Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies knows the pressure on them to end the Zimbabwe crisis is mounting and will not go away until there is change. They know their iron grip on power is under serious threat and they are coming out with all guns blazing. Be warned, they fight dirty!
“Mbeki did not impose himself on us, we requested him in order to defend the gains of our liberation which were being threatened by the British who were threatening military invasion of Zimbabwe. The British and Western governments will never agree or forgive for taking the land and giving it to our people,” said Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF acting spokesperson.
“We are the first country to do what we are doing, which is what we pointed to the ANC delegation, we have taken our land, you need us if you have to empower your people, we need each other. They have to empower their people; in the same way we have empowered our people. It’s a revolutionary obligation for the revolutionary parties to fulfil the gains of our liberation struggle, whether it is here, in South Africa, Namibia or Mozambique.”
The land issue is unfinished business in Zimbabwe. The land was supposed to be given to the landless peasants and not the Zanu PF ruling elite and their cronies. Worse still, the ruling elite have failed to put it into productive use.
Before the chaotic and often violent farm seizures, which started in 2000, Zimbabwe produced enough food to feed her own people with plenty left over to sell. Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of the region. By 2008 most white farmers had been forced off the land and the country’s agricultural sector had completely collapsed and with it the national economy.
For the last 15 years Zimbabwe has relied on imported food aid; the country was so poor, we could not even pay for it!
Zimbabwe is, for all intent and purpose, the Biblical Garden of Eden and we are starving in it. A damning indictment of Zimbabwe’s failure to govern herself under this Zanu PF regime.
What is Chinamasa wittering about; Zanu PF has “empowered our people”? Unemployment has soared to 90% and 34% of our people were living in abject poverty according to 2019 WB report. The corona virus outbreak has made the situation a lot worse.
If Zanu PF had done such a sterling job of economically empowering the nation then why are 3 million Zimbabweans doing in SA alone!
"We are an independent sovereign country. We agreed in our meeting that we are equal sovereign States. South Africa has no mediatory role to play in Zimbabwe. We know that the South African government is controlled by white men."
This is Zanu PF playing the race card to draw attention away the country’s worsening economic and political crisis just as the party did on the land issue.
Of course, ordinary Zimbabweans have never had any meaningful say on the land issue like all the other burning national issues and hence the economic meltdown because Zanu PF denied them a democratic vote. Zimbabwe has never ever held free, fair and credible elections. Never ever!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The solution is self-evident - implement the democratic reforms designed to stop rigged elections.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was supposed to implement the democratic reforms but failed to do so because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, who were tasked to do this, sold out.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are fearful that this time they will be put under increasing pressure to get the reforms finally implemented. Offence is the only defence Zanu PF knows and accusing President Ramaphosa of being “controlled by white men” is provocative, racist and dirty!
A Ruwa Protea farmer has just been booted off the farm.
ReplyDeleteHere we go again!
Zanu PF is doing this to draw attention away from the country's worsening economic and political crisis. The party wants it to be seen as a race issue, whites vs blacks. It has worked for the regime in the past and so they are trying the same dirty trick again. The war veterans will be mobilising and will be taking on all comers - all those critical of the regime!
Zanu PF wants to accuse SA of interfering in Zimbabwe affairs not to resolve the economic and political crisis but to stop the farm invasions!
Zanu PF cannot use brute force to force the South Africa government to stop pushing the regime to reform and so it is doing the next best thing- blackmail the South Africans.
ReplyDeleteI once worked in a factory in Harare and knew this fellow, “Mosquito”. Most people knew him. He was short and all skin and bone. His most distinguishing feature was his shrill, loud and very annoying voice which you cannot ignore - just like a mosquito!
The story goes that one weekend Mosquito saw Mr X, the head of the department Mosquito worked in at the factory, talking to the waitress at a local Hotel. Mr X was a very quiet gentleman liked and respected by most people. Mosquito was all over the waitress like a rash.
The next thing was Mosquito speaking at the top of his voice and pointing an accusing finger at Mr X. He asked Hotel security to throw Mr X out for threatening him. Peace was soon restored and no one was thrown out. If Mr X thought that was the end of the matter, he was wrong.
Mosquito retold the incident to all at the top of his voice. He told of how the woman Mr X was chasing had been all over him, Mosquito, like a rash and how Mr X had threatened him. Mosquito insisted he was not even interested in the woman; she was fat and ugly, not his type. He was concerned that Mr X would use his position as head of department to wreak his revenge.
Mosquito talked incessantly, his was the mouth no fly has ever landed on. “You cannot talk and work!” so goes the old adage. Well Mosquito chose to talk and would not be bothered to work. Here was a labourer who firmed believe that all unskilled labour was beneath his dignity!
Getting Mosquito to do his share of the work was his fellow workers and supervisors dreaded because Mosquito would always have an excuse for doing nothing or, worst of all, he will turn the table and accuse you of doing Mr X’s dirty laundry or disliking him for a myriad of other reasons. Mosquito was renowned poking his mosquito nose in other people’s business, ferreting all manner of dirty and was always chasing other men girlfriends and wives.
A bad apple cannot hide among the good ones forever. The factory management soon realised Mosquito was a lazy and disruptive and had him fired.
In Zanu PF we have an amplified version, from individual to state, of the lazy, blackmailing and despicable Mosquito. Zanu PF has used and abused the state institutions and power to ruthless impose its dictatorial will on the nation. Where the party could not use brute force it has blackmailed.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has used its all cunning tricks to force free and fair elections off the national agenda and the land issue is one such trick. It is little wonder the regime is using this again and blackmailing the South African government by accusing it of supporting the whites.
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” said Jesus.
DeleteSocieties that have paid heed and have been as clever as serpents has never allowed despicable, conniving and manipulative individuals like Mosquito rule the roost. In Zimbabwe people like him rule the roost in a real big way. Zanu PF, MDC and all those holding positions of power and trust are cuckoos who have made a good living from taking advantage of the naivety of others.
Zanu PF has rigged elections for 40 years and counting and yet every time the nation has tried to have an honest debate of the matter the party has brought up something else notably the land issue. Of course, the party has brought up the land issue just to avoid discussing the issue of rigged elections why some people have failed to see this again and again goes to show just how much they have remain sheep among wolves!
Yes the country has had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but they were all wasted by a breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent opposition. SA and SADC leaders could have helped but alas many of them have been a great disappointment, to say the least.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has already proven to be a blundering fool, anything of substance should be expected from him!
It is a great tragedy that so many people sacrificed so much to end white colonial oppression only to have that replaced by black oppression. We jumped from the frying pan into the fire and brimstone of hell on earth.
ReplyDeleteWe have had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship the best of which were during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly not even one reform was implemented because Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends sold-out. Zanu PF leaders know they had a very lucky escape during the 2008 GNU and now they are fighting tooth and nail to make sure they are never again put in a situation like the 2008 GNU.
Zanu PF has been giving away a few gravy train seats to make sure the opposition participate in these elections and earn the party legitimacy. Zanu PF will now claim that it is the legitimate government and dispute anything otherwise. MDC and the rest of the opposition sold-out by participating in the July 2018 elections and now we are paying for it big time!
@ Israel
ReplyDeleteA total of 416 PCR tests were conducted yesterday and positivity was 44 percent.
This is a joke! Zimbabwe must be one of the countries that has continue to have rising corona virus numbers and yet has reduced the number of covid-19 tests. No one believes Zimbabwe's covid-19 figures because they do not make any sense!
@ Obadiah Israel
ReplyDeleteWell since independence in 1980 it is Zanu PF thugs who have denied black Zimbabweans the freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life.
You are obsessed about the past and you are failing to see what is affecting the living!
@ Obadiah Israel
Delete“Wilbert Mukori I hope you are not a lawyer. So you admit the country is under sanctions and the suffering population have nothing to do with the sanctions?”
There you go again! Are we still talking about Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections?
Why is it that you do not want to talk about the ordinary Zimbabweans who have been denied their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to live?
You always end up discussing the sanctions, the land issue and the whites. You only talk about the ordinary Zimbabweans about how they have suffered because of the sanctions or how they have benefited from the land reforms more as pawns in this high stakes chess game between the black ruling elite and the whites.
Ordinary Zimbabweans are not pawns and right now they demand a meaningful progress of the matter of holding free, fair and credible elections. You want to discuss sanctions and land reforms - discuss these with the whites; no one is stopping you. But as far as the ordinary Zimbabweans are concerned the only issue on the table is IMPLEMENTING DEMOCRATIC REFORMS TO ENSURE FREE, FAIR AND CREDIBLE ELECTIONS.
@ Obadiah Israel
Delete“No Wilbert, I am obsessed about the future. The past informs the future. The people who colonised you are still here. They changed our lives for worse ever since they set theirs wicked feet on our shores.”
It is not the white colonialist who have rigged elections and destroyed the Zimbabwe economy these last 40 years!!!!
He was responding to threats by Mnangagwa in Gweru, Saturday that he would soon invoke a newly signed extradition treaty between Zimbabwe and South Africa to bring home former vocal Zanu-PF G40 faction members based in that country who include Mzembi.
ReplyDelete"I have suffered immensely from his ill-treatment ranging from repossession of my farms, an attempt at my houses, repossession of my conditions of service vehicles. One of which I am told he personally allocated to himself and subsequently to a family member," Mzembi said.
"I am not sure if anyone can survive health-wise from this assault which includes frequent bashing by state media just to mess my reputation.
"I am a survivor of cancer and he still wants to incarcerate me after declaring me an enemy of the state on two different occasions. So weaponising extradition treaties against opponents is just a step further from the harassment he has been meting out on me and others but our dispute is only political."
Mzembi said his rancour with Mnangagwa has escalated after the state leader was misinformed by his advisers that he (Mzembi) once tried to use his influence in the SADC region as then Foreign Affairs Minister to stop the November 2017 military coup.
All you care about is protecting your looted wealth! You do not care how much the ordinary people, the victims of the decades of Zanu PF looting, have suffered and continued to suffer to this day.
Zanu-PF went ballistic after the ANC disclosed the nature of the discussions that included the need for the South Africans to meet opposition parties such as MDC Alliance and civil society to get an appreciation of the problems facing the country.
ReplyDeletePatrick Chinamasa, the Zanu-PF acting spokesperson, said the South African government was controlled by white people, hence the ANC decision to disclose what they discussed.
Zulu said today's meeting with Ramaphosa would determine the way forward.
"We are doing this to help our people and we should focus on the way forward," she added.
Sources, however, insisted South Africa was not ready to bow down to Zanu-PF pressure and would continue pushing for a resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s crisis is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and we cannot solve this crisis by failing to address this root cause. Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections just as the party has rigged elections for the last 40 years. The regime is illegitimate.
The only way we are ever going to stop this culture of rigged elections is to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop rigging. We know that as long as Zanu PF remains in power, be it on its own or in a GNU, they will not implement the reforms, when know this from the last GNU.
So to get the reforms implemented, Zanu PF must step down. That should be easy to accomplish because Zanu PF is illegitimate.
However SA cannot get Zanu PF to step down because President Ramaphosa has already publicly endorse Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections. Like it or not SA shot herself in the foot when on the legitimacy issue. The logical solution is for SA, SADC and the AU to invite the UN to assist in this matter.
“Our colonisers took our land and we waged a war that culminated into independence and we took it back, and that will never change,” he said.
ReplyDelete“We, however, have a few individuals who fail to understand or comprehend our Constitution, Section 295 of the Constitution.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic and political crisis and the root cause of the crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The SA envoys were in the country to address the crisis and it is annoying that Zanu PF not only deny there is no crisis but worse still the party is once again talking about the land issue just to muddy the waters.
We have to talk about Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. We know Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections confirming the country’s status as a pariah state which no one would want to do business with.
We want democratic reforms implemented before the next election, the thought of yet another rigged elections is unthinkable. Since Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the democratic reforms the party must step down to allow the nation to appoint others who will.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential crisis and the solution is to implement the reforms. We want to talk about implementing the reforms and not about the land issue. Zanu PF has had 20 years to deal with this issue and is only bring it up again and again just to avoid addressing the issue of free, fair and credible elections. Enough is enough!
@ Newsday
ReplyDelete"We don't want complaints from anyone, even the US ambassador. We are grateful to our security forces; it is a warning that our security forces will defend this country," he told us.
That last statement is exactly what is wrong in the country, a crisis of militarisation of the State and society in Zimbabwe and democracy is dead.
All democratic forces are in danger and President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF have dropped any pretensions of democracy and have mortgaged the country on their greed for power.
Zanu PF has always held the gun to the nation’s temple and has again and again pulled the trigger to remind us all the party has the gun, it is loaded and will not hesitate to use it.
Contrary to the Lancaster House agreement, Zanu PF did not pull out all its operatives from the countryside to assembly points as agreed. Many Zanla operatives were left in the field and their message to the electorate was clear and chilling - if Zanu PF does not win the 1980 elections then the civil war will continue. The people voted to end the civil war!
There are those who have argued that this was just an empty campaign threat. They were proven wrong with the advent of the Gukurahundi massacre in 1983 to 1987. Over 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered in cold blood for the purpose of establishing the de facto one party state.
Over 10 000 more innocent people have been murdered since 1987 for the purpose of retained the de facto one party state.
The nation has had a few chances to end the one party dictatorship, peacefully, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly the opportunity was wasted as MDC leaders sold out.
40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions have left the country in economic ruins and the people are desperate for change. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies know that power is slipping out of their hands, still we must not underestimate their resolve to hang on to power to the bitter end - they will happily set the whole country on fire and the deaths of hundreds of thousands more Zimbabwe than see anyone else rule.
Change is coming but the time for peaceful change is fast running out; there will be violent change, Mnangagwa and company are getting their wish, they are dragging us all over the edge into the abyss.
"Go on and mislead each other. You can even ask your wife to chant your slogan say-ing forward with my husband. But when you go out of the house, you begin to say forward with Zanu-PF, forward with central committee of Zanu PE Forget about those ambitions," said Mnangagwa, who rose to power after toppling his long time boss, the late Robert Mugabe, through a 2017 military coup.
ReplyDeleteGrace Mugabe once talked of how her husband was living in fear of a military coup. “Baba varikuvata rime ziso rakasvinura!” (My husband is sleeping with one eye open!) We all know that did not stop the November 2017 coup!
The people of Zimbabwe do not want another military coup, not because then like Mnangagwa, they don’t. They are sick and tired of the Zanu PF dictatorship they want Zanu PF to step down so the nation can implement meaningful democratic reforms leading to free, fair and credible elections!
The SA Communist Party’s first deputy secretary Solly Mapaila has hit out at the Zimbabwean government and Zanu-PF for its "growing authoritarianism", a stance that contradicts that of its alliance partner, the ANC.
ReplyDelete"There is growing authoritarianism in Zimbabwe which we reject with the contempt it deserves. Particularly from our comrades in Zanu-PF. We don't think a revolutionary movement should decline in its ethos and democratic practices in the manner that is happening, whilst denying it, we see that many Zimbabweans are running away from their own country," he said.
The social economic situation in Zimbabwe has become unbearable, Zanu PF can deny it but they cannot stop the tide of change that is happening right before our eyes!
Mnangagwa shocked at Harare Eastern suburbs loud display of wealth!
ReplyDeleteBut has Zanu PF not always condemned corruption ever since the party came into power in 1980? The late Robert Mugabe passed the leadership code with a lot of fanfare and flourish. That did not stop him building the sprawling Blue Roof palatial mansion for himself and amassing farms, house and many other business interests for himself.
Mnangagwa is just paying lip service to ending corruption; he will never end corruption because he is the godfather of corruption!
@ Badiah Israel
ReplyDelete“Wilbert Mukori we are neither Greek nor Roman. A liberal culture where anything goes is not for us. You obsess yourself with Democracy as if it is life itself. Personally I do not want Democracy at all as a governing policy over us it leads to decadence. Abandon Democracy for our own God given constitution:”
Where the children of Israel not ruled by God through His Judges and Prophets and yet they still wanted a King. And God warned them of their folly and still gave them a King. I do not remember them rejecting a King and going back to being ruled by Judges and Prophets.
Other nations are being ruled by mortals and they have done a lot better than Zimbabwe. We should search for a political system that works for us but for the present we will try democracy. Demanding that we have an electoral system that gives every Zimbabwean a meaningful vote is not asking for too much.
The ANC welcomes and concurs with the comments made by the ZANU PF Secretary of Administration, comrade Obert Mpofu, that the recent engagement between the ANC and ZANU PF was both frank and constructive, conducted in the fraternal spirit of two Liberation Movements. As such we remain committed to extending the space for political dialogue with a view of advancing the social, political and economic interests of the people of Zimbabwe and South Africa in the context of advancing African unity, and the continuing fight for political and economic emancipation.
ReplyDeleteThe ANC furthermore welcomes the joint commitment between the ANC and ZANU PF as Liberation Movements to upholding human rights, in the context of what we fought for during the struggle against apartheid and colonialism. Our joint engagement on and commitment to the advancement and protection of human rights always remains paramount in the context of acknowledging and upholding our respective countries as sovereign, which cannot be dictated to. We do so while respecting freedom of association, freedom of speech, and all the basic universal freedoms. The ANC agrees that the driving force of our engagements to address the challenges we are faced with must always be the advancement of the well-being of our people who continue to be marginalized, jobless and poor, as a consequence of the legacy of colonialism, and the continuing impact of neo-colonialism and imperialism.
It is a pity that ANC is just paying lip service to upholding “human rights, freedom of speech and all the basic universal freedoms”.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s seemingly unending crisis, swan song, is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. Everyone else with an democratic credential worth a spit dismissed the elections as a farce. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the “elections went well!”. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake.
We cannot end Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis without acknowledge its root cause - the failure to hold free and fair elections. The people of Zimbabwe want solutions to the crisis and not to hear a string of meaningless platitudes and rhetorical nonsense!
THE South African ruling African National Congress (ANC) party yesterday defiantly told Zanu-PF that its delegation would soon head back to Harare to meet other stakeholders as part of efforts to initiate dialogue to resolve Zimbabwe's political and economic crises.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe is in the throes of its worst political and economic crises in a decade, and critics accuse President Emmerson Mnangagwa of persecuting opposition members and perceived political opponents under the guise of COVID-19 lockdown regulations.
What is obvious here is that President Ramaphosa has no clue what he is doing because, if he did, then he would not waste everyone’s time and resourcing asking stupid questions about crisis in Zimbabwe. This is a crisis dating back to 1980 when the country failed to hold free, fair and credible elections a curse that has remained to this day.
Ramaphosa has compounded the crisis by foolishly endorsing Zanu PF’s rigged July 2018 elections.
The solution to ending the crisis is self-evident; implement the democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections. Since Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, 40 years of the dictatorship tells us so, then we must get others who will.
Anyone with eyes to see and half a brain to comprehend what President Ramaphosa is doing. We are heading for yet another Zanu PF and MDC GNU. How much power the latter have is academic, what really matters is that no meaningful reforms will be implemented. The prospect of Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections is real and that is an outcome we must reject.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is just a blundering fool offering to kick the can down the road. We need a solution to end the Zimbabwe crisis not another gimmick!
Mnangagwa UN address.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe has been sinking deeper and deeper into economic chaos and despair and yet year after year these last 40 years all our leaders have ever talked about is how the country was making progress. Mnangagwa even claimed that Zimbabwe was following WHO's guidelines in the management of corona virus and yet the country has one of the lowest per capita covid-19 tests in the world. Our official corona virus cases and deaths are very low, a far cry from the reality on the ground.
The failure to ensure those in public office are accountable to the people has only encouraged our leaders to paint a free, democratic and prosperous utopia, a far cry from the hell-on-earth they have imposed on the millions of ordinary people.
In my discussions with him (Mugabe), when we went to Mexico, Mugabe had given me key instructions as political commissar that we must start a process of identifying a leader who will take over. This was a process where people must make a choice.
ReplyDeleteMugabe was on record saying that the leader must not come from him, but must come from the people. But certainly there were preferences, people might have chosen one person over the other but those were personal preferences. For me I come back to the integrity of the system, we must come back to the democratic system that yields leadership through direct participation of members of the party.
This is rubbish Mugabe had no democratic credentials worth a spit and therefore to suggest he wanted a democratic process to choose his successor is day-dreaming. It is a great pity that some people have such poor memory that they faithfully repeat this rubbish giving it unwarranted mileage!