Most of Zimbabwe's leading politicians are lawyers. Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Welshman Ncube, and even President Emmerson Mnangagwa all come from legal backgrounds. The one prominent engineer who often comes to mind in politics is Elias Mudzuri, but even his presence in national debates has been overshadowed by factional squabbles with another lawyer, Douglas Mwonzora.
This dominance of legal minds in Zimbabwean politics is not without consequence. It may help explain why governance in the country relies heavily on statutory instruments - complex legal rules that regulate everyday life - rather than on tangible, large-scale projects that could drive development.
Dan Wang, a Chinese-born Canadian analyst, highlights this contrast vividly in his book Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future. He argues that China is run by engineers, while the United States is run by lawyers, and that this difference shapes their trajectories. Engineers focus on building - railways, factories, and power plants - while lawyers tend to emphasise processes, legal frameworks, and regulation.
Wang points out that in 2002, all nine members of China's Politburo Standing Committee had engineering backgrounds. This technocratic leadership prioritised construction on a massive scale, giving rise to bullet trains, world-class airports, and advanced manufacturing hubs. Meanwhile, in the US, where law degrees dominate political leadership, projects like California's high-speed rail have been bogged down in lawsuits, environmental reviews, and spiralling costs.
The same parallel resonates in Zimbabwe. Decades after independence, the country still struggles with crumbling infrastructure, power shortages, and stalled mega-projects. Yet, legal battles, constitutional wrangles, and endless political disputes dominate the headlines. Zimbabwean politics often appears trapped in the courtroom rather than the construction site.
Consider the contrast: China completed its Beijing–Shanghai bullet train in just three years at a cost of $36 billion, carrying more than a billion passengers in its first decade. Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, flagship projects like the Batoka Gorge hydropower station or the expansion of Hwange Power Station are perpetually delayed, weighed down by financing problems, political disagreements, and governance challenges.
Of course, lawyers play a critical role in defending rights, upholding constitutionalism, and curbing authoritarian excesses. But Wang's thesis raises uncomfortable questions for countries like Zimbabwe: Has the overrepresentation of lawyers in politics tilted the nation towards endless legalism and away from the kind of hard engineering mindset required to rebuild a struggling economy?
China's rise demonstrates the power of an "engineering state" that prizes building over arguing. Zimbabwe, facing an infrastructure deficit and economic stagnation, might need more leaders who think like builders - literally. Until then, it risks remaining a nation of statutory instruments and policy pronouncements, without the highways, factories, and power grids to match.”
A good read to every thinking Zimbabwean out there!
What has made Zimbabwe’s situation even worse is that our lawyer politician are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. Look at the country’s constitution for example, one would think the 2013 Constitution would be water tight in guaranteeing the individual freedoms and rights given it was written by brigades of lawyers in both Zanu PF and MDC. It has failed to deliver any freedoms and rights because it is a weak and feeble constitution.
“Mugabe dictated the new constitution,” boasted MP Paul Mangwana, the Zanu PF co-chair of the parliamentary committee tasked to draft the new constitution. Only a fool would expect a democratic constitution from the dictator!
If the people of Zimbabwe were to bite the bullet and demand democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dysfunctional dictatorship and put the nation back on a democratic footing the current crop of failed politicians will be weeded out. Zimbabwe’s present political system is but a sewage pond, you will never get quality fish there. We need to drain the swamp and fill it with clean water and quality fish will return and thrive!
https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-256444.html
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe's lawyer dominated politicians are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. They could not even be trusted to produce a democratic 2013 constitution! They create a dysfunctional political system, a sewage pond there is no quality fish.
We must bite the bullet demand democratic reforms, the only sure way to drain the sewage pond!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZNKZOoMf1E
ReplyDeleteWar veteran Nox Chivero is right , Zanu PF has hijacked Zimbabwe's liberation revolution for the ruling elite's selfish gain. The Zanu PF thugs have coxed the war veterans to join the party corrupting and compromising them. War veterans have lost political credibility.
Ever since the outburst of war veterans Blessed Geza, Nox Chivero and others in January 2025, Mnangagwa has spend a fortune from his vast wealth amassed from his wholesale looting of the nation's resources, to buy cars and build house for a few war veterans and buy bicycles for the overwhelming majority. These are bribes to buy the war veterans' silence.
Nox Chivero is right, the war veterans should have retained a non-partisan stance and stood firm in defending the values and principle of the liberation struggle. It would be a crying shame if history would say the war veterans compromised all they fought and many died for for a bicycle!
@ George
ReplyDeleteAll political leaders MUST be accountable to the people. This is a fundamental requisite of a healthy and functioning democracy. And yet it is proving to be a bridge too far for many of our people - their personality cult mentality is too deeply rooted.
They consider leaders like Chamisa to be a demigod and, per se, cannot be held to account by mere mortals. How anyone can consider a mere mortal like Chamisa a demigod speaks volumes of their IQ!
Still, all public official MUST be accountable to the people, including Nelson Chamisa. He sold out on reforms and conned the people to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. He must account for this - that is not negotiable!
@ George
ReplyDeleteIf I had been singing Chamisa’s praise as Chief Svosve and his Change radio are doing you would not be complaining. You are fuming and frothing because I have dared to call Chamisa a liar. He lied about plugging vote rigging loop holes. #Godisinit! He even evoked the name of God. He is a liar!
@ Chakaipa
ReplyDelete"The group is captured to the core. State agents are churning propaganda messages."
Why would Zanu PF object to Chamisa lying and conning millions to participate in flawed elections and give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy? The sheer stupidity of that statement speaks volumes.
@ George
ReplyDelete"Iwe Mukori one thing you must know, I don’t care about Chamisa okay, whether you sing or not sing, I don’t care at all, I care about my country and it’s people, what you are writing it doesn’t help me at all, it will never change Zimbabwe, you are just a crabby old man, you don’t have anything to say, bring something new please."
I you think letting Chamisa con millions to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy is "helping Zimbabwe"? Fcuk me!
@ Chamisa
ReplyDeletePromises a better Zimbabwe.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Chamisa & co. have conned the nation to participate in flawed elections on the promise they have devised winning in rigged elections strategies. #Godisinit! How many more time does Zanu PF have to blatantly rig the elections before people finally accept that Chamisa & co. are liars conning them to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy?
We have the right to free and fair elections and it beggars belief why anyone would ever agree to give that up for the dubious promise of winning rigged elections! How can anyone be so shallow, thick and slow, especially after 45 years of Zanu PF rigging the elections!
No wonder Zimbabwe is a failed state, we really have so naive and gullible people amongst us! Nations get the government they deserve. We certain deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its corrupt and utterly useless MDC/CCC side-kick.
@ Mbofana
ReplyDelete‘Vision 2030’ without benchmarks is nothing but empty rhetoric, President Mnangagwa
BY Tendai Ruben Mbofana
TO walk blindly while believing you are heading in the right direction is sheer folly.
Mnangagwa knows that his vision 2030 is a mirage, he is deliberately falsifying the facts because he knows that the people would fight to have him removed from office it the truth was known. Zanu PF's modus operandi is to sell the nation the moon on a silver platter in the distant future and ruthlessly silence those who dare challenge the party's past performance and point out that the promise is a mirage.
@ Dzerutwe
ReplyDeleteThey don't give a hoot about policy . Zanu will lie through their teeth and millions will vote for them. Mumwe woti " Just trust me " and millions will vote . Zimbabwe is cursed. Keep hammering them Mukori , until they start thinking for themselves.
Thank you!
@ Clan
ReplyDeleteMr Mukori .. people no longer care . they opened a new page and found means .. the challenges have been turned into opportunities... Who is so and so no longer matters.. no time to talk about other individuals.. yourself over the seas I see you were inspired by Stories from London by Ken Mufuka... Dr Tafataona Mahoso.. it was the era..not this present day.. what you wite is no longer worth."
You cannot be one of the millions living in abject poverty, the consequences of giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship. The prospect of Chamisa conning millions to participate in 2028 and thus perpetuating the suffering beyond 2028 is unthinkable!
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1LyxBXeYNXzGN
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe is a failed state, a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who are in power only because they rig elections. Mnangagwa promised stamp out corrupt when he took over from Mugabe; corruption has gone into over drive. He promised free and fair elections; he has continued to blatantly rig the elections.
Vision 2030 is a mirage!
@ The Clan
ReplyDelete“There is no living in abject poverty. As I indicated we have learnt the wise way to mind our own business.. takutanha dzatosvikira.. ma politicians ngavaite yavo vega isu chaunga toita yedu inoti raramisa.”
Ian Smith was right "If blacks are to rule themselves people in towns will walk on sewage until they believe it's normal.”
Millions are not just walking on sewage but they are drinking it and think it normal, “katanga dzatosvjikira” as you would say in your infantile wisdom! Of course, it is not normal!
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is that there are millions out there who think it normal to walk on and drink sewage and, worst of all, they have a voice and a vote. Universal suffrage was curse for Zimbabwe particularly given our predatory political leaders have pounced on the brain dead voters conning them to do one idiotic think after another. It is the village idiots who are electing corrupt and incompetent leaders and keeping them in power.
Chamisa conned millions to participate in flawed 2023 elections with an idiotic lie - “I have plugged all the vote rigging loop holes. #Godisinit!” Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the elections and the idiots gave him legitimacy because they had participated in their millions.
“We have learnt the wise way of minding our own business!” How is participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating your own suffering “wise way”? Poor Zimbabwe, we really are cursed nation! Village idiots, millions of them, think themselves wise!
https://www.facebook.com/4415858595176450/videos/693338193754443
ReplyDeleteThe government much less the State President has no business being involved in providing individuals or institutions with financial assistance, this should be left to Banks, Building Societies and all the other financial institutions. In Zimbabwe the Banks and other institutions have all been destroyed.
Mnangagwa is NOT building the nation brick by brick but destroying. He is selling the nation's resources for a song and using his share of the loot to bankroll his vote rigging juggernaut by providing "presidential revolving funds", "housing loans", etc. all covers for his bribery schemes.
In Zimbabwe the glory of Caesar supercede to good of Rome. Zimbabwe's education and health care have collapsed after decades of being starved of funds and yet Mnangagwa's Varakashi4ED are well funded! This nation will pay dearly for allowing this madness to continue all these years! It is unforgivable to allow this to continue even one more day!
@ Admire Mushoriwa
ReplyDelete"The last election failed to meet the regional standards so it's folly to say Chamisa was defeated .Actually it exposed state capture by Zanu PF."
So Chamisa lied in saying he plugged the vote rigging loop holes because Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the elections and the observers saw the blatant rigging and condemned the process!
Chamisa is a liar why you are agonising over this is because you have a personality cult mentality. Chamisa is a demigod who can do no wrong. How anyone can be so shallow, thick and slow speaks volumes of their IQ.
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is that millions were conned by Chamisa because they have the IQ of slugs! We are a failed state because we gave the vote to garden slugs!
Chamisa will con you to participate in flawed 2028 elections to "exposed state capture by Zanu PF" for the umpteenth time! Well having the IQ of a slug has its advantages - one does not see the sheer folly of 45 years of rigged elections!
@ G L T Dzirutwe
ReplyDelete“I don't have a problem with what Mukori is saying because he is brutally honest . We harp on about ane chaunga ndiani. Chaunga chevanhu vari enlightened here . Chaunga chemapositori ekwa Marange who don't worry about toilets at their homesteads . Chaunga which ululates when Zanu scrapes off their debts without asking how Council will fund their operations . Chaunga which sells its soul for chips and chicken served maybe once in 5 years . Mukori should keep hammering those of us who refuse to interrogate leaders across the political divide and call them to account . Tinonyeperwa kuti Second Republic will build 750 000 units togutsurira musoro . Continua Mukori . Usanete.”
There are some issues we should argue over, others we should agree to disagree and there are others we should agree on because they are historic facts and fundamental truths. Chamisa lied about plugging vote rigging loop holes to con people to participate in flawed elections - this is a historic fact.
I do understand that we have millions amongst us who have the personality cult mentality and they consider Chamisa a demigod who can do no wrong. Only a nincompoop can have such a mentality. It is bad enough that anyone should be so shallow, thick and slow to be a nincompoop; what is totally unacceptable is that the nincompoops should hold the nation to ransom.
By participating in the flawed elections and voting in their millions the nincompoops have given Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the dictatorship again and again. It is almost certain that they will participate in flawed 2028 elections on the basis on yet another idiotic lie from Chamisa!
Some one has to hammer some sense into the nincompoops’ heads. Chamisa is a liar and not a demigod. The nation’s fate rests on as many nincompoops being forced to open their ears and minds and finally accept that Chamisa is indeed a mere mortal and a liar!
@ Nessam
ReplyDelete“He won't do that let alone try. Chamisa is his mission project. Nothing to offer this guy.”
In 2018 there were as many as 23 presidential candidate and 130 political parties who contested that elections. Chamisa conned his followers to participate in the flawed elections with the idiotic lie that “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.” Millions believed the idiotic lie and participated - proof the presence of the large number of presidential candidates and political parties made no difference millions of the brain dead voters still believed the idiotic lies.
In 2023 Chamisa con the brain dead with the lie CCC would win big because he plugged the vote rigging loop holes. The personality cult mentality is so strong many of the brain dead accept Zanu PF rigged the elections and yet stubbornly refuse to accept Chamisa lied about plugging the vote rigging loop holes. They do not even see the irreconcilable contradiction in that stance!
In 2013 Morgan Tsvangirai mobilised the brain dead with the argument the opposition’s support would overwhelm Zanu PF’s rigging activities! The brain dead believed that lie with the same blind loyalty they have show with Chamisa. Come 2028, Chamisa or anyone will just as easily con the brain dead to participate in that flawed election on the basis of another idiotic lie!
The mission is not Chamisa or any other opposition leader, the mission is to educate the brain dead nincompoops to shake-off their personality cult mentality. As long as we have millions of voters who are so dumb and stupid they are easily conned to believing idiotic lies of the opposition winning rigged elections, there will be no meaningful change in Zimbabwe.
@ Tagwireyi
ReplyDelete“Let's agree chamisa lied, saka todii. Mukori doesn't offer any solution. Wakutoita seka recorded voice kakaiswa pa repeat kanoramba kachitaura same thing..”
Good, you finally agree that Chamisa lied lied about plugging the vote rigging loop holes. Can I assume you also agree that your were an idiot to have believed Chamisa’s idiotic lie.
“Mukori doesn't offer any solution!” you said.
Well let me spell out the solution to you in capital. STOP BEING THE IDIOT WHO IS CONNED AGAIN AND AGAIN TO PARTICIPATE IN FLAWED ELECTIONS BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE CHAMISA’S IDIOTIC LIES!
I know that you are one of those idiots whose personality cult mentality has long ossified into fat and thus impermeable to reason. You believe that Chamisa is a demigod who can do no wrong. All this feverish defence of him is because you cannot bear to hear call him a liar. And, worst of all to me, you will believe in his next idiotic lie and participate in flawed 2028 elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the nation’s suffering.
I have said this here and else where; universal suffrage is a curse for Zimbabwe. Village idiots like you and the 2 million others who were conned by Chamisa in 2023 should NOT have a vote. Giving a village idiot a vote is like giving a monkey a loaded gun!
Zimbabwe would be a better place if village idiots like you were never born! Zanu PF thugs are not worried about rigging 2028 and getting away with it because they know there 2 millions brain dead Chamisa chete chete brigade members who will be conned to participate in the flawed elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process gets! Poor Zimbabwe, we are doomed to remain a failed state until the generation of village idiots die out (assuming their have not sired equally mentally challenged copies!
@ Koja
ReplyDelete“Vanhu vakabvuma kare kuti zvakaitika asi ukaona post yake ndozvinyorwa zvacho.”
When 2 million are easily conned to believe an idiotic lie one knows that convincing them to believe Chamisa is a liar is NOT going to be a walk in the park. After all Chamisa told a similar idiotic lie in 2018 and that did not stop the village idiots believing the same lie in 2023!
The issue of accepting that Chamisa is a lie must remain on the nation’s agenda because there are many village idiots who still believe him to be a demigod. I have decided that and my decision carries the day. Let us just say you are not known for you making rational comments and it would be irresponsible to let a village idiot decide.
https://www.facebook.com/4415858595176450/videos/2210737789431387
ReplyDeletePolitics, like everything else in this would is about what you can and cannot do and then concentrating on former and not waste time and energy on the later.
Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office and they are not under any pressure from any quarter to do so, at present.
Chamisa & co will participate in flawed 2028 and con the nation to do the same for the same as in the past - greed.
Zimbabweans have participated in flawed election because they have elected to believe the opposition's idiotic lies of winning rigged elections. It is an outrage why the nation would give up their right to free, fair and credible elections because they believe the idiotic lie of winning rigged elections, more so after 45 years of Zanu PF rigging elections.
The challenge here is to make sure Chamisa chete chete brigade DO NOT participate in the flawed elections in their millions as before and thus deny the regime political legitimacy.
SADC and AU condemned Zimbabwe's 2023 elections as flawed and would have deny Zanu PF legitimacy if Zimbabweans had not participated in the flawed elections in their millions. We must NOT make that mistake ever again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2efyGtG_buU
ReplyDeleteChris Dell, USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, said Morgan Tsvangirai was a "flawed, indecisive character who will become an albatross round the nation's neck if he ever got into power." He did get into power, in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, and failed to get even one token reform implemented. And ever since the GNU debacle he and his MDC/CCC fiends have conned the nation to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the nation's suffering out of greed. History has proven Ambassador Dell was right!
The tragedy is with all the historic evidence of MDC/CCC leaders' treasonous betrayals, many Zimbabweans continue to blindly follow MDC/CCC. Democracy demands that the people must be educated, knowledgeable and object at all times if they are to perform their primary duty of holding leaders to account and to safe guard the citizens' freedoms and human rights. Blind allegiance is the antithesis of what a democrat should be!
Chamisa lied to con people to participate in 2023 elections and yet some people have epileptic seizure to hear Chamisa called a liar.
Zimbabweans, we are not yet intellectually mature to have a healthy and functioning democracy. Whether or not we will ever reach that intellectual milestone is a different question!
@ Sellaz
ReplyDeleteTo say Tsvangirai was a “flawed and indecisive character who, if he ever get into power, will be an albatross round the nation’s neck” and this is the truth supported by historic facts in NOT insulting Tsvangirai. To say otherwise is proof of serious intellectual shortcoming - the very thing that landed us into this mess.
@ Lande Ncube
ReplyDeleteMDC/CCC’s worst treasonous act was to fail to implement even one token democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the best chance to do so. Tsvangirai was their leader during the GNU and so he must share in the betrayal!
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1eaKbjdpnDoKX
ReplyDelete"Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), publishers of NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, has come under fire after going nine months without paying its employees, sparking outrage among journalists and staff who accuse the company of exploitation and unfair labour practices." Reported Bulawayo 24.
In a country with very little independent media, that was grime news indeed. Zanu PF has always had a fractious relationship with the private media and it would not be surprising if the regime is involved, directly or indirectly.
Zimbabwe is a failed state and the worsening economic situation demands meaningful political change and closing the little democratic space will make it harder to have peaceful democratic change. Zanu PF should be warned that those who close the door to peaceful change are opting for violent change because change, per se, cannot be stopped.
@ Chiwenga
ReplyDeleteThis is what comes from tyrants, they are destroying the country and yet have the cheek to insist they are doing the opposite.
Zanu PF rigged the 2023 elections thus denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country and now the regime is setting its own home work and marking it too! Zimbabwe is a failed state and as long as it remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who rig elections to stay in power, nothing will change!
Change must start with implementing the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections!
@Selepower
ReplyDeleteAddress the issues raised. How many reforms did the MDC implement? Zanu PF has rigged elections because MDC/CCC have failed to implement any reforms. It is foolish to pretend MDC/CCC are a competent lot!