"Zimbabwe
is burning. The country is in the throes of a serious political and
socio-economic crisis. The resolution of this crisis has become a matter of
extreme urgency. It is clear that soft-landing the crisis has to be done to
avert an impending and inevitable implosion. Zimbabwe is heading for a
disaster, it's facing an abyss. Bold steps must be taken to avoid
catastrophe," said Nelson Chamisa, the President of the MDC opposition party.
To
say the country “is heading for a disaster” is an understatement. With
unemployment still a nauseating 90% plus, ¾ of the population now living in
abject poverty, basic services like health care and supply of clean drinking
water all but collapse and the country facing the hyperinflation of 2008, etc.;
we are in the middle of a disaster. The disaster is getting worse and worse and
no one in the ruling party, Zanu PF, or the opposition know what to do to
revive the economy and end the mess.
According
to daily News, the Nelson Chamisa-led party in the end decided to momentarily
ice dialogue efforts with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and will now instead
roll out demonstrations to force the Zanu-PF leader to the negotiating table.
Nelson
Chamisa and his party have reportedly decided to stage peaceful street protest to
force President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government to force to yield to MDC's
demands for political dialogue leading to a power sharing arrangement
comparable to the 2008 GNU.
"We
want dialogue that is bankable and irreversible," said Chamisa. "It
must be scaffolded, underwritten and guaranteed by the international community
and the people of Zimbabwe,” said Chamisa.
The
devil is always in the detail! Whilst MDC accepts that last year’s election was
“illegal and not free and fair” and thus making this Zanu PF regime
illegitimate. The MDC’s proposal of restoring legitimacy after the party goes
into a power sharing arrangement with Zanu PF is not bankable for four reasons:
1) Only
the people of Zimbabwe, in free, fair and credible elections, have the power
and authority to confer the mandate to rule legitimacy. It is any outrage that anyone
else should be so presumptuous as to believe they can confer legitimacy upon themselves,
especially when they are the one who conspired to rig the elections!
2) Zimbabwe
is in this economic chaos because it is a pariah state ruled by corrupt,
incompetent and vote rigging thugs. The inclusion of MDC leaders in the present
illegitimate Zanu PF regime will not change the pariah state status of the
regime. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, there will be no meaningful
economic recovery.
3) Both
Zanu PF and MDC were involved in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and we all know that they
failed to get even one democratic reform implemented. Not one! Hence the reason
Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig 2013 and last year’s elections. There is
nothing in the proposed power sharing to suggest the two would implement the
reforms and thus finally end this curse of rigged elections and pariah state.
4) Zimbabwe is in this
economic and political mess because for the last 39 years Zanu PF has rigged
elections to stay in power and the nation has failed to stand up to the regime.
Instead of punishing Zanu PF for rigging elections we have rewarded the party
with absolute power. We sowed the wind and in the economic ruins and political
paralysis of the last 39 years, we have reaped the whirlwind! Surely we have
suffered enough to have finally learnt the lesson never again to appease those
who have nothing but contempt for rule of law, freedoms and rights of others
including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and
even the right to life.
The Zimbabwe Congress Of Trade Union leaders have reported they have received the below threat sent in envelopes with a bullet inside each.
ReplyDeleteThis is a regime that has already shown that to retain power at all cost, it will shoot to kill. The threat is real.
But then so too is the reality of the economic meltdown which has left millions living in abject poverty and hundreds if not thousands are dying every day for lack of US$5 per month worth of medicine. Unless there is meaningful political change the situation is bound to get worse, not better. In the end the people will demand change because it is in the very nature of human being to cry out and not to continue to die in silence like sheep in a slaughter house!
Woe to those who would have shed innocent blood because you will asked to account for your evil deeds.
Employees at Agribank have been awarded a 100 % hardship allowance, following threats by the staff to sleep at the bank. The employees had brought their blankets to work to reinforce their threat.
ReplyDeleteWith annual inflation rate now at 175.66%, a 100% wage increase is equivalent to taking a 75.66% wage cut. One would have thought these bank workers would know this. The reality is the hyperinflation is a problem that is not going away and it is one for government to team. Sadly, this Zanu PF government has shown that they have no clue what to do to revive the economy, team the hyperinflation, end the chronic shortages of fuel, bread, etc.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs the economic meltdown will only get worse.
The Councils are not asking for an increment but a restoration of the value of their earnings which fell from at least USD475 to a mere USD47 currently for the lowest-paid Civil Servant.
ReplyDeleteIn arriving at a figure for a cost of living adjustment, the interbank market rate must apply benchmarked against the pre-October 2018 average of USD475 salary for the lowest-paid civil servant.
Government was warned that its strategy of scrapping the use of the multi currency as legal tender to allow the regime to print money to pay for its ballooning expenditure was going to fuel inflation. The regime would not listen and now it has opened the bottle and the gene is out, there is no putting it back!
A 1 000% wage increase just to restore the civil servants to where they were in October last year will only result in a fresh and comparable increase in the cost od goods and services fuelling inflation beyond the present 175.66%. The civil will be back demanding yet another wage increase, the third in since the start of the year! The gene of inflation is out of the bottle, there is no putting it back!
It life is tough for those lucky enough to be employed and can adjust their wages to try to keep up with the hyperinflation; life is hell for those on fixed income such as savings, pension or worse still with no income at all!
After 39 years of rigged elections, rewarding Zanu PF with absolute power and reaping the whirlwind a hundred and a thousand fold; there is no sign that Zimbabweans have learned the lesson. None!
ReplyDeleteTwo years ago, when Mnangagwa and his gang staged the military coup to remove Mugabe it was as clear as day to any with eyes to see that this was just a change of guard within the dictatorship. And yet Zimbabweans came out in the street in support of the coup proclaiming it the "real independence". Mnangagwa went on to blatantly rig the elections eight months latter and shoot to kill those who dared complain of the rigged elections; proof nothing had changed.
There were a staggering 23 presidential candidates and a corresponding long list of candidates contesting the parliamentary and local elections. 130 political parties contested. All the opposition candidates KNEW Zanu PF was rigging the elections. They also knew Zanu PF would give away a few seats as bait to the opposition and these were what they were after. Even when ZEC failed to produce something as basic as the verified voters' roll, they still participated.
The opposition have long abandoned the fight for democratic change, for free and fair elections, in pursuit of their own selfish agenda. Only last week Nelson Chamisa finally admitted that MDC sold-out during the last GNU.
“We got in the inclusive government and just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything,” said Nelson Chamisa
3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were blatantly denied the vote. The people in the diaspora are some of the country's most educated and well-informed Zimbabweans and yet none of them even complained about this treasonous act. It was all water off the duck's back. If those who should know better are not outrage by the repeated rigging of elections it is rich to expect the downtrodden in the rural backwaters to react!
Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections; in a country with a healthy and functioning democracy with citizenry who are diligent and alert; those responsible would have been held to account for this treasonous and dangerous act. Not in Zimbabwe, we are allowed Zanu PF to assume office, to appease the thugs. And now whilst we accept the regime has no clue on how to revive the economy; we are scratching our heads bold to figure out how we can revive the economy whilst allowing the thugs to remain in office.
Yes, we did sow the wind and for the last 39 years we have reaped the whirlwind upgraded to cyclone strength. Have we learned the lesson? Sadly, the answer is a no; we have learnt nothing. Our immediate problem is one of bad governance but the underlying problem is one of a naïve, gullible and lazy citizenry who would not lift a finger to save themselves and have thus allowed tyrants to ride roughshod over them. We have the power to save ourselves but are not yet ready to exercise that power, we have not suffered enough to force us to finally open our eyes!
There is not one person who knows what constitute free, fair and credible elections who would ever claim last year's elections were free, fair and credible because they know they can never justify the many blatant flaws and illegalities. If Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democracy these people would have called for all those involved in this treasonous act of denying the people their rights and rigging the elections to be investigated and punished.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe is not a democratic nation but a dictatorship. Even those who know Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections; rather than admit it and having to point an accusing finger at the regime, they feign ignorance. They want to put an end to the corruption, the criminal waste of resources, the tragic human suffering, etc., etc. but they are not prepared to do the first thing needed to achieved these things – ensure good governance.
After 39 years of avoiding the elephant in the room, the Zanu PF dictatorship, and paying dearly for the folly in the economic and political chaos one has to ask whether the people have intellectual capacity to learn anything! You can take the horse to the river but you cannot make it drink. To those whose intellectual capacity has all but disappeared, after decades of idleness their brain cells have atrophied into fatty tissue; they do not thirst for knowledge, for answers to their everyday problems. Another 39 years of reaping the whirlwind will do nothing to rouse this nation from its sloth-like slumber!