When some people have nothing better to say, the repeat themselves. Mwonzora is back at calling for national dialogue as the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis.
”He envisages that such a dialogue to build synergies in nation building should be broadened to include other political players, churches and civic society,” reported acting MDC-T spokesperson, Witness Dube.
"President Mwonzora indicated that as a party, we have not been approached by any institution in that regard, but welcomed a resolution mandating the party to take initiatives on the same.”
The 2008 national dialogue sponsored by SADC did come up with a raft of democratic reforms, the cure the nation had been waiting for, and the Zanu PF and MDC leaders, partners in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, were tasked to implement the reforms. Zimbabwe is still a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs to this day because Zanu PF and MDC leaders failed to implement the agreed reforms.
We do not need a new national dialogue to come up with a new list of democratic reforms; the raft of reforms from 2008 is fine. What we need is to first of all acknowledge that it was Zanu PF and MDC leaders who failed to implement the reforms last time and hence the reason they cannot be entrusted to carryout the task again.
Zanu PF leaders knew that implementing the reforms and holding free, fair and credible elections would end the party’s iron grip on power. The situation has not changed; Mnangagwa and company will never ever reform themselves out of office.
Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and whilst they had their snout in the feeding trough the forgot about implementing the democratic reforms for the duration of the GNU. MDC leaders proved then beyond all doubt that they were corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent ; there is no cure for that and so they are to this day corrupt and incompetent.
When Douglas Mwonzora was elected the leader of the MDC-T, taking over from Madam Thokozani Khupe, one of his first “executive orders” was to recognise Mnangagwa as the legitimate president and therefore that the July 2018 elections as free, fair and credible. Why both Mwonzora and Mnangagwa have been calling for the national dialogue leading to a new GNU arrangement , Mnangagwa opted for POLAD, is a mystery.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was necessary because the 2008 elections were marred by the blatant Zanu PF cheating in the March vote followed by the wanton violence in the run-off. Everyone, including SADC and AU, refused to accept such a flawed process could produce a legitimate government. The GNU was compromise and GNU partners were tasked to implement the democratic reforms to stop a repeat of the 2008 election fiasco.
If the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible, as both Mnangagwa and Mwonzora would agree, then there will be no need to implement any democratic reforms. Reforms are implemented to stop elections being rigged.
Zanu PF has a 2/3 majority in parliament and can therefore govern on its own without the needing any opposition coalition backing.
A healthy and functioning democracy need an independent opposition party to hold the government of the day to democratic account. And so, a Zanu PF and MDC coalition will not be in the interest of the nation!
Actually, Douglas Mwonzora is wrong; the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible. Zanu PF rigged the elections, the regime is legitimate. The EU, Americans, the Commonwealth and all the other election observers condemn the elections as a farce. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll!
It would have been much easier to stop Zanu PF declaring itself the legitimate government if the Zimbabwe opposition had not participating the elections in such numbers. There is no denying that by participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC and the rest of Zimbabwe’s opposition camp, gave the vote rigging Zanu PF some modicum of legitimacy.
The ideal solution would be to get Zanu PF to step down, even this late in the day, to create the political space to appoint a interim administration tasked to implement the 2008 raft of democratic reforms to restore all the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.
The dialogue Mwonzora is calling for will have Zanu PF playing a pivotal role in the interim administration and it will never implement the required reforms, as stated above. Mwonzora’s proposal is a waste of time.
If Zanu PF will not accept stepping down, as is almost certain it will not, then the party must be left in no doubt that the 2023 elections will be declared null and void if the plebiscite goes ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms,; even if all the usual opposition opportunists participated!
Declaring the elections null and void will create the political space to appoint the interim administration of competent and visionary men and women who will, finally, implement the reforms.
Zimbabwe has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years and counting. The nation has failed to remove the party from power because it rigged the elections. And four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the nation in economic ruins. The corona virus pandemic has only turned a tragic situation into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion.
What Zimbabwe needs to get out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has dragged the nation into is implement the democratic reforms and finally cure itself of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are holding the nation to ransom and stopping the reforms being implemented. This cannot be allow to continue!
If Zanu PF does not implement the democratic reforms before the 2023 elections then the party must be forced to step down to allow others to implement the reforms. Period!
@ Chihwayi
ReplyDelete“The man-made frictions within the opposition circles are too far from killing the opposition in Zimbabwe. The ructions have been badly misinterpreted to mean demise of the opposition in this country.
“The haggling parties can still work together in their fight against the Zanu-PF regime which we strongly believe has outlived its mandate and should ship out after failing the nation.
“The fight is about the unfinished business in the MDC-T, a partner of the MDC Alliance, and I have a strong personal feeling that we need each other more than individuals in this fight to dislodge the regime which is the source of our wailing day and night.”
The reason why the opposition has been dogged by these in-house dog-eat-dog fights is because MDC has corrupt and incompetent leaders galore.
It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe, 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell who revealed in a leaked cable to Washington that Morgan Tsvangirai “was a flawed and indecisive character”. He said similar things about the other leaders. Time has proven him right!
The MDC has blundered from pillar to post in everything they did and it shows. The party has failed to implement even one meaningful reform, it core task with the Zimbabwe public, leaders have spend many man-hours every day poking each other’s eyes out, etc.
Instead of addressing the core problems of corrupt and incompetent leaders the party has again and again sort solace in gloss over the problem. “Haggling parties can still work together!” Right!
You cannot make a silk purse from a sow’s ear!
@ Mwonzora
ReplyDelete“Minister Moyo was a decorated career soldier who started his career as a teenager when he left school to join the liberation war. He was part of the famous Manana Lutheran Mission High School kids who in 1976 abandoned their studies to join other liberation fighters. He later had a career in the Zimbabwe National Army before becoming our Foreign Affairs and International and Trade Minister in 2017. As a member of the senate, he showed determination towards peace and development.
“Dr Gwaradzimba was a successful academic who at one stage was a Dean of Students at Africa University. She was a Senator in the Upper House, and as Provincial Affairs Minister she showed dedication towards the realization of the development of Manicaland Province.”
Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic and typical of such a state the official narrative is always the exact opposite of the reality on the ground. There is so much attention paid to appearance, it is all froth no substance.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm the stage managed bumper harvests when the animals were starving! I never believed this would be replicated in Zimbabwe and yet that is exactly what is happening.
Over 50% of our people are living in abject poverty, i.e. they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less other basic necessities such as education for their children, medicine, etc. And yet the country has more declared national heroes and heroines in the last 40 years than many other nations with ten times our population have generated in the last 400 years! Why have these heroes failed to save the nation!
Poverty has grown exponentially and the only other thing that has grown at the same rate is corruption!
So who has been rigging elections and getting paid in brown envelops their share of the wholesale looting going on in Marange and Chiadzwa!! Decorated soldier and dedicated public servant, my foot!
It is sickening to note that Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the understanding the opposition will implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF corruption and tyranny. After 20 years MDC has not implemented even one reform and, worse still, the opposition is not only parodying Zanu PF they are praising the corrupt and murderous thugs to the high heavens!
I totally agree, the root cause of Zimbabwe’s, seemingly endless swan song of economic and political problems is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. And so the solution is to implement the democratic reforms to ensure elections are free, fair and credible. The nation has know the cure is implementing the reforms ever since the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
ReplyDeleteThe GNU failed to deliver free and fair elections in 2013 but only because the partners in the GNU failed to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the GPA.
The reason why the GNU failed to get even one token reform implemented is obvious - the individuals entrusted to implement the reforms were the chief beneficiaries of the rigged elections. They had an invested interest in retaining the status quo at all cost!
Ever since the 2008 to 2013 GNU, both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have gone to great lengths never to discuss what happened during the GNU much less why no reforms were implemented. The all know that if the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth was ever to come out the nation will demand the leaders from both parties held to account.
It is not the cure we want, we have had the cure since the 2008 GPA; what we want are the competent men and women who will implement the democratic reforms and deliver the nation’s first ever free, fair and credible elections.
Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have already proven that they cannot be trusted to implement the democratic reforms. They will never acknowledge that implementing the reforms is the cure because they will have to explain why they failed to implement them and, worse still, will be force to do so now. And so they are taking the nation on a merry-go-round seeking solutions to the nations’ problems with themselves in charge of the circus - but of course!
The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the reality that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. This is a man-made problem and Zanu PF and MDC leaders are the men and women behind it all.
How can individuals causing the problem be the ones dictating the solution too, especially when the solution entails the individuals losing their privileged positions?
Zimbabwe needs men and women who will implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections. Zanu PF and MDC leaders will never ever implement the reforms because they are the ones benefiting from the present system. This is not rocket science!!!
UK-based lawyer and one of the founding opposition MDC leaders Yvonne Mahlunge-Gwashawanhu, David Coltart's deputy then, says while people should upon death mourn Zanu-PF ministers like Joel Biggie Matiza, there shouldn't be selective amnesia; their evil deeds can't be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteMahlunge-Gwashawanhu says it was during that time that she came across victims of political violence by the Border Gezi-trained Zanu-PF militias in which the late Matiza was implicated.
One should speak no evil of the dead! “Afa annata!” as one would say in Shona. But to listen these Zanu PF thugs talking about one of the own, one would think Zimbabwe is a nation of saints!
S B Moyo and his fellow November 2017 military coup are criminals. All this talk of the coup being “legal, justified and constitutional”, as per Justice George Chiweshe’s judgement, is all nonsense. Yes Mugabe was a dictator, but was it not the coup plotters themselves who had kept him in power by rigging the elections?
Indeed, just 8 months after the coup, Moyo and company blatantly rigged the elections in violation of their own promise to hold free, fair and credible elections.
It has all become a meaningless and even insulting farce with the opposition leaders falling over themselves in their eagerness to praise Zanu PF thugs to the high heavens!