Tuesday 1 September 2020

Ramaphosa sending special envoy back to Zimbabwe - a waste of time, SA and SADC are hamstrung W Mukori

 President Cyril Ramaphosa is planning to send back the special envoy to Zimbabwe in a determined effort to find a solution to Zimbabwe’s worsen economic and political crisis. Last the time the envoy met President Mnangagwa and he refused the envoy permission to meet anybody else. SA want the envoy to meet all the other stakeholders including the country’s opposition politicians.


“The NEC welcomed government efforts to engage the situation in Zimbabwe, in particular the deployment of special envoys. It emphasised the importance of the envoys engaging with all stakeholders in the country to assist in addressing the current situation. ANC and government processes must complement each other,” reads the ANC NEC resolution.


We once again ask President Ramaphosa to think through this. What exactly does he consider to be the solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis? 


We believe the solution is a complete overhaul of Zimbabwe’s rotten to the core political system. A new GNU in which Zanu PF is given a role will never overhaul the system because Zanu Pf will never reform itself out of office. 


Zanu PF must step down to create the political space for the appointment of other independent players to carry out the important task of overhauling Zimbabwe’s political system. 


“Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will never agree to step down,” many would say. 


Well Zanu PF must step down for two good reasons:


  1. Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime does not have any democratic mandate to govern, it is illegitimate. You cannot have free, fair and credible elections when 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc. 


Yes, by participating in droves the MDC A and the rest of Zimbabwe’s corrupt, incompetent and opportunistic opposition politicians gave the flawed and illegal election process credibility but that is not to say gave the result legitimacy.


  1. Zimbabwe is standing at the very edge of the precipitous abyss; the economic, political, health and social situation has pushed millions of Zimbabweans beyond the limit of human endurance and hundreds of thousands are dying of corona virus; the situation cannot be allowed to go on. To address all these economic, political, corona virus, etc. challenges, the country must first end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance! 


The country needs to implement the transformative democratic reforms and Zanu PF has stopped that happened in the past and must not be allowed to hold the nation to ransom any more. 


President Cyril Ramaphosa, ANC, SADC and AU must accept they endorsed Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections as credible and therefore the Zanu PF regime as legitimate. “The election went well!” said President Ramaphosa. 


President Ramaphosa cannot flip-flop now and condemn the July 2018 elections to justify why Mnangagwa must step down.


On the other hand a solution in which Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power is a waste of time. 


SA, SADC and AU made a very big mistake two years ago by endorsing Zimbabwe’s rigged elections, the mistake has rendered them powerless to rein in Mnangagwa. They must admit the mistake and step aside. The UN or some other organisation should take up the responsibility of supervising Zimbabwe’s transition from the present illegitimate state back to legality. 

10 comments:

  1. Indeed, in some respects the new president, who revelled in the nom de guerre “the Crocodile,” was proving worse than his former boss.

    The flickering hopes for a new Zimbabwe have now been extinguished. Mnangagwa, cracking down on dissent at home and waving off criticism from abroad, is practically indistinguishable from Mugabe. And the “family of nations” is letting its dissatisfaction be known.

    The Crocodile had been hoping the “family of nations” would fatten the proverbial calf for the returning prodigal. But the family has made its terms clear. Mnangagwa cannot sit at the table before first cleaning his hands.

    What Zimbabwe needs is a solution to end the de facto one-party dictatorship and replace it with a healthy democratic system of government. We need the democratic reforms to be implemented and to suggest that Zanu PF can reform itself out of office is a sick joke!

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  2. A dangerous ,ideologically vacuous element now busy uprooting the constitution , rule of law and gains of the liberation struggle.Chitepo,Nkomo et al are puking in their graves

    Chikurubi Maximum Prison is not fit for human habitation and should have been closed at Independence.Incarcerating any one there amounts to torture, cruel and degrading treatment.Pre-Trial incarceration of Hope ,Job and Jacob at diseases infested Chikurubi is malicious and unconstitutional.

    Zimbabwe had its best chance ever to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. At times like this I puke to hear the likes of Tendai Biti pontificating about how evil Zanu PF is when he and his fellow MDC leaders are the ones who sold-out during the 2008 GNU!

    Tendai Biti, you have never given the people of Zimbabwe an explanation of why MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU. Are you going to admit you sold-out? If not then shut up!

    Zanu PF and Mnangagwa have killed many Zimbabweans since 2013, he may will add Chinono and many other, but Biti and the MDC leaders must know that they played their part in all this. One of these fine days both Zanu PF and MDC leaders must be held to account!

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  3. President Ramaphosa has to start thinking of what next and stop behaving like a dung beetle whose internal compass is kaput! Whilst the people of Zimbabwe welcome every help we can get to end this Zanu PF induced national tragedy, the last thing we want is to be going round and round in circles.

    President Ramaphosa should know by now that Zimbabwe had a GNU in 2008 to 2013 whose primary purpose was to end the country’s political and economic crisis. He should also know that that GNU failed to implement even one reform and hence the reason we are still in the mess.

    Read my lips, President Ramaphosa - WE DO NOT WANT ANOTHER ZANU PF AND MDC GNU!!!!!!

    Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate. The only dialogue to be had with Mnangagwa and and his cronies is to remind them that the regime is illegitimate and should not be holding the nation to ransom.

    Zanu PF must step down to allow for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the reforms leading to the holding of free and fair elections.

    Given the fact that President Ramaphosa endorse the July 2018 elections and thus regards Mnangagwa as legitimate; it clear SA cannot ask Mnangagwa to step down. For this reason it is utterly pointless for SA and SADC play any role and must exclude themselves and ask the UN to step in instead.

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  4. @ Blasher Shereni

    “No elections were rigged. Nelson failed to proof that in constitutional court.”

    Nelson Chamisa and his MDC colleagues are the corrupt and incompetent village idiots who failed to implement even one reform during the five years of the 2008 GNU.

    What Chamisa was trying to do in 2018 was to rig rigged elections. ZEC came up with a figure of 2.4 million votes for Mnangagwa - ZEC failed to produce verified voters’ roll, denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, could not produce the V11 forms, etc., etc. Chamisa claimed that he got 2.6 million votes, just enough to beat Mnangagwa, but he too failed to produce the V11 forms over and above the other illegalities and irregularities.

    Chamisa’s Constitutional Court challenge focus of the vote counting and V11 forms which neither party could prove one way or the other because they did not have the documents. What is really important here is that there are many other glaring illegality that rendered the election null and void which Chamisa did not want to raised because he known these things before he entered the race!

    “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections,” Chamisa had boasted, dismissing calls for MDC not to participate in the elections without reforms.

    Of course, MDC A knew Zanu PF was going to rig the elections. Ever since MDC leaders failed to implement the reforms during the 2008 GNU they have been running with the povo hare and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds.

    To suggest that the elections were not rigged because MDC A participated or because of the ruling by the Constitutional Court is to fail to see the MDC leaders for the sell-out they are!

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  5. @ Derrick Ndlovu

    “To 'step aside' is one phrase which has no meaning in Zim. The word has a meaning to authorities whose interest is to the people and they step aside when they realise that they don't have people's following.

    “The law in the country is only to serve Zanu pf and no other hence all is captured. Just imagine highest courts legitimising a coup. That was the first ruling against Mugabe in his 37 year rule.

    “This issue actually needed Ramaphosa and other heads of state, not envoys as they will be only listeners and leave.”

    Well the people have long stopped supporting and following Zanu PF and our job is to make it clear that Zanu PF cannot hold the nation to ransom any more!

    Ramaphosa and the rest of the SADC leaders endorsed the July 2018 elections and accepted Mnangagwa as legitimate this is what makes it impossible for them to ask Mnangagwa to step down. Of course, it was foolish of the SADC leader to endorse a rigged election. Still, they are compromised and they must now accept that reality and stop wasting everyone’s time.

    Remember Mnangagwa and Zanu PF are not Zimbabwe and that it is the survival of Zimbabwe that is at issue here. It is insane that the whole nation’s survival is being put on the line for the sake of gratifying Mnangagwa and his cronies’ insatiable greed for power and loot!

    It is in the interest of the people of Zimbabwe that Zanu PF steps down, that is not negotiable. And you know what, Mnangagwa and company will step down!

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  6. It is pleasing to see that SA is taking the Zimbabwe crisis with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. What is also clear and very worrying that SA has learned nothing from the past and is about to repeat the same foolish mistake of imposing a Zanu PF led GNU.

    President Ramaphosa has to start thinking of what next and stop behaving like a dung beetle whose internal compass is kaput! Whilst the people of Zimbabwe welcome every help we can get to end this Zanu PF induced national tragedy, the last thing we want is to be going round and round in circles.

    President Ramaphosa should know by now that Zimbabwe had a GNU in 2008 to 2013 whose primary purpose was to end the country’s political and economic crisis. He should also know that that GNU failed to implement even one reform and hence the reason we are still in the mess.

    Read my lips, President Ramaphosa - WE DO NOT WANT ANOTHER ZANU PF AND MDC GNU!!!!!!

    Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate. The only dialogue to be had with Mnangagwa and and his cronies is to remind them that the regime is illegitimate and should not be holding the nation to ransom.

    Zanu PF must step down to allow for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the reforms leading to the holding of free and fair elections.

    Given the fact that President Ramaphosa endorse the July 2018 elections and thus regards Mnangagwa as legitimate; it clear SA cannot ask Mnangagwa to step down. For this reason it is utterly pointless for SA and SADC play any role and must exclude themselves and ask the UN to step in instead.

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  7. @ Derrick Ndlovu

    “Wilbert Mukori @Wilbert Mukori, you are straight to the point with the above.

    “What are the mechanisms that can be applied to make sense to Zanu PF that they must step aside? If we protest, we are shot at by their army and police!

    “If we vote against Zanu pf, they still win. We decide not to vote, they still rule which is what they want to create a one party state. As you alluded, SADC does not come to our rescue, and if they do like they have done in the past, will be to be supportive of Zanu PF.”

    Correction, SADC did come to the aid of us the ordinary people in 2008. Zanu PF has been rigging elections starting with the first elections in 1980, SADC and AU had turned a blind eye to it all until 2008. For the first time the two organisations refused to recognised Mugabe and Zanu PF as the winners of that election and legitimate government.

    SADC proposed the formation of GNU which was then tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and make sure future elections were free, fair and credible. The fact that not even one reform was implemented was because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out.

    The fact that there are still many Zimbabweans out there who have no clue what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold out is proof of just how naive and gullible the Zimbabwean voters are. If we are serious about wanting democratic Zimbabwe then we must snap out of our sloth-like slumber.

    SADC leaders made one more desperate bid to have the Zimbabwe 2013 elections postponed until the reforms are implemented. They warned MDC not to take part but were ignored. SADC leaders are no choice but to accept Zanu PF as the legitimate government of the rigged 2013 elections and all elections since.

    Why President Cyril Ramaphosa went so far as to endorse the July elections as having “gone well” when Zimbabwe failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll; beggars belief. He has even taken up Zanu PF’s propaganda lie of blaming sanctions for the nation’s ill! Of course, he has made a complete fool of himself.

    Ramaphosa would happily impose another Zanu PF and MDC GNU on Zimbabwe under the pretext that it was what the Zimbabweans themselves wanted. No doubt Zanu PF and MDC are busy lining up their ducks to meet the SA special envoy and they will all be asking for Zanu PF and MDC GNU.

    What Ramaphosa and SADC must know is that the Zanu PF and MDC GNU will never implement the reforms and hence the reason no thinking Zimbabwean out there would want it! It is the thinking Zimbabweans Ramaphosa and SADC must listen to and not the illegitimate Zanu PF and sell-out MDC and their acolytes!

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  8. How many of these vendor know what the 2008 to 2013 GNU was about much less that Chamisa and his MDC colleagues sold-out by failing to implement even one reform in five years? Democracy works when you have an informed and diligent electorate. There is no hope of turning these MDC sheep into and informed and diligent electorate. Even now, with all the benefit of hindsight, they continue to treat Chamisa as if he has never done anything wrong.

    Zimbabweans saw this foolishness of treating a leader as if he is a demigod soon after independence when Zanu PF women grovelled before Mugabe every time he flew out of the country and returned. Mugabe was a globetrotter and the Zanu PF women soon developed hard knee pad the likes one see on a goat! Well their daughters are now kneeing to Chamisa! They have learned nothing from the past mistakes. Nothing!

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  9. “We are in a situation where everyone who wants a distraction from their own issues, takes a potshot at Zimbabwe,” tweeted Mangwana!

    Boy oh boy! When Mnangagwa said that, he was speaking from the heart. He certainly looks like someone who feels the whole world is conspiring against him. Mnangagwa's house of card in falling apart and there is nothing he can do about it.

    Mnangagwa and his cronies have been looked at SA's 628 000 confirmed covid-19 cases and 14 000 deaths compared to Zimbabwe's 6 559 cases and 203 deaths as proof of Zanu PF'S competency. The truth is Zimbabwe has not been testing and, since these are confirmed cases, the country's figures have remained low.

    The down side of not testing is nation has been operating in the dark as to what the virus was doing and so has not been taking even the common sense precautions like isolating those with the virus. Corona virus has been spreading like wild fire!

    Zimbabwe's real corona virus cases and death per capita are far worse than that of SA. One of these days the truth, the whole truth, of how Zanu PF has not been testing and even falsifying corona virus cases to look good will come out. Mnangagwa's house of cards will not be just collapsing, it will be on fire!

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  10. Nickson Mpofu another tortured victim of Zanu PF recovering at home.

    Zanu PF knows the regime is collapsing, the centre can no longer hold, things far apart and, in its desperate effort to retain power, the regime is now shooting from the hip! The tragedy is the nation is being sucked into violence and chaos as the only way to end the dictatorship; this is the last thing the nation wanted but given brain dead thugs like Mnangagwa there is no other way out!

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