Al Jazeera Gold Mafia exposed Mnangagwa as a corrupt dunderhead. Charamba, threats will not put gene back W Mukori

 

The Al Jazeera Zimbabwe’s Gold Mafia documentary uncovered the details of gold smuggling and money laundering that has left all those involved stack naked with nowhere to hide. Zanu PF has hit the panic button!

The initial reaction by the Zanu PF regime was to dismiss the documentary as a just another Western inspired “regime change” propaganda to discredit the regime’s sanctions-busting stroke of genius. It is a hard sell to tell people the nation is prospering from the gold smuggling and money laundering when the economic reality tells of the few who have become filthy rich and wasteful and the millions living in abject poverty.

When President Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe in 2017, he promised “zero tolerance on corruption”. The Al Jazeera has him as the godfather of all those involved in the gold smuggling and money laundering. The man he appointed Zimbabwe’s first ambassador-at-large is the one using the diplomatic bag to transport dirty money!

You can fool some people all the time. You can fool all the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all the people all the time! The Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has uncovered so much in so much detail it is really impossible for the Zanu PF regime’s snip doctors to deny corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe. Impossible! And so they have changed tac, gag the nation.

"Al Jazeera is not a court of law before whose claims impart privileges to defamatory utterances,” tweeted George Charamba, President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, under the pseudonym Tinoedza Zvimwe.

“It is merely some weaponised channel.

“If you are reckless to enough repeat what it's phoney documentary defamatorily says hoping to plead ‘I heard/saw it on Al Jazeera', you will be sorry for yourself.

"Do not for once think there is no grit to act against reckless, defamatory and politically-motivated journalism. Faceless Twitter names egging you on will not be a factor when brickbats come. Be warned."

NewsDay contacted Charamba and he added, "Waverenga tweet yacho (You read the tweet). It's complete in its meaning and sense."

Mark my words and mark them well. I am not dismissing Charamba’s threats, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are ruthless thugs they carried out the 1983 to 1987 Gukurandi massacre in which they murdered over 20 000 innocent civilians and have murdered a further 20 000 more since to consolidate their strangle hold on power. The regime has a well-documented track record of rigging elections and, time and again, resorting to wanton violence in its desperate effort to gain and retain absolute power at all costs.

President Mnangagwa has clearly failed to revive the Zimbabwe economy since taking over from Mugabe after the 2017 military coup. The Al Jazeera documentary could not have come at a worse time for him, he is facing elections in five months. In their desperate effort to silence the corruption narrative and hang on to power, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will do anything.

Still, what cannot be denied too is the heavy price the nation has paid in allowing Zanu PF rid roughshod over us all. 43 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule have left the country a failed state, unable to provide even the most basic necessities of life such as education and health care, millions are living in abject poverty. The present economic and political situation is set to get worse not better.

One of the key revelations of the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary is that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are buffoons, “dunderheads” as one Mafia gangster aptly put it. It is bad enough that we have allowed dunderheads to ride roughshod over us denying us our freedoms, rights and human dignity for the last 43 years. Enough is enough! We must not allow ourselves to be outwitted by dunderheads ever again, even though they are the ones wielding the stick!  

In the 9 Oscar Award winning epic movie Gandhi, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, Mahatma Gandhi showed the world that even the rich, powerful and ruthless tyrants can be defeated. In one scene a calvary of horse mounted Police armed to the teeth charged Gandhi and his fellow peaceful demonstrators who were demanding a fair wage and justice. Instead of the marchers scattering in panic, they laid down. The horses reared up and would not tramp over the humans.

The Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary has revealed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is not only corrupt but that he is a dunderhead who is not fit to be Head of State. The gene is out of the bottle and cannot be put back. What is important now is the consequences of the gene being out of the bottle, the importance of making sure we have free elections and good governance.

The documentary has once again underlined the importance of implementing democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. The Gold Mafia are using the looted wealth to bankroll both Zanu PF and opposition to ensure the country remains in the hands of dunderheads.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Zanu PF has stepped up the threats to use violence to silence discussion on details of the gold smuggling and money laundering we must be subtle and never lose sight of the primary task of reforms and free elections.

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections. CCC will participate no matter how flawed and illegal the process gets because they are after the few gravy train seats on offer as bait. We can outsmart these dunderheads by refusing to participate in the flawed elections and denounce the process to deny Zanu PF political legitimacy. How can an election process so flawed there is no verified voters’ roll, rural voters are frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF, etc. produce a legitimate government!!!

Spectre of Zanu PF thugs rigging party primaries underlines folly of participating 2023 without even verified voters roll. W Mukori

 

“Matsotsi haagerani!” (Crooks do not cut each other’s hair!) so goes the Shona adage. Meaning it is one thing the crooks playing their mischief on the unsuspecting public, when one of them is the victim; they do not like it one bit!

All the losing candidates in the Zanu PF primary elections have complained the elections were rigged. One of the losing candidates could not even vote for himself because his name and many of his supporters were no longer on the membership register! He was shocked at just how many new members had joined the party in the last weeks before the primary!

Tales of Zanu PF blatantly rigging the national elections, including the use of wanton violence, are abound. During the Zanu PF elections there was the usual vote buying. Come the national elections, there will be a bigger stick and a small carrot.  

"We allowed people to lodge complaints, an ad-hoc special tribunal will be meeting today (yesterday) and outcomes of these complaints will affect results," said Mike Bimha, Zanu PF National Political Commissar.

Complaining at national election level has been a complete waste of time, since the ruling party Zanu PF has captured and corrupted the state institutions like ZEC, Police, judiciary, etc. It was laughable when Nelson Chamisa lodged a Constitutional Court challenge the 2018 presidential elections results. The same judiciary had just ruled the November 2017 military coup “justified, legal and constitutional”!  

Any day now, President Mnangagwa will dissolve parliament and announce the date for presidential, parliamentary and local council elections. The nation has not yet produced a verified voters’ roll, nor is it likely to do so now!

Indeed, ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, the country has never ever produced a verified voters’ roll. Never ever!

How can we expect to hold free, fair and credible elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll beggars belief! The Americans were reminding us of this, calling on ZEC to "polish" the voters roll and avail it to the public to guarantee credible polls.

"The consistent message that we provided to the government was that we are calling for peaceful elections. That was the issue that we raised with both the government and the opposition leaders. We call for political leaders to come out and call for peace during and after the elections," Robert Scott, USA deputy assistant in the Bureau of African Affairs, reminded Zimbabweans.

"They should disavow any of their members who resort to violence instead of a peaceful exchange of ideas, transparent elections which include polishing the voters roll, accrediting long-term international and local observers and inclusive elections that include allowing the media to report freely, and the civil society organisations."

This is not the first time the American have called for free and fair elections nor are they the only ones to do so. The EU, Commonwealth, SADC and many others have done so but all to no avail. It was none other than SADC who proposed and were the guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) whose primary purpose was implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.

In June 2013 SADC leaders made a last-minute bid to get the democratic reforms implemented before the elections. “If you participate in the elections, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders in Maputo in 2013. As we know, their warning fall on deaf ears and, in disgust, SADC leaders have ever since endorsed Zanu PF rigged elections granting the party legitimacy.

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, Zanu PF leaders have always believed they have the right to rule the country by right of conquest; they are the ones who fought and defeated the white colonial government. Robert Mugabe and his cronies had their way, they would have imposed a de jure one-party state but had to settle for a de facto one-party state instead. They have maintained their iron grip on power all these last 43 years by rigging the elections; period.

The only time Zanu PF did not enjoy absolute power was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when SADC refused to recognise the party’s election victory because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence. Being asked to share power with Morgan Tsvangirai was the most humiliating time in Mugabe’s whole political career – up to that point. (Worse time was when he was booted out of office in the 2017 military coup!)

Mugabe had always assumed that SADC will turn a blind eye to his election shenanigans and grant his regime legitimacy. When SADC refused to endorse his 2008 election victory, it was a really shock to him. He had never thought SADC would dare to hold him to political account.  

Mugabe thanked his lucky stars that MDC leaders turned out to be so hopeless corrupt and incompetent they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU. And so Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU with all its dictatorial power untouched. Still he was shrewd enough to scrap the one-party state ethos and replace it with a façade of Zimbabwe as a multi-party democracy. All he had to do was to bribe the opposition to make sure they participated in the elections no matter how flawed and illegal the process got. SADC leaders have obliging reverted to turning a blind eye to Zanu PF election shenanigans as long as the opposition participated.

And so Zanu PF will ignore the call to produce a verified voters’ roll, to free the media, etc., etc. because the party is confident of two things:

1)     That the opposition will participate in these elections in numbers regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be.

 

2)     That SADC will endorse the election process regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be. SA’s ruling ANC government has already said it would not permit regime change in Zimbabwe (presumably, regardless how flawed and illegal the election happened to be). It is sweet music to the Zanu PF leaders’ ears!

The task of implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections has never been more urgent than it is right now with the country in a serious economic and political mess. 43 years of the Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis another rigged elections to give the regime five more years of this chaos and human suffering is unthinkable.

We cannot stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections, it is too late to do it. What we can and must do is make sure that this time, Zanu PF does not get political legitimacy by:

a)     Denouncing the electoral process for failing to produce a verified voters’ roll, no free media, denying 3 million in the diaspora or 37% of voters the vote, etc. How can such a flawed and illegal process produce a legitimate government!

 

b)     Denounce the opposition for not only selling out by failing to implement the democratic reforms and by insisting on participating in flawed elections out of greed and to give the flawed election some modicum of credibility. How can discredited opposition give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

 

c)     SADC election observers must, like all the other election observers stick to their task of judging whether the elections process is free, fair and credible to internationally accepted democratic elections norms. To judge rigged elections as “substantial free and fair” to stop regime change or to punish the incompetent opposition is totally unacceptable particularly since it is the ordinary people who are paying dearly for the erroneous judgement.

"Zanu PF primaries were utter fiasco for ED" says Mliswa. ED's turn to sleep with one eye open Wilbert Mukori

 

If one, Right Honourable Temba P Mliswa, MP for Norton, is to be believed, then the Gold Mafia is certainly bigger then Zanu PF and they are the ones behind President Mnangagwa’s humiliating defeats in on going Zanu PF elections. No less than 30 Mnangagwa loyalists including seating MPs and ministers have lost the Zanu PF parliamentary primary elections.

Zimbabwe has 210 MPs and as a rule of thumb Zanu PF has been giving away 1/3 of the seats or 70 seats to entice the opposition to participate and maintain the façade Zimbabwe is a healthy multi-party democracy. This is important for the party to get political legitimacy.

So, losing 30 seats to a rivalry Zanu PF faction will rob Mnangagwa of the 2/3 majority and if the 30 joined up with the opposition and are joined by 11 more, Mnangagwa faction will lose its majority.

Besides the emergence of a strong Zanu PF faction could divide the presidential vote with faction supporters voting for Zanu PF MP and opposition presidential candidate. This happened in 2008 with operation “Bhora musango!” resulting in Mugabe losing heavily to Tsvangirai in the March 2008 vote, as Mnangagwa will know only too well.

“#BREAKING-The current Zanu PF primary elections have been an utter fiasco of manufactured winners and use of illegal parallel structures. At the centre of the mess is the Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ) led by Deputy Director of CIO Rtd Brigadier Tapfumaneyi.” Announced Mliswa in a string of tweets.

“FAZ has been pushing for former G40 members to be organically voted into the ZANU PF system through these elections. The ultimate output will be a body of MPs and Senators that are anti-ED. There is no transparency in the elections at all.

“Tapfumaneyi previously approached many G40 members to come and join FAZ and some, like Kasukuwere, refused. However, the agenda was not dropped. It has continued and can be seen through the sheer madness that is the current primaries.”

Most, if not all, losing candidates in Zimbabwe elections always claim that the elections was rigged and in most cases they will be right too. They will know of cases ranging from vote buying the more serious cases of tampering with the voters’ roll, intimidation and violence. Politics in Zimbabwe has become such a dirty game it is little wonder only season thugs play it!

Mary Mliswa, Temba’s sister was one of the losers of the primary elections and it is tempting to dismiss Temba’s renting as soar grapes but that would be to miss the point. The point being that Zimbabwe politics have become such a dirty and chaotic game in which outsiders, the gold Mafia, are the puppeteers and the Zimbabwean politicians, from both sides of the political divide are the puppets on the string. The puppets limbs and torso are flying in direction in the most vigorous dirty dance routine to the rancorous laugher of the Mafia!  

No Temba Mliswa did not leave Nelson Chamisa out of this. “The reason why Chamisa has remained confident about the 2023 elections is that he is working with FAZ which is run by the CIO. He doesn't need to do much as FAZ is already strategising from within Zanu PF.”

“The problems have been a long time coming and I have pointed this out before. FAZ has actually received more money than the actual CIO. It is being taken care of more than the CIO personnel which should be worrisome for those in the system,” continued Mliswa.

It really does not matter who is whipping Mnangagwa; is it G40, VP Chiwenga or CCC. What matters is Zimbabwe’s politicians are fighting each other like wild cats and it is the Mafia who are bankrolling FAZ, all the Zanu factions and CCC who are benefiting from the chaos and confusion.

Lest some people should forget; in 2016 the late Robert Mugabe fell out with the Diamond Mafia and cancelled their carte balance looting licences and kick the lot out including the Chinese. Before the year was out his wife Grace was talking of how the dictators was living inconstant fear of a coup.

“Baba vanovata rimwe ziso rakasvinura!” (Mugabe is sleeping with one eye open!) Well on 15 November 2017 he must have had the lazy eye open because he, supposedly, filed to see the coup plotters until it was too late to stop them!

The 2017 coup happen soon after the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander C Chiwenga’s return from China. He was the head of the military coup. The Chinese company got its diamond looting licence back soon thereafter! Historic documents will fill in the gaps and cross the ts.

The only time when the Mafia godfathers were truly worried they might lose their strangle hold on their Zanu PF puppets was during the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU). In his desperate effort to retain political power Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies had certain over played their hand with the blatant cheating and, worse still, the wanton violence that followed.

The Mafiosi heaved a sigh of relief when at the end of the GNU not even one meaningful democratic reform had been implemented. The five years of bribing and pampering the MDC leaders had paid off. The pampering has continued post the GNU to maintain the façade Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning multi-party democratic country.

The Al Jazeera documentary has not just exposed the extend of the gold looting in Zimbabwe but most important of all the sheer naivety and breath-taking incompetence of the Zanu PF government especially of President Mnangagwa himself. Only a village idiot, not a statesman much less Head of State, would appoint third grade conman like Uebert Angel ambassador-at-large!

Has Zimbabwe’s Mafia decided Mnangagwa is damaged goods and are moving in to remove him? Is the humiliating defeat of the Mnangagwa loyalists the first telling blows before the Mafia moving in to deliver the coup de grace?

My primary concern is what we, ordinary Zimbabweans, want? We need to implement the democratic reforms the 2008 to 2013 GNU was tasked to implement a.s.a.p. It is the only sure way to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Make the country’s political leaders democratically accountable to the people and we will sever the puppet string the Mafia are using to control our politicians!

“I will be writing a letter to the international community outlining how FAZ is a CIO organisation playing being an NGO. That's why they have been against the real NGOs, because they have their own outfits created to subvert perceived enemies,” continued Temba Mliswa in his twitter monologues.

Yes, do that Temba! He is a Mnangagwa loyalists and must be worried sick what will happen to him lot if Mnangagwa is to booted out of State House!

He never imagined that happening until now. He knows the Mafia are after Mnangagwa and they will dispose of him with the same indifference as shown Mugabe if not worse!

Meanwhile, it is election time and the Mafia have their Zimbabwe’s puppet politicians, across the political divide, dirty dancing as if their very lives depend on it and, in this winner takes all, it does! It is Mnangagwa’s turn to sleep with one eye open!

"One thing I like about Zanu PF, gold Mafia is punishing those who voted for it too" sniggered some. W Mukori

 

The Al Jazeera “Gold Mafia: Laundry Service” of the looting of Zimbabwe’s gold has forced many Zimbabweans to sit up and pay attention. In my WhatsApp group there is a photo of a couple sniggering with the caption “One thing I like about Zanu PF anorwadzisa neakaivhotera!” (Zanu PF is punishing even those who voted for them!)

Zimbabweans have a sense of humour but in this case the joke is on us. We think we are holding the thick end of the whip when, in reality, we are at the business end!

The art of rigging the elections is to do it in such way the electorate always, always, believe their vote counts regardless how flawed and illegal the process gets. But it helps if the said electorate are so naïve and gullible they believe anything the regime says even when their own eyes tell them otherwise! And Zimbabweans must be some of the most naïve and gullible people on earth!

The 2008 Zimbabwe elections were a watershed election in that the whole world learnt the full extend of Zanu PF’s vote rigging powers. “Kuzvionera pamhiro sefodya!” as one would say in Shona. MDC won 73% of the vote in the March 2008 vote, according to the late Robert Mugabe’s Freudian slip.

SADC, the regional body, refused to recognise Zanu PF as the legitimate winner and wanted the country to implement democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. It was SADC that proposed the 2008 to 2013 GNU and gave it the principal task to implement the democratic reforms. And when SADC realised that no meaningful reforms had been implemented, they wanted the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented.

It is disappointing that the majority of Zimbabweans have remain ignorant of the primary purpose of the GNU was to implement reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging elections. They continue to pretend elections are free, fair and credible and Zanu pF has the democratic mandate of the majority. They are sniggering at the majority who are keeping Zanu PF in power. In the March 2008 vote it was MDC who garnered 73% of the votes and yet Zanu PF claimed victory. Since when has 27% trumped 73%?

The sniggering Zimbabweans should have realised that it was MDC leaders’ responsibility to implement the democratic reforms. And if they were paying attention to the Al Jazeera documentary they would have learned why MDC leaders not only sold out by failing to implement reforms but, worst of all, continue to sell out to this day by participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.

 In the Al Jazeera documentary “Gold Mafia: laundry service”, Kamlesh Pattni, alias Brother/Pastor Paul, a Kenyan of Indian descend boasts of how he help President Arap Moi of Kenya, a notorious dictator, survive by buying off his political opponents and critics using the loot from his gold laundering activities. Pattni left Kenya and has been plying his gold looting skills in Zimbabwe on behalf of Mugabe and then Mnangagwa.

Of course, Brother Paul has helped Mugabe and now Mnangagwa survive by buying off Zanu PF’s opponents and critics. MDC/CCC leaders’ failure to implement even one token reform during the GNU and their stubborn insistence in participating in flawed elections is not only because they are breathtakingly incompetent. They are not whom we think they are! We think they are opposition when they are Zanu PF in all but name!

In the 2018 Zimbabwe elections the EU deployed a 245 strong Election Observer Team, the biggest such team. “Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party. Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Observer Mission final report.

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

The EU Observer Mission made 23 recommendations to ensure future elections were free, fair and credible. Not even one of these recommendations have seen the light of day. Not one!

Both Zanu PF and MDC/CCC have completely ignored all efforts to get the recommendations implemented before the 2023 elections. Indeed, Zanu PF’s dismissive arrogancy to born out of the knowledge that Zimbabwe’s opposition would never take a decisive position on the matter – the same dismissive arrogance Zanu PF showed throughout the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Proof that Kamlesh and his fellow gold Mafia, diamond Mafia are the ones helping Zanu PF “survive”.

Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections. CCC are participating for the sake of the few gravy train seats on offer as bait. And the many ordinary Zimbabweans are participating because they are naïve and gullible enough to believe Zanu PF’s claim elections are free and or believe CCC’s oxymoronic nonsense the party can win rigged elections. Frankly, it is pointless for EU or any other observers to attend the elections because nothing much will change from 2018 elections!

Like it or not MDC/CCC leaders will never ever implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Never ever! We are well and truly stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship and, to any thinking Zimbabwean out there, this is no laughing matter!

"Gold Mafia is bigger than Zanu PF" says Al Jazeera. The tail is wagging the dog out of spite! W Mukori

 “Gold Mafia Episode 1: Laundry Service” will be aired on Al Jazeera TV tonight Thursday 23 March 2023, an advance version was already circulating on the social media.

There are six take home points from Episode 1:

1)     The gold smuggling was sometimes as a foreign currency earning and sanctions busting scheme. Zimbabwe is free sell gold and be paid in foreign currency on the international market and any problems it faced selling gold will be the same selling diamonds or whatever. A lot of the foreign currency used to pay for the gold in dirty money and the lack of proper records, checks and balance have encouraged this. Corruption is rampant and once again sanctions are being used as a feeble excuse and scapegoat.

 

2)     The documentary producers estimated the country gold industry was worth US$2 billion per year and 80% of is lost to gold smugglers in which the gold mafia, the gold dealers and their political enablers the ruling elite, rack the lion’s share of the proceeds, the middle men and panners get small change and the state gets nothing!  at all. It is what the gold dealers have been doing with their loot that is particularly worrisome!

 

3)     Kamlesh Pattni, alias Brother (or Pastor) Paul, a Kenyan of Indian descent, is heard boasting in the documentary of how he helped President Arap Moi “survive” politically by using the fortune he amassed laundering Kenya’s gold (most of which looted from DRC). He used the looted wealth to bribe Moi’s political opponents and critics. When there was finally regime change in Kenya, Pattni emigrated to Zimbabwe and has plied his gold laundering services for the benefit Mugabe and now Mnangagwa. Of course, he and his fellow gold dealers have and are playing their part in helping Zanu PF “survive”.

 

4)     When Morgan Tsvangirai failed to get even one meaningful democratic reform implemented in five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU people attributed it to the MDC leaders being breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. Many thought they had learned their lesson especially when the likes of Tendai Biti and David Coltart public admitted to the folly of participating in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. But when MDC leaders including Biti and Coltart participated in the 2018 elections knowing fully well that doing so would only give Zanu PF legitimacy and contrary to their own condemnation of the act, it was clear Zanu PF controlled not just state institutions like ZEC and the Police but the opposition body politic too!

 

5)     Uebert Angel, self-proclaimed prophet, was appointed Zimbabwe’s “First Ambassador at large, assigned to promote Zimbabwe brand” by President Emmerson Mnangagwa himself. Al Jazeera called him “Diplomatic Mafia” because he was offering his diplomatic bag to ferry dirty money from one country to the next. Angel “prophesied” that Mnangagwa would win 2018 elections and 2023 elections! This is more than just a prophesy, it’s the gold mafia flexing their humongous financial muscle.

 

6)     “The gold Mafia is bigger than the government, bigger than any of the authorities,” boasted one gold dealer. As much as leaders like Emmerson Mnangagwa would like to believe they are the ones controlling the gold Mafia and governing Zimbabwe, it is the Mafia who are calling the shots. Indeed one Mafia member dismissed VP Chiwenga as a “dunderhead”! The truth is without implementing the democratic reforms first holding elections will never deliver any meaningful political change because the Mafia will use their financial muscle to keep the dunderheads in power.

The Al Jazeera documentary has revealed the extend of corruption in Zimbabwe today is not only deep rooted, the rot has spread to every segment of society, but worst of all the Mafia thugs employed by the ruling elite to do the looting have surpassed the employers, they are now the masters. The tail is wagging the dog and, worst of, out of spite!  

We must condemn the 2023 elections now, without having not having to wait for predetermined outcome, and demand the setting up of a new GNU tasked to implement all the democratic reforms. We need to reset our political system because nothing of value will ever come out of the present system that is rotten to the core!

"We have learned the GNU lessons!" insist Chamisa. Would not be participating in flawed elections for umpteenth time! W Mukori

 It is bad enough that we should find ourselves ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs whose only priority is to secure absolute power and retain it at all cost. Of course, they know that in securing absolute power for themselves they have ridden roughshod over the ordinary people’s freedoms and rights, hopes and dreams. They can see the consequences of Zimbabwe as a failed nation in the country’s failure to provide basic services such as clean running water, education and health care. Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans, 49% of the population and rising, are living in abject poverty.

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF ruling elite and their cronies can see the tragic human suffering brought about by their failed leadership and they don’t care!

What makes our situation a double tragedy is that the men and women the people have entrusted the important task of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship, the MDC/CCC opposition, have not only turned out to be corrupt and incompetent but, to crown it all, incapable of learning from their own mistakes. MDC/CCC will never ever deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for because even when would say “Surely they must have finally learned the lesson!” They have again and again shown that they have not learned.

The primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU) was to implement the raft of democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship including the regime’s carte blanche powers to rig elections. Of course, the task of implementing the reforms was left to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, naturally. One did not expect Zanu PF to reform themselves out of office.

It is one of the darkest episodes in Zimbabwe’s history that not even one token reform was implemented in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. It has been ten years now since the end of that GNU with the country well and truly stuck because we cannot remove Zanu PF from offices because the party still enjoys its draconian powers to rig elections, the need for a new GNU so we can implement the reforms would be obvious to all, especially to the errant MDC/CCC leaders.

"We learnt our lesson, there won't be any GNU before or after elections. Let us win resoundingly in local authorities where we will restore Executive Mayors, let's have parliamentary majority in the coming elections,” replied Nelson Chamisa when the subject of a new GNU was raised.

"As a new political party, we performed exceptionally well in recent by-elections clinching 89 out of 132 wards which were being contested while for MPs we managed to win 19 out of 28 up for grabs. That was an indicator we can win all the way up to president."

Here we go again. How can we make any meaningful progress if we cannot even agree on historic facts, reality and truth!

The watershed 2008 elections established that Zanu PF had captured and corrupted the country’s state institutions such as ZEC, the Police, judiciary, etc. They were Zanu PF departments in all but name as they were now reprogrammed to keep Zanu PF in power at all costs. The 2008 to 2013 GNU offered the nation the golden opportunity to sever the umbilical cords giving Zanu PF ownership and control of ZEC, etc.

It is infuriating that Chamisa claims to have learned the GNU lessons when he has not:

1)     Chamisa and his MDC friends sold out by failing to implement even one token reform when they had the golden opportunity to do so during 2008 to 2013 GNU.

 

2)     Ever since the GNU debacle, they have dragged the nation into flawed elections only to give Zanu PF legitimacy, by falsely claiming to have strategies to win these Zanu PF Mafiosi rigged elections. They are at it again this year; they claim they will win big elections in which there are no verified voters’ roll, Zanu PF has cherry picked to deny three million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, etc. Zimbabwe cannot afford to grant Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the dictatorship even another five more years.

 

3)     Chamisa and company have been too corrupt and incompetent to implement even one democratic reform but we can be certain they will appreciate the services of the corrupted ZEC officials whose loyalty is not to Zanu PF per se but to the highest bidder! Even if CCC or some other party was to end the Zanu PF dictatorship this year or in the future; without implementing the democratic reforms the spectre of rigged elections will hang over the nation like the sword of Damocles.

There is a mountain of evidence already than Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections, to stay in power in the face of the worsening economic meltdown, President Mnangagwa has no choice but to rig the elections. Still, the mountain of evidence of the rigging is now so big he cannot ignore it nor can SADC.

If SADC refused to endorse Zanu PF’s election victory in these 2023 elections and thus grant Zanu PF political legitimacy, as they did in 2008; then Zimbabwe will need a new GNU arrangement. An outcome President Mnangagwa dreads because even he must know that whoever presides over this new GNU, be it SADC or the UN, they will want the democratic reforms implemented without failure this time.

The number one lesson of the 2008 GNU that everyone including Zanu PF ruling elite have learned is that it was a treasonous act of betrayal to fail to implement the democratic reforms. It is not surprising that Chamisa and company have either failed to learn the lesson and/or are in denial. Not that it matters; MDC/CCC have proven they are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless; they are now irrelevant.

Chief Fortune Charumbira’s suggestion that Zanu PF and CCC should meet and agree to cancel 2023 elections and go into a GNU arrangement is not as flippant as it first appears. Zanu PF would rather mark its own homework, condemn the 2023 elections and not have to wait for SADC leaders to do it. By pre-empting SADC’s judgement Zanu PF can claim the election is still a Zimbabwe internal affairs matter into which the regional body should play no part. Zanu PF will have a fighting chance to cherry pick GNU partners and, most important of all, to make sure at the end of the new GNU few, if any, reforms are implemented.

To a simpleton like Chief Charumbira if Mnangagwa and Chamisa agreed cancel elections and go into a GNU then that is the end of the matter. President Mnangagwa must know by blatantly rigging these elections was running the risk of being caught and called out as happened in 2008. But for him to brazenly cancel the elections, just weeks before the elections, will leave no one in any doubt he did so because he knew he going to lose! Not even ANC government that has vowed “to stop regime change in Zimbabwe!” would want to endorse such a kamikaze act political banditry.

Zanu PF has held Zimbabwe to ransom for 43 years and counting. No one has the divine right to rule, given political will and resolve the Zanu PF dictatorship can finally be dismantled. Enough is enough! 

Charumbira argues unity to avoid unnecessary elections. Buffoon is incapable of rational thinking! W Mukori

 

Zimbabwe's National Council of Chiefs and Pan-African President, Senator Fortune Charumbira, is a buffoon and when has a buffoon ever said anything that is constructive and rational. And so, it should come as no surprise that he once again made a complete ass of himself at Harare Mayor’s mother’s funeral. The video of his speech has gone viral.

The trouble with our failed political system is its knack to promote buffoons way above their level of competence and give the platforms and a microphone so that their nonsense is heard far and wide!

The core message of Chief Charumbira’s message was that Mnangagwa and Chamisa should meet and agree on a power sharing arrangement so the country can be spared the unnecessary expense of elections and all the turmoil and violence that entails. The buffoon was way out of his depth:

1)     Yes, democratic elections are a very expensive affair but the alternative of a autocracy or worse still, a dictatorship, has always resulted in economic stagnations and political oppression. And when the long overdue change is finally come in autocratic nations, it is violent and disruptive.

 

2)     Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence it is Zanu PF that has been behind the political turmoil and violence. In the1980 elections the main thrust of Zanu PF’s campaign message was that if the party did not win the elections the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the war not knowing they would never ever have peace. Zanu PF wage the Gukurahundi massacre for the express purpose of forcing PF Zapu to sign the Unity Accord and pave the way for the imposition of the de facto one party dictatorship and the rest is history.

 

3)     Zimbabwe has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections for 43 years and counting but only because Zanu PF would not allow the people to exercise their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country for fear the party will be rejected in a free vote. Zanu PF has held the nation to ransom all these last four decades and the years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and Mafia style lawlessness have left the country a failed state and in economic ruins. Millions of our people are living in abject poverty and the future is grime.

 

4)     We need to end Zimbabwe’s failed political system and the solution is staring us in the face – implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Free and fair elections are not just a fundamental right, they are the very essence of good and accountable government – the one thing Zimbabwe has been dying for ever since independence in 1980. Only a seasoned buffoon like Chief Charumbira would advocate for the status quo!

"Forget elections, go out in the street!" Mapfumo argue. To protest what, it's CCC who are hell bent on participating in flawed elections P Guramatunhu

 

"Zimbabweans must understand who they are really dealing with, [President Emmerson] Mnangagwa took over power from (Robert) Mugabe in an unconstitutional manner and he will never let go of that power simply through a ballot box," said Mukanya, Thomas Mapfumo.

"People in Zimbabwe must wake up and smell the coffee, forget about elections, go out in the streets.

"We have seen this happen in other countries such as Egypt and that's the only way you can remove this leadership, which has dragged the country into poverty."

He is only partially right and being partially right in this case is even worse than being totally wrong because it, invariably, sops you searching for the right solution!

Mukanya is right, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will never be removed from office through elections that are so flawed and illegal there is no verified voters’ roll, Zanu PF cherry-pick the electorate by denying 3 million in the diaspora the vote or 37% of the electorate, it has reduced rural voters into medieval serfs who are frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF, etc., etc. Of course, it is insane to participate in such a flawed and meaningless election process especially when doing so gives the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

What is really infuriate here is that the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect the MDC leaders into power for the express purpose of bringing about democratic changes, as the party name implied. Sadly, the MDC leaders have not only failed to implement even one meaningful reform in 23 years, including 5 years in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. But to add salt to injury, MDC leaders are the ones now giving Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in these flawed election. It is not that the MDC leaders do not know all these things; they do!

 “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 in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

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

David Coltart went one step further and explained why the MDC leaders participated in the 2013 elections even though they knew the process was flawed and that doing so would give Zanu PF legitimacy.

“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.”

MDC leaders went on to participate in the flawed 2018 elections for the same reasons as in 2013 – incompetence and greed.

Tendai Biti and David Coltart are Vice President and Treasurer General in the Chamisa led CCC party, a rebranded MDC, and the party is hell bent on participating in these flawed elections for the same idiotic reasons – incompetence and greed.

If the truth be told Mukanya, you should be asking the people of Zimbabwe to wake up to the political reality that the MDC/CCC has given up the fight for reforms and free elections. It is shocking that many Zimbabweans still have no clue what the 2008 to 2013 GNU was about implementing the democratic reforms and MDC leaders sold out. Even now with the benefit of hindsight many still have no clue.

The ordinary Zimbabwean has not benefited in any way from participating in these flawed elections. Indeed by giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship, they have given the regime time to drag the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth. Still many Zimbabweans have participated in these flawed elections because they were again and again conned into believing MDC/CCC has winning in rigged election strategies. How can anyone let alone a whole nation be so naïve, gullible and downright insane!

It is all very well asking the people to wake up, forget the elections and go out on the street to protest. Protest what exactly? That the elections are flawed, so flawed the whole process is a mockery; when it was none other than the MDC/CCC leaders, the individuals povo have risked life and limb to elect into power, who have sold out on reforms and are keeping Zanu PF in power! That Zanu PF is rigging these elections when we, the people are the ones participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy because we do even have the common sense reject MDC/CCC’s oxymoronic nonsense of winning rigged elections, especially after 43 years of the Mafiosi Zanu PF rigged elections!

If Zimbabweans participate in these 2023 elections in numbers because they are foolish enough to believe Chamisa’s claim CCC will “win big” regardless of all the evidence Zanu PF is blatantly rigging; then the nation must accept the consequences of their folly. People have been warned not to participate countless times. Having given Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in the flawed elections people must know that they cannot remove the regime from office by staging street protest!

The people should be demanding the implementation of the reforms to ensure free and fair elections. Their first port of call in this is to stop the MDC/CCC selling out of implementing the reforms. The second, for the people themselves to stop participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. With the first and second steps done, only then can the people go out on the street to demand democratic reforms. The difference here is subtle but, nonetheless, very important; it is insane to protest against flawed elections when it is CCC and ourselves when it is our greed and stupidity respectively that is keeping Zanu PF in power.   

"A new great Zimbabwe is possible!" says Chamisa. Not as long as paying lip service to reforms. W Mukori

 

Nelson Chamisa, President of CCC, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party penned a three pages long article – a departure from his usual two paragraph tweets – affording a very rare glimpse into what’s cooking in the hermetically sealed thus impermeable to reason and logic clay pot!

“A new great Zimbabwe is possible!” proclaimed Chamisa.

“In a few months, Zimbabweans head to the polls to decide on their future.

“There have been many elections before, all of which have not brought the change we desire. So, I understand why, for many of our people, voting may seem like a futile exercise. However, history tells us that nothing lasts forever.”

Stop!

I am short sighted. I have been to the Optician and wear proscription glasses to give all round good vision. Of course, it would foolish of me to have done nothing about it in the hope that if I suffered long enough my eye sight would get better because “nothing lasts forever”!

We know the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, political chaos and the tragic and easily avoidable human suffering and deaths of the last 43 years are gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and Mafia style lawlessness fostered on the nation by this Zanu PF dictatorship. The nation has failed to remove these Zanu PF thugs from power because they have rigged elections started with the 1980 elections!

We know the disease – the Zanu PF dictatorship – and have the cure – implement the democratic reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends on the understanding that once in power they would implement the democratic changes necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections; as the party name implied, Movement for Democratic Change. After 23 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, there has not been even one meaningful democratic change implemented and hence the reason why we are still stuck with a vote rigging Zanu PF!

If there was ever any doubt that there could be any meaningful elections in Zimbabwe without implementing democratic changes first, the watershed 2008 elections made the doubts disappear like mist under the morning African sun! So, why did MDC leaders fail to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so?

Chamisa and his MDC friends know that it is futile to keep participating in these flawed elections and, worse still, that doing so only serves 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 in a 2015 interview with Isaac Mugabi.

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

In the three page article, Chamisa acknowledges the importance of reforms before the 2023 elections.

“Through our representatives in Parliament, we have crafted an Electoral Amendment Bill, which is now before Parliament. This Bill carries our demands for electoral reforms: respect for the right to vote, including implementation of the diaspora vote; accessible voter registration; a credible voters' roll; the security of polling material; the security of the vote and clear dispute mechanisms; independent and credible polling staff; transitional mechanisms; credible results management system, including allowing parallel voter tabulation; and demand for media reforms,” he wrote.

“These reforms will ensure that our country finally lays to rest the ghost of disputed elections, allowing us to finally move forward.”

Ordinarily, one would be falling off the chair with laughing if this was not such a serious matter, the prospect of Zanu PF rigging and winning these elections and extend the regime’s corrupt and tyrannical rule for another five years is unthinkable!

Chamisa is playing lip service to reform and free and fair elections. He knows that if this Amendment Bill was going to reduce Zanu PF’s carte blanche power to rig elections it would never see the light of day given Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in both chambers. Even if one was able to pressure the Zanu PF MPs and senators to pass the Bill it is naïve to think the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora, for example, can be added on the voters’ roll in time to for them to vote in August, just four months away!

The truth MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they were in government and had the majority in parliament and senate and had the solid backing of SADC, who was the guarantor of the Global Political Agreement. Ever since the end of the GNU Zanu PF has held all the trump cards including the certainty MDC leaders would participate no matter flawed the process got as long as they were assured of winning a few gravy train seats. As David Coltart confessed in his book MDC and now CCC leaders are participating in these flawed elections out of greed.

“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.”

Chamisa knows that Zanu PF is rigging these elections, knows that CCC’s participation will only give SADC leaders the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the people’s suffering and deaths. Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating in these elections because they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait and that is all they care about.

Of course, it is an outrage that the nation’s chances to cure itself of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance continue to be wasted, traded off for 30 pieces of silver by the men and women povo risked all to elect into power entrusted the responsibility to deliver change.

MDC/CCC will never ever implement any democratic reforms and deliver free elections. Never! The sooner the people realise this new political reality the sooner the nation can go back to demanding reforms before elections, the prerequisite to ending vote rigging and good governance.

“The sun will rise and shine in Zimbabwe. Change is in the air, hope is coming back, and citizens are ready to take back their country.

“Come let us reason together. We are one people! It's possible. God is in it!” signed off Nelson Chamisa, with his usual self-righteous arrogance.

MDC/CCC sold out during the GNU by failing to implement even one democratic reform and they are selling out now by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the tragic human suffering in the country. And this because of greed. How can God have any party in  such treasonous betrayal the long suffering povo and rational thinking!

On Judgement Day, Mugabe had to account for "talents" wasted on Blue Roof could not get away with blaming "wicked British" W Mukori

 

Let me say from the on-set that white colonial exploitation of Africa has a lot to answer for why the continent is in the economic and political mess it is today. But this is not say the whites are solely to blame for Africa’s problems; we, the Africans, are to blame too.

“After century of slavery and colonial exploitation the developed nations had a head start over Africa,” you might argue.

You are right, the developed nations had more than a head start. But I am not interested in how many blocks ahead the developed nations were at this or that point in time. I am interested in what Africans have done with whatever we had at a given time.

I am not religious but I think Jesus’ parable of the talents is particularly ad rem to what I am driving at.

The parable of master who, before going away, entrusted his three servants with five, two and one talent, “each according to his ability” Matthew’s Gospel tells us. On his return the servant with five presented his master with the five talents plus five more. The one who got two presented the master with two plus two more he made. The Master thank each of the two servants for their hard work.    

 ^“He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 

²⁸ So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹ For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 25 24 – 30

Most African nations are failed states, Zimbabwe being a textbook example, because we have squandered our many God given talents in terms of material and human resources.

Indeed, Zimbabwe’s bounty of diamonds, gold, lithium and other natural resources have become a curse and not a blessing. Corruption has become rampant and the ruling elite who are the godfathers behind the looting are using the ill got wealth to bankroll their political activities. The Zanu PF Mafiosi has corrupted and controls all the state institutions, private sector is dominated by the regime’s cronies – cartels and Zanu PF has corrupted the country’s opposition rendering them utterly useless.

I have often wonder what the late Robert Mugabe would say on his judgement day. Zimbabwe had a sound economic infrastructure in 1980, when the country gained her independence. It had the potential to become the South Korea of Africa, according to Ken Yamamoto, a Japanese scholar. No doubt the dictator would give the usual toroid blaming the “wicked British and their western allies” for all Zimbabwe’s social, political and economic troubles.

“You had money to build the US$ 4 billion Blue Roof mansion, enough money to design, supply, install and commission Batoka Hydro Power Station. In 2012 alone you squandered US$ 24 million on 8 hospital visits to the Far East for an eye check-up when major hospitals like Pararenyatwa were running of painkillers and bandages,” the Lord will remind Mugabe.

“Your regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans in 37 years with you as the Zanu PF leaders to create and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship. You remained in power all these years because Zanu PF denied the people their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.”

If anyone deserves to be “cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”, it is Robert Mugabe and his fellow African leaders who have squandered their nation’s wealth but, like the wicked servant in the parable of talents, will never admit to their foolishness and greed.

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess and political paralysis (both the ruling party and the coterie of opposition parties have no clue what to do to get out of the hell-on-earth we are in) because both Zanu PF and opposition leaders have turned out to be corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. The late Morgan Tsvangirai must too be in hell for failing to implement even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, for example. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders and his friends with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, the generous salaries and allowances, the US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc.; and they throw the reforms out of the window!   

The one African leader I hold in great respect is the late President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, his socialist experiment was a disaster for Tanzania. Still, I admire him for admit his own failures and, unlike the likes of Mugabe, seek scapegoat to blame.

"People have gone to the moon, and we are still trying to reach the village, and the village is getting farther," remarked President Nyerere when he learned in 1969 that the Americans had successfully landed on the Moon!

The genesis of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not so much in the misguided economic policies and the rampant corruption but in the country’s failed political system that has given corrupt and incompetent men and women absolute power and allowed them to stay in power for 43 years and counting. Nothing, absolutely nothing, of value will ever be accomplished until we cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.

It is shocking that we still do not have the common sense to know we cannot have free elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, even after 43 years of the Mafia Zanu PF rigged elections and in this day and age. Those who will not learn from the past are destined to repeat the same foolish mistakes over and over again and will pay dearly for their folly.  fail to hold free, fair and credible elections; we don’t even know what constitute free and fair elections.

Since the 1969 Moon landing the Americans and the rest of the world have explored Mars and the world beyond our own Solar System, they have split the atom into its components and have produce vaccines for illness such as the recent corona virus in record time. Meanwhile we in Africa lagged even further behind, the “village is even further away” as President Nyerere had aptly put it.

Admitting we are our own worst enemy, as Mwalimu did, is the first step in our effort to pull ourselves out of this mess of our own making. What to do next will have to wait for the next time! For now, we must learn the first step.