To herald the 2008 to 2013 GNU as a success is a grotesque misrepresentation of historic facts that will not be allowed to go unchallenged!
“Mbeki - who helped to broker the stability-inducing 2008 government of national unity between opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ex-president Robert Mugabe, who are both late - was in the country last December to try and nudge Mnangagwa and Chamisa to hold talks,” reported the Daily News.
Rubbish!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU principle purpose was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, the reforms were designed to ensure future elections in Zimbabwe were free, fair and credible elections and not a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008! Sadly, not even one of the reforms saw the light of day. Not one!
SADC leaders made one last desperate effort to have the 2013 elections postponed until the reforms are implemented.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there. I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Violet Gonda.
The SADC leaders got Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, away from Mugabe, and warned them “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!”
As we know MDC leaders ignored the warning for exactly the same reason they had ignored implementing the reforms for the last five years - greed, as David Coltart, MDC minister during the GNU, ready confessed in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” confessed Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
Greed had the better of the MDC again in 2018 as they went on to contest the elections knowing fully well that not even one reforms had been implemented since the rigged elections of 2013 and therefore Zanu PF will rig those elections too. And that is exactly what happened.
By participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC has given some modicum of credibility and legality, as Coltart admitted, to the vote rigging and, per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime.
The Constitutional Court challenge of the 2018 presidential race result by MDC on the grounds that the vote counting process was flawed was an exercise in futility. The whole process was flawed and illegal and not just the counting.
”We now have fresh evidence after the Constitutional Court determination of the dispute between us and Mnangagwa, particularly in the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) report that was tabled in Parliament, wherein the commission is indicating that they flouted the law and the procedures of elections in announcing the elections of 2018,” said Chamisa in a recent SABC interview.
"We don't want to have a recycling of the same old problems. This is a vicious cycle that has to be curbed so that we will have credible elections.”
ZEC had flouted the law by failing to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, at least a month before nomination day. Chamisa and his MDC friends knew this and ignored this and many other blatant violations in the election process only to pick on the counting of the vote. This is just a time wasting gimmick, bolting the door when the horse has bolted.
Chamisa is in SA to meet both President Cyril Ramaphosa and former President Thambo Mbeki “in a last ditch effort to foster dialogue between him and President Emmerson Mnangagwa”, according to the Daily News.
The economic recovery President Mnangagwa had hoped for with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra has not materialised. The success of his mantra was premised on him keeping his promise to end corruption, to hold free and fair elections, etc., etc. He has failed to honour any of these promises and thus confirming that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state or be it under new management following the November 2017 coup.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs, there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!
Chamisa is taking advantage of the worsening economic situation to advance a false narrative that the country would be enjoying economic recovery if he had been declared the winner of the July 2018 presidential race. As a way forward, he is proposing a dialogue with Mnangagwa, presided over by a mediator, to negotiate a power sharing arrangement, Nation Transition Authority (NTA).
Since the electoral dispute is over the presidential result, MDC is proposing the party must share cabinet and presidential power with Zanu PF. Zanu PF will keep its parliamentary 2/3 majority since the parliamentary results are not disputed.
As the main selling pitch, Chamisa insists the NTA will implement “comprehensive democratic reforms and end the curse of disputed elections”. This is nonsense.
The NTA is a watered down version of the 2008 to 2013 GNU; with the same key players, Zanu PF and MDC, but with Zanu PF, with its 2/3 majority in parliament, holds the trump cards. The GNU failed to get ever one reform implemented in five years it is naive to believe the NTA will do any better.
It is therefore a lie to suggest that the 2008 GNU produced stability and worse still to suggest the NTA with Zanu PF and MDC, GNU mark 2, will do any better. The way forward is for the vote rigging, and per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down so we can appoint an independent and competent interim administration to implement the reform leading to free and fair elections.
"We are not satisfied with the way Sadc has treated the Zimbabwean matter and we have raised it with them," Chamisa said.
ReplyDelete"We recently held meetings with Sadc. Our issues are well known. We are not happy with their view particularly in defining the crisis in Zimbabwe. I am glad that they understand the position. The position is we have a governance crisis. They think the crisis is an economic one.”
SADC leaders certainly knew the problem was political and they managed to get Mugabe to agree to this and sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement agreeing to the need to implement a raft of political reforms. The problems was MDC leaders including Chamisa himself who took their eyes off the ball and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years.
In 2013, SADC leaders literally begged MDC leader not to participate in the elections without first implementing the reforms and Chamisa and company ignored the regional body because of greed. MDC repeated the same foolish mistake in July 2018 for the same reason, greed.
It is therefore rich for Chamisa to now be pontificating on democracy waving an accusing finger at the SADC leaders.
"We have no single guarantee that 2023 polls will not be stolen again. All the machines, persons and institutions that were used to rig elections are still intact."
ReplyDeleteYou are 100% correct there! What is more, the situation was exactly the same in 2018 and yet Chamisa participated in those elections as he will participate in the 2023 elections. Knowing all this it is therefore a big surprise that you still "support Chamisa through thick and thin!" You are no different from the Zanu PF buffoons who have supported the dictatorship regardless!
Poor Zimbabwe, the country has more than its fair share of village idiots whose heads are full of fatty tissue impermeable to reason and logic. No wonder the country is in a real mess!
Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, the secretary for Education in the opposition MDC led by advocate Nelson Chamisa has said that she believes that sanctions have to be removed.
ReplyDeleteShe added that for sanctions to be removed, the country has to return to constitutionalism. Mahere also said that Zimbabwe needs to transform and not just reform since maladministration issues are the ones hurting the country more than sanctions.
In other words she cannot make up her mind!
We should not be surprised she cannot make up her mind after all she was one of the thousands of opposition candidate who contested the the July 2018 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was going to rig the elections. ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll!
Many Zimbabweans out there have failed to understand that the primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to ensure the country's next elections were free, fair and credible and not a repeat of the barbarism of the 2008 elections.
ReplyDeleteWhilst one would expect my Auntie and Nephew is the rural backwaters to think that the GNU was a success because hated Z$ was scrapped and the empty shop filled up again. Our corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai were having a ball not even the regular nagging by SADC leaders to implement reforms had any effect on him. Still, one does expect the reporters and editors of such household name papers as Daily News to know that the 2008 GNU was about reforms and that it was a total failure because not even one reform was implemented.
The lack of common sense and respect for truth and facts, even in the so called independent media, has contributed to the confusion and ignorance.
The lack of quality debate in Zimbabwe is something the nation must address as a matter of urgency, if there is going to be any chance of a healthy and functioning democracy after dismantling the dictatorship.
@ Victor Bhoroma
ReplyDeleteThe recent public notice by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) on the payment of domestic taxes in foreign currency is nothing short of a tacit admission by government that de-dollarisation has failed.
The affected domestic taxes include Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), value-added tax (VAT), corporate tax, capital gains tax (CGT) and mining royalties. The notice adds to the promulgated Statutory Instrument (SI) 252A of 2018, which provides for the payment of customs and excise duty for selected goods in foreign currencies other than the local Zimbabwean dollar.
It also follows the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe's landmark ruling which declared that all debts incurred in United States dollars on or before February 22, 2019 are payable in the local currency at the rate of 1:1.
If the current interbank rate is used, the ruling means that the taxman will now be paid less than US$261 million for tax arrears amounting to over US$4,5 billion as of December 2018. The ruling also means that the government will in effect pay about US$550 million for domestic debts that amounted to over US$9,5 billion in December 2018.
The greatest problem with bringing back the foreign currency as legal tender by the back door is that those with economic muscle will benefit at the expense of the majority with no such muscle.
Whilst the Petrol Station owner can insist to be paid in US$ for the petrol, he can claim that he bought the petrol using US$ sourced on the black market and not on the cheaper interbank official rate. Who is to know that most of the money was allocated to him at the interbank rate.
The same Petrol Station owner will pay his worker in Z$, take it or leave. With unemployment a nauseating 90%, the worker will take it and be thankful he/she still has a job!
The rich in Zimbabwe are filthy rich. A peep into VP Chiwenga and his wife’s wealth: she bought two new houses in SA when she visited him and she is demanding six posh cars to add to the three she has already. He is known to have 45 gold watches, the C&M mansion and God knows what else beside.
The poor have absolutely nothing! 90% of our people are poor and 34% of them live in abject poverty, according to a recent WB report.
This is not sustainable and we a sitting on a ticking time bomb!
@ Anthony Taruvinga
ReplyDeleteEvery thinking Zimbabwean out there will agree with you that something must be done to stop this curse of rigged elections. After 40 years of rigged elections anyone capable of thinking must have asked themselves a number of key questions in that time, proof they have not only now woken up to the reality of rigged elections. Here are some of those questions:
How has Zanu PF rigged elections? If you understand how the elections were rigged you have a chance of coming up with something to stop the rigging.
In the late 1990s the nation came to the conclusion the nation must carryout a number of democratic, institutional and constitutional, changes to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their party, MDC, promising the people the party will deliver the democratic changes if the people elected them into office. The people elected MDC leaders into office, risking life and limb at the hands of Zanu PF thugs.
Sadly, Tsvangirai and company sold out; they have enjoy the trapping of high office and forgot about the democratic changes. In the 20 years the party has been in power, it has failed to implement even one democratic reform, to bring about even one democratic change.
Anthony, what do you think was the purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU?
I must say, I am disappointed with people like you, Anthony because you have clearly switched off and stopped thinking. Zimbabwe is in this man-made economic and political mess precisely because of people like you who brain has atrophied into useless fatty tissue. How can you stop Zanu PF rigging elections when you do not know how the elections are rigged, cannot see that MDC leaders are sell outs, etc.?