“If any members or structures of the party have any grievances, the
laid-out rules, regulations and procedures must be followed,” Mnangagwa told
his Zanu PF Youth League members.
“As you carry out both your political and development programmes you
must be wary of those with brute, unbridled ambition and political gladiators.”
What “laid-out rules, regulations and procedures” were followed in
booting Joice Mujuru and her supporters out of Zanu PF in 2014 to say nothing
of the military coup that ousted Robert Mugabe and his G40 faction in 2017?
Chief Justice George Chiweshe judged the November 2017 coup
"justified, legal and constitutional"! He opened the Pandora's box
and so the next coup will be justified, legal and constitutional too! So what
is there for Mnangagwa to fear from just another legal and justified coup!
“Dindigwe rinofara richizvuva rimwe kana iro rozvuviwa roti avara angu
azaravhu.” (The cheetah enjoys dragging others but when it is being dragged it
will complain that its spots are being soiled!) as one would say in Shona.
There is rebellion in the air and our cheetah in State House was good
reason to be worried. There are political gladiators who are after his job!
“The game is all but over for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s young
presidency, as hardline army generals are reportedly said to have read the riot
act to him, over a sheaf of serious issues caused by his leadership seen as
compromising national security, resulting in Mnangagwa allegedly offering to
step down to avoid a flood of political chaos in the country,” reported
Spotlight Zimbabwe.
“Chief among the generals concerns based on military intelligence
findings, is Mnangagwa’s failure to fix the economy, which they believe is
likely to cause “the mother of all civil revolts” in the country’s history.”
No one can dispute that Zimbabwe’s economy is not in a serious mess. The
country’s productive sectors have all but collapsed sending unemployment rates
soaring into the stratosphere of 90%. Basic services such as supply of clean
water, working sewage systems, health care, etc. have all but completely
collapsed. There is no doubt that Zimbabwe’s economic situation is politically,
morally and socially unsustainable.
Indeed, it was the fear of “the mother of all civil revolts” and the
consequence of Zanu PF losing its iron grip on power that spurred Mnangagwa and
his fellow coup plotters to stage the November 2017 coup to ouster Mugabe.
It is now one year and half since the coup and the country’s economy is
in a worse state now than it was during Mugabe’s days. Like it or not
Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call has failed to bring
in the flood of investors, he promised. His Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli
Ncube, with all his rocket science policies, theories and thesis has clearly failed
to tame inflation and poverty which are now growing in leaps and bounce.
The fear of civil revolt to protest the worsen economic situation is
real and justified.
Still, Mnangagwa or those planning to have him replace must be allowed
to remain in power till 2023 for four good reasons:
1.
As far as the Zanu
PF hardliners were concerned the primary task of the November 2017 coup
was to secure their iron grip on absolute power and with it their privileged
lifestyles. This was the essence of “operation restore legacy” as the coup
plotters called the coup. Mnangagwa understood that good governance and end
corruption were essential in the fight to revive the economy and hence the
reason he promised to hold free and fair elections and to end corruption. These
were mutually exclusive demands! In the end he blatantly rigged the elections
and has done nothing to end the wholesale looting of the nation’s resource.
Whoever the generals pick to replace Mnangagwa he/she will be similarly
hamstrung by the demands of operation restore legacy!
2.
At the time of the November 2017
coup, the nation had built a head of steam in demanding democratic change and
an end to the country’s economic hardships. The coup plotters actively
encourage the people to join the street protest. The people were made to feel
the coup was going to answer all their demands, this was a fig-leaf as time has
shown. The people, much less the international community, are not going to be
taken for fools a second time in quick succession.
3.
There will be no meaningful economic
recovery as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state rule by corrupt and vote
rigging thugs. The prospect of the economic hardships of fuel, food, medicine,
wheat, etc. shortages lasting another month are frightful. It is unthinkable to
have this chaos for four more years!
4. Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and therefore the party has no
democratic mandate to govern. The party must be forced to step down for rigging
the elections and not be rewarded by being allowed to rule. Besides, Zimbabwe
must appoint an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the
reforms and Zanu PF must step down a.s.a.p. to create the political space. If
Zanu PF is still in office in 2023, be it on its own or in a GNU, the party
will resist the implementation of the reforms and will go on to rig that year’s
elections. It would be unforgivable if that was to happen!
Mnangagwa cannot accuse other of being mafia gangs when he is a mafia gangster per excellence himself! What procedures were followed when he and others booted Mujuru out of the party and worse still when he staged the military coup to ouster Mugabe.
ReplyDeleteThe 2017 coup was judged “legal, justified and constitutional”. And the ghosts of his past are all coming back to haunt him. Zimbabwe’s Scrooge is having his nightmares with the ghosts past, present and future, in the form of his own fellow Zanu PF thugs, visiting him day and night.
Zanu PF lacks legitimacy, says Tendai Biti.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that Zanu PF is illegitimate but it was you and your opposition's stupidity that made it is easy to rig the elections. What excuse does the opposition have for participating in the elections even when ZEC failed to release a verified voters' roll. The nation is sick and tired of opposition participating in flawed and illegal elections and then complain afterward that the elections were rigged!
Zanu PF has managed to use brute force to cow the people into submission but with the country's worsening economic situation even the party's hardliners know that the regime will find it increasingly difficult to use brute force and get away with it. The next public protest could well spell the end of Zanu PF's reign.
ReplyDeleteEvents in Sudan have ever Zanu PF thug worried sick!
The people of Sudan have rejected the removal of Omar Al-Bashir only to have him replaced with a military regime led by the former dictator’s cronies. They are demanding a civilian interim administration in which even those opposition politicians who had worked with Al Bashir will have no role. We, in Zimbabwe should have done the same thing following the November 2017 removal of Mugabe!
“There are a lot of things we disagree on as Zimbabweans. It’s understandable we are diverse and hold different views. But can we at least agree on this one reality and we can discuss the wherefore later; Zimbabwe is Under Sanctions,” says Nick Mangwana.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a time wasting Zanu PF apologist with nothing better to talk about. We all know that the sanctions were imposed on targeted individuals and companies listed on the sanctions list.
The apologist is asking people to agree with him on a foolish proposition and yet he and his master have refused to accept that they rigged last year’s elections. How can the elections be called free, fair and credible when the regime denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the chance to vote, when ZEC failed to release something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, etc.?
The regime is worried sick of the events happening in Sudan, the fall of one tyrant is a worrying time for all tyrannical regimes because they know they could well be the next to fall!
Zimbabweans made the big mistake of accepting the replacement of Mugabe with Mnangagwa; the later has turned out to be the flip side of the same coin. Zimbabweans are NOT going to make the same mistake again.
Poor Nick is trying to draw the people’s attention away from the worsening economic situation, Sudan, anything that will remind Zimbabweans that they really need to demand an end to this Zanu PF tyrannical rule! Your days as a sell-out are numbered, the next regime change will sweep Zanu PF and its apologists out of power!
The parallels between General Awad Ibn Auf of Sudan and Emmerson Mnangagwa is uncanny!
ReplyDeleteAuf was defence Minister in Omar Al Bashir’s government and so was Mnangagwa in Mugabe’s government.
Auf did some of Al Bashir’s real dirty work notable the murders in Darfour where the dictator has already been charged with serious human rights violations and genocide. Mnangagwa has too done a lot of vote rigging and murderous killing for Mugabe notably during Gukurahundi where over 20 000 were murdered.
Auf booted Al Bashir’s out of office and thus became the dictator’s “Et tu Brute!” (You also, Brutus!) Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s Et tu Brute!
Auf’s stay in office lasted a day because the people of Sudan were smart enough to see they were being short changed by being sold an Auf led dictatorship as meaningful change.
Sadly for Zimbabwe, the people swallowed Mnangagwa’s new dispensation as a clean break from the Mugabe dictatorship. The people have paid dearly for their folly as Mnangagwa went on to blatantly rig the elections and shot to kill to subdue all would be protestors, just eight months after the coup. The corruption, economic meltdown have continued and the nation has sunk deeper and deeper into the hell-on-earth they thought they were escaping from after Mugabe was booted out!
It is fair to say Mnangagwa is worried sick because he now fears that either one of his own cronies will be his “Et tu Brute!” or the people will demand his departure. And instead of being allowed to retire in his palatial mansion as Mugabe has been allowed to do Mnangagwa may meet a more dramatic and bloody end as that of Julius Caesar or Muammar Gaddafi!