Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political hell-on-earth because for the last 40 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship. Zanu PF has rigged the elections and again and again we, the people have allowed the party to govern regardless of its illegitimacy hoping against hope that this time it will be a competent.
Sadly, after 40 years there are some people who still seek to appease Zanu PF hoping against reason that the regime will put aside its dictatorial powers to become a model democracy.
Zimbabwe’s Council of Church are back again to their old song, calling on Zanu PF leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and MDC A leader, Nelson Chamisa “to find each other”!
"If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk with others." argued ZCC advisory board member Bishop Ignatius Makumbe.
True, for the last 40 years the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans have allowed Zanu PF to ride roughshod over them; to deny them their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life itself. And after 40 years look where “walking with others” has landed the nation - in this hell-on-earth.
Following a particularly obnoxious election in 2008, in which Zanu PF blatantly cheated and used wanton violence to win the elections, Zanu PF was forced by SADC to join MDC to form a GNU. The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement a raft of democratic reforms to stop the cheating and violence and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
The leaders of the country’s main political parties did “find each other”, as Bishop Makumbe would put it in forming the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The country had more ministers, deputy ministers, governors, etc., etc.; more chiefs than Indians; and they all sat and enjoyed the trappings of high office. Sadly, that was all they did.
The GNU failed to implement even one token democratic reform in five years. Not even one!
With no reforms in place, Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the 2018 elections and continue with its corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical rule and hence the reason are still stuck in this hell-on-earth.
Whilst there is a tacit acknowledgement by Bishop Makumbe and his ZCC colleagues that the Zanu PF dictatorship has been a disaster for the country, the reason why the country is stuck in this hell-on-earth. But instead of putting and end to the curse of rigged elections and bad governance the church leaders want to retain Zanu PF and hence the call for Zanu PF and MDC A leaders to find each other.
This is just foolish because the two party were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one reform. It is naive to believe the two parties will do any better given a second GNU.
After 40 years of appeasing Zanu PF by letting the party rig elections and stay in power regardless, 40 years of blundering from pillar to post dragging the nation deeper and deeper into abject poverty, hopelessness and despair; we have travelled far and fast. The real important question all these has not been how far or how fast we are traveling. It was and still is to this day: Where are we going?
In 1980 Zimbabwe produced enough food feed her own people with plenty left over to be the breadbasket of the region. The country had the potential to be the South Korea of Africa. “Zimbabwe is jewel of Africa, make sure you look after it,” the late Tanzania President, Julius Nyerere told Mugabe in 1980.
Nyerere’s wise words fell on deaf ears because Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have all but destroyed Zimbabwe. After 20 years of misrule Mugabe crowned it with the looting of the farms to give to his ever demanding but wasteful cronies. Ever since the country has relied on imported food aid, we are so poor we cannot even pay for it.
Zimbabweans are starving in a country that is for all practical purposes, the Biblical Garden of Eden; at least it was under white rule. A damning indictment of failed Zanu PF leadership.
In 40 years Zanu PF has turning a rich country with a promising future into a basket case Banana Republic, a pariah ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. All ZCC is proposing is that Zanu PF and MDC should “find each other” and continue down the same ruinous path Zanu PF has dragged the nation these last 40 years is the epitome of insanity.
For the last 40 years we have been travelling in the wrong direction. The right direction and only direction we should travel is one that will finally dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Appeasing the Zanu PF dictatorship is what got us into this mess in the first place and to hope against reason that it would, even after 40 years, is insane.
These church leaders not only acknowledge that the country is in serious trouble, that Zanu PF landed us in this mess and that the party, alone, cannot get us out of the mess. And hence the reason they want Mnangagwa and Chamisa to "find each other"!
ReplyDeleteWhat these church leaders are refusing to accept is that after 40 years, Zanu PF has not only no clue what it is doing but that the party will never acknowledge failure much less give up power. And what Bishop Makumbe and his ZCC members are doing is appeasing Zanu PF by proposing a way forward that allows Mnangagwa and company to stay in power.
What the country needs a way out of this mess and asking Zanu PF to remain in power, to drag the nation even deeper into this hell-hole, is hardly a way out! ZCC are proposing to appease Zanu PF at the expense of the people desperate for change.
We have been travelling in the wrong direction and now ZCC want Mnangagwa and Chamisa to walk us “fast and far” into the abyss! This is nonsense from the pulpit being repeated ad nauseam for validation! We must reject this foolishness with the contempt it rightly deserve!
We have travelled this disastrous path of appeasing Zanu PF and we must now dismantle the dictatorship and change course. It will be insane not after 40 years of travelling the same disastrous path.
V11s Proving Biden Participated In the Zimbabwe Chimurenga Liberation Struggle As A Mediator
ReplyDeleteWell, now that Joe Biden is in the hot seat, one hopes that he will deliver real change in Africa! He will do well to redefine the sanctions so that they have real bite and add a few more sell-outs on the sanctions list. I would like to see Professor Mthuli Ncube and opposition sell-outs added to the list!
In his ruling, Nduna said Nguwaya had been remanded 10 times with the state failing to give him a trial date.
ReplyDeleteThe chances are the case, since it has bigwigs involved, will be kicked into the tall grass and forgotten.
DIASPORA VOTE IS A NON-NEGOTIABLE RIGHT!
ReplyDelete2013 CONSTITUTION IS VERY CLEAR, MDC ALLIANCE NAMIBIA DEMANDS ONE-MAN ONE-VOTE.
MDC A Namibia has some really active members who love being in the news making all manner of meaningless claims and promises. It is all very well saying diaspora vote is a non-negotiable right; it would be useful to know what you will do to secure that right if it is denied!
Zanu PF denied all those in the diaspora the vote in 2018 and what did MDC A Namibia do about it? We did not even hear a mouse squeak!
Indeed, the July 2018 elections were full of flawed and illegalities denying a free vote to even for those in Zimbabwe. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. Nelson Chamisa and the rest of the MDC A family participated in the elections regardless of all the evidence Zanu PF was rigging because they were after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away. The attention seeking MDC A Namibia members have never questions the folly of the party leaders.
MDC A is preparing to participate in the 2023 elections with not even one reform in place. And true to their attention seeking, MDC A Namibia is out cheering and applauding.
The right to free, fair and credible elections is a non-negotiable right but securing that right will take a lot more than paying lip service to the matter! MDC A Namibia must tell us what they will do to secure the diaspora vote or shut up!
According to the villagers, Zanu PF leader, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa, has nothing to offer to Zimbabweans.
ReplyDelete“We are tired of being used by Zanu PF, this time we will not be cowed into submission,” said a villager who identified himself as Hove.
“Mr Mnangagwa is useless, actually he has nothing to offer to the people of Zimbabwe.
He gave us regalia but we mind you we do not eat t-shirts,” said a villager called Chuma.
Zimbabweans across the board have known that Zanu PF was delivering mass poverty and not mass prosperity, “Gutsva ruzhinji!” as Mugabe never tired of saying it; as far back as the late 1990s. They people also realised that as long as Zanu PF had the carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections, they would never remove the party from power and hence the national consensus on the need for democratic change.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life (over 500 murdered in the 2008 run-off alone) and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power on the understanding the party will implement the democratic reforms the nation was dying for. MDC has been on the political stage for 20 years, 5 of which in the GNU, and still have not implemented even one reform.
As much as the nation is desperate to see the economy revived and and end to abject poverty there will not be any change, not until as long as Zanu PF remain in power. With no meaningful democratic changes the nation is stuck with Zanu PF.
“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingohukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for reforms) bark! And bark!) boasted Mnangagwa on his return for exile to claim the throne soon after the November 2017 military coup. He is right, without a concerted effect to have the reforms implemented, Zimbabwe will remain a pariah state ruled by a ruling elite who are accountable to no one. And those calling for democratic reforms and rule of law are nothing more than dogs howling at the full moon!
When you have a chief or village head who can have you booted out of your home because you dared to support the opposition only a fool will dare, especially when the opposition is corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless!
“Whilst there is a tacit acknowledgement by Bishop Makumbe and his ZCC colleagues that the Zanu PF dictatorship has been a disaster for the country, the reason why the country is stuck in this hell-on-earth. But instead of putting and end to the curse of rigged elections and bad governance the church leaders want to retain Zanu PF and hence the call for Zanu PF and MDC A leaders to find each other.”
ReplyDeleteWhen UK Prime Minister Theresa May failed to get a clear majority in the snap elections in 2017, she had no choice but to seek a coalition partner. Her successor, Boris Johnson did not need a coalition partner because the Conservative Party has a clear majority in parliament. President Mnangagwa has a whopping 2/3 majority in parliament, he certainly does not need a coalition partner.
The very fact that the economic meltdown is showing no signs of recovery, proof that Zanu PF has no clue what to do to revive the comatose economy, has played a part in convincing these church leaders that regardless of Zanu PF’s clear parliamentary majority, Mnangagwa still needs Chamisa to hold his hand.
The truth is the people of Zimbabwe themselves are painfully aware of Zanu PF’s failed leadership and would have removed the party from office decades ago. They have failed to remove Zanu PF from office because the party rigged the elections. Of course, the church leaders know Zanu PF has been rigging elections for the last 40 years, they know Mnangagwa rigged the 2018 elections.
Mnangagwa and the Zanu PF regime are illegitimate.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political crisis precisely because the country is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. Investors have shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe because it is near impossible to do business in a pariah state.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery. It is very naive of Bishop Makumbe and his fellow ZCC leaders to believe that getting Chamisa to walk side by side with Mnangagwa will fool the world into believing the pariah state is now a healthy democracy!
The economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe has pushed the nation to the very edge of the abyss and time is fast running out for a solution to save the nation. It is the survival of the nation that is at issue here and it is infuriating that all these ZCC busy bodies care about is how to appease Zanu PF leaders!
“Chatham Function Is A Zanu Pf Meeting”: Stanford Biti.
ReplyDeleteYou may well be right, it is no secret that Zanu PF have spend millions of dollars hiring PR companies to spruce up the regime's tarnished image. This could be yet another attempt to wash the skunk in Channel 5, all we have to do is lift the tail and the world will know the truth!
Last year senior doctors and consultants laid bare just how terrible the situation had become.
ReplyDeleteWho can forget how head of the paediatric unit Azza Mashumba wept openly describing the state of affairs at public hospitals.
"I come to work to certify dead babies."
Her statement unleashed horrific narrations from other doctors with reports of post surgery patients enduring pain in the absence of basic painkillers or how they were washing used bandages for re-use.
All this was compounded by meagre salaries which could barely sustain the doctors.
This scenario has not changed and fast forward to 2020 it is still the same.
What the nation must never ever forget is the decades of the decay and rot in the country’s once vibrant health care and education services and the economic infrastructure due to lack of investment and funding also saw the ruling elite squandering billions and billions of dollars building mansions and bankrolling their extravagant lifestyles.
The Greeks built the Parthenon to their Goddess Athene during Greece’s golden age. Zimbabwe built the Blue Roof and many, many more sprawling mansions to greed and corruption triggering the country’s economic meltdown!
Last week (on 25 November 2020) a visitor called Camrin came from South Africa. She tested positive for Covid-19.
ReplyDeleteThe following day she was given a negative result to enable her to go back to wherever she came from. One guy she was in contact with (name provided) tested Covid-19 positive on the 27th of November and he is currently in isolation as we speak.
There is need for the authorities at Unki Mine to be transparent about the disease as a way of curbing the spread of the virus.
It is very heartening that you were concerned enough to flag this. The tragedy is the authorities in Zimbabwe have been more concerned about keeping the official corona virus figure low than about containing the virus hence the reason the country has one of the lowest tests per capita in the world.
Thank God corona virus has not been as deadly as Ebola otherwise we would have been in real serious trouble!
MDC A has become a party of empty promises and rhetoric. MDC, as the party's name implies, is supposed to bring democratic change but have failed to bring about even one change in all its 20 years in politics. If the party knew the diaspora vote was a right and not a privilege then why did the party participate in the 2018 elections knowing those in the diaspora were denied the vote.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF knows that MDC will participate in the regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be as long as Zanu PF offers them a few gravy train seats as bait. In other words Zanu PF has no reason to implement any reforms and risk losing the elections now the party has secured itself a perfect partner in crime!