“Ramaphosa's SA remains concerned over Zimbabwe's worsening political situation!” screamed the Bulawayo 24 headlines.
Many Zimbabweans did not even bother to read the article because they have heard it all before. Those who did read the article expecting something new were once again disappointed. “Same shit, different day!” as Rasta man would aptly put it!
ZIMBABWE'S new foreign minister arrived in South Africa on Friday, his first official visit to the country since taking up his position.
Frederick Shava met with in Cape Town.
"I really would like to put the question that I always put to my colleagues, this will be the first time we're having a formal meeting, He's the new minister of foreign affairs and I just want to ask him, how can we help Zimbabwe?" SA’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Naledi Pandor told News24 ahead of her meeting with Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frederick Shava.
"We want to be of help.
"Their stability is very important to our stability. Their economic progress is important to South Africa's economic progress and the South African have access, particularly to low-skilled, labor-intensive jobs".
This is just reminiscent of SA’s President Thambo Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” and denial of the worsen economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe. “Crisis! What crisis?” he remarked in 2008. Fast forward to 2021; other than the musical chair changes of Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa are now the President of SA and Zimbabwe respectively, nothing much has change.
Following the blatant cheating and wanton violence in Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections, SADC leaders were finally forced to act. They forced Robert Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms and the writing of a new democratic constitution as the roadmap to end Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis.
A Government of National Unity (GNU), comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions was tasked to implement the reforms and write the new constitution. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were expected to lead in this task and not Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies for obvious reasons.
It was SADC’s responsibility, as the guarantor of the GPA, to ensure Zimbabwe followed the roadmap and restored the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and saved the country from a repeat of the 2008 election barbarism.
Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends took their eyes off the ball and failed to implement even one reform in the five years of the GNU. The new constitution the nation was steamrolled into accepting in the March 2013 referendum was not even worth the paper it was written on!
SADC leaders made a desperate last minute attempt to have the up coming elections in Zimbabwe postpone until reforms were implemented.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza, Director of SAPES Trust, told the Journalist Violet Gonda.
“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.
“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”
As we know MDC leaders ignored the warning and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections and this was repeated again in 2018. By participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC have giving credibility to the flawed process and, most important of all, legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.
Whilst no one in their right mind will ever blame SADC for the failure to implement even one reform during the GNU and for the rubbish constitution; there was no excuse why SADC tacitly or otherwise endorse Zimbabwe’s rigged elections. “The (2018) elections went well!” said President Cyril Ramaphosa, knowing fully well that was a lie!
Minister Naledi Pandor is right the economic prosperity of Zimbabwe is the economic prosperity of SA and the rest of SADC. The political stability of Zimbabwe is the political stability of SA and SADC.
Zimbabwe is facing total economic meltdown, decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country in economic ruins. Unemployment has soared to dizzying height of 90%, the country’s basic services such as education and health care have completely collapsed and 49% of the Zimbabwe population now live in abject poverty.
Zimbabwe is, in point of fact, a failed state, a Banana Republic, whose economical and political instability are now well established and beyond dispute. It is not a matter of Zimbabwe’s instability may spill over and affect other nation, it spilt over a decade ago now when Zimbabwe’s economy shrunk by a staggering 50% in the period 2000 to 2008 alone and has never recovered.
“How can we help Zimbabwe?” Minister Naledi Pandor, is asking! What a foolish question when SADC leaders answered the question by proposing the 2008 GPA and begged, literally, to have the Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postponed until reforms are implemented.
Minister Naledi Pandor, if you are serious about wanting to help Zimbabwe then you must tell Foreign Minister Frederick Shava that Zimbabwe must revert to the 2008 GPA and implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible.
The economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is a man-made crisis, a product of decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule and per se one we could and should have avoided. Decades of failing to end the curse of rigged elections which is the root cause of bad governance have allowed the crisis to morph into a human tragedy that is now spilling beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.
“Help us to get the sanctions imposed by the West lifted!” Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister must have answered.
“And while we wait, can we have US$500 million per month budgetary support, SA must write off Zimbabwe’s unpaid electricity bill, . . . . “
Ask a foolish questions and you get a foolish answer!
President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are gearing to rig the 2023 elections, indeed with not even one token reform in place, Zanu PF has rigged the elections in advance. SA and SADC must once again repeat the June 2013 demand to have the elections postponed until the reforms are implemented.
If Minister Naledi Pandor does not know what is wrong in Zimbabwe and thus what help the country needs to end the tragic situation there, then she should be blind, thick and slow. She really should not even be a Minister!
"How can we help Zimbabwe?" Minister Naledi Pandor asked Shava.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very foolish question to ask considering that it was SADC that asked the question with the 2008 Global Political Agreement in which Zimbabwe was to implement the raft of democratic reforms. When the GNU failed to implement any reforms, SADC wanted the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented.
For Minister Pandor to be asking how to help Zimbabwe now only shows she has no clue what is the root cause of Zimbabwe's crisis. If she is this thick and slow then she really should not be a Minister!
In the latest application filed by LSZ executive secretary Edward Mapara, Parliament is accused of acting unconstitutionally by passing a lapsed Constitutional Amendment (No 1) Bill which was brought to the House during the late former President Robert Mugabe's era.
ReplyDeleteThe organisation also accused the legislature of promulgating Amendment (No 2) Bill without taking it to a referendum as stipulated by the Declaration of Rights
There is a real danger of Zimbabweans paying too much attention of these two Bill and losing sight of the bigger picture. Zimbabwe is heading for the 2023 elections which Zanu PF is set to rig because the regime has not implemented any reforms since the rigged 2018 elections. If the people participate which, without serious debate to do otherwise, is certain to happen then we will give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.
Given a new five year mandate, Zanu PF will revisit these two Bills to address all the objections listed above and get its wish. Stop Zanu PF getting legitimacy after the rigged 2023 elections and we have a body appointed to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections and guarantee not only that the next government is competent and accountable but future governments too.
@ Leonard Koni
ReplyDelete“How do you expect to listen to a smooth and refined sound from a scratched vinyl record?
We have a leadership which only knows looting and corruption. They don't even care about infrastructural development. That is why forty one years after independence, we are still using old infrastructure left by Ian Smith.
In the midst of a global pandemic and economic quagmire and malaise our country has been plunged deep into a constitutional crisis. Zimbabwe is regressing instead of progressing.”
I could not agree with you more on what you said about Zanu PF.
What you should have also said is that there are many who criticise Zanu PF but are the ones who are keeping the regime in power. We cannot deny that MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU. They failed to implement even one reform.
Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders have participated in flawed elections giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. They are gearing to do the same again in the 2023 elections.
What is the point of complaining endlessly about how Zanu PF has destroyed the country and yet do nothing or, worst still, participate in flawed elections to give the regime legitimacy!
South Africa and Botswana are the two SADC countries that had the great fortune to have democratic and visionary leaders like the late Nelson Mandela and late Sir Seretse Khama as their first president. The two bequeathed the nation a healthy and functioning democracy.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe had the great misfortune of having the murderous and pompous thug Robert Mugabe and his backing brain-dead Zanu PF buffoons. They did not care about freedom, justice and peace for all; all they cared about was absolute power and the influence and wealth that it brought.
SA has managed to stir a stead course even with erratic and corrupt leaders like Jacob Zuma at the helm precisely because the country’s democratic institutions like holding free and fair elections, free media and free and independent judiciary remained strong throughout.
Mugabe destroyed all the country’s state institutions and once destroyed it has been near impossible to rebuild. The best opportunity to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, for Zimbabwe the opportunity was wasted by the “flawed and indecisive” Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, as USA ambassador Chris Dell noted.
Zimbabwe was dealt a lousy hand, a neurotic psychopathy as the founding father followed by village idiot who had no idea whether he was coming or going!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems has been the dysfunctional one party dictatorship and hence the reason SADC had wanted the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the raft of democratic reforms. The country is still stuck because not even one reform was implemented. It is disconcerting that anyone let alone a Minister would be asking what SA can do to help Zimbabwe this late in the show.
SA and SADC must restate the position that Zimbabwe must implement the reforms to avoid having yet another rigged elections. Whilst there is little SADC can do to stop Zanu PF steaming rolling the nation into another flawed elections the regional body must make it clear it will call out the election as they see it.
The regime has once again denied Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, it has failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, there is no free public media, the rural voters continue to be treated like medieval serfs, etc. The elections has been rigged in advance and therefore must and will be condemned in advance.
It is high time SA and SADC leaders put their foot down before it is too late, before Zimbabwe sinking into social instability and drag the rest of the region down with it!
ALROSA, the world's largest producer of rough diamonds, has increased the number of prospecting grants it holds in Zimbabwe and remains optimistic about the potential of the country's diamond industry to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
ReplyDelete"Alrosa Zimbabwe has 35 prospecting special grants and we are working on receiving the rest in due course," Alrosa's press office said last week in an emailed response to questions.
The company previously held 25 grants. Alrosa signed an agreement in 2019 with the state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) to jointly explore for gems.
It will proceed with its exploration programme for the year though the pandemic "caused some delay" and fieldwork began later than expected.
Yeah and how much of the diamond revenue has benefited the nation and how much has benefited the ruling elite and their Russian partners? In 2017, the then Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, told parliament government was receiving 1/6 of the expected revenue from diamond mining; no doubt that has not changed!
The worst thing is those looting the nation’s wealth are the ones bankrolling the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut. So instead of diamonds being a blessing to the nation, they have become our worst curse because the looters will pour billions and billions of dollars just to make sure Zanu PF wins the elections no matter what. Those fighting for free, fair and credible elections are never heard because they do not have the money to match the wholesale looters!
Now that the Chinese and Russians have a foot hold in Zimbabwe, getting them out will be a serious challenge.
Although there was a deadlock, the Government in May effected the adjustment that saw the lowest paid worker being paid US$205 equivalent on the interbank exchange rate in April, while another 45 percent review will be effected at the end of June.
ReplyDeleteMinister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Professor Paul Mavima told Sunday News yesterday that technical personnel were preparing a report after which Government will be able to table another offer to civil servants.
"For now, our technical people are compiling a report on the issue, once it is done we will look at it as a ministry then we go back to the negotiating table with Government workers. As you might know this will be the third session of these negotiations, therefore, we are hopeful that this time around we will reach an agreement for progress sake," said Prof Mavima.
As long as Zimbabwe remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt and murderous tyrants who rig elections to stay in power there will be no meaningful economic recovery. And as long as there is no meaningful economic recovery Zanu PF will never pay the civil servants a living wage. Never!
Even with the slave wages it is paying civil servant at present the regime is already failing to contain inflation which is about 200%. Any attempt to increase the civil servant’s wages will fuel inflation. Government must revive the economy first before it can increase the wages and it cannot do so whilst the country remains a pariah state!
The solution is with the people of Zimbabweans themselves; they must now wake up to the political reality that it is them who can and must end the pariah state, Zanu PF will never reform itself.
Zimbabweans must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible 2023 elections. They must refuse to participate in the coming election without the reforms because doing so will only give the vote rigging Zanu PF, the pariah state, legitimacy.
There is a real danger of Zimbabweans spending a lot of time and effort trying to stop Mnangagwa getting Luke Malaba back into office as Chief Justice and take their eyes off the even more important matter of the 2023 elections. If Mnangagwa rigs the elections and the nation makes the mistake of participating and give the regime legitimacy this will make our victory stopping Malaba reappointment a Pyrrhic victory.
ReplyDeletePeople like Alex Magaisa are the ones who failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU and sold us this feeble constitution. He was Tsvangirai's chief advisor who gave some foolish advice again and again. No doubt he will get a generous bonus if he managed to once again distract the nation long enough to allow Zanu PF to rig the 2023 elections!
Although there was a deadlock, the Government in May effected the adjustment that saw the lowest paid worker being paid US$205 equivalent on the interbank exchange rate in April, while another 45 percent review will be effected at the end of June.
ReplyDeleteMinister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Professor Paul Mavima told Sunday News yesterday that technical personnel were preparing a report after which Government will be able to table another offer to civil servants.
"For now, our technical people are compiling a report on the issue, once it is done we will look at it as a ministry then we go back to the negotiating table with Government workers. As you might know this will be the third session of these negotiations, therefore, we are hopeful that this time around we will reach an agreement for progress sake," said Prof Mavima.
As long as Zimbabwe remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt and murderous tyrants who rig elections to stay in power there will be no meaningful economic recovery. And as long as there is no meaningful economic recovery Zanu PF will never pay the civil servants a living wage. Never!
Even with the slave wages it is paying civil servant at present the regime is already failing to contain inflation which is about 200%. Any attempt to increase the civil servant’s wages will fuel inflation. Government must revive the economy first before it can increase the wages and it cannot do so whilst the country remains a pariah state!
The solution is with the people of Zimbabweans themselves; they must now wake up to the political reality that it is them who can and must end the pariah state, Zanu PF will never reform itself.
Zimbabweans must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible 2023 elections. They must refuse to participate in the coming election without the reforms because doing so will only give the vote rigging Zanu PF, the pariah state, legitimacy.
SA has always played big brother to Zimbabwe dating back to the colonial days. When it back clear that white colonial rule in then Rhodesia was no longer sustainable the whites in SA gave Ian Smith a Mafia style offer he could not refused. In 1979, the Boer regime told Ian Smith to go back home and negotiate with the black majority to end the bush war; SA was not going to do anything to help him if he refused.
ReplyDeleteTwenty years latter the same SA Boers came to the same conclusion regarding their own apartheid regime.
The economic and political mess in Zimbabwe is far worse than it ever got under Ian Smith. Still it is too much to ask the Zanu PF buffoons to see that. They have ruled the nation with an iron fist ever since our independence in 1980 and the deeper the nation has sunk into the abyss the harder their resolve to stay in power no matter what.
It is sad that the black regime south of the Limpopo River has lack the foresight of their Boer counter parts. It has been self-evident that Zimbabwe has following a dangerous trajectory and, if not stopped, it will drag the rest of the region down the drain with it. There is no doubt that SA would have benefited greatly from a stable and prosperous Zimbabwe. It is therefore very disappointing that the black led government in SA should continue to pamper the Zanu PF regime even now with all the evidence of tragic human suffering in Zimbabwe, SA and the rest of the region.
The 2008 elections were a water-shed elections in that Zanu PF showed there were no limits to what the party would do to retain power. It is foolish, to say the least, to be asking what SA can do to help, particularly asking Shava.
Zimbabwe has been in deep trouble for the twenty years, at least. This like Rome burning for days and you ask the fiddle playing Emperor Nero what you can do to help. "Accompany me on flute; isn’t that obvious!”
Ian Smith and the Boers were cruel but when push came to shove they made the right decisions. Shame the same cannot be said about the Zanu PF buffoons or the ANC government in SA! The mess in Zimbabwe is man-made and could and should have been nipped in the bud if only there had been competent and decisive leaders on either side of the Limpopo River!
SA had a visionary founding father in Nelson Mandela; he may not have have lifted all the blacks out of the ghetto but he gave the nation a democratic constitution with strong democratic and independent institutions. The country's resilience has been tested again and again under the leadership of those who followed him and, so far, it has stood strong. Zimbabwe was not so lucky!
DeleteUnder Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe became a de facto one party dictatorship and corruption and tyrannical tendencies have spread from the top right up to the bottom. Fear rules the land as everyone in any position of power and authority is a Zanu PF zealot and loves flexing their muscles!
Dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship will require time, intelligent and visionary leaders and not the naive and easily corrupted leaders as we have seen from the MDC.
The very fact that we have mediocre leaders in SADC makes the task of rescuing Zimbabwe from the Zanu PF thugs that much more difficult.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has today handed over brand new Isuzu trucks to traditional chiefs, after doing the same in the run-up to 2018 elections.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe has over 270 chiefs, and the new vehicles come as Zanu-PF has roped in chiefs to mobilise support ahead of 2023
Zanu PF has many, many ways of rigging elections and one of these is bribing key players in the election race such as judiciary who will then ignore obvious election discrepancies such as failure to produce a verified voters’ roll; Police who will then harass and hurry the opposition at every turn; traditional leaders who will have helped reduce the rural voters into medieval serfs beholden to their Zanu PF landlords.
SADC leaders wanted Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postponed until the democratic reforms were implemented. “If you go into the elections next month; you will lose; the elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.
MDC leaders did not listen to SADC leaders’ warning because it was Tsvangirai and company’s fault that not even one reform was implemented during the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders had no choice but to participate and had to be contend with the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gave away as bait to the opposition.
No reforms have ever been implemented ever since the rigged 2013 elections and, as we can already see, the 2023 elections “are done!” MDC leaders will participate regardless for the same reason as in the past. It is for the people of Zimbabwe to open their eyes and see MDC leaders for what they are - corrupt, incompetent sell-outs.
SADC leaders have accepted the vote rigging Zanu PF as fiat accompli rulers of Zimbabwe because they were disappointed with the MDC leaders. But how long are they going to punish the whole country for the sins of Tsvangirai and company?
It is not SADC’s business to find a competent opposition for Zimbabwe, the people Zimbabwe are working hard on that.
However, it is SADC’s business to callout Zimbabwe’s elections for what they are. It is an insult to endorse rigged elections as having “gone well!”
@ Abednico Mweembe Mweembe
ReplyDelete“Now everyone can see including those who.are lost and still follow zanu that zanu is the only problem in this country and we must all get rid of it .Lets vote for a party that will.make sure it makes poor pple first priority that will.make sure essential civil workers police soldiers teachers doctors are well paid and given cars so that they can respond quickly when duty calls not these useless chiefs who will park the cars or just drive around to see their many wives no that wont develop this country and as a result madoda laba fazi lets make sure we start now to tell everyone in our respective areas to shun zanu bcoz that is the only way we can get our country out of troubles by voting zanu out.”
You really do not get it do you? Zanu PF has the war veterans, youth militia, the bribed traditional leaders, the Police, the judiciary, etc., etc. who have all turned many Zimbabweans, especially in the rural areas, into medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF landlords. It is nonsense to tell some one “to shun Zanu PF” when the price of doing so is being denied food aid, being beaten or raped and even being killed!
The real tragedy here is failed leaders like Chamisa will claim “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” And brain-dead MDC supporters will believe it and participate in the flawed and illegal elections not knowing that by participating they will give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
The 2023 elections are done but no doubt Chamisa will convince the MDC wildebeest herd he has stringent measure to stop Mnangagwa giving chiefs these trucks because that is the vote rigging right there. And the herd will believe it. Sad how anyone could be so shallow, thick and slow. After 41 years of rigged elections you still believe MDC can win rigged elections!
ZIMBABWE has been urged to update its electoral laws to strengthen dispute-resolution processes and ensure they are in tandem with the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG).
ReplyDeleteConstitutional law expert James Tsabora yesterday told NewsDay that while the country participated in the drafting of African Union (AU) protocols, there was need for it to uphold them in order to promote democracy, human rights, free and fair elections.
Zimbabwe today joins the rest of the continent in commemorating Africa Day, a day set aside to celebrate the birth of the Organisation of African Unity, now AU.
"Zimbabwe has gone a long way in incorporating the basic principles and norms in AU regional protocols, but the protocols are, however, general and in most cases, are less watertight than the provisions in Zimbabwe's domestic laws," Tsabora said.
Zanu PF is already rigging the 2023 elections. The party is going ahead with buying chiefs trucks and other gifts for the rest of the traditional leaders to ensure they campaign for the party. The traditional leaders’ work will be backed by the war veterans and the youth militia, the green bombers, who have done the party proud in intimidating, harassing, beating and raping people to make sure they remain loyal to Zanu PF.
Zanu PF has promised to give 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote but has done nothing about it. How can an election in which 3 million out of a total 8 million are denied the vote be free, fair and credible?
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government have pledged to renew what has proven to be an unyielding bid to repatriate First Chimurenga icon, Mbuya Nehanda's skull which was taken as a war trophy to a London museum over a century ago.
ReplyDeleteThe national leader announced this in Harare Tuesday as he led the unveiling of the spirit medium's statue in central Harare
The irony is there is no Zimbabwean who believed in peace, justice and freedom for all, dead or alive, who is not troubled to see the sorry state the nation is in today after 41 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. If Mbuya Nehanda could speak right now I am sure she will tell Mnangagwa to step down and stop tormenting the living and the dead. She would rather stay where she is now than be brought back home to a country is total turmoil!
Pandor, a vocal critic of Zimbabwe's human rights abuses, handed over the consignment at State House in Harare.
ReplyDelete"On behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa, the government and the people of the Republic of South Africa, we are here today to hand over the support to the Republic of Zimbabwe as pledged by the Republic of South Africa," she said.
"With the good rainy season in our region after the devastating droughts of El Nino, we have tapped into our land, and it has produced enough grains to allow us to share. The cost of our pledge was R50 million and from that amount, we were able to secure 450 000 bags of 12,5kg of maize meal.
"South Africa will be responsible for the transportation costs to Harare and for further delivery and distribution to the identified 12 districts.”
Someone should tell our South African friends that if SA had a good growing season then so too did Zimbabwe. The root cause of Zimbabwe’s seemingly unending economic and political crisis is one of chronic bad governance - a man-made problem.
Once upon a time Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of the region but that is all long forgotten. We have become the basket case of a failed state and the cap fits perfectly!
What Zimbabwe needs more than the maize meal is help to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. It is a great pity that our South African brothers and sisters cannot get that simple message.