War vets can have Mnangagwa as Zanu PF leader but cannot impose him on the nation. By Patrick Guramatunhu

“You must be careful of people who speak with a forked tongue and, whatever happens, you must never give in to the temptation of being one such person yourself,” my late mother used to warn us. “The world is full of conman would take you for a ride at your expense and often they become victims of their own deception.”

 

“Asia for the Asians!” was Japan’s slogan and excuse for fighting in the Second World War to drive the Americans, British and other western nations out of Asia in a straight swap of one colonial power for another. Forget all the black nationalists’ rhetoric of fighting for freedom, justice and human rights; just like the Japanese, President Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF leaders were fighting to replace the whites as the new lord of the manor.

 

It took the average black Zimbabwean ten years or so after independence to accept that they were second class citizen whose freedoms, human rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance and even the right to life itself were routinely denied by the ruling elite.  After 36 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF rule with millions now languishing in abject poverty and over 30 000 murdered by the regime in pursuit of its selfish agenda of staying in power at all cost; there can be no doubt that Zanu PF leaders spoke with a forked tongue and they still do to this day.

 

“When you went to war (ex-combatants) you were very young but you remain resolute, but up to now you don’t have anything to show (for it). All I see is poverty written on your faces,” war veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa to his members in Masvingo las week, according to a Daily News report.

 

 

“But we have seen the bad part of not rewarding ourselves, the G40 is doing whatever they want with us because they corruptly acquired wealth.”

 

 

The notable thing here is how Zanu PF leaders like Mutsvangwa have again and again expressed their concern about poverty amongst the war vets but have refused to even acknowledge that millions of ordinary Zimbabweans too are wallowing in poverty. Worse still these Zanu PF leaders have refused to acknowledge that root cause of the country’s economic mess is because for the last 36 years the ruling elite have allowed mismanagement and corruption to grow and spread precisely because they were “rewarding” themselves.

 

 

Whatever quarrel Mutsvangwa has with the G40 faction it is nonsensical to blame the later for the war veterans’ poverty given the faction only emerged in August 2014, long after the nation’s economic decline was well established. Worse still Mutsvangwa and his fellow war veterans are deluding themselves if they believe imposing Mnangagwa, just as they have imposed President Mugabe on the nation, is the panacea to their economic poverty. It will take a lot more than swapping one dictator for another to achieve meaningful economic recovery.

 

 

“The president acknowledged that we are the ones who gave him that position, we the war veterans and war collaborators, we campaigned for him to win elections in 1980,” said Mutsvangwa. President Mugabe acknowledged the war vets’ contribution in the 2008 run-off where President Mugabe used wanton violence to force the people to vote for him. The war vets were the regime’s storm troopers then and have been ever since.

 

 

“We the war veterans, are the compass of this country, isu toziva ichi (chigaro) kwachinoenda (we know who is going to take over).”

 

 

My late mother would have never guessed that self-deception could have more tragic consequences than is seen in Zimbabwe today; the whole nation is already up to its eyes in this man-made cesspit after 36 years of Zanu PF misrule but instead of those responsible seeing the serious shortcomings they still believe they “are the compass” of the nation. We are completely lost because the compass, the maps, etc. are all wrong!

 

 

The right to a meaningful vote is a right, not a privilege to be granted to some and denied others by war veterans and Zanu PF leaders. But most important of all, the right to a meaningful vote is the heart and soul of good and competent government. Given the economic mess the country is in after 36 years of Zanu PF misrule it is imperative that the people now claim their right to a meaningful vote with resolve and refuse to be detracted by misguided individuals like Mutsvangwa whose ego is blinding them from seeing themselves as the corrupt and incompetent individuals they are.

 

 

If the ordinary person has been short changed all these last 36 years because they played a small or no part in the liberation way, then it is time they played their part be demanding the full implementation of the democratic reforms to restore all their individual freedoms and rights. The right to a meaningful say in who is going to rule Zimbabwe from now is everyone’s right and not a preserve of war veterans alone – that is no negotiable!

Zanu PF is imploding and Manheru is singing a mournful "Zanu yedu tinoida!" karaoke. By P Guramatunhu

“… there is this lame argument around bussing people he he he! Nonsense!” wrote the insufferable Nathaniel Manheru. “Did we not see the Youth League executive addressing meetings in all the country's 10 province? Do you reach 10 provinces to raise crowds for a local rally? And were people supposed to come on foot from those provinces?

“How is it different on Election Day? Is there a law that stops bussing of voters seeking to reach a booth, assuming there will be some booths far away from the voting public? What is the point? Yes, people were bussed from all over the country, people today, voters tomorrow. And the difficulties by some in getting back to their home provinces. What does that tell?

“That resources for the million man march were sparse, hard to come by. What was abundant was the zeal, the will to march for a million. You can't argue that State resources were abused and still find people stranded in Harare. Does that make sense? What is your day like, dear critic?

 

 

“Zanu-PF will did it again! Zanu Yedu/ Tinooidaaa Zanu Yedu tinoida/ Kunyangwe zvavo/ Kunyangwe zvavo vakachema, vakarovera musoro padombo, mangopinda tinokunda.”

 

 

Such boastfulness even now with the writing of Zanu PF’s demise on the wall is typical of tyrannical regimes who have refused to accept change until it is too late to do so. Whilst they know they are staring defeat in the face, they put on a brave face and pretend their tyrannical rule will last until the donkey have horns!

 

 

No, Manheru, there is nothing wrong with bussing people from one rally to the next and, come election day, bussing the supporters to polling stations.  However there is something wrong with bussing people who do not live in one constituency to another to vote. There is something wrong with increasing the number of polling stations from 2 000 to 9 000 just two days before polling day and then bussing supporters from one polling station to the next to cast multiple votes.

 

 

It is a criminal offence for the government of the day to refuse to release a voters roll although it is required by law to do so a month before voting day. Up to this day Zanu PF has refused to release the voters roll. They know the voters roll is one of the smoking guns to the vote rigging of the 2013 elections.

 

 

It is interesting to note that a few months ago the same Manheru, who is pretending today that the last elections were free and fair, was reminding the then Minister Chris Mutsvangwa that he should not be too boastful about him having the people’s mandate to govern when his election victory was fixed!

 

 

There is no doubt that people like you Manheru love Zanu PF “Zanu yedu tinoida!” you are chanting; why not you have had your fair share of the looted wealth. From your PSMAS board membership fees alone you have earned a cool $100 000 per year! You have shown any sympathy for the civil servants, whose membership subscription you are looting, who have been forced to do without the medical help because the doctors are asking them to pay cash because PSMAS, looted by the top managers, is not paying the doctors’ bills.

 

 

The poor civil servants, who earn as little as $500 a month, cannot afford to pay PSMAS membership subscriptions and then pay cash to the doctors are being forced to do without life- saving medical help!

 

 

 

President Mugabe has been doing his bit fleecing the Zimbabwe people. He has send his daughter overseas to study staying in a $50 million mansion, had a $5 million wedding for her, has just spent millions for her to have her baby in the Far East, etc. and yet the hospitals the rest of us ordinary mortals are forced to use are so poorly funded most of them do not have something as basic as an incubator!

 

 

Yes Comrade Manheru you, President Mugabe and all the other Zanu PF cronies have been singing “Zanu yedu tinoida!” for the last 36 years but even amongst yourselves there is discord. Where is the likes of Mai Mujuru and her supporters? There are today two factions the Mnangagwa and the G40 factions fighting it out. The one-million man march was a G40 rally in all but name. Zanu PF is imploding and the country’s worsening economic meltdown is fuelling the break up.

 

 

Zanu PF’s no regime change is socially and politically unsustainable just as the economic meltdown due to the decades of Mugabe misrule is now unsustainable because it is caused so much human suffering and now threatens the very survival of the nation. You know Zanu PF is doomed, regime change is now as certain as a ripe mango falling; you are just putting a brave face!

Mugabe sternly warned that firing war vets from security sector "will not be tolerated" By Wilbert Mukori

In the boldest challenge ever to Mugabe’s tyrannical, the war vets and the security chefs, notably Commander Chiwenga, told Mugabe in no uncertain terms they constitute “the stockholders of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe and the leaders are stakeholders who can come and go!”

 

On Wednesday Mugabe, emboldened by the one-million man march organized by the party’s Youth League, hit right back repeating his earlier statement that war vets were an affiliate organization that cannot dictate to the party Zanu PF. The following day he reduced the retirement age of all those serving in the security services from 60 years to 50. This clearly opened the door for Mugabe to retire many of the former freedom fighters who have become increasingly critical of his rule.

 

When it suited his political needs of imposing on the nation his no regime change mantra after he lost the March 2008 vote, Mugabe kept the current security services chefs beyond the official retirement age of 60 years. Now that the same chefs have been increasingly critical of his tyrannical rule he drops the retire age even to get rid of most of his liberation war colleagues from the security sector.

 

How ironic that anyone over the age of 50 is considered too old to serve in the security sector commanded by a 92 year old Commander-In-Chief! Needless to say it was the 92 year old dictator who made that unilateral decision without even consulting his rubber stamping parliament! It is great to be a dictator.

 

Mugabe must be sweating because the last thing he expected was a defiant challenge to his diktat.

 

"We are equally worried that these quarters within the party refuse to accept that war veterans have an interest in Zanu-PF approximated to ownership," came the nuclear bomb response from  Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) spokesperson Douglas Mahiya.

"We should have been told during the war that we did not belong to the party and needed not join. Had that been made clear to us, then we would have dealt with those issues in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time."

"We need to make it clear that war veterans cannot be retired or removed from Zanu-PF as well as the security establishment. Any attempts to retire us on the basis of age is to us a cover to perpetuate the regime change agenda of security sector reform. Regime change to us means to rid Zanu-PF and the security establishment of the liberation component, which will not be tolerated under any circumstances."

 

Mugabe has deliberately undermined the independence of the state institutions like the judiciary, ZEC and security services by appointing individuals run these institution he could trust to neglect the institution’s democratic duties and promoted Zanu PF his selfish objective of creating a de facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship. He sugar coated the tyrannical pill by claiming that there were outside forces working with the “puppet local opposition” seeking regime change.

 

Frankly, not even the simpletons amongst the war vets like Jabulani Sibanda of Joseph Chinotimba ever believed the lie of the West being behind the increasing demand for meaningful democratic change and free and fair elections; it was ordinary Zimbabweans and not the British or Americans, who were risking life and limp demanding change. The war vets, security chefs and all the other Zanu PF operatives subscribed to no regime change agenda at all cost mentality on the understanding they will have a share in the absolute political power and the wealth and looted riches it brought.

 

The root cause of Mugabe and the war vets’ quarrel is the country’s poor economic performance which has left more and more war vets economically destitute. Although Mugabe has once in a while made a token payment to alleviate the war vets’ economic hardship as the national economic sunk deeper and deeper into trouble it dragged more and more into poverty and many war vets were caught up in the drag net.

 

Douglas Mahiya, Chiwenga and all the others in the war vets and security sector know that if Mugabe was to sever their links with Zanu PF he would have condemned them to the same grinding poverty the majority of Zimbabweans are facing right now!

 

"We plead with the party's leadership to explain to us the principle of one centre of power. We hope it does not mean that power is vested in one person because if that is so, then it is against the Zanu-PF constitution and traditions of the party," another war vet said.

 

"The principle of having one centre of power needs to be explained. Power resides in the people as represented in the central committee in between congresses. Anything beyond that is unheard of to us and is dictatorship."

 

It is refreshing that some of these war vets have finally woken up to the reality that Mugabe is a dictator! The next thing they need to know now is that he is a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant and the economic meltdown the country is facing is the consequence of 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The misrule has continued for all these years because the nation was denied the opportunity to elect a competent and accountable government because the people were denied a meaningful free and fair vote.

 

By foolishly supporting Mugabe’s no regime change mantra the war vet, ZEC, judiciary, security services, etc. had all played their part in imposing a corrupt and incompetent regime on the nation. The only way to end Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is to have meaningful democratic reforms followed by free, fair and credible elections.

MDC mourns about Mugabe's globe-trotting yet did nothing to end the dictatorship. By Nomusa Garikai

“After the so called million man march in Harare where crowds were rented and school heads suffered extortion to surrender school buses by force, President Mugabe is at it again. His foreign trips never cease and it seems like he gets sick if he spends a single month in Harare,” mourned MDC-T spokesman Obert Chaurura Gutu.

 

 

“So far this year his trips have gobbled a whopping $80 million and there is not a single achievement made through his insatiable appetite for air travel.”

 

 

There is no doubt that President Mugabe loves globe-trotting; here is a man who loves travelling and delivering grand and officious speeches regardless how low key the occasion happen to be. His latest trip to Papua New Guinea, which prompted Gutu to write, being one such occasion; Mugabe will be the only foreign head of state attending the meeting.

 

 

Yes President Mugabe’s globe-trotting had gobbled millions of dollars every year and given he has been in power for 36 years and counting it has gobbled billions of dollars and the nation has precious little to show for it. The people of Zimbabwe have known President Mugabe is incompetent, corrupt and a murderous tyrant for years and hence the reason why they have risked life and limp to elect MDC on the understanding Tsvangirai and company would bring democratic change and regime change.

 

 

MDC had the golden opportunity during the GNU to bring about meaningful democratic changes in Zimbabwe and they wasted the chance because MDC leaders were distracted by the gravy train lifestyles being in government offered and they forgot they were there to implement the democratic reforms. It is rich that Comrade Chaurura Gutu should be mourning about President Mugabe’s insatiable appetite for luxuries and globe-trotting when it was the same insatiable greed that made MDC forget why they were is the GNU.

 

 

President Mugabe loves this highflier lifestyle and so did Morgan Tsvangirai the difference between the two men is that whilst the former in all his globe-trotting and wallowing in luxuries he has never for one minute lost sight of his goal of ruthlessly establishing and retaining a one-party cum one-man dictatorship. The latter, Tsvangirai, was so easily distracted from his set task of implementing the democratic reforms. The ease with which President Mugabe has con Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into doing nothing about implementing the reforms, which would have effectively ended his dictatorship, during the GNU years is the stuff of legend!

 

 

Ever since the day Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe his head swelled beyond all proportion blinding him to reality. Tsvangirai was given the opportunity to hobnob with the world leaders like President Barack Obama and Tsvangirai did not just have the cheeky of telling them Mugabe had changed but ignored their warning that the tyrant had not changed.

 

Tsvangirai, like Mugabe, loved globe-trotting but did not know where he was going

 

 

If Morgan Tsvangirai had not been so single track minded about the globe-trotting, the chasing of women and all the other trappings of high office and instead had implemented the democratic reforms then we would not be in this tragic situation stuck with a wasteful tyrant but worst of all stuck with the dictatorship! It is ironic that the people who should have ended the dictatorship are mourning about the globe-trotting as if that was an attainable dream with the dictatorship still firmly in place.