There is "strategic advantage" in Chamisa's silence over SC judgement - as is in having hyaena for neighbour P Guramatunhu

 “Since the dubious 31 March 2020 SC (Supreme Court) judgment on the MDC’s leadership, Mnangagwa has used cronies, recalls, arrests, abductions, torture and defections to destroy the MDC-A,” commented Professor Jonathan Moyo.

“By design or default, Chamisa has said and done nothing. That silence is today his strategic advantage!”

This is just nonsense! 

If the Supreme Court judgement was dubious, as Moyo claims, then what is the strategic advantage of saying and doing nothing about it whilst the consequences of the said judgement wreck havoc to Chamisa, those around him and the nation at large, which has had no opposition party to hold the rogue Zanu PF regime to account! 

One does not allow a hyaena into one’s home stead so it can feast on one’s domestic animals and even kill and eat humans! What has been happening in Zimbabwe these last 12 months is a great national tragedy with the economy sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss, made worse by the corona virus outbreak; all because Zanu PF has been allowed to do as it pleased. We not only have one hyaena but a clan! We are to believe that having a clan of hyaenas running riot in the village is strategic! 

Since when are blatant betrayal, the Supreme Court judgement was Chamisa’s own fault, and failure been classified as wise and strategic. 

Professor Moyo’s is a man whose strategic thinking helped Mugabe stay in power. But we also know that he has no morals as he did not care that he was helping a corrupt and murderous tyrant in power. We know Moyo as one who would sell his own mother for a price and boast he had a mother to sell. 

Chamisa is saying and doing nothing about the Supreme Court judgement because there is nothing he can say or do. The consequences of the judgement are tragic to the him, MDC A and most important of all the nation.

Professor Jonathan Moyo has spend the last two and half years, ever since the November 2017 military coup, holed up in his fox-hole in Kenya. The forced sabbatical is taking a toll on his brain, it is ossifying. He cannot distinguish betrayal, defeat and blundering despair and confuse it for strategic silence! 

"SA lacks will to rescue Zimbabwe" - as we lack common sense to rescue ourselves W Mukori

 Dear Tendai Dumbutshena 

Thank you very much for yet another informative and thought provoking article, “SA lacks the will to rescue Zimbabwe” in Bulawayo 24.

“But hope springs eternal. Giving up is not an option. The conscious elements of society must lead the struggle to change how the country is governed. All hands on deck. Civil society organisations, political parties, churches, youth formations and other stakeholders have a responsibility to fight for a country they can be proud to call their own. All this must be done with a clear understanding that change can only come from within Zimbabwe. Those foreigners of goodwill will take their cue from what Zimbabweans themselves do. Beware of envoys from Pretoria who come bearing gifts,” you said.

I do agree that hope springs eternal and that, if we are ever to get out of this mess, we must look to ourselves first and foremost and then look to the West. There will be no help coming from SADC, particularly from SA; not now. 

The Chinese are the hidden nation banished in the dark ages back to wreck vengeance galore on Zimbabwe. The Chinese are the shadowy figure, the real power behind the Zanu PF dictatorship. Our fight for democratic change is not just against Zanu PF but, more significantly, against the mighty of the Chinese who are determined to keep Zanu PF in power come hell or high water for their own selfish economic advantage!

Our fight for democratic change is therefore going to be a tough one and to have an hope of victory, we must be tough and focused. To start with, we must be frank and honest about our own strengths and weaknesses.

“The putative unity government his (Thabo Mbeki) mediation yielded enabled Zanu-PF to outmanoeuvre a gullible MDC and reassert its dominance. With Zanu-PF now firmly in the saddle and the situation in the country "stable" the ANC is happy with the outcome,” you argued.

“To be fair to the much-maligned Zuma, when he took over the role of mediator in 2009, he mandated his two envoys to Zimbabwe to push for the creation of conditions for free and fair elections after the expiry of the unity government. That this did not happen was the fault of the unity government dominated by Zanu-PF, with the two MDC parties coopted as impotent junior partners.”

There were many things one could have done to improve Zimbabwe’s 2008 to 2013 GNU; I admit it. However, there was still a lot the GNU could and should have accomplished, most notably it could and should have implemented the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement. 

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues failed to implement even one token reform in five years of the GNU because they were corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. By participating in flawed and illegal 2013 elections and all the elections thereafter MDC leaders and the rest in the opposition camp are giving credibility to the flawed election process and thus giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. Proof the failure to implement the reforms was not just a one off gaff by a gullible opposition. 

What is more, the MDC leaders know participating in the flawed elections was wrong but did it anywhere out of greed as David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General and Minister of Education in the GNU, 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.”

What Coltart should have admitted that SADC leaders had warned him and his fellow MDC leaders of the folly of participated in the 2013 elections with no reforms. “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders had warned.

Tsvangirai and company ignored SADC leaders’ advice and they would not do what they readily admit was “the obvious - withdraw from the elections” because they were after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF giving away a bait. 

Of course, SADC leaders had no choice but to accept the vote rigging Zanu PF as the de facto government. What else could they have done after MDC leaders had ignored their warning!

As we speak Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A, Douglas Mwonzora and his MDC-T and all the other opposition politicians are all gearing to participate in the coming 2023 elections; they are all fully aware Zanu PF has not implemented even one token reform. Not one!

Like it or not Chamisa and his fellow opposition politicians claim that they are fighting for democracy and good governance on behave of the long suffering Zimbabweans. One is compelled to accept this foolishness, in the absence of a convincing counter narrative showing MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs whose actions in the past and present are undermining the fight for reforms and democracy. 

MDC leaders have long stopped fighting for democratic reforms and free, fair and credible elections. We need to stay it loud and clear so that the ordinary Zimbabweans who continue to follow MDC leaders like sheep to the slaughter understand it and stop. 

The demand to implement the democratic reform BEFORE the next elections is frontline in the fight for freedom and human rights in Zimbabwe. Zanu PF is not going to implement any reforms because the party is confident the MDC leaders will participate in the elections and thus earning Zanu PF the de facto legitimacy. Our contour move is to make sure MDC leaders have no political credibility, if they ever again participate in flawed and illegal elections. 

If the MDC were once upon a time the nation’s champions in the fight for democracy and good governance, it is now clear that they now have a separate agenda - they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait. 

Our failure to accept MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent has been one of our greatest weakness in our fight for a democratic Zimbabwe ever since the disastrous failure by MDC leaders to implement even one reform during the GNU! 

Accepting MDC leaders are not the heroes and heroines we believed them to be is a bitter pill to swallow. Swallowing our misplace trust and blind loyalty will mean the nation stepping back from the brink!

Frankly we should have learned of the dangers of blind loyalty after seeing what became of the Zanu PF libration war heroes and heroines once they got into power. Of course, we have been blind not to see Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for what they really are - corrupt, incompetent and sell-out - all these years! We must do so now!

“SA lacks the will to rescue Zimbabwe!” True but whether or not we have the will to rescue ourselves, depends on us opening our eyes and minds and finally admit to ourselves that MDC leaders are not going to rescue us.

"Gold is to Zimbabwe what oil is to Nigeria, can turn around our fortunes" - has not because US$1.2b lost to smugglers P Guramatunhu

 On 3 March 2016 President Mugabe admitted that the nation had lost $15 billion worth of diamonds because of the looting and plunder in Marange and Chiadzwa.

“This kind of plunder must immediately make Zimbabweans pass a vote of no confidence in Mugabe and his government,” commented Ken Yamamoto, a Japanese researcher, at the time.

“If this theft does not cause Zimbabweans to demand that he resign, then nothing else will. In that case, going forward, Zimbabweans must just be left to their own devices and the donors currently feeding the population must just take their efforts to other countries. The country cannot be helped. And no more of this nonsense that Zimbabweans are the most literate people in Africa.”

Zimbabweans never demanded that Mugabe and his regime must resign. Mugabe, for his part, never arrested even one of the diamond swindlers and never recovered even one dollar of the US15 billion. 

Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, vowed “zero tolerance on corruption” and thus tacitly acknowledging that corruption was indeed still rampant. It is now over three years since the coup and he too has yet to arrest one swindler and recover one swindled dollar. 

Indeed, the looting in Marange and Chiadzwa did not stop with Mugabe’s admission; it continued. Patrick Chinamasa, then Minister of Finance, told in 2017 parliament that government was receiving 1/6 of the expected revenue from the diamond mining. 

The diamond looters had mining concessions that allowed them to keep their operations and earnings a secret. The late Edward Chindori Chininga revealed in a 2012 parliamentary report that the miners were not keeping any record of the quality and quantity of diamonds, to whom the diamonds were sold and for how much, who were the partners and how the spoils were shared out, etc. The mining concessions were a licence to loot and the GNU cabinet had issued these concession; this was all above board. This was institutionalised looting. Period!

Since Mnangagwa took over similar licences to loot have been issued in other areas including gold and platinum mining, sourcing and distribution of fuel, in agriculture and even in the sourcing of corona virus materials. 

Fast forward to the present. 

"We don't need anyone's money as we can do it on our own. Sometimes it's just the mindset and belief to achieve that," Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr John Mangudya told Business Times a few days ago. 

"Like what oil is to Nigeria, gold is to Zimbabwe. The precious mineral alone has the potential to turn around the country's fortunes.”

It is estimated that US$1.2 billion worth of gold is smuggled out of the country every year. 

Just to put the looted diamonds and gold into perspective; the cost of long delayed Batoka Gorge Hydropower Project is US$ 3 billion. Think of the project as a second Kariba Dam and thus adding another 666 MW to the national grid. The money from these two minerals alone in a year would have paid for Batoka Gorge years ago and saved the nation billions of dollars in power imports and the all too common load shedding. 

Zimbabwe is in a dire economic situation. The country’s agricultural sector, the driving engine of the economy, collapsed following the farm seizures and took the rest of the economy down with it. Unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90% and most basic services such as education and health care have collapsed after decades of being starved of funds. 

50%, at least, of the Zimbabwe population now live in abject poverty, i.e. they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less other basic necessities of life such as education for their children and health care. 

Corona virus has hit the wealthy nations hard but it was crashed the poor nation. The wealthy nations are coughing blood and the impoverished nations are burying their dead and will be doing this for years to come! 

Most developed nations will have vaccinated enough of the people to achieve head-immunity by end of this year. Middle income nations, including SA and one or two Sub-Sahara African countries, are expected to reach head-immunity by the end of next year, 2022. Poor countries like Zimbabwe will not reach head immunity until 2023! 

The task of economic recovery will only start in earnest after the corona virus threat has been dealt with. And so the delay in achieving head immunity will only make the task that much harder and take that much longer. 

Like I said, poor nations will be burying their dead for many, many more moons to come! 

Give the grime reality Zimbabweans are facing one would have thought that the RBZ Governor’s admission, reiterating Mugabe’s 2016 admission, that Zimbabwe is a wealthy nation if only it would end the criminal waste of her natural resources; would finally galvanise Zimbabweans to demand that Zanu PF resign. Sadly, no such demands have been made. Governor Mangudya’s admission was just water off a duck’s back. 

However Ken Yamamoto’s prediction that “Zimbabweans must just be left to their own devices and the donors currently feeding the population must just take their efforts to other countries,” has largely come true. Most donors have walked away from helping Zimbabwe. 

It is hard to help those who would not lift a finger to help themselves! 

“Massive problems remain, our public health and education systems are a mess. Salaries are too low to retain key staff and standards have declined. The only solution to these problems is more money and here we face numerous problems,” wrote Mr Eddie Cross, a former MDC leaders and, until a week ago was on the RBZ Monetary Policy Committee together with Dr Mangudya. 

“We have to grow our economy – we have laid the foundations for growth in the past two years but remain isolated politically and diplomatically and the financial sanctions on us under ZIDERA (the US system) limits our ability to tap into the global financial system and to borrow on lines of credit for our private sector. A growing economy needs much more money than a shrinking one. This was not an issue before, now it is critical.”

Of course, Mr Cross is aware of the rampant corruption in Zimbabwe and is one of those naive and gullible individuals who expect the country to thrive regardless of the regime’s insatiable greed and criminal waste of resources.

“Even though the international Community has committed itself to the provision of health care to the poor and the principle of universal education for children, we receive virtually nothing from international agencies or the so called "Development Partners." In fact, the IMF even denied us aid to deal with the Covid-19 crisis,” continued Mr Cross. Confirming Ken Yamamoto’s prediction. 

Minister blame poor grade 7 results on sanctions, covid-19, etc.; all except the root cause, Zanu PF N Garikai

 Zimbabwe’s Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Cain Mathema, blamed sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western countries, corona virus and striking teachers for this year’s poor Grade 7 examination results. How typical, blame everyone else except the principal culprit - the Zanu PF government itself.

"During this period (2009 to 2014) like in 2020, teachers were involved in industrial action (strikes) or were claiming incapacitation to carry out their work. There was no meaningful teaching in some schools. These are the factors that affect pass rates in any country in the world," said Minister Mathema.

Zimbabwe’s education services has been in decline for decades for two main reasons:

• It is no secrete that Mugabe’s rapid expansion of the education sector was about quantity at the expense of quality suffered.

• As the country’s economic meltdown started in earnest in the late 1990s, it was education, health and other services affecting the ordinary people that were sacrificed. Decades of poor funding have resulted in the exodus of qualified staff and those left behind were “incapacitated”! 

Yes the corona virus lockdowns have caused serious disruption but this was adding another layer of problems on top a system that was already failing to cope. Even if the corona virus challenges were addressed by vaccinating the 10 million to reach head-immunity targets, the country will still have to deal with the problem of incapacitated teachers, nurses, etc. 

President Mnangagwa claims there are signs of economic recovery and the country will achieve the target of middle income by 2030, vision 2030. This is just a pie in the sky! 

A recent nationwide skilled personal survey showed that Zimbabwe has 12% or less engineers, doctors, farmers and teachers than what the country will need to achieve any meaningful single digit economic growth targets, much less the 20% plus growth rate demanded by vision 2030. Indeed, the country is even failing to gainfully employ the few skilled professionals in the country.

To revive our education and health service we must first revive the country’s comatose economy. And to revive the comatose economy we must first end the curse of corruption and bad governance; we must first end the curse of rigged elections by implementing the democratic reforms - the prerequisite for free, fair and credible elections. 

As much as Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies do not want to hear anything about reforms and free, fair and credible elections; it is nonetheless the grime reality that, without reforms, this country is doom.

Ever since the country’s 1980 independence elections, Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections and denied the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The failure to remove a corrupt and incompetent government is the root cause our economic and political crisis. Zanu PF has held the nation to ransom for decades and this must now end. The people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country must be restored as a matter of course and the nation’s survival.

Zimbabwe must implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections BEFORE the coming 2023 elections. If the elections go ahead with no reforms implemented; the signs are Zanu PF will not implement any reforms and the opportunistic opposition, the usual suspect, will participate regardless; then the plebiscite MUST be declared null and void! 

After 40 years and counting of rigged elections, we must break this vicious cycle by refusing to give legitimacy to a flawed and illegal election process. How can an election be free, fair and credible when ZEC cannot produce something as basic as a verified voters roll! 

"It is not from the benevolence of corrupt and vote rigging politicians we expect our dinner" to paraphrase A Smith W Mukori

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest (profit). We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.” Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations 1776.

What Adam Smith said about the butcher and the brewer can be said about politicians. 

“It is not from the benevolence of the politician that we expect good roads, public security, justice, good governance and all the things society pays for through taxes and other forms of self-sacrifices. Left to their own devices, the politicians take full advantage of power and authority we have entrusted them and spent every last penny of our taxes securing their luxury and comfort. Politicians are public servants with a propensity to make the public their slaves. Watch out!”

 Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess and I lay the blame for it all on our political leaders and not the butcher and the brewer. The butcher, brewer, teachers, doctors, engineers, etc. are all feeling the consequences of the country’s economic meltdown and political paralysis just as much as the street vendors and the rural peasants. 

There is no denying that in Zimbabwe we, the people, have left the politicians, from both sides of the political divide, to do as their pleased. And they did just that!

When Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies campaigned in the 1980 elections on the basis that if they lost the elections the bush war would continue, that should have set alarm bells ringing in every thinking Zimbabwean. Zanu PF was discarding the “One man! One vote!” clarion call at the very heart of the nation’s fight for independence.

Without “One man! One vote!” the ordinary Zimbabwean was powerless. Without a meaningful vote the people cannot hold the politician to account. Without a meaningful vote the politician is the master and the people the slaves! 

In 1980, the people voted to end the bush war and once in power Zanu PF has worked to consolidate its strangle hold on power. The people lost their power over Zanu PF in 1980 and have never regained it as the party has rigged all the elections that followed to this day.

As for the politicians creaming off the nation’s wealth to feather their own nest nothing captures the epitome of politician greed at public expense than Mugabe’s Blue Roof mansion. Mugabe built his four-storey US$2 billion Blue Roof mansion whilst Parerenyatwa Hospital, the nation’s number one referral hospital, was left to rot and decay. The hospital has so starved of funds it is common to hear it has run out of something as basic as pain killers. 

A collapse health service did not bother Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF cronies, they had their health care needs in SA, India, Singapore, etc. In 2012 Mugabe made no fewer than 8 health care trips @ US$3 million!

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect the now late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power on the understanding the party will deliver democratic changes necessary to restore the individual freedoms and rights Zanu PF had usurped from the people. 

MDC leaders have been on the political stage for 20 years, 5 years of which they were in the GNU, and have failed to bring about even one democratic change, reform. 

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the spoils of power, they never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the democratic reforms.

Ever since their betrayal during the GNU, MDC leaders have really gone rogue, they have continued participating in the flawed and illegal elections giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate the dictatorship. 

MDC leaders have given up the fight for free, fair and credible elections. They are now content with letting Zanu PF rig the elections and claim the presidency and 2/3 majority and get the remaining 1/3 of the gravy train seats plus the portion of the annual Political Party Finance Act payout.  

Some people have argued that Zimbabweans did not appreciate the critical importance of “One man! One vote!” and their role as citizen in holding the country’s political leaders to democratic account. There is some truth in that; the people should have been taught all these things at the “Pungwe”, the regular all night rallies hosted by Zanu PF operatives held before independence. People in the rural areas were forced to attend the rallies. 

President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections when he took over the leadership of Zanu PF following the November 2017 military coup. He stubbornly reformed to implement any democratic reforms and blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections.

After 41 years of independence plus all the wealth of historic experience dated to the founding of democracy by the Greeks, 2 500 years ago, there is no excuse why Zimbabweans are failing to articulate what constitute free, fair and credible elections and to hold Zanu PF to account for denying them this basic right. 

Free, fair and credible elections is more than a basic human right; it is the essence of good and accountable government. 

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been wittering about Zimbabwe’s economy rising from the ashes, like the phenix, to middle income status by 2030. This is rich coming from the regime that inherited a middle income economy and in 40 years reduced it to ruins. 

The decades of misrule have forced many Zimbabweans to leave the country and quality of education has dropped through the floor. The country has 10% or less of the skilled manpower in such key sectors as engineering, agriculture, health and education. 

He has failed to stamp out such chronic problems as corruption and mismanagement because he and his fellow Zanu PF cronies are the Godfathers of corruption and mismanagement.

So the President is expecting to reverse Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes from the ruins to back to middle income in 10 ten years with 10% of skilled manpower and regardless of the criminal waste of resource due to corruption. A tall order only the naive and gullible will be expected to believe!

50% of the Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty, i.e. they cannot afford one decent meal a day let alone other basic necessities such as education for their children and health care. The corona virus outbreak has make the health and economic situation much worse. 

Zimbabweans must now think how they are going to get out of this economic and political mess with increased sense of urgency! Zanu PF and the present political system is not going to get the nation out of the hell-on-earth we are in.

It is certainly not from Mnangagwa’s empty promises economic prosperity and free and fair elections that Zimbabweans can expect their daily bread and a bright future from the grinding poverty and despair of the last 40 years. If we want that bright future then we must wrestle our from Mnangagwa and his fellow politician our freedoms and rights including the right to hold all politicians to account in free, fair and credible elections. 

New RBZ Monetary Policy Committee appointed - inflation soared to 848%, new manikins will no better P Guramatunhu

 Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic but when it comes to find individuals to fill its window dressing positions both Mnangagwa and before him Mugabe have been spoilt for choice!

“Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, on Sunday, appointed five new members to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Monetary Policy Committee (MPC),” reported Bulawayo 24.  

“The new members, whose appointment is with immediate effect, are Professor Albert Makochekanwa, Persistence Gwanyanya, Dr Daniel Makina, Dr Charity Jinya and Matilda Dzumbunu.  

“The head of state and Government, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, approved the selection, Minister Ncube said.”

There is no deny that Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrants who believe they and they alone have the divine right to govern the country as they see fit. The regime has seen the need to appoint people outside the Zanu PF hard core to fill some positions to give a human face to the ugly Zanu PF regime, the velvet glove hiding the iron fist. 

Both Mnangagwa and Mugabe have never had any problems finding, seemingly honest, outstanding and professional, Zimbabweans to be the window dressing manikins! Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube was one such manikin although he pretended to be anything but! 

As Zimbabwe’s knight in shining armour Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube was cocky, loud and was convinced he would administer the right doses of the latest monetary and fiscal policies to kick start Zimbabwe’s comatose economy. 

In October 2018, two months since his appointment, Minister Ncube presented the IMF, WB and other international institutions with his over 600 page long Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) blue print. He was cocksure they will all be bowled over and would give Zimbabwe all the financial assistance the nation asked for. 

The IMF, WB, etc. all kept their purse strings drawn. They asked, instead, for proof of how Minister Ncube would keep the many TSP promises.

The Minister promised to reduce Zimbabwe’s bloated public sector wage bill, for example; an issue the IMF and WB were all too familiar with. The Minister has all but failed to the hundreds of super numeral Zanu PF youths from the public service payroll!

Corruption is the greatest criminal waste of resources in Zimbabwe; the IMF, WB and even Mnangagwa himself admitted it and hence his “zero tolerance on corruption!” promise. As Minister of Finance, corruption would have been Professor Ncube’s number one target too. And yet he has not done nothing to stamp out this scourge. 

Indeed, the generous mining concession, the licence to loot, granted to the looters in Chiadzwa and Marange diamond field have now been extended to other areas such as gold, platinum and lithium mining, to fuel procurement and even to procurement of corona virus requirements as the Drax Scandal has shown. 

Minister Ncube was told, in no uncertain term, that the bloated public sector, corruption and many, many other areas were ring-fenced and no-go areas for him, even in his capacity as Minister of Finance. 

And so to raise revenue earnings to meet his TSP targets of reducing public deficit the Minister end up charging street vendors a 2% transaction tax. The Nutty Professor was taxing the people he should be welfare benefits and looting millions of dollars are not even paying a penny in tax! 

Of course people like Professor Mthuli Ncube know Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections and has retain power all these decades by rigging elections. They conveniently ignore the reality the country is in this economic and political crisis precisely because the country is dictatorship and a pariah state. 

They agree to work for the regime under the pretext they will make the dictatorship work for the good of the nation. 

By working for the dictatorship they are helping perpetuate the dictatorship. But they will never acknowledge that!

The old MPC was supposed to ensure inflation will never rise above 10%; it soared to 848%. The new committee will do no better. 

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is because the country is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs and the RBZ’s policies will not change the pariah state status.

The bottom line is people like Professor Mthuli Ncube work for Zanu PF for r selfish reasons. By accepting his appointment Pressor Mthuli Ncube will be known from henceforth as Zimbabwe’s (or former) Minister of Finance. Professor Albert Makochekanwa and his fellow appointees will from henceforth be known as members of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Monetary Policy Committee. Who knows what other financial benefits and open doors such positions bring!

Magaisa proposing new "strategies to win rigged elections" - just stop rigging by implementing the reforms W Mukori

 If there is one thing the ordinary Zimbabweans do NOT want right now is to be dragged into yet another meaningless election process whose outcome will be to confirm the corrupt, dysfunctional and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. And yet this is exactly what the MDC factions are hell bend on doing!

It was 2004 to 2007 USA ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, who foretold in a leaked cable back to Washington that Morgan Tsvangirai was “a flawed and indecisive character who would be an albatross round Zimbabwe’s neck, if he ever got into power!” 

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did get into power the following year, the 2008 to 2013 GNU, and have been the country’s main opposition party ever since. And ever since the GNU, MDC leaders have been the dead-weight weighing the nation down in every sense. 

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ primary task in the GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA). SADC leaders, as the guarantor of the GPA, did their best to remind MDC leaders to implement the reforms but were ignored. MDC failed to implement even one token reform in five years.

In a desperate last minute attempt to stop another rigged Zimbabwe elections, SADC leaders told Tsvangirai and company not to participate in the upcoming July 2013 elections until reforms are implemented. 

“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist Violet Gonda.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. They were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

MDC leaders themselves agreed with the SADC leaders on the futility of participating in a flawed election process. They once again ignored SADC leaders’ sound advice out of greed, as David Coltart admitted in his book.

In his Book, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear the elections would not be free, fair and credible.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” wrote David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“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.”

David Coltart was an MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Four MDC factions did come together to form the MDC Alliance (MDC A) before the 2018 elections. As we know the Alliance did participate in that year’s election knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections. 

The MDC A has once again split into two main factions, MDC A led by Nelson Chamisa and MDC T led by Douglas Mwonzora. The two factions are set on participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place! MDC is the albatross around Zimbabwe’s neck, giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF! 

Alex T Magaisa, one of the proponents of participating in the 2023 elections with no reforms, does not deny that Zanu PF without implement the reforms Zanu PF will rig the elections. 

“At present, the framing of “political reforms” is that they are dependent on what ZANU PF, as the ruling party, should do to improve the electoral system and environment. The idea is that such reforms would produce a fairer system that would assist in achieving legitimate electoral outcomes. However, most observers agree that ZANU PF has no incentive to implement such reforms. Therefore, the chances of achieving political reforms under the ZANU PF regime are remote,” wrote Magaisa, in Zimeye.

“It is important to take a fresh look at the nature of political reforms. I argue that as the biggest and most formidable opposition party, the MDC Alliance should within for political reforms that would make it a better and more effective force against a seemingly intractable regime.

“An effective anti-rigging strategy is having eyes and ears on the ground during the election process. This simply means there must be election agents at each polling station. You cannot prevent rigging unless you have people at each polling station.”

Of course, this is a foolish argument based on the assumption that vote rigging is limited to what happens at the polling station. It is common knowledge that Zanu PF denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the right to register and to vote in the 2018 elections. 

ZEC also failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement. Without a verified voters’ roll one cannot trace and verified anything and there is no limit to vote rigging mischief one can get up to. 

For the record, Alex Magaisa was Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC -T special advisor during the GNU. Since MDC failed to implement even one reform during the GNU and went on to participate in the July 2013 elections against the advice of SADC leaders; one can only imagine what foolish advice he gave the party. 

After 41 years of rigged elections it really is insane to be participate in yet another flawed and illegal elections process on the basis of some ill-conceived “strategy to win rigged elections.” 

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb, over 500 were murdered by Zanu PF during the 2008 run-off alone, to elect MDC leaders into office on the understanding the party will implement the reforms. MDC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in 20 years! 

The truth is MDC leaders have sold-out on reforms and free, fair and credible elections. They have settled for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to participate in elections. 

The MDC leaders’ justification for continued participation in flawed and illegal election is that they can win rigged elections if they unite and are better organised. 

By participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC are giving the process credibility and the the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

SADC leaders would have refused to endorse Zanu PF’s election victory in 2013 if MDC had boycotted the elections, after all it was the region leaders who had asked MDC to boycott the election until reforms were implemented. By insisting on participating in the election with no reforms, MDC left SADC leaders with no choice but to accept the process will be flawed and illegal.

Zimbabweans should have joined SADC leaders in demanding that MDC leaders did not to participate in the 2013 elections until the reforms were implemented. We did not and have paid dearly for making that mistake. 

Zimbabweans must be first off the mark in demanding the full implementation of the democratic reform to ensure free, fair and credible elections. We must reject the nonsensical argument that the opposition can come up with strategies to win rigged elections. 

We do not want rigged elections. Period!  

"Zimbabwe's inflation will drop to 10% by December 2021" - as far fetched as a moonlight mirage N Garikai

 “The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) yesterday forecast annual inflation to plummet to less than 10% this year, driven by a good agricultural season, fiscal and financial sector stability,” reported Bulawayo24.

“In December 2020, Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube projected annual inflation to drop to 136% at the end of 2021, after volatilities pushed the rate to 837% in July before declining to 348% by the end of last year.”

In January 2020, Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said by the end of the year inflation would be 10%. It was 837%! No doubt come December 2012 inflation will way off the 10% target and the nation will be giving a new target date. 

There will be no meaningful economic recovery as long as nothing is done to revive the collapsed agricultural sector, to stamp out the gross mismanagement and the rampant corruption. 

When Mnangagwa took over from Robert Mugabe, he promised to end corruption but three years latter corruption has spread from the diamond mining into gold, platinum and lithium mining, the are cartels in fuel and energy sector, foreign currency trading and even in the supply of corona virus requirements. Mnangagwa will never ever stamp out corruption because he and and his fellow ruling elite are the Godfathers of corruption!

Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, a pariah state, governed by corrupt incompetent and vote rigging thugs who believe they have the divine right to govern the country and to loot. As long as the country remain a pariah state the country’s economy will remain in ruins, where Zanu PF landed it.

Until we implement the democratic reforms and cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and pariah state; there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!

The country started with a robust economy and today it is in ruins after 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule. Zanu PF promised mass prosperity but has delivered instead mass poverty.

"Coupled with increased food production due to a favourable agricultural season, inflationary pressures are expected to remain subdued in the short to medium term," RBZ governor John Mangudya said in his Monetary Policy Statement yesterday.

"As a result, the economy is expected to continue experiencing a gradual disinflation from the 362,6% annual inflation in December 2020 to below 10% by December 2021. This inflation path will be underpinned by a targeted month-on-month inflation rate of below 3%.”

After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule that has drag the nation deeper and deeper into the abyss, all these empty promises of 10% inflation rate, economic recovery, middle-income status by 2030, etc. are as far fetched as a mirage by moonlight. 

"SA covid-19 variant is dominating by 61%" - proof Zimbabwe has not been testing for variant until now, why W Mukori

 “Cabinet wishes to inform that results of the genomic sequencing which was recently conducted indicate that the new SA covid-19 variant is dominating by 61%. The variant we were dealing with in 2020 has receded,” announced Nick Mangwana on twitter.

According to a BBC report, Zimbabwe is the first country outside of South Africa to report that the SA "501.YV2" variant is the dominant strain.

SA first reported of this 501.YV2 variant on 18 December 2020. It was known the variant was more contagious than SARS-CoV-2 the world had been dealing with up to this point. 

According to a Wikipedia report dated 29 January 2021 Zambia to north, Botswana to the west and Mozambique to the West countries with less human traffic to and fro SA than Zimbabwe, all had reported cases of the SA variant. Zimbabwe had no reported case of the SA variant. 

Indeed, until Nick’s twitter, Zimbabwe had no SA variant corona virus case or death! The twitter not only confirm that we do have SA variant corona virus cases and deaths but worse still the variant constitute 61% of the cases!

Nick Mangwana’s twitter raises a number of issues:

1. The volume of human traffic, legal and illegal, between SA and Zimbabwe is such that whatever is happening in SA one must expect to happen Zimbabwe. SA had nearly 1 500 000 covid 19 cases (near 1 000 of whom were SA variant) and over 44 000 deaths end of January 2021. Zimbabwe, with 1/4 the population of SA should have 350 000 cases (250 SA variant) and 11 000 deaths. And yet officially Zimbabwe had 33 548 cases (0 SA variant) and 1 234 deaths - 10% of the expected figures.

2. One explanation why Zimbabwe’s official corona virus cases are very low is because Zimbabwe has not been testing as diligently as it should. Just before the discovery of the SA variant the country was doing over 44 000 tests per day. Zimbabwe should have been doing over 11 000 tests and the most recent government report dated 15 February 2021 reported 1 481 tests per day carried out. 

3. By failing to test the country has missed out on the control measure of isolating those with the virus a particularly important when one is dealing with a contagious variant.

4. Why was Zimbabwe not carrying the genomic sequencing until now when the country know since 18 December 2020 of the SA variant?

5. There is no doubt that Zanu PF has deliberately kept the official corona virus cases and deaths low for the sake of giving the impression the regime has handled the pandemic well. There is growing evidence to show the real corona virus cases and deaths are a lot worse than what the regime would have believe. 

6. There is no doubt that by failing to realise the more contagious SA variant was spreading in the country until it was 61% of the cases has helped in the spread of the virus far and wide and fast. A timeous response would have save more Zimbabwean from the virus infection and, ultimately, save more lives. 

7. For a country whose health care services has all but collapsed test and isolate is the only effective way to contain the corona virus. Government must ramp up its test regimes to 10 000 tests per day. 

8. Government must provide all the necessary support to ensure those who test positive are able to go on isolation for the the stipulated period. 

9. Zimbabwe was slow in ordering the vaccines and it will probably be a year before the country can finally vaccinate enough to achieve head-immunity. It is tragic that the nation would have been spared amount of money, time and sweat, to say nothing of human suffering and deaths, spent of testing, isolating, etc. if only government had been quick off the mark and bought the vaccines. “Government was evaluating the efficacy of the various vaccine!” we were told! I hate it when someone who knows nothing pretends he/she knows, especially when other people end up paying dearly for it!

"You will overdose" married lover warns VP Mohadi - wish there was concoction for ossified brain P Guramatunhu

 “Vice President Kembo Mohadi's married young lover warned him he would overdose on an aphrodisiac as he prepared himself for some action in bed,” reported Zimlive.

“The 71-year-old took two cups of the concoction to rouse his equipment ahead of a night of passion with his security aide Abbigal Mumpande, a leaked phone call between the two lovers reveals.”

I wish these Zanu PF thugs would spend more time finding a concoction to stimulate their ossified brains! The national economy has been in decline ever since the day they took over after the country’s independence in 1980. 

The country’s economy shrunk by a staggering 50% in the period 2000 to 2008 under the double whammy of collapsed agricultural sector following the seizure of farms to give Zanu PF chefs and the cronies, mostly; and the hyperinflation which soared to 500 billion per cent fuelled by the RBZ governor, Gideon Gono’s crazy economic policy of printing money, Gonomics! 

The economic collapse send unemployment figures soaring throwing millions into abject poverty. The economy has never recover since Gonomics years. 

The corona virus pandemic has hit rich nations hard; health wise many people have been infected and thousands have died. And the lockdowns to contain the virus have caused serious economic disruption. Many nations’ economies have shrunk 10% or more, triggering an economic depression that, many fear, will last a decade or more. 

The pandemic has hit Zimbabwe very, very hard indeed. The country’s economic was already in total meltdown and so the nation did not the money  to spend on such basic necessities as corona virus test kits, PPE, etc. much less on ventilators and furlough payments. 

The country’s health service was already in a mess and so most covid-19 patients receive no health care. None. 

Whilst the rich nations have ramped up the vaccination of their people and many expect to reach head-immunity targets in the next three or so months. They will then be free to lift the lockdowns and concentrate on the challenge of reviving the economy. 

Zimbabwe has just received it first 200 000 vaccines; a drop in the ocean as the country needs 20 million to reach its head-immunity of 10 million each getting two doses. The country has been very slow off the mark in ordering the vaccines and will be luck to get enough vaccines by February 2022!

The prospect of another 12 months of the corona virus cases and deaths of the last two months is sending a shiver down my spine!

Yesterday, President Mnangagwa announced the county was extending the current two months long lockdown by another two weeks. The country has done nothing of note to justify why the corona virus cases and deaths should drop in the next two weeks. Nothing! There is no scientific basis for this decision, it is national policy on the hoof, kiya kiya, straight from the same school as Gonomics!

Zanu PF’s kiya kiya and Gonomics have turned the country’s promising economy; “the jewel of Africa”, as Tanzania President Julius Nyerere told Mugabe in 1980; into ruins. Zimbabwe is now a basket case Banana Republic.

”The (economic) situation is gradually improving and stabilising. Various indicators are pointing towards recovery and positive growth,” Mnangagwa told mourners at the late Douglas Nyikayaramba’s funeral on Saturday.

Such is the tragedy for Zimbabwe, the nation is stuck who have proven to be corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless but will not admit their failure much less give up power. 

"Linathile yini into leyana? (Have you drank that stuff?)” V P Mohadi’s lover asked him.

"Yes I have, I drank two cups," he answered.

"You will overdose."

V P Mohadi is not the first Zanu PF leaders to desire his subordinate’s wife, we all know Grace Mugabe’s story. Both Jacob and Abbigal and her husband, Jacob, work for the Central Intelligence Organisation and based at Munhumutapa Building, housing Mnangagwa and Mohadi’ offices. 

Mohadi and his Zanu PF colleagues are addicted to absolute power and all the goodies it brings, influence, looted wealth, extravagant lifestyles and lovers galore! Even after 40 years all their earthly hearts desire, they are still hunger for more! 

It is the 40 years of Zanu PF kiya kiya policies and Gonomics that is killing the nation.

The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the reality that Mnangagwa and company will ever admit to Zanu PF misrule much less concede to democratic reforms and free and fair elections. Even now with the country’s economy in ruins and the nation’s very survival at stake Zanu PF thugs will fight tooth and nail to hang on to power and drag the nation over the edge into the abyss. It is up to the people to demand reforms and stop Zanu PF dragging the nation over the edge!