"Sanctions on Zanu PF will remain" - adding to the growing economic pressure N Garikai

President Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections and is therefore illegitimate. It is now four months since the rigged elections and if he thought he was going to get away with it; he was wrong. 

“In 2008, Canada adopted Special Economic Measures Act (Zimbabwe) Regulations with respect to Zimbabwe. These measures prohibit arms trade with Zimbabwe, and impose sanctions against listed Zimbabweans and entities. These measures will remain in place until there are positive shifts in Zimbabwean policy that result in improvements in human rights, democracy, freedom, and the rule of law” Canadian ambassador to Zimbabwe, René Cremonese, told the Independent is a recent interview. 

Rigging the has been a tough and very expensive task for President Mnangagwa but rigging the economic recovery, without which his continued stay in power is impossible, is proving to be mission impossible. 

Full marks to Mnangagwa, he did not need anyone to tell him the importance of attracting foreign direct investment as the only way to revive Zimbabwe’s comatose economy. He hit the ground running with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra which he adopted soon after last November’s military coup. Sadly, for him, he did not have the intellect to realise that investors are shrewd lot; they would not take his word for it, they would want to see his words backed by action.

President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections, it was the ultimate assurance that Zimbabwe was no longer pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. He failed to keep the promise.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta friends had risked life and limb to wrestle power from Mugabe in the November 2017 coup; many had people doubted if the coup plotters would risk losing it in turn in a free and fair elections. The doubters were proven right. 

The July 2018 elections were whole flawed and illegal. There were glaring irregularities such as the denying of 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote; the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement; etc. 

The elections have been condemned as “biased, unfair and falling short of accepted international standards” - diplomatic language for the elections were rigged and therefore Zanu PF is illegitimate. All the western nations has retained the economic sanctions they had imposed on the Zanu PF regime, as noted above. 

The greatest pressure on the Zanu PF regime to step down is coming from the sanctions but from the country’s worsening economic meltdown. The flood of investors the regime had hoped for in response to the “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call has not materialised. The shrewd investors and lenders did not miss the rigged elections, etc. and have shied away. They do not do business in a pariah state.

As soon as it became clear that Zanu PF had rigged the elections, thus confirming the country’s status as a pariah state, all hope of a meaningful economic recovery evaporated. There has been panic and chaos in the country’s economic and financial market caused by shortage of foreign currency, fuel, food, medicine, etc. and the fluctuation of the Bond Notes against the US$. The new Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube’s ill advised comments have not helped.

“It is the economy, stupid!” The Catch phrase helped former US President Bill Clinton win the elections. The phrase is having the opposite effect on Mnangagwa, the economy is sealing his doom! 

In his epic poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, describes a sailor who shoots a friendly albatross and, as punishment for his barbarism, is forced to wear the large bird’s carcass around his neck.  

The worsening economic meltdown is the albatross round Mnangagwa’s neck, his punishment for blatantly rigging the elections.

Zanu PF is imploding, the factional dog-eat-dog infighting in the party is tearing it apart. However the party is as determined as ever to hang on to power and so whilst the party is sinking into the abyss it, nonetheless, still retains its strangle hold on the nation. 

Zanu PF is sinking into the abyss and dragging the whole nation down with it. We must not and cannot allowed this to happen. 

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta must be forced to step down a.s.a.p.; the regime rigged the elections and is therefore illegitimate. Whatever happens the regime must not be allow to remain in office to the 2023 elections. Whilst the party remains in office it will never allow and meaning democratic reforms to be implemented and the nation cannot afford yet another rigged elections in 2023!

VIDEO: Chief Anyauko, you either speak truth to power or shut up - betraying the truth is obnoxious

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Chief Anyauko, you speak truth to power or shut up - betraying the truth is obnoxious

Streamed: 27 November 2018 at 07:47 | Processing...

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" People accept separation of powers" argue Chief Anyauko - speak truth to power, Zimbabwe is not a democracy N Garikai

“You would agree that the harmony in any country depends on acceptance and respect of the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary. The country works best when that separation of power is respected. In that context, I would have thought that you agree that the pronouncement of the highest court should be accepted and respect by everyone,” Chief Emeka Anyaoku told Nelson Chamisa and Zimbabweans at large on Monday 26 November 2018. 

“The point you made about dialogue, can take place and should take place but all within the context of the accepted Con-Court pronouncement!”

It is all very well for Chief Anyauko to be pontificating about harmony; the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary; etc. but to what end and purpose if none of these things are applicable in the real Zimbabwe we live in. Of all the people, he knows that Zimbabwe in not a democratic nation.  

As former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, the Chief knows that Zimbabwe had to hurriedly resign from that club in 2003 to avoid being booted out. Still, CHOGM issued a statement confirming the indefinite suspension of Zimbabwe following the member’s meeting in Nigeria, Chief Anyauko’s own country of birth! 

Ever since last November’s military coup to remove Mugabe from office President Mnangagwa has made overtures to have Zimbabwe readmitted back into the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth had its own election observer team headed former Ghana president John Dramani Mahama. Their report, like a string of other reports, condemned the elections as unfair and blatantly biased in favour of Zanu PF.

"The first was the heavy bias of the State print and broadcast media in favour of the governing party. The second was use of incumbency privileges in a manner that unduly disadvantaged opposition parties," former president Mahama told reporters. 

Commonwealth Secretariat has disbanded the team to spear head Zimbabwe’s readmission; this is a club of nation who accept and respect the rule of law, the freedoms and rights of the citizens including the right to free, fair and credible elections. They would not want to welcome back a vote rigging rogue state in their midst, especially one they had expelled for repeatedly failing to hold free elections and other human rights violations.

It is therefore shocking that someone like Chief Emeka Anyauko, who cares and understands the importance of such key democratic tenets as holding free, fair and credible elections; the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary; etc. should lecture MDC Alliance leaders and the people of Zimbabwe at large on the same. But fails to do the same to Mnangagwa and his junta; the people with the power and authority and whose heavy boot of oppression is on the neck of the nation, has been these last 38 years and counting!

Zimbabwe is not a healthy and functional democracy just as President Mnangagwa does not have mandate to government the country because he blatantly rigged the elections. So why all this charade of pretending Zimbabwe is a democracy when we all know it is not. Why do you want the world to endorse Mnangagwa as president when he is illegitimate?

Mnangagwa’s legitimacy will not come from Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance friends’ public acceptance of his election victory but from the majority of ordinary Zimbabweans voting for him in a free, fair and credible elections. The 30 July 2018 elections were NOT free, fair and credible and therefore Mnangagwa is illegitimate and no amount of dirty horse-trading between MDC and Zanu PF can ever change that reality.

Chief Emeka Anyauko, it would have been better for this nation  if you had never set foot in Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe welcomed you on the belief you are a man of honour and will speak truth to power. There is nothing more obnoxious than he who comes in the name of the poor, oppressed and downtrodden but only to betray them by betraying the truth!

VIDEO: "First accept Mnangagwa as president then have dialogue" Motlanthe Commission orders Chamisa

"First accept Mnangagwa as president then have dialogue" Commission orders Chamisa

 16:04

"First accept Mnangagwa as president then have dialogue" Motlanthe Commission instructs Chamisa W Mukori

“One of the most impressive things you have said was about MDC being a party that respects the law. I take it that now that the Con-Court has made a pronouncement (on the election result), that in keeping with MDC’s loyalty to the law that you will accept the pronouncement?” asked Chief Emeka Anyaoku, one of the seven Motlanthe Commissioners.

“In that context I was also impressed that MDC and you, as the party leader, are ready for dialogue. Did I understand you correctly?”

“We respect the pronouncements of the court! But the Con-Court is a court of law and court of justice and not a court of politics. Politics is about legitimacy. Our contention is based on legitimacy. We have the right to say Mr Mnangagwa, you are not legitimate because of the result we have. We have the right to disagree with the court!” Chamisa fired back.

“Would you not agree that internationally the pronouncement of the highest court in the land is to be respected and accepted by everyone who is law abiding?” the Chief asked.

“We respect and accept the Con-Court pronouncement but still have a legitimacy question to be resolved. It can only be resolved by dialogue. This is not the first time the country’s politics has needed dialogue to move forward.”

“Going forward we must be able to resolve the legitimacy issue, away from the court.

“We must be able to resolve issues of reforms that are comprehensive so that we do not have a repeat and recurrence of disputed elections every election cycle. We are reproducing a vicious cycle of negative politics. We want to deal with that. Let us have a path to nation building and peace building. That is what we have put on the table, Mr Mnangagwa does not have an appetite for it.” 

Chief Anyaoku tried once again. “You would agree that the harmony in any country depends on acceptance and respect of the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary. The country works best when that separation of power is respected. In that context, I would have thought that you agree that the pronouncement of the highest court should be accepted and respect by everyone. 

“The point you made about dialogue, can take place and should take place but all within the context of the accepted Con-Court pronouncement!” 

Chamisa stood his ground. “Harmony starts with the respect of the truth and reality. Harmony starts with the state honouring and respecting that there should be no state - party conflation. The conflation of the party and the state and the attempt by the party to influence state organs; those are fundamental issues that require a political reform agenda and constitutional reform agenda.” 

Chamisa is right, Zimbabwe has had 38 years of disputed elections with 2008 elections being the worst in terms of the blatant vote rigging; the March results were not announced for six weeks, allowing the regime to whittle down Tsvangirai’s 73%, by Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, to 47% to force the run-off. During the run-off the regime used wanton violence to punish the electorate for having rejected the party in the earlier vote. 

The dialogue leading to the formation of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was necessary because no one, not even SADC or AU election observers would accept the election result as a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe. 

“This is not the first time we have had dialogue,” Chamisa argued. 

Well his plea will fall on deaf ears for eight key points:

1. Both SADC and AU, who played a key role in getting Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept, the formation of the last GNU, have already endorsed this year’s election results or be it with tongue in cheek. The two confined their comments to the peaceful campaign period right up to voting day. They have said nothing about the elections being free, fair and credible because they knew they were not. They have also said nothing about the delay in announcing the results and failed to mention the wanton violence of the 1 st August; which is telling since their report should at least cover a few days post announcing the result! The important point is both SADC and AU are not pushing for dialogue or another GNU, not this time.
2. MDC had the golden opportunities to implement the comprehensive reforms Chamisia is talking about during the last GNU. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. SADC leaders warned MDC leaders not to take part in the 2013 elections with no reforms and their warnings fell on deaf ears!
3. After Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2013 elections everybody thought MDC leaders had learned their lesson; they will be the ones demanding the reforms first in 2018. Surprise, surprise Chamisa was leading from the front in denigrating those calling for reforms before the elections. “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections,” he boasted. MDC leaders did not even have the common sense to demand that there should be a verified voters’ roll. These elections should have never taken place without the reforms; it is insane to participate.
4. Chamisa has made it clear that the solution he wants is for him to be president of Zimbabwe. This ties with Chamisa’s own claim that if he wins then “election was free, fair and credible!” This is nonsense because everyone agrees the whole process was flawed and illegal; how can an illegitimate process produce a legitimate result?
5. Chamisa has already proved beyond doubt that he is corrupt and incompetent; a Zimbabwe government with Chamisa as president and a 2/3 majority Zanu PF parliament and senate is worse than yoking together a wild ox and a stupid donkey back to back. We can be certain of one thing not even one of the “comprehensive reforms” Chamisa has only only woken up to will be implemented and thus the country will be in for yet another disputed elections in 2023!
6. There is no denying that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s unending economic and political crisis is state capture by Zanu PF, “party - state conflation”, as Chamisa rightly called it. There is no denying that MDC leaders have had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but have wasted them all. But most important of all there is no denying that Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections and that allowing him to stay in power will not help Zimbabwe get out of the mess. 
7. The Motlanthe Commission is caught between the rock and the deep blue sea. They will be tempted to recommend that MDC must accept the Con-Court’s ruling declaring Mnangagwa president and any political dialogue will then follow. By participating in the elections and then the court challenge without demand reforms MDC had, per se, accepted the power and authority of ZEC and Con-Court and all the other state institutions. It is nonsense to talk of party-state inflation just because one has lost the elections, etc. Still, by endorsing Mnangagwa the winner the Commission will have done nothing to help Zimbabwe get out of the mess. A Zanu PF government will never fully implement the democratic reforms ending the party’s carte blanche powers to rig future elections. Never ever! 
8. The only way out of the mess now is for the people of Zimbabwe to demand implementation of the democratic reforms OUTSIDE the context of Zanu PF and MDC. Indeed the people must demand the formation of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms; no Zanu PF or MDC leaders will be allowed to play any part in the said administration. The prospect of Zanu PF remaining in power till 2023, given the economic mess the country is in, is daunting. Zanu PF staying beyond 2023 is simply unthinkable, yet that is a certainty if we fail to force the regime to step down so we can finally implement the reforms properly! 

“I thought you were going to congratulate and thank me!” was Chamisa’s parting shot to the Motlanthe Commission. He is naive, corrupt and incompetent but even he knows that the principle recommendation of the commission will be that MDC must accept and respect the Con-Court’s ruling and acknowledge Mnangagwa as dully elected president. 

Thank you for what? For having squandered the nation’s many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and landing us into this mess!

VIDEO: Chamisa accepted corrupt ZEC and must accept Motlanthe Commission too

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Chamisa accepted the corrupt ZEC and must accept Motlanthe Commission HD

Chamisa accept corrupt ZEC must appear before Commission too - no cherry picking N Garikai

"A Commission of Inquiry into the August 1 shootings that occurred after the July 30 harmonised elections will resume today with MDC president Nelson Chamisa expected to testify,” reported Bulawayo 24.

Chamisa and the rest of the opposition were warned repeatedly not to take part in the recent elections until democratic reforms are implemented to make sure the elections are free, fair and credible. He would not listen, claiming "MDC had stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" The stringent measures did not work against ZEC for Justice Chigumba and her fellow commissioners blatantly disregarded the law to secure a landslide victory for Zanu PF. 

Chamisa boasted that he had assembled "the A-Team" to challenge the election result in the Con-Court. It Judges went on to confirm Mnangagwa as the winner ignoring all the evidence of serious disregard of the law under the pretext the evidence was not confirmed by "primary source evidence" in the sealed ballot boxes. 

They knew the plaintiff's, Chamisa, request to have the ballot boxes opened was denied. Although the Judges could and should have demanded to have the ballot boxes opened, particularly since they were the ones insisting on primary source evidence. They did not make any such demand because they knew the same chaos, irregularity, illegalities, etc. found in the evidence before the court would also be found in the sealed ballot boxes. 

It is fair to say the Con-Court started from the outcome, they had to confirm Mnangagwa as the winner, and so they task was to find a plausible excuse to justify their judgement. They would reject the damning evidence presented to the court by both the plaintiff and the key defendant, ZEC, on the grounds that it was not collaborated by primary source evidence - a convenient legal bolt hole! 

It should be remembered that it was the same Judiciary that had ruled the the 15 November 2017 military coup was "legal, constitutional and justified"! Of course, it was naive to expect justice from a judiciary that is corrupt to the core!

Of course, it was very foolish of Nelson Chamisa and all the other opposition parties to agree to take part in an election process they knew from the word go was flawed and illegal. But having agreed to a corrupt and incompetent ZEC organising the elections and to an equal corrupt and compromised Con-Court to judge the electoral process; it is naive of Chamisa to think he can now refuse to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into 1 st August 2018  shooting on the grounds the Commission is biased. 

It would be a real surprise if the Motlanthe Commission was not biased, corrupt and incompetent. No one in their right mind expects the Commission to accomplish much other than gloss over the shooting and the serious matter of the rigged elections, which triggered the protest. But that is all beside the point. 

The point is that Chamisa accepted ZEC, the Con-Court and all the other corrupt and compromised state institutions' power and authority in handling the various aspect of the election process. Why, therefore, is he now refusing to accept the power and authority of the Motlanthe Commission? Chamisa is appearing before the Commission because he cannot cherry pick!

"ED has so far created 800 000 jobs" says Mangwana - a figment of a delusional apologist P Guramatunhu

“President Emmerson Mnangagwa's first year in office has been very successful to the extent that his main thrust has been to deal with fundamental issues like, firstly, the fundamentals that improve our democracy, as well as economic fundamentals that will ensure there is an economic turnaround with regard to national aspirations as per vision 2030, whose aim is to turn Zimbabwe into an upper middle income country,” said Nick Mangwana. 

Everyone who is anyone has dismissed the recent elections as “bias, unfair, uneven playing field” and one of two have even called them for what they are “rigged elections”. Even the Zanu PF’s own Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has confirmed that the regime rural voters were abused by the party leaders, traditional leaders and other operative who distributed state supplied food aid and agricultural inputs in a partisan manner reducing the rural people to nothing but serfs beholden to the landlord, Zanu PF. The regime blatantly rigs the elections and its apologist claims that the Mnangagwa has improved the democratic fundamentals! 

As for the regime improving the economic fundamentals that is just a foolish notion. On Wednesday Minister of Finance, Professor Ncube, was talking of finally removing the green bombers, Zanu PF Youths who have been some of ghost civil servants. Mnangagwa promised to do this last year, why has it taken a whole year? He is laying off one lot of blood suckers only to take another lot on the civil service payroll in the form of laid off cabinet members, permanent secretaries, etc. who have been “redeployed” on full pay and benefits. 

The real tough corruption cases such as the wholesale looting of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa is going on untouched. Mugabe said the country lost $15 billion in diamond revenue. Not one individual has ever been arrested and not one dollar recovered because many of those involved in this grant state sponsored robbery are senior member of Mnangagwa’s government! 

“Investment is happening, but it is not happening overnight.  Right now, 800 000 people have got jobs in a short period and it shows that this is not a joke,” said Nick.

He did not say who are the employers of these 800 000 workers because both the employers and employees are all a figment of his imagination. 

You can get away with serving mutton and claim it is lamb but not so with the hot chilli. Zimbabweans know the country's economic meltdown is getting worse and not better!

Since the 30 th July 2018 disputed elections, the Zimbabwe economy has been in turmoil with serious shortage of foreign currency, food, fuel, medicine, etc. The regime has had to borrow money to fill the foreign currency shortage but this is only a temporary solution. The long term solution is for serious cash injection from investors and lenders. Sadly there is no hope of any meaningful direct investment in Zimbabwe, not whilst the country remain a pariah state.

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs the country will never know political stability or register any meaningful economic recovery. Every one knows that Zimbabwe is a pariah state and all that happened in last November’s coup was an internal quarrel within the party resulting in some individuals being booted out of the party without changing the nature of the party. 

Zanu PF remains a party of corrupt and ruthless thugs who number one priority is to retain absolute power at all cost! Zimbabwe under Zanu PF will remain a pariah state, period.

Ncube's budget will tax the poor to death - usual voodoo-economics pain, plenty of it, but no gain N Garikai

On Wednesday 21 November 2018, Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s minister of Finance, presented his maiden national budget. There are many things one can say about the budget, I will just say five things:

1) ”The spike in prices of goods and services appears to have receded, confirming that the main price hikes were a spontaneous response to uncertainty and confidence issues,” he said.  

What he should have gone on to say he had created most if not all the uncertainty with his ill-advised and downright foolish statements. He said Zimbabwe was going to phase out the Bond Notes only to contradict that a few days later. 

He then said “market forces” will determine the value of the Bond Notes relative to the US$ and other foreign currencies only to say the opposite a day or so afterwards. This caused serious panic in the economic and financial markets with the Bond Notes : US$ exchange jumping from the official 1:1 to as much as 10:1! 

If Zimbabwe had been a healthy and functional democracy Minister Ncube would have been forced to resign; Zimbabwe is Banana Republic and so he stayed. If anyone thought the above admission showed the Minister had learned his lesson the next statement shows he had not!

2) "The 2 917 Youth Officers who still remain on the payroll, are being retired and the posts removed from the establishment, by end of December 2018,” he said.

"At its 38th Meeting of 5 December 2017, Cabinet re-affirmed its decision to terminate employment contracts of 3 188 Youth Officers as previously resolved.”

President Mnangagwa had made a big song and dance about ending corruption, mismanagement, etc. that had become endemic under Mugabe’s reign. Now the nation learns that it was all hot-air the few Zanu PF youths laid off were those belonging to the rivalry G40 faction. 

Even if the regime finally act and laid off these Zanu PF youths, commonly known as the green bomber in reference to their traditional green uniforms and are nothing more than green flies laying life nuggets on the wounds of the sick nation; nothing much will change. 

The nation is painfully aware that President Mnangagwa has “redeployed” most of his former cabinet members, permanent secretaries, etc. on their last salary, perks everything. Only those considered to be G40 members have been laid off. In other words the nation is shedding off one set of blood sucking ticks only to inherit another! This is just a revolving door!

On the other big corruption issues such as the wholesale looting of diamond in Marange and Chiadzwa costing a staggering $15 billion, according to Robert Mugabe’s own admission; the regime has done nothing and the Minister said nothing. 

Talk of restoring certainty and confidence this Zanu PF regime has done precious little to win back the trust and confidence of investors and lenders, they saw the Minister’s blundering, the regime’s refusal to deal with the big issues of corruptions but worst of all the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Every report that has come out on Zimbabwe’s 30 July 2018 elections have all condemned them as flawed and illegal. President Mnangagwa and his junta rigged the election and thus confirmed Zimbabwe is a pariah state; no one wants to do business in a pariah state. 

3) ”In order to redirect scarce foreign currency to the productive sectors of the economy, the budget proposes that customs duty and all other taxes on imported motor vehicles be levied in foreign currency acceptable as legal tender, with effect from 23 November 2018," said Professor Ncube.

Is government going to pay all its workers in foreign currency then?

Does this mean the Chemist, Shop owner, etc. have the green light to insist in being paid in foreign currency? After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander! 

What is happening here is that those with the political and economic clout will be paid in US$ whilst the downtrodden are forced to accept Bond Notes. The economic burden of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not being shared by all, the poorest of the poor are carrying it all and they are paying dearly for it - with their very lives! 

4) “Initially, the economy had been projected to grow by 6,3 percent in 2018 spurred by anticipated good performance in key sectors helping drive the country to an upper middle income economy by 2030,” said the Minister.

“There was, however, a slowdown in economic growth in the last half of the year on foreign currency supply and allocation challenges, exchange rate misalignments and inflationary pressures that affected mining, manufacturing and services. 

“As a result, Government reviewed downwards the growth projections to 4 percent for 2018. Notwithstanding, the economy currently remains resilient, with performance exceeding expectations.”

Zimbabwe’s spectacular fall from the middle income nation in 1980 to the poorest nation in Africa was accomplished in 25 years. In 1980 the country had a very robust strong industrial infrastructure, second to only to SA in subSahara Africa; they have all long shut down and Zimbabwe now imports 70% of nation’s needs. 

Our agricultural sector made the country the breadbasket of the region; that is all a very distant memory. For the last decade the nation has relied on imported food aid. We are starving in what is, for all intent and purposes, the Garden of Eden. A damning testimonial to the sheer incompetence of the men and women who have governed the country since 1980! 

"Government policy initiatives will see solid growth of 4 percent in 2018, that way sustaining revenue and exports performance above targets," said Minister Ncube. 

How is that possible when you have done nothing to stop the criminal waste of human and material resources through gross mismanagement, rampant corruptions and whilst the country remains a lawless pariah state?

5) There is no doubt that Minister Ncube’s budget is a catalog of one economic hardship after another, especially for the 75% of the country’s population now living on US$1.00 or less a day. Many Zimbabweans will suffer and many will die of poverty related hunger, diseases, etc. 

What makes the situation totally intolerable is that none of the economic recovery the regime is promising will ever materialise because none of the basic requirement for such recovery are there. There will never be any meaningful economic recovery whilst corruption, vote rigging and all the other hallmarks of a pariah state remain firmly in place.

This is a austerity budget guaranteed to bring wailing, gnashing of teeth and death especially to the country’s poorest of the poor, the 75% already living on US$1.00 or less a day.  The suffering and deaths will all be in vain, there will be no meaningful economic recovery because nothing has been done to address the root cause of the economic meltdown - misrule. 

It is shocking that for one who profess to be knowledgable in economics you should be presiding over the country’s continued decline. This budget is not founded on basic economics but rather the same voodoo-economics of the last 38 years. 

This is a budget to tax the poor to death. It is not just the “spike in the prices of goods and services” you will be getting with your budget, Minister Ncube, but a “spike” in the numbers of avoidable suffering and deaths due to hunger, disease, lack of medicine, etc. - many will die with worthless Bond Notes in their pockets and accounts! Have you no shame!

Full marks, Motlanthe commission diverted attention from rigged elections - ED is overjoyed

If the truth be told, I have not paid much attention to the antics 1st August Commission of inquiry chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe of SA. I had expected the commission to be a farce, a complete waste of time and resources, I was wrong. 

It has turned to be a complete waste of time and resources, yes, but worst of all it is political decoy delivered with flare and gusto. The primary task of the commission was to draw public attention away from the rigged elections and they have certainly done that; President Mnangagwa must be very pleased with the results!

It is all very well to hear former Zanu PF Chipangano thug, Jim Kunaka, confirm that last November’s military coup was indeed a coup detat and why it was necessary.

“A coup was held in November last year because the old guard had been outwitted by the G-40 team. They had to use guns because they had been completely outwitted,” said Kunaka.

“I know everything about the Zanu PF culture of violence. Remember I was a senior member of the ruling party.” 

It was comical to hear Kunaka being denounced in turn by his former comrade, Lewis Matutu. 

“Jim Kunaka has conceded perpetrating violence against the opposition and killing people for political gains live on TV before the commission of inquiry. All this was done under the oath. It is the duty of the law enforcement institutions to apprehend him and be charged under the laws of the land. He should not be allowed to get away with this!” said Matutu.

“If he was given instructions as he alleges, he must name those who gave him such orders if they do exist. Let him name those that were working with him. He just complicated his life because mhosva hairovi (crime does not rot like meat) he must be held accountable.” 

But that is just it, Kunaka can name those who gave him the instructions to kill; just as the individuals responsible for the shooting of the seven civilians behind this commission on may be named; what difference will that make! In the 38 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule, over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood to establish and retain the de facto one party dictatorship we are groaning under. 

In 99% of the cases the murders were never arrested even when many people had named. In the odd case where the criminals were arrested, tried and convicted; they were granted the ubiquitous presidential pardon, for Zanu PF thugs only of course, without ever spending a single night behind bars! 

Indeed, one can go so far as to say this Commission of Inquiry’s primary purpose is to divert the nation’s attention from President Mnangagwa and his junta’s treasonous act of rigging the 30 July 2018 elections and the disastrous consequences of the worsen economic meltdown that followed. And full marks to all the commissioners, they have played their assigned roles with flying colours. 

Zanu PF thugs have carte blanche powers to do whatever they considers necessary to secure their own and the party’s strangle hold on power. Last November’s coup was high treason the regime got Justice George Chiweshe to rule is “legal, constitutional and justified”. 

The junta has just successful blatantly rigged the elections with the assistance of the corrupted ZEC. The whole election process was flawed and illegal, the regime even failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. 

The election results were challenged in the Con-Court. The Judges ignored all the evidence put before the court, proving beyond doubt that the elections were rigged, because the evidence “was not collaborated by primary evidence in the sealed ballot boxes”, they argued. 

The plaintiff’s request to have the ballot boxes opened was denied and the Judges themselves never asked to the boxes be opened. So, the Judge’s decision to endorse Mnangagwa as the winner were based on the assumption that the primary evidence in the sealed ballot boxes would have proven the elections were NOT rigged. 

Of course, it was a nonsensical judgement. What was the point of asking the parties to this case to submit sworn affidavit if the judges are going to ignore that evidence and then conveniently ignore the opportunity to examine the primary source evidence they are insisting on! 

The primary purpose of the Con-Court in the above case was to help the Zanu PF junta gloss over the glaring irregularities and  illegalities and judge rigged elections free, fair and credible. 

Of course, the regime knew that it had rigged the elections and many people would be furious about it. The regime, whose murderous thugs had clearly strained at the leash to keep the peace throughout the campaign period, unleashed the thugs at the protestors. The shooting dead of the seven civilians was meant to reminder all that the party would not tolerate any protests against the rigged elections. 

The Motlanthe Commission; just like ZEC, the Con-Court, etc.; is a toothless dog with neither the bark nor bite. It is not the The commission will not name the individuals who pulled the trigger much less those who deployed them and gave the order of “Shoot to kill!” It is not in the commission’s remit. 

Even if the commission named everyone of those involved here we can be certain of one thing this will do nothing to help restore the individual freedoms and human rights much less put right the immediate problem of rigged 30 July 2018 elections!

Indeed, it is now clear that the commission of inquiry was a cynical decoy to take attention away from the serious issue of the rigged elections and the economic meltdown that followed.

Last year the regime organised the 18 November 2017 street protest, carefully stage-manage theatrical to allow the public to let out some steam and it worked like a charm. This Motlanthe commission is yet another carefully stage-managed performance that has too worked like a charm.

The seven shot dead must be turning in their graves, joining the over 30 000 murdered by the regime who are spinning by now, angry the opportunity the shooting presented to demand meaningful democratic change has clearly been wasted, once again!