"Mnangagwa is in a fix!" says Magaisa - it's Zimbabwe in a fix and it's his fault P Guramatunhu

 Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess and there are many reasons why we are in this mess. One of the reasons why we are in this mess is our propensity to make mountains out of a mole-hill. 

“Mnangagwa is in a fix!” screamed the headlines in Bulawayo 24 and The Standard. Eye catching until you read the article!

Corona virus, the the grim riper, has claimed the lives of thousands of Zimbabwean lives, many more than the regime is letting on. The virus has hit hard the poor for who social distance, washing hands regularly, staying put, etc. are impossible because they live in crowded accommodation, have no running water, have go out any earn a living or starve, etc. 

The ruling elite, their cronies and their families have largely escaped from the corona virus; cocooned in the five star mansions with clean running water, the sanitisers and the PPE for the odd occasion they ever got out of their cocoon, food and everything. They greatest worry during the corner virus lockdown has been boredom and piling up the weight!

Still, a few of the ruling elite did catch the corona virus, they have received five star medical attention and a tiny fraction of them have died. Amongst the ruling elite corona virus dead are three Ministers. No doubt there will be many more Ministers, Deputy Ministers, etc. to follow, the grime riper’s work has only just began; the corona virus pandemic has the rest of 2021 to run in Zimbabwe, at the very least. 

Mnangagwa must find the competent men and women from the elected MPs and Senators, he has already used up his allowed allocation of non-elected individuals, to appoint as Ministers and Deputy Ministers to replace those claimed by the corona virus. And there lays Mnangagwa’s “fix”!

”His (Mnangagwa) choices are extremely limited," argued Alex Magaisa, in the article. 

"He has to appoint from the current pool of elected representatives. Alternatively, he will have to sack some of those non-MPs if he wants to appoint new outsiders.

Section 104 (3) of the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitution reads: "Ministers and deputy ministers are appointed from among Senators or Members of the National Assembly, but up to five, chosen for their professional skills and competence, may be appointed outside Parliament."

Mnangagwa already has already appointed the five non-constituency ministers namely: Higher Education minister Amon Murwira, Local Government minister July Moyo, Sports minister Kirsty Coventry, Lands minister Anxious Masuka and Finance minister Mthuli Ncube.

What Magaisa has missed here is that Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless thugs cheered along by their corrupt and egotistic acolytes. 

There reason why there is no competent men and women in parliament and in the senate is because Zimbabwe’s de facto one party dictatorship has stifled debate and democratic competition in both the ruling party and the opposition. Zimbabwe’s political system is a swamp; you cannot expect to catch quality fish, only frogs, newts and eels! 

Even those Ministers appointed for their “professional skills and competence” have accomplished nothing of substance because in a Banana Republic they are not allowed to do anything. They are appointed to give the regime a good name, they nothing but window dressing manikins. 

Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, for example, has been taxing the street vendors to death and yet has done nothing to end the gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions, the cancers killing the nation’s economy. Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies are the Godfathers of mismanagement and corruption and they have ring-fenced their activities; Minister Ncube knows these are not to be touched, the untouchables. 

So even if Mnangagwa was to disregard the constitution and appoint more than the five non-elected individuals as ministers this will not make any difference as to the quality of government in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe will still be a Banana Republic blundering from pillar to post, from one crisis to the next!

Indeed, if appointing non-elected technocrats ministers, etc. would get Zimbabwe out of the economic and political mess the country is stuck in for 40 years and counting; only a dogmatic academic like Alex Magaisa would complain!

In case some people have forgotten: Alex Magaisa was chief advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai, then MDC leaders and Prime Minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The primary task of MDC was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed the Global Political Agreement designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. 

MDC failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Not even one reform!

If MDC had implemented the reforms Zanu PF would have been stopped from rigging the elections and Zimbabwe would not be a Banana Republic. 

It is not Mnangagwa who is in a fix it is Zimbabwe that is in a fix, stuck with a pariah state! Advising Mnangagwa he has already reached the limit of non-elected minister he can appoint is not going to end the Banana Republic. Magaisa should have advised MDC to implement the reforms wittering about the non-elected minister limit is as irrelevant as bolting the stable door after the horse is gone!  

"2023 elections must be transparent, free, fair and credible or will be declared null and void" ZSD draws battle lines nice and early

 Zimbabwe Social Democrats Press release 29 January 2021

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats demand the implementation of democratic reforms necessary for transparent, free, fair and credible elections, as the only way to cure ourselves of the disease of rigged elections and bad governance; itself a pre-requisite to peace, justice and economic prosperity for all and not just a few. 

“Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you”, said Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Independent Ghana’s first president.

And “One man! One vote!” was the clarion cry, the Holy Grail, of the fight for independence and to end white colonial oppression and exploitation. 

Zimbabweans were short changed! Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends made it clear that if they did not win the 1980 elections, the plebiscite to usher independence, the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the war and with that vote lost their political kingdom! 

Some people argued that the Zanu PF threat was just a political campaign gimmick. There was never any doubt of Zanu PF’s ruthless intentions after the party launched the Gukurahundi massacre targeting PF Zapu leaders and supporters, to clear the way for the imposition of the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country to this day. 

Again and again Zanu PF has resorted to using brute force to impose its will on the people. It is foolhardy to argue looking up the business end of an AK47 rifle. 

Still, it is a historic fact that the nation has had a number of opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship in the last 40 years and wasted them all. 

The best chance to end the dictatorship was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC leaders had managed to get Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to agree to a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop the blatant cheating and wanton violence that had marred the 2008 elections. All Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had to do was implement the reforms. 

MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU. Not one!

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest is history. 

Coming out of the GNU, Zanu PF has retained all its dictatorial powers or be it with a small concession; the party allow the opposition to win a few gravy train seats to entice them to participate in the flawed elections to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

The ordinary Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party would deliver democratic changes, to restore the individual freedoms and rights, the political power so rudely denied them since 1980. Sadly, just like Zanu PF before them, MDC leaders too have betrayed the nation. 

It took nearly 20 years for the people of Zimbabwe to reach a majority consensus that Zanu PF leaders were corrupt, incompetent and tyrants. It has taken even longer for some Zimbabweans to see MDC leaders for what they really are, corrupt and incompetent. 

Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic chaos and political paralysis, both the ruling party and opposition leaders are corrupt and useless. The country has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent government for 40 years, no wonder the country is in total economic ruins. 

Holding free, fair and credible elections is our ticket out of this economic and political hell-on-earth we find ourselves stuck in. 

“One man! One vote!” is more than just a fundamental right; it is the foundation on which to build a stable, just and competent government. 

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats therefore demand the implementation of the following democratic reforms, pre-requisites for the holding of transparent, free, fair and credible 2023 elections:

1. There must be a verified voters’ roll. A constituency voters’ roll, at least a copy in each constituency, must be released for public inspection along side a supplementary roll for additions, deletions and corrections. The voters’ roll must be audited at least once every election cycle and one must be carried out a.s.a.p. to help restore confidence in Zimbabwe’s election process. 

2. 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the opportunity to register and to vote in the July 2018 elections; this must not be allowed to happen ever again. All Zimbabwe embassies and consular offices must start diaspora vote registration. 

3. Zimbabwe’s public media and other state institutions such as the Police are notorious for their partisan bias, this must seize forthwith. 

4. Zanu PF is renowned for turning state activities into party activities a situation that has left citizens as helpless as medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF landlords. This must stop.

5. Corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe and much of the looted wealth has been used to bankroll the election activities of those supportive of the looting, vote rigging and other criminal activities. Government must cancel all existing mining concessions or economic activities to go ahead without keeping any records of quantity and quality of the produce, to whom it was sold and for how much, etc. Everyone must keep records of their economic activities and must be subjected to the audited accounts and all the other checks and balances.

This is a rhetorical exercise in that Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office. Still, it is a necessary rhetorical exercise for four reasons:

• Zanu PF cannot say it did not know of any necessary reforms and the regime has over two years to fully implement all the reforms.

• Zanu PF cannot claim that ordinary Zimbabweans do not want any reforms it is only the West that is demanding reforms

• MDC leaders cannot participate in flawed and illegal election under the pretext they can win rigged elections, only to complain of vote rigging after the event

• No stone will be left unturned to make sure, with no reforms, the elections are declared null and void.

Gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have turned Zimbabwe into basket case Banana Republic, millions have left the country as economic and/or political refugees and left 50% of our people now live in extreme poverty. Dr Kwame Nkrumah was right Zimbabweans lost their political power and soon everything else has been taken away from them. Everything!

After 40 years and counting of being denied their basic freedoms and rights, the people of Zimbabwe must reclaim their freedoms and human dignity starting with “One man! One vote!” 

How insulting that Zanu PF thugs have even justified rigging the elections on the foolish notion that doing so was punishing the West for having imposed sanctions on the regime. It is a sick father who will beat his wife and children to punish the neighbour.

If the 2023 elections do not deliver “One man! One vote!” then the plebiscite will be declared null and void and a body appoint to implement the democratic reforms to guarantee transparent, free, fair and credible elections. This is not negotiable.

If Zanu PF cannot deliver free, fair and credible elections after 40 years then they really must go!

Best regards

Signed: Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

"Most important lesson covid-19 has taught us is that we all mortals" concluded Chiwenga - and so the blundering continues P Guramatunhu

 “Why is that one of Africa’s most prosperous nations, South Africa, with strong economy and working health service, has the highest corona virus cases and deaths? It is counter intuitive!” asked Stephen Sackur, BBC HardTalk presenter.

“There is a significant amount of under reporting of corona virus cases and mortalities in some countries!” replied Professor Barry Schoub, a virologist and Chair of Advisory Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine in South Africa. 

At the time of the above interview, mid December 2020, SA had over 1 million covid-19 cases and 25 000 covid-19 deaths. Zimbabwe had less than 12 000 cases and less than 400 deaths! 

Given the heavy human traffic across the Limpopo River throughout the year, one expected Zimbabwe’s corona virus load to be comparable to that of SA. Zimbabwe’s population is 1/4 that of SA and therefore the corona virus cases and deaths would be 250 000 and 6 000 plus respectively. And yet Zimbabwe’s official figures are only 5%! How is that possible????

The official corona virus figures are of people who have been tested and the result came out positive. It is no secret that Zimbabwe has conducted the lowest number of covid-19 test per capita in the region. 

Whilst SA was carrying out over 44 000 covid-19 teats per day in December 2020 and Zimbabwe should have been doing 11 000, or 1/4 that of SA, it was only doing 1 500 on a really busy day! 

To make matters worse, the Zanu PF regime has been testing all those likely to come into conduct with the ruling elite to protect the chefs instead of testing those with corona virus symptoms and frontline workers! 

A number of students at Dadaya High School had corona virus symptoms with a few testing positive of the virus, for example. Instead of testing everyone of the 1 000 or so student, only enough test kits to test 47 were supplied. The School closed a few days later and many suspected of corona virus infection were released on the unsuspecting community!

Of course, by failing to test and isolate those with the corona virus the regime was helping the virus spread far and wide and fast. 

Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence has turn corona virus in Zimbabwe from a tragedy into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion. To start with, Zimbabwe’s economy was already in total meltdown and its health care services all but collapsed before the corona virus outbreak. And now, by foolishly trying to hide the seriousness of the pandemic by under reporting the virus figures, the regime is helping spread the virus! 

The real tragedy for Zimbabwe is even now with the number of corona virus cases and deaths soaring the Zanu PF ruling elite have no clue what is going on. None! 

"One expects that when tragedy strikes, it would gradually abet but this is not the case, it is only God who knows when it will end," said VP Chiwenga, who is also Minister of Health, presiding over the burial of three covid-19 victims at the national heroes shrine.

"The virus has taught us an important lesson that we are all mortals. It does discriminate against the weak and the powerful, the privileged and the deprived, the haves and the have-nots. It is a ruthless juggernaut that leaves a trail of despair and desperation. But we will eventually conquer it and prevail as a people."

The most important lesson the of soaring corona virus cases and deaths, way above the falsified official figures, is; “No one can cheat a deadly disease like corona virus. Those who try will pay dearly for their foolishness!”

Zimbabwe does not have economic resources to pay even a token welfare support to the millions now living in abject poverty let alone the generous furlough payments other nations are paying their citizens during corona virus lockdown. The country’s hospitals are so poorly equipped and staffed the country can do very little to save the lives of seriously ill corona virus patients. 

Indeed, the country’s hospitals are already overwhelmed by the surge in corona virus cases. Hospitals are running out of something as basic as oxygen! 

However, what Zimbabwe can and should do is reduce the spread of the virus which is fuelling the hospital cases by ramping up the testing and isolating. Sadly that is the one thing this Zanu PF regime will fight tooth and nail to stop happening. 

Of course, Professor Schoub was right, “there is a significant amount of under reporting of corona virus cases and mortalities in some countries!” 

"The virus has taught us an important lesson that we are all mortals!” Dear God, what have we done to deserve this!

Gave up our freedoms and rights for "peace and development" and lost all in Banana Republic - yet to learn the lesson W Mukori

 Mnangagwa and Zanu PF do not like anything that threatens the regime’s iron grip on power. The soaring numbers of corona virus cases and deaths in Zimbabwe have been an eye opener for many Zimbabweans. Until three weeks ago, Zimbabwe continued to boast of having some of the lowest per capita corona virus cases and deaths in the region. 

Whilst SA had 1 million corona virus cases 25 000 death at the start of 2021. One would expect Zimbabwe’s figures to be roughly 1/4 those of SA given the heavy human traffic between the two countries. Instead of 250 000 cases and 6 000 deaths Zimbabwe had 13 000 cases and 380 deaths! 

The last three weeks have seen the number of corona virus cases and deaths in Zimbabwe soar; the hospitals were being overwhelmed. And yet, officially, Zimbabwe’s corona virus cases and deaths remained very low. It is little wonder that Zimbabweans have started to ask some searching questions and demanding to know what the hell is going on? 

Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 cases and deaths and the real figures on the ground simply do not make any sense! 

“We must stand together arm in arm holding each and one another like a united people,” Mnangagwa told the nation. 

He did not need to say anything more, we all know what he was not saying: “Those questioning the government’s reports and handling of the corona virus pandemic are threatening national unity and they will be punished!”

The social media ruckus on corona virus cases and deaths died down as if one had used a whole tanker to put out a campfire! Zimbabweans have, once again, been cowed into silence. They are doing what they have always done; grit their teeth and suffer in silence and bury their dead along the way. 

This time, they will have a hell lot more heart breaking suffering and a hell lot more dead to bury because 40 years of Zanu PF misrule has left Zimbabwe weak and feeble and ill prepared to deal with the corona virus pandemic. And Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence since the pandemic outbreak has only made the situation worse!

The IMF, WB and other financial institutions and nations have refused to grant Zimbabwe debt relief and have cut their financial and material aid to the country for two very good reasons:

1. Zimbabwe is a rich nation with the overwhelming majority languishing in abject poverty but only because of the country’s 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness. 

2. Corrupt and mismanagement in Zimbabwe are now so rampant that donors are loathed to help because whatever they donate will either be looted by the country’s corrupt ruling elite or be wasted. 

The bottomline is Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic ruled by corrupt and incompetent leaders who think they have the divine right to govern. The country is a pariah state hence the economic mess, with the economy in ruins and millions of our people living into abject poverty; and political paralysis, as both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have proven to be corrupt and incompetent. 

Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, is using fear of brute force to subdue the people and stop them demanding competent and accountable government. 

Unity does not mean the people giving up their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life. 

The corona virus pandemic has brought home the heavy price Zimbabwe is paying for the 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule, the country was in economic ruins and ill-prepared before the virus outbreak. And, unless people grits their teeth and end this nonsense of tyrannical dictatorship masquerading as unity, the years ahead are going to be the toughest yet the nation has ever seen. 

For the last 40 years Zimbabweans have cowed down to Zanu PF’s cowardly threats only to see the regime, emboldened, follow this with shocking acts of brutality. 

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies let it be known that the country’s bush war would continue if the party lost the 1980 elections. And so the people voted to end the war, at least they thought so.

Mugabe had wanted a one-party state in Zimbabwe and in 1983 he seized his chance and launched the Gukurahundi massacre - the war the people had dreaded and against defenceless civilians and launch from the comfort of Army barracks and not the bush!

"Those who give up liberty for a little temporary safety neither deserve liberty nor safety,” said Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers.

“We must stand together, a united people. Or dare otherwise and be damned!” 

We in Zimbabwe gave up our freedoms and rights for peace and development but after 40 years of this Banana Republic, with over 30 000 innocent civilians murdered in cold blood and over 50% of the population now living in abject poverty; there is no denying it that we were cheated. 

The all important question is: have we learned the lesson - in this instance, that holding this Zanu PF regime to democratic account will force the regime to be focus on the corona virus challenges and thus save many Zimbabweans from unnecessary suffering and deaths!

"We must stand together, a united people" - this is insane, so phoney 1987 unity is still excuse for bad governance N Garikai

 It was Albert Einstein, one of the world’s greatest intellectuals and physicist, who said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result!”

Cursed is the nation that should ever find itself with the insane in positions of power and authority; forever coerced to do the same things over and over again expecting different results. Zimbabwe is one such cursed nation!

”The pandemic has been indiscriminate in its grim harvest. Zimbabweans from all walks of life, all stations, all tribes, all races and religions have succumbed to it," said President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"Today we are united in grief and facing this. There are no spectators, adjudicators, no holier than thou nor supermen or superwomen. We are all exposed and we are all potential victims. We are all affected one way or the other. We must stand together arm in arm holding each and one another like a united people.”

There we go again! Every time the nation has faced any problem the leaders have blamed it on the lack of unity. If we are united all our problems will disappear. Unity has been the panacea to all Zimbabwe’s problems. 

The Gukurahundi massacre that left over 20 000 innocent civilians murdered in cold blood was blamed on lack of unity. And so the signing of the Zanu PF and PF Zapu Unity Accord on 22 December 1987 was heralded as great and sacred day marking the uniting of all Zimbabweans. 

Indeed, 22 December 1987 is considered so sacred it has since been consecrated and declared a national holiday!

 Here is the nub; Zimbabweans have been told that unity is the panacea of all the nation’s problems, they had unity rammed their throats, literally, back in 1987 and yet our problems have never gone away. Indeed, our problems have multiplied in quantity and complexity as the nation sunk deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth we find ourselves in today. 

Let me tell something Mr President, there are a hell lot more corona virus cases and deaths in Zimbabwe than the official figures of 30 000 and 979 respectively. And the corona virus infections are soaring because of the blundering incompetence of this government in the handling of the pandemic. 

Zanu PF has been boasted about the country’s very low official corona virus figures, taking them as proof of the regime containing the pandemic. This was a deliberate lie; official figures are based on tested and confirmed cases but keeping the figure low by not testing is dishonest and foolish. 

Ever since the outbreak of the corona virus pandemic, nearly a year ago, Zimbabwe has consistently failed to test, trace, track and isolate as per WHO recommendation and as common sense would dictate. Whilst SA was carrying out over 44 000 corona virus tests per day in December 2020, Zimbabwe with 1/4 SA’s population should have been doing 11 000 tests per day. We were doing 1 500 tests per day! 

The price of carrying out few tests is that many infected people who, identified would go into isolation, are instead left in the community spreading the virus far and wide and fast. 

Zimbabwe was always going to have some of the highest corona virus cases and deaths figures in the region because at the outbreak of the pandemic the country’s economy was already in total meltdown and its health care service was in tatters. 

The 1987 Unity Accord was supposed to bring national unity, the panacea to all our national problems, and we were supposed to live happily ever after. What had actually happen was that Zanu PF was able to impose the de facto one-party dictatorship, under the pretext of unity. Zanu PF has then used the dictatorial powers to silence dissent, stifle debate and to stamp out all democratic competition and accountability. 

40 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have turned a promising economy into ruins. Each time people have tried to voice their concern with the way the nation’s affairs were being run; the party accused them of undermining the country’s unity and ruthlessly silenced them.This madness must now end!

Asking people to “stand together arm in arm holding each and one another like a united people” is not going to make the corona virus go away! What the country needs is competent leaders to make sound decisions and make good use of the nation’s human and material resources. And for that we need to restore the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections - the prerequisite of good governance! 

Mwonzora calls for "dialogue to build synergies" - have cure since 2008, reforms, lacked competent leaders to implement them N Garikai

 When some people have nothing better to say, the repeat themselves. Mwonzora is back at calling for national dialogue as the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis.

”He envisages that such a dialogue to build synergies in nation building should be broadened to include other political players, churches and civic society,” reported acting MDC-T spokesperson, Witness Dube.

"President Mwonzora indicated that as a party, we have not been approached by any institution in that regard, but welcomed a resolution mandating the party to take initiatives on the same.”

The 2008 national dialogue sponsored by SADC did come up with a raft of democratic reforms, the cure the nation had been waiting for, and the Zanu PF and MDC leaders, partners in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, were tasked to implement the reforms. Zimbabwe is still a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs to this day because Zanu PF and MDC leaders failed to implement the agreed reforms.

We do not need a new national dialogue to come up with a new list of democratic reforms; the raft of reforms from 2008 is fine. What we need is to first of all acknowledge that it was Zanu PF and MDC leaders who failed to implement the reforms last time and hence the reason they cannot be entrusted to carryout the task again.

Zanu PF leaders knew that implementing the reforms and holding free, fair and credible elections would end the party’s iron grip on power. The situation has not changed; Mnangagwa and company will never ever reform themselves out of office.

Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and whilst they had their snout in the feeding trough the forgot about implementing the democratic reforms for the duration of the GNU. MDC leaders proved then beyond all doubt that they were corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent ; there is no cure for that and so they are to this day corrupt and incompetent.

When Douglas Mwonzora was elected the leader of the MDC-T, taking over from Madam Thokozani Khupe, one of his first “executive orders” was to recognise Mnangagwa as the legitimate president and therefore that the July 2018 elections as free, fair and credible. Why both Mwonzora and Mnangagwa have been calling for the national dialogue leading to a new GNU arrangement , Mnangagwa opted for POLAD,  is a mystery.

The 2008 to 2013 GNU was necessary because the 2008 elections were marred by the blatant Zanu PF cheating in the March vote followed by the wanton violence in the run-off. Everyone, including SADC and AU, refused to accept such a flawed process could produce a legitimate government. The GNU was compromise and GNU partners were tasked to implement the democratic reforms to stop a repeat of the 2008 election fiasco. 

If the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible, as both Mnangagwa and Mwonzora would agree, then there will be no need to implement any democratic reforms. Reforms are implemented to stop elections being rigged. 

Zanu PF has a 2/3 majority in parliament and can therefore govern on its own without the needing any opposition coalition backing. 

A healthy and functioning democracy need an independent opposition party to hold the government of the day to democratic account. And so, a Zanu PF and MDC coalition will not be in the interest of the nation! 

Actually, Douglas Mwonzora is wrong; the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible. Zanu PF rigged the elections, the regime is legitimate. The EU, Americans, the Commonwealth and all the other election observers condemn the elections as a farce. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll!

It would have been much easier to stop Zanu PF declaring itself the legitimate government if the Zimbabwe opposition had not participating the elections in such numbers. There is no denying that by participating in the flawed and illegal elections MDC and the rest of Zimbabwe’s opposition camp, gave the vote rigging Zanu PF some modicum of legitimacy. 

The ideal solution would be to get Zanu PF to step down, even this late in the day, to create the political space to appoint a interim administration tasked to implement the 2008 raft of democratic reforms to restore all the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. 

The dialogue Mwonzora is calling for will have Zanu PF playing a pivotal role in the interim administration and it will never implement the required reforms, as stated above. Mwonzora’s proposal is a waste of time. 

If Zanu PF will not accept stepping down, as is almost certain it will not, then the party must be left in no doubt that the 2023 elections will be declared null and void if the plebiscite goes ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms,; even if all the usual opposition opportunists participated! 

Declaring the elections null and void will create the political space to appoint the interim administration of competent and visionary men and women who will, finally, implement the reforms.

Zimbabwe has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years and counting. The nation has failed to remove the party from power because it rigged the elections. And four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the nation in economic ruins. The corona virus pandemic has only turned a tragic situation into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion. 

What Zimbabwe needs to get out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has dragged the nation into is implement the democratic reforms and finally cure itself of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are holding the nation to ransom and stopping the reforms being implemented. This cannot be allow to continue! 

If Zanu PF does not implement the democratic reforms before the 2023 elections then the party must be forced to step down to allow others to implement the reforms. Period!

"If I die in Chikurumbi, it will be for freedom" penned Sikhala - no, it's for pole position in rat race for Zanu PF scraps P Guramatunhu

 The fight amount opposition politicians for headlines is hotting up!

“MDC Alliance's outspoken Vice Chairman and MP, Job Sikhala that despite all adversities in jail and even if it means dying in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison - "a concentration camp" - he will never give up fighting for people's freedom,” reported Bulawayo 24. 

The report was accompanied by a handwritten declaration presumably pen by Sikhala himself in his prison cell.

Job Sikhala must stop confusing fighting for headlines to place himself in pole position for the few gravy train seats opposition politicians will be fighting for come the 2023 elections; with fighting for the people's freedom. The two objectives are not even complimentary, they are diametrically opposed!

Job Sikhala is in prison awaiting bailout hearing. He was arrested for “publishing falsehood”. He published a story of a Police Offer who fatally struck a baby with a baton. 

Even if the story was true, it would only be one more story of the brutality of this Zanu PF regime. It would be stretching one’s imagination how the story, in itself, in “a fight for people’s freedom”!

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence, in 1980, Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people, denying them their basic freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. Fighting for freedom has meant implementing the democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights. 

MDC leaders; including Tendai Biti, David Coltart and Nelson Chamisa now in the MDC A with Sikhala; had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They sold-out and failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years.

To add salt to the nation’s open wound, MDC leaders have participated in flawed and illegal election knowing that doing so would give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF as David Coltart has readily admitted. 

“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 Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Three of the main MDC factions plus three other opposition parties did come together to form the MDC Alliance before the 2018 elections. The party went on to participate in the elections for the same reason as before - greed. 

Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be. As long as Zanu PF is assured of opposition participation, the party will resist all pressure to implement reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections. 

MDC A and the rest in the opposition camp have found Zanu PF’s bait irresistible hence the reason there were 23 presidential candidates, 130 political parties, to say nothing of the independent candidates, contested for the 210 parliamentary seats. 

Job Sikhala and Tendai Biti are some of the lucky opposition politicians to win the few gravy train seats on offer. The competition for these few seats in hotting up and anything to keep one’s name in the public eye will not be amiss. 

There is everything to suggest Sikhala will be participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place. He has never demanded reform. The arrest over the alleged killing of baby by the Police Officer has put Sikhala’s name back on the front pages and public eye and pole position in the 2023 elections.

Fadzai Mahere, MDC A spokesperson, has just been release on bail from Chikurumbi Prison. She too was arrested and incarcerated for a week on the same charge as Sikhala - publishing falsehoods. 

Advocate Mahere too participated in the 2018 elections as an independent candidate but lost. She is certainly going to try her luck again in 2023.

The living conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons are terrible, “concentration camp”, as Sikhala aptly up it. In these corona virus days, a jail term is, for many, a certain death sentence. 

Ms Mahere has since tested positive of corona virus, the grime reminder of the life and death reality of prison in Zimbabwe. 

“Even if I die in the concentration camp called Chikurumbi Maximum Prison, dear Zimbabweans remember me,” pleaded MP Job Sikhala.

“Remember me that it is because of our freedom, happiness and liberty that has been robbed from one generation to another, that I met that fate!”

Your brave stand on this occasion and on numerous others in the past have certainly put you in pole position to, once again, win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait to the opposition. If you should die, God forbid, it will be for the sake of getting pole position in the rat race for the scraps Zanu PF is offering to bribe the opposition. 

Even you cannot deny that by participating in the 2018 elections you, Comrade Job Sikhala, and your fellow MDC A gave the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy and earned the coveted gravy train seats for yourselves. The ordinary Zimbabweans gained nothing and, instead, forfeited yet another chance to get the reforms implemented. 

No Comrade Sikhala you are fighting for pole position in the next flawed elections and against the freedom and liberty of the common people!

"Should we have empathy for Zanu PF thugs" - not with thug big foot on our throat, can't breathe P Guramatunhu

 “Should we have empathy for those we hate?” asked Taruberekera Masara.

“Yes we have a moral obligation to. It was a heartwarming experience to read MDC Alliance communique on the demise of the political leaders from their nemesis.

“The eulogy reminded many that there's still empathy in our so broken country. This was albeit against a backdrop of callousness, the lack of empathy, lack of sympathy, lack of emotion, the lack of humanity that was highlighted by many people on various social media platforms.”

Why are you surprised at MDC A’s “heartwarming” message of condolence over the death of a Zanu PF bigwigs and the indifference of the ordinary Zimbabweans on the matter? You are surprised because you have no clue what is going on in Zimbabwe. 

Ordinary Zimbabweans are aware of the country’s ruling elite’s indifference to  povo’s long sufferings and deaths. Right now the country is drowning in this corona virus pandemic which Zanu PF has made worse by under reporting the cases and deaths to bury its blundering incompetence. 

The corona virus has hit the poor very, very hard because they live in crowded homes where it is not practical to exercise social distancing and many have no access to clean running water with which to wash their hands regularly. Except for just a few cases, the ruling elite; cocooned in their five star homes, five star health care services, five star everything; have largely escaped unscathed.

It is condescending to expect the poor to cover themselves in ashes and weep buckets of tears over the death of the few ruling elite, when the poor have no tears left to shed over so many of their own who are dying like flies everyday! 

The MDC leaders are not one with povo any close relation they had was cut during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. MDC leaders went into the GNU as the people’s champions fighting for democratic change, as the party’s name implied. They failed to implement even one democratic change because they suffered a their Soul to Damascus transformative moment. 

Robert Mugabe saw to it that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were given the ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai; everything to make the MDC leaders feel they were fulled paid up members of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite.

Of course, MDC leaders knew the democratic reforms were designed to take away the ruling elite’s many privileges and, most important of all, to make them accountable to the people. MDC leaders abandoned all intentions of implementing the reforms and loose their newly acquired privileges and creature comforts.

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train lifestyle offered to the ruling elite, they will never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing any reforms. 

Zanu PF has learnt from the GNU years that the party can keep its keep its tyrannical dictatorial powers including those to rig elections as long as it gives away a few gravy train seats to entice the MDC to participate in elections to give the results legitimacy. This is the cosy relationship that has existed between Zanu PF and MDC since the end of the GNU in 2013. 

It is the ordinary people who have come out of the GNU the loser because not only has MDC leaders failed to implement any democratic reforms but no plans to do so in the future. Sadly the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans do not realised MDC leaders sold-out big time and continue to follow them blindly like sheep to the slaughter. 

”We note with sadness the passing on of Dr SB Moyo and Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba. We extend our condolences to both the Moyo and Gwaradzimba families. Our sympathies are also with Cdes Mukudzei Mudzi, Moton Malianga's families, both Cdes sacrificed everything to free our beloved country,” said MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa. 

There is no denying that the nation owes a debt of gratitude to all those who played a role in the fight for Zimbabwe’s independence, especially those suffered prison term and/or fought the bush war. 

But there is no deny that not everyone who risked all for independence believed in the cause, they are many who were mercenaries and they have since demanded their “a pound of flesh” reward and more, much, much more! 

Even with the country now facing an existential threat with economy in total meltdown and over 50% of our people living in heart breaking abject poverty; it is totally unacceptable that Zanu PF ruling elite should be allowed to deny the people their freedoms and rights in pursuit of their pound of flesh  reward! 

It is one thing for Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends to be blind to reality Zimbabwe is being ruled and ruined by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs whose greed for power and looted wealth know no bounds. After all the MDC leaders are now Zanu PF thugs’ acolytes and are enjoying the spoils of power. 

The ordinary Zimbabweans have to fight these ruling elite mercenaries, have to demand democratic reforms to gain their long lost freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life itself! 

After 40 years of rigged elections, gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and ruthless oppression; no ordinary Zimbabwean in his or her right mind would still call these Zanu PF thugs a hero much less mourn for them!

How can anyone with half a brain have empathy for those who have made one’s life hell-on-earth to gratify their insatiable greed for power and wealth!