“President Emmerson Mnangagwa has officially announced oil and gas deposits discovery in Muzarabani, Mashonaland Central province, following a study carried out by an Australian company, Invictus Energy Limited,” reported Bulawayo 24.
"The government of Zimbabwe will work very closely with Invictus to ensure that the Invictus realises its plans to sink an exploration well by mid-2020. After exploration well, the next stage will be commercial exploitation of the resource," he said.
For Zimbabwe, just as happened in so many other countries notably DRC and Sierra Leone; the discovery of such key resources as oil, diamonds, etc. has often turned out to be a curse and not the blessing one expected. The discovery of oil and gas deposits in Muzarabani is a blessing but only if we act decisively to make sure it does not become another curse!
The discovery of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa in 2004/5 only served to re-energise Zanu PF thugs and harden their resolve to hang-on to power at all cost. The prospect of losing political power in the 2008 elections and lose control of the diamond wealth that was just coming on stream was unthinkable.
Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party lost the March 2008 vote to Morgan Tsvangirai’s tally of 73%, according to Mugabe’s Freudian slip. Zanu PF thugs under the leadership of none other than the now President Mnangagwa, order ZEC to recount the votes. After six weeks Tsvangirai’s vote was whittled down to 47%, enough to force a run-off.
Zanu PF thugs, once again under the leadership of Mnangagwa, set out to harass, beat, rape and even kill innocent Zimbabwe; to punish the people for having rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March vote and to make sure they voted for Mugabe in the June run-off.
Mugabe secured an 84% landslide victory and Zanu PF retained its strangle hold on political power and the nation’s wealth and resources, including the diamonds. Over the years Zanu PF ruling elite and the party - money to bankroll it varied and expensive vote rigging and vote buying schemes - have benefited greatly from the discovery of diamonds in Marange.
Of course, the discovery of Marange diamonds have been a curse to Zimbabwe; only a tiny fraction of the wealth from diamond has been used for the common good, the rest has gone into the deep pockets of the ruling elite hardening they resolve to keep the de facto one-party dictatorship at all cost.
When President Mnangagwa staged last November’s military coup to seize power from his former boss, Robert Mugabe, the new regime promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. This was too good to be true considering he and his coup plotters were the same individuals who state the 2008 coup to stop Tsvangirai and MDC getting into power.
No one was really surprised that Mnangagwa and his junta blatantly rigged the 30 July 2018 elections. No one!
By rigging the elections Mnangagwa was assured Zanu PF’s iron grip on power was guaranteed. But the assurance came at a price, by rigging the elections he confirmed Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. This has scarred away the much needed investors and lenders, no one wants to do business with corrupt and vote rigging thugs.
Ever since the 30 July 2018 elections, the Zimbabwe economy has taken one knock after another, the country is facing serious shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel, medicine, etc. The regime has responded by going full throttle after forex dealers, has lifted importation of food and other goods, etc. But nothing to stimulate local production to create the much needed employment opportunities and reduce the pressure imports.
Unemployment is a nauseating 90%, most basic services like the supply of clean water and health care have all but collapsed, 75% of the population are living on US$1.00 or less and, worse still, things are set to get worse!
What is now crystal clear is there is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state. What is also clear is that as long as Zanu PF remains in office to the next elections, the party will rig those elections just as readily as it has rigged elections these last 38 years.
The pressure on President Mnangagwa to step down since they rigged the 30 July 2018 and are, per se, illegitimate has been growing. The discovery of oil and gas reserves in Zimbabwe is one piece of good news to the nation, no doubt President Mnangagwa wanted to announce the news himself.
Whilst the worsening economic situation has piling the pressure on the Zanu PF regime to resign, the oil and gas discovery has just re-energised the regime to hang on to power with renews hope and resolve.
The Zanu PF thugs have been singing “THE GOOD TIMES ARE HERE AGAIN!” at the top of their voices! Talk to anyone of these thugs about implementing democratic reforms and holding free, fair and credible elections and they will fall-off the chair laughing.
Zimbabwe has oil and gas reserves and all hope of forcing Zanu PF to step down to allow the country to implement the democratic reforms and hold our first ever free, fair and credible elections is as good as dead.
Zanu PF will now believe the country will use the wealth from oil and gas to finance all the country’s economic activities without the party risking losing power in a free, fair and credible elections.
In practice, a Zanu PF regime that is NOT democratically accountable to the people will take the lion’s share of the wealth generated from the oil and gas to feed the insatiable appetite of the party ruling elite and use the rest to bankroll the party’s devilish vote rigging and vote buying schemes. This is what has happened to the wealth from the diamonds and exactly the same will happen to the wealth from oil and gas.
If people think it has been hard to force Zanu PF to dismantle the de facto one-party state the nation has suffered and many have died unnecessarily these last 38 years. Ever since the party had the billions looted from Marange diamonds, the task of dismantling Zanu PF became significantly harder. The task will not become any easier should the de facto one party state still be there when the money from oil and gas start to flow.
The discovery of oil and gas should be cause for all Zimbabweans to celebrate but only if the resources will be used for the good of all Zimbabweans and not the few ruling elite, as happened with the diamonds. If there was ever a time when Zimbabweans must unite and speak with one voice it is now.
Our demand is simple: We demand a new system of government in which the freedoms and rights of all, including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life, are guaranteed. We demand the full implementation of all the democratic reforms agree at the on set of the 2008 GNU.
Unless there is democratic reform in Zimbabwe the discovery of the oil and gas will be a blessing to the corrupt and tyrannical ruling elite and a curse to the oppressed and voiceless povo! We have duty to ourselves and posterity to put this abomination right!
There are stories in the social media suggesting the discovery is all a lie. The Australian company behind the exploration is just a bunch of people out to fleece the gullible Zimbabwe government. Mnangagwa and company swallowed the story of the discovery because the regime is desperate for a bit of good news and something to cheer about.
ReplyDeletePresident Mnangagwa promised to deal with the problem of corruption there is no sign to suggest the wholesale looting taking place in Marange and Chiadzwa has stopped. He promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and again he has failed to deliver.
It seems he has announced the oil and gas discovery prematurely. This is just one more promise he has made that will come to nothing.
The truth is President Mnangagwa is turning out to be a big disappointment, like many other tyrants he has never doubted his own ability to deliver economic prosperity only to deliver the exact opposite. The spirit is willing but the intellect is clearly weak!
The challenge is for us to end the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship that has left the nation sandalled with one feeble minded tyrant after another. We want a system that allows everyone to have a meaningful say on who governs the country.
@ Nqaba Matshazi
ReplyDelete“One of the issues that has dominated the Zimbabwe political landscape for a while is the matter of sanctions, with campaigners for their removal saying they are holding back Zimbabwe, but I argue this is nothing but a red herring from people who really do not want to confront the biggest problem that the country is facing,” you wrote.
“Sanctions are inherently bad and must be condemned. But there is a context and calling for the removal of sanctions without addressing why they were put in place in the first place is akin to treating symptoms, a disingenuous exercise.
“The worst sanctions that Zimbabwe faces are inflicted by the government s inaction when it comes to fully implementing the constitution.
“America also wants Zimbabwe to hold an immediate inquiry into the disappearance of prominent human rights activists such as Patrick Nabanyama, Itai Dzamara, and Paul Chizuze.
“Can anyone tell me what is wrong with these demands? I hear some saying we are a sovereign nation and America cannot dictate to us what to do, and so is America, a sovereign nation which can choose who to deal with and who not to conduct business with.
“These are legitimate demands, which are enshrined in our constitution, but surprisingly those that want sanctions removed are mum about such violations of our constitution.
“If Zimbabwe is serious about the removal of sanctions, then it knows what it has to do, instead of hollow pronouncements that in the end count for nothing.
“The worst form of sanctions that Zimbabwe suffers from is the failure by its own government to uphold the rule of law and implement the constitution.
“As any person would know, any strategist would say let s deal with what is in our control first and then take on external factors next. Instead, we are more preoccupied with external issues instead of putting our house in order.”
Thank you for the excellent article. One hopes that there are a few more rational individuals like you; if so then there is hope of Zimbabwe pulling itself out of the hell-hole Zanu PF landed us in.
One of the key democratic reforms Zimbabwe has been crying to be implemented is the one designed to deliver freedom of expression and ensuring we has a free and independent media. Our people have been brainwashed so much so they have failed to see the common sense of addressing “what is in our control first and then take on external factors next”, as you put it.
Zanu PF propaganda has left the people so thoroughly brainwashed they have often completely failed to recognise nothing else other than the external factors. It is common to hear people complaining about how sanctions are responsible for the country’s economic meltdown; they will not even accept that mismanagement and corruptions have played a part.
Sanctions were imposed in 2001 and by then the country’s economy was clearly in trouble because we had already had the two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes starting in 1990. Such basic facts go in one ear and out the next without even leaving as much as a footprint in the brain-dead Zimbabweans.
It is very disappointing when people like Strive Masiyiwa, some one people expect to have some working grey stuff between his ears, focus on sanctions as the big issue and says nothing about political reforms.
@ Conway Tutani
ReplyDeleteThe Zimbabwe you are talking about is not the real Zimbabwe we know!
“It’s now up to those supporters to open their eyes and see for themselves that what they are being told is at variance with the reality on the ground which shows political freedom has been greatly broadened —as observed not only by Masiyiwa, but even by the international community. But this should not be confused with having a free-for-all fight with no rules and no limits,” you say.
“To quote civil rights lawyer Zechariah Chafee, "the right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins", meaning your freedom ends where my freedom begins, that you cannot have the freedom to do whatever you want — like openly calling for rebellion using all sorts of gratuitous insults — and then cry foul when you are arrested”
The EU, the Americans and all the nations with a history of holding free, fair and credible elections have all condemned Zimbabwe’s recent elections. No one cares what a countries like China said on the matter since they do not hold free and fair democratic elections. So which international community has “observed the greatly broadened political freedoms” in Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Zimbabwe, under Mnangagwa, is still a pariah state ruled, except for Mugabe and a few who were booted out, by the same corrupt and vote rigging thugs!
38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule has left 75% of our people living in abject poverty and hopeless despair. The nation has been pushed right up to the edge of the precipice; this is socially and politically unsustainable; the danger of total economic collapse and riots breaking out to protest the heartbreaking suffering is real and eminent.
We must stop burying our heads in the sand and pretend, given time, the Zanu PF dictatorship will finally deliver economic recovery after 38 years of doing the exact opposite! Whilst people like Masiyiwa can afford to give Mnangagwa a chance the millions living on US$1.00 or less a day cannot afford it, time has long run out for them.
I admire your passion! But if we are serious about getting out of the mess we are in we will need to step up our game beyond passion.
ReplyDeletePeople must understand HOW Zanu PF rigged the recent elections, for example, and not just say the elections were rigged!
Yes, it is good to get people out on the streets to say: "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" It is even better if these people have a clear idea what they want to happen next if Mnangagwa was to resign!
German ambassador to Zimbabwe, Thorsten Hutter, has revealed that his country is ready to engage with Zimbabwe, calling on government to reduce its budget deficit in order to boost investor confidence.
ReplyDeleteHe said the government’s excessive spending does not aspire investor confidence.
Reducing budget deficit; hold free, fair and credible elections; pay off debt arrears; restore the rule of law; these are some of the many things Zanu PF must do to restore investor confidence. The only realistic hope of having these things done properly is for President Mnangagwa and his junta to step down and allow the appointment of an interim administration to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
In 1979 Ian Smith accepted the game was up and negotiated to end the civil war and a peaceful transition from white colonial rule to black majority rule. Mnangagwa should know the game is up for him since he rigged the elections but cannot rig economic recovery. Sadly one cannot expect Mnangagwa to accept stepping down given his Colonel Gaddafi mentality of hanging on to power to the bitter end.
The longer Mnangagwa hangs on to power the bitter the end will be!
Well done Zimeye for you part in exposing the true facts behind this oil and gas story. We clearly have a regime that is so desperate for some good news there is a real danger it will conned into wasting millions of dollars on a wild goose chase.
ReplyDelete