“Officially
opening the last session of the eighth parliament at parliament building,
President Mugabe left the house in all smiles with the MDC-T legislators on
their feet cheering the elderly leader after he castigated his own party’s MPs
and cabinet ministers for failing to attend parliament sittings,” reported
Zimeye.
“In his speech, Mugabe implored parliament to complete the alignment of the law to the constitution before the end of the parliament’s term of office end next year.
“Mugabe applauded the August house for managing to complete the alignment of the majority of the statutes over the last seating.”
You are right, President Mugabe is a very “tactful” operator alright. Here he demonstrated four of his favourite tactic:
a) First,
he surrounds himself with the most corrupt and incompetent individuals he can
find.
Simon Muzenda and Joice Mujuru were appointed VP, for example, for no
other reason than that they were incompetent simpletons!
b) Second,
deny them any meaningful power and authority to do anything.
President Mugabe is a control freak and to
underline this; for 37 years, he has never allowed a cabinet meeting to take
place unless he is there to chair it.
During the GNU Tendai Biti then Minister of
Finance, tried to fill a vacant post in his ministry. The constitution allowed
him to do so but was told in no uncertain terms that in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, only
the tyrant made such appointments.
Back in 1994, Margaret Dongo moaned at the
spineless Zanu PF leaders calling them “vakadzi vaMugabe” (are Mugabe’s
subservient concubines). She was right.
c) Third,
divide and rule.
In 2004 the Mnangagwa was set to win the VP race against
Joice Mujuru. President Mugabe stepped in at the last minute, changed the party’s
constitution to demand that one of the top four post in the party must be
reserved for a woman. The move caught the Mnangagwa camp flatfooted as they did
not want to be seen to be against gender equality. Mujuru owed her VP promotion
to Mugabe and was obliged to be as faithful to his as a dog, which is exactly
what Mugabe wanted.
Right now, the two former Tsholotsho coup
conspirators Minister Jonathan Moyo and VP Mnangagwa are at each other’s throat
and President Mugabe is providing the Zanu PF politburo platform for the two to
tear each other to pieces. The more Mnangagwa is discredited the more he,
Mugabe, appeals as the only one suitable candidate for next year’s election, even
at his ripe age of 93 years.
d) Four,
at the most opportune moment to himself, Mugabe would openly denounce the
individual(s) as utterly useless.
Given the serious economic mess the country is in with
unemployment a nauseating 90%, basic services such as education, health, supply
of clean running water, etc., etc. few Zimbabweans would disagree with Mugabe that
“ministers and
parliamentarians as unfit for their positions and deserving to be removed”.
So, what exactly the MDC legislators were cheering Mugabe for is only a measure of how naïve and gullible they are.
US President Harry S. Truman had an inscription sign on his desk; “The buck stop here!” Meaning the responsibility for the way the country was governed was not passed on beyond this point.
The difference between President Truman and President Mugabe could not be more opposite. Whilst the former accepted responsibility and strived for a competent government; the latter does not accept that he is responsibility for anything, his subordinates are the ones responsible. Mugabe has contrived all manner of dirty tactic to remain in office whilst passing all responsibility for his regime’s failures to those below him.
Mugabe is president of Zimbabwe but he is not responsible for the gross mismanagement, the rampant corruption and the brutal repression of the last 37 years. None!
“Mugabe described these ministers and parliamentarians as unfit for their positions and deserving to be removed!” That is rich, he in the one who has appointed these useless men and women all these last 37 years. Yes, the useless ministers deserve to be removed, but what about the corrupt and incompetent individual who has appointed them into office in the first place?
The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the reality that this Zanu PF government is NOT going to implement any meaningful reforms to ensure next year’s elections are free and fair. The buck to ensure the reforms are implemented and the elections are free and fair stops with us, the people; not with the corrupt and incompetent opposition, much less with Zanu PF politicians.
With no reforms in place Zanu PF will rig the elections; it is madness taking any part is flawed elections. We must stand firm and demand that the meaningful reform must be implemented before the next elections!
Mugabe is taking a 70-member strong entourage to UN Sustainable Development Summit from September 19-23. Included are Mugabe’s family, namely the First Lady Grace Mugabe, their daughter Bona and grandson Simbanashe. The delegation also includes Mugabe’s son Bellarmine Chatunga as well as Russell Goreraza, Grace’s eldest son.
ReplyDelete“At a rate of US$1 500 per day which is paid to all the members of the delegation as per diems, this means each delegate will receive at least US$15 000 for the 10-day trip,” said the source.
Zimbabwe’s basic needs such are health and education are now totally depended on foreign aid donors with the government struggling to pay the wages of the personal. Thanks to the good rains last growing seasons, the country will others be begging for food aid too! However it is the extravagant excesses, such as this trip to New York, that is forcing donors to rethink why this regime is failing to pay for its health and education requirements if it can afford to be so wasteful!
We, the ordinary Zimbabweans, have only encourage the criminal waste of resources by Mugabe by saying nothing. Two years ago, Mugabe admitted that $15 billions in diamond revenue was “swindled”. To date, no one has been arrested and not a dollar recovered. Few Zimbabweans have shown any real interest, the whole matter has been water off a duck’s back. It is this cold indifference by Zimbabweans that has encourage Mugabe excesses, confident he can do as he pleases and will always get away with.
Donors are willing to help but even with the best willing in the world, they are not going to meet all the country’s needs forever; we need to stop all this criminal waste of resources. Donor are getting sick and tired of helping people who are doing nothing to help themselves!
What many Zimbabweans do not even realize and/or accept that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have given up hope on ever delivering free, fair and credible elections.
ReplyDeleteThe MDC was launched in 1999 the party promised to delivery democratic changes and transform the country from a one-party dictatorship to a multi-party democracy. It is clear, most MDC leaders did not have a clue what the democratic changes needed were because not even one leader has ever said anything coherent on the matter. It was SADC leaders, in producing the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), who put some clarity on what democratic changes needed were.
The primary objective of the GPA was to ensure Zimbabwe’s future elections are free, fair and credible and not a repeat of the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of 2008. This was to be achieved by implement a raft of democratic reforms to restore the democratic independence of state institutions like Police, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. so they can carry out their democratic duties
without fear or favour. The reforms were to be set in concrete by drafting and adopting a new democratic constitution complete with the democratic separations of power, checks and balance.
Tsvangirai and friends to get even one democratic reform implemented and the new 2013
constitution left the State President with “excessive power with no checks and balances”, as David Coltart, readily admitted in his book. There are two logical reasons why MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented; they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. There is no doubt that Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and they “forgot why they were in the GNU for,” as one SADC leader commented. The very fact that MDC leaders failed to see the honey trap and President Mugabe not only caught some of them but all of them and kept they silent for five years is proof of how naïve and downright stupid the MDC leaders really are!
Since the rigged 2013 elections MDC leaders have been clamouring for “electoral reforms” to stop vote rigging. Zanu PF has already completed many re-alignment of existing laws to the new constitution, none of these will stop vote rigging. One would expect MDC MPs and senators to be well-aware of this and would be fighting in parliament for meaningful democratic reforms. Sadly, they are not!
MDC leaders have given up the fight for free, fair and credible elections and all they are fighting for now is whatever few gravy train seats they can get. MDC has accepted they will never deliver any democratic change, the one-party dictatorship is here to stay, and hence their new Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies.
If we want to end the dictatorship then we must look beyond MDC. There is really no point in taking any part in next year’s elections knowing as we do already they will not be free and fair. We have been denied our right to free and fair elections for the last 37 years; it is high time we put our foot down and demand reforms before elections!
MDC leaders will cheerful next year even if Zanu PF blatantly rig the vote and once again deny the masses of a meaningful say in the governance of the country as long as they get a few gravy train seats! Our core need for democratic change has not change what we must accept is that MDC is no longer fighting for democratic change, we are on our own.
@ Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo
ReplyDelete“Tsvangirai promised people that he will not abandon the struggle till he is there at Munhumutapa but alas he abandoned the struggle along the way. When people were calling for reforms in the GNU he openly told them off that he was enjoying tea with Mugabe at State House and they should not worry because Zanu PF is in its dying minutes,” you wrote.
“He protected Mugabe during the GNU era and many of his erstwhile would not say a word because it is him Morgan who was protecting Zanu PF from falling. He went to the extent of heaping praises on Mugabe and people wondered whether it is the same Tsvangirai who was a fiery critic of his arch rival Robert Mugabe. Today the same Morgan is at Highlands's mansion and Mugabe is at blue roof, how then you can call for Zanu PF to step down when you are enjoying in the comfort zone.
“You have sown the seeds and you must enjoy the fruits. How many Monday meetings did Morgan have with Mugabe? Where are we today? Where are his supporters? These are the same questions that he should ask himself.”
This is one of the few articles I have read and agreed with 100%. What is so totally refreshing about this article is that it is an honest, no holds barred, appraisal of our own weakness. In a country with a knack for burying its head in the sand, at best, and at worst, find a scapegoat for own failure; it is uplifting to find someone willing to turn the spotlight on the nation.
It was Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ fault that not even one democratic reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. It is sickening to listen to the many Zimbabweans out there who, even to this day with the benefit of hindsight, still blame SADC leaders!
With such a naïve and gullible electorate, it is little wonder that President Mugabe has managed to sell them the nonsense that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown was cause by sanctions imposed by the West, even after the tyrant admitted to $15 billion in diamond revenue was “swindled”. What nation on earth, which less Zimbabwe with a GDP of $10 billion, would sustain such criminal waste!
A wide-awake electorate should have asked President Mugabe; “We do not know how many billion sanctions are costing the nation, you have never said. Still what are you doing to stop the swindling and recover some of this diamond revenue? You cannot do anything about the sanction but surely you can do something to stop the mismanagement and corruption!”
One of the most important advice SADC leaders told Morgan Tsvangirai towards the end of the GNU was not to contest the July 2013 election without implementing the reforms. Sadly, MDC leaders paid no heed, as usual. The advice is still relevant today. Contesting next year’s elections with no reforms in place is madness!
Accepting that we are the authors of our own failures is an important first step in digging ourselves out of this hell-hole we find ourselves in.
MDC-T deputy secretary general Tapiwa Mashakada has insinuated that there is a state combined effort with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to rig the 2018 elections at all cost.
ReplyDelete"Statecraft plus party - state conflation and a state controlled ZEC all combine to rig elections and legitimize Zanu PF. Besides without the knowledge of who prints ballot papers it is difficult to audit the ballots issued," he said.
"Zanu PF will not allow an independent audit firm to do the job. Zanu PF and ZEC are not capable of organizing free and fair elections. (Registrar General) Tobaiwa Mudede betrayed it all when he said metal IDs will not be accepted. He let the cat out of the bag. It is the duty of the MDC Alliance to bust the rigging machinery first b4 plunging."
"After that victory will be certain. Without reforms there won’t be any election. Even the poodles will not attempt to enter those elections to legitimize Zanu PF," he said.
It is no that any of the MDC leaders do not know that with no reforms in place Zanu PF will rig the elections; they all know that. Tapiwa Mashakada and Tendai Biti are just some of the few leaders who have openly admitted that with no reforms, the opposition will never dislodge Zanu PF from office.
“It is the duty of the MDC Alliance to bust the rigging machinery first b4 plunging,” said Mashakada. This is a revision of the “No reform, no elections!” MDC leaders do not have the vision and political will to see this through. Mashakada will be taking the plunge himself with nothing done to bust the vote rigging machinery.
If we, the people of Zimbabwe want free, fair and credible elections, then it is up to us to stand firm and refuse to take part in the voter registration starting tomorrow, on-going party rallies, etc., etc. until reforms are implemented.
The people of Zimbabwe have been slow in figuring out what has gone wrong with our independence and hence the reason we are stuck in this quagmire. Unless we stop this stupid habit of burying our heads in the sand and start thinking we are not getting out of this mess!
ReplyDeleteZimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect these MDC leaders into power and after 17 years, 5 of which in the GNU, they have failed to bring about even one meaningful change. The sooner Zimbabweans finally accept that MDC leaders are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent the sooner they can get down to the important business of defining what kind of leaders the nation wants and then go out and find such leaders.
People get the government they deserve and we cannot deny that we deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties. The country is in economic ruins forcing unemployment to soar to nauseating heights of 90% plus and 72.3% of our people live on $1 or less a day. Unless we do something about ending the misrule the country will remain where it is today, the poorest nation on earth. We are not doing anything to end the bad governance by contesting flawed elections, it is insane to try the same thing for 37 years and expect a different result.
Of course, we deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship, we have foolishly granted it legitimacy for the last 37 years.
SADC leaders have said we should not contest flawed elections. We have stubbornly ignored their advice because we cannot think outside the box, we are insane.
Tsvangirai won 73% of the vote in March 2008 and President Mugabe ordered ZEC to recount and that, after six weeks of cooking up the figures, was reduced to 47%. What WIRE strategies did MDC have against that!
ReplyDeleteAfter the rigged 2013 elections MDC vowed they will not contest another election until reforms are implemented. They have since changed their minds because they are interested in the bribe Zanu PF is offering to those willing to contest the flawed elections.
MDC has failed to get even one reform to stop Zanu PF's vast vote rigging ability but since they cannot admit that they are contesting the flawed elections out of greed they have come up with WIRE strategies. Ask any one of them to say what these are and you will get no answer because there are no such strategies.
WIRE strategies are no more real than the mythical hen's teeth! It is shocking that anyone can be so easily fooled! A naive and gullible electorate is the curse of good governance and progress.
To participate in next year's elections on the basis of WIRE is stupid and we deserve what we get - Zanu PF for another five years.
Harare Airport to be renamed Robert Mugabe Airport from 9 November 2017 in honour of the tyrant.
ReplyDeleteWhen the truth of Mugabe's long reign, the corruption, vote rigging and politically motivated murders is told; there will be no honour in being reminded what an inapt, incompetent and murderous tyrant Mugabe was! All these honours the regime is heaping on the tyrant will be stripped from him just as the wealth he looted will be taken away from his family and given to the true owners and victims of his misrule - povo.
@ Dzamara
ReplyDeleteSADC leaders told Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place.
“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,” SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai & co. in June 2013, according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who attended the Maputo summit.
MDC leaders did not listen and, of course, SADC leaders were very disappointed and said so. They said MDC leaders "were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU and forgot why they were there". Tsvangirai and company have lost all political credibility and everyone knows that there is no excuse for contesting flawed elections that Zanu PF is already rigging with this long delayed BVR voter registration which will now be rushed to hide all the irregularities.
SADC leaders can see all these political machinations by both Zanu PF and the opposition. They can see this is a sham election, they are not stupid. SADC leaders also know that another rig election in Zimbabwe will send the country into even deeper economic and it will be suicidal for the regional leaders to let this happen.
SADC leaders are going to reject next year's election as a sham.