Zimbabwe Social Democrats Press release 29 January 2021
We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats demand the implementation of democratic reforms necessary for transparent, free, fair and credible elections, as the only way to cure ourselves of the disease of rigged elections and bad governance; itself a pre-requisite to peace, justice and economic prosperity for all and not just a few.
“Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you”, said Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Independent Ghana’s first president.
And “One man! One vote!” was the clarion cry, the Holy Grail, of the fight for independence and to end white colonial oppression and exploitation.
Zimbabweans were short changed! Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends made it clear that if they did not win the 1980 elections, the plebiscite to usher independence, the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the war and with that vote lost their political kingdom!
Some people argued that the Zanu PF threat was just a political campaign gimmick. There was never any doubt of Zanu PF’s ruthless intentions after the party launched the Gukurahundi massacre targeting PF Zapu leaders and supporters, to clear the way for the imposition of the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country to this day.
Again and again Zanu PF has resorted to using brute force to impose its will on the people. It is foolhardy to argue looking up the business end of an AK47 rifle.
Still, it is a historic fact that the nation has had a number of opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship in the last 40 years and wasted them all.
The best chance to end the dictatorship was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC leaders had managed to get Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to agree to a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop the blatant cheating and wanton violence that had marred the 2008 elections. All Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had to do was implement the reforms.
MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU. Not one!
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest is history.
Coming out of the GNU, Zanu PF has retained all its dictatorial powers or be it with a small concession; the party allow the opposition to win a few gravy train seats to entice them to participate in the flawed elections to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
The ordinary Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party would deliver democratic changes, to restore the individual freedoms and rights, the political power so rudely denied them since 1980. Sadly, just like Zanu PF before them, MDC leaders too have betrayed the nation.
It took nearly 20 years for the people of Zimbabwe to reach a majority consensus that Zanu PF leaders were corrupt, incompetent and tyrants. It has taken even longer for some Zimbabweans to see MDC leaders for what they really are, corrupt and incompetent.
Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic chaos and political paralysis, both the ruling party and opposition leaders are corrupt and useless. The country has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent government for 40 years, no wonder the country is in total economic ruins.
Holding free, fair and credible elections is our ticket out of this economic and political hell-on-earth we find ourselves stuck in.
“One man! One vote!” is more than just a fundamental right; it is the foundation on which to build a stable, just and competent government.
We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats therefore demand the implementation of the following democratic reforms, pre-requisites for the holding of transparent, free, fair and credible 2023 elections:
- There must be a verified voters’ roll. A constituency voters’ roll, at least a copy in each constituency, must be released for public inspection along side a supplementary roll for additions, deletions and corrections. The voters’ roll must be audited at least once every election cycle and one must be carried out a.s.a.p. to help restore confidence in Zimbabwe’s election process.
- 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the opportunity to register and to vote in the July 2018 elections; this must not be allowed to happen ever again. All Zimbabwe embassies and consular offices must start diaspora vote registration.
- Zimbabwe’s public media and other state institutions such as the Police are notorious for their partisan bias, this must seize forthwith.
- Zanu PF is renowned for turning state activities into party activities a situation that has left citizens as helpless as medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF landlords. This must stop.
- Corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe and much of the looted wealth has been used to bankroll the election activities of those supportive of the looting, vote rigging and other criminal activities. Government must cancel all existing mining concessions or economic activities to go ahead without keeping any records of quantity and quality of the produce, to whom it was sold and for how much, etc. Everyone must keep records of their economic activities and must be subjected to the audited accounts and all the other checks and balances.
This is a rhetorical exercise in that Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office. Still, it is a necessary rhetorical exercise for four reasons:
- Zanu PF cannot say it did not know of any necessary reforms and the regime has over two years to fully implement all the reforms.
- Zanu PF cannot claim that ordinary Zimbabweans do not want any reforms it is only the West that is demanding reforms
- MDC leaders cannot participate in flawed and illegal election under the pretext they can win rigged elections, only to complain of vote rigging after the event
- No stone will be left unturned to make sure, with no reforms, the elections are declared null and void.
Gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have turned Zimbabwe into basket case Banana Republic, millions have left the country as economic and/or political refugees and left 50% of our people now live in extreme poverty. Dr Kwame Nkrumah was right Zimbabweans lost their political power and soon everything else has been taken away from them. Everything!
After 40 years and counting of being denied their basic freedoms and rights, the people of Zimbabwe must reclaim their freedoms and human dignity starting with “One man! One vote!”
How insulting that Zanu PF thugs have even justified rigging the elections on the foolish notion that doing so was punishing the West for having imposed sanctions on the regime. It is a sick father who will beat his wife and children to punish the neighbour.
If the 2023 elections do not deliver “One man! One vote!” then the plebiscite will be declared null and void and a body appoint to implement the democratic reforms to guarantee transparent, free, fair and credible elections. This is not negotiable.
If Zanu PF cannot deliver free, fair and credible elections after 40 years then they really must go!
Best regards
Signed: Wilbert Mukori
Secretary General
Zimbabwe Social Democrats
zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Chamisa told his supporters in a Facebook address that it was time for politicians and their followers to set aside their differences and help fight the killer disease that has taken the lives of more than 1 000 Zimbabweans to date, while also infecting tens of thousands others.
ReplyDelete"It is time we work together to stop the spread of Covid-19. Unity is key in the face of this pandemic. All of us must put aside our political jackets, remove our political robes, political differences and work together in this fight.
"It is not the time to score cheap political points. In fact, that score board is not there … Let us forget this politicking and sloganeering because this Covid-19 knows no slogan.
"Together we will win, weather the storm … Let us not be divided by politicians," Chamisa said in his virtual address.
The purpose of the opposition is to hold the ruling party to account. Corona virus has killed many Zimbabweans whose lives could have been saved if the Zanu PF regime had been testing and isolating as it should. What is the point of having the opposition if the nation cannot count on them to get Zanu PF to do even the obvious things.
Chamisa has spend the last year licking his own self-inflicted wounds from the High Court judgement that declared him the illegitimate leader of MDC-T after Tsvangirai’s death. Now the idiot is so keen to find himself a political role that he would do anything including sell the nation to Zanu PF!
“Even though the numbers are falling, we bemoan that Zimbabweans are dying at home. It is in light of this that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has decided to extend the Level IV national lockdown by another two weeks to February 15, 2021,” he said.
ReplyDelete“The president appreciates the difficulties which come with this extension. Livelihoods are being disrupted yet we are losing lives and our nation. We must not lose the momentum, which means we must mask up, sanitise, social distance and stay home.
“Government will soon be bringing vaccines. The roll-out strategy is being finalised and the nation will be kept informed of all these developments.”
How many of those dying at home are included in the official death toll count?
This is laughable, it is not as if the country has the technical know how to decide which vaccine it better than the other or the financial resource to muscle in and get whatever it wants. By being one of the last to place our order we can also be certain we will be the last to get the vaccine and meanwhile more people will have died!
Zanu PF is a very secretive regime and it has under reported the seriousness of covid-19 for the sake of looking good and Zimbabweans have, as usual, played along. The secrecy has help spread the virus as many people with the virus and should have been in isolation were left in the community. spreading the virus.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows that a hell lot more people have died of the virus in their homes and they were never tested and never added to the official list.
The value of total exports in December 2020 was US$488.3 million. This was a decrease of 7.6% from the value of total exports in November 2020, which was about US$528.4 million.
ReplyDeleteDuring the same period, imports increased slightly by 3.4% to US$527.2 million from US$509.8 million in November 2020.
While a positive trade balance was maintained for the four months in a row, at the end of 2019, the trade balance for December 2020 was a deficit of US$39 million
Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic that loves cooking up figures to make the regime look good!
Jonathan Moyo, a Zimbabwean professor of politics, says calls by some local analysts for the military - which has become a power broker - to be involved in talks to resolve the country's deepening crisis are politically, democratically and practically undesirable and untenable.
ReplyDelete"Has Zimbabwe suddenly become a Myanmar? The argument is tantamount to an endorsement of the military state and to giving the military a veto power. The military must get out of politics and return to the barracks, unconditionally. This principle is non-negotiable!," Moyo said.
It was Robert Mugabe who created the Joint Operation Command (JOC) Junta giving the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services a significant role in the governance of the country. Ever since Zanu PF lost the 2 000 referendum on the new constitution the party has relied on the Junta to keep it in power.
When Mugabe tried to elbow the Junta out of power as the G40 vs Lacoste factional war hotted up, the Junta acted decisively with the 15 November 2017 military coup. The coup has allowed the main players in the Junta to boldly step out of the shadows and take prominent political positions.
Still, Professor Moyo is right, it will be very foolish to officially grant the Junta a political voice as well as keep its traditional role the ultimate enforcer wielding the gun. Who will stop the Junta wielding the gun each time the lose a political argument, especially after getting away with the November 2017 “military assisted transition”!
It was very foolish of Mugabe to have created the JOC Junta and the fool paid for his folly; we must not repeat the same mistake!
The African Union Special Envoy on the COVID crisis, Strive Masiyiwa, has said that Africa will get more than 1 billion doses of vaccines by December 2021.
ReplyDeleteHe said international donors had already pledged 700 million free doses this year, using a global finance initiative called COVAX. This would be enough to vaccinate at least 27% (324 million out of 1,2 billion people) of the African population.
Based on advice from scientists at the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) the continent must vaccinate 750m (60%) of its population to stop the virus spreading.
Governments around the world, including the United States and Europe, have set even higher targets.
Africa is trying to secure more vaccines directly by purchasing on a pooled basis to get better prices. South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up a TaskForce that is negotiating with manufactures on behalf of the continent.
Africa is the wealthiest continent in the world in terms of having natural resources and yet, once again, Africans have to rely on charity to save human suffering and deaths! And all because Africa is a continent hamstrung by its criminal waste of human and material resources because of the scourge of corruption and incompetent leadership.
How long are we, Africans going to continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend we do not have a serious problem of poor leadership?
How many millions of Africans have to suffer and die before we finally open our eyes and admit we have a problem and do something to end the man-made problems?
Of course, it makes sense that those most at risk of getting the virus should get the vaccine first but we all know that in a country like Zimbabwe it is the ruling elite, their cronies and their families who will get the jab first. The donor nations know that already and hence the reason Zimbabwe has not received as much corona virus aid as many other nations!
“A goat does not eat into a hen's stomach no matter how friendly the two may be,” said Chinua Achebe.
Africa’s ruling elite are the fat cats insisting they are eating into the hen’s stomach when in reality they are feasting on the hens, the poor!
President Mnangagwa last weekend assured the country that no resource will be spared as the country intensifies efforts to procure the vaccine, which would have been recommended by experts to be safe for inoculation among Zimbabweans.
ReplyDeleteThe country has a population of around 15 million and to achieve herd immunity, which can be achieved when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease, providing indirect protection to those who are not immune to the disease, at least 10 million Zimbabweans should be vaccinated.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana, who is also the Government spokesperson, said the Covid-19 vaccine was five times cheaper than the PCR tests kits that had since been distributed nationwide.
"If we have the money for PCR tests which we have rolled out across the country, we surely can afford vaccines," he said.
"Think of it, the vaccine is at least five times cheaper than a PCR test. So it's much cheaper for us to mass inoculate than to mass test. We are just waiting on science.
"The decision on what vaccine is going to be used in Zimbabwe lies with the Government. The responsibility to immunise the populace also rests with the Government. The notion that we have no vaccines in the country yet because the Government has no money is also misplaced.
"Vaccines cost between US$3-9, which gives an average of US$6. A PCR test costs about US$25. It means if we vaccinate the whole population and forgo testing we will save a lot of money than try to test everyone. It also means that immunising all the eligible people makes us attain herd immunity very quickly which allows us to open the economy to full throttle."
Mr Mangwana said the use of vaccines would bring immeasurable economic and social benefits.
"So, in short Government has a number of motivating factors which pushes for us to start Covid-19 immunisation," he said.
"But we have to do this as safely as possible. This is why our mantra has been that the decision on which vaccine to use will be science led by our own Zimbabwean scientists.
"Thus, they have to consider our social and even ethnic context. Once they have made informed recommendations then the Government will make the procurement decision.”
This is a liar for two reasons:
There are test kits cost US$1 or cheaper on the market. Zimbabwe has carried out one of the lowest number of corona virus test per capita in the region because Zanu PF does not want the true number of people infected and killed by the virus known. Last month when SA was doing over 44 000 tests per day, Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population of SA should have been doing over 11 000 tests per day yet we hardly did 1 500 tests per day. The penalty of failing to test and isolate is that many infected people were left in society spreading the virus.
By failing to place the order for the vaccine, it means Zimbabwe will be amount the last nations to get the vaccine. The first lot of vaccine the country gets will be for the ruling elite, their cronies and their families before those most at risk and frontline workers get the jab.
To anyone wishing to know just how serious corruption is in Zimbabwe, a University of Zimbabwe Economics Professor, Albert Makochekanwa, was just produced a report on corruption in the mining commissioned by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc). Any article of the report is in Bulawayo 24 and The News Hawk "President's wide powers on mining fuel extractive resources corruption"
ReplyDeleteRead the article, it is an eye opener!
In 2012 MP Edward Chindori - Chininga produced a parliamentary reports on the going on in Marange and Chiadzwa. The report revealed the diamond mining concession granted to the operator allowed them to mine without having to keep any record of the quantity and quality of diamonds, to whom the diamonds were sold and for how much, who benefited from the sale, etc., etc. Needless to say the holders of the mining concessions paid no company tax, no individual tax and no one who they are.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the mining concessions were a licence to loot!
The GNU cabinet was aware of these licence to loot mining concessions and parliament, through the Chindori-Chininga report at least, was aware of the wholesale looting and did nothing about it.
Chindori-Chininga use his position as chair person of the parliamentary committe on mines to carry out the investigations. He feared for his life and dead just a few months after the report in a car accident!
Professor Albert Makochekanwa, is not saying something we did not already know, much less what ZACC did not know. We also know that as long as Zanu PF remains in office nothing will ever be done to stamp out corruptions because the Zanu PF leaders are the Godfathers of corruption!
The forthright Matemadanda told the Daily News On Sunday yesterday that while Mnangagwa and the ruling party were yet to meet to deliberate on the opposition's recent refreshing calls for unconditional dialogue, he personally would back the idea of such talks initially taking place outside Polad.
ReplyDelete"I see that the opposition, particularly Mwonzora, is showing political maturity, and that is the right thing to do given that the MDC's politics has been premised on polarisation.
"Any discussions can be done anywhere, but they do not become official unless they are done under an established platform, and in our case Polad. "It doesn't mean that they (such talks) cannot be done outside Polad. They can be done, but at the end of the day, an established forum will make them official," Matemadanda told the Daily News On Sunday.
If Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible then Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy, international recognised as such. All this talk of national dialogue is just a waste of time, Zanu PF had the 2/3 majority in parliament and should get on with the business of governing the country. Zanu PF does not need the support of the opposition.
Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra is dead in the water and with it all hopes of a meaningful economic recovery. Why! Well because Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections and thus confirmed that the country was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. No one wants to do business with thugs, certainly not investors.
Mnangagwa is hoping the political talks will result in whitewashing his Zanu PF dictatorship, enough to fool the investors into believing Zimbabwe is no longer a pariah state and bring about some economic recovery. The international community will not be so easily hoodwinked!
The only political dialogue Zimbabwe needs is one leading to Zanu PF stepping down so the nation can appoint a competent body that will implement the democratic reforms leading to free, fair and credible elections.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate and must stop holding the nation to ransom.
A plane carrying South Africa’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccines has left India and is expected to arrive in the country on Monday.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, South Africa’s Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, says one million doses will be arriving from the Serum Institute of India.
Well done to SA! The country can start the important business of vaccinating its people and saving lives unlike some countries who are all talk and no action.
No doubt Zimbabwe will soon vaccinating imaginary people with imaginary vaccines just to give the impression the country is not lagging behind with its vaccine programme! Watch this space!
Camilla Nielsson and her crew followed Chamisa and his campaign team in the four weeks leading up to the election as they prepare to take on what they know will be an unfair and rigged election controlled by Zanu PF, despite assurances from Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) that the election would be conducted fairly and with great transparency.
ReplyDeleteChamisa et al did indeed KNOW that the July 2018 elections would be unfair and rigged; the most rational question that anyone, anyone at all with any brain, is why participate in an election you know will be rigged?
Chamisa and his followers participated in the July 2018 elections because they had sold-out of implementing reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They have since given up all hope of getting the reforms implemented and have been participating in flawed elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF was giving away to entice the opposition to participate.
Zanu PF needs the opposition to participate in the flawed elections to give the process credibility. David Coltart a senior member in the MDC Alliance has admitted this in his book.
Chamisa et al are selling out in participating in flawed elections and to view them as anything else other that what they are - corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs - is foolish, today the least!
@ Ndaba Ndabezitha
ReplyDeleteArmy Is Into Mining, Police Are Into Mining, Where Else In The World Has This Ever Happened?
Could not agree with you more.
All those involved in the wholesale looting of our resources, the Army, Police, CIO, Prison Service and a number of select individuals like Mnangagwa himself and their foreign partners such as the Chinese and Russians all know that if Zimbabwe was to hold free, fair and credible elections the party will probably lose the elections and their looting days will be over. This is the reason all these local looters and their foreign partners will bankroll Zanu PF's vote rigging juggernaut to make sure the party wins no matter what.
One of the five conditions Zimbabwe Social Democrats (ZSD) are demanding for free, fair and credible elections in an end to rampant corruption.
"Corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe and much of the looted wealth has been used to bankroll the election activities of those supportive of the looting, vote rigging and other criminal activities. Government must cancel all existing mining concessions or economic activities to go ahead without keeping any records of quantity and quality of the produce, to whom it was sold and for how much, etc. Everyone must keep records of their economic activities and must be subjected to the audited accounts and all the other checks and balances," states the ZSD statement.
The reason why MDC leaders have participated in elections in the past and will continue to do the same in 2023, regardless of all the looting and vote rigging, is they were after the few gravy train seats and a cut of the Political Party Finance Act payout Zanu PF offers as bait!
MDC Alliance vice chairperson Hon Job Sikhala has boldly declared that he will not surrender until the people of Zimbabwe are free from oppression.
ReplyDeleteHon Sikhala has also revealed how Emmerson Mnangagwa’s agents are tormenting his family.
Below is Hon Sikhala’s full statement.
MDC has been on the political stage for over 20 years now and no one in their right mind can deny the party had many opportunities to free the people of Zimbabwe but failed to do so. What Job Sikhala should do is ask why the party has failed in this task. Issuing more and more bold statements whilst repeating the same foolish mistakes is not what the country wants!
MDC leaders have been participating in elections knowing the process in flawed and illegal. This must stop!
It is most infuriating for Job Sikhala to keep making these foolish statement of freeing the people and meanwhile participating in the elections giving the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy. We really are sick and tired of all this double Dutch - saying one thing and doing the exact opposite!
Are you going to participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms, just as you did in the 2018, or not? Just answer the question and stop all this political posturing like a silver-back gorilla!
Hon Sikhala was granted ZWL $ 25 000 bail on Monday.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Hon Sikhala, the persecution of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s critics is not the solution to the deepening economic crisis.
The resilient MDC Alliance official denounced the calculated harassment of perceived government opponents.
“Hello Zimbabwe Flag of Zimbabwe my love. Chikurubi hardens the warriors. Fix the rot. Persecution of critics is not a solution.
The business of arresting opponents on non- existent laws should come to an end. We demand our freedom,” Hon Sikhala wrote on Twitter.
Decades of prison did not harden Zanu PF warriors none did the decades of the bush war, at least harden them as warriors for freedom and liberty. Zanu PF thugs were yesteryear’s liberators and today’s oppressors.
MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship; they wasted the opportunity. Every thinking Zimbabwean is rightly worried about you “fixing the rot” in Zanu PF but seemingly incapable of seeing the rot in your own MDC party!