"The MDC and its allies who resisted the land reform process, and begged sanctions for our people to be punished for taking back the land cannot lecture or school us about land reform," said Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF acting spokesperson.
Zanu PF has never held free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe. Never! The 1980 elections were marred by Zanu PF operatives, who should have been in the assembly points according to the Lancaster House agreement, told the rural voters that if Zanu PF did not win the elections the war would continue. Once in power the party has ruthless imposed the de facto one-party dictatorship, starting with the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre, the nation was been groaning under ever since.
It is nonsense that any of Zanu PF’s economic policies had the democratic backing of the people of Zimbabwe.
The land reform was supposed to give the land to the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who were resettled by the white colonial regimes on the poor and overcrowded rural areas. Most of the rural peasants are still eking a living in the same arid and marginal land.
Most of the seized former white owned farms were given to Zanu PF ruling elite and their families and friend. And to add insult to injury, these new farmers have failed to put the farms into productive use. Zimbabwe’s once very productive agricultural sector has all but collapse, country has lost is once cherished accolade of being the bread basket of the region, and with it the economy.
Ever since Zanu PF’s chaotic farm seizure the country has relied on imported food aid, we are so poor we cannot even pay for the food. Zimbabweans are starving in a country which is for all intent and purpose is the Garden of Eden - such is the damning indictment of Zanu PF’s failure leadership.
Zanu PF has since agreed to pay the former white farm owners US$ 3.5 billion compensation for the assets and improvements lost when the farms were seized. The regime is asking the impoverish Zimbabwean taxpayer to pay the bill and yet those who benefited from the seized assets are to go scot free, they are the untouchables.
After usurping the people’s right to hold Zanu PF to democratic account that party’s thugs have run riot. Corruption, mismanagement and lawlessness have thrived and spread and are now the cancers that is choking the nation to death. The ruling elite have creamed off the nation’s wealth to build spiralling Blue Roof mansions and pay for their extravagant lifestyles whilst key institution like hospitals are starved of funds.
In 2016 the President Mugabe admitted to Zimbabwe being “swindled out of US$ 15 billion” in diamond revenue alone. He never arrested even one diamond swindler or recover one dollar. His successor, President Mnangagwa, after two years of repeated promises to stamp out corruption, has yet to arrest one swindler and recover one dollar!
In 2017 Patrick Chinamasa, then Minister of Finance, admitted in parliament that government was receiving only 1/6 of the expected diamond revenue.
40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown; not the sanctions!
"MDC cannot lecture us of sanctions and land reform!” said Chinamasa. Neither can you!
Do you really think can still fool all Zimbabweans into believing the chaotic land reform and all the other Zanu PF policies are in the national interest? The land issue is one of the mess Zanu PF created that must be cleaned up! But before the land mess can be sorted, we must first dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship and finally cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections!
We will implement the democratic reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging elections and silence the two faced crows like Chinamasa!
I totally agree, Zanu PF did not resolve the country’s land issue but mad a total mess of it and it incumbent on the truly democratic and just government of Zimbabwe to sort out this mess.
ReplyDeleteThese Zanu PF thugs did not only take the land and booted out the white farms to all the fixed and movable assets (now the subject of the US$3.5 billion the regime decreed the Zimbabwean taxpayer must pay); destroyed the agricultural sector (along with the national economy); they have profited from Farm Mechanisation Programme in which RBZ bought farming machinery for them and the repaid in worthless Z$ or not at all; have profited from many, many more looting scheme including the Command Agriculture; etc.; etc.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will depend on reviving the country’s agricultural sector, Zanu PF thugs know it and hence the reason they want the land issue to be ring fenced for all time. They want to be the nation’s land barons controlling this key asset in perpetuate.
No wonder Zanu PF thugs will leave no stone unturned to make sure there is no meaningful democratic reforms implemented, ever. They know no democratic government worth its salt would ever allow these Zanu PF thugs hold the nation to ransom!
The first task before us is to make sure Zanu PF steps down so we can fully implement all the democratic reforms. Once that is done, then we would like to hear what our two-face crow has to say on the land issue, the looting in Marange, etc., etc.
Indeed, am looking forward to hearing the crow speak in a democratic Zimbabwe. "Tisangoto makudo namazvere!" (We must not be frightened by all baboons!) as one would say in Shona. We have tolerated Zanu PF nonsense for far too long!
PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson George Charamba is dead right that Zimbabwe cannot farm out for solutions to its myriad of problems and that it will be expecting too much from South Africa to resolve our challenges.
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa is saddled by many problems - critically the emotive land question, state capture and the latest moves by hawks in the ruling African National Congress to bay for President Cyril Ramaphosa's blood for calling out corruption.
True enough, SA has its hands full given the corona virus and all and the last thing that country wants is having to deal with the hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans flooding back into SA to escape the worsening political and economic situation back home.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The attempt to have this sorted out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed but only because the MDC leaders sold-out and failed to implement even one reform.
The challenge here is whether President Ramaphosa has the intellect and political clout to get the reforms implemented.
Zanu PF has created the mess in Zimbabwe and it is nonsense to suggest that the regime can sort out the mess. Zanu PF has held the nation to ransom and the people of Zimbabwe and the whole world are sick and tired of it! The idea that we have to get Zanu PF’s permission to end the crisis is absurd!
"Zimbabweans must stop thinking that there is a messiah who is going to come from across the Limpopo or across the seas or from Mars to conquer the country's problems. "There is no messiah who is going to come from anywhere. It is only us who can solve our problems through national structures that have been put in place to facilitate such activities.
ReplyDelete"South Africa is reacting as a friend and neighbour and not as the chair of the African Union (AU). In terms of diplomacy, there is what we call the principle of subsidiarity," Charamba told the Daily News.
SA and SADC helped to get Mugabe and Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement agreeing to the implementation of the raft of reforms. If MDC leaders had implemented the reforms during the GNU that followed we would not be in the mess still.
We Zimbabwe needs now is for Zanu PF to step down to create the political space to finally implement the reforms. If SA, SADC or anyone can help get Zanu PF to step down that is all we want; they do not need to be a Messiah!
Charamba is just a loud mouth making a lot of noise. The people of Zimbabwe welcome President Ramaphosa’s envoy and look forward to a meaningful exchange of ideas on the way out of the mess the country finds itself in. All this running commentary from Mnangagwa and his cronies will only serve to confirm one thing - that Zanu PF has no clue how to get the nation out of this mess.
“Also, much progress has been made towards the achievement of a US$12billion Mining Industry by 2023. My recent visit to Hwange revealed unassailable progress in the implementation of the coal to hydrocarbons development plans where it emerged that the country has over 5 000 megawatts of power in the pipeline, which should see Zimbabwe not only becoming self-sufficient in electrical power generation by 2023, but also a net exporter of electricity,” said Mnangagwa.
ReplyDelete“On the economic front, much progress has been registered in spite of the sanctions imposed by our detractors. Government has gone out of its way to institute innovative measures to spur the country’s development. This is evident by the various infrastructural projects that are evident as you transverse our major highways and communities in terms of schools and health centres,” he said.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride and win the grand national steeple chase every time!
Of course, if you are not democratically accountable to the people; because you rig the elections, etc.; you can afford to promise them the moon on a silver platter and deliver hell-on-earth. The nation must not allow itself to be distracted by Mnangagwa’s promises of economic prosperity and concentrate instead on making sure the democratic reforms are implemented and next elections are free, fair and credible.
The only sure way to get the reform finally implemented is for Zanu PF to step down to allow for the appointment of others to do this work. Nothing of substance can ever be accomplish until we cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections.
The 5 000 megawatt generation is just another mirage which will be moved as we get near 2023! If Zanu PF is still in office in 2023 the party will rig these elections and remain in office five more years!