“Amid Zimbabwe's deteriorating political situation and worsening economic rot, opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has held a meeting with former Nigerian Olusegun Obasanjo - in a bid to trigger dialogue with President Emmerson Mnangagwa,” Bulawayo 24 reported.
The dialogue Chamisa is seeking with Mnangagwa will lead to the power sharing arrangement, a National Transition Authority (NTA), in which Chamisa and a few other MDC leaders will hold cabinet positions. What he has failed to say is how this NTA will stop the economic rot and end the political mess resulting from last year’s rigged elections.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the country’s pariah state tag! There is no deny that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs.
Ever since the November 2017 military coup that ousted the late dictator Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa has tried to convinced the world Zimbabwe was no longer a pariah state.
No one was fooled by his empty promises. Zimbabwe is still a pariah state and by blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Mnangagwa settled the matter beyond any doubt.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission final report.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. 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.”
ZEC even failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake!
So, if the 2018 elections “failed to meet international standards” there can only be one conclusion: THE 2018 ELECTIONS WERE NULL AND VOID.
A null and void election cannot produce a legitimate result and therefore the Mnangagwa regime is illegitimate, a pariah regime.
The claim by Nelson Chamisa that the dialogue leading to the NTA will, somehow, grant legitimacy to this Mnangagwa regime is a fallacy! The addition of, however many MDC leaders, to the illegitimate Zanu PF government will dilute but not change the essential quality of being illegitimate.
This Zanu PF regime is essential a glass half milk and half sewage. Even if the proposed NTA was to add a drum of milk to the half a glass of sewage; the end result is a drum of sewage especially when this is cholera contaminated sewage!
Worst of all, an NTA with Zanu PF in whatever role will never implement any meaningful democratic reforms to ensure next elections were free, fair and credible. The 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement even one reform and it is rich to expect the NTA to do any better given it is, at best, a watered down version of the 2008 GNU.
Zimbabwe is in this serious economic and political mess because the country has been stuck for the last 39 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Zimbabwe is a pariah state and the only cure of that is for the illegitimate Zanu PF regime regime to step down and give the nation the political space and time to implement the democratic reforms to restore legitimacy and rule of law.
The worst thing that can happen to Zimbabwe right now is to allow this illegitimate Zanu PF regime to remain in office under this NTA cover until 2023 so that it can rig that year’s election and extend its illegitimate tyrannical rule for yet another five more years! If we cannot assure the people of Zimbabwe of ending the pariah state before 2023 let us at least assure them that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
2018 elections were null and void, Zanu PF is illegitimate and the NTA will not change that. To guarantee free, fair and credible elections in 2023, Zanu PF must step down before those elections -that is not too much to ask!
MDC are demanding from Mnangagwa a power sharing arrangement, a National Transition Authority (NTA). The NTA is a watered down version of the 2008 to 2013 GNU which failed to implement even one reform in five years; it is clear the arrangement will achieve nothing of substance.
ReplyDeleteThe way out of the mess is for the illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down to allow the nation the political space and time to implement the reforms design to end the curse of rigged elections!
The value of the Zimbabwe dollar yesterday plunged against the United States dollar after stabilising at the weekend following the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s decision to freeze bank accounts of four companies allegedly implicated in money-laundering activities.
ReplyDeleteThe RBZ's dramatic swoop on Sakunda Holdings, Access Finance, Croco Motors and Spartan Securities bank accounts following allegations of money-laundering and undermining of the local currency last Friday, somehow stabilised the local currency at the weekend.
That was after the Zimdollar lost value, trading at 1:23 by Friday from 1:14 at the beginning of the week on the parallel market.
The local currency firmed after the freeze of the accounts, forcing the black market rates to tumble to about 1:13.
The firming of the local currency triggered premature celebrations, with some people taking to social media platforms to celebrate President Emmerson Mnangagwa's clampdown on suspected economic saboteurs, including his adviser and Command Agriculture benefactor Kudakwashe Tagwirei.
"The biggest source of these RTGS dollars chasing the US dollar is the RBZ; it should stop the habit of printing money and these quasi-fiscal activities and otherwise we are back in the Gideon Gono (former RBZ governor) era. The only difference is that Gono was printing bearer cheques and John Mangudya is printing the bond notes, but all is the same.”
“On the monetary side, yes, we have introduced one currency. For the first six weeks it remained stable, but then our people are intelligent. We have people who found ways to fight that (stability of the currency) and undermine it, but yesterday (Friday) we also became smarter than them and so we took some action,” boasted President Emerson Mnangagwa last week.
Now the local currency is back to losing its value; Mnangagwa must eat his hat!
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs - not smart by any standard - the economic meltdown will only get worse.