Zimbabweans are not yet ready to end the de facto Zanu
PF one-party dictatorship and with it the economic meltdown and political
paralysis.
Last year Mnangagwa and Zanu PF blatantly rigged
the elections. Everyone with any democratic credential worth a spit condemned
the 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 Observer
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.”
The process was so flawed and illegitimate 3
million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote; this must be
contrasted with the 2.6 million Mnangagwa says he received to win the
presidential race. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll although this
is a legal requirement.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the MDC led by
Nelson Chamisa, joined by 130 other parties and 21 other candidates for the
presidential race, contested the flawed and illegal elections. They knew Zanu
PF was going to rig the elections but they also knew the regime would give away
a few gravy-train seats as bait. It was these seats they were after.
By participating, MDC and the rest of the
opposition parties and candidate gave the elections that had otherwise “failed
to meet international standard” – a diplomatic euphemism for rigged elections –
some modicum of credibility.
The real shock in this was the reaction of the
Zimbabwean people themselves to the blatant rigging by Zanu PF and the MDC’s
selling-out! There was a deafening silence from the people; it was all water
off a duck’s back.
If the people Zimbabwe do not know what constitute
free, fair and credible elections and/or do not care that Zanu PF rig elections
and MDC provide the regime some political cover then Zimbabwe is clearly not
yet ready to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.
As if to underline the Zimbabweans’ political
inaptitude; last year they showed the whole world they have no clue what
constitutes free, fair and credible elections, this time they are mistaking Robert
Mugabe, the corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous dictator for a
hero.
Dictionary definition of a dictator will read: “A
dictator is someone who has absolute power — or who at least behaves as if they
do by bossing others around. In government, a dictator is a ruler who has total
control over a country, with no checks or balances to prevent abuse of power, typically
one who has obtained control by force (instead of through free, fair and
credible elections).”
Mugabe fits that definition perfectly!
Mugabe’s cronies and apologists have gone to town
over his heroic contribution in the fight for Zimbabwe’s independence and gloss
over the corruption and tyrannical political oppression since independence
human mistakes he should be forgiven for. This is nonsense, it was no mistake
that Zanu PF rigged the 1980 elections and all the subsequent elections that
followed these last 39 years! These were all deliberate and calculated acts to establish
and retain the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship and to secure absolute
dictatorial powers.
To dwell on Mugabe’s war time heroic and ignore
what he did after independence is to fail to recognise one basic historic fact
that not everyone who fought in the war of independence subscribed to the
common cause of freedom, justice and liberty for all. Mugabe was a mercenary
fighting for a reward, he wanted to remove the white colonial oppressors but
only to take their place.
He wanted absolute power for himself and was
prepared to ride roughshod over the ordinary people, denying them their
freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance
of Zimbabwe and even the right to life! And that is exactly what he did in 1980
and beyond! Mugabe’s hands were red with the innocent blood of over 30 000 he
murdered for selfish political gain!
The very fact that millions of Zimbabwe have been
conned into believing that Mugabe was a hero even with all the evidence of the
destroyed economy and the political oppression and murders, is proof they are
not yet ready to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. By accepting Mugabe the dictator,
the people have also accepted the Zanu PF dictatorship itself, or be it under a
new dictator Emmerson Mnangagwa, which is very much alive and thriving.
As a rule of thumb, people generally get the
government they deserve; we in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this corrupt,
incompetent, vote ring and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its
entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties! If we are so naïve and
stupid to give a ruthless dictator like Mugabe a hero’s send-off then we
deserve the dictatorship and all the suffering and deaths it has brought. There
is more suffering and deaths to come.
Mnangagwa blatantly rigged last year’s elections
and the regime is set to remain in office till 2023 and beyond. The Zanu PF
dictatorship is alive and thriving and with it comes the guaranteed economic
meltdown and political paralysis. Nothing will change until we finally decide
to pay attention and demand reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible
elections!
@ Learnmore Zuze
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100% on everything except “But again, in 2013, Mugabe reverted to his old ways. There remain fundamental questions as to how Mugabe never campaigned much in that election and how a shadowy Israeli company Nikuv was involved in that election. The result was a shocking win for Mugabe with 61% of the vote against Tsvangirai's 34%. Zimbabwe never fully recovered under Mugabe's rule.”
You failed to mention that the MDC leaders slept on the job and failed to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. With no reforms in place, Zanu PF was going to rig the elections; so there was no surprise when they rigged both the 2013 and last year’s elections!
Indeed, MDC leaders knew Zanu PF would rig the 2013 and 2018 elections but they also knew the regime would give away a few gravy-train seats and it is was these Chamisa and company were after. They knew by participating they will give the rigged elections some credibility and they did not care.
MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU by failing to implement any reforms and have continued to do so by participating in flawed and illegal elections giving the process some credibility.
Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous dictator and any Zimbabwean with half a brain will not be seen giving the dictator a hero's send-off!
ReplyDeleteAll these stories of relatives being bribed with $10 000 each only serves to underline why ordinary people must distance themselves from the whole dirty business! Mugabe was not a hero of the ordinary people!
Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has hailed former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as a hero and a martyr, following his death in the early hours of Friday morning.
ReplyDeleteMalema said this was despite the mistakes Mugabe made.
"Sometimes matters are complex and the solutions that you are providing might not be sustainable or acceptable solutions when history is giving an account of what transpired in the past. We don’t know what necessitated such conditions and we may not want to justify, especially the killing the [Ndebele] people, the young people and the women," he said.
"It does not make you a lesser hero because of the mistakes you have committed during the course of conducting the revolution."
Malema said Mugabe was a "hero of the people" and had remained so "to the grave"
Nonsense Mugabe killed the ordinary Zimbabweans during Gukurahundi and continued to kill more after that to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country with an iron fist these last 39 years. Only a village idiot like Julius Malema would call such a calculated and callous act “a mistake!”
Robert Mugabe was a corrupt and ruthless dictator to try to pass him for a hero is an insult to the people of Zimbabwe who have will continue to pay dearly for all the economic destruction and political mess he caused.
SOME 171 Zimbabweans have been affected by a recent spat of xenophobic violence while two were reportedly killed in South Africa, government has said.
ReplyDeleteInformation Minister Monica Mutsvangwa told a post-Cabinet media briefing in Harare Tuesday efforts were already underway to evacuate the affected individuals after they approached the Zimbabwean Consulate for assistance.
This is one of the products of 39 years of Mugabe and Zanu PF misrule! Only village idiots would ever consider Mugabe a hero. He was a corrupt and murderous dictator and does not deserve a hero’s send-off!
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is not fully independent institutionally and financially as it directly receives funding from Treasury, spokesperson John Makamure has said.
ReplyDeleteAddressing the business community in Nyanga on Friday last week, Makamure said the anti-graft body remained compromised because of limited resources to independently execute its duties.
"As a commission, we want to be more independent in all aspects. Even our own organisation is also infiltrated by individuals who have links in government, cartels to mention just a few. Members of our staff are also being investigated now and I will assure you they are going to be jailed," he said.
"What we have seen is deplorable. For these few months that we have started our work, there is a high number of cases which are still under investigation and they are serious — even in government and other public offices."
Zimbabwe is ranked 168 out of 175 most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.
The sick joke is on all those who were naïve and gullible to believe even for one second that ZACC was anything other than a fig leaf to the naked Adam and Eve! Makamure is admitting ZACC is not independent and has moles everywhere in one breath and in the next he says it is achieving its objectives! What a truck load of rubbish!
@ Trevor Shiri
ReplyDeleteThe death of Zimbabwe's founding father, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, whom President Emmerson Mnangagwa, described as "comrade, liberator, founder and leader", has coincided with the 10th meeting of secretaries-general and wings of Former Liberation Movements (FLMs) of Southern Africa.
Whether it was by coincidence or by God's design, the bottom line is that the meeting is symbolic as it embodies the pan-African ethos and liberation credentials that define Mugabe.
The temptation was to say, "defined" Mugabe, but the unpalatable truth is that Mugabe still lives through the legacy he left.
That indelible love and fight for Africa to unite pursuant to warding off the toxicity of neo-imperial forces.
Mugabe fought the war of independence under the banner of ending white colonial oppression and exploitation but only for him and his Zanu PF thugs to impose themselves on the nation as the new oppressors. The white colonialists never ever admitted to oppressing and exploiting the blacks; they insisted they were bringing civilization to the blacks. By the same token Mugabe and his cronies insist they liberated the people and yet have ridden roughshod over them denying them their freedom, human rights and dignity.
Mugabe died in Singapore in a five-star hospital. He was there for the last five months. The nation will never be told the true cost of his stay there but it will be no surprise that the nation was spending more on him in one day than it was spending in a month buying medicine for all the country’s government hospitals. Even big hospitals like Mpilo and Harare Hospitals have been running out of basic things like pain killer and bandages, what more the rural hospitals and clinics!
Zimbabwe’s health care, education, roads, power supply, etc., etc. have all but collapsed and it was the insatiable greed of Mugabe and his ruling elite that got us into this mess.
Mugabe has remained in power for 37 years not because the people loved him; he rigged elections and used brute force to retain power.
“What was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” he thundered in 2008 as he unleashed his party thugs, rogue war veterans and the corrupt state security machinery to punish the people for having rejected him in the earlier vote.
All those African leaders who are praising Mugabe to the high heaven as a liberator, freedom fighter, Pan-Africanist, etc., etc. know they are lying. Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous tyrant who has brought untold suffering and death to the people of Zimbabwe.
The idea that someone who fought in the liberation war cannot be anything else but a liberation hero, that a black African cannot but as corrupt and oppressive or worse as a white colonialist, etc. is just nonsense. Zimbabwe is a failed state because the country had the misfortune to be ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrants.
Mugabe was a murderous dictator; the truth and reality is there for all to see!
We cannot all be heroes just as we cannot all be beauty queens or prince charming. There is something sicken however in electing some one ugly a beauty queen and worse still declaring a corrupt and murderous dictator a hero!
ReplyDeleteAs a nation our seeming inability to attend to detail is our greatest weakness. If we cannot distinguish good from evil and treat the two as if they are one and the same thing it is no surprise we are always blundering from pillar to post!
"Our" in this case means you and your fellow Zanu PF cronies and apologists. If you are one of the 90% unemployed, or 3/4 of the population living in abject poverty, or the millions denied the vote, etc. you will never call Mugabe a hero! Never!
ReplyDelete