“The people responsible for the riots sparked by the jailing of former South African President Jacob Zuma failed in their insurrection because the ground for them was not fertile, the country’s transport minister has said,” reported BBC.
“While the government’s slow response to what was happening gave them a “field day”, they could not achieve what they wanted, Fikile Mbalula told BBC Hardtalk.
“More than 200 people died in the recent violence. It is estimated to have cost the economy in KwaZulu-Natal province alone at well over $1bn (£730m).
“South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the riots were a "coordinated and well-planned attack".
There is no denying that former South Africa President Jacob Zuma and his supporters very much hoped that the looting and burning following his arrest would spread nationwide, not just KwaZulu -Natal and one or two other areas, making the country ungovernable, an insurrection. The majority of South African did not agree with the position that Zuma should not face the wroth of the law for defying the court order, particularly since this was over very serious corruption charges. The people certainly did not want to endorse the foolish notion that anyone is above the law especially someone implicated in serious corruption charges.
There is evidence to show that most of the people behind the looting and burning in KwaZulu-Natal and other areas were venting their anger and frustration against the government for their sorry economic situation, nothing to do with supporting Zuma. After nearly 30 years since the end of the apartheid era, in which the whites were filthy rich and the expense of the impoverished back majority; things have not changed much, other than a few ruling elite blacks who have become filthy rich the overwhelming majority of blacks are still languishing in abject poverty.
“South Africa, according to many studies, is one of the most economically equal societies in the world,” Stephen Sackur, the Hardtalk presenter, pointed out. "ANC is failing the people!"
SA’s Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, gave a spirited defence of the ANC, the party that has ruled since independence in 1994, economic performance; arguing the party is on track to deliver economic prosperity and should not be expected to reverse the 300 years of white colonial exploitation and oppression in three decades. The facts on the ground tell the story of decades of wasted opportunity or worse.
President Thabo Mbeki and now Cyril Ramaphosa have been mediocre leaders who have blundered from pillar to post. In this case, to mobilize the security sectors to giving the rioters “a field day”, as Minister Mbalula and President Ramaphosa himself readily admitted. The delay has costed the nation billions of Rand in lost property and infrastructure and over 200 lives.
When former President Jacob Zuma was in office, SA quickly earned the reputation as just another African country ravished by gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Yes, the ruling party ANC finally acted and had him removed from office and is now carrying out a thorough investigation into state capture. One hopes the investigation are very thorough and the rot is stamp out.
Still the ANC was very slow in nipping misrule in the bud and the experience has damaged the country’s standing as a stable democracy, one of the few in Africa. Investors shy away from pariah state; look at Zimbabwe, the one thing all South Africans should be scared stiff of is to be another Banana Republic like Zimbabwe.
Jacob Zuma and his supporters were hoping for a nationwide revolt demanding that Jacob Zuma should not be investigated for corruption and position him as above the law, a stance that would have confirmed SA’s position as a pariah state. As much as many people are disappointed with ANC government’s failure to address the nation’s economic challenges they, nonetheless, realised that the Zuma’s supporters’ agenda was to reject rule of law and democracy; they had the good sense to know this was throwing away the baby, democracy, with the bath water.
South Africa’s democratic institutions are strong and holding; former President Zuma is still in jail, where he belongs; the country’s next elections will hold free, fair and credible; etc.
However, there is no deny the country’s democracy has, so far at least, failed to elect a competent government and deal with the country’s economic challenges; the impoverished masses are not going to wait another 300 years! The anarchist did not get much support from the impoverished masses this time but as long as millions are forced to live in abject poverty, the anarchists know they have a chance of garnering nationwide support next time.
ReplyDeleteWilbert Mukori
Everyone could see that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections, everyone except President Ramaphosa who claimed the “election went well” and was asking the West to lift the sanctions because they were the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic mess! It is all very well to have a president with not an iota of common sense but one should think he will at least have advisers with some common sense!
The very fact that Minister Fikile Mbalula was frothing defending ANC’s pathetic track record of blundering incompetence was worrying because it shows lack of ambition, at best, and, at worst, the obsessive inferiority complex that we have seen in other African leaders like Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa has not been testing for corona virus as diligently as he should for the sake of creating the false picture that Zimbabwe has handled the covid-19 pandemic in an exemplary manner. Mnangagwa will blow all head gaskets if anyone was to reveal Zimbabwe’s true covid-19 figures!
To err is human and therefore to deny one’s failures is to deny one is a fallible human being. And the worst curse to befall a nation is to have a leader who thinks himself infallible, especially when there is nowhere to hold him to democratic account, no voting him out of office!
SA must make the best of its democracy by electing competent leaders that will transform the country and lift the millions of ordinary South Africans out of poverty otherwise the anarchists will win the day!
Speaking during the meeting, Ndiweni said MyRight2Vote was an independent, non-political and non-partisan organisation for Zimbabweans in the diaspora whose concerns were to be granted the right to vote considered.
ReplyDelete"We are a people's movement trying to bring diaspora people together for a cause," Ndiweni said.
"MyRight2Vote is pushing for democracy and the rule of law so that we are not suppressed on what we want as citizens."
"In the 2018 elections, the total number of people who voted was 4,8 million. We are reliably informed that the Zimbabwe diaspora is in excess of five million people who have all along been denied their right to vote. They were denied through the High Court three times."
Opposition parties have been pushing for people in the diaspora to vote, a demand rejected by the ruling Zanu-PF party.
One can go so far as to say the fight for a diaspora vote is one for all Zimbabweans because by denying one section of society the right to vote Mnangagwa is undermining the very essence of free and fair elections. How can the elections be judged free and fair if one of the contestants has the carte blanche power to edit the voters' roll?
I challenge the claim that the opposition have been fighting for diaspora vote; they have paid lip-service to the cause, that is not the same thing. Implementing the reforms to guarantee diaspora vote was one of the many reforms Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends could have implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one token reform.
Chamisa and company are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections knowing fully well that Zimbabweans in the diaspora are being denied the vote and Zanu PF is cooking up more vote rigging activities. Chamisa and company do not care that elections are rigged as long as Zanu PF gives away a few gravy train seats. Chamisa is desperate to win the few gravy train seats and be declared the leader of the opposition!
Only 73 people registered to vote in Masvingo Province in June up from 6 in May!
ReplyDeleteZanu PF has since confirmed that the 3 to 5 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora will once again be denied the vote, this is a considerable figure given Mnangagwa reportedly won the presidency with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes. So Zanu PF is denying 30% plus of the potential electorate the vote. How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible when 30% of the electorated are denied the right to participate.
The 2023 elections have all been rigged already, all this voter registration exercise is just a waste of time!
The United Kingdom on Thursday announced it had imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on Sakunda boss and President Emmerson Mnangagwas adviser, Kudakwashe Tagwirei.
ReplyDeleteThe sanctions will also apply to any entities owned or controlled by Tagwirei.
UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said Tagwirei "profited significantly from the misappropriation of property at the expense of wider macroeconomic stability in Zimbabwe, in one of the most serious incidences of corruption under the current government."
nd "His company, Sakunda Holdings, redeemed government of Zimbabwe Treasury Bills at up to ten times their official value. His actions accelerated the deflation of Zimbabwe's currency, increasing the price of essentials, such as food, for Zimbabwean citizens," he added.
Tagwirei is one of five people targeted in the second tranche of UK sanctions under the Global Anti-Corruption sanctions regime. Others targeted are Teodoro Obiang Mangue, the vice president of Equatorial Guinea; Alex Nain Saab Morán and Alvaro Enrique Pulido Vargas of Venezuela and Nawfal Hammadi Al-Sultan, the governor of Nineveh province in Iraq
Tagwirei is big fish in Zimbabwe economics and one has to congratulate the foreign secretary for landing the big one.
Foreign Secretary must serious consider widening his net to catch some of the political big fish too. There are people like Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube who are playing a major role in prop up the Zanu PF dictatorship for selfish reasons. Of course, Professor Ncube knows that Zanu PF has been rigging elections but continues to work for the regime regardless.
There are others like opposition leaders like Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa; they not only failed to implement even one democratic reform when they had the chance to do so but are the ones giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in flawed and illegal elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away.
There are many people who are working very hard for democratic change and free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. And selfish individuals like Professor Ncube and Tendai Biti are the ones undermining those fighting for change. This cannot be permit to continue unpunished.
THE death toll from the unrest that followed the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma has risen from 276, announced on Wednesday, to 337.
ReplyDeleteActing Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that more people had died from injuries sustained during the violence.
The minister said that 213 murder cases were being investigated.
Thousands of businesses were looted in the riots last week that mainly affected the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
This was a situation that could have been avoided if the relevant authorities had acted promptly, it was not that the authorities were overwhelmed but rather that they dragged their feet and did nothing!