There is no denying that President Mnangagwa’s trade-mark “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call is dead in the water. Instead of putting the Zimbabwe economy back on track, the economic meltdown has taken a decidedly turn for the worse.
The country is facing shortages of cash, fuel, power supply, medicine, food, you name it! The country’s hyperinflation, marking the high mark of the country’s 2008 economic collapse, is back with a vengeance. Inflation has soar from single digit in January to 400% plus now.
The regime has stubbornly refused to increase the wages of the doctors, nurses, teachers and other civil servants in desperate attempt to contain the runaway hyperinflation. In an act of absolute folly, the regime has fired doctors for demand a living wage; they are paid a misery US$ 40 per month; delivering the coup de grace to the health service!
The hyperinflation is expected to continue to soar fuelled by gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, etc. The regime has just awarded the top brass in the security services as much as 600% wage increases and the wholesale looting in the diamond industry continues, for example.
President Mnangagwa is clearly aware that he has failed to revive the economy; he, just like Mugabe, does not want to accept any blame and is blaming the failure on drought, cyclone Idai and, Zanu PF’s hot favourite, the sanctions. He knows that the people are not going to suffer and die quietly like sheep in a slaughter house and has reverted to his default position of using overwhelming brutal force to cow down the nation into silent submission.
As long as Zimbabwe’s economic situation does not improve, people will continue to voice their suffering regardless of the brutal violence from the regime. People are not sheep, they will never be cowed into suffering and dying in silence forever. The pressure for meaningful political change is mounting and is coming from all quarters.
“Zimbabwe Self-exiled G40 kingpin Professor Jonathan Moyo and MDC-ALLIANCE leader Mr Nelson Chamisa have allegedly written a letter to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and selected SADC leaders requesting for them to push for exclusive dialogue between President Mnangagwa and Mr Chamisa, outside the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD),” reported The Herald.
“The letter dubbed "Open Letter to President Ramaphosa" was not sent through official channels, but has been distributed to five newspapers, among them the Sunday Times for publication on Sunday, Kenyan sources said.”
This is just a waste! Any solution giving or likely to give Zanu PF any meaningful role in charting the way forward is doomed because the party is NOT going to implement any meaningful democratic reforms. As long as Zanu PF is allow to stay in office; be it in the National Transition Authority (NTA) which is what MDC is proposing; we can be 100% certain of one thing - the party will see to it that no meaningful democratic reforms are implemented.
“Zanu PF is not going to reform itself out of office!” Professor Jonathan Moyo once boasted, during his Zanu PF days! He was booted out of the party in the November 2017 coup, still when it comes to embracing democratic change, the party has not yielded one inch.
So the only sure way to make sure Zanu PF does not play any role in determining the way forward in Zimbabwe is to make sure the party is not even invited to the discussion.
Indeed, the nation is in this political mess precisely because Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and granting the party any meaningful role going forward is just another way of rewarding Mnangagwa and company for rigging the elections. They should be punished and not rewarded.
SA’s President Ramaphosa and SADC cannot play any meaningful role in ending Zimbabwe’s current political crisis because, by endorsing the rigged elections as free and fair and Zanu PF as the winner, they have soiled their own hands. SADC leaders have their hands tied, they have to invite Zanu PF to the talks and expect the party to play a dominant role going forward.
So if Zanu PF cannot be part of the solution in Zimbabwe whoever is initiating the political dialogue must, necessarily, have the authority to reaffirm the political reality that last year’s elections were indeed flawed, illegal and therefore null and void. And that this Zanu PF regime is per se illegitimate and therefore the party has no legal basis for claiming, as a right, any role going forward. Both SADC and AU leaders lack that political authority since they soiled their hands by accepting last year’s rigged elections.
Only the UN has the authority and gravitas to president over Zimbabwe’s political crisis and stand a chance of producing a real working solution that will get us out of this mess.
I agree with you 100%, anyone who still believes that Zanu PF can implement the democratic reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections is brain dead. After 39 years of appeasing Zanu PF by allowing the party to rig elections and stay in power this insanity cannot be allowed to rule the day.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF rigged last year's elections and the party must be forced to step down, at the very least!
If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power till 2023 then that will be yet another betrayal of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe. No stone will be left unturned in the fight to stop that!
Said Charamba, "TWI-PROTOCOL? Interesting that well-known oppositional twi-voices seek to teach is how to welcome and love our leaders! Itsitsi dzei? For the record, ED who is Head of State and President of Zimbabwe does not - repeat - DOES NOT receive his Deputy. In the same vein, the Chinese Ambassador who personifies the Chinese State here in Zimbabwe WILL NOT receive a Vice President of the State to which he is accredited. Protocol does not allow both cases. For the record, President Mnangagwa and his Deputy enjoyed daily communication while the VP was away.”
ReplyDeleteThis is laughable! Why is this regime making a big deal of this? This is only serving to fuel the rumour that all is not well in Chibuku House, Zanu PF HQ.
@Witness Bote
ReplyDeleteWe must force this illegitimate and failed Zanu PF regime to step down so we can finally implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections, our only guarantee for an accountable government. Only then can we start at looking at the economy and what needs to be done. What is the point of Zanu PF promising 2 million new jobs, the party fails to create any and there is nothing we can do about it, for example!
Nkrumah's slogan, “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you,” Independent Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah used to say. There is a lot of truth in that simple statement!
Of course, we are in this political and economic mess precisely because we have failed to remove Zanu PF from power regards of all the evidence Mugabe and company were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. We did not have the political power to remove them from power, all we had was an illusion of power because our votes counted for nothing!
After 39 years of rigged elections it is shocking that some people faithful go through the same routine hoping that this time their vote will count and they will finally remove Zanu PF from office. Of course, these people are insane!
The curse of rigged elections is the elephant in the room; we must deal with it and stop monkeying around!
Zanu-PF Chiredzi West Member of Parliament (MP) Farai Musikavanhu has defended his stance to deny opposition MDC members and supporters access to government-run food aid scheme, saying people who did not ‘respect' President Emmerson Mnangagwa did not deserve to benefit.
ReplyDeleteThis is the political reality, especially in the rural areas! This is what makes elections a farce! The only reason MDC and other opposition politicians ignore this is that they are content winning the few seat in the urban centre and do not care that the rural voters continue to be abused.
We need to wake to the political reality that MDC and the rest in the opposition camp have sold-out on the principle cause of free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe. They are now running with the hare and hunting with the hounds!
After the rigged elections of 2008, SADC leaders condemned those elections and not the reflection of the democratic wishes of the people. SADC leaders refuse to recognise Mugabe and Zanu PF as the legitimate government. They pressured Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies to sign onto the Global Political Agreement demanding the raft of democratic reforms and agree to formation of the GNU with MDC which was tasked to implement the forms, as the only way to restore democratic legitimacy.
ReplyDeleteThis time, post 2018 elections, things are totally different; SADC leaders have already endorse last year's elections as having been free, fair and credible and Mnangagwa and Zanu PF as the legitimate winners. He has been in government now for over a year. So SADC leaders cannot reverse their decision and condemn the elections and call this Zanu PF regime illegitimate. The best the can do is pressure Mnangagwa to include MDC leaders in his government in a format more formal than POLAD.
SADC cannot spell out, much less force their implementation. reforms the super POLAD must implement since last year's elections were free, fair and credible.
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis is the country's failure to remove this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime from power. because elections are not free, fair and credible. A super POLAD is not going to get Zanu PF to implement the necessary reforms to cure ourselves of this curse of rigged elections. That is why this super-duper POLAD is just a waste of time.
Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis has dragged the nation onto the very edge of the precipice; we need a solution and not gimmick. This Zanu PF and MDC power sharing arrangement is a gimmick, nothing more!
The only solution is for Zanu PF to step down to allow for a competent body to finally implement the democratic reforms we all know are absolutely necessary. The most rational reason why Zanu PF must step down is that the regime is illegitimate because the party rigged last year’s elections. Since SADC and AU cannot say that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, then we must find a body that condemned last year’s elections and can now repeated this with the authority of have been proven right!
Former Nkayi South legislator and Bulawayo businessman, Abednico Bhebhe has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of running down the economy and challenged him to admit failure.
ReplyDeleteBhebhe, who is the organising secretary for the MDC led by Thokozani Khupe, said he does not believe the talks between Mnangagwa and fringe opposition parties will produce any tangible results.
Khupe's MDC is part of the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) that brings together leaders of political parties that took part in last year's presidential elections, excluding the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. The formation of POLAD with the fringe opposition parties did not change the reality of the pariah state. The addition of Chamisa to form a super-duper POLAD, in which Zanu PF is forced to share power with MDC, will not change the essential nature of this government. Zimbabwe will still be a pariah state.
Chamisa says he “has the key to unlock economic recovery”; that is just nonsense. How will Chamisa force Mnangagwa to admit that Zanu PF leaders are corrupt and incompetent and therefor they must be removed from office, for example? If he can, then why did he failed to do so in 2008 to 2013 when he and his fellow MDC friends were in government?
Bhebhe is right POLAD is a waste of time but so too is this Zanu PF and MDC power sharing arrangement Chamisa is crying day and night for!
On Thursday, the two parties held a second edition of the re-engagement meetings in which the EU impressed on the government delegation that Harare had to be serious with reforms.
ReplyDeleteIn a joint statement released after the meeting, the EU noted that economic and political reforms, including the fight against corruption, was the panacea to solving the problems devilling Zimbabweans.
"The EU noted the economic and political reforms agenda, including fighting corruption. The two sides agreed on the importance of reforms and their benefit to Zimbabwean people," the statement read.
EU and Zimbabwe also acknowledged the commitment to national dialogue, but government remained adamant that dialogue would only be held under the Political Actors Dialogue platform, shutting doors to possible direct talks between Mnangagwa and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa.
"The Zimbabwean side underlined the call by His Excellency the President for all political parties to join the Political Actors' Dialogue as unity of purpose among Zimbabweans and political parties was central to developing a mutual vision for Zimbabwe's path into the future," the statement further read.
The meeting came barely two days after South Africa urged Chamisa and Mnangagwa to talk to solve the economic and political crisis in the country.
South African International Relations and Co-operation minister Naledi Pandor said Zimbabwe had political and economic crises caused by the antipathy between its political leaders.
We are going round and round in circles here and all because Zanu PF is pretending that it does not understand what constitutes free, fair and credible elections and the EU is foolishly, it must be said, indulging the regime by pretending not to see the Zanu PF pretence!
How long have we been talking of the need for Zanu PF to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections? Donkey years now! The EU Election Observer Mission last year reported that these elections were NOT “traceable, transparent and verifiable”. Zanu PF did not even produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!
Mnangagwa pretended to be blind, deaf and dumb and declared last year’s elections “the freest and fairest elections in Zimbabwe’s history”.
Whilst the Americans, Canadians and a few other nations and organisation imposed sanctions and/or refuse to re-engage the Zanu PF regime for rigging the elections, EU nations lifted the sanction under the pretext on getting Zanu PF “to commit to implement reforms”, as if the regime did not know about the reform before the elections.
Even if Zanu PF was to implement the reforms NOW, how will that change the political reality on the ground - we have a corrupt, incompetent and murderous regime in power today! Worst of all, if Zanu PF is allowed to remain in power till 2023 we can be 100% certain the party will rig those elections - regardless of the reforms it has implemented. The party will be sure if it presented the EU with another fait accompli of a rigged elections the grouping will pretend not to see the blatant act and start another re-engagement process to get the reforms implemented!
Like it or not, Zanu PF will never implement the democratic reforms as long as the [arty knows that the EU will never do anything to show the reforms are necessary and MUST be implemented. Zanu PF has the added advantage of having a corrupt and incompetent opposition parties who will continue to participated in flawed and illegal elections.
It is infuriating that we have sell-out opposition politicians but what makes the situation utterly intolerable in the fight for basic human rights and freedoms one should have to fight EU members too, whose indifference and hypocrisy is helping Zanu PF ignore our cry for justice!
THE opposition MDC has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of setting up a "vicious" crack team comprising members of the Police Support Unit, army and the Central Intelligence Organisation to suppress demonstrations.
ReplyDeleteThe team is allegedly being trained at a local army barracks.
We have all known that this Zanu PF regime rigged last year’s elections and is therefore illegitimate. The only reason MDC participated in the elections is out of greed. Zanu PF knows that as long as the party allows a few MDC leaders win a few gravy train seats MDC leaders like Tendai Biti will continue to participate in these flawed and illegal elections.
We should not be surprise that Zanu PF is resorting to barbarism and violence to retain its iron grip on power. Mnangagwa bought his legitimacy with the few gravy train seats and now fells he has the right to use force to retain power. MDC leaders are being hypocrites to complain about Zanu PF barbarism when they are the ones who sold-out to the regime and were paid the thirty pieces of silver.
Indeed, MDC is just paying lip service in their condemnation of Zanu PF thuggery. Tendai Biti and his fellow MDC friends on the gravy train right now should resign in protest at Zanu PF’s failure to revive the economy, the collapse of the country’s health care service, the “shoot to kill!” standing orders, etc.
MDC leaders are no longer fighting for democratic changes, for free, fair and credible elections, etc.; they are happy with the scraps Zanu PF is giving away as bait.
It is the people of Zimbabwe themselves who must wake up to the political reality that MDC leaders are running with the hare and hunting with the hounds; have been doing this ever since the 2008 GNU!
"People hoped for change but what it has proven is that nothing has changed. We are still back to the old days," Chamisa told the media.
ReplyDelete"If anything, Mr. Mugabe is now looking like a small boy when it comes to the manual of dictatorship.
"Mnangagwa has scaled new levels of dictatorship, literally showing that he was indeed the man who was behind the dictatorship we have seen in this country.
"He is simply the dictator we must be able to confront.”
MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC failed to implement even one reform. NOT ONE!
By participating in these flawed and illegal elections, time and time again, MDC are the ones keeping this Zanu PF dictatorship in power by giving the illegitimate regime the modicum of credibility.
Chamisa is not angry with Mnangagwa because he rigged the 2018 elections, he is using brutal violence against innocent people, etc. Chamisa is angry with Mnangagwa because after participating in the flawed and illegal 2018 elections and thus giving the thug some modicum of credibility Chamisa is frustrated that Mnangagwa has not rewarded him with a seat on the gravy train!
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections,” Chamisa insisted. This was just a feeble excuse to justify why MDC was contesting the flawed and illegal elections.
MDC has since admitted that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections but would not put their money where their mouth is by resigning. Zanu PF has 2/3 majority and so is free to do as it please, MDC will not change anything. The only reason why MDC leaders like Tendai Biti will never resign is the same reason they insisted in contesting flawed elections - GREED!
The people of Zimbabwe must now wake up to the reality that MDC are running with the hare and hunting with the hounds!
@ Eric
ReplyDeleteJonso, Grace Mugabe, Patrick Zhuwao and many other G40 leaders knows that Chamisa and his MDC friends are corrupt and incompetent; the G40 leaders need a conduit to get back into power and they can buy their way back using MDC as the stalking horse. They have the money to bribe Chamisa and company and that is exactly what is going on here.
The way the military justified its political manoeuvres were similar to justifications used by other military forces in Africa since the 1960s. Crucially, the military also violated Zimbabwe’s constitution by deploying without the president’s authorisation.
ReplyDeleteThese and other indicators that the military’s action was a coup went largely unrecognised at the time by many commentators and journalists. Mugabe was also a demonised politician, particularly by sections of the Western media and diplomats, who were keen to see him leave political office.
The more coups have become widely unacceptable in Africa since the early 2000s, the more pervasive strategic uses and misuses of the term coup have become. Mugabe’s international adversaries chose not to call the military’s intervention a coup, lest that saved him from an ignominious fall from power. In a volte-face, when Mugabe died in September 2019, Western media and diplomats often described him, in their obituaries and commentaries on his political career, as having lost power in a military coup.
Subjective uses of the word coup risk banalising and misrepresenting a term that has a clear meaning. Patrick McGowan, an accomplished researcher on coups in Africa, has offered a usefully precise definition. Coups are ejections from power of political leaders, through unmistakably unconstitutional means, mainly by part of the army: “Either on their own or in conjunction with civilian elites such as civil servants, politicians and monarchs.” Zimbabwe’s 2017 coup played out along the lines of McGowan’s definition.
Whether events in Bolivia constitute a military coup will become clearer in the coming weeks and months as researchers and investigative journalists uncover the elite politics at play behind the scenes and the exact motivations of Kaliman and his fellow military commanders.
In the aftermath
In Zimbabwe today, the state of affairs looks much like the aftermath of first-time coups seen in African countries such as Benin in 1963 or Uganda in 1971. First-time coups are often extremely popular, so a government that emerges as a result of such a “maiden” coup commands significant legitimacy early on.
But that legitimacy soon fades when pledges to deliver a credible post-coup election and to conduct substantive political, social and economic reforms do not materialise. As legitimacy wanes, authoritarianism re-emerges.
This is a key part of the post-coup situation in Zimbabwe today. Two years on, reforms are cosmetic and proceed slowly. And an election held in July 2018 was not deemed credible by Commonwealth, European Union and American election observers. Legitimacy has dwindled and authoritarianism returned, as demonstrated by the military’s strong repression of protests against fuel price increases in January 2019.
Mugabe was illegitimate, and no one knew that better than Mnangagwa and his fellow coup junta goons for it was them who had rigged the elections to keep Mugabe and Zanu PF in power. And so when a hatred and illegitimate president was forced out of office the seriousness of that crime is certainly tampered by the reality that the victim was himself a criminal of an equally serious treasonous act!
Mnangagwa and his junta were criminals before the coup and the coup only compounded their criminal record. It is therefore naive to talk on their “legitimacy waning” because they never had any legitimacy. The coup was to consolidate their Zanu PF dictatorial iron grip on power and not to reduce it. Mnangagwa promised free, fair and credible elections but it was clear from word go that was lip service. He was boasting that Zanu PF will continue rule whilst those calling for reforms continue to bark! Anyone who ever expected, even for one minute, the junta to hold free and fair elections is naive!
Zimbabwe has the misfortune of having a ruling party of corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs, a host of equally corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians and, to crown it all, not so clever regional leaders. SA's Cyril Ramaphosa is not as corrupt as Jacob Zuma and not as dumb as Thabo Mbeki but other than that has very little else to offer!
ReplyDeleteHow any of the SADC leaders allowed themselves to be conned into believing Mnangagwa's sanctions bull given the mountain of evidence of Zanu PF corruption and miss management, beggars belief!
SADC leaders shot themselves in the leg by endorsing the Zanu PF rigged elections and now they cannot call Zanu PF illegitimate and save Zimbabwe from Mnangagwa's crushing autocratic rule.