Mnangagwa calls "to incentivize workers" - where are the 2.2 m workers to incentivize! By Patrick Guramatunhu

If there was ever any doubt in VP Mnangagwa and the rest in Zanu PF that he and the party are loathed by the people; the people have just reminded him once again of that fact.



“VP Mnangagwa yesterday was forced to address an almost empty stadium when Zimbabwean workers and vendors boycotted a government organized Workers Day celebrations,” Newsday reported.



“In his address to less than 1 000 people in attendance, Mnangagwa admitted that government should do more to incentivize workers and change the current demotivating working environment.”



It is a bit early in the election cycle for Zanu PF to start bussing in supporters from far and wide to attend national gatherings like the Workers Day Celebrations but given such poor showing the party will have no choice but to have a hired crowd for every occasion.



Poor Emmerson Mnangagwa he is so desperate to appear presidential; loved and respected by all Zimbabweans but that is proving near impossible given Zanu PF 36 years of corruption and murderous repression and the great depths the economy has sunk. He is talking of “incentivize workers” forgetting there are no workers to incentivize.



VP Mnangagwa must create the 2.2 million new jobs Zanu PF promised create in five years in its 2013 election manifesto. We are already in the third year of the five years and so far the country has lost more jobs than it created. As things stand more companies are set to close with the loss of even more jobs! Things are getting worse and not better!



The last few weeks have been good for VP Mnangagwa with his faction winning the upper hand in the Zanu PF factional war against the G40 faction. If he thought it was going to be plain sailing from hence forth he has just had a rude awaking. His fight against the G40 was nothing compared with the fight to win the Zimbabwe public’s trust.



His name is forever soiled by all the political baggage of corruption and brutal political repression he, as President Mugabe’s right hand man, can never deny being party to. He is inheriting a national economy that is in a real mess as contrast to what President Mugabe inherited from Ian Smith, and he has the impossible task of trying to manufacture some semblance of economic recovery in two years, in time for the next elections. It is a near impossible task at the best of times but with President Mugabe still calling ALL the shots (he is a control freak who will never give up his iron grip on power even with his wife’s G40 faction now out of the race to succeed him) it is an IMPOSSIBLE task, period!



Some people, especially from the West, had already started cosying up to VP Mnangagwa as Mugabe’s heir apparent in the hope that he will do enough between now and the next elections to gain the respect and support of a segment of the Zimbabwe population, enough to make it unnecessary for Zanu PF to resort to its usual blatant vote rigging and, worse still, wanton violence to win the next elections.


Without making any real progress in reviving the comatose economy VP Mnangagwa will have no choice but to resort to Zanu PF tried and tested vote rigging and wanton violence to “win” 2018 elections. No self-respecting Western nation would want to be associated with such a tyrant!