Zimbabwe is a failed state because we're governed by buffoons who claim to know best but know nothing. W Mukori

 Both Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling party Zanu PF and Nelson Chamisa and his CCC party claim that they are nation builders. If so, then why is Zimbabwe a failed state whose economy is in ruins and his in political paralysis as neither the ruling party nor the opposition party have offered a way out of this hell-o-earth of our own making?

The obvious and truthful answer is: neither Mnangagwa nor Chamisa nation builders. They wish they were nation builders and claim that they are, there is a mountain of evidence on each side to prove they are not what they claim to be!

Ever since Emmerson Mnangagwa seized power in the aftermath of the November 2017 military coup that ousted the late Robert Mugabe Mnangagwa has been cocksure he was the man who would finally deliver the mass economic prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji” Zanu PF had promised ever since the country’s independence. He had clearly waited the 34 years of Mugabe rule for this chance and he fit the ground running.  

“Zimbabwe is open for business!” Mnangagwa proclaimed within a few weeks of seizing power. And he and his supporting team, all dressed in the trademark Zimbabwe flag scarf, were out selling the idea at every opportunity. They expected nothing short of a flood of local and foreign investors all keen as mustard to do business. The flood of investors never materialised. 

Mnangagwa failed to keep his promise to stamp out corruption, to hold free and fair elections, etc., etc. proof to all but especially the savvy investors that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state and therefore not yet open for business.  

Undaunted by the failure of his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra; Mnangagwa fine tuned it. He decided to focus on attracting Zimbabweans in the country and in the diaspora to spearhead nation build schemes. “Nyika inovakwa nevenevayo!” was born and launched with the usual no-expense-spared pomp and razzmatazz.

It is now six years since the November 2017 military coup it is no exaggeration none of Mnangagwa’s harebrained schemes to revive the economy have worked. None! The country has failed to showed any meaningful recovery economically, politically, socially and every other which-way ever since the November 2017 military coup. 

Indeed, many argue that things are even worse than there were under Mugabe. Corruption has certain gone into overdrive. Mnangagwa himself was named in the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary aired early this year. Mnangagwa was not even concerned about the expose and even announced that Mbava4ED (Looters4ED) was one of the many groups that would help with his August 2023 election campaign.  

Mnangagwa has remains confident he would deliver on his promise to make Zimbabwe an upper middle income nation by 2030, Vision 2030. The very fact that the last six years of his so called Second Republic has failed to produce any sign he was on the right track has not shaken his self-confidence. Indeed he is as cocky as ever, so cocky he has just rigged the August 2023 elections - just to be absolutely sure the nation would not be deprived of the great services of the best nation builder this side of the grave!

Well Zimbabwe is in luck, because Nelson Chamisa is equally cocky and cocksure he is the greatest nation builder ever!  

“In my whole life I have never destroyed. I only build,” stated Chamisa in one of this regular twitter proclamations. 

“I was never born with the gift of destroying or killing. I was born with the mantle to build. My gift is to build not specialise in profitless fights. I invest in peace no matter the cost or abuse. Zimbabwe needs builders not destroyers demolishers. We need light not fight!”

The USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, said, in a leaked cable back to Washington, that the now late Morgan Tsvangirai was “a flawed and indecisive character who, if he ever got into power, will become an albatross around the nation’s neck.” 

The ambassador could have said the same about all the other MDC leaders including Nelson Chamisa. And MDC/CCC have been on the political stage for 23 years including 5 in the GNU. They have not only failed to implement even one democratic reform, the number one task they were elected to do, but worst of all they have been participating inflated elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the nation’s suffering. 

Ambassador Dell was right Chamisa and his CCC fiend are nothing but the milestone around the nation’s neck dragging us all deep into the crushing abyss. 

Ever since Chamisa seized power following Tsvangirai’s death the country’s main opposition party has blundered from pillar to post. Many people have said the worsening economic and political situation has made Zanu PF so unpopular the party would lose the elections to a troop of monkeys in a free, fair and credible elections. Underlining that to win the elections all Chamisa and company had to do was make sure the elections were free and fair. A bridge too far because Chamisa et al have been hell bent on participating in flawed elections by failing to implement the reforms and then participating in flawed election, as noted above. 

So here is Chamisa stubbornly maintain he was “born with the mantle to build” and yet after 23 years, including 5 in the GNU, he and his MDC/CCC friends have failed to implement even one democratic reform  to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Indeed, they are the ones helping Zanu PF stay in power by participating in flawed elections for a share of the spoils of power. 

“Born with the mantle to build!” Yeah right!

The story goes that a friend of the Greek Philosopher Socrates asked the Oracle of Delphi if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. “No!” was the reply.

When Socrates was told the story, he set out to find out for himself if indeed he was the wisest. I sorted all the individuals many believed were wise. He found out that these wise people did not have knowledge they claimed to have. “If I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing!” 

Zimbabwe is a failed state after 43 years and counting stuck with a regime of buffoons who have claimed to know what is best for the nation and yet they know nothing. They have conspired and connived to rig elections denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The worst curse to befall a nation is to be governed by buffoons who claim to know but know nothing. Alas! Zimbabwe has the mother of that curse; in that, both the ruling party and the opposition have seasoned buffoons as leaders across the board!