The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accused Mnangagwa of having an
"infantile and embarrassing love of flying.”
Well if the truth is to be told Zimbabwe’s leaders’ love of the gravy
train extravagant lifestyle is insatiable and is so infections anyone in any
position of power and authority has the bug! It is all very well for Jacob Mafume
to be blubbering about about Mnangagwa’s “infantile and embarrassing love of
flying” and yet during the 2008 to 2013 GNU his party said nothing because all
the MDC leaders had their snouts in the feeding trough. Indeed, they were so
engrossed in the gravy train spoils of power they failed to implement even one
democratic reform!
Last year’s elections should have never taken place, not without first
implementing the democratic reform necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the
elections. Zanu PF was cunning enough to offer a few gravy train seats and all
the goodies that go with it as bait. The opposition candidates were tripping
over each other to join the rat race.
Even when it was evident that Zanu PF had failed to produce something as
basic as a verified voters’ roll, it was not going to force the glassy-eyed
opposition from contesting. Greed had everyone in the opposition camp
like fleas in a chicken coop.
“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,” confessed
David Coltart in his book The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in
Zimbabwe.
“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.”
David Coltart was a senior MDC-N leader and Minister in the 2008 to 2013
GNU. The flawed and illegal election process he was talking about was for the
2013 elections. It was greed that stopped him and his fellow opposition members
from doing “the obvious”.
Instead of admitting that it was greed that drove the opposition to go
for the gravy train scraps Zanu PF was offering at the expense of the all
important national goal of free, fair and credible elections; he offered a
feeble excuse. Blaming lack of unity and mistrust for their insatiable greed!
Indeed, the MDC factions did unite just before the 2018 elections and
there was no talk of boycotting the elections then. It was as clear as day that
Zanu PF was going to blatantly rig the 2018 elections as the party had rigged
the 2013 elections.
Many MDC members had lost their gravy train seats in the 2013 elections
and the intervening five years had turned their glassy-eyes into flaring
match-sticks. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was ever going to stop them
participating in the 2018 elections regardless how flawed and illegal! And
lo-behold, nothing did!
The MDC's Harare East MP Tendai Biti said on Twitter: "The usurper
declares two days of mourning. Our people did not require mourning, they
required effective disaster management. They required schools to be closed and
communities evacuated. This did not happen. Then the usurper has the indecency
of running away during mourning.”
Yes oh wise one but why are you so keen in bolting the stable when the
horse has already bolted. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs would not be in power
today if you and your MDC friends had implemented the reforms designed to stop
the regime rigging the elections.
Indeed the country would have made significant progress in forcing
Mnangagwa and his junta to step down since last year’s rigged elections was it
not for MDC confusing the issue with this stupid claim that Chamisa won the
presidential race. Of course, it is a stupid claim because everyone with half a
brain agrees the election process was flawed and illegal and therefore it is
nonsense for such a process to produce a legal result.
The only reason Chamisa has refused to give up this totally irrational
claim is greed. He does not care that 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora
were denied the vote (37%, give there were 5 million registered voters), there
was no verified voters' roll, etc. as long as he secured a gravy train
seat.
Every time MDC leaders read of Zanu PF leaders' extravagant lifestyle
their blood boils with envy. They only condemn the extravagance to please the
naive and gullible electorate who have failed to notice MDC leaders' greed even
after the events of the GNU years!
So instead of advising Mnangagwa and his corrupt and incompetent
ministers at every turn, especially when we all know they never listen to
anyone anyway; Tendai Biti should do something useful for a change - shut
up.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders
like David Coltart, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, etc. into power on the
understanding they will bring about the democratic changes the nation has been
dying for. After 19 years on the political stage MDC leaders have failed to
bring about even one meaningful democratic change. Not one!
Whilst MDC leaders were once seen as part of the solution they are now
part of the problem; they are corrupt and incompetent just as Mnangagwa and his
Zanu PF cronies are corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical.
The post-Robert Mugabe administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa fancies itself a new dispensation. That is a useless fantasy, of course. Things are as old in the "new" administration as they ever were, sometimes worse.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tawanda for the warning! Zanu PF is still the party of corrupt and murderous thugs, nothing has not changed.
I will say this for the umpteenth time, Zanu PF must be forced to step down, the party rigged last year's elections and therefore has no mandate to govern the country. If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023, the party will rig those elections and we will be in the same position we are in right now - stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime!
In its flagship report released Saturday, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said slowing economic growth, deteriorating terms of trade (as commodity prices fell), loosening fiscal policies and re-evaluation of cross-border risks in international financial markets have made debt servicing by African governments more difficult.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe, alongside Chad, Mozambique, South Sudan and Sudan, are in debt distress. Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central Africa Republic, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritania, São Tomé and Zambia have a high risk of debt distress.
Zimbabwe’s GDP has shrunk a great deal especially in the period 2000 to 2010 when the country’s agriculture and commerce and industry shrunk by 50 to 80%. It is little wonder the nation was unable to service’s loans and hence the debt distress. This was made worse by the country’s mountain of debt, Zanu PF had been borrowing and spending as if there was no tomorrow but with very little to show for it.
Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube has increased the tax base by introducing adding the 2% tax on all electronic transactions above $10, the jury is yet to decide whether this has increased the government revenue because the its introduction has also resulted in a 16% drop in economic activities.
The government should be looking at increasing GDP by reviving economic production as a way of increasing revenue. This is proving impossible whilst the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs! Zimbabwe needs meaningful political reform to end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Those, like Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube who think the country can achieve meaningful economic recovery whilst it remains a pariah state are naive!
“It is clear Mnangagwa would rather be anywhere else than be here at home, where people are crying out for leadership. Zimbabweans deserve a leader who will put them first,” said Jacob Mafume, MDC Alliance spokesperson.
ReplyDeleteWell said Comrade Mafume but will that do anything to get Mnangagwa and Zanu PF out of office? The answer is no. There is nothing of note that MDC has said or done for the last 19 years to end Zanu PF’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. The nation is desperate for solution(s) out of this hell and not more and more grandstanding rhetoric and posturing!
If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power until 2023, the party will rig those elections as readily as it rigged last year's elections. Our greatest challenge now is to make sure Zanu PF steps down a.s.a.p. to allow the nation the time and space to implement the reforms necessary to stop it rigging the next elections! Zimbabweans must now think seriously about how they are going to get Zanu PF to step down. We already know that Mnangagwa is corrupt, incompetent and, worst of all, that he will stop at nothing to rig elections and stay in power. If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power until 2023, the party will rig those elections as readily as it rigged last year's elections. Our greatest challenge now is to make sure Zanu PF steps down a.s.a.p. to allow the nation the time and space to implement the reforms necessary to stop it rigging the next elections!
Zimbabweans must now think seriously about how they are going to get Zanu PF to step down. We already know that Mnangagwa is corrupt, incompetent and, worst of all, that he will stop at nothing to rig elections and stay in power.
"The ZCTU is the one that organised the very successful shutdown, but then the authorities thought it was us the children who had organised that mistaking a child for the mother but I can tell you when we organise it will be bigger, it is true there were some people who became violent but that does not take away the people's right to demonstrate, unions world over are there to represent the people and the ZCTU did the right thing," said Chamisa.
ReplyDeleteApparently, in preparation for possible demonstrations Mnangagwa recently revealed that his government will acquire anti-riot gear for the police.
The Zanu-PF leader who only a fortnight ago confessed to having deployed the army that killed civilians on August 1 last year and in mid-January this year said he only deployed the feared military because the police were ill-equipped to contain the demonstrations, "the only people we can call in is the army to stop the destruction and bring law and order".
In a country with 90% unemployment rate, where basic services such as health care have all but completely collapsed, etc. the people have good reasons to be bitter. Whilst one readily acknowledges the need for the demos to press for meaningful economic change one is loathed to join MDC Alliance’s demos because they are NOT going to deliver any economic change.
Chamisa’s primary concern is to pressure Mnangagwa to give him a seat on the gravy train. He has not said how that will help revive the country’s economy, other than the suggestion that he and his MDC Alliance members have more economic acumen than the blundering Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies. MDC give the example of the economic recovery during the last GNU as proof of their competency in running the nation’s affairs.
The truth of the matter is the economic recovery during the 2008 GNU was largely due to the scrapping of the Z$, removal of price controls and a few other common sense policies. The economic recovery of 2008 cannot be repeated again because things are different.
The single most important impetus for meaningful economic recovery this time has to be the ending of the curse of rigging elections and pariah state. Including Chamisa in the pariah state will do nothing to change the character of the regime.
Neither Zanu PF nor MDC have a solution to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. The solution is for Zanu PF to step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the reforms for free and fair elections. Zanu PF and MDC had the chance to implement the said reforms during the 2008 GNU but failed to get even one reform implemented; it is naïve to think they will do so now.
A thematic committee of the political parties established to identify a mediator failed to reach consensus, and has advised Mnangagwa to "urgently convene a high-level meeting of political party leaders to resolve this impasse through consensus," the document says.
ReplyDeleteZimbabweans have become experts at wasting time. Mnangagwa’s inter-party dialogue is a waste of time just as his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a waste of time.
Investors had shied away from investing in Zimbabwe because the country was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. All Mnangagwa did in the November 2017 military coup was remove Mugabe, the top dog in the Zanu PF dictatorship, and replacing him with himself, Mugabe’s number two. For him to then believe that change was enough to open the flood gate of investors only showed how little he understood the problems in Zimbabwe. He is making the same foolish mistake again.
By blatantly rigging last year’s elections Mnangagwa has confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state. The idea that Zimbabwe will somehow cleanse itself of the pariah state status if it formed some unity government including the corrupt, incompetent and compromised opposition is laughable!
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, it is illegitimate. Forget the nonsense from the boastful Chamisa saying he will give Mnangagwa legitimacy. It is only the people of Zimbabwe in a free and fair election who can give legitimacy!
The only way out of this mess is for Zanu PF to step down and allow the nation to implement the democratic reforms leading to free, fair and credible elections.
Meanwhile, a Mauritius based firm, Afrigran Trading, has terminated its cereal supply contract with National Foods Limited (Natfoods) after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) failed to honour a US$55 million debt on behalf of the local agro-processing firm.
ReplyDeleteRBZ, which is battling a foreign currency crunch, assumed the debt after entering into an agreement with Natfoods, which paid the full amount owed to Afrigran Trading to RBZ.
This Zanu PF regime keeps saying that it is making progress and yet every indicator shows the country is nose-dive into the abyss. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the nose-dive into the abyss will continue because no investor will want to do business with thugs!
How ironic that the UN is stepping is to provide some welfare net to the very people that Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube targeted with his 2% electronic transaction tax because they were not paying income tax. No doubt, the Minister will, one way or the other, want a cut of the $9.00 these poor people are getting from the UN!
ReplyDelete