The Al
Jazeera Zimbabwe’s Gold Mafia documentary uncovered the details of gold
smuggling and money laundering that has left all those involved stack naked
with nowhere to hide. Zanu PF has hit the panic button!
The initial
reaction by the Zanu PF regime was to dismiss the documentary as a just another
Western inspired “regime change” propaganda to discredit the regime’s sanctions-busting
stroke of genius. It is a hard sell to tell people the nation is prospering
from the gold smuggling and money laundering when the economic reality tells of
the few who have become filthy rich and wasteful and the millions living in
abject poverty.
When
President Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe in 2017, he promised “zero tolerance
on corruption”. The Al Jazeera has him as the godfather of all those involved
in the gold smuggling and money laundering. The man he appointed Zimbabwe’s first
ambassador-at-large is the one using the diplomatic bag to transport dirty money!
You can
fool some people all the time. You can fool all the people some of the time.
But you cannot fool all the people all the time! The Al Jazeera Gold Mafia
documentary has uncovered so much in so much detail it is really impossible for
the Zanu PF regime’s snip doctors to deny corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe. Impossible!
And so they have changed tac, gag the nation.
"Al
Jazeera is not a court of law before whose claims impart privileges to
defamatory utterances,” tweeted George Charamba, President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson,
under the pseudonym Tinoedza Zvimwe.
“It is merely some weaponised channel.
“If you are reckless to enough repeat what it's phoney documentary defamatorily
says hoping to plead ‘I heard/saw it on Al Jazeera', you will be sorry for
yourself.
"Do not for once think there is no grit to act against reckless,
defamatory and politically-motivated journalism. Faceless Twitter names egging
you on will not be a factor when brickbats come. Be warned."
NewsDay contacted Charamba and he added, "Waverenga tweet yacho (You read
the tweet). It's complete in its meaning and sense."
Mark my
words and mark them well. I am not dismissing Charamba’s threats, Mnangagwa and
his Zanu PF cronies are ruthless thugs they carried out the 1983 to 1987 Gukurandi
massacre in which they murdered over 20 000 innocent civilians and have
murdered a further 20 000 more since to consolidate their strangle hold on
power. The regime has a well-documented track record of rigging elections and,
time and again, resorting to wanton violence in its desperate effort to gain
and retain absolute power at all costs.
President
Mnangagwa has clearly failed to revive the Zimbabwe economy since taking over
from Mugabe after the 2017 military coup. The Al Jazeera documentary could not
have come at a worse time for him, he is facing elections in five months. In their
desperate effort to silence the corruption narrative and hang on to power, Mnangagwa
and his Zanu PF cronies will do anything.
Still,
what cannot be denied too is the heavy price the nation has paid in allowing
Zanu PF rid roughshod over us all. 43 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule have
left the country a failed state, unable to provide even the most basic
necessities of life such as education and health care, millions are living in
abject poverty. The present economic and political situation is set to get
worse not better.
One of
the key revelations of the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary is that Mnangagwa
and his Zanu PF cronies are buffoons, “dunderheads” as one Mafia gangster aptly
put it. It is bad enough that we have allowed dunderheads to ride roughshod
over us denying us our freedoms, rights and human dignity for the last 43
years. Enough is enough! We must not allow ourselves to be outwitted by
dunderheads ever again, even though they are the ones wielding the stick!
In the 9 Oscar
Award winning epic movie Gandhi, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, Mahatma
Gandhi showed the world that even the rich, powerful and ruthless tyrants can
be defeated. In one scene a calvary of horse mounted Police armed to the teeth
charged Gandhi and his fellow peaceful demonstrators who were demanding a fair
wage and justice. Instead of the marchers scattering in panic, they laid down.
The horses reared up and would not tramp over the humans.
The Al
Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has revealed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa
is not only corrupt but that he is a dunderhead who is not fit to be Head of
State. The gene is out of the bottle and cannot be put back. What is important
now is the consequences of the gene being out of the bottle, the importance of making
sure we have free elections and good governance.
The
documentary has once again underlined the importance of implementing democratic
reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. The Gold Mafia are using
the looted wealth to bankroll both Zanu PF and opposition to ensure the country
remains in the hands of dunderheads.
When the
going gets tough, the tough get going. Zanu PF has stepped up the threats to
use violence to silence discussion on details of the gold smuggling and money
laundering we must be subtle and never lose sight of the primary task of
reforms and free elections.
Zanu PF is
rigging the 2023 elections. CCC will participate no matter how flawed and illegal
the process gets because they are after the few gravy train seats on offer as
bait. We can outsmart these dunderheads by refusing to participate in the
flawed elections and denounce the process to deny Zanu PF political legitimacy.
How can an election process so flawed there is no verified voters’ roll, rural
voters are frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF, etc. produce a legitimate
government!!!
@ Charamba
ReplyDelete"Once your actions run counter to both objectives, you are stripped of that title and all which goes with it.
"This basic remedial ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION which stands quite apart from any legal action your actions might attract. It is that simple.
"You serve at the mercy of the appointing authority for as long he retains trust and confidence in you and in your competence to keep and protect the dignity of the STATE!!!! Understood?"
'Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive'. Marmion, Sir Walter Scott 1808.
Comrade Charamba, your principal on whose behave you speak, yesterday dismissed the Al Jazeera documentary as “phone defamatory utterances” and threated all who dare repeat these utterances with all manner of evil. Today, 24 hours later the same principal is summarily dismissing the man he himself appointed Zimbabwe’s first ambassador-at-large for what the Al Jazeera documentary said. Does this mean your principal now believes what the documentary said is the truth?
The very fact that Mnangagwa has surrounded himself with people like Uebert Angel shows he is corrupt, incompetent and a weak judge of characters. The man is not suitable to be head of state!
The people of Zimbabwe must be granted their right to fire this Zanu PF regime after 43 years of rigged elections. These elections are a farce, how can we have free elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.
@ Teddy Ncube
ReplyDelete“Mthuli Ncube is a renowned economist and the current Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in Zimbabwe. Since his appointment in 2018, he has been instrumental in implementing necessary macro-economic policies aimed at stabilizing the country's economy and promoting sustainable growth.
Ncube's background in economics is impressive. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Finance from Cambridge University and has worked in various senior positions in the private sector, including serving as the Chief Economist and Vice President of the African Development Bank. He has also taught economics at several universities, including Oxford University and the University of Cape Town.
Upon his appointment as Finance Minister, Ncube was faced with the daunting task of stabilizing Zimbabwe's economy, which had been in a state of decline for many years. He immediately set out to implement necessary macro-economic policies aimed at addressing the country's fiscal and monetary challenges.”
One does not a degree in economics to know that corruption and mismanagement are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic mess. Professor Mthuli Ncube has pretended not to see these problems because he could not deal with them without undermining the political patronage system behind it all.
So for all his very impressive past achievements Professor Ncube failed to accomplish what someone with no degree would have done because the Professor lacked the common sense and integrity. He was seduced by the office of Minister of Finance and went along with the rotten system just to keep his job.
Mnangagwa, like Mugabe before him, has never had an problems recruiting professional into his administration to give the regime some respectability. The recruits where for window dressing and they knew it. In Zimbabwe we have more than our fair share of men and women who will sell their own mothers for a price and be proud they had a mother to sell. It is little wonder the nation is in a mess.
Eddie Cross was one of the few MPs who flagged the problem of diamond looting in Marange and Chiadzwa during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The other MP to do so was the late Edward Chindori-Chininga, he was chairman of the mining parliamentary committee. His 2012 report tabled in parliament showed that the mining concession granted to the holders in Marange and Chiadzwa meant they were under no legal obligation to keep any record of the quantity and quality of the diamonds, to whom they were sold and for how much, who share in the spoils and the beneficiary were under no legal obligation to declare their earnings for tax purposes. The special concession were, in short, a licence to loot!
ReplyDeleteThe GNU did nothing to stop the looting then and the modus operandi in the diamond industry has expanded into other areas including gold, lithium and platinum mining and into other areas such as the purchase of fuel and medicines, etc.
In Zimbabwe, corruption has been institutionalised. Normally corruption is about one or two individuals breaking the law, here the law itself has been broken making corruption legal. The special mining concession have put the holder above the rule of law because all the laws that would normally apply have all been scrapped!
What can be done to restore rule of law in a country like Zimbabwe?
Nothing short of clearing the deck by implementing the complete raft of democratic reforms will do. This is why the implementation of the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 was the golden opportunity. It was wasted but we must revert to it.
Any thoughts that we can carry on as we are or hope a heavily compromised opposition will win and deliver change is far-fetched, to say the least. The corrupting influence of the Mafia is now so string they will never allow meaningful change and the present system gives them the edge.
The CCC is facing serious financial problems ahead of the 2023 elections as donors are demanding that it accounts for all the funds previously provided and that the opposition party should select its election candidates in a democratic manner.
ReplyDeleteSome CCC officials have suggested that millions of US dollars had found their way into the hands of Chamisa's interim kitchen cabinet over the past six months. The interim kitchen cabinet excludes Tendai Biti, Job Sikhala, Welshman Ncube, Lynnette Karenyi-Kore and other stalwarts.
According to various CCC officials, donors want to know how that money was used.
MDC/CCC have proven beyond all reasonable doubt that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform. They have all but abandoned all pretence of reforms and free elections and settled for whatever they can get from Zanu PF for participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Ever since the GNU debacle, the money bankrolling MDC/CCC has come from the same source as that bankrolling Zanu PF all for one primary purpose of keeping the Zanu PF dunderheads in power. The compromised opposition is needed to maintain the façade Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democracy.
No respectable CCC donor would bankroll the party to participate in an election so flawed there is not even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll and Mnangagwa himself boasts that millions of rural voters will be frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF.
Elections must be free, fair and credible or they will be a meaningless farce. Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections confident that the MDC/CCC will participate no matter what. Why has MDC/CCC refused to accept that there are red lines that, if crossed, means they cannot participate!!!
Our problem is not just Zanu PF that is rigging the elections but CCC who not only failed to implement the reforms but are participating no matter what! Our problem is compounded by donors who are bankrolling CCC no matter how flawed the elections process just to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Zanu PF is rigging these elections and CCC is participating no matter what - this is the tragedy of Zimbabwe, both parties do notcare about rule of law about elections being free and fair as long as they are declared the winner! CCC has yet to accept that ZEC is corrupt and it has the authority to declare the winner!
ReplyDelete@ Noble Ngara
ReplyDelete“gene???? what does that even mean............. i recommend Mukori to go back to night-school before defacing electronic media. Now I’m all about democracy but don’t suffer fools easily/ There should be a serious consideration for a minimum criteria of intellect, common sense and general knowledge before the likes of Mbofana and Mukori are allowed to defecate all-over the place. Breath-taking immaturity and ignorance is the order of the day---- and like empty can, they make such incessant banshee cacophony.”
Is someone who appoints a third grade conman like Uebert Angel ambassador-at-large fit to be State President? Clearly the answer must be NO!
The very fact that Mnangagwa, a corrupt and incompetent dunderhead is State President explains why the country is a failed state and will remain so until we do something to end the curse of rigged elections. Mark my words and mark them well; Mnangagwa is rigging these 2023 elections but getting political legitimacy this time will be a bridge too far!
Zimbabwe will never have free and fair elections as long as the Gold Mafia continue to bankroll both Zanu PF and the CCC and thus keep dunderheads in power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld7qcJPsENg
ReplyDeleteCCC election directorate head Ian Makone told journalists yesterday that the party would not hold primary elections.
ReplyDelete"Community members, who have signed into our citizen membership database, shall be consulted to nominate their preferred candidates for each category in their representative categories," Makone said.
Zanu-PF held its primaries last weekend that were marred by violence, chaos and reports of rigging. The ruling party has since been releasing preliminary results of winners, minus what they polled, pending endorsement by the politburo.
Makone said CCC's candidate selection process would be presided over by members of the Independent candidate selection panel (ICSP), with nominees given an opportunity to either accept or decline.
"In the event that more than one nominee comes up to a position, there is a process of consultation within the community which will be the second round of interface with communities with a view to arriving at a single candidate per electable position," Makone said.
"All nominated individuals will undergo our internal vetting process to ascertain their suitability. We will not want to be given candidates by our opponents. After the vetting and validation of nominated candidates, a full list of successful candidates will then be announced and further validation is undertaken before confirmation of the full list of those candidates by the national citizens assembly."
Makone said a grievance handling committee would also be set up to resolve disputes
Zanu PF is rigging these elections and MDC/CCC is hell bent on participating in these flawed elections knowing fully well that the process is flawed and that doing so only gives Zanu PF legitimacy. David Coltart has told us why!
“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,” confessed 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.”
The all important question one must ask is: How long are we going to let CCC leaders sell out the nation for 30 pieces of silver?