“(Former SA President Thabo) Mbeki is in the country at invitation of President E.D. Mnangagwa. The two have just finished their meeting at State House, with former President likely to accede to requests for meetings from different personages including politicians,” announced George Charamba, Mnangagwa’s spokesperson.
"He might mean Madame Khupe, Misihairabwi, Mr Chamisa, Mr Isaac Maphosa and possibly former First Lady.
"The former President of South Africa offered his stature and access globally to help push Zimbabwe's agenda to have sanctions removed and to ensure reconnection with the rest of the willing world."
Rubbish, everyone knows that the number one item on Zimbabwe’s national agenda is the country’s worsening economic meltdown. The situation is now so bad that 90% of the country’s population are poor with 34% living in extreme poverty, according to a recent WB report. The country’s hospitals and clinics have all but closed for lack of doctors, nurses, medicine, equipment, power cuts, no water, etc., etc.
Everyone can see that Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess which, if not resolved a.s.a.p., will lead to a serious human tragedy and political instability that will suck the rest of Southern Africa. No doubt, Mnangagwa is hoping that President Mbeki will help him find a way out of the mess.
Of all people, President Thabo Mbeki will know that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s, seemingly, intractable economic and politic mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship since 1980. The people could not remove Zanu PF from power even when it was evident the nation was desperate for change because the party rigged the elections.
In 2008, after a particularly outrageous election in which Zanu PF had blatantly cheated and used wanton violence, SADC leaders led by President Mbeki rejected Zanu PF’s claim as winner of the elections and legitimate government. SADC leaders forced Mugabe together with MDC to form a Government of National Unity (GNU). The primary task of the GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of the cheating and violence debacle of 2008.
Sadly not even one meaningful reform was implemented during the GNU. Not one!
In an article “In defence of my Zimbabwe policy” published in February 2016, penned by President Mbeki himself, he admitted the GNU had failed to deliver its primary objective of getting the reforms implemented and ending Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
The above article is available on the link https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2016/02/in-defence-of-my-zimbabwe-policy-thabo-mbeki/
So President Mbeki’s involvement in the Zimbabwe crisis will be his second bite at the cherry. The question that matters here then is whether he will make sure that the reforms, all of them, are properly and fully implemented and Zimbabwe’s next elections are free, fair and credible!
President Mbeki will have to look both Mnangagwa and Chamisa straight in the eyes and tell them failed to implement even one reform in 2008 and that it will be foolish to expect them to do so this time.
Both Zanu PF and MDC are responsible for the mess in Zimbabwe, the former for dragging the nation into this mess and the latter by keeping the nation stuck in the mess. Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent, sell-outs and murderous tyrants.
Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa are not just responsible for Zimbabwe’s political and economic problems, they are now the country’s number one problem. The two, and their respective political parties, cannot therefore be the solution in a situation in which they are the problem.
To get out of the mess Zimbabwe must fully implement all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA and we must get others to do this. It will be naive to trust Zanu PF and MDC leaders to implement the reforms when they failed to get even one reform implemented last time!
Yes , getting Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to step down will not be a walk in the park. What he and his Zanu PF cronies must understand is that this is the only solution and that the consequences of failing to resolve the situation is the worsening economic situation.
Mnangagwa and his cronies must be reminded that they rigged last year’s elections. They have no mandate, never had, to govern the country and the stubborn refusal to step down is nothing short of holding the nation to ransom. This is a very serious matter which Mnangagwa and his friends must weigh carefully before they cross the line!
This week’s instalment is inspired by a novel written by a Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah. The book, entitled The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, first published in 1968, is about an unnamed man who struggles to acclimatise with political and social transformation in Ghana as it struggled to gain its independence. But central to the story are events that unfold between 1965 and 1966 when Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was disposed from office.
ReplyDeleteThe plot of the book hinges on the unnamed man’s struggle to balance between the love for his country, the belief its hope and promise, faith in its natural beauty and the abundant resources which could potentially transform the lives of millions of his people; and the resistance and dismay over the growing government corruption just a few years after independence.
While laden with vulgarity and crude satire, the book concludes that socialism and nationalism are tools used for self-enrichment and perpetuation of colonialism by black leadership. The book is a stern reproach to black African leaders who have unashamedly abused their power worse than the colonialists, while depicting themselves as liberators of the poor masses and champions of African freedom and self-determination. It is from this conclusion that the book derives its title.
In one part of the book, a timberman tries to bribe the man, but he refuses because he believed in the principles of honesty. Back home, the man’s wife is not amused that he refused to accept a bribe — money that could have helped his struggling family. She believed corruption was a normal way of accessing limited opportunities.
The man is disappointed by what he thought was an emerging trend contrasting the hope he bore during the struggle for independence with his growing disillusionment with the corruption in government. But the wife reminds the man that he could choose condemning himself and his family to abject poverty for the sake of principles or publicly condemn corruption and face the wrath of the politically powerful.
One day after work, the man meets an old friend, who is now an influential government minister. The minister invites the man and his family for dinner. And again, he is faced with a challenging scenario and he learnt that the dinner was for a self-serving reason. The old friend — a government minister — wanted the man’s wife to buy a fishing boat on his behalf. As a minister, he could not openly make such a huge purchase and he promised to cover the tracks for a small fee, of course. Again, the man is caught between principle, poverty and possible gains.
Realising that the boat would be acquired by dirty money stolen from government, the man initially declines before changing his mind and agreed to his wife signing the papers. That signature on paper saw the death of a possible opposition leader who would possibly fight corruption and get the country back to its track. His ability to spill the beans or fight corruption was now compromised and would mean that he and his wife would be one of the first to face prison because it was their names on the papers.
The fact that the friend was a powerful political figure meant that he had influence over the police, the law and the courts. Fighting corruption was necessary and yet a losing battle. That simply meant that the man and his wife were now complicity in corrupt practices and a part of an autocracy that perpetually undermined the values and principles he upheld as a young man growing up during the struggle for liberation in Ghana.
A good read which should be compulsory reading for a nation like Zimbabwe!
MDC remained in the GNU for five years, for five years you held hands with Zanu PF and travelled in the same direction. Is this the same direction you want to travel again, because there is nothing to suggest otherwise.
ReplyDeleteMDC had no vision to share during the 2008 GNU and the party has no vision now. All Chamisa wants is a chance to be minister and get back on the gravy train.
@ Sarah Mahoka
ReplyDelete“Kkkkkk vana Mukori. Lol. Calling yourself a political analyst. Yet dreaming that one man. Thabo Mbeki can cancel zw elections! Dream on.mafadza harahwa kurota ichiyamwa.”
My dear girl, when it comes to intellectual ability, you are certainly not one of the brightest stars in the Zimbabwe sky. Of course, Thabo Mbeki would not get very far if he was the only one saying Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections. Everyone including those in SADC and the AU, including you Sarah Mahoka without much of a brain, knows that Zanu PF rigged the elections. The regime failed to produce even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.
Common sense tells you for any elections to be considered free, fair and credible one must be able to verified who had the right to vote and who voted otherwise you can end up with those eligible to vote denied the vote, those who had no right to vote given the vote, multiple voting, etc., etc. And so, with no verified voters’ roll there is no denying many of these things happened.
So Thabo Mbeki saying to Mnangagwa that he rigged last year’s elections would have the same impact as the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, The Emperor's New Clothes, who shouted “But he is naked!” Mbeki would only be saying out loud what everyone knows is true but did not dare say!
Mnangagwa is not going to get away with rigging the elections, not this time. The reason why this is still on the national agenda is because of Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation and the economic recovery will not happen as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs! Watch and learn! Watch and learn, my dear girl!
By President Mnangagwa spokesperson, George Charamba's, own admission it was Mnangagwa himself who invited former SA President Thabo Mbeki to come to Zimbabwe and meet with Chamisa and the other opposition party leaders, to pressure the Americans to lift the sanctions, etc. If the Zimbabwe economy was booming, as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube never seem to tire of telling us we have turned a corner (turned so many corners we are going round and round in circles), Mnangagwa would not be bothered asking for Mbeki's help.
ReplyDeleteWhen unemployment has been stuck at 90% for a decade now. (Only Minister Ncube's clever accounting would show a trade deficit when you are producing nothing. Both the Americans and Chinese were not amused by his hocus pocus accounting when the bottom line showed they had given Zimbabwe in aid a fraction of what they had actually given.) When 90% of the people are poor and 34% of them are living in extreme poverty. When hundreds of people are dying because there are no doctors, no nurses, no medicine, no equipment, no electricity, no clean running water, no everything. Even a seasoned and heartless of tyrants whose only care is to hold on to power at all cost, know do so under these economic situation is impossible.
Mnangagwa has reached out and called on Mbeki to help stop Zimbabwe's economic meltdown because he is feeling the pressure of the economic meltdown.
The key, the only key to unlock the investor confidence without which there will be no meaningful economic recovery is for Zimbabwe to implement the democratic reforms, hold free, fair and credible elections and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. The only way Zimbabwe can get these reforms implemented is for Zanu PF to step down, it is naive to expect the regime to reform itself out of office.
If Mnangagwa refuse to step down the consequences of the economic meltdown, people are not sheep he can expect to suffer and die in silence. One of these days the dammed up anger of the people will break the wall setting off a torrent that will sweep all before it! And first to go will be the corrupt and tyrannical ruling elite!
So yes, it has come to Thabo Mbeki telling Mnangagwa that he must step down now before it is too late; that simple.
@ Lucky Mahari
ReplyDelete“It is a silly solution, where in this world have you heard of a political party in government handing over the reigns to another political party?
“That can only be done in a revolution like what happened in Sudan.”
So what do you think happened in Rhodesia in 1979? In SA in 1990? Ian Smith in Rhodesia and the Boers in SA saw the "Dead End" sign and had the good sense to hand over power. Sadly tyrants like Gaddafi of Libya, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Omar Al Bashir of Sudan and our own Robert Mugabe and Emerson Mnangagwa cannot read and so the nation is left with no other solution other than a bullet into the empty head!