"We cannot allow isolated voices, which have no platforms, speaking more than us (Polad) who are a collective. Collective voices should be heard more than isolated voices in the jungle," said Mnangagwa.
"I am happy that we all accept that peace is critical … harmony is equally important. If we all preach peace, unity and harmony in the country, then we expose those who have brought suffering (in the country). If it is my party which has brought suffering or violence, it must be condemned and also any other party, whether in Polad or in the wilderness."
"I see that with the spirit of Polad, we can sustain this conversation, this dialogue. But we need to be more vocal, to be heard, to pronounce ourselves on all issues, to show that we are alive, vibrant. We need to show that we are working on all issues that affect this country.”
Mnangagwa is just a village thug who is too clever by half! He thinks he can continue to claim the moral high ground of the peacemaker by hold high the olive branch and yet the dagga in his other hand is dripping with the blood of more of his wanton violence victims.
“If it is my party which has brought suffering or violence, it must be condemned!”
Anyone who is anyone condemned last year’s elections as a farce.
“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 Election Observer Mission final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Zanu PF blatantly denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote, for Pete’s sake! How are Zimbabweans supposed to judge you when you deny them a democratic voice!
As much as you, President Mnangagwa would like to claim that last year’s elections were free, fair and credible the truth is they were not.
As much as you want to claim the ZEC results were “the voice of the people, the voice of God!” the truth with with no verified voters’ roll no one could ever verified whether those people were real or fake!
Today Zimbabwe is facing a real and immediate existential threat, the economic meltdown is cause serious human suffering and unnecessary lose of lives. The country’s health care, for example, has all but completely collapsed and hundreds of people are dying of easily treatable ailments. The situation cannot be allowed to continue. The country needs a way out.
The only way out is for Zanu PF to accept that the party rigged last year’s elections, step down and allow the nation to reset its failed political system. Step down now, with each day this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime remains in power hundreds of innocent lives are lost and the nation is being dragged closer and close to the edge of the precipitous abyss.
After 39 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical lawlessness; Zanu PF must go now. Enough is enough, Zimbabwe has had enough of these Zanu PF thugs!
@ Obey
ReplyDelete“So who is going to implement the reforms sir and how?”
First, let us agree that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and that the regime has no mandate to govern. None!
Second, let us agree that Zanu PF must step down to create the political space for an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the reforms.
Third, we must agree that Zanu PF is holding the nation to ransom by refusing to step down when the party has clearly no democratic mandate to govern. And we must agree that no nation worth its salt can ever allow itself to be held to ransom.
Fourth, let me assure you that the task of finding competent men and women to implement the reforms will be the easiest of the tasks before us. The international community will only be glad to help. They have just poured US$29 million to feed starving Zimbabweans, they will be only too glad to see the country able to feed itself again or better still be the breadbasket of the region!
DISCORD has once again hit President Emmerson Mnangagwa's advisory council, with some of its members increasingly questioning the government's policies publicly. This comes as Mnangagwa has lashed out at some of the counsellors in recent months for allegedly leaking confidential information to the media.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, it has also emerged that Mnangagwa and his Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) have also not met for a while. The president's spokesperson, George Charamba, confirmed at the weekend that the PAC had not met for some time.
Commenting on the reported discord in the PAC, he would only say that some of his boss's advisers held strong opinions "which they were entitled to”.
Zimbabwe has one of the biggest parliament, senate and cabinet per capita in the world. Where Mnangagwa has decided to expand on this and appoint a 26 member PAC and a 30 member strong POLAD to advise him. Whatever policy government is following it is not clear which body initiated the policy, had a meaningful say in it, etc. It is not even clear whether anyone is responsible for coordinating these policies just to be sure there is no conflict.
The nation has seen Finance Minister issue monetary statements one day and RBZ doing the exact opposite the next day.
What is nauseating in all this is that it is none other than Mnangagwa who appointed every member in his already bloated cabinet. If he is not happy with their performance he should just replace them instead of relying on PAC and POLAD.
The sinister purpose of appointing these super numeral bodies is to create super powerful president who govern alone since he can ignore cabinet under the pretext that he is getting advice from PAC and POLAD. But since PAC and POLAD are not statutory bodies, he can ignore them too and does!
It is common knowledge that the real power during Mugabe’s days was the Joint Operations Command (JOC), a junta comprising the top brass in the Police, Army, CIO and Prison Service plus a select few from Zanu PF headed by Mugabe himself. JOC was not a statutory body, with minutes takers, etc. Mugabe met with JOC members as and when he pleased and members rarely if at all met without his knowledge.
Power shifted from cabinet to JOC but since the latter was informal power had in reality shifted from cabinet to Mugabe.
Mnangagwa has all but disbanded JOC and replace it with PAC and POLAD. Mnangagwa is the sole source of all power and authority in Zimbabwe! He is a man of foggy ideas and it is little wonder the country has blundered from pillar to post. We are in for a catastrophic crush, of that we can be certain!
“The colonial-era injustices, the liberation war era injustices, and post-independence injustices must all be negated through a national process of truth-telling, nation-building, national healing and rehabilitative restorative justice,” said MDC statement.
ReplyDeleteCharity begins at home! MDC must start by admitting the party leaders sold-out big time by failing to get even one democratic reform implemented during the GNU. If they had not taken their eyes off the ball the country will not still be in this mess stuck with these vote rigging thugs.
Chamisa was warned repeatedly not to take part in last year’s elections until reforms are implemented. He did not listen.
“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” he insisted. What happened to the stringent measures?????
Chamisa is demanding the formation of the National Transition Authority and is once again insisting the power sharing arrangement will “implement comprehensive reforms”. This is nonsense, Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in this parliament and it will never agree to meaningful reforms. Never!
Zimbabwe is in serious trouble, the economic meltdown is causing heart breaking human suffering and easily avoidable deaths. The country needs workable solution and not grandstanding gimmicks.
MDC leaders have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs. They should have all apologised to the nation for they betrayal and retired from the political stage years ago. They only reason these sell-out are still active is because they taking advantage of their MDC supporters who hardly know their left from right who continue to support and follow them like sheep to the slaughter. The leaders have their eyes on the gravy train seats and will happily sell-out the nation again.
"This is not the unity Joshua Nkomo signed for," said Chamisa.
ReplyDelete"The MDC will continue to fight for a truly united Zimbabwe where the ideals of freedom, democracy, peace, and reform belong to every citizen of our beloved nation."
What Global Political Agreement did MDC sign for in 2008? You lot failed to get even one meaningful reform implemented in five years! And now you want the nation to believe MDC is still fighting for free, fair and credible elections and yet you continue to participate in flawed and illegal elections giving the process credibility out of selfish greedy.
MDC used to run with hare and hunt with the hounds but now you lot are sleeping with the enemy! MDC will never every get Zimbabwe out of the mess it is in because the party leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs!
Zanu PF would like the nation to remember the 1987 Unity Accord with PF Zapu but not the Gukurahundi massacre that brought about that unity.
ReplyDeleteMugabe had always wanted Zimbabwe to have a one-party state, a Zanu PF one-party state naturally. In 1980 PF Zapu was certainly the most formidable and credible political opponent to Mugabe and Zanu PF. The Gukurahundi massacre was designed to wipe out PF Zapu and allow Zanu PF to impose the one-party state.
Mugabe needed an excuse for imposing a one-party state and so he claimed that multi-party system was a threat to peace, unity and development. A feeble excuse since the country has not seen any of these things since the imposition of the one-party dictatorship.
What makes Mugabe's claim that the Unity Accord brought peace so sickening is that he is the one who instigated the Gukurahundi massacre breaking the peace the country was enjoying then and has done so repeatedly since signing the accord, whenever his strangle hold on power was threatened.
In other words Zanu PF has used violence to hold the nation hostage to the party's corrupt and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship. After 39 years of this tyranny, with the country now in a serious mess the people of Zimbabwe must other stand up and demand an end to the dictatorship or the regime will drag the nation into the abyss.
“The issues which concern us I think remain economic issues,” said Mnangagwa.
ReplyDelete“The point of focus is how do we resuscitate our economy. In my view, there is no benefit in talking about how the economy collapsed under Zanu PF. None of us should live in the past.”
Mnangagwa added, “We cannot live in the past. We can only learn from the past to improve our future. It is necessary that we focus on current issues, benefiting from the wisdom of the past and the foolishness of the past.”
The trouble with tyrants is that they hear only what they want to hear. Only Mnangagwa has heard, so far at least, is that “Zanu PF is responsible for collapsing the economy”. He has not heard that there will be no meaningful economic recovery as long as the Zanu PF thugs remain in office.
There is a distinct possibility that Mnangagwa and his cronies are determined to remain in power NO MATTER WHAT and so they will never ever hear the last bit about them stepping down. Mugabe only heard the step down after someone pointed a gun to his temple. Mnangagwa and his cronies may not be so lucky, the guy holding the gun to their temple may have a twitchy finger!
POLAD is about corralling the opposition into a herd feed them with scraps just as Mugabe did to MDC leaders throughout the five years of the GNU. Mnangagwa has already allocated $88 million and will pay even more from other sources.
ReplyDeleteThe regime may have no money to pay doctors, nurses, teachers, etc. but make no mistake it has money to pay these corrupt and useless opposition politicians generously allowances, just to keep them quiet. "Vhara muromo!" as one would say in Shona.
@ Dumba
ReplyDeleteIn a healthy and functioning democracy the party that wins the elections gets on with the business of governing the country. The purpose of the opposition is to hold the government of the day to account.
What we have in Zimbabwe is a regime that has already run out of ideas how to govern and so is fishing for ideas from the opposition under this POLAD umbrella. Mnangagwa will not get any solutions from that lot, because they are not particularly clever themselves. What Mnangagwa will get from those in POLAD is their sheepish support of what he is doing, which as we know is nothing much!
In a festive season statement signed by the its secretary general, Japhet Moyo Friday, ZCTU said the year has been disastrous for the country’s working class.
ReplyDelete“It is a year workers would want to forget quickly and a year that can be best described as ‘annus horribilis’. The much-anticipated improvement to the plight of the working people did not materialise.
“Working people of Zimbabwe have been confronted with, among others: poverty, slavery wages that have failed to match the poverty datum line of $5 000, shocking price increases and inflation levels topping 500 percent, high income tax policies that is punitive to the workers,” said Moyo.
Well if the truth was told, and it must be told, almost every successive year since independence has been “annus horribilis” for the workers. There is nothing ZCTU can ever say it did to mitigate Zimbabwe’s relentless economic decline much less deliver an “annus mirabilis” for the nation.
It is unconceivable that in 39 years the labour movement did not have even one opportunity to successfully stand up for the workers. In deed one of the greatest failures of ZCTU is blind loyalty to the MDC leaders particularly during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when it was clear the MDC leaders were selling-out!
Ten cases of suspected typhoid have been reported in Glen View, a Harare suburb which has over the years been a hot spot for cholera.
ReplyDeleteThis was confirmed by Harare City Council Health Services Director Dr Prosper Chonzi who told ZTN that residents have been reporting to the clinics.
This is a nightmare!
Political negotiations in Zimbabwe will continue to be held under the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) and former South African president Mr Thabo Mbeki has not indicated that talks be held outside this platform, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.
ReplyDeletePOLAD is just a five legged hare. The nation has some real serious problems to tackle such as the 90% unemployment rate, collapsed public health and the economy in a comatose state. This nation cannot afford to waste time on such a frivolous and foolish pursuit as searching for the mythical five legged hare. What good POLAD bring to the nation?
POLAD was launched in May with the usual song and dance and heralded as the panacea to all the nation’s ills. And yet things have got progressively worse and not better. What new idea has has POLAD come up with in its eight months of existence?
What would adding Chamisa to this utterly useless body of buffoons bring?
Mnangagwa has 179 Zanu PF MPs that is more than 2/3 majority in the 210 member parliament; he does not need the cooperation of opposition parties, more so those without even one MP in parliament, to govern.
Indeed, a competent opposition should be holding this Zanu PF regime to account for failing to come up with solutions to address the nation’s growing problems. POLAD is going to buy opposition silence just as Mugabe bought MDC silence during the GNU.
This is a president who has clearly run out of ideas what to do and so is wasting the nation’s time and opportunity lead the folly of POLAD, the five-legged hare search, from the front!
Zanu PF will never be held to democratic account as long as the party has the power to rig elections and get away with it. The double tragedy here is that the party has now managed to entice the opposition to participate in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal process and thus help Zanu PF get away with the blatant rigging.
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying that Zanu PF rigged last year's elections but there is also no deny that by being able point to the crowded political field of candidates contesting the elections Zanu PF had its most effective rebuttal that the elections were free, fair and credible. “Why would so many candidates contest the elections if they were flawed and illegal?”
Zanu PF offered the corrupt and incompetent opposition a few gravy train seats and that was all they were after, they did care the elections were being rigged as long as they got the bait seats!
If we are ever going to get back to the national agenda of implementing the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections then we must educate the electorate, especially the MDC wildebeest her, that MDC leaders are not just hunting with the Zanu PF hounds but are sleeping with the enemy too.
@ Nelson Gwambiwa
ReplyDelete"According to my learned author, the only free and fair results are the ones MDC wins, any Zanu victory is rigged, i rest my case.”
Last year’s elections were so flawed and illegal the process was not transparent, traceable and verifiable and hence the reason it nonsense to then talk of winners and losers.
No one of substance has ever backed Chamisa’s claim that he won the presidential race. He failed to submit in his affidavit to the Constitutional Court the V11 forms, the summary of the vote counts from each Polling Station, to back up his claim of having won 2.6 million votes, for example. He admitted that 19% of the V11 forms where missing. Then there is the voters’ roll itself; it was never verified.
Elections are judge free, fair and credible on the basis of the process being transparent, traceable and verifiable and not who won or lost!
Jon Chang
ReplyDeleteThe real tragedy is we be many Zimbabweans still mentally stuck in the notion that elections must be judge free, fair and credible as long as their party is declared the winner regardless of the election process itself. The Greeks, 2 500 years ago, understood the importance of the process and yet, with all the benefit of history, etc. we have people who cannot get their heads round the concept.
'You have failed us' - Zimbabweans reject Mnangagwa Christmas message.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa rigged last year's elections and continues to treat the ordinary people as third class citizens with no rights and half a brain to see they are being short changed!
He has failed to rig economic recovery and must now step down, period!