“South Africa has a Zimbabwe problem - and no one is willing
to help it, said African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile
Mbalula as he called for an end to long-standing sanctions against the country,”
reported Bulawayo 24.
“Mbalula said that the Americans and the British were
refusing to let up because they wanted regime change.”
"We've got a problem here in Zimbabwe and it's brewing. And you think it's
going to be the problem of the Americans; it's going to be our problem for the
longest of time,” Mbulula told his SA audience.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, the reason
why so many Zimbabweans are in SA and beyond as economic and/or political refuges
is because Zimbabwe is a failed state. A pariah state ruled by corrupt,
incompetent, and ruthless thugs who have rigged elections to stack their stay
in power. 43 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the
country in economic ruins.
Zanu PF has been blaming the 2001 sanctions imposed by the
West for all Zimbabwe’s economic problems although the economic problems
started long before the sanctions were imposed. For example, Zimbabwe adopted
the 1990 to 1995 Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) to revive the
country’s flagging economy. When that failed to deliver the desired changes, the
had another five-year programme. Sadly, that too failed to revive the economy.
This is well documented and it is therefore very disappointing that anyone,
especially SA’s governing ANC leaders has chosen to believe Zanu PF sanctions propaganda.
Zanu PF has yet to hold free, fair and credible elections in
Zimbabwe since the country’s independence in 1980; this is yet another well
documented historic fact. The AU and SADC have always turned a blind eye to
Zanu PF rigged elections granting the regime legitimacy. The only time the
continental and the regional bodies refused to grant Zanu PF legitimacy was in
2008, the cheating and wanton violence
by Zanu PF were so outrageous and brutal that even they could not ignore it.
AU and SADC leaders refused to grant Zanu PF political
legitimacy and forced the regime to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA),
agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement the raft of democratic reforms
to stop the rigging of elections and restore the rule of law. A GNU comprising
Zanu PF and the two MDC factions was formed and tasked to implement the
reforms. SADC, headed by SA and ANC veteran leader Lindiwe Zulu, was the guarantor
of the GPA.
SADC leaders know that not even one token democratic reform
was implemented during the GNU. In a last-minute desperate bid to have the
reform implemented, regional body proposed that Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections
should be postponed until reforms were implemented. “If you go into the
elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.
As we know SADC leaders’ warning was ignored and Zanu PF
rigging the 2013 elections and, in a shocking volte-face granted Zanu PF
legitimacy knowing fully well the party had rigged the elections as they had rightly
predicted only a few weeks earlier.
The opposition once again ignore the SADC leaders to boycott
the 2018 elections until reforms were implemented. The regional leaders, in
turn, granted vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy.
History is repeating itself; the opposition are
participating in the 2023 elections without even a token democratic reform
implemented. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections just as it rigged the 2013
and 2018 elections. The rigging is so blatant the elections are going ahead
without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!
The idea that SADC leaders will, once again, turn a blind
eye to the blatantly rigged elections to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy is
unthinkable!
Zimbabweans were hoping that of all the SADC countries SA;
given her history of holding free elections, Minister Lindiwe Zulu’s first-hand
knowledge of the failure to implement reforms during the GNU and the economic
instability caused by the political crisis in Zimbabwe; would be as keen as
mustard to end the madness of granting vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. As long
as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the economic meltdown forcing Zimbabwe to be
economic and/or political refugees in SA and beyond will only get worse.
What is clear is that this ANC government is hell bent on
granting vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy under the pretext the 2023
elections are free, fair and credible and thus the result is the true
democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe. It is the West who are seeking
regime change in Zimbabwe and not the people of Zimbabwe.
The ANC government has its own sinister reasons for ignoring
the historic facts that Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and granting the
regime political legitimacy will only deny the ordinary Zimbabweans a chance to
end the dictatorship and perpetuate it instead.
SA is in an economic and political mess. Nearly 30 years of
mediocre and/or down right corrupt and incompetent ANC rule has left the
country's, once upon a time, robust economy and infrastructure in ruins. The
nationwide load shedding because ESKOM cannot meet the nation its electrical
power needs has driven home the point; SA is in serious trouble and, worst of
all, the ANC government has no clue what to do. If it did, the party would have
never allowed the country to sink this deep in the first place!
SA is going to the poll next year and ANC leaders know the
party’s hold on power is tenuous, to say the least, given the sorry state of
the economy. The party has hit panic button!
If the 2023 Zimbabwe elections were to deliver regime change
that would give the South Africans voters the courage to do the same, especially if the change
started to start deliver noticeable changes to Zimbabwe's battered economy! The
2008 to 2013 GNU delivered a 12% economic growth in 2009 compared to the
negative 6% in 2008 under Zanu PF rule. This is clearly what ANC is determined
not to let happen and hence the party's November 2022 congress resolution not
to let regime change in Zimbabwe.
ANC leaders are adapting the fiddler crab strategy, it will tolerate
crabs whose fiddler claw is smaller than its own for neighbours and will even gang
up to evict the rest. If the fight to attract females its claw will look
humongous compared with its neighbours! ANC leaders’ economic performance record
is pathetic, but it is nothing compared to the disastrous chaos Zanu PF has
brought to Zimbabwe.
As a Zimbabwean, I am not interested in ANC and Zanu PF’s
rat race to the bottom. And it would be irresponsible to let these failed ANC
leaders use Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans as their sacrificial guinea pigs in the
same sinister way that President Putin of Russia is using Ukraine to bolster
his flagging macho image!
The people of Zimbabwe needs right now is an end to SADC granting
vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy that is stopping the imposition of new GNU and
implementing the democratic reforms to guarantee free and fair elections. It is
for the people of Zimbabwe alone, in a free, fair and credible election, to
decide who will govern Zimbabwe. If it is their democratic wish to have regime
change then the MUST have regime change. It is very presumptuous, to put it
mildly, for SA’s ANC leaders claim they have the power or authority to stop
regime change in Zimbabwe by granting vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy.
Of course, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his his ANC colleagues know that Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and has been rigging elections in the past. They know mismanagement and corruption are the root causes of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, there is a mountain of evidence to prove it. And yet they have elected to ignore the evidence and run with the lie that it is sanctions that is crippling Zimbabwe's economy and to turn a blind eye to the rigging and grant Zanu PF political legitimacy.
ReplyDeleteKnowing is one thing doing the right thing is another!
ANC leaders were certainly warned about the lack of investment in power generation would have disastrous consequences for SA and for 30 years they did nothing about it. If ANC failed South Africans it should come as no surprise at all that they made some foolish decisions on Zimbabwe.
Letting the Zanu PF dunderheads run Zimbabwe will certainly make SA's under performing ANC leaders look like the most competent men and women ever! The challenge is for Zimbabweans to bring the reign of the dunderheads to an end. What South Africans decide to do with ANC is their affair. We in Zimbabwe cannot afford to let the Zanu PF dunderheads rig the 2023 elections and get political legitimacy!
This is utterly hopeless! Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections and CCC are participating to give the regime legitimacy. Chamisa keeps wittering about mass voter registration knowing fully well this is dead in the water! The party registered 1/4m new voters as of 30 May 2022 or 4% of its target 6 m!
ReplyDeleteZEC has stubbornly refused to produce a verified voters’ roll and we all know that CCC will participate in these elections even without something as basic as the verified voters’ roll. They have participated in the past, Zanu PF knows that and hence the reason why the regime will not produce the verified voters’ roll!
Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free and fair elections is not only due to Zanu PF intransigence but to MDC/CCC betrayal and greed! Zanu PF and MDC/CCC are now working together to deny Zimbabweans their birth right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and share spoils of power!
@ Trevor
ReplyDeleteCCC leaders and supporters are no different from Zanu PF leaders and supporters, they don't like to be held to account, the start to hyper ventilate. The subtle difference is that the later has the state institutions to punish the critics and the former is waiting the day they too will be able to punish the critics! We have spend the last four decades fighting to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, it is disheartening that we have a new one primed and waiting in the wings!
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has listed nearly 5 000 centres where citizens who are eligible to vote can visit to register during the mobile biometric voter registration which begins on Sunday ahead of this year's harmonised elections with Bulawayo having 71 centres.
ReplyDeleteThe mobile voter registration exercise ends on March 21. A total of 4 474 have been identified for the programme.
ZEC yesterday released a schedule detailing where its team will be deployed during the programme.
At least 5,8 million citizens have registered to vote and ZEC will be conducting the last round of mobile voter registration before the elections.
President Mnangagwa recently announced that he will soon proclaim the election date following last month's gazetting of the new delimitation report.
In a statement, ZEC acting chief elections officer Mrs Jane Chigidji said the new mobile registration centres also identify the renamed constituencies.
"It is hereby notified for general information that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will be carrying out a mobile Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise from 12 March to 21 March 2023 in preparation for the Harmonised Elections," she said.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Witness Dube said citizens' participation in electoral processes is critical as it allows them to determine their political destiny.
"We want to encourage the general populace to register to vote as there is much to gain through voting. Those who are eligible should go and vote so that they can decide the policy direction that is adopted by the country and choose their leaders," he said.
"By participating in the electoral process, they will be exercising their electoral processes."
In March 2008 the people voted for change giving MDC 73% of the votes but the Zanu PF vote rigging machine interfered to deny Tsvangirai the keys to State House. The vote rigging machine is still in service today because not even one token reform was implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU or thereafter. It is therefore insulting the ordinary people to be told their vote is their voice when it is clear the elections are being rigged denying them a voice.
From August 2018 to 30 May 2022 only ¼ m registered to vote opposition strong holds like Harare has two voter registration centres for most of that period. Now we hear Bulawayo has 71 centres, impressive. This has nothing to do with the videos of rural voters bused into urban areas to register as we saw with Domboshava, Goromonzi, etc. rural voters bused to register in Harare. It would be too late to include them on the voters’ roll and they will vote in their rural area and bused into the urban to vote again. What a circus!
Of course, Zanu PF is blatantly rig these elections knowing the opposition will participate no matter what; they are after the few gravy train seats on offer as bait, their reward for giving Zanu PF legitimacy. Pretty good wages for selling the nation!
What the Al Jazeera documentary will do is put the meat on the bones! We all know there is corruption and looting in Zimbabwe but few know how much is being looted, how and by whom. The documentary is going to answer all these questions and lot more besides. What we do with the information is our business.
ReplyDeleteWe can and should use the Al Jazeera documentary to remind our SADC friends that they had been taken for fools by Zanu PF because clearly corruption is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and not the sanctions as Zanu PF had them believe.
Given the eye watering sums of money involved and the individuals in positions of power and authority involved in the looting, it is clear those involved would not want to lose the looted wealth and thus bankrolled Zanu PF’s election to ensure the party remained in power and the looting continued. For every dollar the opposition was able to raise Zanu PF raised a thousand times that and more! How can the election ever be a fair contest under these conditions!
There is a lot that we can get by running with this A Jazeera documentary, it will be a great pity if we fail to do so.
President Cyril Ramaphosa's sinister fiddler crab machination in supporting the vote rigging Zanu PF regime is both childish, idiotic and doomed to fail.
ReplyDeleteThis ANC government removed former President Jacob Zuma when it was revealed he was corrupt. Here we are with a mountain of evidence of corruption and gross mismanagement by the Zanu PF regime and still this ANC regime continue to ignore that Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is due to anything else other than sanctions. I am looking forward to the broadcasting of the Al Jazeera documentary revealing the amounts of money corruption is costing Zimbabwe, putting the flesh on the bones.
I bet the amounts of money involved in Zimbabwe summed up over the decades of Zanu PF rule will make the money Zuma looted look like chicken feed!
Will ANC still pursue their no regime change in Zimbabwe party resolution under the pretext of protecting Zanu PF, the helpless victim of America and British imposed sanctions? What excuse will the under performing ANC government have for granting the vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy.
SA and SADC will be asked to observe the 2023 Zimbabwe elections and judge whether they were free, fair and credible on the basis of the observed evidence. It is totally unacceptable that anyone should seek to falsify the judgement for idiotic and selfish reasons!
@ Chitando
ReplyDelete“As Citizens we hereby encourage all church leaders to pray fo peaceful and God guided elections. Let us encourage our church members to register to vote.
A God fearing leader is only elected by Citizens who knee and pray for God to spiritually choose the leader.”
ZEC has stubbornly refused to produce a verified voters' roll, we have seen Zanu PF supporters bused from rural areas registering in urban centres, etc., etc. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and CCC is hell bent on participating regardless out of greed. Enough is enough of MDC/CCC selling out the nation's fight for free and fair elections.
These include feared former state security minister Owen "Mudha" Ncube who has threatened to unleash "violence worse than the 2008" one against ‘sell-outs" within opposition ranks.
ReplyDeleteIn the wake of the dangers facing the opposition, Mutasa, who chairs pro-democracy group, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC), has called on CCC to turn to gorilla style methods of campaigning.
"Zimbabwe is a military dictatorship. There is no doubt that the constitution has been suspended and constitutional rights taken away.
"Citizens can no longer exercise freedom of expression, association or assembly.
"Opposition gatherings are banned and their leaders are detained without trial.”
What is infuriating here is that the that the country’s civic society, who should have some common sense have too been sold to the opposition’s idiotic nonsense of participating in these elections no matter how flawed and illegal the process get. The opposition are after the few gravy train seats on offer as bait and are hiding their greed behind the idiotic claim they have “winning in rigged elections (wire) strategies”.
Instead of Peter Mutasa putting his foot down and demanding an end to the opposition selling out on reforms and free and fair elections, he is not only cheering them along but even making some wire strategies of his own!
After 43 years of Zanu PF rigging the elections one would think at civic society leaders have finally come to their sense and put an end to this madness of participating in elections so flawed getting 73% of the votes was not good enough to win!
Our aim should be to ensure free, fair and credible elections and not this idiotic oxymoron of winning in rigged elections. For Pete’s sake, we don’t want rigged elections, that is the point!
CCC must “turn to gorilla style methods of campaigning”. How foolish is that!
@ Liberty
ReplyDelete“So what are you going to do about it?”
If Zanu PF is not going to play by the rules to ensure the elections are free, fair and credible it is insane to participate especially when doing so only gives Zanu PF political legitimacy.
The reason why MDC/CCC have been hell bent on participating in these flawed elections in because they are after the few gravy train seats they know Zanu PF gives away as bait. They don’t care that the elections are rigged as long as they get a share of the spoils of power!
The big losers here are the ordinary Zimbabweans who are participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating their own suffering under the dictatorship because they are conned into believing CCC’s hen’s teeth nonsense of having winning in rigged elections strategies. Frankly, Zimbabweans deserve to suffer until they open their eyes!
@Chitando
ReplyDeleteZanu PF is rigging these elections because they know CCC will participate in these elections no matter how flawed the process got. You will never boycott as long as you are assured of winning the few gravy train seats on offer as bait.
Indeed, it is the same reason - greed - that stopped you lot implementing even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Chitando, you should know this because you were one of the MDC-T MPs in the GNU.
@Chitando
ReplyDelete“More than 5.5million will participate in the election but HE will definitely boycott that Election.!!!
✅That it democracy
✅His views will be appreciated
✅ Boycotting is HIS constitutional right.
🌹 Please respect HIS constitutional right as we expect HIM to respect our democratic and constitutional right to participate in the election.”
Zanu PF is rigging these elections because MDC/CCC failed to implement the reforms even when the had the golden chance to do so during the GNU. And ever since the GNU MDC/CCC have participating in the flawed elections out of greed as David Coltart readily confessed.
“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/CCC sold out and continues to sell out by participating in a flawed elections only to give Zanu PF legitimacy. The insanity must and will be stopped and CCC held to democratic account. Chitando your days of selling out are numbered! Watch this space!
@ Chitando
ReplyDelete“Germany Chancellor personally addressed the nation apologizing and consoling families after a gunman shot seven people who included a baby. In Zimbabwe Mnangagwa take business as usual after soldiers shoot unarmed civilians. He remain silent when his ZanuPF youths brutally beat CCC over 70 year olds. The two Germany Chancellor and Mnangagwa show total opposite leadership... a patriot and a mercenary.... a democrat and a dictator... a leader and a cruel carefree.Register to vote .. We want vatungamiriri kwete vatongi .. hatina kugara mhosva kuti titongwe newatasarudza warasudzwa nevanhu vanoda mutungamirwa zvakanaka.!!!!
🇿🇼☝🏿🇿🇼 Patriotic Papa JC speaks when things are not good for Citizens who want better change in Zimbabwe.”
MDC/CCC has been in power for 23 years, including 5 in the GNU, and you lot have failed to implement even one token reform to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. Not even one! You are the ones insisting on participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy against the advice from SADC, EU, etc.
CCC is participating in 2023 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF is rigging the elections out of greed. At least Judias Iscariot got the 30 pieces of silver and walked away, you lot have betrayed the nation and we have to endure you lot shedding buckets of crocodile tears condemning the Zanu PF dictatorship and yet you are the ones keep the regime in power!
"A lot of people think acts of Zanu-PF are based on invisibility and them being indomitable; they are showing that they are on the back foot, they are panicking."
ReplyDeleteZanu-PF recently launched a massive voter mobilisation campaign within the police force through what is termed-ideology training targeting the rank and file of the law enforcement agency.
Zanu PF has many, many ways of rigging these 2023 elections and coercion is one way. Chamisa keeps claiming that he has winning in rigged elections (wire) strategies and yet has yet to come up with one strategy worth the spit!
Accusing Zanu PF of being “on the back foot, they are panicking” is not going to stop the coercion and rigging. Indeed, Zanu PF does not mind the insults, would rather have the insults than lose the elections.
CCC leaders are participating in these flawed elections out of greed, they are after the few gravy train seats on offer as bait, and are using the wire strategies claim and the insults to justify their participation and to hide the real reason for participating is greed.
@ Ghost
ReplyDeleteThe number one challenge for Zimbabwe these last 43 years has been to secure every Zimbabwean's right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess precisely because we have all but failed to secure free, fair and credible elections, the pre-requisite for good governance. We have been stuck for 43 years and counting with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.
We had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship with the best chances coming during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Alas, we wasted them all!
Participating in these flawed elections only to give Zanu PF legitimacy is insane! And after 43 years of this madness and with the nation up it’s eyes in the s****t we really need to stop the insanity!
@ Hungwe
ReplyDelete“Its your right not to vote its our right to vote .your not a legal citizen of Zimbabwe hanti iwe unobva malawi saka unozvinetserei nezvnhu zvokuZimbabwe.”
We all have the right to enjoy all the freedoms and rights stated in the Zimbabwe’s constitution and the UN Universal Human Rights. But there is an important caveat, is exercising your right you have a duty to ensure that in doing so you do not, I repeat YOU DO NOT - NEVER EVER, deny or compromise the rights and freedoms of others.
When you participate in an election so flawed and illegal even getting 73% of the votes is not good enough to win and you know by participating you only give Zanu PF legitimacy. You cannot deny that the flawed election process is denying the nation their right to a meaningful vote. You are doing in regardless because you are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as a bribe.
In exercising your right to vote you DON’T have the right to betray and sell out the nation for 30 pieces of silver.
@ Chitando
ReplyDelete“Do You Want Development & Better Living Conditions?
☝🏿 Are your roads bad ?
☝🏿 Are you unemployed?
☝🏿Are your cattle dying because of diseases?
☝🏿Is you a civil servant earning peanuts?
☝🏿Is your pension valueless?
☝🏿Is the health delivery system unaffordable and poor?
☝🏿Are you a farmer whose harvest is underpaid or paid in valueless currency?
🚨 Solution is with you.!!!!!!!
🌹Be a registered voter and vote for change
🌹 Encourage relatives, friends and neighbours to register to vote and vote CCC President Nelson Chamisa for change.
🟨Vote CCC Councillor, CCC Mp and CCC President Chamisa for development.
🟨 Development is guaranteed with a citizen centred government...Vote CCC Councillor,Mp & President... complete package!!!”
There is no deny that many Zimbabweans are desperate for change, over 50% are living in abject poverty. Desperate people do desperate things and participating in an election so flawed and illegal that getting 73% of the votes would not win the election is not just an act of desperation, it is insane.
Chitando and his CCC friends are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to participate in these elections regardless how flawed the process. CCC are claiming they will win big and making empty promises of improving the economy knowing fully well that Zanu PF is rigging these elections.
This is a nightmare scenario for Zimbabwe! Whilst Zanu PF has already decreed to deny three million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote or 37% of the potential voters "as long as the sanctions imposed by the West remain," Zanu PF has argued. SA through SADC is going the the full hog. What President Ramaphosa is saying here is SA will grant Zanu PF legitimacy knowing fully well that Zanu PF rigged the elections as long as the Western sanctions remain in place! Not that SA is doing this for the first time.
ReplyDeleteSA has granted Zanu PF legitimacy in 2013 and 2018 elections or be it President Ramaphosa had to lie claiming the 2018 elections "went well!" This time he is not going to lie. SA will not allow regime change in Zimbabwe as long as the western sanctions remain in place. In other words the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe count for nothing as long as Western sanctions on Zanu PF remain!
Of course, this is an idiotic position to take. What right does ANC, other than being the neighborhood bully, in usurping the people of Zimbabwe's fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country?
Still, Zimbabweans should not be surprise with ANC's foolish decision in the past and now to grant vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. We only have to look at the mess ANC has made in SA, of all the BRICS emerging economy nation SA is the only one whose economy has been consistently in free fall these last 30 years. If ANC has made one foolish decision after another at home it would be naive to expect its foreign policies to be different!
ANC has usurped Zimbabweans' right to regime change! This madness must be stopped and now before the 2023 elections! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUdkCl66pI4
ReplyDelete