MDC A will still be corrupt post the congress - undemocratic parties are incapable of self-renewal P Guramatunhu

In 2016 Professor Jonathan Moyo, then Zanu PF Minister and chief strategist and propagandist, said “Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office!” It was one of those rare moments in the spin-doctor’s life when he was not spinning but was saying blunt and honest truth.

As we know Zanu PF was under pressure to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement sponsored by SADC leaders following the rigged 2008 elections. The reforms, if fully implemented, would have delivered free, fair and credible elections and thus end Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections. 

Not even one meaningful reform was implemented during the 2008 to 2013 GNU largely because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out. They had their snouts in the gravy train feeding trough, generously provided by Robert Mugabe, and they forgot about the reforms. 

With no democratic reforms in place, Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections, as we know. It was certain that unless reforms were implemented Zanu PF will rig the 2018 elections too and hence the growing demands on the party to implement the reforms. Professor Moyo’s response above was the party’s blunt and truthful answer to these demands.

Professor Moyo was under no illusions that Zanu PF would ever win free, fair and credible elections. The party was led by corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs rotten to the core and thus were incapable of being reformed. The party was unelectable and, naturally, the party was not going to initiate reforms to guarantee free and fair elections and lose the elections. 

In other words, for Zanu PF to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible national elections; the party will have to transform itself from the unelectable corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship into a competent and democratic party. A tall order, but there it is. 

By the same token, MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU because the party leaders were breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. So, just as with Zanu PF, MDC too is unelectable. MDC must implement in-house democratic reform to transform from the present party of utterly useless sell-outs and have a sprinkling of a few leaders with some common sense. 

Is MDC capable of self democratic-renewal? Well the upcoming MDC A congress was a golden opportunity for the party to transform itself. 

“Some with decades in the struggle trenches face retrenchment to political dustbins and wilderness,” wrote Brain Sedze, a strategy consultant commenting on the MDC A political intrigues. 

“What I think is the greatest threat though, is that the congress is likely to deliver a weaker MDC Alliance. It’s likely to be a party both deficient in skills, depth and diversity.

“The idea in brief is that the party must restructure first before congress and deploy silos reserved for certain groups to ensure strength in diversity. The congress outcome must celebrate diversity by inclusion of women, ensure generational renewal with consensus, build new coalitions to increase capacity, reinforce tribal balance, appease alliance partners, have requisite skills and have a voice across the broad spectrum of society.” 

Yes it is true that MDC A has suffered from chronic “deficiencies in skills and depth” but that is because the party has stifled all debate and meaningful democratic competition within the party. Diversity has nothing to do with it. 

Both Zanu PF and MDC A have been obsessed about tribal, regional, gender, etc. balance. Zimbabwe has had some of the most bloated public service and cabinets in the world; during the GNU we had a president, two VPs, a Prime Minister, two Deputy PM, over 50 ministers and deputy ministers, 10 governors, etc.; all in the name of diversity. The over the top diversity did not stop the country sink into the hell-on-earth we have sunk into today. 

Indeed, diversity was used as cover for stifling debate and democratic competition. Chamisa will be crowned leader of MDC A without any meaningful challenge and competition for the post, his was the only name in the hat. The many of the other position will be filled using a similar formula and so most of the deadwood in the party will be recycled. 

Post May 2019 congress, MDC A will still have corrupt and incompetent sell-outs and many of them recycled from who have been at the helm for the last 19 years as leaders going forward. There will be no change in MDC A’s performance because the party will still be led by corrupt and incompetent individuals! 

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess because for the last 39 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime. What the country needs is to implement the democrats reforms to end the curse of rigged elections. 

Neither Zanu PF nor MDC A can be trusted to implement the reforms because both the two party are corrupt and incompetent. The political leaders from both sides of the political divide would win a free, fair and credible elections given their rotten track record. And so they would not implement the reforms only to lose the elections that will follow.

If we are serious about getting the reforms implemented and holding the nation’s first free, fair and credible elections then we must appoint an interim administration tasked to implement the reforms. Neither Zanu PF nor MDC leaders can play any role in the administrations; they cannot be trusted to implement the reforms as their failure to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU proved. 

ICG Capital (UK) secure US$5 b bailout for Zanu PF - even as US$15 b swindlers continue looting P Guramatunhu

“A United Kingdom based international financial consultancy firm, ICG Capital and Finance Corps Limited - in partnership with five top-tier United States banks - has tabled a US$5 billion debt restructuring and refinancing proposal for Zimbabwe, it has emerged this week,” reported Bulawayo 24.

In 2016 the then President Robert Mugabe admitted Zimbabwe was being “swindled” out of a staggering US$15 billion in diamond revenue alone. He was never arrested even one swindler up to the time he was booted out of office in November 2017. His successor, Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance to corruption” and yet to date he too has failed to arrest even one diamond swindler or recover a single swindled dollar.

Worse still, we know the wholesale looting is continuing to this day. A year after Mugabe’s admission, the then Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, told parliament government was still receiving 1/6 of the expected diamond revenue. The situation has not changed to this day. 

Two weeks ago Mnangagwa admitted he had failed to stamp out corruption because it is “deep-rooted”. 

It is no secret that many of those in his cabinet are the diamond swindlers. Where else did VP Chiwenga, for example, get the money to build his C&M mansion, buy his fleet of cars, buy his 45 gold watches, etc.? Mnangagwa himself was named in a UN report as one of the Zimbabwe leaders who were involved in looting in the DRC two decades ago. 

It is therefore not surprising that Mnangagwa has failed to uproot corruption in Zimbabwe. How can he when he and his fellow Zanu PF ruling elite are the godfathers of corrupt Mafia robbing the nation blind!

Clearly, Zimbabwe would not need this proposed US$5 billion bailout if the country stop the corruption costing the nation billions of dollars a month. What guarantees does ICG Capital have that the US$5 billion will not be looted?

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse. 

The people of Zimbabwe are waking up to that political reality, it is 39 years late but better late than never. They know the country must force this illegitimate Zanu PF regime to step down to allow for the appointment of an interim administration to implement the democratic reforms to end the curse of the rigged elections and pariah state. 

We have a plan, we know what we are doing and all we are asking for if the time and space to implement the plan! What ICG Capital are doing here is undermine all our efforts and sacrifices to date to pressure Zanu PF to step down by propping up the corrupt and tyrannical regime with this bailout!

The corruption in Zimbabwe is so rampant that the Zimbabwe economy will, in the end, succumb and with it the Zanu PF dictatorship. ICG Capital and company must know that if that should happen before this Zanu PF has repaid the US$ 5 billion bailout the incoming Zimbabwe government will NOT be under an obligation to repay the loan!


It is high time that companies like ICG Capital are taken to task for their selfishness. Indeed, Zimbabwe would be within its rights to not only refuse to repay the outstanding loan but to recover whatever the nation would have repaid! This bulls*** must be denounced and stamped out!

Teachers are NOT going back to work for 2nd term - no surprise, can't pay transport cost W Mukori

If the worker’s wage is not enough to pay for his/her transport cost to work, let alone everything else; then it will be just a matter of time before the worker stops going to work because not many workers can afford to subsidise the employer indefinitely. In Zimbabwe the workers’ wages have fallen significantly since the beginning of the year. It is therefore not surprising to hear that teachers will not be returning to their work stations next Tuesday, the beginning of second school term.

"We have communicated to government that things are bad. We asked them to organise a meeting, but they are not responding. Judging from what is on the ground, teachers are not going to teach,” explained Raymond Majongwe, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general.

"We tried our best to engage the government, and so they must not blame us if our members fail to come to work. We gave them enough time but they did nothing," Majongwe told the Daily News.

Teachers, nurses, cleaners, electricians, etc. who are paid in RTGS$ are worse off today than they were beginning of the year. The RTGS$ has lost its value from 1:1 with the US$ to 4:1 or worse today. Most workers were struggling to meet their basic need back then and now they are sinking. If the worker’s wage is not enough to pay for his/her transport costs alone; forget about food, accommodation, etc., etc.; it is clear the worker will have no choice but to stop going to work, that is not rocket science.

If PTUZ’s decision is that the teachers must stay at home, then they must stay put. If the decision is to hold peaceful street protest, then the organisers of the protest must go the extra mile and explain these are peaceful demonstration. They must deploy stewards to make sure everyone remains peaceful. If violence should ever breakout, the stewards must identify the trouble makers and hand them to the authorities.

Whilst this Zanu PF regime is not prepared to pay the workers a living wage, will never admit that it has no clue how to revive the economic meltdown, etc., etc. The one thing the regime is ever ready to do is to use brute force to silence all dissent. Think of the regime as the bad wolf accusing the sheep down-stream of mudding his drinking water!

We should not give up our right to hold peaceful protest to highlight the suffering masses’ plight. We have a just cause and we do not want it clouded by diversionary side issues. We must make sure we do not suffer and die in silence like sheep in a slaughter house, we must be heard or be it be smart enough to drink downstream of the bad wolf!

Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections confident his regime will rig economic recovery and that has now proven mission impossible. The only way out is for the regime to step down so the country can finally implement the democratic reforms and end this curse of rigged elections and pariah state.

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the economic situation will only get worse.  As more and more workers fail to report for work because their wages cannot even cover their transport costs this will only accelerate the economic meltdown! We should never ever forget that behind the worsening economic meltdown are human beings who are now dying for want of food, US$5 per month medicine, etc.

Our mission is to make sure the regime steps down and thus save the nation from the heart-breaking human suffering and unnecessary deaths.

The country is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 39 years. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta are holding the nation hostage and have done so for decades; this is totally unacceptable. The regime must step down, that is not negotiable! 

"I will unlock legitimacy crisis and get financial aid" boasted Chamisa - wittering, ignore him P Guramatunhu

"I am ready to meet President Mnangagwa for a political dialogue that is needed in the country to help us to unlock the legitimacy crisis in the country, so that he can be accepted by everyone and the country can get the financial aid it needs," Chamisa said.

"We need to sit down with President Mnangagwa representing Zanu PF and ourselves as MDC Alliance, and the meeting should be chaired by a mutually respected adjudicator, local or international, and preferable a former head of state."

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta are an illegitimate regime and hence Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Last year’s election process was flawed and full of illegalities and hence the reason the regime and not just Mnangagwa are illegitimate.

The notion that it is only Mnangagwa who is illegitimate is nonsensical and figment of Chamisa’s sick mind. Chamisa believe the elections should be judged free, fair and credible on the basis of the result; if he is the winner then elections were free, fair and the result is legitimate and if does not then Mnangagwa is illegitimate.

Chamisa also believes that he can, if he so wished, declare the illegitimate Mnangagwa, legitimate. Another figment of a bloated ego!

Chamisa and Mnangagwa can have their “political dialogue” wherever they, with whoever they want to be adjudicator and agree to whatever they want. None of these things will ever change the political reality that Zanu PF rigged last July’s elections and that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs even if Chamisa was to hold a senior position in the dictatorship. Zimbabwe will not get any meaningful financial aid or achieve any meaningful economic recovery as long as the country remains a pariah state.

The only viable solution to end the country’s curse of rigged elections and pariah state is for Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to step down to create the political space for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms leading to the holding of free and fair elections.

Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms because the regime will never reform itself out of power especially when the ruling elite have so, so much at stake. After 39 years of absolute power and billions of dollars in looted wealth; giving this all up is simple unthinkable. Besides many of them have a murderous past they do not want uncovered.

Indeed, Mnangagwa and company risked life and limb to stage the November 2017 coup because they could not bear the thought of losing power.

A Zanu PF/ MDC A GNU will not implement all the reforms, if it implemented any at all. MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented during the 2008 GNU, it is naïve to think they will do any better the second time round.

Zimbabwe’s economic and political situation is now in such a perilous situation the country demands a definitive solution, a competent administration to implement all the reforms timeously, and not another wishy-washy GNU whose principle desire would be to retain as much of the dictatorial power as possible.

Mnangagwa and Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections they must be told in no uncertain terms that they are illegitimate and must step down. All political machinations to stay in power is nothing short of the regime holding the nation hostage.

Chamisa and his MDC A friends’ wittering must be ignored. They have had many, many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and they have sold-out. They should not be allowed to waste another day another chance to end the political nightmare the nation now finds itself stuck in.   

Madhuku admit elections were rigged and participated because it is a "process" - no, it was greed N Garikai

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, explained why Zimbabwe’s opposition parties have continued to participate in national elections even when they KNEW the election process was flawed, illegal and Zanu PF will rig the elections. Greedy!

“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),” explained Senator Coltart.

“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.”

Most of the MDC factions did come together to form a coalition, the MDC Alliance, before the 2018 elections and yet they all participated in the elections. Not even one of them raised the need to boycott the elections even though it was certain Zanu PF will once again rig the elections. Even when ZEC had once again failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll; still the opposition parties and candidates participated in the flawed and illegal elections.

The opposition candidates did not care that the election process was flawed and illegitimate and that all election observers have rightly condemned the elections.

“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” said the EU Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission in its final report.

The opposition candidates and parties did not care that Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections as long as they got a shot at winning the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away. All because of greed!

It is little wonder that all the opposition candidates and parties who participated in last year’s flawed and illegal elections have all accept the election results as legitimate. Having participated in the elections knowing there was no voters, no free public media, etc. it would be hypocritical to then complain of the same after the elections.

Chamisa has accepted the parliamentary results but is disputing ZEC’s vote count for the presidential race. Chamisa claims he garnered more votes than Mnangagwa. A dubious claim given vote counting was one of the many flaws and illegalities in the process and he failed to produce the documents to verify his vote count.

Being greedy is one thing but pretending the elections were free, fair and credible to an increasingly sceptical world is proving to be a real challenge for the opposition.

“I know the argument made by those supporting the sanctions that we have not made sufficient democratic progress. We accept that there are things that we still have to do to improve our political and democratic process. But a democratic project is a long term project,” explained Professor Lovemore Madhuku, one of the participating presidential candidates.

“What we are saying is that the outside world must allow us to move in as much as we can to improve our economic, political and social space without the sanctions that are crippling us.

“We are in the dialogue for the purpose of contributing our voice to the lifting of sanctions.”

The failure to produce something as basic as a voters’ roll, denying 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, making there was no free public media, etc.; these were all deliberate and calculated flaws and illegalities implemented for the sole purpose of rigging the elections and keep Zanu PF in power. Professor Madhuku knew this as did all the other opposition candidates and still the participated for selfish gain.

Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections after taking over from Mugabe but failed to keep his promise because he and his fellow Zanu PF thugs were not willing to give up absolute power afforded them by the de facto one-party dictatorship. It is nonsense to argue he did not honour his promise because Zimbabwe’s “democratic process” has not yet reached the point where we can hold free, fair and credible elections.

Zimbabwe’s first multi-racial elections in 1980 should have been free, fair and credible. They were not because Zanu PF had operatives on the ground who told rural voters that if the party did not win the elections the civil war would continue.  Lawlessness and wanton violence by the ruling elite to establish and maintain their dictatorial strangle hold on power have remained an ever present danger in Zimbabwe for the last 39 years.

The country is in this economic and political mess precisely because for 39 years we nation was stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. The country’s economic recovery is dependent on the nation end this curse of rigged elections. We do not need the lawlessness and wanton violence no more than a family need a cobra and black mamba living with them in the house.

Of course, holding free, fair and credible elections is an event and not a process; implement the democratic reforms to end the lawlessness and violence and the country will have free, fair and credible elections.

After 39 years of denying the ordinary Zimbabweans the basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and with the nation in a real economic mess and millions living in abject poverty as a consequence we must now focus on restoring the people’s freedoms and rights as a matter of urgency.

It is unforgivable that there are those in Zanu PF who continue to resist change. It is very disappointing that the Zanu PF thugs are receiving political support from opposition parties pretending they are fighting for the common people when they are not.

If MDC leaders had implemented the reforms during the 2008 GNU the nation would have free, fair and credible elections in 2013 and got rid of the Zanu PF dictatorship. They failed to implement even one reform in five years because they sold-out.

If the opposition had boycotted the flawed band illegal 2013 or 2018 elections and thus starved Zanu PF of even the modicum of political credibility forcing the illegitimate Zanu PF regime would be a piece of cake. Opposition leaders like Madhuku are propping up this illegitimate Zanu PF dictatorship and extending its stay in power at great expense of the people who are suffering.  Madhuku et al are doing this out of selfish greed. Stop it! For heaven’s sake stop it! 

""Regional balance will make MDC stronger" - nonsense, it is damaged beyond fixing P Guramatunhu

“Hupenzi inyama yegakava!” (There is no one more stubborn than an idiot!) we say in Shona. Hopewell Chinono is not just a run-of-the-mill idiot but one paid and paid well to confuse the opposition and the Zimbabwean people at large. Whilst the nation is fighting hard to end the weakness that have dragged us into the hell-on-earth we are now stuck in; Chinono is doing his idiotic best to keep us there!

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess after 39 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule. There have been many, many golden opportunities to end the de facto one-party Zanu PF dictatorship but sadly they have all been wasted because the opposition tasked to implement the democratic reforms were corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs.

There is one common denominator is both the ruling party and the opposition, both camps are stuffed to the rafters full of corrupt and incompetent individuals! There reason for this is easy to see, there is no meaningful debate and democratic competition allowed in the parties.

When Robert Mugabe, for example, succeeded Ndabaningi Sithole in 1975 as leader of Zanu PF there was no debate or democratic elections; he was nominated, seconded and crowned. Mugabe then surrounded himself with dimwits like the late Simon Muzenda, Joice Mujuru, Emmerson Mnangagwa, etc. whom he promoted under the pretext regional, gender or some such feeble excuse.

With dimwit around him it was then easy for him to justify his refusal to groom a successor – there was no suitable candidate. Come each elective congress, he saw to it that only his name was in the hat turning the election into a coronation.

It is an open secret that Mugabe was a control freak; he never allowed his ministers any slack to do anything in case their accomplishment eclipses his own. In all his 37 years as head of government, Mugabe has never allowed a cabinet meeting to go ahead unless he is there to chair it. No doubt many of the intellectuals appointed into his cabinet or some such position have learnt to tone down their contribution just to their job. By the time they final left, Mugabe had reduced many a professor and otherwise well respected professional into idiotic savant.

The dimwits around Mugabe have done the same thing themselves. Aware of their own serious, they too have in turn appointed dimwits who will not be a threat to their own position.

There is no meaningful debate or democratic competition in most of the country’s opposition parties. They are all copies the Zanu PF template. Nelson Chamisa succeeded Morgan Tsvangirai in can only best described a palace coup and he is now consolidating his position as leader using the same undemocratic means Mugabe would be proud of. And guess who is cheering and applauding MDC blundering; Hopewell Chinono.  

“I had a chat yesterday with a friend emanating from the article I had written about the upcoming MDC Congress and Nelson Chamisa’s imminent official ascendancy to the MDC Presidency, after being nominated without opposition,” wrote Chinono in one of his articles in Nehanda Radio.

“In my view they can emerge much stronger from this congress if there is a true representation of the country’s regions in the top six positions.”

This culture of turning elections into coronation is counter-productive because it stifles debate and democratic competition. Chamisa should have been asked to defend his performance record to date and present his vision of what he wants to do in the future. A serious challenger to Chamisa was then expected to cross examine the record and take Chamisa to task on everything. Chamisa will be forced to defend himself and cross examine the challenger’s record. It is this cut and thrust that forces quality leaders to emerge and to keep them on their toes.

Leaders should be elected on merit and merit alone. The moment you compromise on merit to allow for regional, gender, race, etc. you have lost it because you open that bottle for whatever reason there is no closing it!

Hopewell Chinono is a Mnangagwa apologist masquerading as an opposition adviser. The opposition parties in Zimbabwe have been corrupt and incompetent and hence the reason they have failed to force Zanu PF out of power regardless of its pathetic track record. Chinono’s job is to make sure the opposition parties continue those practices guaranteed to keep corrupt and incompetent individuals as leaders so opposition parties remain weak and feeble.

“The MDC should avoid the retrogressive temptation to elect their number 1 and 2 positions from the same region, and they should also not try to appease folks close to their President in return for proximity to the main center of power,” argued Chinono.

Neither Mugabe nor Mnangagwa had their number 1 and 2 from the same region and that did not stop their respective regimes being corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. In the case of MDC, the damage has already been done by turning this elective congress into yet another meaningless rubber stamping coronation.

There is nothing to shout about Chamisa’s past performance record; he is corrupt and incompetent and will now surround himself with dimwits who will not be a threat to his leadership. MDC A will continue to be led by corrupt and incompetent individuals for the next five years, nothing has changed there.

There is no progress but Chinono is paid to misled the MDC leaders and members into believing the party is strong and set to win 2023 elections hands down!  

Lord grant me sanity not to repeat same mistakes over and over again W Mukori

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”

The prayer by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971). 

God only knows how much we, in Zimbabwe, need the serenity, courage and the wisdom now more than ever! Indeed, we have lacked the wisdom to know the difference between what we can and cannot do we have spent the last 39 years serenely accepting things in our power to changed and have paid dearly for it! 

There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth economic and political situation with millions living in abject poverty because of 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. Could we have prevented this? Yes, of course we could have and, more significantly, can do so now if can only have the common sense to stop making the same mistakes over and over again. 

Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is a man-made tragedy and, per se, a problem of bad governance due to incompetent  leaders and due to our failure to supervise them.

There is no denying that Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is a man-made situation. In 1980, when the country attained her independence, the country had a vibrant economy with the potential to become the South Korea of Africa we became the North Korea of Africa instead. 

In 1980 Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of the region, for example; growing enough to her own people and many others in the region and earned a fortune from tobacco, cut-flower, beef and other agricultural produce. In 2000 Mugabe seized the farms to give to his Zanu PF cronies and the agricultural sector collapsed. 

For the last two decades Zimbabwe has failed to produce enough to feed its own people and has become heavy dependent on food aid - we are so poor we cannot even pay for it. Correction, the country can pay for the food if billions of dollars were not creamed off and wasted by the filthy rich ruling elite. 

We live in the day and age when human ingenuity has turned deserts is blooming field and orchards. Zimbabwe is, for all intent and purposes, the Garden of Eden and yet we are starving! This is the damning testimonial of the sheer corrupt and incompetence of those who have governed Zimbabwe these last 39 years.

We, ordinary Zimbabweans, have played our role, passive or otherwise, in the Zimbabwe we see today - a basket case of a failed state. By the time Zimbabwe attained her independence Mugabe and the great majority of those who had wage the war of independence had already jettisoned the values “Liberté, égalité, fraternité!” (Liberty, equality, fraternity!) to borrow from the French revolution. Mugabe et al wanted absolute power and was prepared to use brute force to get it! 

The 1980 election was not a democratic but grim choice of electing to stop the civil war or to see it escalate; Zanu PF made is very clear if the party lost the elections the civil war will intensify. If anyone ever doubted Mugabe’s revolve on using brute force to retain power the Gukurahundi massacre of 1983 to 1987 removed all doubt. 

The sole purpose of the Gukuhandi massacre was to either eliminated Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu party or force them to join Zanu PF to create a de facto one-party dictatorship. Mugabe got the dictatorship he wanted but not before over 20 000 innocent civilians had been massacred in cold blood.

After independence in 1980 Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime has trained the AK47 rifles from white colonial oppressor onto the civilian population and the regime has used lethal force at the drop of a hat just to remind the populous “Big brother has loaded gun and has a titchy finger!” 

Still, it is a historic fact that the people of Zimbabwe had many golden opportunities to stop Mugabe imposing the de facto one-party dictatorship and, once imposed, to dismantle it. The best chance to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU; Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ task then was to implement the raft of democratic reforms formulated by SADC. Not even one reform was implemented in five years. Not one!

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the ticket they will deliver democratic change, as the party name implies. In their 19 years on the political stage MDC leaders have failed to deliver even one democratic change. The people themselves have been naive and gullible to believe MDC will deliver any change because not only did MDC leaders themselves have no clue what these democratic changes were, the people too had no clue. 

A case of the blind leading the blind into the ditch!

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe in the November 2017 military coup he promised to a new transformed Zimbabwe, “new dispensation, a Second Republic” as he called it. He promised to hold free, fair and credible elections; the one thing, above all else, that would marked the metamorphic transformation from the de  facto one-party dictatorship to a healthy and functional democracy. 

Mnangagwa went on to blatantly rig the 2018 elections. He was reminded of the need to implement the democratic reforms without which it is nonsense to talk of free and fair elections; just to be absolutely sure he will not have the excuse of not knowing what was expected of him. He never even made an effort to implement even one token reform. 

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime rigged last year’s elections, they have no democratic mandate to govern the country, they are illegitimate and must therefore step down. Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 39 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and, per se, illegitimate Zanu PF dictatorship. 

The EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and anybody who is anybody have all condemned last year’s elections as flawed and full of illegalities. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake. Zanu PF would have been forced to step down by now if Zimbabweans themselves had agreed the elections were NOT free, fair and credible. 

Everyone in the opposition camp participated in the elections regardless of all the evidence the elections will be rigged. Even when ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll that did not stop them joining the rat race. Zanu PF has since learned that as long as the party allow the opposition to win a few gravy train seats the party can blatantly rig the elections to secure its 2/3 majority and the presidency, the opposition will participate regardless. 

Having participated in the July 2018 elections regardless of the glaring flaws and illegalities, everyone in the opposition had no choice but to accept the flawed process as legal and the result as legitimate. Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance have accepted the parliamentary result as legitimate but not the presidential result.  He is just holding out in the hope Mnangagwa will concede an additional gravy train seat for himself over and above the few MDC A have secured in the elections. 

The people have not stamped their own authority and put an end to the political charade of rigged elections but, once again, the people themselves have been indecisive. Many people are even with all the benefit of hindsight still indecisive as to whether last July’s elections were free, fair and credible. They have no clue what constitute free, fair and credible elections much less what to do if elections are rigged. 

In this day and age; 2 500 years after the Greeks gave humanity democracy, freedom, liberty, etc.; one would think something as basic a verified voters’ roll should be accepted by all as a common sense pre-requisite to a meaningful elections. In Zimbabwe, it might just as well be rocket science requirement!

In the long run, people get the government they deserve. After 39 years, we in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties, over 130 of them at last year’s elections. 

39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship have left millions of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty; the country’s once upon a time robust economy is in total ruins, unemployment has soared to nauseating heights of 90%, basic services such as clean water and health care have all but collapsed, etc. 

If Zimbabweans are serious about getting out of this hell-on-earth then they must take ownership of their own destiny and stop being a helpless passengers.  To Niebuhr’s prayer Zimbabweans must now pray for common sense.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”

But above all, whenever I have lacked the wisdom, courage and/or serenity; dear Lord grant me the sanity to stop repeating the same foolish mistakes!