It is said that Mathematics is an exact science in that 1 +
1 = 2 not 2 or anything else. Compared to say History, for example, whose
parameters are vaguely defined. One can argue that the primary causes of the
Second World War were A, B, C and D; second person may say that and a third say
something else which is neither this nor that and all three may well be marked
correct.
Politics is a totally different ball game! Whereas with
History there is a concerted effort to be factual and respect of the truth; in
Politics opinions are traded as facts and, if one is not well informed
diligent, half truths and even downright lies are sold as the whole truth.
Even if one accepted
the reality that Politics is not an exact science with one undisputed answer to
a question, still only those with an invested interest in denying the facts can
dispute that Zimbabwe is a textbook case of a failed state in which the
overwhelming majority of the citizens are now living in abject poverty as a
result of decades of misrule.
“If blacks are to rule themselves people in towns will walk
on sewage until they believe its’s normal,” said Ian Douglas Smith in 1975.
“All the gains from colonization will varnish, infrastructure
will collapse, roads will be impassable, trains will kill people until they’re
abandoned as an unsafe mode of transport. Hospitals will be closed; farms will
be grabbed and nothing to feed the nation.”
After just four decades of self-rule, Zimbabwe has already
gone a long way to fulfil Ian Smith’s prophecy!
Even President Emmerson Mnangagwa, succeeded Mugabe after
the 2017 military coup as the new Zanu PF dictator, and his Zanu PF cronies have
grudgingly admitted the country is in a mess. They blame everyone and
everything, especially the west imposed sanctions, for the mess but never
themselves.
Zanu PF has also produced its own propaganda portraying a
prosperous future to counter the gloomy reality of the present. And thus this
Mnangagwa regime, “the Second Republic” as he calls it, claims the nation is set
to attain upper middle-income status by 2030, vision 2030.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state and there is nothing Mnangagwa has
done since the 2017 coup to suggest that is about to change. And as long as
Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there
will be no meaningful economic recovery. Vision 2030 will remain a mirage in
the darkest of nights!
Ian Smith’s prophecy has come to pass in record time, I don’t
think even Ian Smith would have predicted Zimbabwe would be a failed state in
just four decades, because he predicted three things:
1)
That the Zanu PF leaders were corrupt and
incompetent
2)
That they would be oppressive and shun
democratic accountability
3)
Third, most important of all, they are so
obsessed about their inferiority complex they will never admit failure
Ian Smith was spot-on on all three counts, and it was a recipe
for disaster as we can see.
The point is Zimbabwe’s economic and political failure was
not inevitable. The country had human and material resources and economic
potential to be “the South Korea of Africa”, as Ken Yamamoto a Japanese scholar
put it, given competent and visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela in South
Africa. We turned left instead of right and became “the failed North Korea of
Africa” under the leadership of the corrupt and tyrannical Robert Mugabe and
his Zanu PF cronies.
The country still has the same resourceful and hard-working people,
the natural resources, etc. are still there and therefore can still pull itself
by the boot strings to become democratic and prosperous nation. It will be more
difficult to do so now than back in 1980. The nation will have to wrestle
political power from the Zanu PF thugs, for a start. That is easier said than
done because the rot of the dictatorship has permeated deep into society.
Still, it is possible to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Indeed, given the tragic human suffering in the country, it is imperative to
dismantle the dictatorship before the regime drags the whole nation into the economic
and political chaos that has engulfed other nations like Libya or Syria.
Zanu PF has tried to impose a de jure one-party dictatorship
but failed. The party is still obliged to hold regular elections for political legitimacy,
and this is its Achilles heel. Given the party’s track record of economic ruins
and it is not surprising the regime has resorted to rigging the elections to
remain in power. Rigging elections is one thing getting away with it is another,
as Zanu PF learned in 2008 when SADC and AU refused to rubber stamp the result
and denied it legitimacy!
Zanu PF is once again blatantly rigging the 2023 elections,
the regime is using wanton violence, has failed to produce a verified voters’
roll, etc., etc. Pressure must be brought to bear on SADC and AU not to rubber
stamp the flawed elections and thus deny the regime legitimacy. This will force
the country to have a new Government of National Unity (GNU), like the 2008 to
2013 GNU, only this time competent people must be appointed to ensure all the
democratic reforms are implemented.
The only effective way to proving white racist like Ian
Smith was wrong; that black Zimbabweans are capable of self-rule is by cleaning
the sewage off our streets, install modern sewage system throughout the land
and restore all the human freedoms, rights and dignities the Zanu PF
dictatorship has denied our people. We don’t shame the white supremacists by
denying our failures and shortcomings but by admitting and dealing with the
problems and by successfully carrying out the latest open-heart surgery and
more!
As a people we, black Africans, have wasted time and energy
arguing with our detractors our worth as equals when we should have focused on
earning our place at the high table by our deeds!
SOUTH Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) is moving to left wing politics in a populist bid to garner votes in the 2024 elections, which explains the party’s newly adopted stance against foreign immigrants, especially Zimbabweans, The NewsHawks can reveal.
ReplyDeleteProf Friedman also highlights that leftist politics by ANC is now motivated by the fact that the majority are the poor blacks.
“In the country’s insider politics, the majority who try to survive outside the formal economy are talked about, but are never heard. The ‘radical economic transformation forces’ are people trying to gain a bigger share of what the few enjoy, not to share it with the many,” he said.
In 2013 it was none other than the SADC leaders themselves who advised the now late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends who had sold out by failing to implement even one reform during the GNU on the sheer folly of participating in the elections without reforms. “If you participate in next month’s elections, you will lose. The elections are done!” they told the useless banded MDC mongooses.
As we know the mongooses paid no heed and Zanu PF, as expected, blatantly rigged the elections and has been do so ever since. The real shock was that SADC leaders rubber stamped the rigged 2013 elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy and have been doing the same thereafter!
Of course, it was treasonous folly that the banded mongooses betrayed the nation in failing to implement reforms and in helping to keep Zanu PF in power. Still, it was idiotic of SADC to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus help perpetuating the people’s suffering under the dictatorship knowing fully well the elections are rigged!
One can only hope that the tragic reality in Zimbabwe is forcing ANC to be truthful in its dealing with the vote rigging Zanu PF regime. If 2023 elections are rigged, signs are that is going to happen, and SA once again gives Zanu PF legitimacy then it must accept the consequences of a new wave of Zimbabwean refugees flooding across the Limpopo River! SA cannot prop the Zanu PF dictatorship and then connive with the regime in punishing the victims of the dictatorship!
AFTER serving as the European Union ambassador to Zimbabwe since October 2018 – a year after the 2017 military coup and a few months after the 2018 polls – Timo Olkkonen (TO) is leaving for a new diplomatic posting soon. The NewsHawks’ (NH) news editor Owen Gagare and reporter Mary Mundeya caught up with him to discuss his time in Zimbabwe.
ReplyDeleteHe arrived in Zimbabwe at a time of great optimism that the country was charting a new path in the post-Robert Mugabe era. However, despite progress on some fronts, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration could have done more to fight corruption which is bleeding the economy. Olkkonen also decries the slow pace of key economic and political reforms and says the country’s leadership should accept that bad policies of the past and present administrations are responsible for the economic hardships rather than blaming EU measures which he says are inconsequential.
Zimbabwe is a failed pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF thugs who have rigged elections to stay in power. The common mistake is to think that the pariah state will be dismantled by merely focusing on the Zanu PF thugs. The reality is the Zanu PF dictatorship would have been dismantled by 2013, at the latest, if it was not for the MDC now rebranded CCC who sold out by failing to implement reforms and continue participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Since the 2008 election debacle and the forced GNU that followed, Zanu PF has learned can continue to blatantly rig the elections and even use wanton violence and get away with it as long as it bribes the opposition to participate giving the process some modicum of democratic competition and legitimacy.
If Zanu and Zapu had participating in the heavily compromised 1978 Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Internal Settlement giving Ian Smith legitimacy, then black Zimbabweans would still be third class citizens to this day. Muzorewa and Sithole participated but lack popular support and thus failed to give Smith legitimacy.
All attempts to pressure Zanu PF to reform have failed because the party knows the opposition will participate in droves, President Mnangagwa has just increase the bribe by offering losers of the presidential rat race the POLAD benefits, regardless how flawed the process got giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
So, if we are serious about dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship we must also deal with the opposition, the regime’s junior partners and acolytes!