"Is Chin'ono and Chamisa truly working for povo or they are Zanu PF double agents?" W Mukori

 

Simba Chikanza’s Zimeye expose “The Dark Side Of Hopewell Chin’ono: Serious Frauds Destroying Zimbabwe Forever” have shattered the naivety of assuming political advisers like Chin’ono are innocent and that opposition leaders like Chamisa still committed to the common cause of implementing reforms and free elections!!!!

“It is so easy to pontificate whilst you are doing nothing on the ground.

1. Most businesses are owned or controlled by people with ZANUPF links, Meikles, Pick and Pay etc.

2. Provide me with the evidence that Mnangagwa owns @HotplateGrillh1 so we know.”

Chikanza quoted a Hopewell Chin’ono 15 March, 2022 tweet. Chin’ono was replying FoxLion2028 who was questioning the political wisdom of CCC receiving a very generous donation from a known Zanu PF insider.   

“Dude I have no time for silly arguments.

@CCCZimbabwe needs the US$150 000 for by election,” continued Chin’ono.

It turned out that the owner of Hot Plate Grill, a Mr Benson Muneri, was very close confidant of the First Lady, Auxillia Mnangagwa. A few months before the above incident Mr Muneri had called Simba Chikanza warning him against asking her ‘hard questions’. Interestingly, the following day, Hopewell Chino’no called too over the same matter, accusing him of “blackmailing” the First Lady.

Hopewell Chin'ono became a darling of the nation when he exposed the alleged US$60m Covid-19 procurement fraud within the health ministry. The Minister of Health, Obadiah Moyo, was sacked.

It is common for Zanu PF leaders to use corruption or some such charges to punish one of their own. It is widely believed that the 1980s Willowvale Motor Scandal, commonly known as “Willowgate”, for example was used to weed out some Zanu PF leaders whilst others were left untouched. Minister Moyo has arrested but released without even spending single night in prison.  

Chin’ono has since taken up many other human rights clauses like the collapse of the nation’s health care services and blames the government for the collapse.

Hopewell Chin’ono, together with the late Alex Magaisa and Professor Jonathan Moyo (before he fell out with Chamisa) have been the self-appointed principal advisers to country’s opposition leaders and Nelson Chamisa in particular. Chin’ono must have raised millions of dollars for CCC since the party’s launch in January this year.

Chin’ono was arrested a few months after his corruption story came out and spent several weeks in prison before the case was dismissed by the courts. He has since been arrested and jailed on what many believe are frivolous charges and punishment for being a critic of the Zanu PF regime.

It is a real surprise therefore that Hopewell Chin’ono should turn out to be a close confidant of Zimbabwe’s First Lady and would have another First Lady confidant and “Mnangagwa clan” member, as Foxlion2028 called Muneri, bankroll CCC’s political activities!

“Is Chin’ono truly working in favour of the opposition to help it win, or it’s all a counterintelligence operation?” asked Simba Chikanza.

This is a very logical question, indeed, long overdue; given the countless surprise decisions the country’s opposition has made. The insistence by the opposition on participating in these flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was blatantly rigging the process, the opposition would never ever win, and that by participating the opposition would only give Zanu PF legitimacy.

The alternative to participating in the flawed and illegal elections was to demand the implementation of reforms before elections. Decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by this Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country is economic ruins “Mugabe would lose the elections to a donkey, if the elections were free and fair” Professor Moyo commented in 2008.

Indeed, during the 2008 to 2013 MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. They failed to implement even one token reform and we know why! Robert Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the very generous salaries and allowance, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. And with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms.

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC people have learnt to enjoy the trappings of gravy train, they will never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms.

It should be noted that the late Alex Magaisa was Morgan Tsvangirai’s chief adviser during the later part of the GNU. There is nothing Magaisa has ever said to suggest he was disappointed MDC wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms; on the contrary, he boasted of his achievements then. Both Chin’ono and Professor Moyo had nothing but praise for the late Dr Magaisa’s contribution during the GNU.

It is inconceivable that these two gentlemen would have failed to enormity of MDC’s failure to implement even one democratic reform in our fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. For Pete’s sake, the primary task of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms. But of course, if you are a Zanu PF crony of double agent, the number one task was to make sure not even one token reform was implemented.

The number one task for the Zanu PF cronies and double agent since the GNU is to make sure the opposition participate in these flawed and illegal elections by giving them foolish advice and, of course, bribing them.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elected MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will implement the democratic changes necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC/CCC has failed to implement even one token reform. Indeed, since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC leaders have resigned to participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power.

It is a common mistake to view opposition as the equal victims, together with the ordinary people, of the country’s rigged elections. Nelson Chamisa made a big song and dance of how Mnangagwa rigged the 2018 elections but that will not stop Chamisa and his CCC friends participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms to stop another rigged elections because they are after the 1/3 or so gravy train seats on offer. 

Of course, Chamisa and company would love to have a lot more of the spoils, still they are doing infinitely better than the ordinary people who life is hell-on-earth under this corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship.

“Is Chin’ono and Chamisa truly working for the long suffering ordinary Zimbabweans or are they Zanu PF double agents masquerading as opposition adviser and politician respectively?” to paraphrase Simba Chikanza.

Zanu PF rigged 2018 and, with no reforms, is likewise rigging 2023 - it must be denied legitimacy, this time P Guramatunhu

There are three questions anyone serious about getting Zimbabwe out of this economic and political mess must asked oneself, a CCC supporter and, most important of all, any CCC leaders including Nelson Chamisa himself.

(It is utterly pointless asking a Zanu PF supporter or leader because neither of them are serious about getting Zimbabwe out of the mess. They are the ones who dragged the nation into the mess by imposing the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and have no intention of dismantling it because they are benefiting from it.)

1)     Were the 2018 elections free, fair and credible?

2)     Why did the nation participate in the 2018 elections if people knew the process was not going to be free, fair and credible?

3)     What has been done to stop 2023 being rigged too?

Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. After 42 years of rigged elections we, in Zimbabwe, must not go into the 2023 elections expecting the process to be free, fair and credible when we have done nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections for the umpteenth time!

One sure way to cure ourselves of the insanity of participating in these flawed elections, we pretend they are free and fair only to complain they were rigged when the results are out, is to bite the bullet and answer these questions truthfully. The consequences of yet another rigged election is five more years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship – that reality should help concentrate the minds!

1)     Were the 2018 elections free, fair and credible?

 

The 2008 elections were the watershed elections in that Zanu PF blatantly cheated in whittling down Tsvangirai’s 73% in the March vote to 47% to force a runoff. In the runoff the party then used wanton violence to punish the electorate for having rejected the party in the March vote. Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the runoff leaving Mugabe to win the one-horse race by 84%.

 

Both SADC and AU, the regional body and the continental body, refused to endorse Zanu PF election victory and thus denying the party political legitimacy. A first, given both bodies had always turned a blind eye to Zanu PF rigged elections in the past.

 

SADC forced Mugabe and Zanu PF to agree to the implementation of democratic reforms designed to restore the induvial freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections; thus, stopping Zanu PF rigging elections. The 2008 to 2013 GNU, comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, was tasked to implement the reforms.

 

Sadly, not even one meaningful reform was implemented in five years. Not even one. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of power and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms.

 

And so, at the end of the GNU Zanu PF retained all its dictatorial powers including the carte blanche powers to cheat and use violence to rig elections. The party rigged the 2013 and all elections thereafter including the 2018 or be it the party has been very careful to conceal evidence of the rigging.

 

Therefore, the short answer to the question, is no the 2018 elections were not free and fair.

 

2)     Why did the nation participate in the 2018 elections if people knew the process was not going to be free, fair and credible?

 

There was no denying that Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections, this was to be expected given no reforms to stop the rigging were implemented during the GNU. It was a certainty Zanu PF was going to rig the 2018 elections too since not even one token reform was implemented after 2013.

 

The few ordinary CCC supporters who understood the need for reforms would argue they participated in the 2018 elections with no reforms because they believed Chamisa’s claim the party “had stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” It was all hot air, of course. The overwhelming majority of the members are naïve and gullible; they always follow blindly like sheep to the slaughter.

 

If the CCC leaders being honest, then they will admit they participated in the 2018 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging and that by participating they would give the regime legitimacy for the same reasons they did not implement any reforms during the GNU – incompetence and greed.

    

3)     What has been done to stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections too?

 

Nothing!

 

Chamisa’s winning in rigged election strategies such as the mass voter registration are just hot air. By 30 May 2022, CCC registered ¼ million or 4% of its own set target of 6 million!

 

Zanu PF is rigging these elections and, by participating, CCC will help give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats Zanu PF is giving away to entice the opposition’s participation.

There is very little anyone can do to stop Zanu PF rigging these elections or stop CCC leaders and their gullible supporters participating in the flawed elections.

The one thing people can do is expose the election process for what it is – a farce and mockery. How can the election be free and fair when there is not even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!

Pressure must be brought to bear on SADC; especially those member countries like SA, Zambia and Botswana that have successfully held free and fair elections; not to grant Zanu PF legitimacy after rigging 2023 elections.

Ending the insanity of participating in rigged elections only to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship is the holy grail for all the crusaders fighting in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's many challenges and problems are a microcosm of our failure to think and reason W Mukori

 

·        Man is a creature of reason; all humans are born with inert potential to think and reason.

 

·        Some people have lost the ability to reason out of drunken stupor, laziness or some such reasons.

 

In 1984 I came across a horrific road accident just outside Kadoma on my way to Harare. A Peugeot 406 station wagon, a Pirate Taxi, had failed to negotiate a bend, and rolled down the embankment. It had flipped on to its side, on its roof, flipped on to the other side and then landed back on its wheels.

There was a cloud of dust and ash (from a recent grass fire) in the still air when I got there, five minutes or so after the accident. I pulled over, to help.

The car ploughed a deep scar in the dry earth, travelling a good fifty metres or so off the road. It must have been flying!

There was the smell of petrol in the air and the pressing issue was get everyone out of the wreck and a safe distance away. More help soon arrived as a few more cars stopped to help. Among the helper was a nurse who had travelled from Harare to Norton in the vehicle on route to Gweru. She had insisted on getting off in Norton when her pleas with the driver to slow down had fallen on deaf ears. The driver’s assistant was drunk, and he had whistled cheerfully as the vehicle raced along.

When they stopped in Norton and she saw the drive and his assistant drink, she decided there and then to get out. She had paid the full fare to Gweru and the two would not refund her for the balance.

Five or so minutes after pulling out, what everyone had assumed was the last person out of the wrecked car, everyone was surprised to hear the car creak open. Out crawled this ghostly figure covered in dust and black ash. The twilight of the recently set sun, enhanced his ghostly appearance.

The ghost muttered something about needing a recess. He walked a few metres away from the car and had a piss.

“Ngai gebe! Hindava kumira pasina Bottle Store!” (Let’s go! Why did you stop where there is no Bottle Store!) He first thing he had noticed there was there was no Bottle Store, for him to buy more beer!

Before he got back in the car, he finally realised there was no one in the car and the sorry state of the car. “What happened?”

“Dzasukwa!” commented the nurse, her voice heavy anger.

“Dzasukwa” was drunk driver’s assistant who had egged the speeding with his whistling.  The name Dzasukwa was in reference to one who drinks to excess, who will not leave a drinking party until all the beer pots are empty and washed. He and the driver were drinking buds.

It seems Dzasukwa had slept through the racket of the accident. In the scramble to get out, he had been pushed on the floor of the back seats. The accident was just a nightmare only to wake up to answer the call of nature!

Three people died in the accident, the driver and two passengers including a small boy. All five of the remaining travellers, including Dzasukwa, had broken limbs and/or ribs including. The mother of the small boy was broken heartened.

“The worst thing about this tragic human suffering and loss of life,” remarked the nurse “is that it could have been easily avoided if only common sense had prevailed!”  

The accident was a microcosm of the tragedy that has fallen on Zimbabwe these last 42 years. Common sense dictated that alcohol and speeding were a recipe for disaster. And yet the passengers in the car had not raised their objections on the drinking and speeding even when the nurse had seized the initiative.

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess and political paralysis after 42 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness that has left the country in economic ruins and a failed pariah state. The nation has been stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship all these years because the regime rigged the elections.

One does not need a degree in political science to know one can never hold free, fair and credible elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, when voters are frog marched to vote for a particular party, etc. And that the failure to hold those in positions of power and authority will only encourage them to abuse their power with the disastrous consequences of corruption and tyrannical rule.

It took 20 years, from 1980 to the late 1990s, for most Zimbabweans to finally accept that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt and murderous thugs. The people also realised that the only peaceful way to end the Zanu dictatorship was by implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop the regime rigging the elections. For the last 22 years they have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders to implement the reforms.

There has been no political change, Zanu PF has remained in power because MDC has failed to implement even one token reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU. Again, it beggars belief that the people have yet to realise that MDC have given up on reforms and free elections and have settled for a few gravy train seats as a reward from Zanu PF for participating in flawed elections to give the regime legitimacy.    

When Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, we, the people of Zimbabwe, should have become masters of our own destiny but, by failing to hold those in positions of power and authority to account, have allowed drunkards and tyrants to drag us all into this hell-on-earth. The root cause of tragic human suffering and loss of many lives in Zimbabwe today is a result of rigged elections and bad governance; man-made problems we can easily solve, if only we allowed reason and common sense to prevailed!

Should Africa mourn Elizabeth II? Of course, we must not allow ranting of tyrants define who we are! W Mukori

 The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has triggered an outpouring of public sympathy from all corners of the world. The public sympathy from Africa has not gone down well with some people.

“You will never understand Africans!” wrote Tracy Zille in one widely circulated WhatsApp message. “They are busy mourning an old woman who caused their nations great pain. Is this not a Queen of a country that colonized Africa and caused poverty in your land?”

How patronising! Who are you to presume to instruct a whole continent of 54 countries and over 1.2 billion people on whom they should love and whom they should hate!

Not so many moons ago, was America not a British colony. History tells us the two fought a bitter war of independence, a story repeated countless times throughout human history. Did the British and the Americans not bury the proverbial hatchet are the best of friends to the mutual benefit of the two nations?

Countries like Zimbabwe had the great misfortune of having tyrants like the late Robert Mugabe. It is no exaggeration to, after our independence, Mugabe tried to be more British than the British in everything he said and did. He had an inferiority complex and was overcompensating for it. The now late Queen Elizabeth invited him to stay in Buckingham Palace and even knighted the tyrant. Needless to say, he was chaffed to bits.

The friendly relationship between Zimbabwe and UK and the rest of the Western nation turned sour the latter refused to bankroll Zanu PF’s reckless spending and dared to criticize the regime for its failure to uphold human rights including failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Mugabe hit back and accused the British of sponsoring the country’s opposition for the purpose of regime change and recolonizing Zimbabwe. As Zimbabwe’s economy sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss as a result of Zanu PF gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has resorted more and more dictatorial measures to deny the people the free vote in order to retain power. And to hide his tyrannical activities, his anti-west rhetoric has gone into overdrive.

“Zimbabwe will never again be a British colony!” ranted Mugabe with the dramatic gestures of the boxer who has just delivered the knock punch! All shadow boxing because the British have never shown any intention of recolonizing Zimbabwe or any of her former colonies!

The iron is whilst Mugabe has made a big song and dance of stopping the British recolonising Zimbabwe, he has all but sold Zimbabwe to the Chinese for a song.

Last month Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, revealed that Zimbabwe sold platinum ore with US$52 billion to China to secure a loan worth US$ 200 million. The loan was used to buy farming equipment and it is the ruling elite who got the seized former white owned farms who benefited from the loan and, as usual, never paid back the loan.

It is not a secret that the Chinese are heavily involved in the looting of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa and in many other areas. Zimbabwe got rid of one colonial master only to have another and in replacing the British with the Chinese we jumped from the frying pan into the fire!

China does not care that Zanu PF leaders are corrupt and are responsible for the country’s economic ruins. Indeed, the Chinese are one of the foreign nations benefiting from the corruption and the Chinese are doing everything in their power to help Zanu rig the elections and stay in power.

The Mnangagwa regime has toned down the anti-west rhetoric in the hope the west will bankroll Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. The west has continued to demand democratic reforms as the condition for re-engagement.

Many Zimbabweans are joining the British people, the Commonwealth and many others across the world in celebrating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s extraordinary life, mourning the death and in wishing her eternal peace. And long live King Charles III.

It would be very foolish for Zimbabweans to let the ranting a corrupt, tyrannical and vote rigging Zanu PF regime define who we are, especially when the “all weather” Chinese friends the regime has fostered on us are busy robbing the nation blind as we speak.

Restoring the right to free election is the holy grail because it is our only ticket out of this hell N Garikai

 

After 42 years of blundering from pillar to post, there is no deny Zimbabwe is a textbook failed nation.

Zimbabwe is desperate to do something right.

Well, here is something we CAN and, indeed, MUST do – implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

Why are the reforms and free elections important and urgent? You might well ask.

Zimbabwe is in this, seemingly intractable political and economic mess because we have been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for the last four decades. We are stuck with the regime because we could not remove it from office because it rigged the elections denying us a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

Of all the human rights and freedoms listed in the UN Universal Declaration of Human rights, the right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country is the king of them all because without the power to hold democratic account those in positions of power and authority then nothing is sacred not even the sanctity of life.

“Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you!” said Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana. He was spot on.

To be frank, the ordinary Zimbabwean has never had any say in the governance of the country from the start. The 1980 elections, ushering the country’s independence, were not free, fair and credible. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies made it clear that if the party did not win, the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the war. One does not argue looking up the business end of a AK47 rifle.

Once in power, Zanu PF has moved swiftly to consolidate it’s strangle-hold on power. “What was won by the bullet cannot be undone with a ballot!” boasted Robert Mugabe when he unleashed his party militia, war veterans and serving Police, Army and CIO personal to punish the voters for daring to reject him and Zanu PF in the March 2008 vote.

The blatant cheating and wanton violence were so bad that Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s main challenger in the presidential race was forced to withdraw from the run-off. Mugabe won the one-horse run off with 84%, overturning Tsvangirai’s 73% which was whittled down to 47% to justify the runoff.

Both SADC and the AU refused to endorse Zanu PF’s 2008 election victory denying the regime legitimacy because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence. A first, given they, until then, they had always endorsed Zanu PF rigged elections. Mugabe was forced to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the need to implement the necessary reforms to restore the people’s democratic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. A government of National Unity (GNU) was tasked to implement the reforms.

Sadly, the GNU failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC, Zanu PF’s GNU partners expected to implement the reforms, with the trappings of high office and with their snouts in the feeding trough they forgot about the reforms.

SADC leaders did their best to remind MDC to implement the reforms but were ignored. They advised MDC not to participate in the 2013 elections with first implementing the reforms but, once again MDC leaders would not listen.

Without doubt, the 2008 to 2013 GNU was Zimbabwe’s best opportunity so far to implement the reforms and restore political power back to the people. These coming 2023 elections presents a new opportunity if we play our cards right.

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections; the party denied 3 million in the diaspora the vote, or 37% of the potential electorate, for no other reason than fear most will not vote for the party. The party has stubbornly refused to produce a verified voters’ roll. Already there have been many cases of wanton violence and the situation will only get worse.

SADC leaders are under increase pressure, Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is spilling over into the other countries, to stop rubber stamping Zanu PF rigged elections. Given all the evidence of vote rigging, it is almost certain SADC leaders will refuse to give Zanu PF legitimacy. The country will be forced to have yet another GNU; this time no stone will be left unturned to make sure all the reforms are implemented and above all else, the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country is restored and secured for ourselves and for posterity.

I am pleased to say many more Zimbabweans are waking up to the political reality that the right to free, fair and credible elections is a lot more than just a right – it is the essence of good governance. Let’s hope the nation will rally and finally get the reforms implemented and the nation’s first free and fair elections held – our ticket out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF dragged us into.

UK has new PM, 8th since 1980, Truss too will not last if she fail - Zim has 2nd since 1980, both way past "use-by date" P Guramatunhu

 

The British people have a new Prime Minister, the 8^th one since 1980!

Liz Truss                              2022 – present   Conservative

Boris Johnson                    2019 – 2022       Conservative

Theresa May                     2016 – 2019       Conservative

David Cameron                 2010 – 2016       Conservative

Gordon Brown                  2007 – 2010       Labour

Tony Blair                           1997 – 2007       Labour

John Major                        1990 – 1997       Conservative

Margaret Thatcher          1979 – 1990       Conservative

 

In the same 42 years period, Zimbabwe had just two Presidents.

Emmerson Mnangagwa 2017 (coup) – present    Zanu PF

Robert Mugabe                1980 – 2017 (coup)          Zanu PF

 

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF apologists will attribute the stack reality of 2 leaders vs 8 to Zanu PF’s enduring “popularity with the Zimbabwean electorate” and the fear of change, metathesiophobia. A phobia, extreme fear, of the unknown that makes one avoid change at all costs!

The more rational and, indeed, obvious explanation is that Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections to deny the people of Zimbabwe their fundamental right to a meaningful say in who ruled the country. Mugabe was not removed from office because he had lost his “popularity” with the electorate; he was booted out of office by the same Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut that had rigged elections and kept him in power.

It was no surprise at all that Mnangagwa and his fellow November 2017 military coup plotters named the coup “Operation restore legacy!” The coup was the climax of a factional struggle pitting Robert Mugabe and his G40 against then VP Mnangagwa and his Lactose including the top brass in Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services constituting Joint Operation Command (JOC), the junta behind the vote rigging and looting. When Robert Mugabe fired Mnangagwa from his post as VP it was clear his supporters in JOC were next. The putsch was to restore power back in the hands of the junta.

The only time Zimbabwe has ever come close to holding free, fair and credible elections was in March 2008. SADC leaders had forced Zanu PF to accept many electoral reforms rendering the party’s vote rigging machine ineffective.

It so happened that the elections took place at the time when the Zimbabwe economy was in total meltdown; inflation had soared to the dizzying height of 500 billion percent, the economy had shrunk by over 50% in the last decade alone, many companies had closed, shops were empty, etc. Metathesiophobia! What metathesiophobia! The people knew what they had in Zanu PF and they were desperate for regime change.

Zimbabweans were so desperate for regime change someone remarked that “if the choice was between Mugabe (Zanu PF presidential candidate) and the donkey, people will vote for the donkey!”

Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC presidential candidate) got 73% of the vote, according to Mugabe’s Freudian slip. But before the result was announced the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut was switched back on and it took six weeks to recount five million votes. Or rather, to whittle down 73% to 47%, enough to force a runoff.

During the runoff Zanu PF used the junta to punish the voters for having reject the party in the March 2008 vote. The nation was subjected to some of the worst politically motivated violence the country has even seen, millions were beaten and/or raped and over 500 were murdered.

“What was accomplished by the bullet, cannot be changed by the ballot!” thundered Mugabe as the wanton violence spread like a forest fire.

“Zanu PF has declared war on the people!” complained Tsvangirai as he dropped out of the race.

Mugabe “won” the one-horse race by 84%.

Ever since the party has reminded the people of 2008 wanton violence each time the party’s grip on power has been threatened. However, the threat to use violence has not been enough to subdue the populous particularly in the face of the country’s worsening economic situation. There have been many violent clashes, instigated by Zanu PF supporters mainly, already. Signs are, things are going to get worse as the nation gears for the 2023 elections.

 

Things are not any better in the opposition camp. MDC rebranded as CCC, had only two leaders in the last 22 years.

Nelson Chamisa               2018 (palace coup) to present

Morgan Tsvangirai           1999 to 2018 (death)

When the MDC was launched it had a constitution stating the party president could serve a maximum of two five-year terms. Tsvangirai had the constitution amended to allow him to stay in power beyond the ten years. Chamisa has resisted calls for CCC to have a constitution and party structures. He insists the party belongs to the people for the people and all decisions are by the people. All nonsense of course, CCC is no more a democratic party than the Democratic Republic of North Korea is a democratic country!

If the 2023 elections were free, fair and credible, Nelson Chamisa would defeat the Zanu PF candidate hands down for no other reason than that the nation is desperate for change. By failing to implement even one meaningful reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to guarantee free elections Chamisa and company shot themselves in the foot because they will never win blatantly rigged elections.

In a healthy and fully functioning democracy with a well informed and diligent electorate, such as the UK, all those who hold public office compete amongst themselves and are accountable to the people who wield the vote to decide who governs. In a dysfunctional autocratic Zimbabwe all political power is in the hands of the few ruling elite and the powerless masses do as they are told, the tail wags the dog.  

The new UK Prime Minister will have to hit the ground running because her in-tray is full and overflowing. The price of fuel has just doubled in the last six months; caused, largely, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and the price of everything else is going up. Inflation is now at 13% and the UK economy is predicted to go into recession by the end of the year. The whole nation is look up to her to provide the leadership, vision and solutions to all the nation’s teething problems.

“I will deliver!” promised Prime Minister Liz Truss, then entered the famous 10 Downing Street. She knows that if she fails to deliver her own Conservative party will boot her out before the next general elections in two years’ time or else the British people will boot her and many of her fellow party leaders out.

If you fail to deliver as a leader then you must go, no messing around; that is what has given democratic nations the competitive edge. Keeping leaders way past their used-by dates is has made countries like Zimbabwe textbook case failed states. Zanu PF has ruled Zimbabwe for 42 years and counting. Hell!!!!

"We've to battle without reforms" said Ncube - because will not "implement reforms like a man" W Mukori

 

“We’ve to battle without reforms!” screamed the Daily News headline with a picture of Professor Welshman Ncube.

“We have to be ready, prepared to win elections under the most adverse of conditions, to be able to overwhelm, overpower, overrun Zanu PF even without electoral reforms,” Professor Ncube explained.  Adding that even if there were to be a last-minute appetite for reforms it would probably be too late.

Political parties, civil society and diplomatic missions have been urging the government to amend electoral laws so that all parties have a fair chance of winning but Ncube, interim CCC Vice President, said he’d been told privately by Zanu PF people that those reforms deemed necessary had already been done.

In short, Zimbabwe is being dragged into yet another meaningless election whose outcome will be disputed because the process itself is not free, fair and credible. It is already clear that ZEC will not produce even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.

After 42 years of rigged, why, oh why, are we being dragged into yet another flawed and illegal election?

Answer: because the opposition will not “go home and work like a man!” as the great Chinua Achebe would put it!

“Many years ago when Okonkwo was still a boy his father Unoka, had gone to consult Agbala. The priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. She was full of power of her god, and she was greatly feared. Unoka stood before her and began his story,” wrote Achebe, in his book Things Fall Apart.

“’Every year,’ he said sadly, ‘before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rains has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed –‘

‘Hold your peace!’ screamed the priestess, her voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void. ‘You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm. 

‘You Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe. When your neighbours go out with their axe to cut down virgin forests, you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labour to clear. They cross seven rivers to make their farms, you stay home and offer sacrifice to a reluctant soil.

‘Go home and work like a man!’”

Anyone familiar with the Zimbabwe politics will tell you they are sick and tired of Professor Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, David Coltart and the other CCC leaders pontificating about Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis and the suffering masses as if they cared. Of course, they don’t care and never did. All they care about is power and all the ashen faces and political posturing is all an act to gain public confidence and, most important of all, political support and votes.

It is nonsensical for Professor Ncube to complain that Zanu PF was refusing to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections when he and his MDC/CCC colleagues were all in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and yet failed to implement even one token reform! Worse still, MDC/CCC leaders have participated in these flawed elections knowing fully well that doing so would only give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the dictatorship. Still, they have carried on participating out of greed as Coltart confessed.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” wrote Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Four of the main MDC factions did unite to form the MDC Alliance just before the 2018 elections and still they participated in those elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging. CCC is hell bent on participating in these 2023 elections for the same reasons the leaders failed to implement reforms during the GNU – incompetence and greed.

Zimbabwe is being dragged into yet another utterly meaningless election, after 42 years of rigged elections, because Chamisa and company will not “go home and implement the reforms”, to paraphrase Achebe.

Zambia's HH A+ performance is casting shadow on ED's mirage "vision 2030 and, worst of all, on his 2023 legitimacy N Garikai

 

It has been hard enough for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to talk about Zimbabwe being on track to become an upper middle-income nation by 2030, “Vision 2030” as he calls it; when, four years since the November 2017 coup, there is nothing support the optimism. The glowing reports on Zambia’s economic recovery have knocked the stuffing out of Mnangagwa!

“Since Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema came assumed power last year, he has achieved key performance indicators, especially on the exchange rate an indication of strong leadership and that people have faith in his leadership,” reported Bulawayo 24.                                                                        

“This is in stuck contrast to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has presided over the rapid loss of value of the local currency since he grabbed power in a military coup in 2017. The Kwacha has rallied against the United States dollar; it was US$1: K22.59 in July 2021, but it's now US$1:K16.11.

"As the saying goes, when in doubt, observe the exchange rate. The lesson from history is that you cannot manage an economy with propaganda. In fact, you can engage in all the propaganda you want, but if the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you," Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of Ghana, who is also an economist said.

“When Mnangagwa took over through a coup in Novenber 2017, the local quasi-currency bond note (now Zimdollar) was pegged 1:1 with the US dollar until February 2022. Now the exchange rate is officially US$1:ZW$546.8 although on the parallel at US$1:ZW$700.”

Mnangagwa thought he was hitting the ground running when announced that “Zimbabwe is open for business!” His rallying call following the military coup. It was an obvious call to make given the sorry state of the Zimbabwe economy.

Decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawless and tyrannical oppression had left the country is economic ruins and earned it cursed pariah state label. The seizure of the white owned farms triggering the collapse of the country’s agricultural sector, the main engine of the country’s economy, was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The Zimbabwe economy shrunk by as much as 50% in the period 2000 to 2008.

By November 2017, when the military coup took place, Zimbabwe’s economy was already in total meltdown as more and more companies closed and no new companies opened. The economic and political environment made it near impossible to do business. Zimbabwe was indeed closed for business!  

Present Mnangagwa made two key promises to back up his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” proclamation. He promised to stamp out corruption and to hold free and fair elections. No one held their breath, especially the shrewd investors, he was hoping to attract.

Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the 2018 elections and corruption is as rampant as during Mugabe days, if not worse.

“Zimbabwe is open for business!” was just a lead balloon that never took off!

Mnangagwa has tried to rebrand his administration different from that of the former dictator Robert Mugabe; calling it a “Second Republic”. The reality is Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. And as long as the country remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery!   

President Emmerson Mnangagwa knows that all these glowing reports of Zambia economic recovery will only increase the yawning for meaningful change amongst Zimbabweans. The nation will not accept yet another rigged election by Zanu PF. And yet that is exactly what the party is doing; thanks to the MDC/CCC who have failed to implement even one token reform in 22 years and are insisting on participating in these flawed and illegal elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.

In the past, SADC countries have used the MDC’s participation as an excuse to turn a blind eye to the rigging and grant Zanu PF political legitimacy. The regional leaders, especially South Africa and Zambia who have successfully held free elections themselves and are feeling to ill effects of Zimbabwe’s economic chaos brought about by the growing tide of economic and/or political Zimbabwean refugees, know they will be shooting themselves in the foot is they rubber stamped Zanu PF rigged 2023 elections and gave the regime legitimacy.