Ever since Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, 40 years ago, the nation has been on a quest for freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity for all. “Gutsva ruzhinji!” as Robert Mugabe never seemed to tire of saying throughout the 1980s! When the country attained her independence many Zimbabweans never doubted for a moment that all these things were not just within their reach but were right in the hands already. They were wrong!
The people’s first rude awakening was the elections leading to independence on 18 April 1980. Whilst the whole nation had grown to hold the black nationalist clarion call of “One man, one vote!” as sacrosanct. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF freedom fighters made it clear that if the party did not win the plebiscite the civil war would continue. And so the people had no choice but to vote to end the war.
Zanu PF won the 1980 elections and went to work to systematically erode the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life.
Some people had argued that Zanu PF’s threat to continue the civil war if the party lost the 1980 elections was just an empty electioneering mantra, the party would have never restarted the war if it had lost the elections. The doubters were silenced by the Zanu PF instigated 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre. The primary purpose of the massacre was to force PF Zapu, Zanu PF’s main political opponent, to sign the Unity Accord, uniting the two parties creating the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country to this day.
And so the the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans life has been a great disappointment as they have sunk deeper and deeper into economic poverty and denied their freedoms, rights and human dignity. Their pre-independence hopes and dreams for freedom, justice, a fair share of the nation’s wealth and riches are either a long forgotten memory or a mirage, they can see it but forever out of reach.
Zanu PF, the country’s ruling elite, have an explanation why Zimbabweans are poor.
“To this day, our quest to the unhindered right to access and utilise our natural resources continues being hampered. In the case of Zimbabwe, sanctions constrain the realisation of our full socioeconomic potential,” Emmerson Mnangagwa told his audience at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Museum of African Liberation in Warren Park, Harare.
"In the case of other countries on our continent, detractors continue to fund and fuel divisions so that while we fight, the pilferage and looting of our resources goes unchecked. Learning from our history and past, the time has come for us to deliberately and more consciously defend our interests as the people of Africa.”
After 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption the people know that these are the real causes of the country’s economic meltdown. They can see the sprawling Blue Roof palatial mansion valued at US$ 2 to 4 billion, the epitome of Zanu PF ruling elite lavish lifestyles. After building his C & M mansion, VP Chiwenga bought a fleet of posh cars, bought 45 gold watches, etc., etc.
The ruling elite’s insatiable greed for money and luxuries were all paid for the wealth looted from the nation. Key national institutions like hospitals have been starved of funds; so starved that even referral Hospitals like Parerenyatwa, Mpilo, etc. have regularly run out of even the most basic drugs like painkillers were starved of funds.
Sanctions! Yeah right! How come sanctions stopped government buying painkillers for hospitals but did not stop Mugabe build the US$2 billion Blue Roof, Zimbabwe’s Parthenon temple to corruption and greed.
It was the noble prize physicist Albert Einstein who said “Insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result!”
The people of Zimbabwe do not believe the West are holding back the country’s development much less that Zanu PF has solutions to mitigate the sanctions, contrary to the repeated claims saying otherwise. The people know these are all hen’s teeth tales.
After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule and being dragged deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth; the people are not expecting the regime to be competent and just and to deliver economic prosperity. They are not insane!
“So, why have the people of Zimbabwe done nothing to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and end their oppression and economic suffering?” you might well ask.
The answer is the people have indeed risked life and limb in electing Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend into power these last 20 years on the understanding they would implement the democratic reforms the nation was dying for.
MDC leaders have had many golden opportunities to implement the reforms, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, the MDC leaders have proven to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office and the MDC leaders, just as the Zanu PF cronies had done in 1980, betrayed the people’s trust and commonwealth interests.
The people of Zimbabwe trusted Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies, they viewed them as national liberation heroes and heroines only to be knock down as the liberators turned into the corrupt and ruthless tyrants. They people turned to MDC believing they would deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for, only to be betrayed again.
The people of Zimbabwe have been knocked down again and again and after each fall it is very hard to get up again! Before they get up again the people are desperate for some assurance their hopes and dreams of freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity will finally be honoured and fulfilled. It is not too much to ask!
Zimbabwe's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is the root cause of the country's economic and political problems. Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him is blaming the sanctions for the nation's problems only because he is the one rigging the elections and responsibility for the looting and will never blame himself.
I have often asked myself: why is Zimbabwe in this economic and political mess?
ReplyDeleteOne of the answers to the question is our failure, as a nation, to appreciate the importance of truth, facts, reality, rational thinking and rigorous debate. Where as the Greeks in the greatest moments of success, ingenuity and prosperity, the golden age, valued knowledge and stopped at nothing to promote free thinking and search for the truth. 2 500 years ago they embraced freedom of expression and freedom of association. And all societies and nations who have followed the Greek's example have enjoyed peace, enlightenment and prosperity.
In Zimbabwe, Zanu PF has become obsessed about stifling debate and keeping the public ignorant. Where as the white colonial regime had so to control the print and electronic media to keep the blacks ignorant, Mugabe took this one step further and created the Ministry of Information whose principle task was to misinform and brainwash the entire population. The tragedy here is the Zanu PF regime itself has not only believed its own propaganda but worst of all has been acting on the basis of the lies!
Corruption is the single most serious problem that has hampered the country's development. One does not need a degree in economic to know that if the US$ 2 billion wasted building the Blue Roof had instead been used to build the Batoka Gorge Dam it would made contributed greatly to the nation's prosperity. Power generated from Batoka Gorge would contribute US$ 10 billion to the nation's GDP today. The nation got, the Blue Roof, this Parthenon temple to corruption and greed, contributing absolutely nothing to the economic prosperity.
But, thanks to the cloud of ignorance blanketing this nation, President Mnangagwa has no shame in standing up in public and proclaim that sanctions, not corruption, is holding back the nation's development.
We need to implement the democratic reforms, end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance. And one of the reforms that must be implemented a.s.a.p. are to scrap the Ministry of Information (Propaganda) and safe guard freedom of expression and free media! We need to free our people to think for themselves again!
@ John Austin
ReplyDelete“Wilbert writes above:-
"The people’s first rude awakening was the elections leading to independence on 18 April 1980. While the whole nation had grown to hold the black nationalist clarion call of “One man, one vote!” as sacrosanct, Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF freedom fighters made it clear that if the party did not win the plebiscite the civil war would continue."
Absolutely correct.
I was on call-up in Mutoko for those first elections under Governor Soames (who was fully briefed by the security establishment concerning ZANUpf election intimidation electioneering). But the Brits had at last got the decolonisation of Rhodesia within their grasp; so they were determined to see it through "come hell or high water".
The nation has continued to pay the price for not standing up to the bully-boy tactics then;..... and its style continues to this day.
I read elsewhere recently, that there is no hope for Zimbabwe until all of the generation of so-called Freedom Fighters lose their grip and influence on power and government. In short, once they are all dead.
However, heaven help our nation if their spoilt-brat children take over, neh?”
If you think Zimbabwe will become a healthy and functioning democracy the day the nation buries the last one of the Zanu PF freedom fighters; think again. The culture of entitlement, “Chinju chedu!” as the November 2017 coup plotters and war veterans would call it, the driving force behind the de facto one party dictatorship, is perverse, pervert and persuasive.
If the G40 faction had prevailed and not the Lactose in November 2017; the country will have Grace Mugabe, Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao, etc. ruling with an iron fist claiming they are the true embodiment of Zanu PF revolutionary party.
Indeed, how many times have we heard MDC leaders and their apologists challenging the nation’s right to hold them to democratic account. They too believe they are entitled to do as they please because “they have been in the trenches!” (Doing what, is a moot point they do not want to be asked, much less answer!)
Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) coronavirus/COVID-19 situation report as of 05 December 2020:
ReplyDeleteNew cases: 70
Locals: 50
Returnees: 20 – from South Africa
Deaths: 10
Recoveries: 46
PCR Tests Done: 1 577
National Recovery Rate: 81.4%
Active Cases: 1 482
Total Cumulative Cases: 10 617
Total Recoveries: 8 844
Total Deaths: 291
When there is one corona virus case in a school environment where there is no such thing as social distancing, one has to test the rest of the students and teachers. The whole school population will be on strict quarantine for 14 days. And follow up test must be carried out on all outsiders who had come into close contact with any of the students or teachers.
So for a school with say 200 students 50 regular staff and another 50 supporting staff one will need to carry out 300 tests initially and another 300 tests follow up. For a country that is only carrying out 1 577 PCR tests a day country wide it is obvious the school will be very luck if 60 tests, 10%, are carried out!
Zimbabwe’s testing regime is wilfully inadequate, the country has no clue how many people have the corona virus and its official figures of cases and deaths is meaningless.
Zanu PF has handle the corona virus pandemic with its characteristic blundering incompetence. By failing to test and making sure all those with the virus are kept in isolation; many infected people have remain in society spreading the virus so many more Zimbabweans will have the virus and many will die.
@ Ibbo Mandaza
ReplyDeleteNotably, and against the background of the foregoing, when the MDC was formed in 1999, its galvanising mantra was a call to reform whose payoff line was: Chinja Maitiro, Maitiro Chinja or Guqula Izenzo, Izenzo Guqula.
Critical to this mantra was the realisation that, although Zimbabwe had gotten independent in 1980, the independence did not come with democracy because of Zanu-PF's single-minded preoccupation with the consolidation of its power at the expense of reforming the colonial system.
In the circumstances, the MDC's reform mantra found currency and momentum in the calls and agitation for economic and constitutional reforms particularly but not only by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), two key springboards of the MDC.
Although in its name, logo, ideology and political programme the MDC was formed as a reform party, in direct opposition to Zanu-PF's anti-reform agenda, it is instructive that, since its formation, the MDC has squandered four major opportunities for reform headways in favour of making news headlines in the politics of the day, in the vain hope of either taking from or sharing with Zanu-PF the spoils of political power.
The four major reform headways squandered by the MDC were in 2000, 2008, 2013 and 2017. Prior to these, the only other reform headway squandered by the opposition in Zimbabwe was by Zapu in 1987.
In the circumstances, the squandering of reform headways in favour of news headlines has been the bane of opposition politics in Zimbabwe. Despite if not in spite of styling itself as a pro-reform movement, the MDC has not had a theory of the case, that is a theory of change, based on the understanding of change through reforms as an incremental process driven by milestones that make headways towards incrementally achieving the objectives of the case
It was USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who said in a leaked cable back to Washington that Morgan Tsvangirai was “a flawed and indecisive character who, if MDC was go ever get into power, would be an albatross round the nation’s neck!”
MDC did get into power, in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, and had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic which would have dismantled the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. Tsvangirai and company sold-out and failed to implement even one reform.
Zanu PF has retained its dictatorial powers and has continued to rig elections and by participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC has given the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
So Ambassador Dell was 100% correct, MDC leaders have become the albatross round the nation’s neck.
Even with the benefit of hindsight, many Zimbabweans have stubbornly refuse to accept that MDC not only sold-out on reforms during the 2008 GNU but continue to do so to this day. Indeed, some MDC supporters still turn many sheds darker with rage to hear MDC leaders sold-out!
It is truly comforting to see many Zimbabweans are finally accepting the fact that MDC leaders failed to implement reforms as a historic fact and reality. The next challenge is to accept that MDC leaders have abandoned all hope of implementing the reforms and hence the reason they have been participating in elections with no reforms since 2013.
Zimbabwe needs to implement the democratic reforms to move on and accepting the reality that MDC is not up to the task is an important step in getting these reforms finally implemented.
“Don’t underestimate the commitment of the children of change.The wave of change is unstoppable. Those who are trying to dismantle the people’s party are wasting their time. We are unstoppable -that’s an undeniable fact,” added President Chamisa.
ReplyDelete“Although in its name, logo, ideology and political programme the MDC was formed as a reform party, in direct opposition to Zanu-PF's anti-reform agenda, it is instructive that, since its formation, the MDC has squandered four major opportunities for reform headways in favour of making news headlines in the politics of the day, in the vain hope of either taking from or sharing with Zanu-PF the spoils of political power,” wrote Dr Ibbo Mandaza in The Standard.
“In the circumstances, the squandering of reform headways in favour of news headlines has been the bane of opposition politics in Zimbabwe. Despite if not in spite of styling itself as a pro-reform movement, the MDC has not had a theory of the case, that is a theory of change, based on the understanding of change through reforms as an incremental process driven by milestones that make headways towards incrementally achieving the objectives of the case.”
Of course, Dr Mandaza is right, MDC has not only squandered opportunities to implement reforms but worse still, the party has no clue what the reforms are!
It is now two and half years since the rigged July 2018 elections and still not even one reform has been implemented nor is there anything to suggest any reforms will be implemented. MDC is gearing to participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms just as the party did in 2013 and 2018.
Of course, it is just hot air to talk of change is unstoppable when one is doing nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. There will be no meaningful change as long as Zanu PF retains the carte blanche power to rig elections. None!
We can bury our heads in the sand and fool ourselves that change is unstoppable but if we are serious about change then we must accept the reality - MDC are not up to the task to deliver change!
The Blue Roof mansion is a grand building and I have seen photographs of some of the rooms - no expense was spared. I can well believe the Blue Roof is valued at US$ 4 billion. And this is not the half of it, Mugabe and his family squandered billions of dollar every year of mansions, cars, countless overseas trips, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa, Chiwenga and all the other Zanu PF chefs did not build as grand a mansion as Blue Roof but they were not far behind and have been doing their best to play catch-up.
The biggest shock, as far as I am concerned, in all these stories of Zanu PF chefs' extravagant rat race is that every dollar squandered on the Blue Roof, posh cars, etc. was money looted from the poorest of the poor.
As of 2019, 34% of the Zimbabwe's population was living in extreme poverty, according to a WB report, i.e. they could not afford one decent meal a day let alone education for the children, health care and other basic necessities. The corona virus pandemic has, no doubt, pushed even more people into abject poverty. It is a sobering thought that all these people's suffering and deaths were considered necessary; how else was Mugabe and his cronies going to have his Blue Roof mansion and extravagant lifestyle!
Yes the Blue Roof is the Parthenon temple to greed and the ordinary people are the sacrificial lambs!
Monica Mutsvangwa, the Information minister, said the spike in Covid-19 was giving the government sleepless nights. Recorded cases breached the 10,000 mark for the first time on December 1.
ReplyDelete“Of concern, is the increase in the number of new cases detected from 281 recorded in week 46 to 594 in week 47 following the re-opening of schools,” Mutsvangwa said.
“Enforcement of the measures and communication of the same is being intensified while schools will remain open only if they adhere to the standard operating procedures.”
Various boarding schools have recorded Covid-19 outbreaks, with one recording as many as 200 cases in two weeks.
Why Zimbabwe is still carrying out less than 2 000 tests per day in the face of the soaring corona virus cases is a mystery. Zimbabwe has not been testing and tracking the virus and therefore open school was irresponsible, knowing it is impossible to maintain social distancing at most schools. And the inability to carry out many test made the bad situation even worse.
@ Derrick Ndlovu
ReplyDelete“The sanctions in the country is Zanu pf itself. There is no better way to explain sanctions.
If indeed sanctions are hampering the country as they claim, don’t they as Zanu pf know the source of sanctions? Are they stupid not to know or they pretend not to know?
They always told what they should do so those sanctions will loose grip, but they choose to make useless noise.
They are doing it on purpose because they know that if those sanctions had to disappear, they will be unmasked. They will still fail to improve the country hence inwardly they want those sanctions to remain which act as an excuse to their failures.”
Even if the sanctions were indeed the root cause of the country’s economic and political problems that is still no excuse for denying the ordinary Zimbabweans their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. If the West imposed the sanctions on Zimbabwe, for whatever reasons, why should an ordinary Zimbabweans be punished for it?
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. We have been stuck for 40 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous regime.
It is a great tragedy that when the country had the many chances to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, the chances were all wasted. Unless we do something about getting quality opposition leaders, we are well and truly stuck.
Even if Zanu PF was to imploded and sink into oblivion, unless we do something to ensure there is quality leaders, we all have one mediocre government after another, at best! At worst, we will have another corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship.
When Mnangagwa took over in a military coup in November 2017 and pledged political and economic reforms, Chin’ono, like many other Zimbabweans, threw his weight behind the ZANU-PF stalwart.
ReplyDelete“I supported the idea of reforms he [Mnangagwa] was pursuing,” Chin’ono says. “I thought he was genuine and there was no point in criticising the coup itself because it had happened and was irreversible. For purposes of progress, it was sensible to support his reforms.”
“Fast forward to October 2018, I had realised there were no reforms,” he says, noting it was then that he “started making noise”.
Many people did support the November 2018 military coup and most notable of all was Zimbabwe’s opposition political leaders. Morgan Tsvangirai discharged himself from his SA hospital to return to Zimbabwe; Lactose people had promised there would be a new GNU and he could not wait!
Of course, all those who supported the November 2017 military coup were foolish and naive because Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s chief henchman and had done all the regime’s dirtiest jobs including the soft-coup to stop MDC getting power in 2008 and the Gukurahundi massacre in the early 1980s.
What the country was dying for, and is to this day, was to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. What Mnangagwa was offering was to remove one dictator and only to replace him with another dictator. This was bronze for gold!
Tsvangirai and company were desperate to get back on the gravy train, they had very fond memories of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. As we know MDC leaders had sold-out during the 2008 GNU by failing to get even one reform implemented. The new GNU with Mnangagwa was not going to implement any reforms, that was obvious. Tsvangirai was trading gold for fool’s gold but he did not mind one bit as long as he got back on the gravy train.
Mnangagwa dished out all the cabinet posts to his fellow coup plotters and Lacoste supporters and did not even give Tsvangirai a look in!
The November 2017 military coup was a golden opportunity for the nation to asset its demand for democratic reforms and an end to the de facto one party dictatorship. It was an opportunity lost because some people jumped the gun!
Thank you to all citizens who amplified the voice of student teachers, their salaries were reviewed from USD 1.50 to USD 50. Now they have a new battle to fight. They are being forced to repeat in 2021 but they wont be earning the new allowance.
ReplyDeleteThe cabinet who made the decision to pay student teachers USD 50 is composed of individuals like VP Chiwenga who lives in his C&M mansion, has a fleet of six posh cars, has nearly USD 250 000 in his bank account, has 45 gold watches (has so much money does not know how else to spend it), etc.
Zimbabwe's education service exist in theory but not in practice. Last year the best performing schools in Chiredzi South Constituency for grade 7, form 2, "O" and "A" levels had 3% pass rate with many recording 0%! Similar results were repeated right across the country. And it is obvious why the standards have dropped to nothing - education sector has been starved of funding for decades now!
It is not that these students are thick to pass any examination; we have failed them by denying them a chance to learn. What kind of citizens will this generation of failures make?
The few ruling elite are filthy rich whilst millions are filthy poor and by denying so many people even the most basic educations we are condemning the whole nation to ignorance and poverty! This is s really sick nation.
If we are serious about educating our children then we must put our money where our mouth is. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sower's ear!
@ P Ncube
ReplyDelete“Good articles are not preferred or read as senseless articles that we see in the platforms. Mandaza is highlighting the issues that will lift this country out of this quagmire, very few people take interest in reading academic and above all a solution-seeking article regarding this great nation.”
You have hit the nail on the head!
The Greeks said a healthy and functioning democracy is only possible if the citizens are educated, have an insatiable hunger for knowledge, and hence the reasons they put so much emphasis on individual freedoms and freedom of expression in particular.
Those who do not value education and certain to learn little, if anything at all, from the past. And those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat the same foolish mistakes over and over again ad nauseam.
After 40 years of rigged elections, we are set for yet another rigged elections in 2023 and you have just pointed why!