May be less so now but not too many moons ago Zimbabweans used to boast of being “one of the most literate nations in Africa!” But, of course, pride cometh before a fall; the 41 years of independence have seen Zimbabwe fall from the dizzying heights of the breadbasket of the region to the basket case of a failed state.
Someone once said of Zimbabwe, “you can plant a broom stick and will get a fruit tree!” to underline just how productive the land is. Ever since Mugabe started seizing the land to give, mainly, to Zanu PF ruling elite the country’s agricultural sector collapsed and with it the economy.
Zimbabweans have the dubious honour of starving in the land that is, for all practical purpose, the Biblical Garden of Eden. A damning testimonial to the nation’s failed leadership.
The right to vote, universal suffrage, should be a bless but we, in Zimbabwe have turned it into a curse.
Before independence it was the norm for the ordinary black person to have membership card for the two main rivalry political parties, Zanu and Zapu; because the failure to produced an up-to-date membership card was proof of belonging to the rivalry party and punishment. The culture of political intolerance has continued to this day, 41 years after independence.
The recent reports of villagers and Zanu PF operatives using all manner of violence to disrupt Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A meetings is nothing new. And, worst of all, if these things can happen to Chamisa and the other leaders for who publicity is their greatest insurance; it is clear the ordinary people in the rural back water, with no publicity, are in deep, deep trouble.
Zimbabwe’s culture of political violence has gone unchecked because the Police, judiciary and other state institution tasked to keep and enforce law and order, for example, have all but abandoned their posts. The Zimbabwe Republic Police is known for doing nothing to stop Zanu PF thuggery. Indeed the Police have often ended up arresting the victim of the thuggery!
What makes Zimbabwe’s political mess such a heart breaking tragedy is that the country has had many, many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship in the last 41 years and the opportunities have been wasted.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect the late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power on the understanding the party would bring about the democratic changes, the party name implied and the nation was dying for. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC leaders have not only failed to implement even one reform but worse still they are now keeping the vote rigging Zanu PF in power by participating in flawed elections and Zanu PF legitimacy.
“A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.”
Alexander Pope’s poem “An Essay on Criticism” (1709)
There is no denying that MDC leaders blatant betrayal of failing to implement the democratic reforms, even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, has landed this nation into this dangerous situation - stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.
The solution to ending the Zanu PF dictatorship is for the nation to implement the democratic reforms and thus break Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers over the state institutions like the Police, ZEC, etc. The solution has been staring us in the face all the time!
The fact that MDC leaders failed to get even one reforms implemented does not mean this was an impossible task much less that we should abandon it as a lost cause. Zanu PF does not have the divine right to dictatorial powers and to rig elections. We just need to appoint competent men and women with the political will and focus to implement the reforms.
MDC leaders’ “Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies” must be dismissed with the contempt the suggestion rightly deserve. We want free, fair and credible elections and to put an end to the curse of rigged elections.
SADC, EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and everybody with any common sense has advised that Zimbabwe must implemented the democratic reforms, clean up its political system, before holding elections. It is MDC leaders, desperate to secure the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offers to entice them to participate regardless how flawed and illegal the elections process, who have insisted on elections with no reforms.
Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship because Robert Mugabe and company considered themselves the only ones competent to rule Zimbabwe. The people have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power in the hope they will dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. The dictatorship is still firmly in place but worse still it is MDC who are now helping to keep Zanu PF in power.
Having been elected into office, MDC leaders feel they too have the divine right to Zimbabwe’s opposition party and government in waiting, just as Zanu PF before them, and MDC leaders are against reforms because that will open the political field to competition.
Talk of double jeopardy; in our fight for free, fair and credible elections we now not only have to fight Zanu PF but the MDC too who don’t want the dictatorship dismantled but only to remove Zanu PF from office and take over.
It is little wonder Zimbabwe is in a very dangerous place given the economic mess and political paralysis; the country’s political leaders are Steve Wonder’s “Misstra Know It All” drunk with the love of absolute power.
The greatest challenge for the people of Zimbabwe is to wake-up to the reality MDC leaders will never ever implement any meaningful democratic reforms. Those who are the breathtakingly incompetent and greedy are, per se, sell-outs and beyond the pale!
SOUTHERN African countries have deployed envoys to Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, to try to stem the unrest that saw one person killed and at least 80 people wounded by security forces in the latest wave of pro-democracy protests.
ReplyDeleteThe demonstrations in the kingdom have flared up recently, months after authorities loyal to the country’s absolute monarch quashed an earlier round of demonstrations.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who currently chairs the security organ of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), ordered high-level envoys to fly to Eswatini on Wednesday to meet King Mswati III to discuss “security and political developments”.
The delegation includes Jeffrey Radebe, a former government minister and Candith Mashego-Dlamini, deputy minister of international relations and cooperation, as well as representatives from Botswana and Namibia.
Eswatini, just like Zimbabwe, has been a pot on the boil for donkey years now; the country would have been saved all this mess if SADC leaders had been more decisive. It is very sad indeed that in this day and age countries like Eswatini should still be agonising on such matters as absolute rulers, free and fair elections, etc. 2 500 after the Greeks had given mankind the answer to that!
The master of time is the master of all! Those nations who have mastered the virtues of good governance have enjoyed peace and prosperity and have turned their minds to other things. Those nations who have lack the common sense to learn from their own mistakes and others have lagged behind and wasted their time and lives on mindless activities.
MDC Alliance President Nelson Chamisa remains defiant and will continue with his national “Meet The People Tour” despite the recent attempts on his life by suspected Zanu PF activists in Masvingo and Manicaland provinces.
ReplyDeleteAddressing the media in Harare Wednesday, a day after the opposition party claimed there was an assassination attempt on Chamisa in Zimunya, Mutare, MDC Alliance Vice President Tendai Biti, dismissed claims the opposition was dramatising assassination attempts as a way of seeking the attention of United Nations (UN) special envoy Alena Douhan who is currently in Zimbabwe.
It is all very well for Tendai Biti to say MDC A leaders will remain defiant in the face of all these politically motivated verbal and physical acts of violence against leaders and, no doubt even worse against ordinary people. The most important question is what hope is there for free, fair and credible elections in these rural areas?
We know Zanu PF claims rural areas as its strongholds only because the rural voters have been reduced to nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF landlords. People like Tendai Biti have largely ignored this reality because they have targeted urban constituencies where Zanu PF’s strangle hold has not been so pronounced. Biti and company do not care that the rural voters have been denied their vote as long as they get a seat on the gravy train! This must stop!
The only sure way to guarantee free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe, and not only in urban centres, is by implementing the democratic reforms. It is infuriating that SADC, EU and anyone who is anybody is calling for reforms BEFORE elections and MDC leaders are the ones insisting on elections without reforms!
Nearly a quarter of a million Zimbabweans who were issued temporary residence permits in South Africa since 2009 are asking a court to grant them permanent residence, a pathway to citizenship.
ReplyDeleteAhead of the expiry of the permits in November, the Zimbabweans are challenging the government position that the permits do not entitle the holder to apply for permanent residence in South Africa.
Under South Africa's immigration law, foreigners can apply for South African citizenship through naturalisation if they have held a permanent residence permit for at least five years.
In April 2009, South Africa's cabinet approved what was known as the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) in a bid to document Zimbabweans living and working illegally in Africa's most industrialised nation.
Some 295,000 Zimbabweans applied for the five-year permits and just over 245,000 were issued, allowing permit holders to work, conduct business and study in South Africa.
Those permits started expiring in December 2014, prompting the government to introduce a new permit scheme called the Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permits (ZSPs), which were valid for three years.
Nearly 198,000 ZSPs were issued, according to the Department of Home Affairs. When the ZSPs expired in 2017 they were replaced by Zimbabwean Exemption Permits, or ZEPs.
Advocate Simba Chitando, a lawyer for the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association said: "The problem faced by many hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans in South Africa is that they have been here for 10 years or longer under a variety of different permits, and it is generally conceded that they make a huge contribution to the South African economy, yet these permits do not allow them to enjoy the benefits that come with permanent residence, such as full access to banking facilities, or the right to accumulate pension savings
If Zimbabweans had not left their homes as economic and/or political refugees, they is no doubt that they would have been treated a lot better than they have been treated especially given their positive contribution to SA’s economic well being. The call for Zimbabwe to clean up back home is now louder than ever.
ZIMBABWE’S state-owned power utility expects to complete the addition of coal-fired units next year, bucking a global trend to reduce reliance on fossil fuel.
ReplyDeleteThe $1.5 billion expansion by Zimbabwe Power Company and China’s Sinohydro will finish one unit next year in September and another in December, adding 600 megawatts. That’s intended to replace 920 megawatts of existing capacity prone to breakdowns, according to Forbes Chanakira, site manager for the Hwange Power Expansion project.
The government’s strategy “is to ensure we improve the reliability of the existing coal plant while at the same time embracing renewable technology,” Chanakira told Bloomberg in an interview at the plant.
The project, which has been in the works for years, demonstrates how some developing nations will continue burning coal until funding is made available by richer countries to switch to cleaner energy. Neighbouring South Africa is also completing some of the world’s biggest stations that run on the fuel and would need $20 billion to retrofit its fleet to cut pollution.
Hwange stage 7 and 8 were on the books by the time Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980; it is tragic that these projects have taken 42 years to see completion. What contribution would the two units have made to the economic wellbeing of the nation if only they had been completed 42 years ago. The economic opportunities lost all these years can never be recovered; like time once lost they are lost forever.
The last 41 years have been one lost opportunity after another; no wonder the country is in a real mess. The root cause of Zimbabwe’s mess is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country must cure itself of this political curse a.s.a.p.! We must implement the democratic reforms and end the dictatorship once and once for all!
Is Patrick Chinamasa’s House On Fire?
ReplyDeleteThe possibility of Zanu PF blaming MDC A for such incidences for political advantage is not far fetched. Zanu PF has become a master in this dirty politics game!
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown have left millions of ordinary Zimbabweans languishing in abject poverty. The rising tide of poverty has risen so high it is not surprising many of the ruling elite have not been spared.
ReplyDeleteThe only sure way to escape the tide of poverty is to secure a seat at the ruling elite top table; it is no surprise that the fight for these seats has become a matter of life and death because those who fail face a bleak future indeed.
Mugabe was able to keep the peace in the party because he inherited the seven fat cows from Ian Smith. Mnangagwa is not that lucky, he inherited a bankrupt nation rotten to the core with corruption ruled by buffoons desperate to hang on to power they will kill for it. Indeed, the buffoon are so desperate to hang on to power they are killing each other!
As long as Zimbabwe remains a Banana Republic there will be no meaningful economic recovery and so the economic meltdown and poverty will get worse and so too will the dog-eat-dog fighting among the ruling elite. Mnangagwa cannot end the Banana Republic and so cannot stop the dog-eat-dog fighting in Zanu PF!
HIS humble upbringing coupled with early life struggles punctuated by resilience, hard-work, self-motivation and determination to pursue his childhood dream, played a critical role in shaping his career path.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing story about a Zimbabwean scientist, who despite his humble beginnings is now making waves in America.
Meet United States-based Zimbabwean scientist Dr Tatenda Shopera who has made history by being part of a team that was directly involved in the development of the world's first Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by US drug firm, Pfizer, where he is the principal scientist.
Well done Dr Tatenda Shopera!
Zimbabwe has been on the map for all the wrong reasons: Gukurahundi massacre, world record beating hyperinflation, gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, vote rigging, wanton violence, opposition so incompetent they failed to implement even one reform in five years, insanity of participating in flawed elections only to complain they are rigged, military coup, etc., etc. It is very nice for Zimbabwe to be in the news for something positive for a change!
The number one challenge for the nation is to put an end to the insanity of participating in rigged elections on the foolish belief that the opposition has devised Winning In Rigged Election (WIRE) strategies. After 41 years of rigged elections how the nation can still be conned into believing such nonsense beggars belief!
On Monday, 25 October, Zanu PF leaders and their apologists will gather to denounce the “illegal” sanctions imposed by the West and how they are the root cause of the country’s economic meltdown and human suffering. Zanu PF will be joined by other leaders and nations in SADC on the day for the region has designated is the Anti-Sanctions Day.
ReplyDeleteWhilst Zanu PF and company condemn sanctions, like hauler monkeys at dawn. The echo to the hauler monkey chorus is the unanswered question; how is it possible the sanctions have made the millions of ordinary people filthy poor and made the ruling elite and the cronies, who are on the sanctions lists, filthy rich?
We will have to wait until September 2022 when Ms Alena Douhan report will be released, to know whether the echo drowned out hauler monkeys’ dawn chorus!
If there is one thing we all have in common, from genius on one extreme to the village idiot on the other, it is vanity. We hold ourselves in very, very high regard; it doesn't matter how inexcusable our blunder, we will find an excuse regardless how feeble.
ReplyDeleteAlexander Pope is spot on, “A little learning is dangerous thing, indeed.” Those who have only tasted the water of the fountain of knowledge, the Pierian Spring, get drunk with excitement, they think they are Misstra know it all.
I believe most Zimbabweans have indeed risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power out of desperation for change. It was the former Zanu PF chief strategist cum propagandist, Professor Jonathan Moyo, who said if Zimbabweans had Mugabe and the donkey on the ballot paper; they will vote for the donkey.
Of course, none of the MDC leaders will ever acknowledge they were elected into office for anything other than their charm, good looks and, most important of all, their great leadership qualities. Even leaders like Nelson Chamisa whose past bespeaks of a corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent leaders, still view themselves as God’s gift to the nation.
Chamisa and his fellow MDC friends failed to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU they could not heed SADC leaders’ advice to boycott the 2013 elections until reforms are implemented because they would have been protesting against their own incompetence.
The MDC leaders’ present position is to participated in the flawed elections, win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering to buy legitimacy.
Meanwhile they hope the economic situation will push the people beyond their limit of endurance on to the street and demand change. MDC leaders are banking on violent street protest delivering to regime change they failed to bring by ensuring elections are free, fair and credible.
The trouble with violent street protests is there will be distraction of property, broken limbs and even lost human lives and, worst of all, there is no guarantee the violence will deliver the stable and democratic system of government, the nation is yearning for.
The alternative to violent street protest or another military coup is to demand a new GNU that will be tasked to implement the reforms. Condemning these elections as a farce is the first step in getting the new GNU.