“Our peace activists say each time an election date is announced, fear grips the communities. This is not how things must be. Elections must bring joy to citizens that they now have an opportunity again to have their say in how the country is run. In Zimbabwe it brings fear because violence is assured,” stated a ZimRights report.
“Our politics is now an art of war. What political party you support determines if you are going to have access to food and participate in the economy, among other things.
“This state of war is the main reason citizens are withdrawing from public life and women are no longer interested in participating in politics. It has become a game of thuggery. Without the nerve to violate other people’s rights, you can’t participate in our politics.”
The ZimRight report is aptly titled “Zimbabwe on the Brink: Living in Fragile Peace”.
Sadly, what the report failed to say is this is all self-inflicted. “Kurumwa nechokuchera!” as one would say in Shona!
Of course, we Zimbabweans are responsible for the economic and political mess we find ourselves stuck in. The late Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs dragged us into this mess. 42 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left the country in economic ruins and a pariah state no one would want to do business with.
Now also late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends had many golden opportunities, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship. They have not only failed to implement even one token reform but to add insult to injury, they have been participating in these flawed and violent elections to give the Zanu PF regime legitimacy thus perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship.
And we, the people, have played our part in this tragedy in failing to stop the Zanu PF dictatorship juggernaut and failing to supervise the corrupt and incompetent MDC. It is unforgivable that even now with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans out there still have no clue the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms much less that MDC leaders sold out by failing to implement even one reform.
Indeed, the reason why many Zimbabweans believe in Nelson Chamisa’s oxymoronic nonsense of “winning blatantly rigged elections” stems from their initial failure to recognise MDC leaders for the corrupt, incompetent and sell outs after the GNU.
It is a universally accepted rule of thumb, that nations get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, have certainly done nothing to deserve anything better than this corrupt, tyrannical and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the coterie, 130 at the last count, of corrupt and utterly useless opposition parties.
Zimbabwe is an independent nation and as of 18 April 1980, we are, per se, masters of our own destiny, masters of our own ship. We had the potential to become the “South Korea of Africa” as Japanese scholar and writer, Ken Yamamoto once noted. We have become a quintessential failed state, a pariah state, with a filthy rich ruling elite riding roughshod over the filthy poor majority denying them a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.
At the heart of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Of course, Zanu PF does not have the right to rig elections it has blatantly rigged elections since 2013 only because MDC failed to implement the reforms and has participated in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
It is for the ordinary people of Zimbabwe to wake up to the political reality that MDC/CCC leaders are sell outs and stop following the party into this insanity of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Deny CCC political credibility and the party’s participation in the flawed elections will not give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Covid-19 vaccination targets 3-year-olds as Zim chases elusive herd immunity.
ReplyDeleteIn a country that has only managed to vaccinate 6 and 4 million with one and two jabs respectively, and has a long way to go to achieve the 10 million with two jabs much less three jabs and only managing 4 000 jabs per day nationwide; the country would be better advised concentrating on the adult population instead of spreading the efforts to children 3 years old!
The World Bank has classified Zimbabwe as lower-middle-income country for the current 2023 fiscal year.
ReplyDeleteThe Bank assigns the world's economies to four income groups—low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income
The classifications are updated each year on July 1 and are based on the GNI per capita of the previous year (2021).
For the current 2023 fiscal year, low-income economies are defined as those with a GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method, of $1,085 or less in 2021; lower middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $1,086 and $4,255; upper middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $4,256 and $13,205; high-income economies are those with a GNI per capita of $13,205 or more.
THE latest World Bank report indicates that 6,4 million Zimbabweans are living on less than US$1,90 a day.
The report is based on the multilateral institution's Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP), an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate internationally comparable regional and country-level poverty estimates.
ReplyDeleteuuuu
In its recent update, the World Bank said 40% of Zimbabweans (6,4 million when estimating the country's population to be 16 million) were each according to the international poverty rate (PPP) living on less than $1,90 per day or $693.5 per year.
"Extreme poverty rate increased steadily between 2011 and 2020, only declining in 2021. International poverty rate was 22% in 2011 and estimated to be 41% in 2021 and 40% in 2022. Although poverty remains an overwhelmingly rural phenomenon, it has increased relatively faster in urban areas leading to the urbanisation of poverty," the Word Bank said.
"Zimbabwe's PPP was half the level in sub-Saharan African in 2011, but by 2019, it was on par with the rest of the continent (42%). Inequality has also increased over the last decade, with the Gini coefficient increasing from 42 in 2011 to 50,3 in 2019 — among the highest in the world."
This comes as the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat)'s poverty datum line said the food poverty line (FPL) for one person in June was $13 875 equivalent to US$19,80 on the parallel market and the total consumption poverty line stands at $18 425 (US$26,30).
Residents told NewsDay yesterday that they were languishing in poverty due to low incomes.
"The fact that there is abundance of poverty among the residents is in no doubt. The situation in the community is dire. People have very little disposal income to spend on food, clothes, medication and the number of meals per household has gone down to one or two in most households," Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba said, adding the bulk of residents are informally employed.
It is not surprising that Zimbabwe is supposedly a lower middle income nation with GNI per capita between $1,086 and $4,255 and yet a staggering 40% of the population 6.4 million are living in extreme poverty, living on US$1.90 per day or US$ 693.50 per year – a far cry from the country’s lower middle income status.
The truth is Zimbabwe has become a nation in which the few ruling elite and their cronies have become filthy rich at the expense of the overwhelming majority how are languishing in abject poverty. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, the chasm is getting wider and deeper!
The country’s skewed political system of political patronage has concentrated political power in the few who have bused it to doll out looted wealth to buy political loyalty. The system has become so powerful that it is now the filthy rich cronies who are pulling the strings and those in power dance. The tail is wagging the dog.
President Mnangagwa vowed to stamp out corruption only to soon discover the corrupt will have him booted out of the office before sunset if he dared take them on!
The Citizens Movement has introduced a new culture of thanking the Citizens but more importantly hearing from them.
ReplyDeleteWe will ensure that constant feedbacks meetings are held all over the country so that every Citizen stays connected.
This is your movement- it’s the Movement of Citizens, by Citizens, for Citizens.
The gap between reality and political rhetoric is growing wider and dangerously deep. How can CCC be a movement of the citizens, by citizens and for citizens when the party has stubbornly refused to have a constitution, party structures and hold party congress – the very basis of democratic rule of law and membership participation. What is happening here is typical MDC leader mentality telling the people what they know people want to hear whilst doing the exact opposite.
CCC remains a one-man show, Chamisa makes all the decisions and everyone else do as he or she is told!
The 2023 election is all about Nelson Chamisa and everyone else is there to play the supporting role. It is all about him winning the presidency and he does not care if the party failed to win the majority in parliament as happened in the 2018 elections.
He knows that Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections, he does not care the party’s participation will once again give Zanu PF legitimacy all he cares about is that he emerges as the leader of the biggest opposition party!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was Zimbabwe's golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship once and for all. The very fact that many people out there do not realise this even now with the benefit of hindsight beggars belief!
ReplyDeleteOf course MDC leaders sold out be time in failing to implement even one reform. They too failed to comprehend the golden opportunity the GNU offered. They have proven beyond all doubt that they failure to implement even one reform was not a mistake by insisting on participating in these flawed and illegal elections in 2013, 2018 and now in 2023.
There very fact that there are still some Zimbabweans who still support Nelson Chamisa and his fiendish MDC/CCC friends shows this country is not ready for a healthy and functioning democracy. Even if a healthy and functioning democracy was given to us in a silver platter in the morning by noon the same day the dictatorship will be back!
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these 2023 elections and even has the chic to gloat about it.
ReplyDelete“We, as the governing party, will lead the delimitation process,” Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told Zanu PF party delegates.
“You cannot say that you are ruling and do things that result in you getting out of power.
There is no political party that boots itself out of power.”
There only time Zanu PF’s hold on power was shaky was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when the party signed the 2008 Global Political Agreement committing itself to the need to implement democratic reforms ending its carte blanche powers to rig elections. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of power and the rest was history, as they say.
How Mugabe managed to stop MDC leaders from implementing even one reform in five years is not so much a measure of Mugabe’s cunningness but the breath-taking incompetence of Morgan Tsvangirai and company.
Indeed, SADC gave MDC leaders a chance to redeem themselves and begged them not to participate in the elections without first implement the reforms. Again, Tsvangirai and company paid no heed!
It is absurd, to say the least, to complain of Zanu PF rigging elections and yet do nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections even when given the golden opportunity to do so. We don’t even have the common sense to see the sheer insanity of participating in flawed elections only to give legitimacy to Zanu PF, even after 42 years of rigged elections!
@ Collen Mbongoro
ReplyDelete“@ Nomsa Garikai who are you to judge CCC? make your own party if possible together with Jonso do all the prescriptions, square off with CCC, you will prove yourself wrong let Zimbabweans think for themselves, what capacity do you have to think for the majority of Zimbabweans?”
It is a great pity that many Zimbabweans keep talking of wanting to live a free, just, prosperous and democratic country without understanding what that means. In a healthy and functioning democracy all those in public office are accountable to the public, for example. And yet again and again not only CCC supporters but even the leaders themselves who should know better, believe they are not accountable to anyone, a basic tenet of democracy.
“What capacity do you have to think for the majority of Zimbabweans?” This is the kind of comment that must be slammed down because who among us has the monopoly of knowledge to question anyone’s. You are free to comment on the expressed opinion but not the individual’s capacity!
@ Bionic Vusa
ReplyDelete“Zimbabwe must be a nation of mentally handicapped people, half the country still hopes for a better life under Zanu PF even after 42 years of evidence that things can only get worse.
The other half of the country formed a party that was meant to be a democratic alternative to Zanu PF in 1999 and yet looked the other way as Chamisa and Tsvangirai before him personalized the party and turned it into something worse than Zanu PF.
Even Zanu pf still has a Politburo which makes all party decisions. Chamisa disbanded the national council and is now the law unto himself, making all the decisions and appointing and disappointing office bearers.
It’s about time Zimbabweans woke up from their slumber for if Chamisa makes it to State House we will all die before we see democracy in Zimbabwe.”
I could not agree with you more; it is shocking that after 42 years of independence we are still failing to hold something as basic as holding free, fair and credible election.