On Wednesday Mugabe chaired the Zanu PF politburo
meeting and top on the agenda was the worsening cash crunch. Mugabe himself has
probably not yet noticed the long bank queues as people fight to withdraw as
much as possible before the bond notes are introduced. He missed the queues
because he hardly visits the country for more than a few days now before
jetting off to Singapore or some silly place via Singapore.
The politburo decided to squeeze this cash
crisis before Mugabe jets off somewhere because the regime can no longer ignore
the country’s worsening economic meltdown; the shortage of cash is just one manifestation
of the meltdown. It was very ironic that the politburo meeting should be
discussing the shortage of cash with Mugabe given that he is the one who is
always travelling and his overseas trips cost $3 million plus each.
By the end of April Mugabe and his family had
already spend $80 million of taxpayer’s money on overseas trips, according to
one local paper. No doubt not even one member of the politburo members even
dared to suggest that his globe-trotting had anything to do with the country’s
cash crunch. As for Mugabe himself, he missed the irony; if you are a tyrant
even language lose meaning to accommodate the leader’s whim.
Actually Mugabe and his Zanu PF politburo cronies
have become champions at ignoring everyone and everything that does not fit
with the image of a successful and prosperous Zimbabwe led by the greatest pan
Africanist of all times!
Mugabe has struggled to get anyone to
bankroll his hare-brain ZimAsset plan. The final nail in ZimAsset’s coffin was
when Mugabe return from China in August 2015 with the ZimAsset begging bowl still
empty; not even his “all weather” Chinese friends were prepared to bankroll his
hare-brain plan. But Mugabe being the dictator he is refused to accept ZimAsset
was dead in the water and he even at his 25 May 2016 rally, hardly two weeks
ago, he still talked of the need to implement ZimAsset.
When Mugabe blatantly rigged the 2013
elections he was confident he would rig economic recovery too. Sadly that has
not happened.
He has soldiered on continued with his
reckless spending, ignored all the signs of the worsening economic meltdown and
pretended his $27 billion ZimAsset plan is alive and transforming the economy. Sadly
that too has not worked and the shortage of cash is proof the economic meltdown
is very much alive and there is a lot worse things to come! It will not be long
before Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, is forced to tell Mugabe there is
no money for his next overseas trip!
Some of us have said
it many time but will say so again: the only solution to Zimbabwe’s worsening
economic meltdown and political chaos, that has torn both Zanu PF and the
opposition camp alike, is for the country to implement all the 2008 GPA democratic
reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections following by fresh
elections.
Only a government, with the
people’s democratic mandate and the confidence of international community’s confidence
that it will uphold the rule of law, can tackle the country’s many teething political
and economic problems, the prerequisite for economic recovery.
Please note, the country
must implement ALL THE 2008 GPA democratic reforms as contrast to the wishy-washy
MDC-T and the other opposition parties have been calling for. MDC was supposed
to implement the GPA reforms during the GNU but failed to get even one reform
implemented in five years. The country would not be in this political and
economic mess if MDC leaders like Tsvangirai, Biti and Ncube had implemented
the reforms. It is therefore imperative that, this time, ALL the reforms are
implemented; the nation would be foolish to trust MDC leaders to implement the
reforms!
So, without further ado,
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies must accept that ZimAsset is dead and the only
way to end the economic meltdown and the tragic human suffering it has brought
is for the nation to implement the political reform necessary for free, fair
and credible election. Mugabe has the choice to accept a peaceful negotiated
exit or the whole regime will be booted out because the present economic
meltdown cannot go on for much longer.
Ian Smith was a white racist but there are two things no one will ever deny he got right:
ReplyDelete1) He did manage the generate national wealth and grow the economy in in the face of a raging civil war. He oppressed the blacks and denied them a fair share of the generated wealth.
2) He was an arrogant racist but when the chips were down he was smart enough to know the game was up and accept peaceful and orderly change.
Sadly the same cannot be said of President Mugabe. He inherited the "jewel of Africa" as the late Julius Nyerere once told him and in 36 years has reduced it to ruins. Mugabe is clearly one of the worst tyrants the world has ever seen, he is arrogant, corrupt, incompetent and a ruthless cold blooded murderer. His greed for power and wealth is insatiable.
He is so full of himself he cannot believe he has f*%# up, he is the type of tyrant he will try to hang on to power right up to the bitter end! Yes the economic meltdown is going to get worse and worse but Mugabe will pretend nothing is wrong, he does not have Ian Smith's management skills much less his common sense!
President Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections and was cocksure he would rig the economic recovery but that has proven a hell lot more difficult. His approach so far has been to pretend the nation will suffer but say nothing but that too is proving to be wishful thinking. There is a real danger of Zimbabwe descending into total chaos if nothing is done to give the people hope in a better tomorrow.
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