Chamisa et al primeval instinct stopping them admit he broke rules - we must admit to break free W Mukori

Once upon a time, a few moons ago although I remember it as if it was yesterday, I visited a number of High Schools and Colleges up and down Zimbabwe to talking about the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The students had no problem defending the right and freedom to be heard, as long as it was their right or freedom that was at stake. Having secured their own individual right to speak they firmly believed that right included telling others to shut up!

The impulse to be heard and resist being dominated, is very strong and once heard the impulse to silence everyone else and dominate is even stronger. It is the primeval default setting. The acceptance of other people rights and freedoms, the concept of universal rights and freedoms, goes against the primeval grain of securing the right and freedom for one’s self and dominate by denying the same to others!

Talking to Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance supporters on the recent High Court rulings on the leadership battle has been worse than a rerun of the High School student Human Rights debate. The student allowed one to read out the universal rights and freedoms and they accepted the rights and freedoms as everyone’s entitlement.

The MDC supporters will not admit that Nelson Chamisa did not follow the MDC’s own constitution in seizing power following Morgan Tsvangirai’s death. They prefer to airbrush the details of Chamisa’s ascendancy out, how he got into power is irrelevant. The see in the High Court Judgement the hand of Zanu PF “destabilising” the MDC.

If one accepted the political events in their logical sequence then it is a historic fact that Chamisa did not follow the party’s own constitution. Those pretending otherwise are just being selective, they want to ignore the constitution because it is not servicing their selfish purpose. In other words Chamisa shot himself in the foot by ignoring the party’s constitution and the penalty of destabilising the party is therefore self-inflicted.

The tag-of-war between democratic mordenizers and the primeval dinosaurs seeking to dominate has been going on not just in MDC but in the ruling party Zanu PF itself with even worse and far reaching disastrous consequences to the nation.

The clarion cry before independence was “One man! One vote!” It was out of the need to secure political dominance that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have denied the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote. The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis, is the de facto one-party dictatorship.

When Mnangagwa and his fellow November 2017 military coup plotters seized power from Mugabe, they accepted the need to democratic change. It is ironic that the same court that ruled Chamisa’s seizure of power unconstitutional, ruled the military coup “legal, justified and constitutional”.

It should be noted for the record that Nelson Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders supported the November 2017 military coup. Chamisa has publicly admitted Morgan Tsvangirai died “a bitter” man because Mnangagwa did not keep his promise to form a GNU after the coup. In other words the coup was justified and fine as long as it helped MDC leaders up the greasy political power pole.

Mnangagwa called the post November Zimbabwe a “new democratic dispensation, a Second Republic”. He promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. The crocodile instinct in him to rig elections were to power to resist!

Everyone questioned Nelson Chamisa sincerity in challenging Mnangawa’s victory in the July 2018 elections given MDC had participated knowing fully well Zanu PF would rig the elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll and yet MDC participated regardless.

The High Court judgement on Chamisa’s violation of the MDC constitution when he seized power under lined his hypocrisy in calling Mnangagwa “illegitimate” when each one of them is illegitimate.

If Zimbabwe is ever going to implement the democratic reforms necessary to dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship and restore the individual freedoms and rights as envisaged in the UN Universal Rights then the country must look to others, not Zanu PF or MDC, to implement the reforms. Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have shown that their base primeval instinct to dominate is more powerful than the reformist democratic instincts.

Zanu PF admit "incapacitated" at 160 covid-19 cases, at 1.6 m there will be no government - food for thought W Mukori

As of today, 29 May 2020, Zimbabwe has a total of 160 confirmed covid-19 cases, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MHCW) report. Three days ago, on 26 May, the country had 63 cases. 2 of the new cases are local and the rest, 95, returnees.

Any increase in covid-19 cases is cause for concern but what alarmed me it the government’s own reaction! Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told Parliament that the recent influx of returnees from South Africa and Botswana have put the country under tremendous pressure.

"Influx of returnees has put us under tremendous pressure and we have found ourselves incapacitated,” said Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri.

"Within the next week we are expecting 3 000 more returnees from various countries … We are also falling short in terms of PPEs and testing kits which remain a concern to us because of international competition."

The sheer incompetence with which this Zanu PF regime is handling this pandemic is cause for alarm.

1)    The country has known that beside the serious threat to health corona virus was going to cause serious economic disruption the world over. Zimbabwe’s political chaos and economic meltdown have forced many of its people to leave the country in droves as political and/or economic refugees. The corona virus induced economic disruption have resulted in the economic opportunities drying up like water in the desert sand. Given that there are 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the neighbouring country it is disconcerting that the regime should find itself “incapacitated” by a trickle of returnees when the flood is yet to come.

2)    According to government’s own laid down those taken into quarantine are tested for covid-19 on arrival, after 8 days and then after 21 days. All those who test positive on the first test are almost certain to have got the virus before their arrival and the third test are almost all certain to be local. The MHCW reports does not say how long the returnees who have tested positive have been in the country but it is reasonable to assume a number are local infection, especially given the unhygienic conditions in these quarantine centres. In most of these centres the returnees share toilet and washing facilities and some of them do not even have clean running water so people can wash their hands regularly. There is no doubt that most of our quarantine centres are covid-19 hotspots in their own right. It is worrying that the regime is ignoring the facts and pretend everyone of the covid-19 positive returnee got the virus outside the country.

3)    The country has only done 46 613 tests which is very small given many opportunities the confirmed cases had to pass the virus to the rest of the population. It seems the government is focused on testing the returnees and ignoring the reality the virus is already spreading amongst the locals.

4)    According to MHCW report 29 cases have recovered and 4 have death leaving 127 active cases, most of them are in isolation as contrast to hospital care. It is nonsensical that the country should be running out of PPE already when it has hardly had any hospital care cases.  

Zimbabwe’s unhygienic quarantine centres are covid-19 hotspots for returnees; a frightful prospect given the trickle of returnees is set to become a flood. Quarantine centres are not the only covid-19 hotspots, there are many others we do not know about but only because the authorities are testing, tracking and tracing as aggressively as World Health Organisation recommended!

If Zimbabwe is already “incapacitated, has no PPE and no test kits” when the number of confirm covid-19 cases is only 160; it did not take much to incapacitate the regime given its blundering incompetence. What sorry state will the country be in when the virus cases soar hundred thousand-fold to 1 600 000 or 10% of the country’s 16 million population!

The issue of good governance has been important for Zimbabwe but in times of life and death trials and tribulation as now it is insane to ignore the issue. Whereas a competent government can limit the covid-19 death toll to a few thousands under an incompetent “incapacitated” regime the death toll will soar to hundreds of thousands! 

On face of it Zanu PF has "effectively contained covid-19" dig deeper uncover the foolish recklessness W Mukori

“SEVEN teachers' unions yesterday petitioned Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema to stop the re-opening of schools until COVID-19 is effectively contained,” reported Bulawayo 24.

What will constitute “effective” containment of the virus?

Indeed, for someone who has not been following the corona virus story in Zimbabwe closely, the country has never had a covid-19 outbreak to contain. Schools should have re-opened ages ago!

The overwhelming majority of Zimbabwe’s official 63 confirmed covid-19 cases are people who had been outside the country. In the last month, there has not been a single covid-19 case that was attributed to local infection. It is therefore reasonable to conclude there are no known covid-19 local infections.

It is nonsensical to impose much less maintain nationwide lockdown when there are no cases of local infectious people.

Of all the people, the teachers must know the lasting damage any disruption to a child’s education will cause and hence the reason why everything possible must be done to avoid any such disruptions.

In Zimbabwe, most schools closed end of March 2020, at the start of the nationwide lockdown impose to contain the spread of covid-19. The children have already lost two terms of this year’s education. It would be irresponsible to extend the disruption by even one more day, especially over unreasonable “effective containment” demands.

However, for someone who has been following the covid-19 outbreak in Zimbabwe, the teachers’ demands for effective containment is reasonable and necessary. There are many reasons to believe there are a hell-lot more covid-19 cases than the government official reports suggest!

Here are just three reasons why Zimbabwe’s 63 covid-19 confirmed cases out of 16 million compared to South Africa’s 24 264 confirmed cases with 60 million is suspect:

·       South Africa has made a concerted effort to follow the WHO recommendation to test, tack and trace aggressive, 9.84 out of 1000 South Africans have been tested compared to 1.05 in Zimbabwe.

·       Zimbabwe has not been testing some of the target groups such malaria patients even though they had covid-19 symptoms. In the last two weeks the country has been testing ordinary workers, ahead of frontline health care workers, following a government directive they must be tested before returning to work.

·       There is growing evidence that Zimbabwe has been under reporting its covid-19 cases. For example, 6 Zimbabwean truck drivers who tested covid-19 positive in Zambia were send back and re-tested in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe reported of only one drives being covid-19 positive!

There are signs to show there are many people with the corona virus infection out there than government is letting on. If the schools reopen, then teachers and students alike will necessarily come into close conduct with many people putting themselves/ others at risk catching/spreading the virus.  

There are three basic conditions which the Zimbabwe government must meet before schools can reopen:

1)   Government must ramp up its test, track and tracing to give the nation the confidence there are indeed no legions covid-19 cases out there.

2)   Government must demonstrate its ramped up test, track and tracing is sustainable and will quickly pickup any covid-19 hotspots.

3)   The government has yet to assure the nation that the country’s health care system is equipped to deal with a serious covid-19 outbreak. The flu season is fast approaching with the cold weather and there is a distinct possibility the number of covid-19 cases will grow exponentially the country’s health care service has all but collapsed as has the education system. The last thing any school wants is having to take care of many covid-19 sick students and teachers, especially given they are under resourced!

History will say this Zanu PF government jumped the gun when it imposed the nationwide lockdown and closed the schools on 30 March 2020 when there was no evidence of corona virus was spreading in the country.

If the regime should go ahead and open the school next month; history will judge that a foolish and reckless move since the regime deliberately supressed the evidence covid-19 was spreading like wildfire in the country!

Chimanimani dawn echo

Chimanimani dawn echo!

Hallooo! Good morning to you!

Muffled first and second echo!

Distinct but mixed third and fifth echo

Hallo! This is Erick here!

Kick ear

Loo cave man!

Actually, I am modern man, perfectoo!

Marsh lelo

Who cares, Piss off!

What! You FCUK Off!

Watch off!

Key off!

Why wake-up if you going to be rude!

"Zanu PF has embraced new ways, will repeal POSA" - rigged elections to repeal POSA, how nauseating W Mukori

“For too long our country has been held back by the old ways of doing things. In our society, politics, economy and culture; everything was old. New ideas have been resisted; new developments, rejected,” postulated Emmerson Mnangagwa in a video in Spotlight Zimbabwe.

“What do I want my, mission, legacy to be? My answer is simple, we must reform the way we do things. Reform our mindset! We must turn our backs on the old way of doing things. We must embrace new methods of doing things.”

“We are repealing POSA and AIPA.”

The report is entitled “Dodgy: Mnangagwa talks about his vision for Zimbabwe”. Very dodgy, indeed!

The tragedy is he is now convinced he has embraced reforms, he has rejected the old ways of doing things and adopted the new ways when in reality he has not done any such thing.

Mnangagwa cannot deny the country’s economy is in a real mess and that millions are now living in abject poverty.

Whilst Mugabe blamed the country’s economic failures to drought and, above all else, “the cruel and illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the British Imperialist and their western allies”. Mnangagwa is heaping all the blame on “old way of doing thing”!

No doubt as a senior member of Mugabe’s successive regime throughout Mugabe’s 37 years in power, Mnangagwa must have subscribed to the regime’s “scientific socialism”. He too was cocksure the regime was going to deliver economic prosperity and justice, “Gutsa ruzhinji”, as Mugabe never tired of telling the nation in the 1980s!

When exactly Mnangagwa stopped believing in Mugabe’s policies, he does not say. He certainly did not do anything to force Mugabe to drop his policies. He did not resign in protest either.

The November 2017 military coup that toppled Mugabe was about political power, first and foremost.

Soon after the military coup, Mnangagwa declared “Zimbabwe is open for business!” Other than the promise to end corruption and to scrap Mugabe’s obnoxious indigenisation law, nothing on the economic front had changed!
Still Mnangagwa and his cronies expected investors and lenders to flood into the country in response the clarion call. Sadly, there was no such flood.

Since the turn of the century, investors had shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe because they viewed country as a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. They were not going to change their opinion of the Zimbabwe regime just because there was a game of musical chairs, which was the sum total of the November 2017 military coup.

Of course, Mnangagwa wants the whole world to see the November 2017 military coup as nothing short of plate tectonics shift in Zimbabwe politics. The coup was so transformative it gave birth to a new country, a “Second Republic, a new democratic dispensation”. He promised the people of the Second Republic something befitting their new-found status - free, fair and credible elections.

Those of us who had been calling for the implementation of democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections renewed our calls then, just to be absolutely certain Mnangagwa knew exactly what he had to do to deliver on his promise. Needless to say, he ignored the calls for reforms.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections, as they had done during the Mugabe years. The November 2017 coup did not produce any cosmic political change, all we did was swap one dictator for another. Nothing had changed. Nothing!

Just as Mugabe dictated his scientific socialism as the solution to the country’s quest for social justice and economic prosperity; you are dictating your new dispensation as the solution to the country’s economic and social problems. This is the very embodiment of the old ways, where those in positions of power and authority dictate and we, the populous, are expected to follow blindly, no questions asked.

What has held Zimbabwe back economically, socially and politically are tyrants who thought they alone knew best and now after 40 years are now blaming some of their old comrades for the failures only to impose their own foolish ideas.

A political system in which a few impose themselves as the nation’s leaders, impose their ideas and solutions is the very embodiment of doing things the old way. The new way allows all the citizens to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country through free, fair and credible elections. In the new democratic system of government those in power are accountable to the people, the people can remove them from office and not have to listen to all the nonsense about of a failed leader’s legacy!

“We are repealing POSA and AIPA!” Only an old windbag like Mnangagwa would say something so stupid and nauseating!

So, we the people, must endure five more years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship with all the economic and political consequences that entitles; on the off chance the regime will repeal two obnoxious laws it enacted – a task so strenuous we can never ever accomplish it ourselves!  

99 returnees escape covid-19 quarantine hotspots - please go back, make them habitable N Garikai

Corona virus presents one of the greatest existential threat to mankind the world has ever faced. Whilst the virus has spared no nation on earth but how each nation will fare will depend on how well or badly the nation has fought against the virus.

The corona virus originated in China and we knew it was being spread by an infected person passing the virus to others. So, the first line of defence for the rest of the world was for each individual country to make sure no one brings the virus into the country. Anyone arriving at all its entry-points was either refused entry or subjected to very strict quarantine conditions for the duration of the virus incubation period.

New Zealand is the one country that has imposed strict quarantine conditions and has had very few, if any at all, cases of anyone who has not travelled outside the country catching the corona virus.

Zimbabwe’s first covid-19 case was the late Zororo Makamba who, on arrival from trip outside the country, have the covid-19 symptoms and immigration officials tried to detain him. He reportedly called a senior Zanu PF official who instructed the immigration staff to let him go – that is how totally ineffective our first line of defence was!

Once the virus was in the country, the second line of defence was to test, track and isolate all suspected covid-19 cases aggressively. South Korean and Germany are the two countries that have done well in this regard.

Zimbabwe has not been testing aggressively ignoring all the repeated advice to do so. There is growing evidence that the Zanu PF regime is deliberately under reporting the number of the covid-19 cases in the country for selfish political gain. The regime is falsifying the true number of covid-19 cases and deaths to take the sting out of the criticism for its failure to contain the virus if the true figures got out; just as China did.

China tried to keep a lid on the corona virus outbreak by silencing the Wuhan doctor who first diagnosed the new virus. Most people do not believe that the Chinese government has under reported the covid-19 cases and deaths. The combination of reporting the outbreak late and under reporting the cases has contributed to the virus spreading all over the world. And by the same token Zanu PF’s failure to test aggressively, under reporting the cases and other acts of continued blundering incompetence are helping the virus spread far and wide within our borders.

Still, if the nation was to believe the regime’s report that there have been a total of 56 confirmed cases in the country and the overwhelming majority of these cases are people coming into the country then there is need for the country to tighten its quarantine conditions. Reports of people escaping from quarantine centres is therefore cause for serious alarm.

“I can confirm that 99 returnees have escaped from various quarantine centres across the country,” said ZRP spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, according to a Zimeye report.

“However, some of them have been arrested. As police, we have stepped up our patrols to ensure that returnees do not escape. We are working with other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health and Child Care to ensure compliance. We also urge returnees to comply with the quarantine regulations.”

Anyone who has followed story of unhygienic condition in most of these quarantine centres would not be surprised returnees are escaping. Why the regime has failed to provide something as basic as clean running water beggars belief! These quarantine centres are covid-19 hotspots in their own right.

To make matters worse, the regime is not testing and screening these returnees timeously, reportedly because it is running out of test kits. The prospect of someone with no corona virus on arrival getting it during they stay there, particularly when the stay there could be extended well beyond the stipulated 21 days, in real and scary!

And yet I would plead with the escaped returnees to go back to the quarantine centres. Here are some things that can do to not only enhance their own chances of surviving covid-19 but also help others, the nation, survive:

1)   If you can make your own quarantine arrangements then go ahead. Make sure you have all the details of where you will be staying, how you will get there, who will take care of you if you should become sick, etc., etc. If the government cannot provide a safe quarantine conditions then it has no cause to deny those who can do so on their own.

2)   If you have to stay in the government provided quarantine centres then think of the many things you and your follow residence can do to minimise the spread of the virus. You can agree on each group of returnees staying in one block, using the same table, etc. Where different groups have to share the same resource such as a common water supply agree on time slots for each group and make sure the resource is thoroughly cleaned after each group’s use.

3)   If anyone in the group should be sick, assume it is covid-19, and isolate the individual as much as possible and take care of their basic needs of food, water, etc. A time is coming when you will ask for help and none will come; you will have to count on each other.

4)   Last but most important of all, keep a detailed account of what happened; for one thing, it will help keep your sanity in the midst of all the madness around you!

Just because we have the misfortune of having a corrupt, incompetent government that is more interested in hiding its blundering incompetence by falsifying the seriousness of covid-19 does not mean we should just give up and become one of the hundreds of thousands of wasted human lives.

Zimbabwe has received close to 4 000 returnees for far, there are a hell lot more returnees to come. The chaos, confusion, suffering and deaths in our quarantine centres and in society at large is set to reach nauseating heights as the covid-19 outbreak reaches its peak!

EU and US will never back a Zanu PF anything - never back an illegitimate regime W Mukori

“WITH Zimbabwe's political and economic crises deepening, the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) have once again implored authorities to engage the MDC to end the country's myriad challenges,” reported Daily News.

“This comes as the international spotlight is once again on the Zanu-PF government, after claims by three opposition youth leaders last week that they were abducted and tortured by unknown men following a demonstration in Harare.

“At the same time, local churches and rights groups have also called for a thorough and independent probe into the alleged abuses, which have further raised political temperatures in the country.”

 

I can understand the international community calling on Mnangagwa to thoroughly investigate the cases of human rights abuse. It is the responsibility of the government of the day legitimate or not to guarantee the safety of all the citizens.

 

I totally reject the argument that the Americans or anyone else out there with a working brain would be asking Zanu PF “to engage the MDC to end the country’s myriad challenges!” Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and senate and it has the presidency so why would the party still need to engage the opposition?

 

Chamisa has blamed the country’s economic meltdown on Mnangagwa’s “lack of legitimacy”. True enough the international community, investors and lenders have continued to shy away from Zimbabwe because the country is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. But the same international community will not be fooled into believing Zimbabwe was now a democracy just because Chamisa and a few MDC leaders have joined the Mnangagwa cabinet!

 

Mnangagwa and Zanu PF does not need to engage MDC, now or in the past, for him to implement the democratic reforms necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. He has never implemented the reforms and has no intention of doing so because the dictatorship is keeping the party in power!

 

Those who think a Zanu PF and MDC government will implement the reforms have very short memory because that is exactly what we had in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they failed to implement even one reform! Not one!

 

Zanu PF is a corrupt and incompetent regime and has been rigging elections to stay in power regardless of the people’s democratic wishes. There are Zimbabweans out there who are sold on the nonsense that Zanu PF has the right to rule on its own or in coalition with others. And so, any political solution that does not have Zanu PF is disregarded as unworkable. Worse still, they are now falsely claiming that is the view of the EU, USA, etc.

 

The EU, US, etc. are democratic nations who respect the democratic wish of the electorate and they accept that a corrupt and incompetent regime that rigged the elections has no right to remain in power. The suggestion that the international community would be backing an undemocratic and unworkable solution for Zimbabwe is simply absurd!

 

Zimbabwe has a golden opportunity to dismantle its failed political system of the last 40 years; we must keep our eyes and minds focused on this important task – To build a healthy and functioning democratic Zimbabwe.

"EU and US urge protagonists to resolve Zim crisis" - not Zanu PF and MDC, they are the antagonists P Guramatunhu

“The United States of America and the European Union have implored authorities to engage the MDC to end the country's myriad of challenges,” reported Daily News.

“In a joint statement, which was also supported by Scandanavian countries, the EU and USA called on President Mnangagwa to initiate dialogue with the MDC to end the country's worsening political and economic crises.”

This is just gutter journalism at its worse! Just because Daily News has its fixations with Zanu PF and MDC as the only actors to take the nation out of this hell-on-earth does not mean everyone else does, especially the west!

The joint statement from the EU, USA and other western diplomats called on “all protagonists” to resolve the country’s political paralysis but never mentioned Zanu PF or MDC.

"The Heads of Mission further urge all protagonists to resolve political conflicts through constructive dialogue and remain clear that international re-engagement is contingent on genuine and sustained implementation of political and economic reform,” read the joint statement.

Zanu PF and their political acolytes MDC are certainly NOT the protagonists, as in advocates and champions, of the national cause of implementing the democratic reforms to end the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship and replace it with a democratic system of government.

Zanu PF are the antagonists in that they are the ones who created the de facto one-party dictatorship and do not want it dismantled because they are benefiting from it. Zanu PF has no intention of implementing meaningful reforms because it will reform itself out of office.

If Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends ever wanted to bring about any meaningful democratic changes, as the party’s name implies, they abandoned that as a lost cause during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office; ministerial limos, very generous salaries and allowances, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. And to show their gratitude to the dictator, Tsvangirai and company threw implementing reforms out of the window.

Not even the repeated nagging by SADC leaders failed to get Tsvangirai et al to implement even one token reform in five years. The regional body had arm-twisted Mugabe to sign the Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms.

Ever since the 2008 GNU, MDC’s position has been to participate in Zimbabwe’s flawed and illegal elections to win as many of the gravy-train seats Zanu PF has been giving away as bait. Of course, the MDC leaders know that by participating in the rigged elections they give the process some credibility; as David Coltart, a leading MDC leader, has readily admitted.

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear the elections would not be free, fair and credible.

“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 elections,” wrote Senator 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.”

Like it or not MDC leaders will participate in elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happens as long as there are a few gravy-train seats on offer. They are no longer interested in implementing the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

“EU and USA called on President Mnangagwa to initiate dialogue with the MDC to end the country's worsening political and economic crises!” Talk of mental paralysis.

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess precisely because the country has been stuck for 40 years and counting with a corrupt, ruthless and vote rigging dictatorship. The dictatorship is the problem! How can it be the solution too?

"EU and US light fire under Mnangagwa" over abductions - ED knows it's umpteenth empty threat W Mukori

“EU, UK, US light fires under Mnangagwa!” screamed the Bulawayo 24 headlines!

There is increasing pressure on the regime to explain the country’s worsening human rights violations including the recent abduction and torture of MDC youth leaders


"The Heads of Mission expect from the Government of Zimbabwe a swift, thorough and credible investigation into the abduction and torture of opposition Member of Parliament Joanna Mamombe, along with Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova and allegations of the assault on Nokuthula and Ntombizodwa Mpofu in Bulawayo," the joint statement demands.

"The Heads of Mission further urge all protagonists to resolve political conflicts through constructive dialogue and remain clear that international re-engagement is contingent on genuine and sustained implementation of political and economic reform.”

Implement reform! There is no chance of that happening.

There is a déjà vu wariness over these demands to investigate human rights abuses and calls to implement meaningful reforms. The same calls and demands have been made and repeated countless times; nothing of note was accomplished then. And it is almost certain that nothing of note will be accomplished now!

Zanu PF is a regime desperate to hang on to power at all cost and one sure way to achieve this is keeping its heavy tyrannical boot on the populous’ collective neck to cow the nation into submission. However, to appease those demanding an end to human rights abuses, the regime has traded more softly on its victims without ever allowing them to get out of the gutter!

In the rural areas, away from close media and public scrutiny of the urban centres, Zanu PF rules the roost. The regime’s heavy boot is particularly heavy and is rightly feared. The rural people have been reduced to nothing more than medieval serfs forever grovelling to their Zanu PF lords.

As long as Zanu PF remains in office, the party will never implement any meaningful reforms to take away its tyrannical powers over the people and thus risk losing its iron grip on power.

The best hope of getting the reforms implemented was by making sure Zanu PF did not get back into office in the first place.

Zanu PF shoot itself in the foot by blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections, the regime had no electoral mandate and therefore was illegitimate. The EU, the Americans and most of the international community dismissed the 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,” concluded the EU Election Observer Mission final report.

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

Still what everyone else said about the election did not matter if the people of Zimbabwe, those on coal face, endorsed them as free, fair and credible. And by participating in the elections in droves, Zimbabwe’s opposition parties and candidates, at least, gave their resounding endorsement of the July 2018 elections. There were no fewer than 23 candidates in the presidential race alone!

Zimbabwe’s opposition parties and candidates have all endorsed the July 2018 elections as having been free, fair and credible. They could not jolly well dispute the process for having failed to have a verified voters’ roll, for example, when they all knew there was no verified voters’ roll and still participated regardless.
Nelson Chamisa realised that the western nations’ condemnation of the July 2018 elections called into question the legitimacy of Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime. To confound the west with confidence, Mnangagwa needed Chamisa’s public endorsement of the electoral process.

 “I hold the key to Mnangagwa’s legitimacy!” boasted Chamisa.

As the price of his endorsement, Chamisa want cabinet positions himself and a few of his MDC A leaders. The only one way to earn legitimacy is by winning the majority vote of the people of Zimbabwe, in a free, fair and credible elections. And none of this nonsense of legitimacy being bargained away like mangoes in the market!

The international community has never endorsed Chamisa’s dubious claim as the winner of the July 2018 elections or his power sharing proposal. The Zanu PF regime is illegitimate with or without the addition of a few MDC A manikins in its cabinet.  

No, as long as Zanu PF remains in power the human rights abuses will continue and no meaningful democratic reforms will ever be implemented. Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office. The only real chance of getting the reforms implemented by forcing Zanu PF to step down and getting some independent and competent body appointed to implement the reforms.

Zanu PF must be forced to step down because the party rigged the July 2018 elections and has never had the mandate to govern. The EU, UK, USA and most of the international community have never endorsed Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF party as the legitimate government. They can if they so wished demand the regime steps down.

The only question is whether the abduction and torture of the MDC members is the last criminal act by Zanu PF that forced the EU et al to finally say enough is enough? The last straw that broke the camel’s back!

Mtetwa I'm done flattering tyrants: if ED "committed no crime" then who is "the monster of depravity" W Mukori

To my dear sister Beatrice Mtetwa

I am done with appeasing tyrants!

We have allowed tyrants like Mugabe and Mnangagwa ride roughshod over us, denying us our freedoms and rights for the last 40 years. Look where it has landed us – in this economic and political hell-on-earth. You are having to lie just to flatter Mnangagwa in the hope he will finally stop treating us like dirty!

“And to you, vaMatanga, our esteemed Commissioner General of Police, you inherited an organization which had become so discredited that it was no different from a rag-tag police force for an aspiring government in a war torn country hoping to take over power,” you stated in your letter to Mnangagwa.

“Only, it was worse in that it was actually the government's police force, which in terms of the Constitution should be a Police Service. So discredited it was that even his Excellency, your boss, who had not committed any crime, could not trust it and the courts to protect him. He felt safer in the hands of the police of neighbouring countries.”

Yes, the Zimbabwe Republic Police was, in November 2017 when Mnangagwa escape to SA, and still is to this day a totally discredited institution.

But to suggest that Mnangagwa, of all people, “had NOT committed any crime” is a nauseating lie. The Police, Army, CIO, judiciary and all the other state institutions have all been corrupted by none other than Emmerson Mnangagwa himself. Throughout the Mugabe years, he was a senior member, second only to Mugabe himself, of the Joint Operation Command (JOC); the junta, that turned Zimbabwe into the de facto one party dictatorship.  

Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s chief enforcer for 37 years. He was the henchman behind the Gukurahundi massacre in the 1980s, which forced PF Zapu to sign the unity accord paving the way for the one-party dictatorship. He has boasted of being the one who saved Mugabe and Zanu PF from the humiliating electoral defeat in 2008. He forced ZEC to cook up the vote count to deny MDC victory and force the presidential run-off where he used wanton violence to secure a Mugabe victory.

Yes, Mnangagwa escape to SA fearing for his life. He did not trust some of his follow JOC members just as much as they feared for their own lives because they did not trust him. Such is the dog-eat-dog nature of Zanu PF, a party of ruthless thugs.

As it turned out, it was Mnangagwa and his Lacoste faction who prevailed. Mugabe was booted out of office in the November 2017 military coup. Justice George Chiweshe declare the coup “legal, justified and constitutional”!

Mnangagwa and his cronies went on to blatantly rig the July 2018 elections. A gaggle of braindead geese, masquerading as Constitutional Court judges, endorsed his elections regardless of the glaring flaws and illegalities in the election process.  ZEC had three different results which it could not verify because 10% or so of the V11 forms, summary of vote count at each polling station, were missing. And so each of the three teams had made up figures. ZEC had not followed the laid down counting procedure!

The whole election had gone ahead even though ZEC had failed to produce something as basic a verified voters’ roll; a legal and common-sense requirement.

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess and political paralysis because the country has had the great misfortune to be ruled by a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous regime for the last 40 years. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the economy in ruins.

Four decades of political oppression have forced most men and women with some common-sense and integrity to abscond from political activity, leaving the field open to corrupt and incompetent thugs. The scum of the earth!

“Instead of protecting the three young (MDC) women, appointees instead allowed the violation of their persons and their rights in the most despicable of ways. I therefore address you, your Excellency, not only as someone who lives in Zimbabwe, but as a woman, a mother to Zimbabwean children who include a daughter who could easily have been anyone of the three young women so despicably abused by agents of your appointees,” you have pleaded.

The tone of your letter suggests that Mnangagwa himself is clean and honourable and above ever committing such heinous crimes. As we all know, such flattery did not work with Mugabe; it will not work with Mnangagwa either! The abduction, vote rigging, murder, etc happened during his watch; he is responsible, more so when he is the principle political beneficiary of the crime. Period!

After 40 years of denying us our freedoms and rights, Mnangagwa now believes he not only has the right to rig elections but to abduct, rape, beat, murder anything to cow us into submission. He is chief instigator and beneficiary of all the political intrigue and criminal activities. The worst thing we can do is blame his subordinates, leaving T S Eliot’s “Macavity, the monster of depravity” to rig the next election and commit another crime.

Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections, his regime has no mandate to govern, it is illegitimate and it must therefore step down. He and his subordinates must step down, that is not negotiable.

We need to allow appointment an interim administration whose task will be to implement the democratic reforms, to drain the country’s political sewage pond, so the nation can finally hold free, fair and credible elections.

"Indefinite lockdown is a ploy to deny vendors a livelihood" - double jeopardy of living in a pariah state P Guramatunhu

When Mnangagwa seized power following the November 2017 military coup he was painfully aware of his former boss and mentor, Robert Mugabe’s pathetic record as a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant who had brought economic suffering to his own people. He was super confident he would do better than Mugabe!

On the political front, he declared Zimbabwe a “Second Republic, a new democratic dispensation” and promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. To his follow coup plotters and Zanu PF loyalists; he promised that Zanu PF iron grip on power was unshaken.

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Ivo vachingohukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst they (calling for democratic reforms) bark! And bark!) Mnangagwa assured Zanu PF members on his return from his short exile following the coup.

Mnangagwa made a big song and dance of the democratic space he had created, he restrained the war veterans and party thugs to make sure the wanton political violence of the 2008 elections were not repeated, for example. The populous were reminded of the 2008 violence and that it will return if Zanu PF was to lose the elections; the party dogs bared their teeth were straining on a short leash.

Mnangagwa pointed refuse to implement even one meaningful democratic reform; keeping his boastful promise to party hardliners to let those calling for reforms bark and bark! The regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.

On the economic front, Mnangagwa was confident his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call would open the flood gate of investors and lenders. Investors and lenders had shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe precisely because the country was a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs.

Investors are a shrewd lot, they were not going to be fooled into believing the mere musical chairs game of the November 2017 coup was enough to transform the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF party into democratic party. By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections Mnangagwa confirmed beyond doubt that Zimbabwe was indeed still a pariah state, just as it was during Mugabe’s days.

The failure to revive the economy is the one thing that has irked Mnangagwa, the growing army of vendors eking a living sell all manner of trinkets and rubbish has become a daily reminder of his failure.

"Whilst almost all sectors of the economy have opened up without much restrictions, the informal sector in yesterday's announcement was said to begin a phased reopening. Considering the number of our membership and indeed those reliant on vending in general, there is no specific mention of when we can safely begin the reconstruction of our livelihoods," Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) said.

"We urge the authorities to look into this issue with the urgency it requires. Of further concern is that this indefinite extension further impacts upon the construction and completion of new vending sites as we fear this maybe used as an excuse to keep vendors from plying their trade and providing for their families."

There is no denying that Zimbabwe’s level 2 lockdown is designed to keep the vendors off the streets and markets. This is not the first time Zanu PF has tried to hide the poor and destitute in society, the evidence of its failed economic policies.

We all remember rounding up of the prostitutes sending them to the farms, “minda mirefu” before the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government meeting in 1991. Operation Murambatsvina (Remove dirty) where those in power have destroyed the shanty dwellings and selling stalls used by the poor and vendors have become a regular occurrence.  

The regime has promised to provide food to the needy during lockdown but has failed to do so. Frankly, everyone knew this was just another empty promise the regime was never going to keep. Never!

The poor have become more that just an embarrassment to the Zanu PF regime, they now constitute a serious threat the party’s iron grip on power. The poor are now a multitude and their economic situation has become so desperate; it clear the pressure for change is growing and one of these fine days the regime’s retaining wall of tyrannical oppression will burst to release a Tsunami.

There is no denying that the regime is using covid-19 as cover for its latest Operation Murambatsvina and force the poor off the streets and off the regime’s sight!

No one should ever be denied a livelihood and a chance to live. It is morally reprehensible that those denying the vendors a livelihood are the ones whose incompetence and greed have destroyed the nation’s economy and left millions of ordinary people with no choice but to eke a living as a vendor.

Such is the sickening double jeopardy of living in a pariah state; the heartless tyrants are not content they condemned millions of innocent people into a life of abject poverty, they are disgusted the poor for being poor and spit on them at every opportunity.