Tendai Biti, MDC A vice President, has been arrested and will spend Friday night in a Police Prison. He is charged with assault, after calling a Russian woman an idiot.
Biti has denied any wrong doing and claims the arrest is to stop him and the parliamentary committee he is heading investigating the illegal awarding of land during former Minister Ignatius Chombo’s days.
“The Harare Airport Road project was a total stink where thousands of hectares of land where illegally and fraudulently transferred to Augur Investments and its shelf companies. That land must be returned to the city and its citizens. They want to detain me overnight, so be it,” said Biti.
“Awaiting detention. In the absence of sanitizers, PPEs, running water, flushing toilets, repellents and decent food any detention in Zim prisons at the moment is cruel & degrading treatment. A crime against humanity
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter.”
Zimbabwe’s prison conditions are notoriously filthy and a real danger to life, especially these days with the added danger of getting the corona virus.
Still, one hopes that the night in the Police cell has forced Tendai Biti think about the 2008 to 2013 GNU golden opportunity Zimbabwe had to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and thus end the de facto one-party dictatorship. It was none other than MP Tendai Biti and fellow MDC friends who wasted the golden opportunity and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not even one!
President Robert Mugabe, Zanu PF leader and Zimbabwe’s dictator at the time, bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest is history. Instead of implementing the reforms MDC leaders were falling over each other praising the dictator to the high heaven.
“President Mugabe is the unflappable father of the nation, fountain of wisdom,” sung Tendai Biti. He was the Minister of Finance in the GNU. Fancy that! A corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant; seen through the rose tinted glass of the ministerial limo, had metamorphosed into the unflappable fountain of wisdom!
If Tendai Biti and company had kept their eyes on the ball and implemented the democratic reforms; the 2013 and 2018 elections would have been free, fair and credible. Zimbabwe would be a totally different country, a healthy and functioning democracy well on its way to meaningful economic recovery!
No reforms were implemented and so the country is still stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The country’s economy is still in ruins and sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss.
What is unforgivable is that Tendai Biti and his MDC friends have not only refused to admit they sold-out in failing implementing the reforms during the 2008 GNU but, worst of all, they have since then contrived to continue selling out on the fight for free, fair and credible elections!
The MDC leaders have known that with no democratic reforms in place Zanu PF will rig the elections and yet Biti and company have participated in the 2013 and then 2018 (all signs are they will do the same in 2023), regardless. Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate, bait MDC leaders found irresistible.
Of course, Tendai Biti and company knew the few gravy train seats were bait and that by participating they would give the flawed and illegal election process credibility; as David Coltart admitted in his book.
“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 Coltart in his book The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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.”
Senator Coltart was himself one of the MDC Ministers during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. He is now the Treasurer General of the MDC A, the coalition of three main MDC factions formed just before the 2018 election.
By continuing to participate in these flawed and illegal elections, MDC and the rest in the opposition camp are giving these elections credibility and, with it, giving the vote rigging Zanu PF government legitimacy.
So MP Tendai Biti should not just think about his time in prison as “cruel & degrading treatment, a crime against humanity” but most important of all that millions of Zimbabweans, inside and outside prison, are suffering the same or worse conditions.
And, most important of all, that the nation would have been saved from all this suffering and deaths if he and his MDC friends have not been selling-out on reforms and free, fair and credible elections. Food for thought; assuming he is not punch drunk on powers and his brain is now totally impermeable to reason and logic.
Well, well! A night in prison will give Tendai Biti the time out to reflect on the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship he and his MDC friends wasted!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Biti and his MDC friends who sold out, Zimbabwe is just one nationwide prison and a crime against humanity.
It is right and proper to describe Mnangagwa, and before him Mugabe, not just as a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous dictator but, above all else, as a breathtakingly incompetent, a buffoon. One has only to look at the idiotic economic policies Zanu PF has pursued these last 40 years, the root cause of the country's economic ruins to agree only a first class village idiot would have done that!
ReplyDeleteSo if one accepts that Mnangagwa and the now late Mugabe are buffoons, and there is a mountain of evidence to prove it, the question then arrises: How is it possible that the people of Zimbabwe have failed to rid themselves of these buffoons for 40 years and counting?
It is a historic fact that in the last 40 years Zimbabwe did, indeed, have many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship with the best of these chances being during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC leaders, through the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), forced Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence Zanu PF had used in the 2008 elections.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were the democratic reformers in the GNU and were tasked to implement the reforms. Mugabe and Zanu PF could not resist the reforms, the party had its hands tied behind its back by the GPA and SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the GPA, were there to enforce the agreement. The only reason why not even one democratic reform was implemented in five years of the GNU is because the MDC leaders were turned out to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent, buffoons, just like the Zanu PF leaders.
As for who is a bigger village idiot, Mugabe or Tsvangirai, Mnangagwa or Chamisa, Zanu PF or MDC; it is a matter of indifference! It is as irrelevant as asking which is more deadly a black mamba or a cobra, especially to a mouse. What matters to the people of Zimbabwe is the realisation that Zanu PF has been in power these last 40 years not because the party is invincible. Zanu PF leaders are incompetent and therefore vincible.
Indeed Zanu PF has been imploding these last 10 years, the November 2017 military coup was just one of the major earthquakes to rock the party. There will be many more to follow, Zanu PF is doomed.
The reason why MDC has failed to implement any reforms and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship in the party's 20 years on the political stage is because MDC leaders are incompetent. The people of Zimbabwe must accept this political reality because they need to find leaders who will rescue the nation from Zanu PF. Zanu PF is imploding and sinking into the abyss but unless something is done to price its iron grip on the nation, the party will drag the nation down with it.
MDC is not up to the task to implement the reforms much less price Zanu PF death grip on the nation. Tendai Biti and his MDC A friends are hell bend on participating in the 2023 elections and thus perpetuate Zanu PF's rule!
There is a great reluctance to deal with the difficult issues, it comes naturally to us all; in some people it is very strong, so strong it has all but blocked their ability to think rationally. It is no exaggeration to say when it comes to politics many Zimbabweans suffer from a mental blockade. They have pigeon-holed their politics into good and bad, they have elevated the former into demigods who can do no wrong and nothing upsets them more than hearing their heroes and heroines criticised.
ReplyDeleteIt is in this context of paranoia born out of the reluctance to deal with difficult issues that one can understand why so many Zimbabweans continue to refuse to accept that Tendai Biti and his MDC friends sold-out on the democratic reforms, even in the face of the historic fact of the party has failed to implement even one reform in 20 years! Of course, MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU!
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good-life, they will never rock the boat!) Boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU, when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing any of the democratic reforms.
MDC leaders have settled for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait for participating in the flawed and illegal elections. Once again MDC leaders are not going to rock the boat by demanding reforms. Indeed, MDC has even claimed to have Winning In Rigged Election (WIRE) strategies; to justify why they continue to participate in elections they know are being rigged.
The bottom line is MDC has all but given up the fight for free, fair and credible elections, the party had its chance to implement the reforms and wasted it. And without reforms, Zimbabwe is stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship. This is the political reality the nation must deal with, difficult as it is for some people to swallow.
@ Yayano
ReplyDelete“Hey Mukori, what are you doing about it apart from being an ardent keyboard warrior? You also need to stand up and get counted. I have.”
I am sure you have stood up and were counted! But given the sorry state the nation is in, even you will have to admit you and MDC leaders like Tendai Biti’s standing up and being counted these last 20 years has accomplished very little, to say the least. It is therefore obvious that the country needs, keyboard warriors, call them what you wish, who can say why the country is in a mess. Warriors who can force us to stop burying our heads in the sand and repeat the same foolish mistakes over and over again expecting a different result.
Of course, MDC leaders sold-out in failing to implement even one reform during the 2008 GNU and must be rightly chastised for it. Only a feeble minded person would praise MDC leaders to the high heavens for “standing up and be counted” regardless of their blatant betrayal of the people who risked life and limb to get them into power on the clear understanding they would implement the reforms.
The price of diesel is now ZWL$97.24 and US$1.19 per litre, while that for petrol is now ZWL$97.44 and US$1.19 per litre.
ReplyDeleteThe new prices show that the price of diesel in Zimbabwe dollars has increased significantly from last month’s price of ZWL$82.05 and the USD price has been reviewed upwards from US$1.00.
As for petrol, the price has been increased marginally in Zimbabwe dollars from ZWL$97.11. to ZWL$97.44 while there had been no change in USD terms.
This is just a never ending cycle of price/wage increase fuelling inflation fuelling a new wave price/wage increase and so on. The tragedy being the wage increases usually lag behind so much so workers are the greatest losers in every cycle.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs and shunned by the investors, there will be no meaningful economic recovery. To end the curse of pariah state, Zimbabwe must implement the reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections.
These MDC leaders and their supporters are not different from the Zanu PF thugs and their brain-dead war veterans like Matemadanda; they all think they are God Almighty's gift to the nation and therefore are not accountable to mere mortals! We have fought these last 40 years to convince Zanu PF thugs that they are and will always be fallible mortals, the notion of divine rulers is an aberration.
DeleteAnd now we are to fight the same battle all over again with these MDC upstarts who too claim they are the special ones! This foolishness must be nipped in the bud, quick smart!
@ Yayano
ReplyDeleteThis is just the MDC version of the Zanu PF "We fought in the liberation way and therefore have the divine right to rule Zimbabwe as we see fit!"
Well the country is in this economic and political mess precisely because Zanu PF thugs have ridden roughshod over the people, denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. For the last 40 years the nation has fought for the restoration of the people's freedoms and rights.
Zanu PF is imploding and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, at least many thought so.
The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming runaway train - MDC members and their moronic supporters claiming "Stood up to Zanu PF and therefore are not democratically accountable to any mortal!" The MDC leaders not only sold-out on implementing reforms, they now has chutzpah to add insult to injury by demanding the nation hold them in reverend honour for selling-out! I will be damned if I was ever to accept such idiotic nonsense!
Other sources said British intelligence was also reportedly involved in propping the foreign affairs minister’s presidential bid, should VP Chiwenga fail to ascend to the top.
ReplyDelete“Top British intelligence is at work here. They fear that VP Chiwenga might become incapacitated by health issues, therefore are backing SB Moyo as an alternative to the VP. However, the bigger picture and purpose for Moyo’s support from Britain, is that he sees to it that Zimbabwe rejoins the Commonwealth of Nations, and London returns the favour by endorsing him to become next in line should Chiwenga fail to become president by 2023. This is a plan that has been in motion soon after November 2017, and Moyo was told the cards to play when he visited Britain in April 2018, when their prime minister, Borris Johnson, was still foreign secretary.”
Moyo has emerged as a dark horse in the race to succeed Mnangagwa, who is determined to stay in power beyond 2023 and rule the country past 2030, in what all but amounts to a life presidency.
However, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has since reported on record that Mnangagwa’s days in office are numbered and that VP Chiwenga will soon ascend to replace him before the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections. We have also put it on record, that the VP is going to handover power to exiled former cabinet minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, as his anointed successor.
What Zimbabwe needs is to have the democratic reforms implemented so there are free, fair and credible elections. Ending the country’s dysfunctional autocratic political system and replacing it with a healthy democratic system will open the country to democratic competition and out of which quality leaders will emerge.
The British made a serious mistake in backing Mnangagwa before and after the November 2017 military coup at the expense of the people and real democratic change. It will be unforgivable the British to repeat the same mistake ever again!
At Goromonzi High School, 12 positive cases were recorded.
ReplyDelete“Waddilove and Goromonzi are now closed communities with no one allowed to get in or out,” the Mashonaland East Covid-19 daily report reads.
“The Health Ministry is working with Ministry of Education to see if all non-examination classes can be sent back home under strict monitoring to de-congest the schools.
“A total of 56 students have so far been infected in Mash East since the opening of schools,” the report reads.
Last month Wise Owl, a private school in Marondera was also forced to close after a pupil tested positive for Covid-19. The school re-opened after contact tracing.
Most schools in Zimbabwe are not equipped to deal with the corona virus threat; some school do not even have clean running water!