“My first encounter with President Robert Gabriel
Mugabe was in 2011 at the Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) Graduation
Ceremony, where he had been invited to attend an event there as the Guest of
Honour. It was at this same event that I was also invited to attend by the then
Vice Chancellor, Professor David Jambgwa Simbi after I had donated 25 heifers
and a bull to the institution towards the establishment of a herd to set up a
livestock department at the university,” you said.
Please explain to the nation where and how you had
managed to get your wealth to afford to donate 25 heifers and bull. This
happened at a time when the Zimbabwe had barely emerged from its worst economic
meltdown in 2008 when inflation had peaked at 500 billion per cent and many
businesses had collapsed. Anyone who survived the economic crunch let alone
thrive was either corrupt of a business genius!
Many of those who have praising Mugabe to the high
heavens helped the dictator establish and retain the corrupt and ruthless
dictatorship that has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for the last 39 years. They
have all had their share of the spoils of absolute power be it in getting
former white-owned farms, guaranteed public office position with the guaranteed
generous salary and allowances and the many opportunities to loot.
One of these fine days, when the dictatorship is
finally dismantled and the truth is laid bare for all to see. The nation will
know the role people like Themba Mliswa played in the wanton violence of the
2008 presidential run-off elections, for example. The nation will also know
that Mliswa did not make his great fortune from being an exceptionally gifted
business-person but was one of the Zanu PF looting elite.
"We all die....
The goal isn't to live forever,
The goal is to create something that will"
Robert Gabriel Mugabe
The man and legend,
The myth and mystery,
Truly a man of Destiny.”
Themba Mliswa praised Mugabe!
The trouble with cheap upstarts like Themba Mliswa
is that they have lived all these last 39 years in their own Zanu PF bubble and
would not see the reality of the real Zimbabwe the rest of us live in. Whilst
Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF ruling elite, including Themba Mliswa, have lived
in their palatial mansions in unparalleled luxury and leisure and the likes of Robert
Gabriel Mugabe have certainly tried “to live forever” all at public expense;
the rest of us have barely existed.
The regime has murdered over 30 000 in cold blood
for the sake of keeping Zanu PF in power. Hundreds of thousands more
Zimbabweans have died each year of poverty related causes.
Zimbabwe is in total economic ruins and the
majority have been denied their freedom, human rights, hopes and dreams by
Mugabe and his cronies to feed their insatiable greed for power and wealth. It
is no surprise that his cronies call him a hero and a legend. To the ordinary
Zimbabweans, the world at large and history, Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous
dictator!
The real regret here is not that Mugabe passed away
but that he did so before the nation could hold him to account for all his
looting and tyrannical rule. “Unfortunately, justice is the train that’s nearly
always late!” wrote Evgenii Evtushenko, Russian writer. Sadly, in Mugabe’s
case, the train is too late!
The real challenge before the people of Zimbabwe is
to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship a.s.a.p. and hold those who worked
tirelessly with Mugabe to create it and who benefited from it to democratic
account. The train of justice was too late to catch Mugabe but it must not miss
Mnangagwa, Mliswa and many of the other Zanu PF cronies.
The train must also catch opposition apologists like
Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa who sold-out and failed to dismantle the
dictatorship and net the dictator when they had the golden opportunity to do so
during the 2008 GNU.
Indeed, by participating in last year’s flawed and
illegal elections, for example, MDC have given this illegitimate Zanu PF regime
some modicum of credibility! There is no doubt that MDC leaders are corrupt and
incompetent and instead of implementing the democratic reforms and help end the
dictatorship they are impending progress of the justice train.
Themba Mliswa, you are a Zanu PF thug through and through! Your role in the harassment, beatings, rape and murders, especially in 2008 is yet to be told. You have certainly benefited from the Zanu PF dictatorship, how else would you have amassed all your wealth. Of course, you will never criticize Mugabe and will want the Zanu PF dictatorship to remain.
ReplyDeleteMugabe was a dictator and that is a historic fact. Zimbabwe is in this mess because of him and to get out, we must dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship. This is happening!
There is no doubt that MDC leaders considered Mugabe to be a national hero and so it is not surprising they failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. How could they dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship they knew Mugabe loved and had stopped at nothing including beatings, rape and even mass murders to build.
ReplyDeleteChamisa, Biti and others will never dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship because when push comes to shove they are too corrupt and incompetent to see this through. Right now MDC leaders are the ones helping Mnangagwa and this illegitimate regime stay in power all they asking from the dictator is a few seats on the gravy-train for Chamisa and a few others.
The National Transition Authority (NTA) MDC leaders are calling for is a watered down version of the last GNU. It failed to get even one reform implemented in five years it is naive to expect the NTA to do any better.
Mugabe was a dictator, he destroyed the country's economy and denied millions of Zimbabweans the freedoms and rights including the right to life itself. Those who think all this can be swept under the carpet just because the dictator is died are completely missing the point. The wrong that Mugabe has done lives after him and to honour him as a hero when he was a corrupt and murderous dictator is insane because you will be honouring for the evil he has done.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the dictator is died but the dictatorship he created is alive and thriving. Honouring the dead dictator will be the greatest encouragement Mnangagwa and the rest want to carry on where Mugabe left off!
MDC leaders are attending Mugabe's funeral to underline how much they respected the dictator and hence why they failed to implement even one reform in five years to dismantle the dictatorship.
Mugabe died in a five-star hospital and would not be seen died in any of Zimbabwe's substandard hospitals. So what are these Zanu PF apologists complaining about!
ReplyDeleteMugabe died in a five-star hospital and would not be seen died in any of Zimbabwe's substandard hospitals. So what are these Zanu PF apologists complaining about!
ReplyDeleteIt is bad enough when one cannot separate the goats from the sheep but to fail to separate a dictator from a hero; even when one has a mountain of evidence of the corruption, looting, beatings and cold blood murders Mugabe committed; is to fail to separate sheep from hyenas! A nation that is so inapt is a nation in serious trouble - of course, Zimbabwe is in serious trouble!
ReplyDeleteDuring his 37-year authoritarian leadership, Zimbabwe descended from prosperity to economic crisis marked by hyperinflation, unemployment and a drastic drop in living conditions for its 16 million people
ReplyDeleteWednesday’s subdued airport gathering was a far cry from the tumultuous crowd of 100,000 that swarmed the airport in January 1980 to welcome Mugabe back after years in exile. That boisterous greeting rocked Rhodesia and was a dramatic signal that its days of white minority rule were numbered. Within months Mugabe was elected president and sworn in as the leader of the new nation of Zimbabwe
Mugabe a corrupt and murderous tyrant and not a national hero by any stretch of the imagination!
The people of Zimbabwe would have shown what they real think of the tyrant if Zimbabwe was under democratic rule and not the Zanu PF dictatorship. There is no doubt many of the people who attended the dictator’s funeral did not dare say no.
While everyone has a right to have their opinion about Mugabe and his legacy, it is very wrong to force other people to share the same view about the man.
ReplyDeleteThere has been some sort of a drive on social media against those who decide to celebrate Mugabe’s legacy in a positive manner to look like they are out of touch with reality.
Mugabe was a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant; this is a matter of historic fact. Those who decide to swept that reality under the carpet and dwell on selective memory because they benefited from the dictatorship are insulting those who suffered under the dictatorship by painting a false picture.
Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous dictator and not a hero no one has the choice to change historic facts!
Besides by sweeping the historic facts under the carpet are we not encouraging the dictatorship he left behind, which is alive and thriving, to continue unchanged! Why would Mnangagwa and company accept democratic change if they are heroes!
Even Chamisa has admitted that MDC leaders "sat, ate and did nothing during the GNU"! You can deny that MDC leaders sold-out all you want, that will not change the historic facts that they did.
ReplyDeleteEver since the GNU, when MDC leaders felt they were now accept members of the Zimbabwe ruling elite, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have made a big song and dance about being critical of Zanu PF but when it mattered they have cooperated with Zanu PF. Of course, MDC leaders knew with no reforms in place Zanu PF would rig the elections. They also knew that Zanu PF would give away a few seats to entice the opposition to participate and these were what MDC leaders were after.
"MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" Chamisa boasted before last year's elections. He knew that was just hot air. He cooperated and contested the elections even when ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll.
Chamisa and his MDC friends are more concerned about keeping the balance of the ruling elite, Zanu PF is the dominant party and MDC are the official opposition, and they real do not care that the millions of ordinary people are still denied their basic freedoms and rights.
Of course, Chamisa and company do not care that Mugabe has murdered so many innocent Zimbabweans, their suffering and deaths are nothing. The death of Mugabe has more meaning to them than that of the over 30 000 he had murdered in his 37 years in power. The circumstance of the his death, a natural one, has moved they to tears more than of his victims' deaths, cold blooded murdered for selfish political gain, ever could. He is more human than they could ever be!
@ Stop-a-thief
ReplyDeleteEven you cannot deny that MDC leaders have long since abandoned the cause to implement reforms and deliver democratic change in Zimbabwe. SADC leaders accepted this political reality at the end of the 2008 to 2013 GNU and have since ignored MDC leaders as a waste of time. The international community too deserted MDC in droves after the rigged 2013 elections.
If you think that the EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and all those who condemned last year's elections as a farce were not aware of MDC leaders' duplicity, then you are naive. Of course, the EU could see that MDC leaders were pretending these were genuine elections for the sake of giving Zanu PF some credibility in return for the few gravy-train seats Zanu PF gave away as a reward.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is real and serious and this country cannot afford to bury its collective head in the sand and pretend MDC leaders are ever going to deliver the political change the nation is dying for. How much worse do the situation have to get before we open our eyes!
Mohadi is believed to be one of the richest people in Beitbridge and previously ran a storage company called Malindi which has a contract with the government owned Zimra to process the storage and clearance of imported vehicles in the border town.
ReplyDeleteTambudzani claimed that she is now surviving from a minimal allowance from her position as a Senator.
In her application Tambudzani insisted that it was just and equitable for her to be awarded the sum of $13 394 as maintenance, an amount which would enable her to enjoy and maintain a standard of living reasonably comparable to the standard of living she used to enjoy while living with Mohadi.
Understand this and you understand why Mnangagwa and his coup plotters risked life and limb to wrestle power from Mugabe and why they went on to rig elections. After decades of extravagant lifestyle giving it all up was simply unthinkable!
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has only helped to harden their resolve to hold on to power at all cost. They have seen how quickly other Zanu PF members sunk into poverty as soon as they lost political power, even if they remained party members. Party grandees like the late Enos Nkala and Nathan Shamuyarira died paupers.
Zanu PF destroyed the nation’s economy and it is totally unacceptable that the party should now hold the nation to ransom, the party thugs will rather die than give up power, just to be certain of retaining their extravagant lifestyles to life! If we are ever going to force Zanu PF to give up power then we need to be a lot more focused and determined – qualities that MDC leaders do not have.
Those foolish enough to embrace Mugabe as a hero are by extension embracing the Zanu PF dictatorship and all those part and parcel of the regime. The greater the acclaim Mugabe gets the greater the legitimacy of this Zanu PF regime - or be it illegitimate after rigging last year's elections.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe’s central bank raised its main interest rate to 70% to stabilize a plummeting currency and rein in surging inflation.
ReplyDeleteThe rate was increased from 50% “to take account of developments on inflation and the exchange rate,” central bank Governor John Mangudya said in a statement. “The bank expects inflation to start declining after the current high-inflation cycle ends, as attested by ebbing exchange-rate depreciation pressures, following the removal of the multi-currency system.”
The Zimbabwe dollar, a precursor of which was pegged to the dollar at parity as recently as February, is currently trading at almost 13 per dollar and annual inflation, which won’t be published until next February, is estimated at between 230% and 570%.
“The increase in the benchmark rate is an important step, but it’s still below the inflation rate, which is above 200%,” John Robertson, a Harare-based economist, said by phone. “I think by the end of the year, the inflation rate will still remain very high.”
This is just voodoo economics! Who would want to borrow money and invest in any business activity when interest rate charges are 70%? With inflation at 200% who would ever want to be paid in a currency that is so worthless it is losing half its value every few days!
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. No one in his/her right mind would want to do business with thugs and hence the reason the country’s economy is economic meltdown and will never recover as long as the country remains a pariah state.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies rigged last year’s elections confirming the country’s pariah state status. The regime is illegitimate and it must step down to allow implementing of reforms and retain to legitimacy.