“Disgruntled liberation war veterans have drawn daggers against President Emerson Mnangagwa accusing him of betraying them,” reported Bulawayo 24.
“The easily irritable former freedom fighters say by failing to give the
ex-combatants a meaningful pension.
“At least nine war veterans were arrested by police last week after they
gathered at Finance minister Mthuli Nucbe's office demanding an increase to
their monthly pensions.”
The problem with most of the war
veterans, at least the vocal ones who have taken centre stage the last 41
years, is they have no common sense. None!
Zimbabwe’s economy has been in total
meltdown for decades and the decline started soon after independence 41 years
ago. Where I say the war veterans have no common sense is because they, with
all the benefit of 41 years of hindsight, still believe in the Zanu PF lie of delivering
mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as Mugabe never tire of saying it in the
1980s.
Soon after independence, Gutsa ruzhinji
encompassed all Zimbabwe from the Zanu PF ruling elite at the top of the social
packing order, to the intelligentsia and professional, the war veterans and
semi-skilled workers, the unskilled workers and right down at the bottom were the
ordinary people, povo. Whilst the ruling elite claimed the choice-cuts of the
nation’s wealth for themselves there was still enough left to finance Mugabe’s
scientific socialism policies such as free education and health care to benefit
povo.
By the mid-1980s the ruling elite’s
appetites were growing exponentially marched only by their wastefulness and so they
creamed off the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, confident there was more
where that came from. The reckless spending was not sustainable, and the
economic decline started then and continued to this day.
1990 to 1999 was a decade of the IMF
and WB sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes in which Zanu PF
promised to cut government spending across the board in return for financial
assistance from the two Bretton Woods financial institutions and other western institutions.
Zanu PF has never kept its promises; the poor were forced to “tighten their
belts” as funding for free education, health care, etc. was cut. The ruling
elite were loosening their belts as they creamed off even more wealth!
By the late 1990s it was clear to many
people that Zanu PF’s gutsa ruzhinji was an illusion and wanted the regime
replaced but could not because it rigged elections. Zimbabwe was a de facto one-party
state and Mugabe and his cronies were riding roughshod over the people, denying
them their basic freedoms of rights including the right to free elections and
even the right to life.
Mugabe recruited war veterans to help
the party impose the Zanu PF dictatorship and they readily agreed on the understanding
they would be rewarded with the good life. Over the years the ruling elite have
enjoyed the good life and the war veterans were promised their turn will come “tomorrow”.
After 41 years many of them now live in abject poverty and yet still some
continue to wait for their gutsa ruzhinji “tomorrow!”
If these war veterans had any common
sense at all then they should have known by now that Zanu PF’s “tomorrow” is
always a day away, their gutsa ruzhinji will never ever come. The 41 years of
gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, lawlessness and tyranny have all but
destroyed the country’s economy.
The war veterans have the fatal error
of helping Zanu PF impose the de facto one-party dictatorship and the whole
nation has paid dearly for it.
If the war veterans have at all
learned the lesson of their decades of blind loyalty to the Zanu PF dictatorship,
then they must join the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who have been fighting
for the implementation of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the
dictatorship.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is totally dependent on one thing – the dismantling of the de facto one-party dictatorship and the holding of free, fair and credible elections. Nothing of any substance will change in the country until we finally cure ourselves of the curse of the dictatorship. Nothing!
Former Cabinet Minister professor Jonathan Moyo has urged the MDC-Alliance to take legal steps in protecting their party name.
ReplyDeleteMoyo who is in exile expressed his opinion on micro blogging Twitter saying, "If the MDC -A has not yet taken the necessary legal steps to protect "Citizen Convergence for Change (CCC)", as a name or whatever, they must run to do so after reading this!"
It will be four years since Professor Jonathan Moyo had to run for dear life and go into hiding following the 2017 military coup. After decades of gravy train lifestyle, the life in the fox hole is taking its toll.
Instead of using the forced sabbatical to clear the fog of the ruling elite selfishness, it is sad to note he has not changed in that regard. MDC has failed to bring about even one meaningful change is the last 21 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. He, of all people knowns that Chamisa and company are corrupt and incompetent; they will never bring about any meaningful change and therefore is Moyo being sinical is suggesting Chamisa called his new party CCC when there is no hope of the party bringing change.
PARLIAMENTARIANS from Matabeleland South Province have raised a concern over deportees that are escaping from quarantine and isolation facilities.
ReplyDeleteIn July and August 233 deportees escaped from NSSA Hotel in Beitbridge where they had been quarantined.
Is it possible that the deportees are escaping from the quarantine and isolation centres because the living conditions there are subhuman? A few weeks ago, the Auditor General reported of US$890 million donated to buy food and other need for the corona virus victims included those in quarantine had been looted. No one can expect these deportees to stay put and starve to death!
One of the many consequences of having a corrupt and incompetent opposition is that there has not been any oversight of Zanu PF activities, not even the usual mediocre oversight, throughout the corona virus pandemic; the opposition has been busy tearing itself up into pieces.
If there is one thing Mugabe was good at, it is conning people into actively help him establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship by convincing them they are the owners of the dictatorship and, as the owners, are entitled to the absolute power, political influence and wealth it brings. However when it came to sharing the power, influence and wealth, he insisted on the need for order; he and the other bigwigs will get a cut today, the next tier will get their share tomorrow and so forth.
ReplyDeleteHis today stretched to weeks, months and years. When he was finally forced to step down under gun point, Mugabe had been in power for 37 years! In those years his appetite for power, influence and wealth had grown exponentially. These below him had soaked up all the little power, influence and wealth that was left after Mugabe had taken his lion's share.
The overwhelming majority of the war veterans, although they have done their fair share of the dirty work of denying the ordinary Zimbabweans their freedoms and rights He made his victims feel the dictatorship was good for those who owned it and they owned it. The dictatorship promised those who owned it unlimited power and influence, absolute power, and sweetest of all wealth.
ZAMBIA’S new president has told the BBC that he has inherited an “empty” treasury, while “horrifying” amounts of money had been stolen.
ReplyDelete“People are still trying to make last-minute movements of funds, which are unauthorised, which are not theirs,” President Hakainde Hichilema said.
He defeated his rival Edgar Lungu in presidential elections last month.
I am impressed HH has been quick to spot the looting and is doing something to stop it.
During the 2008 to 2013 GNU the looting in Zimbabwe continued and MDC leaders failed to do anything to stop it because they were busy enjoying the gravy train good life! Indeed, Tsvangirai and company failed to implement even one democratic reform, the primary reason they were in the GNU.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said Zimbabwe was geared to prosper with or without support from the West that imposed sanctions on the country, adding that China remains there to assist.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa was speaking during a tour of the US$153 million Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport expansion project where he said the coming on board of international airlines such as Qatar Airways was testimony of his government's commitment to opening airspace.
The project will add a new international terminal building and aprons, four new bridges, secondary radar system, VVIP pavilion and airfield ground lighting as well as communication systems.
Zimbabwe’s economy was already in deep trouble before the sanctions were imposed in 2001. Mugabe came up with his “Look East” policy which, he said, would end Zimbabwe’s dependence on the West for financial assistance. It is interesting that now 20 years later we are being told Zimbabwe is “gear to prosper with or without support from the West that imposed the sanctions”.
The truth is there are other important factors such as mismanagement and corruption that are affecting the country’s economic prospect; the sanctions have very little effect as evidenced by the economic mess before sanctions were imposed.
Sanctions are a convenient scapegoat which the regime has used explain the country’s economic mess, on the one hand, and on the other hand make a big song and dance of what it has done to counter the ill effects (all imaginary, of course) of the sanctions. The economy has continued to sink because an imaginary cure to an imaginary cause was not going to solve anything!
20 years on, the regime has kept up the farce of blaming sanctions for the nation’s economic problems and counter claim it has measures to minimise the effects of the sanctions; as the nation’s economy sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss we will hear more and more of the same double act. What a parody!
@ Deborah Harry
ReplyDelete“Back to the issue of funding. Many people fail to realise the importance of having money in politics. Why do you think, Zanu is able to have a firm grip on power? Because they use state resources which they loot from the country, Zanu is able to campaign vigorously in every town and city. They also use these state resources to bribe people in the military, judiciary and ZEC which oversees elections. In order to defeat such a dictatorship, the opposition will need to raise money to mobilise people to register and vote. The fact of the matter is we are on our own, the only things we have on our favour are our feet and the little in our pockets so we need to make use of those. We need to mobilise young and old people to go and vote.”
This is madness of the worst kind! You readily admit Zanu PF is using the billions of dollars of looted wealth to “bribe people in the military, judiciary and ZEC which oversees elections”.
The 2008 elections showed us all the nauseating extend of Zanu PF’s vote rigging when the party blatantly cooked up the March 2008 vote to whittle down Tsvangirai’s 73% to 47%, enough to force a run-off. And during the run-off the party used wanton violence to punish the electorate for having rejected the party in the earlier vote. Of course, the people learned the lesson and voted for Mugabe in the run-off!
Whilst everybody notably SADC realised it was futile to hold free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe without first dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus proposed the 2008 to 2013 GNU. It is curious to note MDC leaders have pointedly failed to implement even one reforms even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU. MDC are adamant Zimbabwe can achieve meaningful democratic change without implementing even one reform.
“We need to mobilise young and old people to go and vote!” Of course, this is insane; if 73% was not good enough to win the elections, please tell us what your new target is, especially in a country in which Zanu PF has already reduced the rural voters, 60% of the electorate, into medieval serfs!
MDC leaders know they are not going to change anything, they are participating in these flawed and illegal elections for the same reasons they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU- they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. As long as Zanu PF dangles the few gravy train seats, the share of the annual Political Party Finance Act pay out and now the POLAD perks; Zanu PF knows the opposition will participate in the flawed elections and give it legitimacy guaranteed.
“We need to mobilise young and old people to go and vote!” Of course, you do my dear but for the purpose of participating in the elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and, you, your rewards of one of the few gravy train seats!
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube laid out a solid spending plan for the US$961 million recently injected by the International Monetary Fund (iMF), saying the windfall would be guarded by three top bankers, who will report to President Emmerson Mnangagwa monthly.
ReplyDeleteSectors hardest hit by Covid-19-induced lockdowns would receive maximum attention as Ncube and his team work to revive an economy that slowed by 4% as the pandemic ripped through the country last year, he said.
The US$961 million was part of a US$650 billion injection released worldwide last month to restart economies following a difficult year when countries came under pressure from the pandemic that broke out in china late 2019.
Zimbabwean firms offloaded 500 000 workers between last year and April 2021, according to the World Bank.
Write downs in the key tourism industry hit US$1 billion, the biggest such fall in 40 years.
But as Harare struggles to access international credit to reboot its stuttering economy due to its high risk profile, the iMF's intervention came as a timely boost.
However, concerns have been raised over the country's ability to deploy the funding to productive use, given high-level corruption.
Speaking during an exciting economic review webinar organised by the Zimbabwe Independent in partnership with Nedbank Zimbabwe yesterday, Ncube vowed to observe the highest levels of transparency and accountability.
He said a plan on how to spend the money was already in place, with the social sector, productive sectors and infrastructure programmes among the most immediate recipients.
The WB, IMF, etc. all know that Zanu PF is corrupt and incompetent and as long as the regime remains in power donated funds will be looted, period. If the nationals of Zimbabwe will do nothing to end the curse of bad governance it is not for WB, etc. to do this for us.
So the regime’s “solid plan” to make sure the donated funds are not looted was to appoint three bankers to monitor the funds and they will report to Mnangagwa, the country’s Godfather of all the looting and rot in the country. Of course, this is a sick joke; does Minister Mthuli Ncube really believe anyone at the WB or IMF will be sleeping ease confident Zimbabwe will not loot the funds!
By Ndaba Nhuku- Zimbabwe is overcrowded with “know it all” and “I want to be president of my party” individuals.
ReplyDeleteThis is what has derailed the liberation of the country from Zanu thuggery. Everyone thinks they know about politics better than the next person. Everyone wants to be president of their own party.
Zanu solidifies around one candidate when the moment comes. And our Opposition will be 20 plus with some having family members only as party members!!
Recently we have Manyara Irene Muyenziwa who was live-streamed by ZimEye whilst launching her own party. God help us.
She is the President of the party, FORUS, yet she is based in the UK and just flew to Zimbabwe to launch her party. What an insult to the voters!
She is detached from the voters and their issues. All she wants is to be part of Polad or get donations from naive Western donors who think it pays being a female leading a political party in Zim.
How many parties do we now have that were born from the original MDC all because of the poverty of leadership in politics? Not that Zanu provocateurs are blameless.
The very fact that the country is in a serious economic and political mess speaks volumes of the nation’s failure, for whatever reason, to produce quality leaders with at least some modicum of common sense.
For calling Muyenziwa a “know it all and I want to be president of my party” because she launched her own political party it is Ndaba Nhuku who is in fact the “I know it all” ignoramus fool!
The thrust of Ndaba’s criticism is everyone should support MDC regardless of the reality on the ground showing MDC has accomplished nothing of note since its launch 21 years ago and right now the party is the mile-stone round the nation’s neck dragging us all into the crashing abyss!
Ndaba has the Zanu PF mentality of using unity as cover to stifle independence, debate and democratic competition.
The very fact that none of the country’s main political parties have any clue on how to get the country out of the mess is good enough reasons for Zimbabweans to accept these parties have failed and the nation should have a open mind to look outside the box for solutions!
Over 400 of the power utility’s former workers are now in South Africa working for the neighbouring country’s power giants, Eskom, while dozens are in the United Kingdom, Australia, among others countries.
ReplyDelete“I have an unflinching determination to deploy Zimbabwean professionals to come back and develop their country as this is how many economies have developed,” Sydney Gata said.
“We shall be putting more detailed developmental plans in line with the aspirations of the National Development Strategy (NDS)1 and Vision 2030. The irony is that, there is no noise when expatriates are hired, but when we look at our very own nationals,” he added.
This is just a waste of time, ZESA will never recover its competence and professionalism without first changing the corrupt political system that caused the rot in the first place. People like Sydney Gata should have never been allowed to work for ZESA, he was appointed because of his political connection, he was Mugabe’s brother in law! Gata is still at ZESA proof the rot is still there!
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa admitted on Wednesday that Zimbabwe is choking under Chinese debt, but said the southern African country would continue looking up to the Asian giant for bailout because of the good working relations between the two nations.
ReplyDeleteAddressing delegates after a tour of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport which is being refurbished courtesy of a US$153 million Chinese loan, Mnangagwa said his administration would continue banking on Chinese help despite accusations of blind brinkmanship and mortgaging the country's natural resources in exchange for "murky" deals.
The Zanu-PF leader said despite Zimbabwe being deep in debt and struggling to repay its loans, the Asian giant had continued to commit more financial resources to enable Harare achieve its economic and infrastructure development agenda.
"The President of China in spite of the status of the government of Zimbabwe's indebtedness to several Chinese companies, which in principle would have constrained China to extend facilitation to further projects because of that indebtedness, President Xi Jinping made a political decision and granted three things, one was the Hwange (power generating unit) 7 and 8 which he said he was granting us a US$1,3 billion loan facility, the other was this one, the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, rehabilitation and modernisation, which he granted US$153 million and the third was the Parliament which we are building, but that is a grant," Mnangagwa said.
"So when we say we express our profound gratitude to the People's Republic of China under our comprehensive and strategic partnership framework, these are some of the acts they have done for our great country," he said.
"This unwavering support remains a show of confidence which China has in our economic development trajectory, we are not worried about those who get angry because China has helped us," Mnangagwa said.
Government is currently pushing to amend the Constitution to circumvent parliamentary oversight in all international debts.
The country’s international debts would not be the Mount Everest if parliamentary oversight was ever effective. The debt would have soared even higher was it not for the fact that all the lenders, first the West and now the Chinese, have refused to grant Zanu PF more loans!
In his now familiar politicking, Mnangagwa said the Zimbabwean opposition should desist from dreaming of replicating the Zambian opposition’s victory.
ReplyDeleteReminiscent of Ian Douglas Smith’s futile, “not in a thousand years” statement directed at the black nationalists, Mnangagwa spoke with bravado last week. But much to Smith’s dismay, Independence came, and he lived to see the same nationalists govern a post-independent Zimbabwe.
Well it took a bitter liberation war in which there was much human suffering and hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives to end white colonial rule.
Since MDC has failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so it means the nation is left with the two choices either to accept decades more of the disastrous Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule or endure yet another violent change be it street protests or military coup.
Whilst there is little that can be done to stop both Zanu PF and MDC participating in the 2023 elections without reforms in place, it is nonetheless possible to ensure the process is declared null and void and the result illegitimate.
The people are desperate for meaningful political change the danger of street protests after the elections or sometime thereafter is real. It is certain Zanu PF would seek to silence all descend using brute force as he did in August 2018 but there is always the danger this the situation getting out of hand. The present economic situation and the human suffering it has caused is intolerable and unsustainable.
By declaring the 2023 elections null and void the nation will be spared to tensions that will come with the anger of another rigged elections and the despair of having to endure another five years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule.
@ Ibbo Mandaza
ReplyDelete“As academic and researcher Phillan Zamchiya stated during the Sapes Trust Policy Dialogue last Tuesday, “election-rigging has a ceiling”, and that is evident when an opposition movement is organised ahead of and during the election, on the back of a massive voter registration exercise, a mobilised high voter turnout, especially on the part of the youth most of whom were first-time voters, and a systematic defence of the vote right up to the end of the counting and collation process.
In conclusion, one has to echo the point made by Zamchiya last Tuesday: Democracy needs strong institutions and not strong men; therefore invest in the reform of institutions, including the re-organisation and revitalisation of the opposition movement.
An obvious message to Zimbabwe where institutions such as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s reputation is in tatters, where militarisation of politics is now almost entrenched, and where the November 2017 coup still needs to be cured through the restoration of constitutionalism, the rule of law and the return of the military to the barracks.
But is this possible before 2023, or are we here to witness a repeat of the same, when the opposition forces are not organised and vital enough to overcome and overtake the securocrats through a resounding electoral victory?
Can Zimbabwe learn something from Zambia – there two countries have a lot of similarities – or the political and electoral differences between them are stark and compelling enough to prevent a repeat of #ZambiaDecides2021 south of the Zambezi come 2023?”
Well, that is about as clear as mud! On the one hand Mandaza accepts the need for strong institutions and not strong men particularly in Zimbabwe with its broken institutions. He then finish by asking is it too late to reform the institutions and are the two nations’ political and electoral difference to big to allow a repeat of what happened in Zambia?
Why he was so reluctant to be decisive beggars belief! Too many Zimbabwean institutions have been corrupted and to expect them to deliver free, fair and credible elections without far reaching reforms in naive and foolish.
There is nothing to suggest the Zanu PF regime is even thinking of implementing any reforms particularly when it is clear the opposition will participate in the elections with or without reforms. Why would Zanu PF ever implement reforms when it is guaranteed opposition participation and with it legitimacy.
Zimbabwe’s opposition must not be left in any doubt that participating in Zimbabwean elections with no reforms in place is foolish and they are doing it out of greed. Of course, it is greed; the opposition know Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate.