Zimbabwe is a failed state. So, who will care for carers when they are old? W Mukori

 Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? "Who will guard the guards themselves?" or "Who will watch the watchmen?” Asked Roman poet Juvenal.

Replace guard with political leader and you can see why democratic accountability is a pre-requisite for good governance.

Zimbabwe is a failed state because we, as a nation have failed to answer the question: Who will guard the leaders (guardians) if they should become corrupt? Zimbabwe is a failed state because our corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders have become the runaway freight train. 

Millions of Zimbabweans have left the country as economic and or political refugees. Many have accepted the low paying wages and are living from hand to mouth. We have become a nation living from hand to mouth. 

By failing to deal with the curse of rigged elections and bad governance we have created an even worse problem for ourselves - we live for the day like a fruit-fly.    

To paraphrase Juvenal; Quis curam habebit curatorum cum senes erunt? “Who will care for the carers when they are old?”

The problem of restoring the people’s power to hold leaders to democratic account is one Zimbabweans must address with the sense of urgency the matter demands. As long as the leaders retain their carte blanche power to rig elections and get away with it, Zimbabwe will remain a failed state sinking deeper and deeper into the economic and political abyss. 

Timba and Tshabangu is parliamentary caucus square-off - both are sell outs and, per se, irrelevant. W Mukori

 The official opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) parliamentary caucus held a formal briefing at Parliament yesterday, attended by 38 Members of Parliament, with 11 others sending apologies, bringing the total number of MPs affirming the caucus to 49. This is according to an attendance register released by the caucus leadership.

Several MPs who did not attend were reportedly deployed on legislative duties across various provinces, participating in at least three active parliamentary committees.

The official caucus meeting, convened under the CCC's recognized parliamentary leadership, appeared to rattle the Jameson Timba-led Citizen National Assembly (CNA) faction, which is widely seen as fronting the political interests of former party president Nelson Chamisa. In response, the CNA-aligned group hastily arranged a rival gathering at a private residence on Cheshire Road in Mount Pleasant, Harare.

This splinter group branded their meeting as a "progressive caucus," borrowing a term commonly used in South African opposition politics. However, there is no such structure officially recognized in Zimbabwe's Parliament, and no party formally registered under the name CNA.”

Chamisa and his CCC cronies participated in the 2023 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging and that participating would give Zanu PF legitimacy. The went ahead regardless, out of greed. 

Even when both SADC and AU condemned the elections process as flawed and illegal the winning CCC members insisted on taking up their gravy train seats.SADC could not deny Zanu PF legitimacy given the CCC leaders’ reaction and the millions of Zimbabweans participated in the elections.

Some of the winning Chamisa backed CCC leaders lost their gravy train seats to the Sengezo Tshabangu CCC faction within weeks of taking the seats. The two factions have been fighting each other over dominance ever since. As to which faction wins it is a matter of indifference since they participated in the 2023 elections out of greed and their continued presence in government is giving this illegitimate regime some modicum of legitimacy.  

Both the Jameson Timba and Tshabangu led CCC factions are sell outs only those who have no clue what is going on here think one faction is better than the other. What matters is they have both played their part in participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. And, worst of all, they are both set to continue selling out in future! 

Chamisa conned millions of the party's brain dead followers to participate telling them he "had plugged all the Zanu PF vote rigging loop holes. #Godisinit!” They believed the idiotic lie. Having an ignorant and gullible electorate that is so easily conned to do stupid things has been one of Zimbabwe’s curses!

This Zanu PF regime has not implemented even one token democratic reform since the rigged 2023 nor is it likely to implement any reform before the next elections in 2028. And so we are heading for yet another rigged elections with the usual opposition leaders participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. Our only hope of putting an end to this madness is making sure the brain dead opposition supporters are not conned again to participate. Easier said than done, give the followers are, indeed, brain dead!

"Zanu PF has captured all institutions" confessed Biti - most notably, captured MDC/CCC. W Mukori

Tendai Biti is 100% correct in highlighting the extensive capture of the nation’s institutions by Zanu-PF and attributing this as the root cause why Zimbabwe is a failed state.

"We have had a policy and a polity pillared on the emasculation of State institutions. There is no institution in Zimbabwe that is independent. There is no institution in Zimbabwe that is not an extension of Zanu-PF's Politburo.”

I ask you to rewind back to the 1990s. By the late 1990s is was clear to the people of Zimbabwe that Zanu PF was NOT going to deliver mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as Mugabe never tired of repeating it. The country’s economic was in decline and the nation was heading for mass poverty instead. 

More significantly, the nation also realised that as long as Zanu PF retained its carte blanche de facto one-party state (imposed after the signing of the 1987 Unity Accord) dictatorial powers, including the power to rig elections, the nation was stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. 

The nation needed to elect opposition political leaders whose number one task was to bring about all the necessary democratic changes, reforms, to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial excesses. Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, David Coltart and all the other MDC leaders and members launched the party in 1999 to answer the nation’s cry for democratic change. They even named the party Movement for Democratic Change. 

Back to the present. Mnangagwa and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2023 elections - proof MDC/CCC leaders have failed in their set number one task of delivering democratic changes, reforms, to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers. 

MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one token democratic reform in 25 years, including the 2008 to 2013 GNU years when they had the golden opportunity to do so. Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai & Co. with the trappings of high office, the E-Class Mercedes Benz, generous salary and allowances, US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai himself, etc. And in return, MDC leaders throw reforms out of the window!

Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC/CCC leaders have participating in flawed knowing fully well that would give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the nation’s suffering. They have conned millions of their brain dead followers to participate on the basis of idiotic lies of the opposition winning RIGGED elections. They have done all this for the same reason they failed to implement reforms during the GNU - greed 

"Every institution—including those I cannot mention because I am a practicing lawyer—every institution in Zimbabwe has been captured and captured thoroughly," confessed Tendai Biti.

Well the one institution that Zanu PF has “captured and captured thoroughly in the MDC/CCC! It is a great tragedy that MDC/CCC are Zanu PF team B in all but name, playing for team A to win and have legitimacy. 

After 25 years with not even one token reform to show for it, one would think that ALL Zimbabweans would now have finally awakened to the police reality the MDC/CCC too have been captured by Zanu PF. Alas! This is not so. There are millions especially the Chamisa chete chete brigade who consider Chamisa a demigod who can do no wrong. 

How is it possible that anyone can be so thoroughly brainwashed to think a mere mortal a demigod; especially the likes of Chamisa with a well documented track record as corrupt, incompetent and a liar! 

Tendai Biti was speaking at Dr Ibbo Mandaza SAPES platform calling for National Transition Authority (NTA) as a way out of this political crisis. 

"The sum collection of this is that we have a crisis that needs to be managed to avoid an implosion. That is where the NTA comes in. The NTA is an idea that is anchored on dialogue.

"The citizens of Zimbabwe must talk and dialogue, where the first process has to be a national conference. The convention must articulate issues that speak to Zimbabwe's fragility and vulnerability, and these issues must be put on the table," argued Tendai Biti.

The 2008 to 2013 GNU was the golden opportunity for Zimbabwe to reset its failed political system. Sadly the opportunity was wasted because the MDC/CCC leaders were Zanu PF team B, completed captured by Zanu PF. The tragic reality is these politicians ARE still captured by Zanu PF. 

The proposed NTA is expected to implement the democratic reforms the 2006 to 2013 GNU failed to implement. The NTA is doomed to Zanu PF thugs and their thoroughly captured side-kicks play key roles in the new arrangement. 

45 years after independence in this day and age and we are still failing the acid test of holding free and fair elections. W Mukori

 “And we are failing to cross the street!” remarked President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania was told about the Americans landing on the Moon in 1969.

I have always admired President Nyerere for that quotation. It represents an honest admission of Africa’s shortcomings and, more significantly, a concerted effort to answer why Africa has lagged behind.

Zimbabwe is a failed state. The evidence we are a failed state is there for all to see. I will go straight to the why we are a failed state, and not what time restating the evidence or rebutting the denials.

One of the reasons why Zimbabwe is a failed state is our failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship for 45 years and counting. The party has rigged elections to stay in power and, up to now at least, the nation has all but failed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.

It is no secret that Zanu PF has an inbuilt electoral majority from the rural vote. Zanu PF withdraw many of its freedom fighters to Assembly Points as agreed in the Lancaster House Agreement during the 1980 elections. The operatives remained in the field and their election campaign message was that if Zanu PF did not win the elections, the bush war would continue. Many of the rural areas with these Zanu PF operatives were “no go areas” for other contesting parties.

The rural voters, at least, voted to end the bush. One does not argue looking up the business end of an AK47 rifle!

Rural areas have remained, to this day, Zanu PF strongholds and no go areas for all the other parties. Zanu PF kept the rural folk poor by deliberately denying title deeds to even a few square metres of land on which their mud huts stand. This is the one right that would mean everything to these people and would set them for meaningful economic and political empowerment. 

It is no surprise that Ian Smith’s white colonial regime realised this and it too denied rural blacks title deeds for the same selfish political reasons. 

Indeed, when blacks was the war of independence was fought over the land issue, that is exactly what they are talking about. Why were the whites allowed to own vast tracks of land and yet the blacks were denied the right to own even a postage stamp size yard!

The seizure of white owned farms, often accompanied by the gratuitous violence, was supposedly to give the land back to the landless peasants. In practice, the seized farms were given to the Zanu PF ruling elite and their cronies. 

Mnangagwa has announced the recipients of the former white owned farms will now get title deeds to the farms and with it the full legal ownership rights. The Regime continues to demolish houses in Ruwa and other rural areas where Land Barons had given away land underlining the regime’s policy that rural folk must not be given title deeds to any land. 

The bottomline is Zimbabwe’s rural folk, constituting 60% of the electorate, are nothing more than medieval serfs beholden to the Zanu PF ruling elite and the proxies, the village heads, chiefs, war veterans, Zanu PF militia, etc. It is no secret that party operatives have repeatedly frog-marched rural folk to attend party rallies and to vote for the party. How could Zanu PF lose an election with such a built-in majority? 

The one occasion in the March 2008 election when Zanu PF, under pressure from SADC, was forced to loosen its electoral control, the nearest the country ever got to holding free and fair elections; the party lost the vote. The party intervened to stop the results being announced. The party ordered a recount of 5 million votes which was to last six weeks. The presidential vote count was last to be announced; Tsvangirai’s 73%, according to Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, had been whittled down to 47%. Enough to force a run-off.

During the run-off Zanu PF launched Operation Mavhotera Papi (Whom did you vote for) desired to punish the voters for having dared to reject the party in the early vote. If anyone had thought Zanu PF’s threat to use violence to win elections was a bluff, Operation Mavhotera Papi left no one in any doubt this is not an empty threat.

Both SADC and AU refused to accept Zanu PF’s political legitimacy and forced the party to agree to the formation of GNU. The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to end Zanu PF’s political struggle hold especially on the rural voters to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

Alas! Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were entrusted the task of implementing the democratic reforms during the GNU, failed to implement even one token reform in 5 years. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, the E-Class Mercedes Benz, the generous salaries and allowances, a US$4 million mansion for Save himself, etc., etc. And in return MDC leaders kick the reforms into the Cactus thicket!

Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU with all its carte blanche dictatorial powers including its heavy boot on the throat of the rural voters. 

Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, many Zimbabweans have no clue the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms much less that MDC leaders sold out.

Last month, Zimbabweans observed the country’s 45th year of independence, 45 years of rigged elections and there is nothing to suggest the penny has finally dropped. The nation will be going into its next elections with the same skewed electoral system in which Zanu PF thugs retain their heavy boot on the throat of the rural voters to guarantee the party’s in-built majority. 

45 years after independence and we are still failing to cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. We are failing to cross the street when others are landing on the Moon.

“And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.” Genesis 4: 9 - 11.

Forget being our brother’s keep; by turning a blind eye to Zanu PF thugs keeping their heavy boots on the neck of the rural people we denied ourselves the blessing of good governance. 45 years after independence in this day and age and we still failing to cross the street of free and fair elections.Of course we deserve to suffer the curse of rigged elections.

Machakaire ask Mnangagwa to visit hospitals to see the suffering. Mnangagwa must go. No one elected him! W Mukori

 “I visited one of the public health institutions this morning to see a relative and left deeply concerned about the conditions I witnessed.” posted Hon Minister Tina Machakaire. He pleaded for Mnangagwa to go out and see the tragic situation in Zimbabwe for himself.

“I respectfully plead with you; please find time from your busy schedule to visit these institutions yourself. There is no substitute for seeing, listening and understanding firsthand what our citizens are going through.”

How naive! So you think Mnangagwa does not know that Zimbabwe’s health care service has all but collapsed. This did not happen in the last few months or years, the steady decline dates back to soon after independence in 1980! And it is not only healthcare but all other services and sectors have collapsed and/or in advanced stages of rot and decay.

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and murderous thugs who rig elections to stay in power; there will be no meaningful economic recovery. 

Both SADC and AU election observers condemned Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections as flawed and illegal. They did not go the extra mile and deny Zanu PF legitimacy as they did in 2008 for three basic reasons:

1. 1) CCC leaders, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, participated in flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging that participating will give Zanu PF legitimacy and still they went ahead regardless and conned millions of the supporters to participate.

2. 2) Even after both SADC and AU had publicly condemned Zimbabwe’s election process CCC leaders still went ahead and took up their gravy train seats arguing they had won in “liberated zones”. Liberated zones, my foot! Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win some gravy train seats to entice them to participate in the elections no matter how flawed the process got. Indeed, in 2018 Mnangagwa created POLAD, a super numeral political body for purpose of rewarding the losing presidential candidates with cars and other perks and entice them to participate in future elections.

3. 3) It would have been foolhardy of SADC and AU to deny Zanu PF legitimacy in 2023 to form a new GNU as happened in 2008 since it was clear that the main players in the new GNU are the same Zanu PF and MDC leaders who were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one token reform in five years, there was no reason to believe they will do any better! Form a new GNU for what end and purpose if the Zimbabweans themselves are contend with the dysfunctional status quo!

Mnangagwa knows that he rigged the 2023 elections and that SADC and AU were right in condemning the process. He dismissed both with his usual arrogance’s calling them “vavengi” (detractors). So even our regional and continental neighbours are now Zimbabwe’s enemies because they dare to point out that Zanu PF is denying the people their fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

The right to free, fair and credible elections is more that just a right; it is the essence of good governance. Zimbabwe desperately needs good governance if the country is going to revive its collapsed healthcare and education services, rebuild rotten and decayed infrastructure, etc. 

After 45 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule, why beat about the bush; Mnangagwa must be told in no uncertain terms “In the name of God, go!”

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.” Oliver Cromwell told the Rump British parliament in 1653.

Zimbabwe is a failed state. Both Zanu PF and MDC/CCC do not want povo to think for themselves. W Mukori

When asked the Russian writer Anton Chekhov was asked of the nature of failed societies, he replied: 

"In failed societies, there are a thousand fools for each successful brain and a thousand clumsy words to counter each good advice. 

"The majority are always dumb, ill-informed, egoistic and constantly dominating the rational and intelligent ones.

"They love trivializing important issues to distract them from facing their reality.”

Chekhov was right, he was talking about “mother Russia”, the mother of failed state! And yet everything he said is true of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is a failed state and many out there continue to live denial. Indeed our “great leaders” are insisting on seeing the peace and prosperity, “vision 2030”. A mirage!

There is nothing wrong with universal suffrage, every one must have the right to a meaningful say in the governance of their country. The operative phrase here is "meaningful say". How can you have a meaningful say on matters you do not understand? 

The ancient Greeks, who gave mankind democracy - government of the people, for the people and by the people - all these 2 500 years ago; were right, democracy only works if the people are educated, knowledgeable, objective and diligent in their sacred duty of holding leaders to account. 

In Zimbabwe the populous are ignorant, naive and gullible and, no wonder, they have failed in their duty to hold leaders to account. The ruling elite have deliberately kept the masses ignorant and naive for the selfish purpose of conning the masses and avoid accountability.

Like it or not, in a country whose founding fathers only cared about absolute power and personal glory and did not care about democracy and good governance, universal suffrage has been a curse and not a blessing!  

Once the failed state has had the time to establish itself, it is hard to uproot. Zimbabwe’s autocracy is deep rooted; the incompetent, corrupt and murderous Zanu PF thugs and their equally corrupt and useless MDC/CCC side-kicks have enjoyed absolute power for the last 45 years they are the ones who have brainwashed the masses and are determined to keep them ignorant and subservient. 

"Since the crowd love pettiness and mundane things, they love those telling them it's okay not to use their own brains to think for themselves, and prefer comedian that make them laugh with meaningless jokes, than the poet who is waking them up to reality and telling them the truth that temporarily hurts,” continued Anton Chekhov.

Both Zanu PF and MDC/CCC leaders do not want the ordinary Zimbabwean to think for themselves!