"CCC is winning 2023, I will be Minister of Local Gvt and you ambassadors" Chibaya tell diasporans. How presumptuous. N Garikai

 

Amos Chibaya, CCC national organising secretary, told his audience in Birmingham CCC will win the 2023 elections and they should prepare a skills data base. The CCC led government will appointing ambassadors, Permanent Secretaries, etc. He has already told Chamisa he has his eyes on the local government minister cabinet role was his.

It was sweet music to Zimbabwe diasporans; they swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker! How naïve; Zanu PF is rigging these elections and they have done nothing to stop the rigging and are, instead, sharing out the spoils of the imaginary electoral victory!

Amos Chibaya and other CCC party leaders are in UK on mission to raise funds for the upcoming 2023 elections. No doubt the hooked diasporans will loosen up their purses and bankroll the party’s campaign.

Whatever skills these men and women in the diaspora have, it certainly does not include common sense. The common sense to realise that Zimbabwe’s elections are a farce and the number one challenge is to put an end to the insanity of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.

The great physicist, Albert Einstein said insanity of doing something over and over again expecting a different result. Zimbabweans have been participating in these flawed and illegal elections; so, flawed that in the March 2008 MDC garnered 73% of the votes and still failed to win power; for 42 years and still expect a different result. If that is not proof of collective insanity, what is!

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections just as blatantly as it has rigged elections in the past. There evidence of the rigging is there for all to see. Last year Patrick Chinamasa, then Acting Zanu PF spokesperson, announced that the Zanu PF government will not honour Mnangagwa’s promise in 2018 to grant diaspora vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West remain.” The sanctions include travel ban on some Zanu PF leaders and thus putting the regime at an unfair electoral disadvantage as regarding winning the diaspora votes. All nonsense, of course.

The right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country is an inalienable right enshrined in the UN Universal Human Rights Declaration. To deny Zimbabweans in the diaspora their fundamental right because Zanu PF has a quarrel with the West is an outrage. What man in his right mind would quarrel with his neighbour and take it on his wife and children? No society would ever tolerate such barbarism!

Even if we were to accept the argument that Zanu PF would be at an electoral disadvantage because its big gunners will not campaign freely in these Western nations that have imposed travel ban. Why is the regime denying the vote to those Zimbabweans in neighbouring SADC countries and beyond which have not imposed any sanctions on the regime?

The truth of the matter is Zanu PF denying those in the diaspora the vote for two reasons:

1)     Many of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora are there as economic and/or political refugees and they blame Zanu PF misrule for their situation. It is obvious many of them would therefore not vote for Zanu PF.

2)     Zanu PF has corrupted all the country’s state institutions including ZEC, Police, Army, etc. giving the regime total controls of every aspect of election process and with it the unlimited opportunity to rig elections. Still, rigging elections is dirty work and the party has not always succeeded in the dirty work under wraps as in the 2008 elections. Zanu PF would have to rig the diaspora vote and keeping that a secrete would be near impossible. Denying those in the diaspora the vote was by far the easier option than rigging that vote!

There are 3 million adult Zimbabweans in the diaspora, using Zanu PF’s own figure; a very significant number given Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes. So, the diaspora vote constitutes 37% of the potential 8 million voters.

How can the elections be free, fair and credible when one contestant is allowed to cherry pick the voters and deny 37% the vote?

So, if Amos Chibaya and his fellow CCC leaders had any common sense they would be fighting tooth and nail to secure the 3 million in the diaspora have a vote. Indeed, should have implemented the necessary reforms to guarantee diaspora vote during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one reform in five years.

Whilst SADC and many in the international community were outraged by MDC leaders’ failure to implement reforms and deserted MDC in droves. Many Zimbabweans, including those in the diaspora, did not even realise the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement reforms. Even now with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans still have no clue what the GNU was for much less that MDC leaders sold out big time!

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF thugs who have rigged elections to stay in power. Zimbabwe has become the textbook case of a failed state ruled by men and women whose greed for power and loot is insatiable. They are blind to the common sense reality that without rule of law the nation is doomed.

It is the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF thugs who have landed us into this economic and political mess. It is the equally corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless MDC/CCC leaders who have wasted many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and kept us stuck in the mess. The nation has been looking to its intelligentsia to finally get us out of this hell-on-earth of our own making.

The overwhelming majority of Zimbabwe’s so-called intelligentsia are in the diaspora and judging from the glassy-eyed reaction to Chibaya’s idiotic offer of ambassadorship, etc.; the intelligentsia are just as naïve, gullible, and greedy as the political leaders. They don’t even have the common sense to know it is insane to be sharing the spoils of election victory when Zanu PF still enjoy the carte blanche powers to rig elections; especially after 42 years of rigged elections!

“CCC will win the 2023 elections, I will be Minister of Local Government and you will be appointed ambassadors and Permanent Secretaries!” How presumptuous especial when Chibaya and co wasted the golden opportunity to secure diaspora vote implement reforms and secure diaspora vote. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections, that is the reality!

Draconian PVO Bill passed, democratic space has shrunk to singularity point. CCC will participate in 2023 regardless. Why P Guramatunhu

 

“Zimbabwe democratic space narrows ahead of 2023 polls” screamed the Bulawayo 24 article!

“In December alone, critical developments that undermine democracy have unfolded.  Most notably, the draconian Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) Bill was passed by Parliament,” read the report.

“The discredited law will give the government unfettered discretionary power to over-regulate and interfere in non-government organisations' operations.”

Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship, a failed pariah state, masquerading as a multi-party democracy. Why we continue participating these flawed and utterly meaningless elections after 42 years of rigged elections is a mystery!

In 1983 to 1987 Zanu PF instituted the Gukuhandi Massacre for the sole purpose of forcing its main political rival, PF Zapu, to capitulate and join Zanu PF. The late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu friends did capitulate and signed the Unity Accord and paving the way for the imposition of the de facto one party state. And ever since, Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms and rights. And the party has been ruthless in its dealings with anyone or organisation that threatened in any way its strangle hold on power.

One of the ways Zanu PF has retain absolute power was by making the people powerless, the more vulnerable and helpless the people have become the more effective the party’s carrot and stick tactics have worked.

Zanu PF has always viewed Voluntary Organisation as a threat to the party’s strangle hold on power for two reasons:

1)     VO like ZLHR have directly challenge the party’s human rights abuses by challenging the regime’s excesses and defending victims of abuse

2)     Even when the VO has confined themselves to helping the poor with food and medicine; the regime has stepped in demanding that the assistance must be given out by Zanu PF officials or not at all. Zanu PF would rather see the poor starve to death then let them receive help from someone else. The party would rather see Zimbabwe in ruins than let anyone else rule it!  

Like it or not, Zanu PF is once again blatantly rigging the 2023 elections. The election process is so flawed and so illegal the “obvious” thing is to boycott the elections until reforms are implemented. Sadly, the country’s corrupt and incompetent opposition will, as usual, participate in the elections regardless out of greed as David Coltart confessed.

In, David Coltart, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, 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 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.”

The MDC has gone on to participate in the 2018 elections although four of the main MDC factions, joined by three other opposition parties, had formed the MDC Alliance. There was no talk of boycotting the elections then, greed had once again prevailed.

"Mr Mnangagwa knows the real threat that lies ahead if Chamisa wins the elections such as exposure of their human rights abuses going back to 1980 and so they are prepared to do anything to stranglehold on power. As we go towards the next elections, I see more efforts being done to prevent the will of the people triumphing," commented Coltart on the passing of the PVO bill.

Chamisa, Coltart and the rest of CCC (MDC rebranded) leaders are all hell bent on participating in the 2023 elections knowing fully well that the democratic space in Zimbabwe has shrunk to a singularity point a long time ago. Zanu PF is rigging these elections and participating will only give SADC the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy.

The nation’s hopes and dreams to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance are, once again, being sacrificed to gratify the insatiable greed of the few. It is for the people to open their eyes and minds to the political reality that there will be no free elections as long as  Zanu PF and CCC remain in power. The two cooperating to maintain the status quo and sharing the spoils of rigged elections.

There is light at the end of tunnel, pray God grant us the wisdom to finally see the futility of participating in flawed elections W Mukori

 

As 2022 draws to a close and 2023 dawns, I am hopeful this will be the dawn of real change and not just another the false dawn.

Let’s face it, Zimbabwe has blundered from pillar to post these last 42 years, forever sinking deeper and deeper into this economic mess and political paralysis of our own making. The proverbial quote of hope and encouragement “the darkest hour cometh before dawn” has lost meaning because we have had one false dawn after another.

The nation’s hope for freedom, liberty and human dignity which the 1980 independence was supposed to bring was a great disappointment. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies, the nation’s liberation war heroes, wanted to secure absolute power for themselves and did not care they were riding roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms, human rights and dignity.

Zanu PF rigged the nation’s first elections in 1980; the people were told in no uncertain terms that if the party did not win the bush war would continue. The people voted to end the war. Three years later, in 1983, Zanu PF launched the Gukurahundi Massacre, the darkest period in the country’s history, whose primary purpose was to force PF Zapu, to join Zanu PF to create a de facto one-party state. Mugabe got his wish in with the signing of the Zanu PF and PF Zapu Unity Accord in December 1987.

Zanu PF has imposed the de facto one-party dictatorship under the pretext the multiparty democracy and free and fair elections were a threat to peace and unity. And so the nation has been stuck for 42 years and counting with this corrupt, tyrannical Zanu PF government that has rigged elections to stay in power.

The country used to pride itself as the breadbasket of the region because it produced enough food to not only feed its people but with surplus to feed millions of others. The country’s agricultural sector collapsed with the seizure of white owned farms to give to Zanu PF ruling elite, most. And ever since, the nation has relied on food aid; we had become so impoverish we could not even pay for it.

Zimbabwe such good soil and favourable weather conditions someone once said, “you can plant a broomstick and harvest fruit!” Yet we are starving in the Garden of Eden. A damning testimonial to the country’s failed leadership.

Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s economy in ruins. Unemployment has soared to 80% plus, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed and 50% of the people now live in abject poverty.

Talk of the darkest hour, the nation is in the middle of the worst power cuts. The 6 hours plus per day ZESA loadshedding of the last decade have now been extended to 18 hours plus.

The second false dawn came with the election of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. The people have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the understanding the party would implement the required democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Alas! MDC has failed to implement even one reform in 22 years including 5 in the GNU.

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest, as one would say, is history.

Indeed, MDC leaders not only sold-out by failing to implement even one reform these last 22 years but worse still, ever since the GNU debacle they have participated in flawed and illegal elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats.

 Zanu PF is set to rig the 2023 elections and by the same token CCC (rebranded MDC) will participate to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Where is the light at the end of this dark tunnel, you might well ask! Well bear with me.

It has been variously said that Reinhold Neibuhr himself denied writing it, and credited Friedrich Oetinger, an 18th century theologian, with its authorship; or that it was actually written in 500 A.D. by a philosopher named Boethius who was martyred for the Christian Faith. 

Both of these theories have since been discredited, and it does now appear that the Theologian Reinhold Neibuhr was the actual author (he also did in fact claim credit for it).  Niebuhr was a major influence on the German Pastor and Nazi resister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr

It took the people of Zimbabwe nearly 20 years before they finally accepted the political reality that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs; even when presented with the mountain of Gukurahundi Massacre evidence. The people have been equally slow in accepting MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent even with the evidence the party has failed to implement even one reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU.

Still, 10 years since the end of the GNU, there is growing evidence to show the penny has finally dropped, people are now questioning Chamisa and company’s greed and incompetence in failing to implement reforms. And question the sheer futility participating in elections so flawed there is no a verified voters’ roll, Zanu PF is denying 3 million or 37% of the potential voters, etc.

So, it took 20 years for Zimbabweans to finally accept the Zanu PF liberation war heroes were in fact corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and ruthless thugs. It has taken another 22 years for the people to accept that the MDC leaders they elected to implement the democratic reforms to end the Zanu PF dictatorships are themselves corrupt and incompetent.

The ideal solution for Zimbabwe is to implement the reforms before holding the elections. It is unrealistic to implement reforms now before the July 2023 elections; there is no time. We cannot get Zanu PF, as the government of the day, to postpone the elections. Even if we did; to what end and purpose since we will never get Zanu PF to implement the reforms too. Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office.

Zimbabwe is at a T junction we must now choose to participate, hoping against reason, that CCC’s “Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies will finally deliver a different result that 42 years of rigged elections have failed to deliver. If the strategies fail again, it will be too late to denounce the process and challenge the legitimacy of the winner! We have travelled down this route, and will be insane to do yet again, especially after 42 years of rigged elections.

The alternative is to demand reforms and free and fair elections as the only basis for elections. WIRE is an oxymoron granting Zanu PF carte blanche powers to rig elections whilst denying the people their inalienable right to free and fair elections.

We cannot stop Zanu PF going ahead with these flawed and illegal 2023 elections nor can we stop CCC participating.

However, what we can and must do is to discourage as many Zimbabweans as possible from participating; the rural voters usually subjected to Zanu PF coercive measures leaving them with no choice but to participate. have no choice in the matter as they are coerced. And, most important of all, we must remind everyone, especially SADC, of just how flawed and illegal the electoral process is and the absurdity of granting the victor of such a process political legitimacy.

We have failed to get the democratic reforms implemented before the 2023 elections are held, we must now do the next best thing – ensure that vote rigging Zanu PF does not get legitimacy and thus get away with the rigging yet again.

In 2023 pray, God grant Zimbabweans the wisdom to finally see the futility of participating in flawed elections, so flawed there is not even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, only to give Zanu PF legitimacy and to perpetuate their own suffering!   

"Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo!" - For every one built Zanu PF destroyed 50, no wonder Zimbabwe is in ruins. N Garikai

On Monday, 12 December 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated four Zimbabwean individuals and two Zimbabwean entities, and removed seventeen Zimbabweans from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List).

"We urge the Zimbabwean government to take meaningful steps towards creating a peaceful, prosperous, and politically vibrant Zimbabwe, and to address the root causes of many of Zimbabwe's ills: corrupt elites and their abuse of the country's institutions for their personal benefit," explained Under Secretary of the Treasury Brian E. Nelson.

"The goal of sanctions is behavior change. Today's actions demonstrate our support for a transparent and prosperous Zimbabwe."

The Zanu PF regime was completely taken by surprise as it clearly thought it was winning the fight to have the sanctions lifted. SADC and AU leaders had all been blaming the sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and calling for their unconditional removal.

The evidence on the ground shows that it is the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption which are the primary causes of the economic meltdown. 42 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship had left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis.

In a healthy and functioning democracy, the people would have removed the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF from office. Sadly, Zimbabwe is not a healthy democracy, Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections since 1980 to retain power. The nation is stuck with the regime.

The Zanu PF regime is upset to hear the Americans are determined to retain the sanctions and demands for free and fair elections, especially when the regime thought it was winning everybody over. The regime has reacted angrily, shooting from the hip!

“What the @ US Dept of State has done is an act of cowardice & undoubtedly barbaric conduct that falls below the diplomatic bar,” fired Zanu-PF information director Tafadzwa Mugwadi on twitter.

“It clearly reflects a demented superpower that has gone rogue, now aiming at non-assuming global citizens like Emmerson Jnr, a Chimuka & an unknown housewife.

“Anyway, needless to remind them that President Mnangagwa has reminded us that with or without sanctions, nyika inovaka navene vayo (a country is built by its owners).”

 How much longer can Mnangagwa keep up the propaganda he is building Zimbabwe when the reality on the ground shows a failed country in ruins! Mugabe thought he could bluff and bamboozle everyone into believing he was delivering economic prosperity for all and was overwhelmed by the reality on the ground and forced to shut up!

Mugabe was so cocksure his Scientific Socialism policies would deliver mass economic prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhunji!” as he called it, he never tired of saying it throughout the 1980s. These were the usual voodoo economic policies centred on reckless spending especial by the ruling elite. There was nothing scientific in that!

By the end of the 1980s the economy was already in serious trouble and government asked for financial assistance from IMF and WB in the form of the 1990 to 1995 Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP), designed to end the reckless spending and kick-start the economic revival.

The programme failed to revive the economy because Zanu PF reduce its spending on programmes affecting the masses but continued with the reckless spending to appease the ruling elite. The second five-year ESAP was agreed it too failed to revive the economy for the same reasons – the regime continued to savage cuts to programmes affecting the masses who forced to tighten their belts whilst the chefs loosened their belts.

By the mid-1990s the economy was now in deep trouble, unemployment was high, wages were low, the quality of basic services such as education and health care were very poor, etc. The standard of living for the majority of Zimbabweans had fallen both qualitatively and quantitatively. There was mass poverty and it was nonsensical to talk of “Gutsa ruzhinji!!” and so Mugabe was forced to drop, until then, his favourite phrase!

Indeed, “Gutsa ruzhinji” and “scientific Socialism” were now used to mock Mugabe.    

When Mnangagwa took over the leadership from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup he was cocksure his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” would open the floodgates of investors and financial assistance the nation had been starved of  the last two decades. He was sure his promise to stamp out corruption and to hold free elections would reassure everyone that Zimbabwe was no longer the corrupt and tyrannical pariah state of Mugabe days. He even insisted in calling his administration a “new democratic dispensation” “Second Republic”. No one was fooled, especially the shrewd investors.

Mnangagwa failed to stamp out corruption, who could he when he is the godfather of corruption and so are all his friends who propelled him into high office.

Zanu PF would never win a free and fair elections. It was inconceivable that he and his fellow November 2017 coup plotters would risk all to stage a coup and wrestle power from Mugabe only to hand it over in a silver platter to others when it was in their power to rig the elections and retain power. And so no one in their right mind was surprised that Mnangagwa did not bother to implement even one token reform to keep his promise to hold free and fair elections.

And so Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a lead balloon that never took off because everybody could see that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by the same corrupt, incompetent, murderous and vote rigging thugs or be it with a new dictator and a few other musical-chair changes.

Zimbabwe is a failed state because it is a pariah state and as long as the country remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic and political change. How long can Mnangagwa continue to boast of developing and building Zimbabwe when the hospitals, power stations and the rest of the infrastructure Zanu PF inherited from the whites in 1980 are falling apart due to neglect whilst there is precious little of public value the regime has built.

The Zimbabwe Daily had a cartoon of a woman putting neglected ZESA powerlines to some use as drying lines for her washing. In the background is a large elections campaign poster with Mnangagwa promising to electrify the whole country!

Of course, Zanu PF will not win if the elections are free, fair and credible; no one will believe Zanu PF is building the country when all one can see is ruins of whatever the nation inherit from the whites in 1980! To stay in power Zanu PF has no choice but to rig the elections.

The goal of the sanctions is to force the Zanu PF to accept the need to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections, “behaviour change” as the American aptly put it. The sanctions must stay.

The sanctions are not going to force Zanu PF to implement the reforms, it is too late for that. Retaining the sanction will remind Zanu PF that the regime will be held to account if the 2023 elections are not free and fair; evidence on the ground points to the regime is rigging these elections. This time the regime must be denied political legitimacy if the elections are rigged.

If Zanu PF is denied political legitimacy then the country will be forced to have another GNU as happened in 2008. The difference is, this time the nation will appoint competent leaders who will implemented the reform and thus finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

"Zimbabweans are serial plan B people" Where is plan B if millions are sitting in the dark and starving? P Guramatunhu

 “Zimbabwe did not become a failed state overnight. The collapse of the country happened over a period of decades, starting as early as the 1980s,” wrote Malaika Mahlatsi in an article circulating in my social media group.

“Scholars like Llyod Sachikonye go further to argue that the collapse began during the liberation war (the Second Chimurenga) with the institutionalisation of violence within national liberation movements. In his book, WHEN THE STATE TURNS ON ITS CITIZENS, he argues that the structural violence that characterises Zimbabwe today, and which is responsible for the catastrophic challenges that the country is confronted with, was institutionalised as far back as the 1970s. He argues that this violence, and the impunity with which it was meted out, facilitated the Zimbabwe of a ZANU PF that reigns with a margin of terror.”

There is evidence to support Sachikonye’s assessment.

During the fight to end British rule in India, Mahatma Gandhi and his fellow Indian nationalists were constantly bombarded by demands to escalate the struggle from the none-violence to an all-out armed struggle. “What kind of leaders would the armed struggle throw up?” Gandhi argued. “Would these be the men and women we would like to rule independent India?”  

I think we, in Zimbabwe have given the answers to the two rhetorical questions Gandhi asked. In Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies, our war of independence, did throw up leaders who were tough enough to end white colonial rule in double quick time but at a great cost. The Zanu PF nationalists removed the white oppressors but only to install themselves as the new oppressors.

Yesteryear’s liberators have become today’s oppressors; a recurring theme in many independent African nations and human history.

Still, not all armed struggles have thrown up tyrants. South Africa, our next door neighbour waged an armed struggle to end apartheid and their struggle throw up visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela.

We in Zimbabwe certainly started our independence on the wrong foot in having corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF thugs, who did not have care about freedom, justice and human dignity of others and certainly had none of the visionary leadership qualities. 42 years after independence is reasonable time for us to have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship, especially given the depths of depravity and despair the regime has dragged us into.

Yes Zimbabwe’s war of independence did throw up corrupt and power hungry thugs; the worst that Gandhi and his fellow Indian nationalists could have imagined possible! So instead of the nation having to grapple with the post-independence challenges of making self-rule a success, Zimbabweans had to wrestle power, freedom and human dignity from the Zanu PF thugs first. Why has that process taken 42 years and counting?  

“One day, when the collapse of South Africa becomes absolute, and we can no longer conceal that we are in fact a sophisticated failed state, we are going to reflect, like Sachikonye did, not on where we fell but on where we stumbled. And one of the emerging themes of our collective reflection is going to be that the country began its descent when we stopped fighting for our most basic human rights when the ANC led government was trampling on them,” was Mahlatsi’s explanation.

“It starts with things like actually accepting loadshedding as a fact of our lives and organising our existence around it. We have become very dangerously accepting of misgovernance in our country. We have become people who have a plan B for everything - exactly like Zimbabweans.

“They have no hospital equipment, they will simply buy drips at a pharmacy and take them to hospital with them. Zimbabweans are serial plan B people.”

If Zimbabweans’ so-called plan B was a viable solution, worthy of the name plan B, then Zimbabwe would not be a failed state characterised by millions living in abject poverty. How many Zimbabweans can afford the drip and the health care services has all but collapse, there are qualified staff to fit the drip?  

Zimbabweans have resigned themselves to sinking deeper and deeper into poverty hopelessness and despair. As we speak, millions of Zimbabweans sitting twiddling their thumbs in the dark, Zimbabwe’s power cuts are 20 hours a day officially but for povo it is 20 days or more. They can’t sleep because they are hungry. Hunger and disease are no strangers in their homes, the dogs have stopped barking at them and the two imposers walk straight in without bothering about the usual formalities of knocking.

“Zimbabweans are serial plan B people!” Yeah right! Laying in the dark twiddling one thumbs and cannot even hear themselves think because of the rambling stomach is not exactly the image of one with a plan B, C or Z. But rather that on one at their wit’s end!

That’s right, Zimbabwe is a failed state because we have become a nation of people with no plan A, B, etc. A nation of people who cannot think. There, I have said it! Some one has to tell this nation some home truths we don’t want to hear!

No one can stop someone else thinking. And the contrary is equally true, no one can force someone else to think.

It is infinitely easier, to force the proverbial horse to drink than to force someone else to drink from the spring of knowledge, the prerequisite for rational thinking as contrast to noise from those devoid of common sense much less wisdom. You can lead some people to the Pierian spring, but you cannot make them to drink!!

Thinking is a mental process just as walking or talking is a physical process. The more the brain is exercised the better it will be at computing information and coming up with rational thoughts, plan A and B. The failure exercise brain will turn brain tissue into fat.

Zimbabwe is a failed state because we, Zimbabweans have again and again failed to grapple with the many challenges of life particularly the challenge of self-government brought about by independence. It is now 42 years after our independence and we are still failing to deliver something as basic as holding free, fair and credible elections because we have no clue what constitute free elections, in this day and space age!

At the heart of Zimbabwe’s failed state is our failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The nation is stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship because the regime has rigged elections to stay in power denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

There is no excuse why Zimbabweans have failed to implement the democratic reforms necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections for the last 42 years and counting. The nation had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and the chances were wasted.

MDC, who were tasked to implement the reforms failed to implement even one reform. Worse still, many Zimbabweans had no clue what the GNU was about, even now with the benefit of hindsight, and hence their failure to realise that MDC leaders sold out by failing to implement the reforms.

Indeed, MDC leaders now calling themselves CCC, continue to sell out by participating in flawed and illegal elections just to give Zanu PF legitimacy. And the people, in the blind ignorance continue to follow CCC like sheep to the slaughter!

Yes, the worsen economic crisis in Zimbabwe, the many nights spent in the dark listening to their rambling stomach, has left many Zimbabweans desperate for change. Many of them are participating in these elections oblivious of the reality doing so only gives Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate the dictatorship. Desperate people do desperate things. And it is most unkind, to say the least, to call this insanity plan B!

Mankind is a creature of rational think, those who have embraced, nurtured and cherished this talent have prospered and ripped a thousand-fold. Whilst those who would not think at all have blundered from pillar to post, repeating the same mistakes and paying dearly for it.

Zimbabwe is a failed state, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF thugs; aided and abetted by the coterie of equally corrupt, incompetent and utterly use opposition sell-outs because, we the people, have allowed them rule. We have failed to remove these thugs from power because we have discarded our thinking caps.

Our leaders are not just corrupt, they are the godfathers of corruption. "But who will guard the guards themselves!" W Mukori

 

The announcement that government will be installing 5 KVA solar powered kits at the homes of over 100 top government official including service chiefs “to cushion them and their families from ZESA loadshedding!” The announcements comes hardly a week after the nation learned of the US$ 500 000, 350 000 and 40 000 loans for ministers, deputy ministers and MPs respectively. There is no hope of stopping this lot from looting.

There are six key points that said about this latest looting scheme:

1)     Yes, it is the taxpayers who will pay the bill for the kits at the expense of neglected public projects like education and health care

2)     Yes, the installation will cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg at US$14 000 each nearly three times the open market value of US$5 000

3)     Yes, with the ruling elite taken care of, the power supply to the ordinary people will only get worse.

4)     And yes, there is more bad news, the 100 solar kit installations at public expense will swell tenfold in just a few months as the nation’s ruling elite and their cronies line up to claim a share of the loot! Both Zanu PF and CCC MPs are gleefully tenting their fingers, whispering EXCELLENT! They can’t wait to claim their share.

5)     There is no denying that Zimbabwe’s ruling elite entrusted with the important task of enacting the laws to ensure good governance and rule of law have themselves become corrupt. They are the godfathers of corruption.

6)     Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? :But who will guard the guards themselves? asked the Roman poet Juvenal, he was referring to marital fidelity. This has become the most relevant and urgent question of our generation. How we answer or fail to will define this nation’s fate!

Soon after independence, Mugabe surprised his cabinet by giving each one of them a Mercedes Benz limo to replace the Peugeot 406 Smith’s ministers used. The limos were not budgeted for nor had cabinet approval. They were a generous gift from Prime Minister Robert Mugabe to HIS cabinet ministers and deputy ministers. This kick started the patronage system that has remained to this day.

The patronage system, soon spread to MPs, top brass in the security services, civil servants, judiciary, parastatals, traditional leaders, etc., etc. It comes as no surprise that CEO, senior managers and the bloated board, all political appointees, at ZESA, for example, get very generous salaries and allowances and yet the nation is facing crippling power cuts!

The cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, MPs right down to the village heads who get US$ 50 pm bribe; are all expected to show their gratitude to the benevolent dictator through their blind loyalty to him and his ambition of retaining absolute power at all costs. Even at the height of the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre, one of the many dark chapters in post -independent Zimbabwe, cabinet and parliament remained doggedly silent and doggedly loyal to Mugabe.

“Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!” (You are all Mugabe’s concubines!) Margaret Dongo scolded her fellow Zanu PF ministers and MPs in sheer exasperation at their spineless grovelling to Mugabe’s dictatorial whims.

The nation had hoped that the election of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends would deliver the necessary democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Sadly, that was not to be; MDC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in 22 years of the political stage, including 5 years in the GNU.

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders just as readily as he had bribed his own Zanu PF friends before them. And the rest is history!

The first step in our search for a lasting solution to the challenge posed by Juvenal’s conundrum is the realisation that CCC leaders have given up the fight for reforms and free elections and are now just as corrupt and incompetent as the Zanu PF leaders. The very fact that MDC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in all 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, should have forced us by now to see MDC/CCC leaders for whom they really are – corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless.

We cannot entrust the important task of removing this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship to men and women who have already proven beyond doubt that they are themselves corrupt and incompetent.

To end the Zanu PF dictatorship all we need to do is implement the democratic reforms. Just because MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one reforms does not mean no one else can!    

"US$ 40k to MPs is loan and above board" - a bikini statement, revealing a lot but concealing the essential W Mukori

 

Prosper Mutseymi, CCC MP chief whip’s gallant and defiant denial the US$40 000 was a loan and not a bribe can best be described as bikini – revealed a lot but concealed the essentials. Let’s unpick it.  

"On Tuesday, the CCC hosted a parliamentary caucus convergence in Harare to look at things affecting Zimbabwe, we discussed the much-published US$40 000 loan granted to Members of Parliament (MPs). What I want to say is that the US$40 000 loan is above board and it's not a donation," said Mutseyami.

"The loan is, therefore, not a surprising Executive instrument, but one that went through due process of appropriation and it's provided for in the Constitution of the country and it's not a donation and it is above board."

Rumour has it that Mnangagwa wanted to give the US$500 000 and US$350 000 bribe to his ministers and deputy ministers and was forced to extend it to MPs shut them up! And the proposed bribes were approved by cabinet and sailed through parliament.

Of course, there is no constitution provision to allow bribes and corruption but then there is no constitutional provision to allow rigged elections, military coup, etc., etc. When the 2017 military coup happened – surprise! High Court Judge George Chiweshe said the coup was “justified, legal and constitutional!”

"Over the years, different loans have always been provided for Parliament. Most common of these loans have been vehicle loans of US$55 000 up to US$60 000 in some cases depending on the portfolio the honourable member holds," continued the CCC chief whip.

"Loans have always been repaid, where there have been defaults. Parliament has instituted legal proceedings and court records are public. In some cases, vehicles have been seized at tollgates like for myself, honourable Chalton Hwende and honourable Caston Matewu.”

Of course, he is being very economical with the truth! He knows that many of these loans are never repaid. A few years ago, parliament approved a bill writing off US$3 billion of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe unpaid loans to the ruling elite. Morgan Tsvangirai never paid back the US$4 million for the Highlands mansion. And Mutseyami should say how much of the car loan he, Hwende and Mtewu had repaid before they were recalled as MP!

“Parliament plays a critical role of making laws for the good order of Zimbabwe. However, as the third arm of the state, its most important function is that of holding the executive to account and more importantly demanding accountability over the use of Zimbabwe's resources,” argued Mutseymi, finally getting to the jest of the matter.

“Despite this important role, the executive has over decades systematically debased and weakened the role of parliament. Parliament has been underfunded and parliament has been treated as a constitutional inconvenience by an executive that is not accountable and is not prepared to be held to account.”

Of course, parliament is feeble and utterly useless as are all the other state institutions like Police, Judiciary, etc., etc. Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship in which the state president holds dictatorial powers and uses the patronage system, the bribes, to hold everyone beholden to him.

The people of Zimbabwe realised in the late 1990s that as long as Zanu PF continued to enjoy these dictatorial powers including the carte blanche powers to rig elections nothing will change. Nothing! The nation needed implement democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect now late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC/CCC friends into power on the promise the party would implement the democratic changes the nation was dying for.  They had their golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one reform because Mugabe saw to it that they were received all the trappings of holding public office including these bribes disguised as loans.  

If the good life had blinded the MDC leaders from the seriousness of their folly in failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU the political reality of Zanu PF blatantly rigging the 2013 elections brought them crashing back to earth. And yet, even then they would not do the right thing and boycott the elections because they were content with the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away as bait.

“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,” confessed 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.”

In an interview Isaac Mugabi in 2015 Tendai Biti too condemned the follow of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.

 “Look, you can't keep on participating in flawed electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very foolish for the opposition to continue legitimizing these sham elections which don't deliver. This country will go through a serious economic crisis in 2020 caused by Zanu PF. And yet, this is the only country where a government doesn't perform, it is encouraged by a super majority in parliament,” said Tendai Biti.

“So, you can't continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes where their hopes just get crushed.”

And yet that is exactly what these MDC leaders have been doing participating in elections so flawed that MDC failed to win power even after polling 73% of the votes in the March 2008 election. It is interesting to note that Tendai Biti attended the press conference addressed by Mutseyami and, no doubt, would not have cared to be reminded what he said in 2015!

The bottom line is Zimbabwe is a pariah state presided over by a dictator dolling out bribes to the ruling elite to buy their blind loyalty to his continued rule. People like Mutseyami, Biti, Coltart, Chamisa all know MDC wasted its golden opportunity to implemented reforms during the GNU and that without reforms the Zanu PF dictatorship will remain in power.

"It is nice to call US$40k to MPs a loan; it is a bribe" admitted Chamisa - his first tacit admission he too was bribed P Guramatunhu

Renemanyanga hariputirwi!” (The one whose defects stick out like horns cannot hide them forever. They will stick out!) so goes the Shona saying.

Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. For the last 22 years, they have portrayed themselves as the democrats; “Change Champion in Chief”, as his supporters have given to calling Chamisa; who will deliver the democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. The democratic façade, mask, is falling off to reveal the corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless up starts!

MDC leaders lost political credibility in 2013 when they failed to implement even one meaningful reform in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC leaders who had forced Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to agree to the raft of democratic reforms were so disappointed by MDC leaders’ pathetic performance during the GNU the regional body reverted to endorsing Zanu PF rigged elections in disgust. Many of the MDC’s western backers followed SADC and deserted the party in droves.

MDC continued to enjoy the support of ordinary Zimbabweans because they did not know what the GNU was about implementing the democratic reforms. Indeed, many did not know what the reforms are much less how they were going to be implemented, even now, with benefit of hindsight. And so, they never realised MDC leaders had sold out big time. How could they blame MDC leaders of failing to do something they still do understand!

The recent story that CCC and MDC A MPs were joining their Zanu PF colleagues in getting US$40 000 loans over and above MP’s generous salary and many equally generous allowances including the US$60 000 loan for a car; has forced the people to sit up!

“MPs work very hard and deserve to be rewarded. Beside by paying them well, this will stop them becoming corrupt!” some people have argued. This has worked in the past but not this time.

If the MPs worked hard and they number one task is to craft the necessary laws to guarantee the freedoms and rights of all the citizens, justice, peace, rule of law and to buttress the country’s economic prosperity. Then why is Zimbabwe a failed state, a pariah state, plagued by gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, and lawlessness?

The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the ticket the party will implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and thus end the pariah state, the mismanagement, etc., etc. These problems are still there because MDC leaders have joined Zanu PF in the lawlessness and looting.

Of course, the US$40 000 loan to the MPs was a bribe, one of the many bribes the MPs received from the Zanu PF regime to buy the lawmakers’ blind loyalty allowing the lawlessness and looting to continue unchecked. Nelson Chamisa was forced to agree, the loan was a bribe.

"To call it a loan is to be very nice; this is a bribe disguised as a loan, a donkey is a donkey, you cannot call a lion a cat," Chamisa admitted on twitter. He argued his CCC MPs not to accept the bribe.

A livid CCC legislator yesterday dismissed Mr Chamisa's threats as empty thunder, "because he is receiving donations from well-wishers every day, but the money is not accounted for because there is no accountability in the party," said a report in Bulawayo 24.

The truth is Chamisa is a hypocrite! He is pontificating about this loan being a bribe when he knows this is not only the first bribes these MPs have received but, worst of all, he is recipient of many such bribes himself. It was the very generous salaries and allowances, limos, the US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. from Mugabe that made the MDC leaders forget implementing reforms for the five years of the GNU. Not even the constant nagging by SADC leaders to implement reforms got MDC leaders to move an inch!

Ever since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC leaders have participated in the flawed elections knowing fully well that doing so will only give SADC the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship. Still, they have participated because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait.

It is nonsensical therefore that Chamisa should now ask the few CCC leaders who won the few gravy train seats to the US$40 000 loan, one of the benefits of being on the gravy train, now that many ordinary Zimbabweans have are finally wake up to the reality MDC/CCC leaders are corrupt and incompetent.

Now that the people of Zimbabwe are sitting up and paying attention, Chamisa will not only have to explain this US$ 40 000 bribe but more significantly why MDC failed to implement even one reform in 22 years and why the party is participating in these flawed elections.

The US$ 40 000 loan has led to the unravelling of many things MDC/CCC did not want to come out. And now the people can finally see Chamisa and company for the corrupt, breathtakingly incompetent and sell outs they are. Renemanyanga hariputirwi! 

CCC will win 2023 elections!" Need a reality check especially after 42 years of rigged elections! N Garikai

 

“Our motive is clear, we want to win the 2023 Presidential Election. Let it be known that Chigumba cannot stop the wave of change,” said CCC Task Force Committee member for communication, Stephen Sarkozy Chuma.

Wanting to win and actually winning are two different things. There is nothing to stop me saying I want to run 100 m in 10 seconds or even 200m in 10 seconds. What matters is the reality. I know with my pot-belly if I run 20m, forgot 100m, in 10 seconds I will be huffing and puffing!

A rational person will try a few time to run 100m and if their time is way off the 10 seconds mark will accept they cannot run 100m in 10 seconds. If a great athlete like Usan Bolt at his best just managed to run 100m in under 10 seconds it is just nonsense to claim one can run twice the distance, 200m, in 10 seconds.

The trouble with these CCC supporters is they are do not know the difference between fact and wishful thing, truth and reality, what they can and cannot do.

Zanu PF is rigging these elections and the evidence is there for everyone to see. ZEC has stubbornly refused to produce a verified voters’ roll, how can the elections be free and fair without something as basic as the voters’ roll. The regime is denying 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote because most of these voters are economic and/or political refugees and they blame Zanu PF for their plight. Zanu PF knows that and is cherry picking who can vote.

CCC’s flagship strategy of mass voter registration was dead in the water from the word go because we know from past experience that ZEC will make it near impossible for opposition supporters to register. And so it was no surprise that as of 30 May 2022, four years since the last election and a year to go before the 2023 elections, only 250 000 new voters had register. This is 4% of CCC’s own target to register 6 million new voters!

After 42 years of rigged elections one would think the penny has finally drop on the sheer futility of participating in these elections so flawed and illegal not even getting 73% of the votes was good enough to win, as the March 2008 vote showed.

Of course, the CCC leaders themselves know it is futile participating in these flawed elections as David Coltart confessed in his book.     

“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 (2023) elections,” wrote 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.”

The failure to agree a coalition was just a feeble excuse for participating. The truth is MDC leaders participated in the 2013 elections for the same reasons they had failed to implement even one reform during the GNU – greed (which Coltart admitted to above) and their breath-taking incompetence.

In any case, the four main MDC factions did form the MDC Alliance just before the 2018 elections. They all knew with not even one token reform implemented since 2013 elections, Zanu PF was rigging those elections too. And yet there was still no talk of boycotting those elections for the same reasons – incompetence and greed.

MDC/CCC have been participating in these elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.  At least there is something in it for the Chamisa and company; there is absolutely for the ordinary citizen to gained from this madness of perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship.     

Of course, it is insane to keep participating in elections so flawed and so illegal the only rational course of action is to boycott but to arrive at that decision one must necessarily be rational. Sadly, many of our people are NOT rational. Why anyone would participate in such flawed and illegal elections, especially after 42 years of rigged elections beggars belief? How can anyone not know what constitute free, fair and credible elections, in this day and age?

Both Zanu PF and CCC are conning the people into participating in flawed elections process for the political leaders’ selfish gain. And the voters are so naïve and gullible they don’t even know they are being short changed, even after 42 years of rigged elections.  

Universal suffrage should be a blessing, but in Zimbabwe it is clearly a curse particularly when both Zanu PF and CCC are not lifting a finger to educate the voters but taking full advantage of their ignorance instead.

MPs scrimmage for US$ 40 000 loan shows how dependent they are on dictator's benevolence 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 interest. 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.” Wrote the great Scottish Economist, Adam Smith, in his book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

In these two sentences, Adam Smith spelt out the essence of a health and functioning economy.

When Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980 the incoming Zanu PF government led by Robert Mugabe inherited a healthy, robust and functioning economy; the Biblical seven fat cows and seven fat ears of corn.

“When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, ² when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. ³ After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. ⁴ And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.” Genesis 41 verse 1 – 4.

Let’s just say in Zimbabwe, the seven ugly and gaunt cows emerged on 18 April 1980 and the started the business of devouring the seven sleek, fat cows.

Whilst Ian Smith had governed with an eye on the key Adam Smith key essentials of sound economics; Mugabe had his eyes on spending the nation into mass economic prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji” as Mugabe called it. At least, that was what he said in public.

Mugabe’s number one priority was to create an all power and very prosperous ruling elite with himself as the lord of the manor sitting at the apex of the pyramid pulling all the strings. He hatched his plan and put it into practise as soon as he got into office.

In an interview with Trevor Ncube, “Conversation with Trevor Simba Makoni”, Dr Simba Makoni, revealed how then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe surprised his ministers with new Mercedes Benz limos just a few months after getting into office. The limos were to replace the Peugeot 406 Smith had issued to ministers. The limos had not been budgeted for and did not even have cabinet approval. This was the start of the political patronage systemin which the beneficiaries paid back with blind loyalty to Mugabe!

Mugabe was a control freak, he had a say in the appointment of ministers, Police and Army generals, senior civil servants, heads of parastatals, etc. And all these chefs were appointed for their loyalty to Mugabe and not merit. Dr Makoni told Trevor how the culture of no expense spared in spoiling the chefs quickly spread.

It was “normal”, Dr Makoni explained, for ZESA, NRZ or some such parastatal to pay the CEO, senior managers, and the coterie of other political appointees hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay, cars, mansions and other allowances even when the company was failing to deliver core service, pay its bills including the meagre wages of the low-grade workers.

The political patronage system had everyone eating out of Mugabe’s hand like helpless puppies the man enjoy absolute power. All those around him were so fearful of him they did not dare question him even when he was utterly wrong, notably during the Gukurahundi years when murdered over 20 000 PF Zapu supporters in the quest to create a de facto one-party dictatorship.

On the economic front, the patronage system resulted in gross mismanagement and rampant corruption as it valued loyalty to Mugabe over merit. And it was these two cancers, the ugly and gaunt cows, that have destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy.

“Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!” (You are all Mugabe’s helpless concubines!) retorted Margaret Dongo to her fellow Zanu PF MPs, Ministers and the rest of the Zanu PF leaders in sheer frustration at how they all grovelled to Mugabe. A statement of fact which recalled, no doubt, always brought a grin of pride and satisfaction to the tyrant.

Zimbabwe had many opportunities to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship with the best coming during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC leaders had managed to force Mugabe to accept the need to implement democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life, denied by the dictatorship. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were tasked to implement the reforms. They failed to implement even one token reform in five years!

Mugabe, who had remained state President in the GNU, bribe the MDC leaders with generous salaries and allowances, Mercedes Benz limos for ministers, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. The MDC leaders kick reforms into the tall grass and were licking Mugabe’s hands like ever so grateful puppies, just as readily as their Zanu PF counterparts had done.

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train good-life, they will never rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU when asked why MDC was not implementing reforms. economy.

Zanu PF emerged out of the 2008 to 2013 GNU with all its dictatorial powers untouched. SADC leaders reverted to turning a blind eye to Zanu PF rigging the elections and grant the regime legitimacy in disgust at the MDC’s failure to implement even one reform.

Just to be absolutely certain the opposition participated in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal, Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats. A small price to pay for legitimacy!

The MDC leaders missed their chance to implement the reforms and have given up on the quest for free elections and good governance. They have paid lip service to demanding reforms, to please their naïve and gullible supporters when in reality they were content with the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait.

Mugabe would have remained life-President if it was not for his wife who pressured him to remove Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Lacoste friends so that she and her G40 faction could take over. On 15 November 2017, after 37 years of absolute power, Mugabe was forced to resign after military coup staged by Lacoste faction.

Mugabe was very bitter that he was forced to give up power, he had become addicted. He died of a broken heart, I guess, 6 September 2019, barely two after the coup.

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe he was cocksure he would revive the country’s comatose economy. His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra was a lead balloon that never took off because he failed to keep two key promises - to end corruption and to hold free elections.

For Mnangagwa or anyone for that matter, to end corruption and to hold free elections, he had to dismantle the Zanu PF patronage system. It was this that had kept Mugabe in power and removed him when he threatened many of the beneficiaries of the system with early retirement or worse.

By the same token it was the patronage system that had saved Mnangagwa from the life as a fugitive, he was on the run following his dismissal from his VP post on 5 November 2017, to make him state President. The same people who made him President would have him removed from office is he dared displease them by dismantling the patronage system.

And so, Emmerson Mnangagwa inherit the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship with the economy in total meltdown after decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The seven fat cows inherited in 1980 have been devoured years ago. The national economy has collapsed and so too have basic services such as health and education. 50 % of the people now live in abject poverty.

Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before, has all but thrown the ordinary citizens overboard as he is forced to cream-off the nation’s fast shrinking wealth to keep the patronage system going. The nation has been reverted by the revelation that he had approved a US$40 000 house or car loan for MPs. He was forced to extend the scheme to MPs after they found out he had approved US$ 500 000 and £50 000 loans to Ministers and deputy Ministers respectively. And now it is the ordinary citizens’ turn to complain at the extravagant waste when nation is failing to supply something as basic as clean water!

There is a Zimbabwe Daily cartoon of Mnangagwa with a US$40 000 bag of money at the end of a fishing line. There is do or die scrimmage of “opposition MPs” fight each other to grab the bag. Mnangagwa is sitting there with a smog grin on his face.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!

With the upcoming 2023 elections everyone would want to be on the gravy train and so the fight for elected position will be just as fierce in the opposition as in Zanu PF itself.

To entice the ordinary citizens to vote for the ruling party the bag of money is replaced with bag of food aid and or agricultural inputs. And just to be certain of electoral victory the party wields a large stick to punish those who dare to refuse to vote for the party.

Zimbabwe is an autocracy, not a democracy, and instead of being governed by sound economic policies and rule of laws we live by whims of a dictator.

In the next few weeks Zanu PF, CCC and the rest will be producing the 2023 Election Manifesto with the usual fanfare. An utter waste of time! What is the point of producing detailed economic policies when the elections are being rigged and those doing the rigging are not influenced by the manifesto!

“It is from the benevolence of the dictator that we are forced to expect our dinner but are starving because of the inherent criminal waste of human and material resources and the insatiable greed of the tyrant and ruling elite. It is utterly pointless addressing ourselves to their humanity or our suffering because all they care about is retaining absolute power at all costs. And the more dependent we are on the dictator the greater his power over us.” To paraphrase Adam Smith.

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess. The present situation in which half the population is living in abject poverty denied of basic services such as health care and quality education is socially and politically unsustainable. We cannot stop Zanu PF going ahead with these flawed 2023 elections but can see to it that the regime does not get political legitimacy by making sure the process is condemned.

If Zanu PF is denied legitimacy the country will be forced to go into a new GNU arrangement as happened in 2008. This time, we must ensure the reforms are implemented and the Zanu PF dictatorship is finally, finally, dismantled.