Zimbabweans are well and truly caught between a rock and the deep blue sea, they either have to confront the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime and demand meaningful political change or continue to suffer the worsen economic hardships brought upon the nation by the regime. This is a lesson for Zimbabweans to learn from Greek mythology.
One of the many trials and tribulations Odysseus, Homer’s hero in Ulysses, faced to get back home was having to navigate the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Italian mainland. Odysseus was caught between a rock Scylla, a rock shoal, a six headed sea monster on the Italian side of the strait and Charybdis, a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily, the deep blue sea.
Odysseus chose to face Scylla and lost a few sailors to the monster rather than risk the the whole ship and crew being sucked into the abyss!
The moral of the story is Zimbabweans would be better off facing the monster Zanu PF demanding their freedoms and basic human rights and dignity including the right to free and fair elections which is at the very heart of the nation’s failure to put an end to Zanu PF’s corrupt and tyrannical rule.
The nation has been stuck with the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime for 38 years because the party rigged the elections and falsified its mandate to rule. After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule it is now clear the regime is the root cause of the economic meltdown and, worse still, that there is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery as long as Zanu PF remains in power. None!
Zanu PF has just rigged the recent elections to tighten its iron grip on power and the regime shot dead seven protestors soon thereafter, a warning the regime will not brook any challenge to its tyrannical rule. The Zanu PF Scylla monster is real and dangerous, there is no doubt about that.
The country’s economic meltdown that has seen unemployment soar to dizzying heights of 90%, basic services like supply of clean running water and health care collapse, etc. is Charybdis, a whirlpool, sucking the whole nation into the abyss. 75% of the population is already living on US$1.00 or less a day and the situation is getting worse not better.
“(Economic) recovery can only come with foreign investment in Zimbabwean commerce and industry. But what investor would want to bring hard currency onshore, to see its value immediately reduced as it is turned into RTGS money, where profits are generated in RTGS money and offshore shareholders cannot be paid?” explained Derek Matyszak in an article in Zimeye.
“So the logjam continues. The currency problem cannot be solved without investment, and investment won’t come until the currency problem is solved and certainly not while Zimbabwe has shown itself prone to bouts of extreme economic chaos and potential social unrest. And while government scratches its collective head, Zimbabwe’s economy inches ever closer to the brink.”
Whilst the Zanu PF’s trigger happy thugs will kill hundreds even thousands of people if Zimbabweans if the nation dared to confront the regime to demand meaningful change. Doing nothing has cause millions to suffer in damn anguish and hundreds if not thousands of lives have been lost unnecessarily every month for lack of clean running water, etc.
The trials and tribulations Odysseus faced were not of his own making, he was at the mercy of the capricious Gods. The trials and tribulations Zimbabweans are facing are all 100% our own fault. For all our problems stem from the 38 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical rule of Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF thugs. These are mere mortals and not Gods; of course, it is our own fault that we have allowed these thugs to ride roughshod over our freedoms, hopes and our very humanity all these years to such depths of depravity!
Nations get the government they deserve, we in Zimbabwe, certainly deserve this corrupt Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt and incompetent opposition parties. If we want a competent and accountable government, one to led us out of the hell-on-earth Zanu PF landed us in, we must earn it by learning from history and our own past mistakes.
Zanu PF thuggery presents immediate and dramatic danger but it is nothing compared to the suffering and deaths of the economic meltdown the regime has fostered on the nation, the silent grime ripper. Those who refuse to confront Zanu PF and demand meaningful democratic change are making a false choice because they are not confronting the grime ripper either. It is Zanu PF thuggery that is causing the economic meltdown and those who refuse to confront Zanu PF refuse to confront the economic meltdown.
The choice before this nation is simple; either we confront these Zanu PF thugs and demand the restoration of our freedoms and human rights or we suffer and die like sheep to the slaughter.
It is shameful that anyone should ever seek to subjugate and enslave a fellow human being as this is bound to cause endless strive and anguish. Shame on you all who allow yourselves to be cowed down by mere mortals so much so you become as helpless as sheep!
@ Jacob Mafume
ReplyDelete“As a matter of fact, the MDC is not and will not plan any insurgence but will continue to encourage Zimbabweans to exercise the right to demonstrate peacefully in line with section 59 of the Constitution,” you said.
“No one can take away this right.
“We are Democrats. The President led demonstrations before which were peaceful with no loss of property or damage. When the time comes this is the route that the MDC will follow.
“We will follow the law.
“The guilty are afraid, when you steal an election and fail to deliver, you create problems for yourself and start pointing fingers at the victim. This is why President Chamisa in his five point plan highlights the need to address the legitimacy issues arresting our country.”
When it comes to being guilty of failing to deliver on one’s promises MDC Alliance leaders are as guilt as Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta.
MDC Alliance has just celebrated its 19 th year on the Zimbabwe political stage; the people have risked life and limb to elect the party leaders into power and yet they have failed to bring about even one democratic change in all the 19 years! They wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU. Not even one!
Yes Zanu PF rigged the last elections but this would have never happened if MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms.
All MDC leaders want is for them to be granted a seat on the gravy train so they too can enjoy the spoils of power. They will never implement any reforms and bring about any meaningful democratic change the nation has been dying for. The people of Zimbabwe must focus instead on demanding that Zanu PF steps down to allow the implementation of all the democratic reforms and ignore MDC!
@ Magocha
ReplyDeleteZanu PF rigged the elections and it is therefore rich for the regime to now pretend it respects the rule of law. The regime will crush the demo regardless of whether they are peaceful or not because it is a party of ruthless thugs.
@ Fungai
ReplyDelete“You are right Mr Mafume about the need for exercising democratic space but your President seems to be saying the very opposite at rallies. In other countries such reckless statements could have serious consequences,” you say.
Fungai you are not fooling anyone! Chamisa has said MDC will make Zimbabwe “ungovernable”, that is true and must be rightly condemned. But what are we going to do to Mnangagwa who rely was to shoot to kill protestors? What are we doing to do to the tyrant who has committed high treason by rigging the elections and thus bring the hailstorm of political and economic chaos raining upon the nation?
All the economic suffering and political instability that is going to engulf the nation in the next five years will have their Genesis in Mnangagwa’s rigging of the July 2018 elections. He and his Zanu PF junta will be held to account for it!
@Dr Manyika
ReplyDelete“We have read in history about the other kinds of revolutions: the ones that dramatically change the way people do life…the “industrial revolution”, the “digital revolution,” or the agricultural revolution that makes countries like Israel that are 65% desert able to feed their own people and export food!”
It is all very well for you to be writing about revolutions, what contributing did you think you were making to Zimbabwe’s struggle for free, fair and credible elections by taking part in an election process that was glaring flawed and illegal? ZEC failed to produce even a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake! You, together with all the other village idiots opposition candidates are not care that the elections were being rigged as long as you had your few days in the political limelight!
You sold-out, you had your few hours on the political stage, now do us a favour and shut up! Zimbabwe has some serious problems to deal with and the last thing we want is sell-outs mudding the waters! Fcuk off!
Opposition MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa has insisted that he will force President Emmerson Mnangagwa to a negotiating table to address the biting economic problems facing the country.
ReplyDeleteResponding to a Twitter user who asked what the youthful politician was doing to solve the country’s economic crisis, Chamisa said Mnangagwa had spiked his requested to come to a table, adding that he will cause him to be interested.
By rigging the July 2018 elections, President Mnangagwa confirmed something that even those who have their heads buried in the sand could no longer deny – that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. All that talk of a “new Zimbabwe and new dispensation” was just that, cheap talk.
By rigging the elections, Mnangagwa has also slammed the door shut in the face of would-be investors and lenders. Who would want to invest in a country ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs.
If Chamisa believes Zimbabwe will shed off its pariah state status just because he and a few MDC Alliance leaders have been given senior positions in the Zanu PF junta then he is day dreaming. No one, much less the shrewd investors, will be fooled by that cheap gimmick.
The only way out of this mess is for Zanu PF to step down to allow the implementation of the democratic reforms (the same reforms both Zanu PF and MDC failed to implement in the five years of the 2008 GNU) leading to the holding of free and fair elections.
Chamisa is just wasting the nation’s time with his foolish suggestion. Both Chamisa and Mnangagwa have contributed in creating the political and economic mess the country is drowning in; they are the problem and not the solution too!
In June 2014 the then President Mugabe described Professor Jonathan Moyo as "as the devil incarnate"
ReplyDelete“For now, just know that the period 1 Dec 2014 to 24 Nov 2017 was hell. On 8 Nov 2017, I drafted a resignation letter. I wanted out,” the same Moyo now tells us.
I will then to believe Zanu PF was hell so hot that the devil-incarnate himself wanted out!
Well when the G40 faction found itself out gunned on the fateful morning of 15 November 2017 the devil-incarnate ran away with his tail between his legs! He did not have time to draft another resignation letter then. As for Mugabe a resignation letter was drafted for him after a few days of refusing to sign it, he finally did!