that is what HE says. If at all he acknowledges the economic crisis it is only in the context that his government is making progress in reviving the economy regardless of the all challenges, notably the illegal sanctions. He has had to descend on his critics and political opponents with crashing brutality to silence dissent but he says “to keep law and order”. And HIS view and HIS view alone is the only one that matters!
The worsening economic meltdown, collapse health and education services, the political repression, the rigged elections, etc. these are all the outward manifestation of the deep rooted problem of bad governance. We are in deep, deep trouble because for the last 40 years the country has been ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have rigged elections to stay in power.
Zimbabwe is not the first country in human history to be ruled by tyrants and the solution to our problem is written in blood and staring us in the face - Man must be ruled by law and not the capricious whims of a dictator! Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections that is a fact, the only fact that matters here!
The World Has Lost Patience With Zimbabwe’s ‘Crocodile’
ReplyDeleteThe international community was never fooled by Mnangagwa and his cronies. Never! Whilst the naive and gullible Zimbabwe public came out in support of the November military coup, for example, the international community kept a stone silence. Yes, the international community was not sorry to see the back of Mugabe but they were also smart enough to know the removal of the dictator not the end of the dictatorship. When Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections, he could not have done anything more to confirm that Zimbabwe's de facto one-party dictatorship was not only alive, it was thriving!
The international community would have heeded the call of individuals like the former UK MP Kate Hoey who called for isolation of the Zanu PF regime in sheer frustration at the blatant vote rigging she had observed in Zimbabwe.
“The courage and self-sacrifice of the Zimbabwean people is humbling to behold. We, in the international community cannot accept the result of the election and the UK government must take a lead to ensure that the Zimbabwean government is seen for what it is a mark 2 Mugabe regime and one that deserves no support whatsoever,” MP Hoey stated in August 2018.
The international community would have stopped giving this mark 2 Mugabe regime support start away was it not for the Zimbabwe's opposition parties who participated in the flawed and illegal elections in droves! There were 23 presidential candidates in the July 2018 elections race alone! Like it or not, by participating in the elections the opposition gave the process credibility and, by extension, gave the vote rigging Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy.
Zimbabwe's worsen economic meltdown and the increasing brutality by the regime to silence dissent, Zanu PF is determined to retain power at all cost, has forced the international community to finally pile the pressure on the regime to accept democratic reform. But if this is to work we, Zimbabweans, must also be certain of what we want happen in Zimbabwe. The last thing we want is for the opposition to be selling-out again!
"Development is not a day's thing, it's not a month's thing, it's not a year's thing, but it is a journey to be travelled for many years so that we reach our destination. But for us to get there, like what professor (Finance minister Mthuli) Ncube said, we need to have targets and agree on a roadmap to be used," Chinamasa said.
ReplyDelete"I hear a lot of people mocking the government saying we are behind China and America in terms of development. Do you know that China came from 6 000 years of uninterrupted civilisation? In Europe, wars were fought, their development is not recent, it came after hundreds of years. And now someone says what we have done in 40 years cannot be compared with what was achieved in Europe, how do you want it to be done? You need to know that development is not instant. Our President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) is moving towards vision 20307 he add-ed. The Zanu PF government has been accused of running down the economy, which was once a jewel of Africa, through weak policies and corruption, but the regime blames economic sanctions, the opposition and natural disasters for derailing its programmes.”
Nonsense, Zimbabwe has been going in the wrong direction, the few ruling elite have become fat cats at the expense of the overwhelming majority now languishing in abject poverty. The ruling elite’s appetites are insatiable it is only matched by their wastefulness. The country as a whole is getting poorer and poorer because the economy has all but collapsed and we are failing to produce enough to feed ourselves. The ruling elite have seized the farms and the regime is paying them handsomely for producing nothing!
To argue that Zanu PF needs more time turn the country’s failing economy defies logic since it is clear Zanu PF has refused to accept that it is going in the wrong direction.
The most important lesson the nation should have learned these last 40 years is that no one has the monopoly of knowledge. The country is in this economic mess precisely because it was bullied by Zanu PF into accepting the regime words and actions, no questioned asked. To continue down this path will be insane!