Here is the thing, MDC Alliance members went into the 2018 elections knowing that Zanu PF would rig the elections; they did not mind that as long as they won a few gravy train seats. They did win a few seats but have since realised that they could use the country’s worsening economic situation to demand more of the spoils of power from Zanu PF.
They want the country to have a new GNU in which MDC Alliance will hold ministerial posts.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” Nelson Chamisa said repeatedly. He was dismissing those calling for reforms to be implemented before the 2018 elections.
MDC Alliance participated in the elections even when ZEC failed to release a verified voters’s roll, a legal and a common-sense basic requirement -proof of their resolve to take part in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process. David Coltart admitted of this blind greedy stopping the MDC leaders doing the obvious thing!
In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe,former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, admitted that Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules and it clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. He agreed that boycott the elections was the logical thing to do but the two MDC factions ended up participating because they could not trust each other to do the right thing.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
The main MDC factions did come together to form the MDC Alliance before the 2018 elections and still they participated in the elections regardless of the flaws and illegalities.
Beside to boycott the elections in such a case will have to be out of principles and MDC leaders are not a principled lot.
Tendai Biti is one of the MDC Alliance who did win some of the gravy train seats Zanu PF gave away as bait. He should be happy but he is not.
Tendai Biti is one MDC Alliance who is taking full advantage of the country’s worsen economic situation to push Mnangagwa to form a GNU and thus secure for himself a ministerial position.
“Thanks to Emmerson and that terrible iniquity known as #ZANU this year’ s Christmas is stolen and hijacked. The citizen has no cash, no fuel, no basic commodities, not even sodas or cordials.Things were terrible under #Mugabe but Emmerson has redefined#StateFailure .He is #failure itself,” tweeted Biti.
I am sure a few Zimbabweans will remember 2008 when there was nothing in the shops and commerce and industry had ground to a halt as the country reeled under 500 billion per cent hyperinflation, price controls, etc.
Being asked to say which year was worse is like being asked which is worse a broken hand or a broken leg. Why should we ever have to suffer!
Comparing Mugabe and Mnangagwa is yet another meaningless nonsense. Zimbabwe’s economic collapse started far back in 1980 and been a stead but relentless decline for the last 38 years. Of course things were “better” last year, 2017, than they are this year, 2018 just as they were better in 2016 than in 2017. This is as one would expect in an economic trajectory of stead decline.
Robert Mugabe inherited from Ian Smith a prosperous nation with a robust economy, with a good industrial infrastructure, a very productive agricultural sector, etc. Zimbabwe had the potential to be the South Korea of Africa. But after 20 years or so of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness the country fell from its prised perch of being the breadbasket of the region to become the basket case of a failed state. We are starving in a country which is for all practical purposes the Garden of Eden!
Whilst Mugabe inherited from Smith the seven fat cows and the seven fat ears of grain and loads of other riches beside. Mnangagwa inherited one thin cow that was all skin and bones. Tendai Biti is calling Mnangagwa “#failure itself” but praised Mugabe to the high heaven. He called the tyrant “unflappable father of the nation and fountain of all wisdom”. Why?
Tendai Biti is desperate to secure a ministerial seat and is stopping at nothing to pressure Mnangagwa to form a new GNU!
The truth of the matter is the last GNU served Biti and his fellow MDC friends well. They secured ministerial posts complete with the generous salaries, limos, a $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, a farm formerly owned by a white farmer for Welshman Ncube, etc.
The GNU was a total failure for the ordinary Zimbabweans in that not even one of the raft of democratic reforms agreed at the onset were implemented hence the reason the 2013 elections were not free, fair and credible - the principle task the GNU was supposed to resolve.
The new GNU Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa and the rest in the MDC Alliance are gunning for will not implement any of the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible. If they failed to get any reforms implemented last time, when SADC had Zanu PF’s hands tied behind their back after Mugabe was forced to sign the Global Political Agreement, what hope is there now when Zanu PF is calling all the shots.
The nation needs the raft of reforms implemented to progress out of this political and economic mess. What is clear is that the nation must appoint a new team, excludes both Zanu PF and MDC leaders involved in the last GNU, to implement the reforms.
Mnangagwa is “#failure itself” true but so was Mugabe and you too Mr Biti and Nelson Chamisa, etc. Hence the reason none of you can be in the new GNU to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections in 2023 and beyond.
Each one of us each generation is presented with its own set of challenges in life. What makes the individual or generation a success or a failure, "#failure itself" as Tendai Biti would put it is how they performed to the set challenges.
ReplyDeleteIn 1980 the challenge for Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs was to take Zimbabwe forward and make it the South Korea of Africa.
“After 20 years or so of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness the country fell from its prised perch of being the breadbasket of the region to become the basket case of a failed state. We are starving in a country which is for all practical purposes the Garden of Eden!” as you rightly pointed out.
Fearful of losing their strangle hold on power the Zanu PF liberation heroes turned to thuggery denying the people their freedoms, human rights, hopes and dreams - the very things the nation had fought hard and long to wrestle from the white colonial oppressors.
Of course, Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leaders and foolish followers are a total failure.
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the promise they would deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for. The party was named Movement for Democratic Change, to underline its primary and immediate objective. After 19 years on the political stage, MDC has failed to bring about even one democratic change.
During the 2008 to 2013 GNU MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and end Zanu PF dictatorship. Instead of implementing the reforms Biti & co. were busy enjoying the gravy train trappings of power - they had fallen into Mugabe’s trap.
So Biti & co. are indeed another bunch of #failures!
The challenge before us today is to have the common sense to acknowledge that both Zanu PF and MDC leaders are failures, the courage to tell them to step down from public office which they are fraudulently occupying and vision to chart out a way out of this mess and build a just, free and prosperous nation.
As much as $2 to 5 billion dollars of diamonds are being looted in Zimbabwe every year. Enough to bankroll the nation’s economic recovery without having to resort to borrowing.The potential for Zimbabwe to still be the South Korea of Africa is there, what is lacking is the common sense, courage and vision to seize the opportunity and make it happen.
Economist Joseph Kanyenze said 2019 could be a lost year if Zimbabwe’s main political parties fail to talk to each other, and have a social contract to deal with the current crisis.
ReplyDelete“Even if people are not mobilised you could see social unrest. Workers can down tools, yes, because of the loss of value in their salaries, but that will not be a solution, dialogue for a social contract will bring us out of this crisis,” he said.
“We have been doing the wrong things for a long time so we are not going to come from gloom to glory overnight. Remember, re-engagement will only happen after we settle our obligations and reforms. And we are also facing a drought that will make things worse,” he said.
Kanyenze said Zanu PF and MDC needed to talk with each other and also heal fissures in their respective parties.
“Unfortunately, the current government is a continuation of the past; we are not seeing anything meaningful in terms of reforms,” he said.
One of the tragedies of our failed political system is that it has brainwashed everyone into believing that the nation is totally helpless without the political leaders. Instead of seeing the politicians for whom they really are; corrupt and incompetent and murderous tyrants whose failed leadership have dragged the nation into this hell-on-earth.
The brainwashed populous see the politicians as the only people who will get the nation out of the hell-hole. They are so single track-minded they never ask who landed them into the hell-hole. If the politicians were as clever as they claim then why did they drag the nation into the hell-hole, in the first place.
Yes Kanyenze, Zimbabwe is in real danger of total economic collapse causing serious social and/or political instability. But why you still think the same Zanu PF and MDC leaders, who have already proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent, who landed us in the mess will get us out beggars belief!
“As Consultants we find the situation at the public health institutions no longer tenable. We stand with the Junior doctors in seeking a speedy resolution of these matters.”
ReplyDeleteIf the truth be told, the situation is the whole country and not just the public health institutions is no longer tenable. And it all all stems from the country’s repeated failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
If the Senior Doctors, Engineers and all the other professionals out there had been paying attention, as all concerned and diligent citizens should, then they would have noticed that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the recent elections. This is not the first time Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections, the party has rigged elections for the last 38 years.
The nation has rewarded Zanu PF for rigging elections by allowed the party to enjoy absolute power. We have paid dearly for this and the nation must now wake up to this reality and do something about it. We want to see everyone focusing on end the cursed culture of rigged elections as the only real solution to ending the political and economic crisis gripping the nation!
What would a new GNU between the same corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF and MDC leaders accomplish given they failed to get even one reform implemented in the 2008 to 2013 GNU? It is not just Mnangagwa and Chamisa who are single track minded many ordinary Zimbabweans are single track minded too!
ReplyDeleteLike it or not Zanu PF and MDC leader are corrupt and incompetent and they are the one who dragged us into this mess. People who believe the same idiots will get us out of the mess are themselves idiots! We are in this mess because we have become a nation of idiots stuck in a rut and we are not even smart enough to notice we stuck!
"We want dialogue! We want dialogue!" That is all some people can think about and yet have not stop to ask what the dialogue will accomplish!
The root cause of Zimbabwe's political and economic mess is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and it is high time the nation started looking for a wholistic solution instead of a me, here and now type solutions.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa and his junta rigged the recent elections, they are illegitimate and so must step down. They continued stay in power must be seen for what it is; Zanu PF thugs are holding the nation to ransom!
As for Chamisa and his MDC Alliance friends they should have implemented the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections when they had the chance to do so. They wasted the many chances to do so and hence the reason the nation is stuck in this mess. What Chamisa and friends are after is a new GNU and a seat on the gravy train. They will never implement any meaningful reforms. They must step aside and shut up!
What Zimbabwe needs is to appoint an interim administration to be entrusted the task of implementing the democratic reforms and holding the nation's first free, fair and credible elections.
@ Spotlight Zimbabwe
ReplyDeleteYes Zimbabwe has the potential to be a rich and prosperous nation "if we sham" corruption. We that is a big IF especially for a nation in which corruption has been allowed to thrive and spread and is now lord of the castle!
Zanu PF has access to as much as $4 billion of looted wealth to bankroll its political activities designed to keep the party's strangle hold on power. The opposition will be lucky to raise $4 million! It is no contest.
If Zanu PF is allowed to get away with the rigged elections for a year or two, the scramble for lithium may force many nations to forget Zanu PF is illegitimate, there is a real danger of Zimbabwe being stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for generations to come!
USA dropping sanctions on Zimbabwe would signal the end of our fight for a democratic Zimbabwe. We would have lost the fight!
During the last GNU many people started to question why MDC leaders were not implementing the democratic reforms. "Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC people have learned to enjoy gravy train lifestyle, they will not rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF members. Events proved them right, MDC leaders failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years. NOT EVEN ONE!
ReplyDeleteIf President Ramaphosa does not need his "fountain of wisdom", just common sense to know setting up another GNU with the same corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF and MDC leaders playing even a minor role would be a complete wast of time and resources! Once Chamisa and his MDC Alliance friends have secured their seats back on the gravy train, they will not rock the boat! NEVER!
The economic situation in Zimbabwe is dire and the nation needs a solution to take it out of this mess. Appointing Zanu PF and MDC into another GNU will be kicking the can down the street and the country does not have the time to waste on such luxuries