The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has triggered an outpouring of public sympathy from all corners of the world. The public sympathy from Africa has not gone down well with some people.
“You will never understand Africans!” wrote Tracy Zille in
one widely circulated WhatsApp message. “They are busy mourning an old woman
who caused their nations great pain. Is this not a Queen of a country that
colonized Africa and caused poverty in your land?”
How patronising! Who are you to presume to instruct a whole
continent of 54 countries and over 1.2 billion people on whom they should love
and whom they should hate!
Not so many moons ago, was America not a British colony.
History tells us the two fought a bitter war of independence, a story repeated
countless times throughout human history. Did the British and the Americans not
bury the proverbial hatchet are the best of friends to the mutual benefit of
the two nations?
Countries like Zimbabwe had the great misfortune of having
tyrants like the late Robert Mugabe. It is no exaggeration to, after our
independence, Mugabe tried to be more British than the British in everything he
said and did. He had an inferiority complex and was overcompensating for it. The
now late Queen Elizabeth invited him to stay in Buckingham Palace and even
knighted the tyrant. Needless to say, he was chaffed to bits.
The friendly relationship between Zimbabwe and UK and the
rest of the Western nation turned sour the latter refused to bankroll Zanu PF’s
reckless spending and dared to criticize the regime for its failure to uphold
human rights including failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Mugabe hit back and accused the British of sponsoring the
country’s opposition for the purpose of regime change and recolonizing Zimbabwe.
As Zimbabwe’s economy sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss as a result of Zanu
PF gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has resorted more and more dictatorial
measures to deny the people the free vote in order to retain power. And to hide
his tyrannical activities, his anti-west rhetoric has gone into overdrive.
“Zimbabwe will never again be a British colony!” ranted Mugabe
with the dramatic gestures of the boxer who has just delivered the knock punch!
All shadow boxing because the British have never shown any intention of
recolonizing Zimbabwe or any of her former colonies!
The iron is whilst Mugabe has made a big song and dance of
stopping the British recolonising Zimbabwe, he has all but sold Zimbabwe to the
Chinese for a song.
Last month Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, revealed
that Zimbabwe sold platinum ore with US$52 billion to China to secure a loan
worth US$ 200 million. The loan was used to buy farming equipment and it is the
ruling elite who got the seized former white owned farms who benefited from the
loan and, as usual, never paid back the loan.
It is not a secret that the Chinese are heavily involved in
the looting of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa and in many other areas. Zimbabwe
got rid of one colonial master only to have another and in replacing the British
with the Chinese we jumped from the frying pan into the fire!
China does not care that Zanu PF leaders are corrupt and are
responsible for the country’s economic ruins. Indeed, the Chinese are one of the
foreign nations benefiting from the corruption and the Chinese are doing
everything in their power to help Zanu rig the elections and stay in power.
The Mnangagwa regime has toned down the anti-west rhetoric
in the hope the west will bankroll Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. The west has continued
to demand democratic reforms as the condition for re-engagement.
Many Zimbabweans are joining the British people, the Commonwealth
and many others across the world in celebrating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s
extraordinary life, mourning the death and in wishing her eternal peace. And
long live King Charles III.
"We liberated the country through our renowned and celebrated organisational ability. We brought independence by mobilising the masses to oppose and resist all the evil oppressive schemes of our colonisers," Mnangagwa said while officially opening the war veterans league conference in Harare.
ReplyDelete"We are tried and tested cadres whose patriotism and loyalty to our revolutionary cause remains unflinching."
Mnangagwa said war veterans should complement party efforts to win the upcoming polls.
Ignorance is a curse worse than death! The nation is languishing in abject poverty, with the nation’s economy in total ruins, staggering 50% of the population destitute and with little hope of any meaningful recovery as long as the country remains a pariah state; one would have thought all Zimbabweans have been forced to think.
Here we are the war veterans are, once again, been carolled like cattle to do Zanu PF’s dirty work of frog marching the masses to vote for the party. And, of course, they are all going to do as they are told. The war veterans have not been spared the consequences of the economic meltdown and by propping the Zanu PF dictatorship they are perpetuating the pariah state and their own suffering. It is very sad that anyone can ever be this dumb and stupid to be used as their own oppressor but that is what ignorance does and mean!
CCC leader President Nelson Chamisa has appealed to SADC to resolve the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe as a matter of urgency.
ReplyDeleteThis is a waste of time and Sadc leaders have better things to do than listen to Chamisa and co.
It was Sadc that forced Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept the need to implement reforms and thus end the Zimbabwe crisis. MDC were tasked to implement the reforms and they failed to implement even one reform. Sadc leaders advise Tsvangirai and company not to participate in the flawed elections and they ignored the advice. The advice not to participate in flawed elections is still on the table and, as we all know, CCC is hell bent on participating in these elections regardless of the rigging and violence and the advice.
Chamisa just wants to blame Sadc for his own failure to implement reform and refusal to listen to sound advice. The only thing Sadc can do is ignore Chamisa’s irritating wittering, what else can they do!
This is a waste of time and Sadc leaders have better things to do than listen to Chamisa and co.
ReplyDeleteIt was Sadc that forced Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept the need to implement reforms and thus end the Zimbabwe crisis. MDC were tasked to implement the reforms and they failed to implement even one reform. Sadc leaders advise Tsvangirai and company not to participate in the flawed elections and they ignored the advice. The advice not to participate in flawed elections is still on the table and, as we all know, CCC is hell bent on participating in these elections regardless of the rigging and violence and the advice.
Chamisa just wants to blame Sadc for his own failure to implement reform and refusal to listen to sound advice. The only thing Sadc can do is ignore Chamisa’s irritating wittering, what else can they do!
The people of Zimbabwe can help end this political mess by waking up to the reality that MDC have long stopped pushing for reforms and free elections. Chamisa and co re cooperating with Zanu PF by participating in flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power.
MDC/CCC will never ever implement any reforms or deliver free, fair and credible elections. Never ever!
In his epic book, “Animal Farm” George Orwell showed how the pigs, the ruling elite, manufactured fictious enemies who were then blamed for the consequences the misrule.
ReplyDeleteMugabe picked the fight with the British over the land issue in 2000, 20 years after independence, because he was under pressure from his demanding but wasteful Zanu PF loyalists, they wanted loot and he had nothing left but land to give them.
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown was caused by decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption; he did not want to admit that and so blamed it on the sanctions imposed by the west. The very fact that the Zimbabwe was already in trouble even before the sanctions were imposed was ignored. The great disappointment is how many Zimbabweans and black Africans believed Mugabe’s lies and propaganda. It has been shocking easy to deceive some people!
It would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we should base our foreign policy on lies nd propaganda!
Bulawayo has recorded 1,200 diarrhoea cases following at outbreak of the disease in July, council officials have confirmed.
ReplyDeleteThe first cases of diarrhoea were recorded in the Pumula suburb and now have spread across the city.
The picture of Bulawayo residence fetching water from an open source in this day and age speaks volumes of how we have failed to govern ourselves!
@ Mbofana
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the queen is such a venerated figure.
For some of us in Zimbabwe, this is a cause for exceeding admiration, with a tinge of envy.
Why can we also not be blessed with such a breed of leader in our own country?
Good question! As a nation we have done anything to deserve a competent leader! For 20 years after independence, we refused to accept that Mugabe could do any wrong and the thugs took full advantage of our stupidity to build the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled this nation for 42 years. If anyone thought he had learned our lesson, they were wrong.
The people have risked all to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for the express purpose of implementing the democratic reforms and end the dictatorship. They have failed to implement even one reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU. Worse still by insisting in participating in these flawed elections MDC/CCC are the ones keeping Zanu PF in power in return for a share of the spoils of power.
Instead of the people holding MDC/CCC leaders to democratic account, they worship them as if they are gods! If the people think someone who has failed to deliver even one change in 22 years is their “Change Champion in Chief” then they can keep their champion and suffer the consequences.
Zimbabweans are not ready for a competent leader and will have to suffer until they finally learn the simple lesson that leaders are fallible mortals and not gods!
@ Seke Mutema
ReplyDelete“All animals are equal, but some animals are equal than others aptly describes the imperialist privilege of the monarch and Royal family. It is more tyrannical on a global scale.”
This is true, the British have benefited from being an imperial nation. What concerns me is what we have done since independence in 1980. Zimbabwe had the potential of building on what we inherited from the Smith regime to become the “South Korea of Africa”, as Ken Yamamoto, a Japanese scholar aptly put it. We have become a textbook case failed nation.
Instead of admitting we have serious problems of mismanagement, corruption and the lawlessness earning the nation the pariah state label and deal with the problems head-on; we have accepted Mugabe’s lies and propaganda blaming the West for all our problems.
The Chinese are robbing the nation blind, and it is Zanu PF who invited them into the country, not the West!
After 42 years of independence and in this day and age, we cannot even hold free, fair and credible elections! Are you going to blame the West for that too.
A nation whose people cannot think for themselves is a nation in trouble. In Zimbabwe we have many people who cannot think and hence the reason we are in a mess. And until these people snap out of the sloth-like slumber; there nation will remain stuck in this hell-hole of our own making.
You can blame the West all you want but that will not get us out of this mess! It is very sad that even now, with all the benefit of hindsight, you are still failing to identify why we are in this mess. Very sad indeed, that anyone can be so shallow thick and slow!
The CCC party reports that 2 of its members were attacked today in Magunje.
ReplyDeleteThe incidents happened at 8Wire Business Centre. The accuseds are Gebo Chasumba, an alleged ZanuPF terror gangster.
This is a nightmare! MDC/CCC not only failed to implement the democratic reforms to end the rigging and violence; the party is the one insisting on participating in these elections regardless the rigging and violence. There is no hope of Zanu implementing any reforms as long as the party is assured of MDC participating giving it legitimacy no matter how flawed the process. We are well and truly stuck!
CCC are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait for participating in the flawed elections. CCC do not care that the elections are rigged much less the consequences of the ruinous Zanu PF misrule!
Unless the people of Zimbabwe finally open their eyes and realise than CCC are the ones keeping Zanu PF in power we are not getting out of this mess.
Queen Elizabeth’s death revives criticism of Britain’s legacy of colonialism and untold suffering of the black community in Africa. Critics are responding to “the relationship of the monarchy to systems of oppression, repression, forced extraction of labour, and particularly African workmanship, and exploitation of natural resources and forcing systems of control in these places. The triggering point is that the Queen or any member of the Royal family offered an apology for all the evils done in Africa and Asia.
ReplyDeleteNo one can deny that the British colonial rule was oppressive and exploitative. However, the fact that countries like Zimbabwe now look back at the colonial era as the “golden age” compared with the black majority rule that followed; speaks volumes of the latter. There is no denying 42 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness have left the country in economic ruins and over 50% of our people now live in abject poverty.
Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of the region now we are the basket case failed state. And as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs, there will be no meaning political change or economic recovery.
It is typical that Zanu PF and its coterie of hanger-on and apologists have not only sort to blame the West for the country’s problems, for the regime’s failures but have gone one step further, they have justified denying the people their freedoms, rights and human dignity under the pretext on stopping recolonization by the West. The regime has invited the Chinese to help it retain power and they have been robbing Zimbabwe blind – worse than the British ever did!
Of course, it is nonsense to be obsessed about the wrongs committed by British in the past when independence brought that to an end whilst ignoring the wholesale looting by the Chinese happening here and now, especial when the past is being used to draw attention from the present!
SOME eminent Zimbabweans, including businesspeople, former ministers, sports personalities, academics and civil society leaders, have written to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, seeking restoration of the law in the case of Citizens’ Coalition for Change legislators Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole as well as 14 others from Nyatsime who have been detained for almost 90 days without trial, The NewsHawks has learnt
ReplyDeleteAmong the 107 petition signatories who said the detention is unjust are business mogul Strive Masiyiwa (pictured), former deputy prime minister Arthur Mutambara, world renowned sculptor Dominic Benhura, author Tsitsi Dangarembga, civil society leader Brian Kagoro and respected sports personalities who made names for themselves on the global stage, Nick Price, Bruce Grobbelar, Byron Black, Henry Olonga and Tatenda Taibu.
“The multiple denials of bail these two have endured, multiple times in the Magistrates Court and multiple times in the High Court, makes for an unusual and unprecedented situation. We cannot think of any prosecution in recent times where one has been denied bail for such numerous times, for offences of inciting public violence and obstruction of justice, which Honourable Sikhala is charged with, and inciting public violence, which Honourable Godfrey Sithole is charged with. MPs Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole have now spent 85 days in pre-trial incarceration at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
“When this is juxtaposed to the timely and little-resisted granting of bail to high profile politically exposed persons accused of serious corruption, and they being flight risks, questions about the equal treatment of persons before the courts arise. There appear to be targeted differential treatment of those arrested and detained for charges emanating from political circumstances.”
What is tragic about this story and many other on vote rigging and the incessant culture of political violence and harassment is that whilst the nation is preoccupied fighting for these basic rights we are not discussing the equally important economic issues.
Indeed, it is utterly pointless producing the traditional economic manifesto; if elections are rigged the winner is not chosen by the electorate those responsible for the rigging don’t care about such niceties as sound policies.
What makes our situation in Zimbabwe peculiar, and infuriating is that the country’s main opposition leaders have a hand in this mess. MDC/CCC leaders have not only failed to implement the necessary democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF excesses in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU but they are the ones keeping Zanu PF in power by insisting on participating in flawed elections.
Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate. And so the nation’s cause to implement the reforms and deliver free and fair elections has been betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.
Sadc, IMF, EU and many others have advised on implementing reforms before elections but they might as well be talking to a brick wall! Chamisa and co are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections!
According to data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, South Africa, the continent's most-industrialised nation, is officially home to 773 246 of the 908 913 Zimbabwean nationals that make up the diaspora.
ReplyDeleteThere was no word on Biden's response.
But the recent US decision to add Police Deputy Commissioner-General, Stephen Mutamba, to the sanctions list is testament to the superpower's clear position on where it stood on Zimbabwe sanctions.
Mutamba was added "for his actions that undermine Zimbabwe's democratic processes and institutions".
In Twits via his handle, outspoken US Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said this week that the addition of Mutamba "is good, many key officials responsible for undermining Zim's democracy remain missing".
"Biden should use his meeting w/@CyrilRamaphosa to urge the gov't of #SouthAfrica to end its blatant misinformation campaign about U.S. sanctions & use its regional leadership to support democratic reforms in #Zimbabwe," he said.
South Africa, by virtue of its strong economy and democracy, has become the de facto regional leader widely expected to exercise its influence to force a change of behaviour next door.
However, the ANC government is accused of failure to do so.
It is very disappointing that SA has again and again been tested found wanting in terms of providing the quality leadership SA itself and the whole SADC region needed to prosper. The stubborn insistence by President Ramaphosa on blaming sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is just one example of his incompetence. There is a mountain of evidence to prove beyond all doubt that corruption and mismanagement by the Zanu PF government are the root causes of the economic meltdown.
The people of Zimbabwe have failed to remove Zanu PF from office because the party rigs elections.
By best chance to stop the curse of rigged elections was during the SADC sponsored 2008 to 2013 GNU. Alas, MDC who were tasked to implement the reforms failed to do so and the golden opportunity was lost.
President Ramaphosa has once again failed the people of Zimbabwe by stubbornly turning a blind eye to the Zanu PF rigging to give the regime legitimacy. Already there is mountain of evidence to prove that Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and given President Ramaphosa’s track record, he will give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus condemn Zimbabwe to yet another five more years of Zanu PF mismanagement, corruption and tyrannical oppression. Curse him!