"Doctors' strike is over" boasted First Lady - until husband steps down, more are coming P Guramatunhu

Striking junior doctors have agreed to go back to work after meeting First Lady, Auxilia Mnangagwa. 

“Pavavona mai zvinhu zvafamba. Vati mama zvakaoma hazvo asi todzokera kubasa. Vati vachakambaira kusvikira hufumi hwenyika hwanaka. Ini zvavandiudza ndichando kumbira kuvakuru ndakavamirira!” (When the junior doctors saw me things went well! They told me of their economic hardships and lack of equipment. They have agreed to end the strike and return to work. They agreed to suffer whilst they wait for economic recovery. I will pass on their requests to government leaders on their behalf!) said First Lady. 

If this was not a life and death matter, people are indeed dying like flies because the country's health care has long collapsed; one would fall off the chair laughing. 

What is laughable is Mrs Mnangagwa and the whole Zanu PF regime should continue to insult our intelligence repeating the lie the party going to finally deliver economic prosperity after 38 years and counting of doing the exact opposite! When Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, the country was a middle income nation with a robust economy and potential to be the South Korea of Africa. After 25 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness under Zanu PF tyrannical rule, the country was the poorest nation in Africa. And ever since the economic meltdown has got worse and worse!

The people of Zimbabwe have been painful aware that Zanu PF was bringing mass poverty instead of mass prosperity the party never tired of promising. Still the nation were unable to remove the regime from office because the party blatantly rigged the elections. 

Following the November 2017 military coup that removed Mugabe from power, Mnangagwa, who took over as the new president, promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. He failed to keep his promise; Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 30 July 2018 elections just as the party had done in the past. 

As much as Mnangagwa and the other Zanu PF leaders would want the nation to believe that the November 2017 transformed Zanu PF and Zimbabwe; this is just cheap propaganda. Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. 

The country’s economy is not going to accomplish any meaningful recovery, much less prosper, as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state. Ever since the rigged July 2018 elections, the country has experiences serious shortages of cash, foreign currency, fuel, food, etc. - proof of the worsening economic meltdown.

Auxilia Mnangagwa did not meet the striking doctors because she is concerned about their economic well-being or the health needs of the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans. She knows by now that her “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call of a year ago has failed to bring the flood of local and foreign investors. 

Indeed, she has been careful to promise the doctors short term hardship for long term prosperity. The regime vision 2030 offers middle income status. This is a familiar tactic by the regime the people are asked to endure heart-breaking hardship in return for a mirage! 

The real reason the First Lady met the doctors and is as keen as mustard to end the strike is because the strike and talks on more to come are posing a real pressure of her husband and Zanu PF’s hold on power. She knows that the party rigged last year’s elections. She also knows that most of the international elections observers have condemned the elections as “unfair and failed to meet international standards”! The worsening economic situation is increasing the pressure on the regime to step down and end her reign as First Lady. 

If First Lady Mnangagwa believes the doctor’s strike is the last labour and social unrest Zanu PF will have to deal with; then she is more naive than I thought. After 38 years of being promised economic prosperity by Zanu PF only to get the opposite, the nation’s patience was finally reached breaking point! 

Zanu PF has rigged elections in the past and got away with it. Not this time!For the good of the country, this illegitimate Zanu PF regime must step down and, in the end, the regime will be forced to step down.