UK imposing "autonomous sanctions" on Zanu PF and pressuring SADC and AU to do same - is it too little too late W Mukori

 One of the biggest Zimbabwe foreign policy blunders the British government has ever made in the last decade was to believe Mnangagwa’s foolish rhetoric that Zimbabwe had changed for the better following the November 2017 military coup. The British believed village idiots like Professor Stephen Chan that Mnangagwa deserve a chance to prove himself.  

Well; three years on, Mnangagwa has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that he is the same corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant he was during Mugabe days. A leopard will roll in elephant dung to hide its scent, it does not lose its spots too.

The British government should have listened to then Labour MP Kate Hoey who condemned Mnangagwa and his regime for blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections and recommended that the regime should receive no support. It is refreshing to see that the British government has finally come to its senses. 

"The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 now provides the legal basis for the UK to impose autonomous sanctions, and we are in the process of considering our approach to the future sanctions regime in Zimbabwe,” said UK Minister of State for Overseas Territories and Sustainable Development Baroness Elizabeth Sugg. 

Baroness Sugg was responding to a question raised by British MP and former anti-apartheid campaigner, Lord Peter Hain who asked what specific steps the UK government was taking to sanction Zimbabwe for gross human rights abuses. 

40 years of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins, basic services such as education and health have all but totally collapsed and millions of Zimbabweans now live in extreme poverty. The corona virus pandemic has overlaid it own the health and economic problems turning a tragic situation into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion. Zimbabwe is standing on the edge of the precipitous abyss.

40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship have dragged this nation to the edge of the abyss. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies must now be stopped before they dragged the nation over the edge. All pressure must be brought to bear of Mnangagwa and company to accept the reality that economic situation in Zimbabwe is unsustainable, to accept the reality that Zanu PF dictatorship is the root cause of the economic meltdown and must therefore be dismantled. 

Without meaningful democratic change, Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown will continue and drag the nation over the edge into the abyss. All pressure must therefore be brought to bear on Zanu PF to accept democratic and peaceful change now before it is too late. The targeted sanctions imposed by the west are a part of that cocktail of democratic pressure.  

Of course, every thinking Zimbabwean welcomes the British government’s decision to renew the sanctions on Mnangagwa and his cronies. The alternative to peaceful pressure is the violent change brought about by street protests or worse. The consequences of violent change are death and destruction; no thinking person wants that!

The renewed sanctions must be a lot more than the token sanctions of the past to reflect the seriousness and urgency of the present situation. The sanctions must target the usual suspects but rope in new players too. 

Sell-outs like Professor Mthuli Ncube and Minister Kirsty Coventry must be added to the sanctions list for working with the regime knowing fully well that it rigged the elections. And opposition leaders too must be included on the list for participating in flawed elections and thus giving the Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy. 

"We note, as deeply unfortunate, the implied threat of more sanctions from the UK and the assurance given to the Lords that such measures are currently under active consideration in London,” commented Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sibusiso Moyo.

“Equally unfortunate is the clear acknowledgement by the British government that it is actively engaging others, including the African Union, the European Union, the Commonwealth, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and South Africa with a view to further intensifying pressure upon Zimbabwe.” 

Zanu PF must be left in no doubt that the party will not be allowed to get away with yet another rigged elections in 2023. AU and SADC turned a blind eye to rigged 2018 elections; the British government is right in making sure that SADC and AU do not make the same mistake ever again.  

It is now over two years since the rigged July 2018 elections; Zanu PF has not implemented even one reforms to ensure the 2023 elections are free, fair and credible. There is nothing to suggest the party has any intention of implemented any reforms. Zanu PF is determined to stay in power until 2023 and will go on to rig those elections. 

Ideally, pressure must be brought to bear on Mnangagwa and company to step down a.s.a.p. so the country can appoint an interim administration that can bring order and sanity, end the economic and political chaos and mayhem and stop the nation taking the final step over the edge. 

The interim administration will also be tasked to implemented the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections; the pre-requisite first step back from the brink. Free and fair elections is Zimbabwe’s ticket out of this corrupt, tyrannical and dysfunctional dictatorship into a healthy and functional democracy.

If we cannot get Zanu PF to step down and get the democratic reforms implemented before the 2023 elections then we must make damn well sure the 2023 elections are declared null and void and a Zanu PF regime declared illegitimate. The last thing Zimbabwe wants is a Zanu PF government beyond 2023; it will be the last push over the edge, if the nation has not tumble over the edge already. 

War veterans demanding "automatic entry into power" - povo can kiss "One man! One vote!" goodbye. P Gukurahundi

 “One man! One vote!” was clarion call in the fight for independence. Not after independence and certainly not now!

The very fact that blacks were denied a meaningful say, a free vote, in the governance of the country in white ruled Rhodesia spoke volumes. Some people have compared the denying of blacks the vote to the denial of women or of minors the right to vote. If one is capable of gross injustice against his own mother, wife, daughter and his own children; how much worse injustice will he dish out to a complete stranger! 

So “One man! One vote!” was a rallying call that had an instantaneous appeal to every black person, even the most simple-minded ones. “One man! One vote!” was the only sure way to secure a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country and stopping all the injustice those in power can inflict on those with no political voice. 

The tragedy in Zimbabwe was that long before the ordinary people had secured their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country the treacherous and insidious Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies hijacked the revolution to imposed themselves as the country’s new corrupt and tyrannical rulers. 

Zimbabwe’s 1980 elections were supposed to be free, fair and credible; they were not. Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies made it clear that if the party did not win the elections, then the civil war would continue. The people voted to end the war and, once in power, Mugabe and company used their position to undermine the constitution and corrupt state institutions; usurping the people’s freedoms and rights and consolidating the regime’s iron grip on power. 

After 40 years of rigging the elections and with the country in total economic meltdown with unemployment a nauseating 90%, basic services such as education and health care all but collapsed, etc.; the ordinary Zimbabweans are, once again, desperate for a meaningful say in the governance of the country. “One man! One vote!” rings with renewed urgency and resonance. 

It is most disheartening that Zanu PF leaders continue to turn a deaf ear to the people’s cry for meaningful democratic change. Indeed, the worsening economic situation, has not spared the Zanu PF ruling elite and they are now fighting each other over the ever shrinking national cake like hungry hyenas over the very last scraps of the last carcass. 

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWA) and Zanu-PF commissar revealed that war veterans are pushing for automatic slots in party positions and public office positions. The few party leaders who have managed to hang on to power for the last 40 years are filthy rich; the rest they are as poor as a church mouse. It is little wonder dog fight for office is now a life and death matter. the elections as most of them were bona- fide party members.

Matemadanda, however, said "they have to be vetted" by the party's politburo first.

"We are in the process of selecting candidates to contest in the by elections and DCC and most of the war veterans have said they wanted to be voted to represent the party," deputy Minister of Defence and Zanu PF commissar Victor Matemadanda said.

"The candidates have to be vetted and approved by the party Politburo and most of the war veterans want an automatic entry into the race as the majority of them have a track record of the party."

In the past has Zanu PF has relied on war veterans as its foot soldiers to help the party remain in power. The war veterans have done the dirty work of harassing, beating, raping and even the cold-blooded murder of Zanu PF’s political opponents and critics. The overwhelming majority of war veterans have been elbowed out of the way when it came to benefiting from the party’s 40 years of absolute power. Now they are desperate to get a piece of the action! 

Zanu PF thugs, including the party’s foot soldiers the war veterans, are more determined now than ever to retain power at all cost. The talk of meaningful political change and restoring the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote are completely out of the question. 

Whilst the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are desperate to see “One man! One vote!” finally honoured and something done to end their suffering. They have the greatest fight on their hands; Zanu PF is more determined than ever never to give the ordinary Zimbabwean the vote. Never ever!

Sanctions have dominated national agenda not because they caused economic crisis - NO, only Zanu PF decreed they did.

 The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic mess and political paralysis is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous dictatorship for the last 40 years which has remained in office all these years by rigged elections. 

Zanu PF has stifled all meaningful debate by creating a monolithic system in which only the voice of the leader, his cronies, flatters, apologists and propagandist are heard. All other voices are considered a threat to the regime and are ruthlessly silenced. It is therefore no surprise that the nation has again and again found itself wasting time and resources chasing the mythical five-legged hare.

The sanctions imposed by the West are not the root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown; there is a mountain of evidence to show that corruption, mismanagement and lawlessness are the real problems. The Zanu PF dictatorship did not want to deal with corruption, mismanagement and lawlessness because the only way to end these problem is by dismantling the dictatorship itself. This is something the regime did not want to do and so it has imposed sanctions as the cause of all the nation's problems. 

It typical Zanu PF style, the regime has loaded sanctions as the root cause of the country's problems on one hand and then made a big song and dance about the measures the regime had lined up to mitigate the ill-effects of the sanction. Starting with Mugabe's "Look East!" policy launched 20 years ago to Mnangagwa's recent claim that the country has devised local solutions to spur development regardless of the sanctions. 

Mugabe's look east policy have not worked, as the economic meltdown has only got worse. Mnangagwa's solutions will accomplish nothing too because the economic meltdown is not caused by sanctions. 

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess and it is not going to get out of it by wasting time and resources addressing imaginary sanctions problems whilst the real problems, corruptions, etc. "Kupedzera miseve pamakunguvo haga dziripo!" (We just wasting arrows shooting at crows instead of the guinea fowls!) as one would say in Shona.

"A republic, if you can keep it" Franklin told America - Zimbabwe's republic morphed into dictatorship by noon N Garikai

 It is said that Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s leading figures in the fight for America’s independence and in the birth of the new nation was asked at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention what sort of government the delegates had created. "A republic, if you can keep it.” he answered. 

The Republic of Zimbabwe with a multiparty democratic constitution was born out of the 1979 Lancaster House Talks. With hindsight, it will be fair to say Zimbabweans lost the Republic before they even had the chance to see it. 

It is no secrete that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF colleagues, one of the powerful grouping at the Talks, wanted Zimbabwe to be a socialist country, a one-party state. They signed on to the multiparty democratic constitution but with no intention of honouring it. 

It was agreed that all combatant operatives would be withdrawn from the field to designated assembly points during the campaigning period, for example. Zanu PF did not withdraw all its Freedom Fighters and their campaign message to the voters was that the civil war would continue if Zanu PF lost the elections. 

So instead of the 1980 elections being free, fair and credible it was a grime choice; vote to end the war or to continue it! The people voted to end the war and with that vote lost the Republic. The victorious Zanu PF has systematically undermined the democratic institutions and constitution to create a de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the nation these last 40 years.

Back in 1980, there was no way the ordinary Zimbabweans would have stopped the Zanu PF juggernaut; when you looking up the business end of an AK47 rifle you do not argue with the one wielding it. 

Some people have argued that Zanu PF wielded the AK47 just to frighten the populous into submission; the party had no intention of using brute force. This notion was disproved with the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre in which over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered in cold blood to force PF Zapu to sign the Unity Accord and pave the way for the imposition of the de facto one party dictatorship. 

Zanu PF has murdered over 10 000 more innocent Zimbabweans since 1987 in its drive to retain the dictatorship. Mnangagwa killed 7 in August 2018 and 17 in January 2019 and injured many others to silence dissent following the rigged July 2018 elections and protests over the worsening economic situation.   

Still, there have been many opportunities, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, for the people to reassert their freedoms and rights, end the dictatorship and restore the Republic. The MDC, the party entrusted the task of implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU, sold-out. 

It was easy for MDC leaders to not only sell-out during the GNU  and after but, worse still, get away with it again and again all because the people themselves have no clue what the required democratic reforms are  much less how they are to be implemented. Even now with the benefit of hindsight, they still have no idea what the Republic is much less how to keep it! 

Many Zimbabweans do not know what constitute free, fair and credible elections and hence their failure to condemn the July 2018 elections as having been rigged. Why anyone would fail to see the production of a verified voters’ roll as a pre-requisite for free and fair elections in this day and age; beggars belief. 

Zanu PF is once again taking full advantage of the people’s failure to fight for their freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections to drag the nation into yet another meaningless 2023. The party has not implemented even one token democratic reform and has no intention of doing so as long as it remains in power. With no reforms in place, Zanu PF is certain to rig the 2023 elections. 

Each generation has its own trial and tribulation. The greatest challenge of the post independence generation was to ensure Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democracy in which the freedoms and rights of all were safe guarded and honoured. Like it or not we failed ourselves and the nation.

Is there any hope of Zimbabweans dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship and finally replacing it with a health and functioning Democratic Republic? There is always hope but only if we finally learn what constitute free and fair elections, rule of law and all the other basic requirements of a Democratic Republic. 

It is fair to say in 1980 Zimbabweans got a republic in the morning but by noon they had already lost it. Zanu PF replaced the republic with a socialist dictatorship and the people were none the wiser. The people failed to hold on to the republic because they did not know what it was then. They should know now! 

After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship the nation must now be clamouring for meaningful democratic change! When all is said and done, it is up to us, Zimbabweans, whether Zimbabwe remains a corrupt and oppressive dictatorship or finally become a free and democratic nation.

"Malcontents are condemned to the abyss" threatened Mnangagwa - hither condemned this nation P Guramatunhu

 

"Zanu-PF and this administration will never allow the party to be a haven of malcontents and criminals. I thus exhort party cadres and the citizenry at all levels in line with our national development agenda to be guarantors of a corruption-free Zimbabwe. Report all cases of corruption to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)," said President Mnangagwa addressing Zanu PF Politburo.

"As exponents of our party and its ideology, we must be alive to the clandestine machinations of our detractors, the G40 cabal and their sympathisers. This consortium is using social media, among other means to launch an onslaught on our country and party. These nay-sayers must be doomed to the political abyss once and for all, and must never be allowed to succeed," emphasised President Mnangagwa.

Soon after independence Mugabe passed the leadership code which set out to limit what the leaders could do and what wealth they could have. He used the code to blackmail his follow leaders as it was used to punish those Mugabe did not like whilst the rest, especially those who did his dirty work like Mnangagwa and the Gukurahundi murderers, were allowed to loot.

Everyone knows that Mnangagwa, Chiwenga, Sibusiso Moyo and many others in the Army and in government are the Godfathers of corruption ZACC cannot touch them. All this anti-graft drive is directed at the G40 members and the small fish. 

Mugabe allow Zanu PF leaders to loot because that was the one thing that held the fractious party together. When Mugabe gave away the last former white owned farms, the last assets to give away, in the late 2010; the party started to fall apart. 

Mugabe and his family led from the front when it came to looting. The family as amass farms, has bought property all over the world and their extravagant lifestyles is well documented. 

As for the sprawling Blue Roof palatial mansion, the epoch of Zanu PF corruption, the regime’s answer to the Athenians’ Parthenon; Mugabe saw to it that everything was done in the name of Zanu PF. He was squeaky clean of all the lavish extravagant and waste given it was built at the at the expense of the nation’s rotting and decaying hospitals and schools. 

It was only after his death that title deeds of the Blue Roof mansion was transferred from Zanu PF to the Mugabe family. 

Mnangagwa is trying to dampening the expectations of all those Zanu PF leaders who have not benefited from the looting these last 40 years by pretending he is fighting to end corruption. No doubt there will be some Zanu PF cadres who will be gullible enough to buy that ignoring such scandals as the US$60 million Draxgate. 

Mnangagwa and Zanu PF are losing their iron grip on power, the country’s worsening economic meltdown is putting the regime under increasing pressure to reform. The regime is going to turn up the violence against its critics and opponents and use whatever excuse to do so. 

"The expression of solidarity by SADC member states to our country cannot be overemphasised. The Anti-Sanctions Day declared by SADC is upon us. We must therefore rally the nation on October 25, 2020, to call upon Britain and America to unconditionally lift the imposed illegal sanctions. I urge every party member to utilise available media platforms to call for the unconditional removal of these sanctions, indeed these sanctions must go,’’ continued Mnangagwa.

Some bad habits never ever die! Mnangagwa has vowed to stamp out corruption because he knows it is one of the major causes of the country’s economic meltdown. The other two problems are mismanagement and the lawlessness that has earned the country’s pariah state status. 

The regime has blamed sanctions for the country’s economic woos only as an excuse. 

Indeed, Mugabe dismissed the sanctions as an irritation that would have little effect on the country’s development. He launched his “Look East!” policy. As we know the country’s economic decline has continued regardless because Zimbabwe remained a pariah state which, not even the Chinese were prepared to bankroll the regime’s criminal waste of resources. 

Only the other day, Mnangagwa himself was being defiant and stop whining about sanctions.

“Takaita masanctions edu atidzorera shure, asi ikozvino hatichafaniri kuramba tichichema namasanctions. Nezvatinazvo, tikabatana tinosimuka. Nyika yedu inosimuka. Matoona kuti tava nesolution in the area of agriculture and the area of food security. Tava nesolution nemasolutions in manufacturing.” (Sanctions have held us back but we must stop whining about sanctions. We must mobilise the resources we have, unite and we will prosper. We have solutions in agriculture and manufacturing.) he said. 

So why he is asking party members and the whole SADC region to call for the lifting of sanctions on 25 October when he has solutions to sanctions problem, beggars belief. 

Of course, Mnangagwa knows that as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse. And it is getting worse!

Zimbabwe was already in the middle a serious economic and political crisis before the corona virus outbreak. The pandemic has been overlaid on top of the existing national problems turning the crisis into a tragedy of Biblical proportion.

Whilst it is clear that Zanu PF has no clue how to revive the national economy it is also equally clear that the regime is determined to stay in power, damn the consequences. We must not forget that Zanu PF would rather burn down the whole country than see someone else rule it. 

If Mnangagwa and Zanu PF are not allowed to rule then they will make country ungovernable. Such is the ever-present peril, the sword of Damocles, that has hang over the nation’s head.  

Indeed, looking at the sorry state of Zimbabwe’s economy and the political paralysis after 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule; the party has already gone a long way in achieving its objective to burning down the country. If nothing is done to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, the regime will drag the nation over the edge into the abyss of chaos, instability and civil war comparable to that in Libya and Syria. 

After 40 years, still failing to hold free and fair elections; "to find the strait gate and narrow way" W Mukori

 The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. For 40 years the nation has beeb stuck with corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and it shows.  

40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s, once robust and promising, economy in ruins. Unemployment has soared to nauseating heights of 90%, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed and over 34% of the population now live in extreme poverty. 

The de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship has stifled public debate and democratic competition making politic such a dirty and dangerous game only corrupt and incompetent thugs seek public office. It is this death of quality leaders in both the ruling party and the multitude of opposition parties, 130 at the last count, that explains the political paralysis in Zimbabwe.

The economic meltdown has pushed the nation to the very edge of the precipitous abyss, the economic hardships have made the country politically and socially unstable. There is only so much suffering and deaths human beings can tolerate before the rebel, we are not that far from reaching that limit in Zimbabwe. 

It is not too late to stop and turn back from the abyss. All we need to do is implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible elections. A very tall order but not mission impossible! 

If we are ever going to have free, fair and credible elections, we need to understand why the country has failed to have such elections so far.

During the fight for independence there was never any doubt in the blacks’ mind that they were fighting to end white colonial exploitation and oppression and replace it with black majority rule where all will enjoy freedom, justice, peace, liberty and economic prosperity. “One man! One vote!” was the rallying cry. 

The black nationalists who took up arms to fight to end white colonial rule were called “freedom fighters” and “liberators”. There was never an qualms they could be anything else much less the corrupt and murderous tyrants many have turned out to be. Of course, we were being naive and have paid dearly for our naivety.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Matthew 7:13-14 

In 1980, Robert Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF nationalists did not withdraw all the party’s freedom fighters into Assembly Points as agreed in the Lancaster House Talks. The fighters campaign message to the populous was that the civil war would continue if Zanu PF did not win the elections. 

Some people have tried to dismiss Zanu PF’s threat to make the country ungovernable as just an electioneering gambit that had very little effect in the electoral outcome. The 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre in which over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered in cold blood has settled the question of what Zanu PF would do to secure absolute power. 

The primary purpose of the Gukurahundi massacre was to force the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu to sign the 1987 Unity Accord merging the two party into Zanu PF and paving the way for the imposing of the de facto one party dictatorship. Ever since, Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections under the pretext those calling for free and fair elections were threatening unity and peace. A feeble excuse for denying the people their basic freedoms and rights and to justify abandoning the straight and narrow path. 

By the late 1990s many Zimbabweans had finally come to the conclusion that Mugabe and many his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs and not the liberation heroes and heroines who cared about the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans. It was a bitter pill to swallow but many did swallow it. There was a national consensus that the nation will need to carryout democratic changes designed to end Zanu PF’s carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections. 

In 1999 Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their party, November for Democratic Change (MDC), promising to deliver the democratic changes, as their party name implied, the nation was dying for. Sadly, after 21 years on the political stage, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC has failed to implement even one token reform.

By continuing to participate in flawed and illegal elections the MDC have given credibility to the process and, by extension, given some modicum of legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF regime. 

To avoid taking the final steps over the edge of the precipitous abyss, Zimbabwe must ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible. There are two courses of action:

Plan A

Must implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Since any Zanu PF led government, on its own or in a GNU arrangement, will not implement the reforms, the party will never reform itself out of office; Zanu PF must step down to allow the appointment of a body that will implement he reforms. 

The opportunity to pressure Zanu PF to step down was lost because the opposition participated in the July 2018 elections. Still the worsening economic meltdown is putting the regime under great pressure as this is unsustainable. 

Plan B

If the 2023 elections go ahead with no reforms in place; this time,  no stone must be left unturned to ensure the outcome is declare null and void and Zanu PF regime declared illegitimate. The world must be left in no doubt that the Zimbabwe opposition participating in these flawed elections are sell-out with no political credibility. 

The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the political reality that the opposition are running with the povo hare and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds. 

The very fact that Zanu PF thugs have blatantly rigged the elections again and again for the last 40 years and we, the people, have allowed the regime to get away with it speaks volumes of our own political naivety. 

Freedoms and rights including the right to a free vote and even the right to life are God given and every man and woman’s birth right. But like everything else in this world, these freedoms and rights will only be enjoyed by those who take their responsibility to claim them as their own and, if need be, defend them with their very lives.

If we are ever going to have free, fair and credible elections and the enjoy the fruits of good governance then we must earn it by demanding reforms. Like it or not, we are our own master our own liberators. 

"Zanu PF thugs have mastered art of rigging, ballots cannot remove them" - rubbish, above all else, they are mortals P Guramatunhu

 Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.” 

He was right! What he should have said too, is how easy it is to fall into this trap especially when those who hold swear over others, claiming to know best, are the insane ones who know fcuk all!

“Elections have become a problem that has sunk us into vicious violence, unreformed state institutions, political and economic strife. It is my desire to enlighten those that still believe in the politics of the ballot paper, that the system called Zanu-PF is a virus that cannot be cured by elections,” wrote Knowledge Hakata. 

“Zimbabweans by now should know that voting or not voting Zanu-PF will still find its way back to Munhumutapa building echoing the recent statement by Vice President Kembo Mohadi  who said "the junta regime is not going anywhere anytime soon". Zanu-PF has mastered the art of manipulating the ballot in its favour for the past 15 years,”

Hakata, you cannot “enlighten” others on matters you have no clue what is happening yourself! 

Yes Zanu PF has rigged elections and stayed in power these last 40 years (not 15, as you say) with disastrous consequences to the country and people. But to attribute Zanu PF’s successfully rigging the elections all these years to “mastered the art of manipulating the ballot in its favour” is to completely miss the point. 

There have been many golden opportunities to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. One must ask, why these opportunities were wasted?

The best chances to end the Zanu PF dictatorship were during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends failed to implement even one democratic reform in 5 years of the GNU. Not even one! 

Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms. 

Of course, it is foolish to keep complain about Zanu PF mastery in rigging elections when, given a golden opportunity to stop the rigging, you sell-out.  

“The system called Zanu-PF is a virus that cannot be cured by elections!” Hakata proclaims. He was quick to rule out elections as the cure of this super duper novel virus but failed to proscribe the cure. 

The truth is there is absolutely nothing special about Zanu PF. It is a party of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Plus whatever other attributes some people have assigned to the thugs. The bottom line is, these Zanu PF thugs are above all else fallible mortals and not the invincible demigod, the incurable virus.

If the MDC idiots had implemented the democratic reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so; the 2013 elections would have been free, fair and credible. Zanu PF’s reign of terror would have been brought to a screeching end!

By participating in flawed and illegal elections, MDC and the rest of the opposition opportunists are giving the electoral process credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging, per se illegitimate, Zanu PF legitimacy. They continue to participate out of greed; Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats as bait. These opposition politicians know this to be so.

 

“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,” wrote Senator David Coltart, in his Book.

“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.”

Zanu PF thugs are not smart, the exact opposite as their track record shows. Zimbabwe would not be the failed state it is if Mugabe and company had the common sense. The country’s economic meltdown has not spared the Zanu PF ruling elite; the party is imploding because the party thugs are fight each other, like hyenas, over the ever shrinking national cake. 

We have failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, regardless of the glaring weaknesses of the party thugs, because the men and women we have entrusted this task have themselves turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs! 

One cannot claim to know and understand Zimbabwe politics by exaggerating Zanu PF thugs’ tyrannical powers, on the one hand. And, on the other, completely ignore the sheer stupidity of the sell-out opposition opportunists.   

As things stand, there is a real danger that Zanu PF will drag the nation over the edge into economic and political chaos comparable to that we see in Libya and Syria. We have failed to bring about peaceful and democratic change and now we face violent change complete with all the death and destruction that entails. 

Yes, Mnangagwa and his cronies will rightly blamed for dragging the nation into this mess and, if nothing is done to end the dictatorship, beyond the point of no return.  But Tsvangirai et al must too be held to account for the many wasted opportunities to end the dictatorship. 

It is easy to see why Zimbabwe has been caught in this nightmare of rigged elections and bad governance for 40 years and counting -  there has been very little intellectual discourse to ascertain what is going on much less what to do about it. It does help when the few loud voices to be heard are other Zanu PF propagandists or opposition apologists who pretend to know everything but, actually, know precious little. 

There is a shocking lack of imagination in Zimbabwe - proof, braindead thugs have ruled for 40 years and counting W Mukori

 “There are no imaginative skills on how to move the country forward internally and externally, be it economic and political in both the ruling party and the opposition of Nelson Chamisa,” wrote Nomazulu Thata, commenting on Professor Stephen Chan’s recent video interview.

Professor Stephen Chan is a blundering idiot masquerading as an intellectual. He has made many very serious blunders on Zimbabwe politics in the past and talked about one such blunder in his interview. He admitted to advising the British Secretary of State for Africa to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration following the rigged July 2018 elections. He argued the British to give Mnangagwa a chance. 

Other luminary personalities who had observed Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections, notably Labour MP Kate Hoey, dismissed the elections as a farce and argued the international community not to give the illegitimate Zanu PF regime any support. 

It was a great pity that the British government accepted Professor Chan’s advice and not that of MP Hoey. We, in Zimbabwe, have paid dearly for that blunder to this day!

I do agree with Professor Chan’s gloomy assessment of the sorry state Zimbabwe is in. He is right to say there is a lack of imagination, internally and externally, as what to do to get the country out of the mess. The irony is the solution has been hiding in plain sight all along; if only we would open our eyes and minds to see it. 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s economy in ruins. 40 years of stifled debate and democratic competition has forced quality out of public life leaving the field open to corrupt and incompetent individuals on both sides of the political divide. 

We need to implement the democratic reforms to promote free debate and competition and to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. 

Since Zanu PF government will never implement the reforms, the party will never reform itself out of office, we must appoint an independent body that will implement the reforms. 

Zanu PF must step down to allow the political space for the independent body that will implement the reforms. 

“Zanu PF will never step down!” many have argued. Of course, they will step down; they have done is before already!

Zanu PF was forced to step down following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections. The international community, included the usually reticent see nothing SADC and AU, refused to endorse Zanu PF’s claim of electoral victory and legitimacy.

By participating in the July 2018 elections Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition parties gave the flawed and illegal process credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy. Just one of the many decisions proving the compete lack of quality and imagination on the part of Nelson Chamisa et al! 

The EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and all the other nations and organisations with any democratic credentials worth a spit condemned the July 2018 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 Mission final report. 

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

Given such a damning report, the decision by Professor Chan and the British to let Mnangagwa off the legitimacy hook beggared belief and showed a complete lack of imagination. 

The pressure on Zanu PF to stop down should have been brought to bear immediately following the rigged 31 July 2018. The pressure can still be brought to bear even now, the failure to revive the economy is putting Mnangagwa under renewed pressure.

Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections confident he would go on to “rig” economic recovery. His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call has failed to attract the flood of investors. The corona virus pandemic has made a bad situation even worse, the crisis has now turned into a real tragedy. 

Before the corona virus outbreak, 34% of the Zimbabweans were already living in extreme poverty; the number has surged upward. 

Basic services such as health care and education have all but collapse because of decades of poor funding. Teachers and health care personal have been on strike for months on end demanding a living wage and safe working conditions. All civil servants have just been awarded up 500% wage increase taking the pittance wage of the lowest paid teachers from US$30 to 157 pm. The PDL in Zimbabwe is US$650 pm. 

With inflation already at 838% year on year, the wage hike will be eroded away within a few months and everyone will be out of strike again. 

With more than a third of the population living in extreme poverty, no health care service, no education for the children, etc. Zimbabwe’s future is bleak. And as long as the country remains a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs; the situation will only get worse. 

Zimbabwe could have been saved from this tragic end if only Zanu PF had been stopped from turning the country into a pariah state. The country can still be save from sinking even deeper into this man-made hell-on-earth by implementing the democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections. Only that is needed is the courage and resolve to demand that the illegitimate Zanu PF regime steps down and stop holding the nation to ransom. 

Yes, Professor Chan is right, there really is shocking lack of imagination here. When a corrupt, incompetent and, for all intend and practical purposes, braindead thug like Emmerson Mnangagwa is viewed for 40 years and counting as an all powerful demigod; there is a daft lack of imagination all round.

Zanu PF tells whites, former slave owners, to "shut up" on reforms - madness, why punish blacks P Guramatunhu

 

One of the most offensive and exasperating things the white colonial oppressors did was to deny the blacks their voice and human dignity. In the workplace blacks were called “boyi” and were expected to grovel before the whites, to show respect, and to do as they were told.

The print and electronic media was there to give the whites a voice. The few independent newspapers and magazine serving the blacks were expected to help keep law and order by not questioning the blatant racial injustice. And so such publications as Moto, a Roman Catholic Church backed magazine, were harassed and censored by the white regime for publishing strongly held views by blacks. The whites could not tolerate any black person do dared to think for themselves; they were considered radicals and dangerous.

In white ruled Rhodesia, blacks had no meaningful say in the governance of the country. They had no vote; period.

Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 has brought an end to white colonial oppression but only to replace it with black ruling elite oppression. All pretence of Zimbabwe being a multi-party democracy completely evaporated with the signing of the Zanu PF and PF Zapu Unity Accord in 1987; merging the two parties to form the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship.

Zanu PF assimilated the laws and practices designed to silence and oppress the blacks, lock, stock and barrel, and keep the white in power; only this time they were to keep the Zanu PF dictatorship in power.

In Zanu PF ruled Zimbabwe, blacks had a vote in theory but not in practice. Starting with the 1980 elections Zanu PF has blatantly cheated and used violence varying from subtle intimidation to beatings, rape and even cold-blooded murder to secure electoral victory. Zimbabwe has never ever held free, fair and credible elections.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic mess is the failure to hold free and fair elections. The country has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime for 40 years now. 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country in economic ruins and millions are now living in abject poverty.

The economic situation in Zimbabwe has reached alarming levels, unemployment has soared to 90% plus, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed. 34% of the population, according to WB 2019 report, were living in extreme poverty. The corona virus pandemic has made the health and economic situation even worse. The human suffering caused by the economic meltdown has become intolerable.

It is extremely annoying therefore that instead of the nation addressing the country’s economic mess and the underlying cause of rigged elections the nation being forced to discuss a side show.

"Zanu-PF takes strong exception to being lectured on issues of human rights by citizens of countries which perpetrated the brutalities accompanying the Atlantic African Slave Trade and colonial conquest of Africa, and who refuse to render apologies or pay reparations," said Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF’s acting spokesperson.

"As a consequence of seeking to redress the brutalities that occurred in the colonisation of Zimbabwe, accompanied by dispossession of our land and brutal confiscation of livestock by colonialists, the country has suffered 20 years of naked bullying, economic isolation and severe sanctions regime by the former colonial powers now acting in concert as economic and political powers in support of what they allege are rights of 4 500 white former farmers," he said.

Ordinary Zimbabweans have been calling for the restoration of their basic freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself. Of course, they have been crying for freedom, peace, justice and human dignity all their lives; they are at the coal face of Zanu PF oppression just as they were at the coal face of white colonial oppression.

Last month President Cyril Ramaphosa of SA send envoys to Zimbabwe whose mission was to encourage Zanu PF to accept meaningful democratic changes and end the country’s worsening economic and political crisis. SA was told in no uncertain terms to mind its own business.

"We are an independent sovereign country. We agreed in our meeting that we are equal sovereign States. South Africa has no mediatory role to play in Zimbabwe. We know that the South African government is controlled by white men," remarked Patrick Chinamasa.

So Zanu PF has completely ignored the ordinary Zimbabweans who have crying for their freedoms and rights because the regime is indifferent to their suffering. And, more significantly, Zanu PF, just like the white colonial regime before it, does not recognise ordinary Zimbabweans as human beings entitled to the same freedoms and rights as other human being.

"That at the time of abolition of the Atlantic African slave trade the British through the British Parliament approved and paid 20 million pounds to slave owners already rich through the labour of the slaves," concluded Chinamasa.

This is just madness! And so, ordinary Zimbabweans be denied their basic freedoms and rights because the British compensated the slave owners but not the slaves. What has that got to do with me?

Teacher wage soar from US$ 30 to 157 per month - 500% wage rise, 838% inflation = breakneck speed we sinking N Garikai

 "The Public Service Commission is pleased to advise Government workers that the USD 75 Covid 19 allowance for September 2020 is being paid today. Going forward, the USD 75 Covid allowance will be paid on pay days. This effectively means that the least paid worker (B1) is now earning ZWL 11 350.16 (or US$ 141 at ZWL 80: US$1 monthly), while a teacher at entry grade  (D1) earns a total of ZWL 12 591.15 or US$157)," government announced.

This is a very generous offer indeed considering a teacher at entry grade (D1) was earning a mere US$ 30 per month! This constitutes a 500% wage rise. Should the teachers now go out and celebrate? The answer is no for two reasons:

a)    Even with the new wage, teachers are still earning way below Poverty Datum Line (PDL)

The PDL in Zimbabwe is US$650 per month and the new wage increase is only a quarter of the way up. It underlines just how far the teachers are sunk!

b)    The wage rise is already being eroded away because of the high inflation

Government has not discovered an unknown source of revenue to pay for these 500% wage increase for the civil servants, it is going to print money. And printing money is one sure way of fuelling inflation. Inflation is already running at 838% year on year and so it is a certainty that inflation is going to soar.

But even if we assume inflation remains where it is at 838% year on year; this means in just over six months the teacher earning US$157 per month today will be earning US$ 30 per month. Back where they started!

A 500% wage rise, inflation rate of 838%, etc. these are the symptoms of an economy in serious trouble.

The people of Zimbabwe did not elect this Zanu PF government in July 2018. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections just as the party had done ever since the country’s independence in 1980. Zanu PF rigged the election and was confident the party will rig economic recovery.

President Mnangagwa was cocksure his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call would open the floodgate of investors. It is now crystal clear that no investors are ever going to come. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” is dead in the water. Zanu PF has failed to rig economic recovery.  

Like it or not we must accept the reality that Zanu PF has no clue what to do to revive the economy and, most important of all, that the party will not acknowledge it has failed much less accept the right of every Zimbabwean to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

For the last 40 years Zimbabwe has sunk deeper and deeper into this economic and political crisis because the nation was stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime that rigged elections to stay in power.

The need for free, fair and credible election is not just a human right it is the cure to Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections and bad governance. We must take it or the nation will, one of these day, sink beyond the point of no return – if we have not done so already. A 500% wage increase is proof of our already breakneck speed into the abyss!