The spirit is willing, but the intellect is weak!
“Zimbabwe is open for business!” is the most enduring thing President
Emmerson Mnangagwa has ever said since taking over from the late Robert Mugabe
following the 2017 military coup. The mantra was motivated by his burning desire
to revive the comatose Zimbabwe economy. Sadly, for him and the nation, he has
no clue how to revive the economy. None!
"My government is continually working towards improving the sustainable
investor-friendly business environment. This in turn should attract more
foreign direct investment into our economy and generate employment in all
sectors of the economy," said Mnangagwa at the official opening of the
Varun Beverages water and closures project in Harare.
"Such investment projects as the one we are witnessing today, as well as
those by other investors, are quite crucial as they significantly contribute to
economic growth and create employment for our citizens."
When Mnangagwa took over from the late dictator Robert
Mugabe in 2017, he had rightly identified the two areas he needed to improve to
create the investor-friendly business environment: end corruption and bad
governance. He promised zero tolerance on corruption and promised to hold free,
fair and credible elections.
The floodgate of local and foreign investment expected to
follow the official launch of his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” campaign in
January 2018 in Davos Switzerland did not materialise. Investors are savvy and
shrewd lot, they held back to see if he was going to keep all his promises.
The blitzkrieg to arrest the those responsible for the
rampant corruption and gross mismanagement, the two cancers that had all but
destroyed Zimbabwe’s once upon a time robust and promising economy, did not
take place. Indeed, the corruption and mismanagement under Mugabe’s rule is
nothing compared to what is today.
The four-part “Zimbabwe: Gold Mafia” documentary on Al
Jazeera has uncovered details of how Zimbabwe is losing US$1.6 billion per year
to gold smugglers or 80% of traded gold and 5.7% of the country’s US$ 28
billion GPD. The documentary focused on gold smuggling and money laundering
only but the looting is just as rampant in other areas such as diamond, lithium
and platinum mining and the purchase of fuel and medicine by the various
cartels.
looting ood said
Varun Beverages' investment will help in the production of more affordable
goods and reduce the country's imports bill.
"By the time the Second Republic came into being, we occupied between 35
and 37% of retail shelves, but now I am informed that we are around 81% in
terms of production locally," he added.
The Minister of Industry and Commerce Sekai Nzenza, speaking at the same Varun
Beverages official opening, said at least US$101 million was invested into the
country's manufacturing sector last year. This is less than the US$133 million
per month the country lost to gold smugglers alone! No nation can afford this
level of economic haemorrhage and criminal waste of resources.
The Al Jazeera documentary showed that corruption in
Zimbabwe is not because of the usual one or two rotten apples in the Police,
Bank and other key institutions; the top brass in these institutions are either
themselves corrupt and/or are under strict orders to do nothing. Most of the
gold smuggling kingpins in the documentary underlined their very close links
with President Mnangagwa himself or a very close member of his family.
Ambassador-at-large Uebert Angel, alias Diplomat Mafia,
offered to use his diplomatic bag to carry dirty money to Zimbabwe. The alternative
was to use Mnangagwa’s presidential jet to transport the money. It was none
other than President Mnangagwa himself who appointed Uebert Angel ambassador-at-large.
No wonder President Mnangagwa has failed to uproot
corruption in Zimbabwe. How can he end corruption when he and his fellow Zanu
PF ruling elite are the principal beneficiaries and the godfathers of
corruption.
President Mnangagwa failed to keep his promise to hold free,
fair and credible elections in 2018. No one in their right mind expected him to
do anything else than rig the elections. He and his fellow coup plotters were
not going to risk all in staging the coup only to risk losing power in a free
election. Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a lead balloon that
never took off and it is no surprise the economy is now in total meltdown. Still,
Zanu PF’s hunger to retain power is as keen as ever and so the regime is
blatantly rigging the 2023 elections.
Indeed, the looting of the country’s resources has gone into
overdrive because Mnangagwa inherited a bankrupt nation from Mugabe and has had
to dig deep, he is now selling the nation’s crown jewels, to raise the funds to
bribe all and sundry to help him win these elections from the US$5 bag of maize
meal for povo right up to the US$ 230 000 bonus paid to CIO directors and ZEC. The
regime is also spending a fortune bribing the opposition to participate in
these flawed elections.
Kamlesh Pattni, alias Brother Paul in the Al Jazeera Gold
Mafia documentary, boasted how the wealth generated from his gold smuggling
activities help Kenya’s dictator, Arap Moi “survive” by buying off the off the
opposition. Pattni moved to Zimbabwe and continued with the gold smuggling to
help Mugabe and then Mnangagwa “survive”. The failure by MDC/CCC leaders to
implement even one reform during the GNU and they stubborn insistence on
participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy all point to one
thing – a corrupted and captured opposition.
Zimbabwe is a failed state, a pariah state that is failing
to provide even the most basic needs such as clean water, education and health
care to its people. Mnangagwa is selling the nation’s crown jewels in a
desperate bid to stay in power only to drag the nation even deeper into the
hell-on-earth Zanu PF landed us all into.
Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies are just buffoons
whose hunger for absolute power is insatiable, they would rather see the whole
nation in economic ruins than see anyone else rule the country. Our curse has
just been compounded by having a corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless
opposition that has repeatedly betrayed the nation’s fight for reforms, free
elections and good governance for a share of the spoils of power from Zanu PF.
Mnangagwa is rigging the 2023 elections so he can continue
to preside over the wholesale looting of the nation’s gold, diamonds, etc. and
the nation’s future, hopes and dreams. We must stop this insanity! Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF do not have the
divine right to ride roughshod over us denying us our meaningful say in the
governance of the country. It is us who have let them ride over us roughshod
and after 43 years it is insane to let this continue. They are not just mortals
but buffoons, for Pete’s sake!
The trouble with having buffoons for national leaders is that now every other buffoon in the neighbour is muding the water with their thruppence worth of sanctions nonsense! Which even the ZRB rejected as nonsense!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL3IM-lg0O0
@ Godfrey
ReplyDelete“You are right - In fact there was no need to wait for the 4th Episode to chart the way forward. Voting is soon and we hope every voter has been kept uptodate with the episodes and will vote wisely - whether to continue filming the same kind of episodes in the coming new dispensation or kuedza zvimwe zvino promisa kusava nema episodes - this assumes every vote will be allowed to count.”
“This assumes every vote will be allowed to count!” After 43 years of rigged elections that is no different from “someone insisting in swimming in the Zambezi River and assume all the crocodiles are now vegetarians!
We know these elections are being rigged, there is no verified voters’ roll, no free public media, not even one reform was implemented, etc., etc. So why are we assuming something will happen when we already know it will never happen!
Tsvangirai was in the GNU for 5 fives and failed to implement even one reform hence the reason we are still in this mess. It is sad that even now with the benefit of hindsight there are people with no clue what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold out! Democracy demands an informed and diligent electorate and not a naïve and gullible one!
ReplyDelete@ Godfrey
ReplyDelete“But they have done the right thing presenting their concerns officially before the body that grants ultimate and effective legitimacy or illegitimacy.
SADC now knows opposition is going in mindful of the flaws in the system.
It is a good move by opposition.
SADC have no reason to grant legitimacy now.”
SADC know that CCC will participate in these elections without reforms and this is just a time wasting gimmick because SADC begged MDC leaders not to participate in 2013 and they were ignored!
No one is taking MDC/CCC’s call for reforms seriously, certainly not SADC, EU, Americans or Zanu PF!
UNCERTAINTY over Zimbabwe's growth prospects deepened this week, after a leading advisory said its currency had shed 58% of its value in the first quarter.
ReplyDeleteIt was a continuation of negative developments, which first appeared at the end of last year, when industrial capacity utilisation dropped to 56,1% in the last quarter, from 56,3% during the same period in 2021, according to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.
The country's three mobile telecoms firms saw subscribers fall by 1,8% to 14,3 million during the fourth quarter, from 14,5 million at the end of the third quarter last year, reflecting the economic slowdown.
Last week, the Insurance and Pensions Commission of Zimbabwe opened up on the troubles hounding the sector, where 356 000 policies lapsed during the final three months of 2022 while two million more polices were in at the risk of lapsing.
The Zimbabwe dollar depreciated by over 70% on the parallel market in 2022, marking one of the worst years for the economy, even as authorities insisted markets were stabilising.
Zimbabwe is a failed state, a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical thugs who rig elections to stay in power. It is wishful thinking to think there will ever be any meaningful economic recovery whilst the country remains a pariah state!
@ Godfrey
ReplyDelete“What have they advised now is what we should focus on because their voice counts!”
I just told you CCC are paying lip service to reforms and free elections. You can focus on what they say if you wish but do expect SADC, EU, Zanu PF or anyone else to do the same!
@ Wakurawarerwa
ReplyDelete“You are confusing yourself my friend recently you were saying CCC is doing nothing about reform the team pushed SADC they responded they seat around table to discuss how we can attain free and fair election you make noise again. What is it that you want Wilbert.”
What can SADC do to ensure free elections with four months to go before the elections? Nothing! CCC know that and yet they are talking about it as if SADC is doing something to guarantee free elections. Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections because they are paid to do so!
Mnangagwa wants the gold smuggled out of the country because that is the only way he can have his share of the loot. If everything is above board he cannot steal nothing!
ReplyDeleteHe has used some of the looted wealth to bribe the opposition to give up on reforms and free elections.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO7SaPzGR_A
@ Mujuru
ReplyDelete“If we take that route a lot of countries will boycott elections killing so called democracy.
Very few countries especially developing one do not cry foul after elections.
Put agents in all polling stations and must sign off before results are posted outside polling stations.”
How naïve! What is the point of putting election agents in the polling station if the voters are frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF, if 3 million in diaspora are denied the vote, etc.?
If the process is so flawed that getting 73% of the votes was not good enough to win and you know participating will only give Zanu PF legitimacy, of course it is insane to keep participating especially after 43 years of rigged elections. Unless you are paid to participate.
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections knowing fully well that MDC/CCC will participate and give the process legitimacy because Zanu PF has paid Chamisa and company to participate no matter how flawed and illegal the process gets.
Mnangagwa will pay opposition MP and senators Us$60 000 car allowance, US$40 000 housing allowance plus the generous salary and allowance. Losing presidential candidates get US$60 000 car plus the POLAD allowances. Many idiots have left their diaspora post to join in the scramble!
Mnangagwa can afford the bribes, he is loaded! He has commandeered the nation’s gold, diamond, lithium and other resources as the Al Jazeera documentary showed. Chamisa and company do not care that the elections are rigged, they have given up on reforms and free elections, all they are after is a share of the looted wealth!
@ Mahupete
ReplyDelete“Chief, me thinks you are stretching the imagination a bit here. There's absolutely no comparison between 1978 and now. Firstly, the Rhodesian system was under imminent defeat and secondly there was no Pan African support for the internal settlement.
CCC inevanhu vangani mu Parliament right now? If they boycott based on their current numbers in Parliament, who exactly will be concerned? Of what consequence is a CCC boycott in reality?”
Zanu and Zapu did not even have one MP in parliament in 1978!
It was none other than SADC leaders themselves who argued MDC leaders at the SADC summit in Maputo 2013 not to participate in the elections that years until reforms are implemented. SADC were the guarantor of the 2008 GPA and therefore still had the mandate to condemn that year’s election process. It was Morgan Tsvangirai and company who ignored SADC’s advice and participated in the flawed elections.
If MDC refused to boycott the elections when they had SADC’s full backing in 2013 – because Mugabe bribed the lot with the trappings of high office including a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai – it is naïve to expect them to do so now when they have lost all the trump cards – especially when there are the gravy train bribes on offer!
@ Mahupete
ReplyDelete“Noted. So, you do agree kuti any boycott by the ccc will amount to nothing of significance under the current situation!”
MDC did not implement even one reform during the GNU because Mugabe bribed them. They ignored SADC’s advice to boycott the 2013 elections and thereafter for the same reason – greed.
Of course, boycotting these elections will be the rational thing to do but we all know CCC will participate in 2023 no matter out of greed. It is surprising that you still fail to read the writing on the wall – Zanu PF has the opposition in its deep pockets. CCC will never implement any reforms and thus deliver free and fair elections. Never!
The ruling Zanu-PF party has splashed out on 210 luxury cars for its aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs) ahead of the 2023 general elections.
ReplyDeleteThe cars, which are reportedly worth a total of $20 million, were distributed to the party's provincial structures on Tuesday.
The distribution of the cars has been met with mixed reactions, with some people criticizing the party for spending such a huge amount of money on cars at a time when the country is facing economic challenges.
President Mnangagwa has US$240 million of his own money to spend on these 2023 elections and can raise a tonnes more from all those who have and/or are benefiting from the wholesale looting of diamonds, gold, lithium, procurement of fuel, medicine, etc., etc. All told Zanu PF will be spending as much as US$4 billion on these elections.
The opposition will be lucky to raise US$4 million, most of that coming directly or indirectly from Zanu PF the party needs their participation to give the election process some modicum of credibility and thus give the result legitimacy.
The financial muscle of Zanu PF compared to the opposition alone makes this an unfair contest. And yet Chamisa and company are hell bent on participating in this flawed and illegal elections because they are paid by Zanu PF to participate. MDC wasted the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and have since settled to play along to give Zanu PF legitimacy for a share of the spoils of power!
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections and has commandeered the nation’s resource towards keeping the party in power at all costs. In Zimbabwe the glory of Caesar trumps the good of Rome!
The Gold mafia documentary series has clearly shown us that there’s a law for the public and there’s no law for a certain clique of people. It has also shown us that Zimbabwe has been losing wealth to plunder at the hands of ED and his white criminal associates like Ewan McMillan since the 80s. McMillan and his father were arrested several times for illegal possession of gold and smuggling. In the documentary McMillan boasts that each time he was arrested, ED would “fix it”. Fixing it means making the case disappear. McMillan also admits that he was threatened with consequences if he mentioned that his partner was ED. According to him, two giant goons were sent to tell him never to mention ED as his partner, or else fate would visit him.
ReplyDeleteIn 2008, Zimbabwe was removed from the London Bullion Marketer’s Association, which is the world gold marketing platform, for failing to supply the minimum required for members, because of leakages and smuggling. It was people like McMillan who were smuggling the gold causing a deficit in supply through the RBZ. This means Zimbabwe failed to meet its requirements because of thugs like McMillan, protected by their partner thug in high office, who was Minister of Justice during some of the time. My narration is simply guided by the admissions and boastful utterances of McMillan in the documentary and evidence in the public domain of McMillan’s arrests, and disappearances of his cases without trial. We don’t have to look deep to ascertain the gravity of abuse of power, plunder of national resources and the association of senior office bearers with colonial hangers on still in Zimbabwe. The saddest part of all this is the arrogance displayed by McMillan in the documentary when he advises would be money launderers (Al Jezeera undercover journalists) that they must never deal with a black man because they are liers and killers. Yet McMillan was ED’s partner (according to him) and saved him and his father from prison time many times. This simply tells the story of how as blacks we lack the intuitive sense of belonging to our own and sup with whites who will never appreciate us despite giving them our all.
This documentary also confirms who has been behind the criminal plunder of our national resources since independence, and who has kept the whites protected from the justice system while plundering our resources.
I have previously written articles on this and highlighted how the war of liberation was hijacked by moles planted in the liberation movement by the colonial powers. The same moles have kept white thugs like McMillan, Rautenbach, Bredenkemp and Rudland protected. These white thugs were the ones who helped the Rhodesian government bust sanctions. The public can now make their connections and fill the dots to come up with a conclusion.
The jury of public opinion will make its judgment, but the conviction lacks merit because the court has no credible jurisdiction to enforce the sentence. I rest my case.
#JonathanChando
One of the tragic consequences of the rampant looting of the nation’s resources is that the Zanu PF ruling elite and their Mafia partners have become filthy rich so rich thy are have all but completely captured the state institutions like ZEC, Police, Judiciary and even the opposition parties it is really difficult to see how they could ever be any meaningful change without a complete overhaul of the country’s political system BEFORE elections.
Zanu PF will be spending US$4 billion plus in these elections thanks to billions of dollars coming in from all the looting, and the opposition will be luck to raise US$4 million or 0.1% of Zanu PF’s war chest. The Al Jazeera documentary has made the case for implementing reforms before elections imperative!
MDC failed to implement even one reform during the GNU because Zanu PF bribed them. And they are participating in these flawed elections for the same reason - greed. Why Zimbabweans are participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy, after 43 years of rigged elections beggars belief!
ReplyDeleteBelow is a list of SOME of the farms and properties owned by Vice President Chiwenga that have been listed in the divorce case:
ReplyDeleteHouse at Rosary Close, Quinnington area, Borrowdale suburb measuring 5 701 square metres
Borrowdale Brooke Mansion
Orchid Farm (formerly Arda Farm) along Domboshava Road.
Chivaraidze Farm (900 hectares)
Mermaids Pool (1000 hectares)
Housing stands in Harare’s Crowhill, New City of Harare (400 hectares)
Housinng stands in Gletwin
Housing Stands in Chishawasha
Housing Stands in Glen Lorne
Chiwenga offered Marry: a king l-size bed, leather sofas, carpets, a refrigerator, chest of drawers, a television set, mirrors and tables from the main bedroom.
He also offered: tables, sofas, mirrors, another television, vases and lamp shades, another carpet, ornaments and photos from Marry’s lounge and other furniture from two other lounges, glasses, cutlery, pots, trays, a washing machine and other utensils.
Chiwenga also offered Marry 9 vehicles including: 2 Range Rovers, 2 Ford Rangers, a Chevrolet, a Jeep, a Mercedes-Benz C200, Mercedes Benz E300 and a Kia Rio.
Marry will also keep other immovable properties in Zimbabwe and South Africa and her offices in Eastlea.
From the Gazebo, Chiwenga wants the snooker table, a refrigerator, a freezer, bar stools, chairs, sofas, and tables. He also wants one events tent for each party.
Chiwenga and Marry also have many companies including: Blue Chip Stamp Company (Pvt) Ltd, Lighthouse Investments (Pvt) Ltd that owned four industrial units in Willowvale, with each unit measuring 3 850 square metres and Liversay Investments (Pvt) Ltd, with his ex-wife Jocelyne.
They also owned Ouacker Investments, Hidcote Investment (Pvt) Ltd, which owns Grandi Lodge Sixty and Yolsac Safaris (Pvt) Ltd that trades as Kazungula Wildlife Safari; an apartment in Malaysia and a house in Msasa Park as well as Dokson Investments which spearheaded operations on their farm in Goromonzi.”
Chewanga had his wealth halved when he divorced his first wife and since then he still managed to amass so much! The tragedy is that most of this wealth is idle or under utilized and hence the reason why the nation is in economic ruins.
The Zanu PF ruling elite have indeed picked the choice fruit for themselves and have become filthy rich. If they should lose absolute power, they know will not only lose the opportunity to continue looting but worse still will lose the loot they have already. Zanu PF ruling elite will never ever give up their carte blanche powers to rig elections especially now that they are in such a commanding position they have the state institutions in their deep pockets and the opposition too.
MDC/CCC leaders will never implement reforms, they wasted the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU and it is naïve to expect them to do so now.
@ Professor Jonathan Moyo
ReplyDelete“If the former Zambian foreign minister wants to confess that he used to dabble in money laundering with criminals under diplomatic cover for personal gain, or to benefit his political boss then, he should come and clean and say so; without using the shameful cover of the irredeemably disgraced Uebert Angel!”
All level minded Zambians out there must hand their heads in shame that the country had such a nincompoop as Harry Kalaba as Foreign Minister for four years! Only a nincompoop would argue that looting the nation’s resource for the benefit of the few criminals in the ruling elite and their Mafiosi partners is in the national interest!