Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess and there are many reasons why we are in this mess. One of the reasons why we are in this mess is our propensity to make mountains out of a mole-hill.
“Mnangagwa is in a fix!” screamed the headlines in Bulawayo 24 and The Standard. Eye catching until you read the article!
Corona virus, the the grim riper, has claimed the lives of thousands of Zimbabwean lives, many more than the regime is letting on. The virus has hit hard the poor for who social distance, washing hands regularly, staying put, etc. are impossible because they live in crowded accommodation, have no running water, have go out any earn a living or starve, etc.
The ruling elite, their cronies and their families have largely escaped from the corona virus; cocooned in the five star mansions with clean running water, the sanitisers and the PPE for the odd occasion they ever got out of their cocoon, food and everything. They greatest worry during the corner virus lockdown has been boredom and piling up the weight!
Still, a few of the ruling elite did catch the corona virus, they have received five star medical attention and a tiny fraction of them have died. Amongst the ruling elite corona virus dead are three Ministers. No doubt there will be many more Ministers, Deputy Ministers, etc. to follow, the grime riper’s work has only just began; the corona virus pandemic has the rest of 2021 to run in Zimbabwe, at the very least.
Mnangagwa must find the competent men and women from the elected MPs and Senators, he has already used up his allowed allocation of non-elected individuals, to appoint as Ministers and Deputy Ministers to replace those claimed by the corona virus. And there lays Mnangagwa’s “fix”!
”His (Mnangagwa) choices are extremely limited," argued Alex Magaisa, in the article.
"He has to appoint from the current pool of elected representatives. Alternatively, he will have to sack some of those non-MPs if he wants to appoint new outsiders.
Section 104 (3) of the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitution reads: "Ministers and deputy ministers are appointed from among Senators or Members of the National Assembly, but up to five, chosen for their professional skills and competence, may be appointed outside Parliament."
Mnangagwa already has already appointed the five non-constituency ministers namely: Higher Education minister Amon Murwira, Local Government minister July Moyo, Sports minister Kirsty Coventry, Lands minister Anxious Masuka and Finance minister Mthuli Ncube.
What Magaisa has missed here is that Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless thugs cheered along by their corrupt and egotistic acolytes.
There reason why there is no competent men and women in parliament and in the senate is because Zimbabwe’s de facto one party dictatorship has stifled debate and democratic competition in both the ruling party and the opposition. Zimbabwe’s political system is a swamp; you cannot expect to catch quality fish, only frogs, newts and eels!
Even those Ministers appointed for their “professional skills and competence” have accomplished nothing of substance because in a Banana Republic they are not allowed to do anything. They are appointed to give the regime a good name, they nothing but window dressing manikins.
Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, for example, has been taxing the street vendors to death and yet has done nothing to end the gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions, the cancers killing the nation’s economy. Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies are the Godfathers of mismanagement and corruption and they have ring-fenced their activities; Minister Ncube knows these are not to be touched, the untouchables.
So even if Mnangagwa was to disregard the constitution and appoint more than the five non-elected individuals as ministers this will not make any difference as to the quality of government in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe will still be a Banana Republic blundering from pillar to post, from one crisis to the next!
Indeed, if appointing non-elected technocrats ministers, etc. would get Zimbabwe out of the economic and political mess the country is stuck in for 40 years and counting; only a dogmatic academic like Alex Magaisa would complain!
In case some people have forgotten: Alex Magaisa was chief advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai, then MDC leaders and Prime Minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The primary task of MDC was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed the Global Political Agreement designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
MDC failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Not even one reform!
If MDC had implemented the reforms Zanu PF would have been stopped from rigging the elections and Zimbabwe would not be a Banana Republic.
It is not Mnangagwa who is in a fix it is Zimbabwe that is in a fix, stuck with a pariah state! Advising Mnangagwa he has already reached the limit of non-elected minister he can appoint is not going to end the Banana Republic. Magaisa should have advised MDC to implement the reforms wittering about the non-elected minister limit is as irrelevant as bolting the stable door after the horse is gone!
CLAIMS by government that public health institutions have the capacity to handle all Covid-19 cases in the country and that they were also equipped to conduct mass screening, including testing for the virus, are not true, health workers who spoke to The Standard yesterday said.
ReplyDeleteGovernment last week urged people to go and receive Covid-19 treatment at public hospitals, saying it was not necessary for the pubic to pay huge sums of money at private health institutions for services that could be provided at government institutions. The government said its hospitals were sufficiently equipped to treat and test for the coronavirus.
The government's statement was in apparent response to a story ran by The Standard on how people seeking Covid-19 treatment were paying exorbitant fees in foreign currency at both private and public hospitals on admission.
The Zimbabwe Nurses' Association president Enoch Dongo said government was misrepresenting facts, adding that in fact the situation in public hospitals remained gloomy.
"It is unfortunate that the government chooses to lie to its people. That is not a right thing to do," Dongo said.
"Facts should be recorded correctly for the president to be aware and to make the right decisions. As we speak, urging people to report to public hospitals where health workers don't have adequate personal protective equipment and other resources would be to mislead them.
"We are in the midst of a pandemic and blame games and lying will not work.”
"Isolation centres are full, oxygen is in high demand and short supply while people are scrambling for hospital beds. Testing is free, but we only test suspected cases and contacts," one health worker said.
"Health workers are also a priority for testing. Though the RT-PCR remains the gold standard for diagnosis of Covid-19, most hospitals are currently using antigen rapid diagnostic testing which takes 15 to 30 minutes to give results. The turnaround time for results is somewhat fast.”
It is times like this of a serious national crisis that nations with corrupt and secretive regime like Zanu PF pay dearly for having allowed such a regime to be in position of power and authority.
The people have no choice but to believe the official corona virus cases and deaths. Hospitals send their data to the relevant authorities and get on with their other duties not knowing that the government is not recording and reporting the information correctly for its own political purpose of keeping the people in the dark to avoid being held to account over its handling of the pandemic.
Zimbabwe has not been testing enough to follow the spread of the corona virus in any meaningful way. When you do not test, many infected people are left in society who will go on to spread the virus.
Zimbabwe’s corona virus cases and deaths are a lot higher than the official reports show!
CLAIMS by government that public health institutions have the capacity to handle all Covid-19 cases in the country and that they were also equipped to conduct mass screening, including testing for the virus, are not true, health workers who spoke to The Standard yesterday said.
ReplyDeleteGovernment last week urged people to go and receive Covid-19 treatment at public hospitals, saying it was not necessary for the pubic to pay huge sums of money at private health institutions for services that could be provided at government institutions. The government said its hospitals were sufficiently equipped to treat and test for the coronavirus.
The government's statement was in apparent response to a story ran by The Standard on how people seeking Covid-19 treatment were paying exorbitant fees in foreign currency at both private and public hospitals on admission.
The Zimbabwe Nurses' Association president Enoch Dongo said government was misrepresenting facts, adding that in fact the situation in public hospitals remained gloomy.
"It is unfortunate that the government chooses to lie to its people. That is not a right thing to do," Dongo said.
"Facts should be recorded correctly for the president to be aware and to make the right decisions. As we speak, urging people to report to public hospitals where health workers don't have adequate personal protective equipment and other resources would be to mislead them.
"We are in the midst of a pandemic and blame games and lying will not work.”
"Isolation centres are full, oxygen is in high demand and short supply while people are scrambling for hospital beds. Testing is free, but we only test suspected cases and contacts," one health worker said.
"Health workers are also a priority for testing. Though the RT-PCR remains the gold standard for diagnosis of Covid-19, most hospitals are currently using antigen rapid diagnostic testing which takes 15 to 30 minutes to give results. The turnaround time for results is somewhat fast.”
It is times like this of a serious national crisis that nations with corrupt and secretive regime like Zanu PF pay dearly for having allowed such a regime to be in position of power and authority.
The people have no choice but to believe the official corona virus cases and deaths. Hospitals send their data to the relevant authorities and get on with their other duties not knowing that the government is not recording and reporting the information correctly for its own political purpose of keeping the people in the dark to avoid being held to account over its handling of the pandemic.
Zimbabwe has not been testing enough to follow the spread of the corona virus in any meaningful way. When you do not test, many infected people are left in society who will go on to spread the virus.
Zimbabwe’s corona virus cases and deaths are a lot higher than the official reports show!
MDC leaders like Alex Magaisa, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, David Coltart, etc. not only sold-out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU by failing to get even one reform implemented but worse still they have spend their time since pretending they did nothing wrong. The very fact that many Zimbabweans out there have no clue what the GNU was about, even now with the benefit of hindsight, has only allowed these sell-out to get away with murder!
ReplyDeleteAlex Magaisa has been dishing his idiotic advice on the political situation in Zimbabwe since his days as Tsvangirai’s chief advisor. Sadly, many people including those one would expect to have some common sense, have all taken on board the nonsense again and again.
I totally agree, it is not Mnangagwa who is in a fix here, it is us the Zimbabwean people who are in fix! Now that Zanu PF and MDC have established this new political relationship in which Zanu PF rigs the elections and MDC participate in the flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats it is going to be very hard to breakup this relationship. Whether Mnangagwa appoints more than the five non-elected people ministers is small fry!
MDC leaders like Alex Magaisa, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, David Coltart, etc. not only sold-out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU by failing to get even one reform implemented but worse still they have spend their time since pretending they did nothing wrong. The very fact that many Zimbabweans out there have no clue what the GNU was about, even now with the benefit of hindsight, has only allowed these sell-out to get away with murder!
ReplyDeleteAlex Magaisa has been dishing his idiotic advice on the political situation in Zimbabwe since his days as Tsvangirai’s chief advisor. Sadly, many people including those one would expect to have some common sense, have all taken on board the nonsense again and again.
I totally agree, it is not Mnangagwa who is in a fix here, it is us the Zimbabwean people who are in fix! Now that Zanu PF and MDC have established this new political relationship in which Zanu PF rigs the elections and MDC participate in the flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats it is going to be very hard to breakup this relationship. Whether Mnangagwa appoints more than the five non-elected people ministers is small fry!
ZIMBABWE'S mining industry has been gripped by fresh fears of capital flight after amendments contained in the Finance (No. 2) Bill empowered government to extend the scope of the sector reserved for indigenisation to all minerals.
ReplyDeleteThe industry generates about US$2 billion yearly and contributes 70% of export revenues.
Plans were already underway to transform the mining industry into a US$12 billion sector in the next two years.
But should investors stay away, this target will be difficult to achieve.
"It is worrying because of its potential effect on the economy and also because of the surreptitious way it was enacted," said Economic Governance Watch, in a paper titled Mining Industry: Indigenisation Through the Back Door.
Many of Mugabe’s policies since 2 000 were political and did not make any economic sense. What we are seeing here is history repeating itself!
Zanu PF has relied on fear; fear of the gun, fear of the white colonialists returning, fear of poverty, fear of everything; to retain its iron grip on power. Such policies as the violent seizure of the white owned farms and the black empowerment law are aimed at the party’s brainwashed youths and war veterans to whip their emotions especially during elections.
Instead of elections being about a rational discussing of the main issues affecting the nations, they are reduced to the one issue, land or black empowerment.
The party whips up such strong emotions what should be a simple electoral choice is turned into a sovereignty matter with all the unpleasant connotations that entails!
Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, would rather light the match and burn down the whole country and reduce everything to ruins and ashes than see anyone else rule Zimbabwe. He is enacting policies that will whip the braindead Zanu PF constituency that will set the nation on fire at his command.
ZIMBABWE'S mining industry has been gripped by fresh fears of capital flight after amendments contained in the Finance (No. 2) Bill empowered government to extend the scope of the sector reserved for indigenisation to all minerals.
ReplyDeleteThe industry generates about US$2 billion yearly and contributes 70% of export revenues.
Plans were already underway to transform the mining industry into a US$12 billion sector in the next two years.
But should investors stay away, this target will be difficult to achieve.
"It is worrying because of its potential effect on the economy and also because of the surreptitious way it was enacted," said Economic Governance Watch, in a paper titled Mining Industry: Indigenisation Through the Back Door.
Many of Mugabe’s policies since 2 000 were political and did not make any economic sense. What we are seeing here is history repeating itself!
Zanu PF has relied on fear; fear of the gun, fear of the white colonialists returning, fear of poverty, fear of everything; to retain its iron grip on power. Such policies as the violent seizure of the white owned farms and the black empowerment law are aimed at the party’s brainwashed youths and war veterans to whip their emotions especially during elections.
Instead of elections being about a rational discussing of the main issues affecting the nations, they are reduced to the one issue, land or black empowerment.
The party whips up such strong emotions what should be a simple electoral choice is turned into a sovereignty matter with all the unpleasant connotations that entails!
Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, would rather light the match and burn down the whole country and reduce everything to ruins and ashes than see anyone else rule Zimbabwe. He is enacting policies that will whip the braindead Zanu PF constituency that will set the nation on fire at his command.
@ Zimvigil
ReplyDeleteWell since the clowns are pulling all the stops to make sure they are vaccinated first and povo will have to wait for the donated vaccines we can sure the povo will continue to die like flies for a year or two.
Send in the clown! Well they are here, after getting their vaccine jab they will be coming out of the Blue Roof mansions where they have been cocooned for a year now. They can't wait for international travel to open up again!
The clowns are here today, next year and, you can bet your bottom dollar, they will win the 2023 elections with another landslide! You can also be certain that the MDC clowns will participate in the 2023 elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF always gives away as bait. Yes it is fair to say the clowns are here to stay!
This just typical of Alex Magaisa and of corrupt and incompetent individuals like him: he failed to advise Morgan Tsvangirai to implement even one token reform and now he cannot keep his big trap shut giving away all manner of advise of no consequence to the nation. None!
ReplyDeleteAs you correctly pointed out, Mnangagwa can appoint the Albert Einstein Minister but what good will that do if the Minister finds himself/ herself so hamstrung they can do nothing of substance.
The likes of Professor Mthuli Ncube, Kirsty Coventry, etc. all knew Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, they knew the regime is corrupt and incompetent and still they agreed to join Mnangagwa's cabinet because being called cabinet minister tickled their fancy to no end. The real tragedy is there are millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who have paid the pay the price for 40 years of the regime's corruption, mismanagement and tyrannical misrule.
Millions are living is abject poverty and many are dying in damn anguish so a few individual can call themselves Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister or Minister of this or that! How can that be just!