"Entrepreneurship, not politics, will solve our problems" insist Masiyiwa - rubbish, solution is good governance N Garikai

“Masiyiwa challenges entrepreneurs to solve problems in their communities” screamed the headline. When Strive Masiyiwa speaks, you listen and, I will hasten to add, I am not the only in that! When you are rich, Strive Masiyiwa, is filthy rich and so when he speaks even the rich and powerful sit-up and listen.

“At the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, I was told that one of the biggest problems was testing for the virus,” revealed Masiyiwa, in the article.

“African countries had no access to test kits and masks (used in hospitals). We have probably already forgotten how hard it was to get them. But it was not that long ago that African governments were paying crazy prices for these things. Corruption erupted across the continent, as unscrupulous thieves moved in to take advantage. Some ministers and civil servants even joined in!

“I was asked by President Cyril Ramaphosa to solve the problem.”

Masiyiwa went on to describe how he and three other Africans went to build Africa Medical Supplies Platform, “within 6 weeks”; an eCommerce platform on which many African countries (was later expanded to include some countries in the Caribbean) pooled their orders to take advantage of bulk order and African Export Import Bank (AfriEximbank) facilitated the payments.

Well done Strive! Well done everybody!   

“Not every problem out there is screaming for a political solution. Leaders need to trust those with the right skills to step forward and help them,” concluded Masiyiwa.

“Now here is something that might surprise you: Today, the AMSP is the largest eCommerce platform in Africa by volume of products sold and by value.

“This should inspire you to go out and solve problems in your community, particularly those you complain about.”

Frankly, I for one, and the overwhelming majority of ordinary Africans, the impoverished and powerless povo; are not not inspired, not in the least!

Mr Masiyiwa it is hard enough to be a successful entrepreneur even in a country like the UK, Japan South Korea as many a citizen from the said nation will readily testify because everyone else wants the same thing – success. In the above-named countries the entrepreneur gets a leg-up; it is relative easier raise the working capital from the Bank or own resources, the country’s stable and booming economy creates many opportunities for all, etc.

In Zimbabwe and many other African countries, the entrepreneur does not get any help from anyone or anywhere. Decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left many countries with a few ruling elite and their cronies who are filthy rich. Their appetite for looting and good life is insatiable and like all looters their criminal waste of human and material resources knows no bounds. Africa has become synonymous with such dichotomous contradiction as a nation being the breadbasket a whole region during colonial days finding itself total dependent of important food aid or face starvation after independence.

The overwhelming majority of ordinary African are wallowing in abject poverty; they do not dream of becoming an entrepreneur because they have no money, no education. They are hoping to get a job, God knows there are no employment opportunities given the economic meltdown due to decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness earning the country the pariah state label and forcing would-be investors to shy.

An entrepreneur in UK is like a salmon fish in a salmon fish-farm; there is competition for food with the fish of all sizes but there is enough for all.

In Africa most people are poor, are the kapenta fish in a pool that is shrinking fast by the day. They share the pool with catfish and crocodile and these have been joined by the herons, marabou stock, etc.; all have kapenta fish on their menu!  

The way out of the trap of poverty and hopelessness for millions of Africans is for them to find a job; they are not dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. Anyone serious about ending poverty in Africa must therefore address the root cause of poverty – the curse of rigged elections that have allowed corrupt and incompetent leaders to remain in office.

“If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The most important men in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them,
Like a Solomon the Wise.
'If you please, Reb Tevye...'
'Pardon me, Reb Tevye...'
Posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes!
And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong.
When you're rich, they think you really know!”

Chaim Topol: Fiddler on roof

Well, Topol was right, the rich can be arrogant and patronising! Mr Strive Masiyiwa you can biddy biddy bum with Africa’s Godfathers of corruption and tyrannical oppression all day every day. We must address the problem of rigged elections and bad governance because it is the root cause of why millions are wallowing in abject poverty and their ticket out of poverty. Mnangagwa and his cronies’ insatiable greed for power and wealth are the reason millions are poor and their future is grime and will remain so until we end dictatorship.

Mnangagwa and company are not special, crocodiles, whilst we, are the kapenta fish who exist for the sole purpose is to be eaten. Mnangagwa and company a mere mortal just like the rest of us, fallible just like all human being; the idea that they have the right to ride roughshod over the rest of us denying us our freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life is an outrage.

The big issue in Zimbabwe is implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections and to pretend that the nation can thrive regardless of the criminal waste of resources by the corrupt ruling elite is nonsense. And, given the seriousness of our situation, all those who continue to champion such nonsense, must shut up! 

Zimbabwe's No: 1 known knowns: Zanu PF has already rigged 2023 and participating will give illegal regime legitimacy P Guramatunhu

 

"There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." That Donald Rumsfeld’s, USA Secretary of Defense, explanation on the limitations of intelligence report in February 2002.

Just over a year later, March 2003, the United States led coalition launched a war to overthrow the authoritarian government of Saddam Hussein on the basis of intelligence reports claiming Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. To this day, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

Fancy that, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld talked about known knowns and unknown unknowns and left out the most important of the lot; known knowns and unknowns alike all twisted and distorted for the sake of deceiving the naïve and gullible audience - lies. That is to say, people giving false narratives claiming they are based on proven facts when it is all guess work, at best, or deliberate falsehoods, at worst.

Liars are Steve Wonder’s “Misstra Know-It-All”; they will never admit they don’t know and even if they are confronted with the evidence of their mistake, they will find a scapegoat to blame for the mistake. To admit than they don’t or made a mistake is simply unthinkable, it is sacrilege!

Soon after the November 2017 military coup that booted out Robert Mugabe from office, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his cronies were out peddling the lie “Zimbabwe is open for business!” The mantra was to lure back investors who had shied away given the country’s reputation as a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who rigged elections to stay in power.

Of course, the mantra was a lie; other than replace Mugabe and a few other Zanu PF thugs close to him – in a musical chairs game – Mnangagwa had done nothing merit the claim Zimbabwe was a “new dispensation, a Second Republic” with who investors could now return and do business. Investors are a shrewd and savvy lot, they were not to be easily fooled and so stayed away.

But, of course it is not everyone who is shrewd and savvy; indeed the world is full of the naïve and gullible, they constitute the weeds in a long neglected field!

Zimbabwe is stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF thugs because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends wasted the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and for five long years Tsvangirai and company were foolish enough to believe they were life-members of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and so do not bother implementing even one democratic reform. Why dismantle the dictatorship now they were enjoying the benefit of being a member and guaranteed to continue doing so for life!

Tsvangirai and company went into the 2013 elections with no reform in place and yet still very confident they would win the elections because the MDC votes will overwhelm all Zanu PF vote rigging antics. SADC leaders warned the MDC leaders it was folly to participate in the elections with no reforms in place but the warning was ignored. Talk of some one being naïve, MDC leaders did not even have the common sense to ensure there was a verified voters’ roll; Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections the 2013 elections and all elections thereafter.

It is already clear the 2023 elections are not going to be free and fair, Zanu has already rigged at them two years in advance! Last month Patrick Chimanasa, the Zanu PF acting National Political Commissar announced that the party will not be honouring Mnangagwa’s 2018 promise to give the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of that year’s cast votes. How can the election be anything but a mockery if more voters are denied the vote than those voting for the winning candidate!

MDC leaders have been participating in these flawed and illegal elections to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait. At least for the few MDC leaders there is the few gravy train seats; there is absolutely nothing for the ordinary Zimbabweans freely participating in these flawed elections. (Zanu PF has reduce many Zimbabweans especially the rural folk into medial serfs beholden to the overbear Zanu PF thugs and their proxies, traditional leaders, war veterans and party’s youth militia supporter by the securocrats.)

By participating in these flawed elections, the opposition and their supporters, are giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF regime and are thus helping to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship. God knows how many times this has been flagged up but to no avail. It is only by appreciating the scope and depths of the naivety and gullibility of Zimbabwe’s opposition and their as-faithful-as-a-dog supporters that one will understand why Zimbabwe’s democratic experiment had a still birth and why the last 40 years have been a relentless march deeper and deeper into hell.

It was the Greeks, 2 500 years ago, of Greece’s golden age, who gave mankind the Olympic Games and Democracy, government of the people for the people by the people; the two legacies have shaped mankind, help mankind understanding the world around us and, ultimately, to attain so measure of control of the world around us and not just a helpless victim of whatever chance and fate brings.

The Greeks argued that for democracy to work the people must be educated so that they are naïve and gullible and then easily conned by Zanu PF thugs or worse still follow blindly the corrupt and incompetent opposition. The comforting thing about history is that if the Greeks and many other nation after them have been able to attain the same level of education to make democracy work for them Zimbabweans should be able to do the same; it has been long in coming but that is no proof it will never happen.

By arrogantly denying 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote or 30% plus of the potential voters, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2023 elections in advance. Of course, it will be very foolish to participate in any election process whose outcome is predetermined especially when doing so gives democratic legitimacy to the flawed and illegal process. This is one KNOWN KNOWNS that every Zimbabwean out there must know and understand because both Zanu PF and MDC leaders will be out to trick voters into participate for the leaders’ selfish gain.

Just because Zanu PF trick MDC leaders not to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU does not mean we no longer need the reforms implemented. We need free and fair elections as the guarantor of good governance and a government that is always democratically accountable to the people; we must implement all the democratic reforms to guarantee free and fair elections.

Just because MDC leaders were not up to the task of implementing the reforms does not mean there are no Zimbabweans out there who are up to the task. It does not require a team of rock scientists to know what the democratic reforms are and to implement them; just a group of individuals with common sense and the political will to get the job done.

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because, for the past 41 years and counting, Zanu PF has rigged elections and got away with it every time. We must put an end to this by refusing to participate in the already rigged the 2023 elections and the election is declared null and void. Zimbabwe must then appoint an interim administration, a new GNU, whose primary task will be to implement all the democratic reforms and lay a solid foundation for a democratic Zimbabwe so the hard work of rebuilding the nation from the ruins Zanu PF created can finally begin!  

"Zimbabwe has 2 747 covid-19 deaths" - how much longer will sloth-minded believe the lie W Mukori

 Zimbabweans are a naive and gullible people, easily fooled; hence the reason the country is in such a mess. Indeed, in some cases as now we like to be fooled so we do not have to deal with the consequences of knowing the truth!

Only a village idiot believes Zimbabwe has had 88 415 corona virus cases and 2 747 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic. One of the reasons why the numbers have remained very low is because the regime has not been testing for the virus even when common sense dictated it. By not testing, tracing and tracking as diligently as we should we have allowed many people with the virus to continue to mix and spread the virus.

We have found comfort in the official figures suggesting there are very few people out there with the virus and dying from it. False comfort since many more people have the virus and died than the official figures and more significantly hundreds of thousands of those who had the virus and thousands of the died would have been spared if only the nation had the common sense to demand to know the truth and due diligence in the testing!

We are a foolish and conceited people who insist on seeing what we want to see regardless of how far-fetched that happens to be from the reality.  Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth of our own making and we are not getting out of it by pretending everything is just fine!

The corona virus has happened at the time when Zimbabwe was already down and out after decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness making the country a Banana Republic in which nothing worked. The idea that the country has fared much, much better than countries like SA with a robust economy, working health care services, etc. is just nonsense.

SA has over 2 million corona virus cases and over 68 000 deaths and Zimbabwe, with ¼ SA’s population and an all but collapsed health care service and economy, should be faring far worse than having ¼ of SA’s cases and deaths. Instead of over 500 000 cases and 17 000 deaths; Zimbabwe, officially, has 88 415 cases and 2 747 deaths, less than 20% in each case. No wonder the Zanu PF regime has been bragging about it!

"Despite Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations, for government, a single death is one too many," boasted Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information (read Propaganda), Monica Mutsvangwa.

In a way that there should be such a wide discrepancy between the official corona virus cases and the real numbers on the ground should not come as a surprise; Zanu PF ruling elite have always ridden roughshod over the masses denying them their freedoms and rights including their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. The testing, tracking and isolation protocol was diligently carried out to reduce any of the ruling elite getting the virus; the protocol was largely ignored when it was the life of povo at stake.

To include all the corona virus cases and deaths among the povo in the official count would have exposed the Zanu PF regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic and that was sacrilege.

Indeed, the first thing the Zanu PF regime soon after the outbreak of the pandemic was to ensure it alone controlled who get tested of the virus and only the official figures are released for publication. A 20-year jail sentence awaits anyone who publish anything other than the official corona virus cases and deaths.

A 20-year jail sentence for taking away Zanu PF’s bragging right that the regime’s handling of the corona virus pandemic is “one of the best on the continent” although we all know that is a lie. Worse still, this is a damned lie that has helped the virus spread more widely and faster causing more economic disruption and more human misery and deaths.

There is not one Zimbabwean out there with half a working brain who does not know that the official covid-19 cases and deaths are damned lies; they know in country of 15 million the undertakers would not be overwhelmed by 50 or so additional deaths per day over the normal. And yet the majority of Zimbabweans have elected to believe the damned lie “Zanu PF’s handling of the pandemic is one of the best on the continent” because to do otherwise will force them out of their sloth-like slumber – this, just like Zanu PF’s lying, is nothing new.

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections; the regime denied over 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote (more than the 2.4 million who voted for Mnangagwa), ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, etc.; and still the regime maintain the elections were legal, free, fair and credible. Zimbabweans, for the sake of maintaining their sloth-like slumber have pretended their right to free and fair elections is not a right but a privilege and so the blatant vote rigging was all water off a duck’s back.

It is true that in the long run, each nation get the government it deserves; we in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the entourage of equally corrupt and useless opposition parties. Zimbabwe is in this man-made economic and political mess because for the last 41 years and counting Zimbabweans have maintained this stony indifference to criminal waste of the nation’s material and human resources, causing untold human suffering and deaths, by the country’s ruling elite. It sickens me to admit this but readily do so because it will kill me not to; it is far better to throw up, unsightly as that may be, than hold down the poison.

Mankind is a creature of reason and one does not need to be a rocket scientist to an election in which 30% plus of the electorate are denied the vote cannot be a free and fair election.  When 49% of the population is languishing in abject poverty, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed and the corona virus is caused heart-breaking human sufferings and deaths – far more that the official lies; surely this must force everyone out of their sloth-like slumber and demand change. Sadly, the sloth has not even stirred!

The corona virus storm is not done yet, Zimbabwe will have done very well indeed if the country was to vaccinate the 10 million herd immunity by this time next year (the regime claims it will achieve this target by end of the year, that is doubtful given it took six months to vaccinate 1 million (first dose) and 600 000 (required two doses) and so the grime-ripper has time to increase the covid-19 cases and deaths toll.

And as long as the country remains a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who are not democratically accountable to the people, the country’s relentless march deeper and deeper into this man-made hell will continue; the march will continue as long as the people remain in their sloth-like slumber. The sloth-like slumber has lasted 41 years now, only time will tell how much longer it will last?

SA Minister made a fool of himself on BBC by denying ANC failures and yet admit "slow response gave rioters field day" P Guramatunhu

  “The people responsible for the riots sparked by the jailing of former South African President Jacob Zuma failed in their insurrection because the ground for them was not fertile, the country’s transport minister has said,” reported BBC.

“While the government’s slow response to what was happening gave them a “field day”, they could not achieve what they wanted, Fikile Mbalula told BBC Hardtalk.

“More than 200 people died in the recent violence. It is estimated to have cost the economy in KwaZulu-Natal province alone at well over $1bn (£730m).

“South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the riots were a "coordinated and well-planned attack".

There is no denying that former South Africa President Jacob Zuma and his supporters very much hoped that the looting and burning following his arrest would spread nationwide, not just KwaZulu -Natal and one or two other areas, making the country ungovernable, an insurrection. The majority of South African did not agree with the position that Zuma should not face the wroth of the law for defying the court order, particularly since this was over very serious corruption charges. The people certainly did not want to endorse the foolish notion that anyone is above the law especially someone implicated in serious corruption charges.

There is evidence to show that most of the people behind the looting and burning in KwaZulu-Natal and other areas were venting their anger and frustration against the government for their sorry economic situation, nothing to do with supporting Zuma. After nearly 30 years since the end of the apartheid era, in which the whites were filthy rich and the expense of the impoverished back majority; things have not changed much, other than a few ruling elite blacks who have become filthy rich the overwhelming majority of blacks are still languishing in abject poverty.

“South Africa, according to many studies, is one of the most economically equal societies in the world,” Stephen Sackur, the Hardtalk presenter, pointed out. "ANC is failing the people!"

SA’s Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, gave a spirited defence of the ANC, the party that has ruled since independence in 1994, economic performance; arguing the party is on track to deliver economic prosperity and should not be expected to reverse the 300 years of white colonial exploitation and oppression in three decades. The facts on the ground tell the story of decades of wasted opportunity or worse.

President Thabo Mbeki and now Cyril Ramaphosa have been mediocre leaders who have blundered from pillar to post. In this case, to mobilize the security sectors to giving the rioters “a field day”, as Minister Mbalula and President Ramaphosa himself readily admitted. The delay has costed the nation billions of Rand in lost property and infrastructure and over 200 lives.

When former President Jacob Zuma was in office, SA quickly earned the reputation as just another African country ravished by gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Yes, the ruling party ANC finally acted and had him removed from office and is now carrying out a thorough investigation into state capture. One hopes the investigation are very thorough and the rot is stamp out.

Still the ANC was very slow in nipping misrule in the bud and the experience has damaged the country’s standing as a stable democracy, one of the few in Africa. Investors shy away from pariah state; look at Zimbabwe, the one thing all South Africans should be scared stiff of is to be another Banana Republic like Zimbabwe.

Jacob Zuma and his supporters were hoping for a nationwide revolt demanding that Jacob Zuma should not be investigated for corruption and position him as above the law, a stance that would have confirmed SA’s position as a pariah state. As much as many people are disappointed with ANC government’s failure to address the nation’s economic challenges they, nonetheless, realised that the Zuma’s supporters’ agenda was to reject rule of law and democracy; they had the good sense to know this was throwing away the baby, democracy, with the bath water.

South Africa’s democratic institutions are strong and holding; former President Zuma is still in jail, where he belongs; the country’s next elections will hold free, fair and credible; etc.

However, there is no deny the country’s democracy has, so far at least, failed to elect a competent government and deal with the country’s economic challenges; the impoverished masses are not going to wait another 300 years! The anarchist did not get much support from the impoverished masses this time but as long as millions are forced to live in abject poverty, the anarchists know they have a chance of garnering nationwide support next time.

As long as poverty rules the roost, SA will remain fertile ground for a nationwide revolt to dismantle rule of law and democracy!

"Mnangagwa honored 2% of 2018 pledges, a call to elect Chamisa" - actually, elections were rigged with Chamisa's connivance P Guramatunhu

 

According to Stephen Sarkozy Chuma, MDC Alliance Youth Assembly National Spokesperson, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has only managed to carry out 5 out of the 237 electoral promises he pledged in 2018, the 5 only 2%!

“Never mind about his useless and senseless “huge progress” rhetoric, Mnangagwa is failure personified!” commented Chuma in Zimeye.

“Among a plethora of lies that he promised, Mr 2% failed to fulfil his 1,5 million housing program, 2000 new schools and employment pledges.

“This is a wake-up call to all Zimbabweans that we should elect servant leaders who honour their promises. A pro-people and God-fearing leader in the mould Advocate Nelson Chamisa can surely do better if given a chance.

“It’s time to reject Mr 2 % and all that he represents – failure!”

The people of Zimbabwe have known for decades that Zanu PF had failed them. By the late 1980s the nation was painfully aware that Robert Mugabe’s promise of mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as he never seemed to tire of saying it; was transforming into mass poverty as the country lost its lofty position as a middle-income nation, the breadbasket of the region to become a Banana Republic wallowing in abject poverty and now dependent on food aid.

By the late 1990s the nation finally wake-up to the political reality that the country’s relentless economic decline will continue as long as Zanu PF remain in power and the party will remain in power as long as Mugabe and company continue to exercise their dictatorial powers to rig elections. The nation needed democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections or there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends launched their party in 1999; if elected into power, they promised to deliver the democratic changes to end the curse of rigged elections the nation was dying for. The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb, the price they have had to pay for supporting any other political party other than Zanu PF, to elect MDC leaders for the sake of meaningful democratic change and reform.

MDC leaders have been on the political centre stage for 21 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, MDC leaders have failed to bring about even one token democratic change in all those years. Not a sausage!

The 2008 to 2013 GNU was, without doubt, the best opportunity the nation has ever had to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship once and for all. Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trapping of high office and with their snouts in the feeding trough they forgot about the reforms for the five years of the GNU.

Worst of all, ever since their blatant betrayal during the GNU, MDC leaders has all but abandon the cause of demanding reforms and free, fair and credible elections; they have participated in flawed and illegal elections giving the process credibility and the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy all because they could not resist Zanu PF’s bribe of a few gravy train seats for participating.

“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 elections,” confessed David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe. Mr Coltart was an MDC Minister in the 2008 to n2013 GNU and is Treasurer General in the MDC A.

“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.”

Well, Mr 2% and his Zanu PF cronies are gearing for the 2023 elections and with not even one token democratic reform implemented, it is certainty the party will blatantly rig the election to yet another landslide victory. Indeed, the blatant rigging has already started with the party announcing that it will continue to deny the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, another broken Mnangagwa promise. The diaspora vote is very significant considering Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes!

The truth is Mr 2% and company did not want to risk losing the 2023 elections by implementing even one reform because he KNEW Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends will participate in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be as long as he offered them the few gravy train seats bribe – which he is doing.

What are you, Chuma, wittering about, "This is a wake-up call to all Zimbabweans that we should elect servant leaders!" The people of Zimbabwe did not elect Mnangagwa and his cronies, they rigged the elections and got away with it thanks to Chamisa and company who participated giving the process credibility and Zanu PF regime legitimacy.

Right now, Mr 2% is gearing to blatantly rig the 2023 elections; confident Chamisa and company will participate to guarantee the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy!

No, the real wake-up call for all Zimbabweans is to the political reality that MDC leaders will never ever implement any meaningful democratic changes and with no democratic reforms, the nation will never have free and fair elections, will never ever end the curse of bad governance and thus will never, never ever end the criminal waste of human and material resources behind the country’s economic ruin.

Democracy, Mandela's greatest legacy to SA, had it's stress test, Trump test, and passed W Mukori

 

“Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, statesman and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election,” states Wikipedia.

Wikipedia does not do justice to the man, Nelson Mandela was above all else a visionary leader and, as befitting all visionary leaders, his influence was felt during his lifetime and will echo for many, many more generations to come.

What makes Nelson Mandela such a colossus is that visionary leaders are rare, one in a dynast if you luck, one in a generation if you are very, very luck. In Africa, it is no exaggeration to say visionary leaders are so rare one was given to believed they are extinct. Mount Everest stands majestic as the highest peak in the Himalayas Mountain range. How much more majestic Mount Everest would be if all round it was land as flat as a pancake with a few anthill and rock outcrops a few metres high; such is the standing of Nelson Mandela amongst his fellow Africans.

Some people have criticized Nelson Mandela for failing to lift his fellow blacks out of poverty, “as President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, has done!”.

Full kudos to Paul Kagame for he has indeed managed to stamp out corruption and implement very progressive economic and social policies which have improve the qualitative and quantitative standards of living of Rwandans. Paul Kagame has had the time to implement his transformative agenda; he has been president for the last 20 years and before that, 1994 to 2000, he was VP; Mandela was president for 5 years.

Paul Kagame has created a political system that has allowed him to stay in power regardless of the democratic wishes of the people. It has been ok whilst he remained in power because he has clearly shown that he has very sound economic and social policies to take the nation forward. The problem arises with those who will come after him they will all want to enjoy the same carte blanche powers that has allowed Kagame to stay in power all these years, regardless of their leadership abilities.

All living things will seek power and dominance over others, Charles Darwin called it survival of the fittest or natural selection; it is the most primeval and dominant force on planet earth and will rule supreme to the end of time. What has taken Kagame nearly three decades to accomplish will take a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant - the overwhelming majority of African leaders fit the bill – will destroy in a matter of months! And there lies the distinction between Paul Kagame and Nelson Mandela.

Mandela’s legacy is one of a healthy and functioning democratic system of government enabling society to elect the most competent competitive individuals into power and, just as important, to remove them from office before their primeval instinct to dominate kicks in. There is nothing Paul Kagame has done in Rwanda to stop that country being stuck with just another mediocre leader or, worse, a murderous tyrant.

All Kagame’s achievements are just sandcastles, easily washed away in the next tide or wave. Mandela laid a solid foundation on which a stable and prosperous SA can be built.

True, none of Nelson Mandela’s successors, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and now Cyril Ramaphosa, have accomplished anything of note in their years in office. If the truth be told the ordinary South Africans themselves are to blame for failing to take advantage of the country’s democratic institutions to ensure the elected leaders with some common sense. One hopes that the last 25 years of mediocre to downright corrupt governance under Zuma has a steep learning curve for all South Africans.

Of course, it is very frustrating to every South African that the country has not made any significant inroads into ending poverty in that country; however, no one can deny that the country’s next elections will be free, fair and credible and thus there is hope the nation will be more careful and elect leaders with some common sense, at least.

South Africans are better off than other nations like Zimbabwe in which the individuals who fought to end white colonial rule turned the guns on the ordinary people to impose themselves as the nation’s next rulers; for 41 years and counting the nation has been stuck with corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Zimbabwe’s economy is in total ruins; the nation has sunk from a upper middle income nation in 1980 to one of the poorest in Africa.

Zimbabwe is due to hold elections in 2023 and already it is clear that Zanu PF will rig the elections, the party has already said it will, once again, deny 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Mnangagwa reportedly won the 2018 presidency with 2.4 million vote constituting 50.8% of the cast votes! How can an election in which 30% of the eligible voters are denied the vote be a legal, free, fair and credible elections!

The last few weeks have stress tasted SA’s democratic system of government. Former SA President Jacob Zuma and his supporters triggered some of the worst looting, burning and lawlessness since the country’s independence to protest the imprisonment of Zuma. They believe Zuma is above the law and the looting and burning was not going to stop until Zuma was released!

The looting and burning has largely stopped and the lunatics who inspired it are now condemning. They have had the chance to sober up, look down the precipitous fall into the abyss and turn back. They are now agreeing on the need for rule of law, that no one should be above the law, and are ready to embrace Nelson Mandela’s legacy of democracy as SA’s system of government.

In 2016 the American made the mistake of electing Donald Trump President and his four years in office was to tress-test that country’s democratic institutions like nothing since that country’s civil war. The institutions held and in 2020 the nation replace Trump and the country and most of the free world heaved a big sigh of relief!

South Africa and most African nations heaved a big sigh of relief when the looting and burning in SA stopped and Zuma was still in prison where he belongs!

If rule of law and democracy, Nelson Mandela’s greatest legacy to SA, SA will thrive and, in good time elect competent and accountable leaders who will finally address the nation’s economic and social challenges to create a more just, free and prosperous nation in which no one is left behind. If democracy and good governance is proven to work in SA, the pressure for the other African countries to adopt it as a tried and tested system of government will be irresistible. And so Mandela’s legacy to SA will sweep the continent, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, like the life giving rain storm after a prolonged drought!

Zimbabweans have never ever participated in a legal, free, fair and credible elections; a right many the world-over take for granted but one which we have been promised but cheated of again and again. As a child I used to dance for joy in the first rain to mark the end of the dry season I know many Zimbabweans will cry for joy the day Zimbabwe holds its first ever free, fair and credible elections given how long the nation has had to wait for that day!  

Looting and burning are echoes of apartheid era and proof SA's failure to make quantum leap W Mukori

 

“Before independence corruption was considered a bold and patriotic act especially as the corruption was considered an act of defiance against white colonial government. It is just that after independence the corruption continued; Nigerians consoled themselves by arguing Nigeria is very rich and there is plenty more where the looted wealth came from!” A Nigerian acquaintance once told.

“Cold comfort! Look what Sani Abacha has done; completely destroyed the country!”

If the truth be told, many African countries have been in economic decline ever since they attained their independence for various reasons including corruption. The corrupt and incompetent ruling elite have conned the ordinary people into believing there was nothing wrong with corruption, lawlessness, rigged elections, etc., etc. and those advocating for these values are brain washed puppets of the dethroned colonial whites who are seeking regime change and then recolonize the country.

I had hoped that South Africans would have learned to avoid the mistakes Nigerians and the rest of independent Africa before them made; they would not be so easily conned into throwing out the baby with the bath water. The basic rule that no one should be above the law is pivotal to fighting corruption, I thought every South African will see that!

Many South Africans are still living in abject poverty, the country’s wealth is still in the hands of the whites. Independence brought an end to political apartheid in the sense that blacks now have a vote and the racist laws have been abolished. However the laws and practices that had given the whites the economic advantage before independence have remained; economic apartheid is alive and thriving; as far as the impoverished majority are concerned.

The Court that sentence former SA president Jacob Zuma to 15 months for contempt of court has enforced property rights and other laws that have helped maintain the economic apartheid and so it comes as little surprise that the ordinary South African should revolt against the Court and reject rule of law.

The overwhelming majority of the owners of the shops, factories and businesses that were looted and burnt belong to the privileged white owners; burning shops, factories, etc. before independence was considered a legitimate target and since the economic emancipation did not happen in1994, the struggle continues.

A luta continua!

Deng Xiaoping. China’s economic miracle that has transform that nation from a marginal nation to the world’s second largest economy happened when Chairman Xiaoping embraced capitalism as an ideology to drive economic growth. Chairman Mao Zedong, his predecessor had rejected capitalism born out of the deep-rooted mistrust of the British, Americans and the West.

"It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice." Argued Chairman Xiaoping.

In the first two decade of China embracing capitalism the country’s economy grew in leaps and bounds puling hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty and the country has never looked back ever since!

Africa can too, enjoy its economic miracle, we have the rich soil and wonderful weather to produce the food, the vast minerals wealth and the flora and fauna “lovely beyond any singing of it” as Alan Paton put it so poetical. Sadly, Africa’s economic renascence is more uncertain now that South Africans have too the capitulation and rejected the rule of law for no better reason than it is a carryover from the apartheid era!

To paraphrase Chairman Xiaoping, "It doesn't matter whether the judge is black or white, as long as he/she enforces the rule of law and stamp out corruption!" I do not see Cyril Ramaphosa and certainly not the likes of Zimbabwe’s Emerson Mnangagwa ever making that quantum leap; the former lacks the intellectual ability whilst the latter lacks the intellect and is rotten to the core with corruption to ever change!