“Ours must always be a story of hope. Of citizens who, knowing how ruthless & repressive this regime is, chose courage over inaction,” wrote Advocate Fadzai Mahere, MDC Alliance spokesperson.
Well those were very moving and courageous words especially in the light of what she had just gone through.
Fadzai Mahere was arrested and incarcerated last week for 'publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state’. She had posting a video showing a baby supposedly killed by a policeman's baton stick while strapped to its mother’s back.
She was writing about her “seven interminable nights of incarceration”.
“I was thrown into the all familiar lice-infested police cell with a drop toilet. The proverbial puddle of urine from last time and all the times before greeted me,” she narrated.
“Rather, it slapped my face. I was barefoot, having signed my shoes in upon entry as per procedure. There was no sanitizer, no facility to flush the loo, no sink and tap, no toilet paper and no sanitary bin. The blankets smelt of old urine. I shared the cell with 6 other ladies, most of whom were detained for breaching lockdown regulations.”
Zimbabwe’s prison service conditions are one of the worst in the world especially these days with the corona virus pandemic. Being send to prison in Zimbabwe is playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun!
What is so desperately annoying about Zimbabwe is our situation is a man-made problem. It is a Zanu PF man-made problem, in the first instance; 40 years and counting of Zanu PF gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness has left the country in economic ruins and social and political chaos. In the second instance, more significantly for the nation going forward, this is a MDC man-made problem too.
Zanu PF thugs are ruthless all the other things named above but that is only the half of it; the other half is the regime’s breathtaking incompetence. The regime’s blundering incompetence has created many opportunities to end the party’s rule and the best opportunities, by a long country mile, were during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. And it was none other than the MDC leaders who wasted these chances.
To be fair to Advocate Mahere, she was not one of the MDC leaders who sold out during the GNU by failing to implement even one democratic reform.
The MDC leaders have since the GNU debacle continued participating in flawed and illegal elections wasting even more opportunities to force Zanu PF to implement reforms and thus end the curse of rigged elections. And it is not as if the MDC and the rest in the opposition camp did not know that by participating in these flawed elections they gave the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. They knew that, as David Coltart MDC A Treasurer readily admitted.
“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.”
The main factions of the MDC came together before the July 2018 elections to form the MDC A and the coalition still participated in the elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was going to rig those elections for exactly the same reason they participated in the 2013 elections - greed.
Fadzai Mahere participated in the 2018 elections as an independent parliamentary candidate. She too knew Zanu PF was going to rig the elections and still she participated for the same reason as the rest of the opposition - greed.
Zanu PF learnt during the 2008 to 2013 GNU that MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent, Zanu PF leaders are incompetent but MDC leaders take the biscuit. Zanu PF bribed MDC leaders to do nothing about implementing the reforms and, going forward, Zanu PF was able to exercise all its vote rigging powers and get away with it by making sure the opposition won a few gravy train seats, the bribe to keep them participating in flawed elections.
Fadzai Mahere has since joined the MDC A and the party is gearing to participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place. And so the nation is being dragged into yet another utterly meaningless election process whose outcome is already a predetermined Zanu PF victory, it is inconceivable for Zanu PF to lose an election it has a licence to rig. By participating Advocate Mahere and her MDC A colleagues will give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
“Ours must always be a story of hope. Of citizens who, knowing how ruthless & repressive this regime is, chose courage over inaction!”
We are just going round and round in circles here; how can that be a story of hope!
In participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC leaders are not choosing courage over inaction, rubbish, they are once again choosing the few gravy train seats over the implementing the democratic reforms; free, fair and credible elections and everyone getting out of the hell-hole Zanu PF landed us in.
“I will never stop imagining that Zimbabwe will one day be free!” concluded Fadzai Mahere.
Yeah, Zimbabweans have heard that one before! All the hardships you are facing in Zimbabwe’s prison dungeons is so that Zimbabwe can be free. Mnangagwa and his cronies have never tired of reminding the nation of the many hardships and sacrifices they made in fight the country’s independence. It was all for the sake of freedom, liberty and justice for all.
Of course, Zimbabweans are NOT free today! Not everyone fighting for freedoms subscribes to the cause; mercenaries fight for personal gain.
Long before Zimbabwe attained her independence it was already clear that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were fighting for absolute power. They made no secret the wanted independent Zimbabwe to be a one-party state and thus ditching the long cherish “One man! One vote!” rallying call!
MDC leaders have failed to implement even one meaningful reform after 20 years on the political stage because they too, just like Zanu PF leaders, have taken their eyes off the freedom and liberty for all ball in pursuit of gravy train benefits.
Instead of implementing the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship MDC A is replicating itself into yet another arrogant party of thugs in Zanu PF’s own image. MDC A is selling out and we, the people, are expected to see this as heroic courage!
"The ZZEE coal to power project is a project which his Excellency visited mid of last year. It's a project which is in 3 phases. The first and smaller part of the phase is production of 50MW of power which will be achieved by April 2021.
ReplyDelete"The second part of the project entails installation of 2 units which will each be producing 135 MW making it a total of 270 MW," said Minister Chitando.
He added that the project, which is scheduled to start in April this year and to be complete early 2023, will add an additional 270 MegaWatts to the grid by early 2023.
"They are also the working on the 3rd project which entails construction of 2 units of 200 MegaWatts each making it an additional 400 MegaWatts by early 2025. In a nutshell we looking at 720 MW of power which is scheduled to be produced from ZZEE.”
Those in the know will tell you Hwange unit 7 and 8 and Batoka Gorge Dam were pencilled in by the white colonial regime in the early 1970s and late 1980s respectively.
The projects were shelved because of the civil war. Mugabe government was given the detailed plans of the projects and should have carried them out in the first decade or so of our independence. So it has taken 45 years to complete Hwange unit 7 and 8! No wonder the country is in a real mess!
Are we not growing a new generation of liberators who, like the Zanu PF liberators, who refuse to be held to account by the people? And are keen to remind us of their suffering in the trenches to justify why we cannot hold them to account.
ReplyDeleteYes Madam, we know how ruthless and oppressive Zanu PF is but are you not the one who gave the regime legitimacy by participating in flawed and illegal elections. Indeed, you and your MDC A friends are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place.
Lest you forget, many of the MDC A leaders were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one reform to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.
MDC leaders' blundering incompetence and corruption is helping to keep Zanu PF in power and you expect us to see it as heroic acts of choosing "courage over inaction." How naive!
Chamisa's MDC tells ANC not to be distracted by Zanu-PF antics.
ReplyDeleteANC know only too well how corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders themselves are. Lest people forget it was Lindiwe Zulu who headed the SA delegates throughout the GNU years and she is on record expressing her disappointment with MDC leaders' performance.
Zimbabwe would have a healthy and functioning democratic government right now if MDC leaders had not sold out - ANC leaders know that only too well!
Below is Mahere's statement:
ReplyDeleteDespite having been in an "isolation cell" and the "quarantine section" at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, I have tested positive for COVID-19, following seven days of pre-trial incarceration.
While I currently only have a cough and fever, I have chosen to share my results to draw attention to the deplorable state of our prison conditions and the very real threat faced by inmates at these facilities. I believe that in my own life, all experiences good and bad have been willed by God to teach me something deeper about humanity.
My present focus is a return to good health but my heart breaks for the many inmates who remain at the prisons. In this moment, I pray that my experiences spur us into action for those who society has tucked away in silence and mostly forgotten. Their lives matter. I call on those with the authority to change things to look at the state of our prisons and respond accordingly.
Wish you speedy recovery.
One only hopes that you and your fellow MDC leaders will get to your sense, assuming there are some few working brain cells in your empty heads, and stop you present course of action of chasing headlines. What Zimbabwe needs is reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
As long as you lot continue participating in flawed and illegal elections and giving the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy nothing of substance will ever change.
It is clear that you, Mahere, Biti, Sikhala and many other MDC leaders have your eyes fixed on the few gravy train seats Zanu PF has been giving away to entice you. We are not going to allow the whole nation to be dragged into the abyss for the sake of gratifying your selfish greed!
@ Mwembe
ReplyDelete“Wish you speed recovery zanu is using corona to kill opponents by arresting and shut them in some corona infested cells for no.reason other than having them dead.”
It is not only MDC opponents who are suffering and dying because of the decades of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule; millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are suffering and dying too! Mahere was out of prison in seven days, how many ordinary people are stuck there for months and have done nothing wrong!
Lest you forgot Zimbabwe would not be in this mess still if MDC leaders had not sold-out and failed to implement even one reform when they had the chance to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. And it is the same MDC village idiots who gave the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy by participating in flawed and illegal elections.
We all know that Mahere, Sikhala, Biti, Chamisa, Mwonzora, etc. are all going to participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms and thus perpetuating the Zanu PF rule. She was thrown in jail for chasing headlines, not reforms, so she is in pole position for these few gravy train Zanu PF is giving away to entice the opposition to sell-out on reforms.
Enough of this selling-out of the nation for selfish gain!
It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe, 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell who said Morgan Tsvangirai "was a flawed and indecisive character who would become an albatross round the nation's neck!" The MDC did get into power and have indeed become the proverbial mile-stone round the nation's neck dragging it into the abyss!
ReplyDeleteWhen MDC leaders failed to implement even one meaningful reform in five years of the GNU alarm bells the size of church bells should have started ringing in every Zimbabwean's heard. Sadly, most Zimbabweans did not have the intellectual finesse to understand what the GNU was about much less the appreciation of the MDC leaders' selling-out. Even to this day, with all the benefit of hindsight and God knows the countless explanations to boot, many people still have no idea what the GNU was about.
These so called acts of "courage over inaction" are in pursuit of headlines to place herself in pole position for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to participate in elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happen to be. Mahere and many other MDC leaders are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections knowing fully well that Zanu Pf will rig the elections just as they did in the 2018 elections. They will complain of Zanu PF rigging but from the comforts of the gravy train!
What the country needs to get out of the economic and political mess it is in, is the implementation of the democratic reforms and free, fair and credible elections - the pre-requisites for ending the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. The nation should be chasing reforms but is wasting time chasing headlines, instead.
MDC leaders not only wasted the nation's golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship by failing to implement the reforms but, to add insult to injury, they are now the ones giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF by participating in flawed elections. What a nightmare!
On Wednesday, Biti tweeted that the government should take full responsibility for Mahere's COVID-19 status.
ReplyDelete"The regime must take full responsibility of Mahere's situation. It must take full responsibility of every Zimbabwean who has succumbed to COVID-19 misgovernance, cluelessness and recklessness are crimes against humanity," Biti said.
Biti said the targeting of party activists for arrest and incarceration was all calculated to expose them to COVID-19 which continues to take many lives.
"Zimbabwe prisons are imploding with COVID-19. Inmates were exposed to conditions that were degrading, cruel and inhumane long before COVID-19.
"COVID-19 has exacerbated a desperate situation. By incarcerating activists, the regime is intent on eliminating activists and every other inmate," the Harare East lawmaker said.
Lest people forget, Zimbabwe would not still be stuck with this corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF regime if MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Tendai Biti and his fellow MDC friends failed to implement even one token reform in 5 years. Not even one token reform!
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office, the rose-tinted limos, the generous salaries and perks, US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, the opportunity to globe-trot, etc. With the snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders forgot about the reforms for 5 years!
MDC leaders have been warned of the futility of participating in flawed and illegal elections but they have ignored the warning because Zanu PF has been offering a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition. The greedy and corrupt opposition have found the offer irresistible.
Tendai Biti is the winner of one of the few gravy train seats in the 2018 elections. He is gearing to participate in the 2023 elections knowing fully well with no reforms Zanu PF will rig the elections.
By participating in these flawed elections the opposition are giving Zanu PF legitimacy. Tendai Biti and company know that but will not stop participating because greed has the better of them!
Since the failed GNU, Tendai Biti and his MDC friends been running with the povo hare by day and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds by night.
MDC leaders have all but ditched democratic reforms and are competing with each other for headlines to place themselves into pole position to win the few gravy train seats on offer at the next election. Just as there was nothing anyone could do to get Biti and company to implement the reforms during the GNU, there is also nothing anyone can do to stop them participating in the next elections. Nothing!
It is intolerable that the destiny of the whole nation is now hostage to the insatiable greed for power and wealth of Zanu PF and MDC leaders. We must put an end to this madness and will!