Chasi's answer to fuel shortage: free ministerial limo for No 1 and rest buy bicycles N Garikai

“The Minister of Energy and Power Development Advocate Fortune Chasi has urged Zimbabweans to consider using bicycles and motorbikes given the dire fuel shortages hitting the country,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“Chasi said developed countries like the United Kingdom and Holland are already using bicycles. The Minister of Energy and Power Development Advocate Fortune Chasi has urged Zimbabweans to consider using bicycles and motorbikes given the dire fuel shortages hitting the country.

“Chasi said developed countries like the United Kingdom and Holland are already using bicycles.”

Chasi has been back in government only a few weeks and already he is talking with the same Zanu PF arrogance and indifference to the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe. He promised to solve Zimbabwe’s crippling energy and power crisis whose solution is staring him in the face – end the pariah state which is blocking everything.

He took delivery of his ultra-modern ministerial limo, the generous salary and allowances and loads and loads of the other gravy train benefits. He will be fighting to retain the Zanu PF dictatorship and the pariah state. The dictatorship is the sacred cow that must be left untouched and to alleviate the effects of the worsening economic meltdown he is suggesting the people buy bicycles and motorbikes! The chic arrogance of tyrants who know they are not democratically accountable to those they so dismissively abuse!

Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections to make sure the party remains in power, period. If the party delivered any economic recovery, that is a bonus, as far as the regime is concerned.

Zimbabwe’s economic situation is dire, unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%, ¾ of the population are living in abject poverty, etc. The situation cannot be allowed to continue. Zanu PF must be forced to step down and the nation finally allowed to end this curse of rigged elections and pariah state.

Minister Chasi, we do not want your bicycles; we want you and your fellow Zanu PF thugs to go. And go you will! The prospect of Zanu PF remaining in office until 2023 is unthinkable!

If Zanu PF is in power in 2023 the party will rig those elections and thus extend the regime’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. We must not allow that to happen!

"Biti participate in drafting ZIDERA" - if he had, it was smartest vs folly of rigged elections W Mukori

“Zimbabwe is currently experiencing extreme hardships as a result of sanctions which were imposed at the instigation of some of Zimbabwean citizens. Zimbabwe Democratic Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) for example, was crafted with the help of Tendai Biti,” wrote Charles Mutema. 

“The result of ZIDERA is common knowledge to the whole world and all Zimbabweans. Mr Biti travelled to the USA where he engaged some members of the US Senate to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe.

“Mr Biti participated in the crafting of the ZIDERA sanctions law against Zimbabwe. He had no authority from the State of Zimbabwe to act in the manner he did. The State of Zimbabwe is under siege from these types of people who claim to be its citizens and want to enjoy all the rights to their persons and property, while on the other hand exercising acts of enmity against the country.”

The trouble with the Zanu PF thugs and their apologists is they think they can have their cake and eat it too. Come elections they have dismissed MDC as puppets not fit to run anything much less government and portrayed themselves as the competent one fit to govern. Zanu PF has produced a manifesto promising to revive the economy, create new jobs and set the country on its way to become a middle-income nation by 2030. 

The party has never ever said it would accomplish its goal if sanctions are lifted, it has never even acknowledged their existence.

Soon after the elections when it is clear the economy is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss; it is then the regime admits there are sanctions. Worse still, the regime now admit that MDC puppets are now so powerful they not only influence US and Western foreign policy, they drafted the sanctions. What a track load of rubbish!

Tendai Biti and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship once and once for all. If Biti and company did not have the intellect to implement even one reform it is nonsense to suggest they had the intellect to draft ZIDERA. 

Mnangagwa was given the opportunity to hold free, fair and credible elections and the Americans even spelt out what that entailed; allow every Zimbabwean the opportunity to vote, free public media, a transparent process, etc. He denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake! 

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. 

The true purpose of the sanctions is to force Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections and end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Holding free, fair and credible elections is the Holy Grail for this nation because nothing of any substance will ever be accomplished until we rid ourself of this curse. Sanctions will stay! 

If Tendai Biti “participated” in crafting ZIDERA then it was the smartest thing he has ever done way out of character for one used to participating in flawed and illegal elections!

Now Zanu PF has MDC in its pockets, can thugs walk the line between greed and madness P Guramatunhu

“The ‘new’ regime can be viewed from different angles, but the nub of it is this: there’s a recognition that the economic fiasco of the last 20 years was suboptimal, but Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow travellers will burn the house down if they feel it necessary. Make no mistake, their will to power is every bit as intense as Mugabe’s—as is their belief that they own the country’s choicest fruits by right of conquest,” wrote Stuart Doran.

“There’s no comprehending Zimbabwe without an appreciation of that mentality. Yet many fail to get it because they don’t read the country’s history. In 1979, at the height of the struggle against white rule, a diplomat who mixed frequently with Mugabe and other leaders of his party observed that ‘ZANU does not seem to attach much importance to the destruction caused by prolonged war’. They said they were content to see Zimbabwe ‘totally’ demolished if that was the price to be paid for preventing others from ruling it. That attitude has not changed an iota, notwithstanding the passage of 40 years and Mugabe’s departure. After all, the men who now rule wielded his hatchets for most of that period. 

“That’s a tough ask for the same group of individuals who have shredded the country since 1980—a fraternity that will continue to loot, will continue to be tetchy about the merest hint of dissent, and will continue to patently despise the notion that it requires the consent of the people to govern.”

Once again you are right, Mnangagwa and company really do not care that Zimbabwe is burning to ashes, literally, and that millions are facing untold human suffering and deaths as long as the junta’s hold on power is secure. What you have failed to acknowledge is that Mugabe and now Mnangagwa have had the great fortune of having one of the most incompetent and corrupt opposition politicians to help them retain absolute power. 

There have been many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship with the golden  ones falling to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders had the opportunity to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. 

SADC leaders, who were the crafted the GNU and were its guarantors, pushed Tsvangirai and company hard to implement the reforms but were ignored. They warned MDC leaders not to take part in the 2013 elections with no reforms but again they were ignored. 

The country’s worsening economic meltdown has forced Zanu PF hardliners to accept that the present economic situation cannot continue. The very fact that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections making the regime illegitimate has served to add the pressure on Zanu PF to accept change. The only people blocking meaningful change are none other than the MDC leaders themselves who are giving the regime the modicum of credibility by participating in the flawed and illegal elections and endorsing the result as having been free and fair. 

Chamisa has endorse the parliamentary result but held back on the presidential for the sake of forcing Zanu PF to give him a gravy train seat. 

Following the rigged and very violent 2008 elections, it was SADC leaders who asked for a GNU to give Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends a soft landing; everyone knew once the reforms are implemented, the party would never win free and fair elections. This time it is Zimbabwe’s  opposition leaders themselves who are offering Zanu PF the option of yet another GNU in which Zanu PF will be under no pressure to implement the reforms. 

Since the 2008 GNU, Zanu PF has learned that as long as it gave away a few gravy train seats to the opposition will participate no matter how flawed and illegal the process got. 

The task of getting forcing Zanu PF to accept meaningful democratic change has been made very difficult by the Zanu PF thugs themselves who believe they have the divine right to rule. Yes Zanu PF has made establishing a healthy and functional democracy very difficult but not impossible! It is the corrupt and incompetent opposition, whom the people have risked life and limb to elect into power on the understanding they implementing the requisite democratic changes, who have done so by selling-out on reforms. 

“It’s not a question of whether Mnangagwa and company will continue to view Zimbabwe’s resources as a God-given right, but whether they can walk the line between controlled greed and madness,” continued Doran.

Let us just say ever since the Zanu PF thugs had the MDC and the rest of the opposition politicians in their deep pockets the regime has done as it pleased with the tragic economic, political and social consequences there for all to see. Unless the ordinary Zimbabweans finally wake up to the political reality that the MDC leaders are running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, it is hard to see how Zanu PF madness will ever be stopped. 

For Stuart Doran’s full article go to aspistrategist.org.au.

MDC congress failed to transform the party - Chamisa plus 3 Amigos are back blundering N Garikai

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has had the great misfortune of having some of the most corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless politicians in human history. Having a ruthless mafia style political system that stifled debate and meaningful democratic competition has made our politics a downright dangerous occupation thus encouraging the scum on both sides of the political divide to occupy public office.

Eighteen months ago, there was euphoria in Zanu PF following the 15 November 2017 military coup which ousted Robert Mugabe, his wife Grace and a handful of the G40 faction members. Mnangagwa, the coup plotters and his Lacoste faction members went to town in portraying the coup as the spring cleaning cleansing the party of all the corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants. The new government, we were told, was the “new democratic dispensation ushering the Second Republic”!

Mnangagwa and company were so convinced of the transformation of Zimbabwe from the pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs to a health and fully fledged democracy they did not waste time selling it as such to the world. By January 2018, just two months after the coup, Mnangagwa and friends were already shouting “Zimbabwe is open for business!”

It was all nonsense, of course. Zanu PF was still a party of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs, the removal of Mugabe a few others did change anything since many of those responsible for the corruption, etc. remained. By blatantly rigging the 2018 elections, Mnangagwa and company confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state or be it under a new dictator.

Nelson Chamisa and many of those around him have billed the just ended MDC Alliance congress as a transformative process. Whilst Mnangagwa booted out some of the deadwood and recycled the remaining deadwood, Chamisa has brought back many of the deadwood that had left the party in the past and recycled as new.

The MDC A congress has brought back Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube and David Coltart; the 3 Amigos, into top leadership position as two VPs and Treasurer Generals respectively. The three played a pivotal role in convincing the nation to accept  the 2013 new constitution.

“In my last profession, I was Professor of constitutional law and this is the most democratic constitution I have ever seen!” argued Professor Ncube.

Soon after the nation had approved the new constitution with a warping 95%, Paul Mangwana, the Zanu PF MP and co-chairperson on the parliamentary committee tasked to write the new constitution, boasted that Mugabe had “dictated” the new constitution. It showed, the new constitution has failed its litmus test; it failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections and many other rights and freedoms. “The most democratic constitution ever!” Yeah right!

The corrupt and incompetent MDC of Tsvangirai days, blundering from pillar to post, back. Chamisa, just like Mnangagwa with his ill-conceived “Zimbabwe is open for business!”, has hit the ground running after the MDC congress.

"From here onwards, we are going on a diplomatic offensive. We will visit every African country to present our roadmap to recovering this country. We believe in African solutions to African problems." Chamisa said in his closing remark to the party congress.  

The MDC roadmap will be premised on implementing the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections but who does not know that it was none other than Chamisa et al who failed to implement even one during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. So reforms are just a smoke screen behind which the MDC leaders are hiding their real agenda – they are desperate to secure a seat of the Zimbabwe political gravy train.

Zimbabwe is in a serious and urgent political and economic mess. Unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%, ¾ of the population now live on US$30 or less a month, etc. Zimbabwe is on the edge of a dangerous precipice and may descent into economic chaos and political instability dragging the whole SADC region down with it. The country needs a solution to its seemingly intractable political problem of rigged elections.

The solution is for Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta must step down to create the space for the appointment of an interim administration that will finally implement the reforms the nation has been dying for.

The Zanu PF regime rigged last July’s elections and it is ipso facto illegitimate. Chamisa and company are calling for dialogue with Zanu PF for the sake of securing gravy train seats for themselves. We should be concerned about rescuing the nation from the consequences of the worsening economic meltdown and not appeasing the regime by granting it legitimacy by the back door.

If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office till 2023, the party will rig that year’s elections too! That is one “African solution” the people of Zimbabwe does not want. Not again!

ANC had to boot out Zuma to win the elections - testimonial of Mandela's enduring legacy W Mukori

“If ANC had failed to remove Jacob Zuma from office last year, the party would have lost the recent elections!” said Dumisani, a South African and ANC supporter.

I was speechless! What a profound statement!

People have often question the late Nelson Mandela’s legacy especially since many South Africans have continued to live in abject poverty now 25 years since the end of apartheid. Few people can deny that widespread incompetence and corruption of the successive ANC regime since Mandela have held back South Africa’s development. It has!

Still, not even the worst pessimists out there cannot deny that SA has consistently held free, fair and credible elections since 1994. And it is this certainty of democratic accountability that has applied the brakes on what, by now, would have been a run-away train of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical ANC government.

As we know, after 20 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF rule Zimbabwe was in total economic ruins and the regime had already murdered over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain its de facto one-party dictatorship, the nation has groaned under to this day.

By the time Zimbabwe marked her 25 years of independence, the country was in the middle of Zanu PF’s seizure of white owned farms to give to party loyalists, mostly, destroying the country’s agricultural sector and knocking the nation off its perch as the breadbasket of the region. In the day and age when human ingenuity has turned deserts into blooming orchards we are starving in a land which is for all intend and purposes the Garden of Eden. A damning testimonial to Zanu PF failed leadership and, most important of all, to Zimbabwe’s failed political system.

Nelson Mandela could not have dragged all South Africa’s millions of blacks who had languished in poverty during the nightmare years of apartheid in the five years he was in power. Even if he had done so, there would have been nothing to stop the incompetent and corrupt Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma tearing it all down! Mandela bequeathed all South Africans a healthy and functioning democracy which has survived the trials and tribulations of his corrupt and incompetent successors and is still able to guarantee the freedoms and rights of all South Africans including the right to hold those in power to democratic account!  A legacy which many of us in Africa have read about but have yet to behold!

Indeed, in Zimbabwe the dream of free, fair and credible elections has been a mirage many have long given up chasing. Zanu PF has corrupted all the state institutions, from the high and powerful Court judges with farms, cars and other trappings of high office to lowly rural peasants the regime has turned into nothing more than medieval serfs beholden to the all-powerful landlords.

In a recent article in ASPI The Strategist, Stuart Doran, described Zanu PF as demonic subculture drunk with power. “It’s like watching a drunken sailor go down in increments. A stumble, a forehead to the counter, a wild grasping, followed by a crash of bottles. That’s the trajectory of Zimbabwe’s post-Mugabe ‘new dispensation’—all in not-so-glorious, super-slow-mo Technicolor.”

What has made Zimbabwe’s search for freedom, liberty, justice, human rights and a life with human dignity and hope such a pipedream is that the opposition leaders, whom the people had risked life and limb to elect into power in the hope they will bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for have sold out. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU, when the opposition had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship; Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company. The rest is history!

It takes vision and courage to resist the temptation to seize absolute power for oneself Nelson Mandela had is all. Tyrants like Mugabe and Mnangagwa do not even have common sense and hence the reason they have landed the nation in this mess.

Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, it is illegitimate and must be forced to step down. It is naïve to expect the regime to reform itself out of office, especially when it has already been given that chance and failed. Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends too cannot be trusted to implement the democratic reforms, they were given many chances to do so and wasted them all.

"Con Court Malaba let us down" says Chief Ndiweni - true, but so too did you and Chamisa P Guramatunhu

Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni torched a storm when he graced and addressed the MDC congress in Gweru on Saturday. The chief criticised the Zanu-PF government and Judiciary for failing the nation which, according to commentators, was hypocritical of the opposition party which criticised partisan involvement of chiefs in politics.

So why did the Chief Ndiweni fail to criticise his fellow Chiefs for turning rural peasants into nothing but serfs beholden to the Zanu PF thugs? Zanu PF has lasted these 39 years and it is no secret that the country’s Chiefs and traditional leaders have played a key role in retaining Zanu PF in power and the leaders have been richly rewarded.

If Chief Ndiweni has played no part in the Zanu PF dictatorship all these years then some of us have never heard of his defiance until now. He is not the first Zimbabweans to have played his part in the establishment and retention of the dictatorship and get his/her reward of the spoils of absolute power only to belatedly denounce the dictatorship. No doubt, he will not the last one to do so either.

"I know there are people saying the Constitutional Court gave a verdict, Chief Justice Malaba gave a verdict to determine who should stay at State House. Every week, every Saturday in Ntabazinduna every one of my headmen give a better judgement than that. The judiciary has let us down profoundly, we are in this mess because they did not rise to the occasion," said Chief Ndiweni, addressing the crowd at the just ended MDC congress.

There is no disputing that Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections. The whole election process was full of flaws and illegalities it beggars belief how anyone let alone a sworn Court Judge, the custodian of the law and dispenser of justice, failed to condemn these elections. 

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission final report.

“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

In their own affidavits submitted the the Constitutional Court  both the plaintiff, Nelson Chamisa, and the key defendant, ZEC, confirmed ZEC many of the flaws and illegalities in the process. They confirmed that the elections went ahead without a verified voters’ roll and that many all V11 forms, the summary of vote counts at each Polling Station, were never made public, for example. These are common sense and legal requirements for any meaningful elections.

In his court judgement, Chief Justice Malaba acknowledged the flaws and illegalities in the affidavits before the Court but chose to ignore it all on fallacious assumption that affidavit evidence will all be contradicted by the “primary source” evidence in the sealed ballot boxes. This was just a convenient bolt-hole for the Judges because they should have asked the sealed boxes to be opened if this was the only acceptable evidence. 

Beside there would be nothing in the sealed ballot box to confirm or otherwise that the voters’ roll was not verified and released at least one month before nomination day, for example. The issue of free, fair and credible elections was more than a Chamisa vs Mnangagwa or MDC A vs Zanu PF; this was a national issue, the people of Zimbabwe vs Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF. It is an outrage that Chief Justice Malaba treated the case as a trivial matter. 

Still Chief Ndiweni should have asked Nelson Chamisa, now that he had his attention, why he and his MDC A friends had participated in an election process they knew and warned repeatedly would be rigged. Chamisa and his MDC friends had the golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms that would have stopped Zanu PF rigging elections during the 2008 to 2013 GNU; they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one! Chamisa et al participated in last year’s flawed and illegal elections for the same reason - greed. 

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess. With 90% out of work and 3/4 of the population now living in abject poverty, the situation is unsustainable there is a real danger of the country back sliding into chaos and political instability. The solution has been staring us in the face all these years - implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections. 

Chamisa et al have been on the political stage for 19 years now and they have had many golden opportunities to bring about meaningful democratic change but have failed to do so. Worse still, they will never implement any reforms. Never, is a strong word but in this case, wholly justified given MDC leaders have proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs! 

“The judiciary has let us down profoundly!” True but they are not the only ones; so too has Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF corrupt vote rigging and murderous thugs. The corrupt Chiefs and other traditional leaders and Nelson Chamisa and his the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition friends, have too let us down. But most important of all, we, the people, have let ourselves down by being so naive and gullible and allowing ourselves to be conned and dragged into such a mess! 

"My politics is about masses living decent lives" said Gutu - they don't, proof it is about selling-out P Guramatunhu

“I can never, ever be happy when the majority of Zimbabweans continue to live in penury and deprivation. My politics is all about ensuring that ordinary people in the village and townships live a decent life with access to health and educational facilities,” twittered Obert Gutu, VP of the MDC-T led by Dr Thokosani Khupe. 

The trouble with you Obert Gutu is you assume every Zimbabwean is as naive and gullible as your MDC supporters who have followed you lot like sheep to the slaughter. The MDC wildebeest herd has never held you to account on any matter, they believe anything you say no questions asked. Well, not every Zimbabwean out there is as stupid, naive and gullible as the MDC supporter. 

The tragic reality is that the country’s health and education facilities have all but collapse and millions of ordinary Zimbabweans today live is abject poverty. We all know that the root cause of the country’s economic and political mess in 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. First Mugabe and now Mnangagwa and the Zanu PF thugs have rigged elections to stay in power all these years.

The country had many, many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule and the best of these chances fell to you, Mr Obert Gutu, and your fellow MDC leaders. The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect you into office on the promise you will bring about democratic changes, as your party name implied. You had the golden opportunities to do just that during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. You failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Not one!

Robert Mugabe bribed you lot with the trappings of high office, ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. You, Mr Gutu, was deputy minister of Justice and had your fair share of the gravy train spoils. With your snouts in the feeding trough, you all forgot about the reforms. 

Ever since the 2013 elections in which Zanu PF blatantly rigged and so many MDC leaders lost their gravy train seats including yourself, Mr Gutu, you have once again presented yourself as one who care about the welfare of the masses, in the hope many of them will not remember that you sold-out and all you want is win a seat on the gravy train. 

“My politics is all about ensuring that ordinary people live a decent life!” Well there are millions out there who do not live a decent life and all because you and your fellow MDC leaders sold-out! Your politics is about deceit and selling-out the nation for thirty pieces of silver! 

PM May resign over Brexit and shed a tear - ED Pfee shed buckets but never ever resign N Garikai

“Brexit means Brexit!” said British Prime Minister Theresa May when she took over from David Cameron in 2016. After three years of blundering from pillar to post, she has failed to deliver Brexit and has bowed down to pressure for her to go. Now she is going! Good bye! Au revoir! Bon voyage!

Good riddance! Bon debarras! How many times in the last 40 years have Zimbabweans wanted to say that to the country’s only two leaders who have ruled the country with an iron fist! Mugabe promised the nation mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji!” and for 37 years has dragged the nation into mass poverty and worse.

Mnangagwa took over on the promise to revive the nation’s economic fortune with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” Eighteen months down the line, it is clear the country’s economic meltdown is even worse than ever and, sadly for Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa is working feverishly to consolidate his iron grip on power. He is not going anywhere, regardless his pathetic failure and the evidence he has no clue what he is doing.

PM May has resigned and by the end of July the UK will have another PM. Whoever he/she happen to be will be 7 th since 1980. In the same 40 years Zimbabwe has been hopelessly stuck with two leaders. Robert Mugabe came into power following Zanu PF’s rigging of the 1980 elections. He then used his position to undermine the country’s state institution and the constitution to establish a de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country with an iron fist to this day.

Even when the people were convinced that Mugabe and Zanu PF were corrupt, incompetent and tyrants they were powerless to remove the regime from office because the party rigged the elections and, from time to time, supplemented the rigging with the use of wanton violence to ruthless crash all dissent against it rule.

After 37 years of corrupt, incompetent and murderous rule, Mugabe was only finally forced out of office at gun point.  His erstwhile vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF thugs whom, it should be said, he had already started to boot out of the party, ganged up against him and booted him, his wife and the G40 faction he wanted to takeover, out of office. The coup leader was none other than Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man Mugabe had appointed his VP and had entrusted to carry out the regime’s dirtiest corruption, vote rigging and murderous acts.

Mnangagwa and his fellow coup gangsters promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and thus restore the people of Zimbabwe’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It is now clear they said that to win some brownie points following the coup; they blatantly rigged last year’s elections. The regime has been moving swiftly to consolidate its iron grip on power, particularly in the face of the worsening economic meltdown.

Mnangagwa came into power on promise to revive Zimbabwe’s comatose economy. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” became his trademark clarion call. By failing to hold free and fair elections and failing to end corruption Mnangagwa slammed the door shut to the very people he was hoping to attract into the country. Who, in his or her right mind, would ever want to do business in a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs!

Countries like Britain, USA and all the democratic nations the world over have enjoyed peace, freedom and economic prosperity not so much because they have never had bad leaders; they have all had corrupt and incompetent leaders and worse. The nation’s healthy and functioning democratic system have allowed the people to remove the failed leaders from office, more often than not, long before the failed leaders have inflicted lasting damage to the nation’s interests.

In Zimbabwe, with our de facto one party dictatorship, we have been stuck with for decades with corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants!

Make no mistake about it Theresa May did not want to give up her post as PM.

“Theresa May saved her tears for herself. If only she’d shown this humanity before,” commented Suzanne Moore, in the UK Guardian.

“Make no mistake, she has been an absolutely dreadful prime minister, impervious to reality, deeply unsympathetic, utterly tone deaf. Missing any chance to actually compromise. Anyone who has met her will tell you that she doesn’t really do human. I remember a miserable lunch with her years back and being mystified ever since that anyone ever thought that she could negotiate any kind of deal. A walk-in freezer has more warmth. Interesting necklaces do not make a personality. More importantly she doesn’t do dialogue, she simply repeats her lines and her mantras until people are so bored they possibly agree with her. Or she pretended they did.”

Well the UK’s democratic system has worked and save the nation from a dreadful PM. In Zimbabwe Mnangagwa has finally dropped his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra. He still goes around wearing his multi-colour scarf regardless of the sweltering heat! He has reverted to Zanu PF’s most trusted, tried and tested way of consolidating power – use of brute force!

 “We don’t want violence, so I said soldiers go and silence these people, they were silenced,” boasted Mnangagwa.’ Protestors were of ‘Legion’—a multitude of demons—and the government would ‘sort them out … We will crush our enemies, and they are being crushed.”

He was talking about his shoot to kill orders to crush civilians, whom he called “legion”, protesting the soaring cost of living in January 2019. 17 civilians were shot dead then to add to the 6 shot dead protesting the rigged elections in August 2018.

Theresa May was a dreadful PM and was finally forced out of office. She has shed tears for herself. Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before, is an incompetent, corrupt and murderous thug who imposed himself on the nation by rigging elections. He is not going anywhere, we are well and truly stuck with the tyrant.

Mnangagwa’s nickname is “ngwena” (crocodile), he is as ruthless and cold blood as the reptile. Any tears Mnangagwa sheds can only be crocodile tears for the purpose of luring the victim to get closer for the deadly strike!

It is us, the people, who have suffered a great deal these last 40 years and, until we dismantle this de facto one party dictatorship, there will more tears, gnashing of teeth and deaths. If Zanu PF is still in power come 2023 then the party will rig those elections and extend its corrupt and tyrannical rule. We will pay dearly for it and will only have no one but ourselves to blame – for we have been forewarned countless times.

ZNA used loot-all-you-want platinum concession to secure $500 m loan - proof junta's resolve to hang on W Mukori

Last week RBZ Governor, Dr John Mangudya, and Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, were thrilled to announce that the country secured a $500 million loan. The loan would end the shortages of fuel, wheat, medicine and foreign currency that had plagued the nation, they said.

For a nation who import bill has ballooned into hundreds of millions of dollars as its own local industry collapsed so we imported even more whilst earning less from exports; the loan will easy the shortages but only for a month or two at most. This is voodoo economics at its worst; we borrowing money to spend it on recurrent expenditure with no or little hope of generating wealth. How are we going to repay the debt? 

Worse still, tomorrow, when the present loan is spent, we will face an even tougher challenge of raising enough to pay for the recurrent expenditure and repay the loan. 

Governor Mangudya and Minister Ncube were thrilled with the $500 million loan but many Zimbabweans out there were not; Zanu PF is dragging the nation into a debt trap. When you are in a hole, stop digging! Many people wanted to know were the loan was coming from. Bloomberg has uncovered the source of the loan.  

“The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) stepped in to provide collateral for the African Export-Import Bank's $500 million loan advanced to Zimbabwe recently,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“Bloomberg has reported that the loan, which will be paid over four years when production starts, is backed by a mine that Great Dyke Investments, a venture between Russian investors and the Zimbabwean military, plans to build at a cost of $4 billion.

“Bloomberg reports that the structure of the deal was decided earlier this month at a meeting attended by officials from Zimbabwe's treasury, central bank, mines ministry, Afreximbank, and Great Dyke Investments chairwoman, Hespinah Rukato, the people said. The mine could produce about 800,000 ounces of platinum group metals a year if built.”

ZNA, s***t! It does not get worse than this!

It was Tendai Biti, when he was Minister of Finance during the GNU, who first flagged the existence of a shadowy informal body, the Joint Operation Command (JOC), a Mafia type junta, comprising the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services headed by Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa and a handful of other select Zanu PF officials operating alongside the formal government. 

Central government bankrolled JOC activities and its members extravagant lifestyles notable Robert Mugabe and his family whose globetrotting have broken all world records. And yet JOC has secured even more funds from other clandestine sources such as black-market trade in foreign currency and looting. 

The top brass in ZNA, Police, CIO, Prison Services and other JOC members were all granted mining concessions in Marange and Chiadzwa diamond fields. The late Edward Chindori Chininga, himself a former Zanu PF Minister of Mines, revealed the true nature of these concession in a parliamentary report in 2012 of which he was chairman. The concessions allowed the mining to take place with no records of quality or quality of diamonds, where the diamonds were sold and for how much, etc., etc. And so it was impossible to know how much was earned, the tax payable and so the concession holders and their partners did not pay any taxes.

In 2016 Mugabe admitted the country had been “swindled” out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue. A Canadian NGO specialising in diamonds estimated that Mugabe earned US$2 billion from diamonds in 2012 alone. Mugabe never arrested even one diamond swindler or recover one dollar. How could he when he is one of the swindlers himself. 

When Emmerson Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he promised to end corruption. A year and half down the line, he too has failed to arrest even one diamond swindler or recover one dollar.  A few weeks ago he finally admitted his failure. “Corruption is deep rooted!” he confessed.

How can he uproot corruption when he and his fellow JOC Mafia junta who helped him stage the November 2017 coup are corrupt themselves and are godfathers corruption? 

The confirmation that the ZNA and the other JOC operatives are extending their wholesale looting mining concessions from diamonds to platinum, lithium and many other resources and activities is most disconcerting. 

Of course, the top brass in the ZNA, Police, CIO and the rest of the JOC junta members KNOW they have no business holding mining concession in Marange, Great Dykes or anywhere else in the country. If anyone of them wanted to be a miner, they must resign the position in the Army, Police, Government or whatever. They will then be issued a mining licence subject to the same rules and conditions as everyone else. This is exactly what they do not want and hence the reason they have propped up this Zanu PF dictatorship and will resist any democratic change.

Zanu PF is illegitimate and as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse. The $500m loan will buy temporary respite from the shortages but at the price of even worse hardship ahead. The use of this new loot-all-you-want platinum concession to secure the loan is proof the Zanu PF junta would rather sell this nation to the devil himself than give up power.  

Trevor Ncube, super-duper President Advisory Councilor, blame fuel price rise on povo - how arrogant P Guramatunhu

“Presidential Advisory Council member Trevor Ncube has blamed ordinary Zimbabweans for the step taken by the central bank to liberalise the price of fuel by removing the 1:1 exchange rate,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“The move by RBZ caused an increase to the price of fuel on Tuesday. Ncube said Zimbabweans have been calling for the removal of the 1:1 exchange rate and they must feel the pain.”

"Dear Zimbabwe, I am completely outraged by your outrage over things that you have been calling for which have just happened." Ncube said." Your rush to be part of popular opinion and in with the outraged crowd is so pedestrian. Yours Equally Outraged Compatriot."

If this story is true then all one can say is power corrupts and absolute power of an illegitimate regime and its pompous and equally unaccountable Presidential Advisory busy bodies real sucks!

If the price of fuel has gone up because RBZ and government listened to the ordinary Zimbabweans’ demand for the liberalise the exchange rate then why has government failed to increase the civil servants’ wages using the same exchange rate as that used to calculate the fuel price increase. Better still, why is the government refusing to pay the civil servants wages in US$ as they have requested countless times.

Everything and I meaning everything about this Zanu PF dictatorship stinks!

1)   Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged last July’s elections after they had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections

2)   Mnangagwa not only retained Mugabe’s dirty habit of keeping super-duper, supernumerary, undemocratic, very expensive and utterly useless and annoying bodies like Joint Operation Command, the junta behind the wholesale looting in Marange and Chiadzwa. But worse still he has added other of his own; the train load of former ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, etc. who have been put out to pasture at their full salary and allowances. He has appoint this 24 member Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), advising him over and above what his cabinet and the retired former cabinet members are doing. And last week launch the Political Actors Dialogue, a forum comprising of most of the 23 presidential candidates and their entourage, to advise him on the same issues the PAC, etc. are advising him!

3) The national economic is sinking deeper and faster into the abyss than ever regardless of all this advice or is it because of all this foolish advice. And, to crown it all, we the ordinary citizens at the coal face of the economic chaos are being blame for it. “I am completely outraged by your outrage over things that you have been calling for!” How arrogant and indifferent the elephant can be to the ants it is crashing underfoot! It is super-arrogance for a mortal to treat fellow human beings as ants and their suffering and deaths are of no consequences!

Zanu PF is subculture of demonic evil W Mukori

I have often wondered what it would have been like if my great, great, great grand-father; who, until that very moment had only seen the distorted image of his own reflection in pool of water and told so and so looked like him; was given a mirror so he saw his image, warts and all, for the very first time! Stuart Doran’s piece in the Strategist left me feeling exactly what I had often imagined my great ancestor confronted and confounded with his known but never seen self would have felt. 

“Zimbabwe is what it is because of a political subculture, centred on the ruling party, that has hegemony and subjugation as its highest ideals. Violence, disdain, paranoia and plunder are among its natural progeny. It is fundamentally antithetical to genuine political competition, dissent and notions of stewardship,” wrote Doran.

“The attitudes and instincts that together comprise the culture are audible at every turn, if we are tuned to the right frequency. Asked during a trip to Ethiopia about the numerous allegations of rape during the recent crackdown, Mnangagwa retorted: ‘It’s all stage-managed. We are challenging anybody, anybody, local or foreign, to produce the women, so that the world can see them, and say this is what happened.’ 

“Regarding the killings: ‘We’d want to see evidence. We see all this in social media. But we’d want to see evidence where the 17 people were killed. Where were they buried?’ And then the sterile references to external manipulation; the protests were part of ‘a regime change agenda which is not new’.

“Back at home, speaking at a rural rally, he went on: ‘Those who we fought during the liberation struggle, the whites, are still fighting so they can claim power again … Our enemies are not resting.’ But, away from the international glare, he was unable to restrain the urge to brag. ‘We don’t want violence, so I said soldiers go and silence these people, they were silenced.’ Protestors were of ‘Legion’—a multitude of demons—and the government would ‘sort them out … We will crush our enemies, and they are being crushed.’”

For decades I thought I knew and understood Zanu PF and its leaders; I have often described the leaders as incompetent, corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs. My description was but a rough sketch of the regime, Stuart Doran’s description was the three D exact image complete with the bad-breath. Doran’s mirror has allowed us to see the Zanu PF monster Zanu PF, ugly and mean, but to peek into the black and cold recess of its evil soul! 

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs are incompetent, corrupt and pure evil; they have no redeeming feature and, after 39 years of tyrannical rule and looting all they want to do now continue in their evil ways, they are beyond the pale. 

“It’s not going to make any real difference if Mnangagwa, or Chiwenga, or any of their fellow travellers, rule—much as it’s made little difference that Mugabe has gone. Lest we forget: as long as the generation of supremacist nationalists and its proselytes remain, so will the mindset,” concluded Stuart Doran.

“For those occasions when the cut, thrust and chaos of current events may seek to distract and confuse, both part-time analysts of Zimbabwe and those who hope to be more should leave a note to self in a prominent place: ‘It’s the subculture, stupid.’”

The single most important task before us today is to pressure Zanu PF to step down but all the regime has been doing and will continue to do is drag the whole nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth it has landed us into. Mnangagwa et al will never reform nor will they ever give up power because it is not in the DNA of hardened thugs like them to reform or give up power. 

Zanu PF must be pressured to step down to create the political space for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the demonic subculture the party has fostered on the nation. This is the only way out of this mess!

(To see Stuart Doran’s full article visit aspistrategist.org.au/zimbabwe-its-the-subculture-stupid)

Mnangagwa's week old Political Actors Dialogue already coughing blood P Guramatunhu

Last week President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched the Political Actors Dialogue. It was a big, no-expense-spared affair complete with the usual funfair and glitzy. It was so, for a good reason; it is an act of bold and arrogant defiance.

Ever since last July’s rigged national elections Zimbabwe has latched from one economic crisis to the next proving right those of us who have said as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. The only way out is for the Zanu PF regime to step down, we have argued. The political dialogue is a forum including most of the political actors in last year’s elections which, Mnangagwa hopes, will come up with solutions to the country’s economic and political problems without the need for Zanu PF to step down. So, yes the dialogue is Mnangagwa’s middle finger salute to those calling for a new GNU or, worse still, for Zanu PF to step down.

Unfortunately for Mnangagwa some of the political actors who have so far played along with his proposed dialogue are already developing cold feet.

“The parties to the national dialogue should clearly and honestly admit to a crisis or conflict in the system of governance of the State thus unanimously agreeing to go for the national dialogue as a crisis or conflict resolution move,” said Blessing Kasiyamhuru. He was Zimbabwe Partnership for Prosperity party’s presidential candidate in last July’s elections and had so far subscribed to participate in the proposed dialogue.

“The dialogue should bring on board all conflict-fuelling issues and respective remedies, reforms or solutions that are unanimously agreed upon to address the crisis/conflict.”

Zimbabweans should stop burying our heads in the sand and talk about the elephant in the room – Zanu PF and how the party is the root source of the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections with the disastrous economic and political consequences we can all see.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime blatantly rigged last year's elections. He denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Zimbabwe’s own government appointed Human Rights Commission has admitted that Zanu PF party’s operatives and the traditional leaders have reduced the rural voters to mere serfs beholden to vote for Zanu PF or be damned. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.

The whole election process lacked “transparency, traceability and verifiability and the results contained numerous errors”, as the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission state in their final report. 

We can debate other matters but not whether or not Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies rigged last year’s elections: there is a mountain irrefutable to prove that they rigged the elections. Even in a country renowned for calling a military coup “a military assisted transition”; rigging elections is high treason, period.

The issue here is: What are we going to do with this illegitimate and treasonous Zanu PF regime?

It should be noted that this is the second time Zimbabwe has had to deal with the same thorny problem of what to do with an illegitimate regime. In 2008 the whole world, including SADC and the AU known for endorsing Zanu PF’s dodgy elections in the past, refused to recognise Mugabe and his party as the winners of that year’s elections.

“What was won by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered Mugabe as he unleashed his party thugs, Police, Army and CIO to destroy property, harass, beat, rape and over 500 murdered in three months. The cheating and the wanton violence were so blatant, barbaric and widespread not even the see-nothing, hear-nothing SADC and AU election observers could not pretend they saw and heard nothing wrong.  

Zanu PF should have been forced to step down from office immediately as punishment for rigging the elections, at the very least. Instead, SADC leaders invited Mugabe to team up with the two MDC factions to form the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU). The GNU was then tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms to end the curse of rigged elections and ensure future elections are free, fair and credible.

Sadly, not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. Not one!

As we know, Zanu PF rigged 2013 and last year’s elections or be with less wanton violence compared to 2008, at least during the campaign period. The regime floored the wanton violence paddle with vengeance on 1st August 2018 and again in January 2019 with its shoot to kill order to the Army.

The shoot-to-kill order was to nip the spirit of protest, against rigged elections in August and soaring fuel prices in January, in the bud. But, more significantly, to demonstrate Zanu PF’s unwavering resolve use brute force to crash all who dare challenge the party’s undemocratic rule and regardless of the heart-break economic hardship the nation is facing.

Instead of proposing another GNU as happened in 2008 Mnangagwa is proposing the Political Actors Dialogue. The dialogue will have no raft of democratic reforms to implement, Mnangagwa has ruled out all discussion on political reforms as he insists the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible and his regime is legitimate. Whilst the 2008 GNU at least acknowledge that year’s elections were rigged and offered a glimmer of hope of something being down about it; the dialogue forum offers nothing! The dialogue will just be a talk-shop.

Even if the national dialogue was scrap and replace with another GNU complete with the raft of reform to implement, which is what Kasiyamhuru is now calling for, a GNU in which Zanu PF plays an part is totally unacceptable. It is barmy to trust Zanu PF to implement the reforms.  

We need to implement the reforms because Zanu PF corrupted our state institutions. During the last GNU, the party, together with MDC, had countless golden opportunities to implement the reforms; it failed to get even one reform implemented. If Mnangagwa is the reformer he claims to be what stopped him implementing even one token reform, it is now one year and a half since seizing power in the November 2017 military coup.

Zanu PF rigged last July’s elections; the regime is illegitimate and must now step down. The only dialogue to be had with Zanu PF is the handover of power, as for what will happen afterwards it is for others to deal with Zanu PF, the elephant, out of the room! 

"Liberalise procurement and redollarise" argue Biti - nonsense, not with A1 economy P Guramatunhu

“We need to liberalise fuel procurement. Anyone who has foreign currency, who can bring fuel should be able to bring it, but here is a catch; you can’t bring into Zimbabwe fuel in US$ and sell it in bond notes because soon you will run out of the foreign currency. So, the minute you liberalise fuel you must essentially redollarise the economy,” said Tendai Biti.

Zimbabwe has suffered from Zanu PF’s voodoo economics but MDC’s have failed the nation too with their half-baked solutions addressing one or two issues and ignoring the rest. Yes during his tenure as Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti did help bring some economic stability and the empty shop shelves filled with goods.

And yet the country’s commerce and industries continued to suffer and many closed with few if any new companies opening. Why? The problems of corruption, lawlessness and political instability were left untouched!

The primary task of the GNU was first and foremost to implement the democratic reforms and restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life itself. Tendai Biti and company failed to implement even one reform.

What Tendai Biti is saying makes sense only in the context of his half-baked solutions, in the context of a dysfunctional Zimbabwe economy. If Zimbabwe’s economy is revived and is firing again in all cylinders the country will work and thrive with its own currency, call it RTGS$, Z$ or whatever, there will be no need to redollarise.

How many other nation out there who pay for their fuel with US$ but have their own currency and thriving economies?