Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.”
He was right! What he should have said too, is how easy it is to fall into this trap especially when those who hold swear over others, claiming to know best, are the insane ones who know fcuk all!
“Elections have become a problem that has sunk us into vicious violence, unreformed state institutions, political and economic strife. It is my desire to enlighten those that still believe in the politics of the ballot paper, that the system called Zanu-PF is a virus that cannot be cured by elections,” wrote Knowledge Hakata.
“Zimbabweans by now should know that voting or not voting Zanu-PF will still find its way back to Munhumutapa building echoing the recent statement by Vice President Kembo Mohadi who said "the junta regime is not going anywhere anytime soon". Zanu-PF has mastered the art of manipulating the ballot in its favour for the past 15 years,”
Hakata, you cannot “enlighten” others on matters you have no clue what is happening yourself!
Yes Zanu PF has rigged elections and stayed in power these last 40 years (not 15, as you say) with disastrous consequences to the country and people. But to attribute Zanu PF’s successfully rigging the elections all these years to “mastered the art of manipulating the ballot in its favour” is to completely miss the point.
There have been many golden opportunities to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. One must ask, why these opportunities were wasted?
The best chances to end the Zanu PF dictatorship were during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends failed to implement even one democratic reform in 5 years of the GNU. Not even one!
Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms.
Of course, it is foolish to keep complain about Zanu PF mastery in rigging elections when, given a golden opportunity to stop the rigging, you sell-out.
“The system called Zanu-PF is a virus that cannot be cured by elections!” Hakata proclaims. He was quick to rule out elections as the cure of this super duper novel virus but failed to proscribe the cure.
The truth is there is absolutely nothing special about Zanu PF. It is a party of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Plus whatever other attributes some people have assigned to the thugs. The bottom line is, these Zanu PF thugs are above all else fallible mortals and not the invincible demigod, the incurable virus.
If the MDC idiots had implemented the democratic reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so; the 2013 elections would have been free, fair and credible. Zanu PF’s reign of terror would have been brought to a screeching end!
By participating in flawed and illegal elections, MDC and the rest of the opposition opportunists are giving the electoral process credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging, per se illegitimate, Zanu PF legitimacy. They continue to participate out of greed; Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats as bait. These opposition politicians know this to be so.
“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 (2013) elections,” wrote Senator David Coltart, in his Book.
“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.”
Zanu PF thugs are not smart, the exact opposite as their track record shows. Zimbabwe would not be the failed state it is if Mugabe and company had the common sense. The country’s economic meltdown has not spared the Zanu PF ruling elite; the party is imploding because the party thugs are fight each other, like hyenas, over the ever shrinking national cake.
We have failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, regardless of the glaring weaknesses of the party thugs, because the men and women we have entrusted this task have themselves turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs!
One cannot claim to know and understand Zimbabwe politics by exaggerating Zanu PF thugs’ tyrannical powers, on the one hand. And, on the other, completely ignore the sheer stupidity of the sell-out opposition opportunists.
As things stand, there is a real danger that Zanu PF will drag the nation over the edge into economic and political chaos comparable to that we see in Libya and Syria. We have failed to bring about peaceful and democratic change and now we face violent change complete with all the death and destruction that entails.
Yes, Mnangagwa and his cronies will rightly blamed for dragging the nation into this mess and, if nothing is done to end the dictatorship, beyond the point of no return. But Tsvangirai et al must too be held to account for the many wasted opportunities to end the dictatorship.
It is easy to see why Zimbabwe has been caught in this nightmare of rigged elections and bad governance for 40 years and counting - there has been very little intellectual discourse to ascertain what is going on much less what to do about it. It does help when the few loud voices to be heard are other Zanu PF propagandists or opposition apologists who pretend to know everything but, actually, know precious little.
To suggest that Zanu PF has mastered the art of rigging elections and therefore democracy does not work is to argue in a circle. If Zanu PF is rigging the elections then surely one should do something to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections before one says democracy does not work. Zimbabwe has had the golden opportunity, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, to implement the democratic reforms but wasted them.
ReplyDelete“ZANU-PF is a virus which can never be cured by elections!” Is as nonsensical as arguing that Chloroquine does not cure malaria in Zimbabwe as if malaria, tyranny, in Zimbabwe is a totally different disease from that of the rest of the world. Those who refuse to take chloroquine as proscribed cannot claim chloroquine does not cure malaria!
If Zanu PF had "mastered the art" of rigging the elections, as is being suggested here, then one would expect it to near impossible to undercover how the regime has rigged the elections. Zanu PF blatantly denied the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters' roll, a legal as well as a common sense requirement. The whole elections process was not "transparent, had numerous errors, could not be traced or verified", as the EU Election Mission noted in its final reports. These are hardly the things one would associate with an expertly rigged elections.
ReplyDeleteWhat is more, the opposition knew Zanu PF was rigging the elections and still they participated out of greed, as David Coltart readily admitted. It was an admission Coltart clearly did not want to make and has never ever repeated. He could not deny the blatant rigging and so had no choice but to admit that boycotting the elections was the "obvious" thing to do. He had no choice but to admit he and his fellow opposition members did not boycott the elections because they were eyeing the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away as bait.
The opposition's narrative of Zanu PF's vote rigging mastery is as hollow, exaggerated and contrived as Zanu PF's sanctions narrative as the root cause of the country's economic meltdown. Both sides could not admit the truth and, fortunately for them, they had teams of propagandists and apologists willing to give their lies mileage and a public so naive and gullible public they could not tell left hand from their right.
TEACHERS' unions say they are open to genuine dialogue with the government to end the current industrial action which has paralysed schools.
ReplyDeleteThis comes as teachers continue to stay away from schools to press the government for improved salaries and working conditions. In a joint statement by eight teachers' unions, they expressed willingness to resolve differences with the government.
"Teacher union leaders are ready to engage in meaningful dialogue any time from now to end the current logjam.
"(The) Public Service Commission or the government should take teachers' plight seriously and stop this tomfoolery of playing hide-and seek with the lives of teachers in particular and of the innocent learners.
"Teachers remain incapacitated as nothing has changed. This means our members will not be able to report for duty anytime soon until the government faithfully engages teachers' unions," they said.
Mnangagwa was cocksure his clarion call, “Zimbabwe is open for business!”, would attract a flood of investors and revive the nation’s comatose economy. The flood of investors has never materialised and the clarion call is dead in the water.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery. No one wants to do business with thugs.
The teachers and government can have their dialogue and talk until the cows come home one thing will remain unchanged - they will never be paid a living wage. Not as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state.
The teachers, nurses, doctors and other professionals have been slow to accept the need for democratic reform and free and fair elections as the only basis for good governance and and end to the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. In their dialogue with government they must now stop calling for a living wage and demand democratic reforms. In the end, they will make the right call or perish!
A form four pupil in Bulawayo has covid-19.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe's test regime is feeble, there are a hell lot of covid-19 cases that have never been picked up.
Factional battle lines are drawn in Zanu-PF over the fate of John Mangwiro, the deputy minister of health who is the subject of a corruption probe by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).
ReplyDeleteZimLive revealed last week that Mangwiro – a personal physician of health minister and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga – was on ZACC's radar, accused of leaning on the state-owned pharmaceutical firm, NatPharm, to award a US$5.6 million tender to a company in which he had a "personal interest."
When the elephants fight, it is the ants that suffer and die. Zimbabweans are suffering and dying because of Zanu PF misrule and factional fighting.
After 40 years of this foolishness Zimbabwe is today facing a existential threat and, unless something is done to end this Zanu PF madness, will tumble over the edge into the abyss.