The sheer hypocrisy and duplicity of MDC leaders when it comes to dealing with the thorny issue of Zimbabwe’s political culture of violence, never seize to infuriate me!
“That’s an issue of impunity and fertilises the breakdown of security of the person and security of the citizen," said Nelson Chamisa.
"We have so many cases of so many people, who have been attacked like this over the past years and how do you kill somebody like a fly like that?"
"There is no shame or sense of accountability on the part of those responsible.
"This is one of many cases we face as opposition and human rights defenders who continue to be treated in such a manner.”
Chamisa was speaking of the murder of a Gutu MDC activist, Nyasha Mawere, by Zanu PF thugs. Nyasha was attended by his assailants for attend a rally address by Chamisa. The names of the three assailants were given to the Police but, as usual, there have been no arrests.
During the 2008 elections, over 500 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered and hundreds of thousands were beaten and/or raped and millions were subjected to all manner of harassment and abuse. The elections was a watershed in that the nation witnessed some of the worst wanton violence in the country’s history.
The heinous crimes were committed by Zanu PF youths and war veterans, as the foot soldiers, backed up by the Police, Army, CIO and Prison Services personal who carried out the heavy duty stuff of abducting and killing. This was a Zanu PF instigated “Operation Mavhotera ani!” (Operation Whom did you vote for!) to punish the people for daring to vote for the MDC in the earlier, March 2008 vote.
Of course, none of the perpetrators of the wanton 2008 violence were ever arrested and faced justice. The Police, Army, etc. were and still are to this day captured by Zanu PF; the Police, Army, etc. are nothing but a department of Zanu PF there to serve the party’s selfish interest of no regime change.
So Nelson Chamisa is right to moan about the culture of impunity and no sense of shame on the part of those responsible for upholding the rule of law and protecting the sanctity of human life.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends are shameless hypocrites for three reasons:
- MDC had the golden opportunity during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the democratic reforms which would have dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship, end the party’s strangle hold on the Police, Army and all the other state institutions and restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and the right to life. They failed to implement even one reform in five years because Mugabe bribe them. They forgot about the reforms because they had their snouts in the feeding trough.
- Everyone has argued that Zimbabwe must implement the reforms first before holding elections. It is none other than MDC leaders who have stubbornly insisted on having elections with no reforms. Zanu PF has been offering a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate and MDC and company have found the bait irresistible. Mnangagwa has increases the bait by creating POLAD, a superfluous political body to reward all presidential candidates who endorsed him as the legitimate winner of the rigged 2018 elections.
- By participating in these flawed and illegal elections, MDC and company are giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. Of course it is an outrage that the country’s fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and the corse of bad governance is now being frustrated by MDC who then have the chutzpah to pontificate over suffering and deaths of the victims of their blatant betrayals.
Yes, Zanu PF have created and ruthlessly retained this de facto one party dictatorship. However, we cannot deny that the 2008 to 2013 GNU was our get out of jail card which Morgan Tsvangirai and his mates failed to use by implementing the raft of democratic reforms to dismantle the dictatorship.
We can evoke the get out of jail card by demanding the implementation of the reforms before elections and it is MDC leaders who are refusing to do so under the pretext they have “winning in rigged elections strategies!” All nonsense of course because none of these strategies have worked and after 41 years of rigged elections the insanity must be stopped.
"There is the concept of always sitting around a fireplace as a family to look at issues and if that fails, we always invite a neighbour,” continued Chamisa.
It was SADC who facilitated the 2008 to 2013 GNU and MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years because MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Another GNU will accomplish nothing, not as long as the same corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF and MDC leaders are allowed to play leading roles.
Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another meaningless election process just to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and another five more years in power. We have the get out of jail card, we must evoke it by demanding reforms before elections.
Just because MDC and Zanu PF leaders have proven to be corrupt and incompetent beyond the pale does not mean no one else can implement the reforms. We just need competent men and women to implement the reforms and not these hypocrites; the reforms themselves are not rocket science.
FINANCE minister Mthuli Ncube says government has issued debt guarantees amounting to $24,2 billion and US$15,2 million to help firms ride out Covid-19 induced operational problems.
ReplyDeleteA government guarantee is an arrangement in which the State undertakes to payment of a debt or performance of an obligation in the event of a default by the primary creditor.
Last year treasury announced a $18 billion Covid-19 stimulus package, cutting across all productive sectors.
The package was meant to give firms access to critical liquidity after operations were affected by lockdowns.
During the lockdowns, firms still required to pay for expenses like rentals and electricity.
The package was aimed at strengthening and expanding existing social safety nets and up-scaling investments into social and economic infrastructure, including recovery of assets destroyed by floods.
This is just another source of money to loot for the ruling elite. They have been looting aid given by outsiders to help the most vulnerable members in society; if they can loot that what more funds the ruling elite are the source.
There can be no doubt that Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent; their track record bespeaks of that, they have failed to implement even one meaningful reform in 22 years, 5 in the GNU. The tragedy for Zimbabwe is that Nelson Chamisa and company are clearly ignorant of their serious shortcomings as leaders and, worst of all, there are many Zimbabweans out there who see these MDC leaders as the nation’s saviours.
ReplyDeleteThe author of the Standard article never, for one minute, questioned any of Nelson Chamisa’s claims; MDC’s track record during the GNU bespeaks of corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders but clearly not to the author. “Chamisa breathes fires!” was the faltering headline of the article.
Of course, it is infuriate and insane to keep participating in these flawed and illegal elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. After 41 years of rigged elections we are being conned into participating in yet another meaningless elections hoping against reason to finally win the rigged elections.
Indeed, it is now very common to hear Chamisa or one of his fanatical supporters talking of “the insanity of repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result!” The quote is given as proof they are not insane in expecting to finally win rigged election after 41 years of failing to do so.
Zimbabwe’s greatest curse is having more than our fair share of the world’s ignorant. And when the ignorant are in positions of power and influence, they glisten with self-confidence. They believe they can do anything, they are infallible. In reality, the are drunk and dangerous!
We, in Zimbabwe we are in deep, deep trouble as we are now caught with Zanu PF thugs, who are well and truly addicted to power after 41 years of enjoying absolute power, on the one hand. And on the other, we have MDC, who the nation had risked life and limb to elect into power with the specific task to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. Zanu PF has bribed them with a share of the spoils of power and has long since switched allegiance, MDC leaders are now helping Zanu PF stay in power.
Both Zanu PD and MDC leaders have no clue what is going on, they are as ignorant and drunk in their ignorance believe they are nonetheless infallible.
“A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deeply or taste not the Pierian spring
For shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking deeply sobers us again.”
Wrote the English Poet, Alexander Pope.
Both Zanu PF and MDC will fight hard to stop the appointment of competent men and women tasked t implement the reforms. They believe they alone know best and the destiny of the nation must be in their hands and no one else! Like it or not, both Zanu PF and MDC are holding the nation to ransom.
@ Simba Mukori
ReplyDelete"Zimbabwe is a country in deep crisis.It is embroiled in a multi-faceted crisis of an unprecedented magnitude on numerous fronts-be they socio-legal or politico-economic.The country has experienced massive structural regression characterized by alarming levels of unemployment, infrastructural decay and enormous deterioration in the provision of critical social services.Endemic corruption, gross economic mismanagement, flagrant violations of human rights, blatant disregard of the rule of law and its selective application constitute an avalanche of problems that citizens continue to grapple with daily in contemporary Zimbabwe.
The most unpatriotic thing most of us have done these last 41 years was to let Zanu PF deny us our freedoms and rights including the right to freedom of expression and even the right to life and get away with it. In this life there are somethings worth fighting for to the death - human freedoms and rights are some of those things. By allowing Zanu PF to deny us our freedoms and rights we have ended up losing our self-respect and pride as human beings!
Zhambe was abducted and tortured by Zanu PF hooligans in Gutu during President Chamisa’s community engagement programme in October.
ReplyDelete“I received a call from Councillor Bernard Chimwango about Nyasha’s deteriorating condition after he had been assaulted by known Zanu PF hooligans.
He arrived at my place around midnight. He could not walk properly…
Akandiudza kuti pane mipurwa yandirova maGutu umu( He related how Zanu PF people assaulted him).
Vanhu veZanu PF varipano go and Mnangagwa kuti zvanzi naJob Sikhala urimupurwa wemunhu.”
Everyone has said Zimbabwe must implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship before holding elections. What is shocking is that it is none other than MDC leaders themselves who are insisting on participating in these flawed elections because they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering to entice the opposition to participate.
All this nightmare of rigged elections and wanton violence would end if reforms were implemented, if the national interests were not trumped by MDC leaders’ greed!
The ordinary people are participating out of ignorance. How so many should believe in the the idiotic nonsense of “winning in rigged elections strategies”, especially after 41 years of rigged election beggars belief.
On the whole, nations get the government they deserve. We certainly deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties. The nation has paid dearly for its foolishness and, until we learn, we are got getting out of this man-made hell-on-earth.
To get out of this mess we must implement the democratic reforms; Job Silhala’s posturing and grandstanding will never deliver the democratic changes we are dying for.