“African
election observers and others endorsed Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s victory, while
Western observers, mainly the Americans and Europeans, were skeptical, stopping
short of rejecting the outcome,” said Dumisani Muleya, The Zimbabwe Independent
Editor, in his editorial comment.
Mr
Editor, you are wrong on both counts!
Both SADC
and AU did not “endorse Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s victory”. What their respective
election observer teams did was confined their comments to the “peaceful
campaign period including voting day”. They were very care not to mention such
glaring flaws and illegalities as the failure by ZEC to produce something as
basic as the verified voters’ roll, the blatant cheating in adding up the votes,
the shooting of civilians on 1st August which was clearly meant to
cower the populous to stop all protests against yet another rigged election,
etc.
Other
elections observers also noted the relative peace in this year’s elections
compared to the wanton violence of say the 2008 elections. They also reported
the glaring flaws and irregularities. The Americans, Canadians, the
Commonwealth, the EU and almost every other observer said the elections were “biased,
unfair, playing field was not level” and, most important of all, that the
process “failed to meet acceptable international standards”. That is just diplomatic
language for the elections were rigged and therefore Mnangagwa and Zanu PF have
no mandate to govern the country.
President
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate, period.
It is not
for SADC, the AU or anyone else in the international community to spell this
out everything to us that Zanu PF is illegitimate and much less what should happens
next. We must figure that one out for ourselves, admit it and, most important
of all, decide what to do about it.
Are we
going to bury our heads in the sand, as we have always done and pretend the elections
were free, fair and credible and reward Zanu PF with absolute power as before? Or
are we going to finally end the insanity of the last 38 years, admit the
elections were rigged and, for once, hold Zanu PF to account for this
treasonous act?
“All the
while, Mnangagwa and his administration have come up with austerity measures to
halt the economic tailspin. However, diplomats, from the West and East alike,
say Mnangagwa’s reform agenda is all foam and no beer!” continue Muleya.
“This is
where talks come in. The involvement of former Kenyan chief justice Dr Willy
Mutunga, as we exclusively report in this edition, is opportune.
“Zimbabwe
needs dialogue and a healing process. The form and content of the talks as well
as the ultimate objective can always be discussed.”
Could not
agree with you more, Dumisani; the Zanu PF’s economic policies and programmes are
indeed empty rhetoric with no substance. The regime is blundering from pillar
to post and meanwhile the country’s economic meltdown is getting worse and
worse, dragging the nation closer and closer to the edge of the precipitous
abyss.
Yes the
country needs “talks” but not the talks to get Mnangagwa and Chamisa to talk to
each other!
We want
talks to come up with the roadmap to get Zimbabwe out of the political and
economic mess the nation is stuck in. It is naïve, to say the least to expect
Mnangagwa and Chamisa to come up with anything useful. They are the ones who
landed us in the mess in the first place, for Pete’s sake!
Lest we
forget, the same Zanu PF and MDC leaders were key players in the 2008 to 2013
GNU, SADC gave them a roadmap to end Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections. All they
had to do was implemented the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu
PF rigging elections. They failed to get even one reform was implemented in
five years.
What the
people of Zimbabwe need right now is the courage to confront and confound the
country’s demons. The only dialogue the nation needs with Mnangagwa and his Zanu
PF thugs is to tell they rigged the recent elections, they have no mandate to
rule and therefore they must step down. Any attempt to hang on to power will
only be viewed as holding the nation to ransom and will not be tolerated. What
happens next is for others to decide not them!
The only
dialogue with Chamisa and his corrupt and incompetent MDC Alliance friends is
to ask them to step aside. It will not be amiss to remind them that they owe
the nation an apology for selling-out and failing to implement any democratic
reforms. The nation owes them nothing much less the gravy train spoils they have
been hungering for these last four months!
The country must then swiftly move on and put
together a team of Zimbabweans assisted by SADC, AU and UN Officials who will
then be tasked to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed at the onset
of the 2008 GNU leading to the country holding its first ever free, fair and
credible elections.
“Re-engagement to end isolation, pay debts and arrears and get new funding, besides rebuilding foreign, trade and investment relations will require political legitimacy and stability, and a clear and consistent policy reform agenda,” said the diplomat.
ReplyDelete“In this environment, this is not possible, hence we are saying the Zimbabwean government and President Mnangagwa must realise that dialogue and consensus are now a sine qua non for recovery, growth and progress. This can’t be avoided anymore, unless, of course, Zimbabwe is to be allowed to slide backwards into the abyss with disastrous consequences. Leadership is needed to take the country forward. That means putting the national interest above individual and party political considerations.”
This 100% correct. What the visiting Kenyan Judge is failing to understand is that neither Mnangagwa nor Chamisa will ever play a constructive role in defining the roadmap out of the mess Zimbabwe is in. The two and their respective parties are the ones who dragged us into this mess; it is naïve to expect them to know how to get us out.
Zimbabweans need the courage and foresight to confront and confound the demons amongst them. We need to tell both Zanu PF and MDC leaders it is time for them to go. They have over stayed for any good they have done to the nation. They must step down and go! What is to happen to the nation next is for others to decide, not them!
It is ironic that someone should be wasting time blaming sanctions for Zimbabwe's poverty and yet has said nothing about the real cause of poverty - corruption. The country has been swindled of $15 billions of diamond revenue and three years since Mugabe admitted this still not one person has been arrested.
ReplyDeleteDoes Wutaunashe agree that Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections?
Many Zimbabweans approved sanctions before independence as a means to force Smith to accept meaningful change. So what has changed now?
I do agree with the pastor who asked why Zimbabweans in the diaspora are being asked to sign a petition to have the sanctions on the Zanu PF regime lifted when the same regime has just denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote!
ReplyDelete"As I speak to you now there are changes that are happening in the Zimpapers stable. You are going to see people like Jorum Gumbo and Tichaona Zindoga elevated. These people are supported by Amai (Monica) Mutsvangwa. The plot is that they will twist the editorial policy to create a narrative that gives acres of space to a transitional authority and bit by bit close out the presidential activities done by the President. So it's a well thought out plan that Chris is pushing to advance himself to become the President one day.”
ReplyDeleteAs for “bit by bit closing out the presidential activities done by the President” no one is doing a better job of that than Mnangagwa himself! The man has blundered from pillar to post and in his year in office has not done anything of note. The man is corrupt, incompetent and a ruthless tyrant and, like all brain-dead tyrants, is blissfully unaware of his own serious shortcomings and sees himself as a great leader with great insight, God’s gift to Zimbabwe.
In short, he is just an arrogant fool masquerading as a genius. Intellectually Mnangagwa is nothing more than Hans Christian Andersen’s Emperor in the tale "The Emperor's New Clothes”.
Yes, the country needs a transition authority to take it out of this nightmare. If that new authority is going to be led by the likes of Chris Mutsvangwa then nothing will change because we would have removed one idiot only to replace him with another.
Zimbabwe needs to think outside the box and stop recycling deadwood.
"What the people of Zimbabwe need right now is the courage to confront and confound the country's demons. The only dialogue the nation needs with Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs is to tell they rigged the recent elections, they have no mandate to rule and therefore they must step down. Any attempt to hang on to power will only be viewed as holding the nation to ransom and will not be tolerated. What happens next is for others to decide not them!"
ReplyDelete"Courage to confront and confound" our demons! We are talking of a people who would rather be frog matched into the deepest hell than stand up and confront those frog matching them. Indeed, many of them will be fuming at you, the messenger, for telling them some home truths they do not want to hear.
I would say at least 90% of the Zimbabweans out there KNOW that Zanu PF rigged the recent elections and yet the overwhelming majority of them are pretending they do not know that because that way, they do not have to worry about what are they doing to do about it.
38 years of rigged elections and being stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime has certainly taken its toll on the nation; the economic is in total ruins and the people have been reduced to medieval serfs forever grovelling to their overbearing landlords, Zanu PF.
In the long run, the people do get the government their deserve. Zimbabweans certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties, now numbering over 100!
Tell Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs to step down! How many Zimbabweans out there would have the courage to tell that to Chamisa and his corrupt and incompetent sell-outs, let alone Ngwena? I salute you for putting it down in black and white for all to read! As you can see only a few even dare to comment!
@ Bekithemba Ncube
ReplyDelete“Patrick is right. If these MDC guys were genuine, they would have assisted to open the industry so that the US$ we are using is supported. Instead they enjoyed ministerial benefits and looting and forgot their mandate. Both these groups must just give way to a transitional authority.”
The suggestion of Zanu PF and MDC leaders forming the transition authority is absurd! The very fact that this is what the Kenyan judge is proposing only goes to show what a shallow minded idiot he is.
Most people dismissed the 2008 and 2013 GNU as doomed to fail because both Zanu PF and MDC leaders had already proven to be corrupt and incompetent, hence the reason the western nations refuse to lift the targeted sanctions. Those who had given the GNU an outside chance of getting the reforms implemented did so on the strength that SADC leaders were the guarantor of the agreement and had some supervisory role.
This new transition authority will have Zanu PF and MDC and no SADC! Only a fool would expect that lot to accomplish anything!