Chiwenga abandon C&J mansion for "White House", he's loaded - cut loot, two more white elephants P Guramatunhu

 “VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga whose previous two divorce cases revealed that he is loaded with money, property and businesses has completed building a new luxurious mansion in Harare's upmarket Borrowdale suburb. He is expected to move into the jaw-dropping home soon, informed sources say,” reported News Hawk.

“The cost of the new house runs into millions of dollars. The source of Chiwenga's wealth remains a mystery.

“The breathtaking property was constructed in recent months by Chinese nationals who fitted it with the latest technology to bolster the security-conscious vice-president's safety.

“Dubbed "the White House", the awe-inspiring double-storey mansion has a spectacular structure and the finest finishings; transcendental decorative texture and optics all built by the Chinese.”

Of course, we KNOW the source of not only VP Chiwenga, Robert Mugabe and all the other Zanu PF ruling elite’s fabulous wealth - corruption. 

The Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) is one of the select few local individuals/entities who were granted a very special and very lucrative diamond mining concessions in Chiadzwa and Marange. The holder of the concession is allowed to mining without having to keep any record of the quantity or quality of diamonds mined, to whom the diamonds are sold and for how much, who the beneficiaries are and how much they received, etc., etc. 

The beneficiaries of these super special diamond mining concessions are under no legal obligation to declare any of their earnings for personal or company tax purposes.

The Zimbabwe’s GNU cabinet was certainly aware of these special diamond mining concessions because David Coltart, MDC Minister of Education in the GNU, related a story where Emmerson Mnangagwa suggested that the Ministry of Education would not be asking for increased budgetary allocation if it too had one of the mining concessions.  

The late Edward Chindori-Chininga tabled a parliamentary committee report in 2012 revealing how all those mining the diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa kept no records and paid no tax. 

The special diamond mining concession were a “licence to loot!” Period!

So the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, cabinet and parliament, the highest powers and authorities in the land not only knew about the wholesale looting taking place in Marange, they are the ones who issued and approved these looting licences. 

Looting in Zimbabwe is legal and institutionalised.

VP Chiwenga was the ZDF commander and no doubt he and his fellow top brass in the Army would have received their share of the Marange diamond mining spoils. He retired from the Army after the November 2017 military coup to become the VP. No doubt arrangements were made to ensure he either continued to receive his share from the ZDF activities or some other concession. 

 The diamond mining concessions have become so popular they have now been extended to gold, platinum and lithium mining and to other areas such as fuel procurement. 

The ZDF together with their Chinese partner from the Chiadzwa and Marange diamond mining have spread their wings into some of these new areas! 

The looting continues! All paid to the select few in brown paper envelops, in hard currency of choice and all tax free! Not even ZACC will be allowed to ask the obvious question: where did you get the money to afford all these mansions, cars, gold watches (VP Chiwenga has 45 gold watches), etc.?

Just to be absolutely certain ZACC will never ever overstep the mark and ask stupid questions of those granted the licence to loot; the chair person of ZACC is none other than the wife of the late Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sibusiso Moyo. 

As the News Hawk correctly pointed out, the “White House” is VP Chiwenga’s second mansion in Harare. His first mansion C&J (Constantino and Jocelyn) was renamed C&M (Constantino and Marry) after he divorced Jocelyn and married Marry. He has since divorce Marry and had her thrown out of the mansion. 

So why is VP Chiwenga a second mansion? One might ask!

The divorce paper to his first wife Jocelyn showed just how rich Chiwenga is. The couple had the C&J mansion, farms, fat bank accounts, a fleet of posh cars, lived in unparalleled luxury and, among the many luxuries, Chiwenga had 45 gold watches. 

Chiwenga is building the “White House” mansion, he has a mansion already but is building it anywhere because he is loaded and cannot think of anything else better to spend his looted wealth on. He is not alone in this!

Robert Mugabe squandered US$ 2 billion building his Blue Roof mansion because he too was loaded. The mansion is empty because his wife and children are hardly ever there. 

The maintenance bill for the mansion is US$100 000 plus per year and there is nothing going on there to generate even one dollar. The rot and decay has already started!   

Mugabe poured billions of dollars into building a sprawling business empire which was thriving whilst he was alive, no doubt, from the many direct and indirect subsidies. His Gushungo Dairy Farm used to be a hive of activity is now totally deserted. 

Chiwenga, Mugabe and the rest of the local ruling elite are squandering their share of the looted national wealth of luxuries they do not need and, without the looted wealth, cannot afford to keep. 

At a national level, it is criminal to be spending billions of dollars on mansions, posh cars, etc. whilst hospitals and schools are starved of funding. The US$2 billion squandered on Blue Roof mansion alone would have paid for Batoka Gorge Hydro Power Project, a second Kariba Dam with all the economic benefits! Instead, we have just another white elephant.

Chiwenga and his ZDF buffoons are nothing but vicious hunting dogs to be fed the head, legs, the guts and all the cheap stuff whilst the hunter, the Chinese in this case, takes all the good stuff. Worst of all the Chinese are not only keeping the lion’s share of the wholesale looting that is crippling Zimbabwe, they are doing everything in their power to stop any meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe just to keep Zanu PF in power so the looting can continue!  

MDC A is imploding - so would Zanu PF, as Mugabe when dared cross swords with the Chinese N Garikai

 

There is talk of MDC A imploding!

 

“Chamisa made a grave mistake tolerating, incorporating and embracing in his party ousted members of the G40 Zanu PF faction, especially the flip flopper Professor Jonathan Moyo,” wrote Prosperity Mzila

 

“Yet others opined that just like the prodigal son, defecting members of the MDC-Alliance just want to go back home (ZANU PF Party) as they were struck in the MDC-A wilderness and now faced with the realisation that there is no progress in the opposition politics as it has been characterised by immaturity and disregard of democratic and constitutional principles. Consequently, home is always best.”

 

This is just the pot calling the pan black! Yes, MDC A is imploding because of lack of direction born out of the chronic dearth of competent leaders but then Zanu PF too is imploding for the same reason.

 

In 2014, then VP Joice Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa and many other Zanu PF bigwigs were booted out of Zanu PF just before the party’s elective congress. She had amassed more support for the VP position than her main challenger, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and that was the real reason she was booted out.

 

But before the dust of Mai Mujuru and others’ exit had settled down, two new factions emerged, G40 and Lacoste. The November 2017 military coup settled which factions prevailed – Lacoste led by Mnangagwa did prevail.

 

By the time Mnangagwa was sworn in as President, just weeks after the coup, there were rumours of the Lacoste faction had already divided, like amoeba, into two. One faction loyal to Mnangagwa the other to VP Chiwenga. The national elections in July 2018, 8 months since the coup, gave Mnangagwa the chance to consolidate his hold on power by appointing his loyalists into key cabinet posts leaving VP Chiwenga isolated.

President Mnangagwa has appointed some of VP Chiwenga’s friends in the Army ambassadors and appointed a whole battery of new faces in the Army top brass. VP Chiwenga will not recognise many of the faces in the Army he was the commander of until his appointment as VP following the coup.

 

The chances of the Army staging yet another coup to advance VP Chiwenga’s presidential ambitions has been neutralised, at least for a while.

 

MDC’s implosion started in 2005, six years after the party was launched in 1999, when then Secretary General of the party, Welshman Ncube broke away to for his own political party. Tendai Biti followed suit and broke away from MDC-T led by Tsvangirai to form his own party in 2013.

 

Ncube and Biti rejoint MDC-T to form the MDC Alliance led by Tsvangirai.

 

Next, in 2018 Thokozani Khupe broke away MDC A following the seizure of the party leadership by Nelson Chamisa just days after Morgan Tsvangirai death.

 

The impetus for the latest MDC-T amoeba division was the Supreme Court judgement confirming Chamisa’s seizure of the MDC leaders following Tsvangirai’s death had violated the party’s own constitution. The judgement has thrown the cat among the pigeons, both MDC A and MDC-T have been divided, merged and dividing into so many pieces, some have ended up landing back in Zanu PF, only a vulture can sniff them out.

 

Power and the influence, wealth and good life it brought to those in power was the glue that held Zanu PF together.

 

Mugabe inherited a wealthy nation, “the Switzerland of Africa” as the late Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania told Mugabe in 1980. “Keep it that way!” Mugabe squandered the wealth on the bloated civil service, bloated Army, bloated cabinet, etc.; he was buying their loyalty. The Zanu PF members are a wasteful lot and were always demanding for more loot.

 

By the late 1990s the national economy was slowly grinding to a halt, the two decades of mismanagement and corruption have left their mark. Zanu PF’s ruling elite kept coming, demanding for more loot.

 

Mugabe turned to the only thing of value left – land. He started seizing white owned farms, the owners were forced to leave everything including movable assets, and giving them away to his party loyalist mostly. The agricultural sector, the country’s economic engine, collapsed; the ruling elite failed to maintain farm productivity; and this was the coup de grace to the ailing economy.

 

By 2008 Mugabe was running out of white owned farms to seize and give away and the economy was in total economic meltdown with unemployment rate and inflation soaring to dizzying heights of 90% and 500 billion % respectively. Zanu PF infighting started in earnest as members fought over the ever shrinking national cake.

 

Without the loot Mugabe could not hold Zanu PF together. The booting out of Mai Mujuru and those around her in 2014 was the party “load shedding”, it simple did not have enough loot to satisfy the boated party. The economy has never recovered and hence the reason Mnangagwa is struggling to hold the party together; he has very little loot to give away.

 

If Chiwenga or anyone else was to emerge as the top dog, Zanu PF member will desert Mnangagwa just as readily as the deserted Mugabe in droves as soon as it was clear Lactose was prevailing over G40 in the November 2017 military coup. Zanu PF members’ loyalty is to whoever can give them loot, nothing else matters.

 

In the July 2018 elections Zanu PF won 2/3 majority in parliament and yet the powers that be had to resort to additional unorthodox measures; ZEC failed to produce 10% the V11 forms, summary of vote cast at which polling station, for example; just to get the party’s presidential candidate, Mnangagwa, over the line with 50.8%. A similar thing had happened to Mugabe in 2008 when Tsvangirai won 73% in the March vote, according to Mugabe’s own Freudian slip.

 

Mnangagwa knew that corrupt in Zimbabwe was the number one cancer killing the nation’s economy and hence the reason he promised “Zero tolerance on corruption!” However once in office he quickly realised why Mugabe before had done nothing to root out corruption.

 

Zanu PF ruling elite are the top brass in the Army, Police and CIO; those in key positions in government, government owned companies and private sector, the cartel bosses, and those in key positions in the party, Zanu PF. They are either the Godfathers or the chief beneficiaries of the rampant corruption in Zimbabwe.

 

Add to this list the foreign individuals and nations like China who too have an invested interest in keeping the status quo of the wholesale loot and political paralysis in Zimbabwe.

 

The Zanu PF ruling elite and their backers wield a lot of economic and political power and they will use it to bring down anyone they perceive to be a threat their corrupt activities even if he happened to hold the highest office in the land!

 

The cartel bosses and the foreign operators, who have a lot more brain power than the, would let Zanu PF implode into smithereen the day the party stops to be useful to their economic interests. They are the real power behind the otherwise brain dead Zanu PF politicians and the security services buffoons who are the puppets.

 

"They (the five diamond mining companies who had pledged $10 million each at the behest of then Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere) had me walk here holding a big board inscribed with a (US$1.5 million) cheque that they later refused to honour. You still have that grievance,” revealed Robert Mugabe at a Zanu PF rally in Mutare in 2017.

"I'm also bitter that a grown man like me, I'm made to parade a board (cheque) which doesn't mean anything."

"We took over everything from the Ghanaians, Lebanese, Chinese and South Africans who were running companies in Chiadzwa so that we do our own mining. But this has taken a rather long time."

 

Booting out the Chinese was not such a wise move because Mugabe was booted out of office soon thereafter. And with their man in State House, the Chinese were soon back in Chiadzwa. They are there to this day!

We must implement democratic reforms to restore individual freedoms and rights including right to meaningful vote P Guramatunhu

 

“What electoral reforms?” asked Francov.

“I have seen and read many articles on the need for Zimbabwe to reform/change its electoral laws. But I am yet to know or understand exactly what/which laws need to be changed and how they should change.”

You have raised some real important points and worthy our serious consideration.

It has been impossible to have a healthy and functioning democracy in Zimbabwe because most of the people out there do not even have a clue on what constitute free, fair and credible elections and so it has been easily for Mnangagwa to blatantly rig the elections and insist the elections were free, fair and credible.

For elections to be free, fair and credible the process must satisfy laid out laws and procedures in much the same way a game of football is governed by rules everyone must observe. For elections, we have rules saying who can and cannot vote, those eligible to vote must then register and be listed in a voters’ roll, the voters’ roll must be verified and produced at least a month before nomination day, etc., etc.

Not only did ZEC fail to produce a verified voters’ roll a month before nomination day; they never produced one even to this day.

“The electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Zimbabwe 2018 Election Mission final report.

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

Of course, if you do not have the verified voters’ roll you cannot verify who voted and who was denied the vote, how many voted more than once, etc., etc. The opportunity to rig the process is limitless and with no verified voters’ roll they know they will get away with murdered!

Many outsiders have been baffled as to why Nelson Chamisa and his friends in the opposition camp participated in the 2018 elections when ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a voters’ roll? The answer is simple – greed!

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” admitted David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Coltart was an MDC-N Minister of Education in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years.

Robert Mugabe bribed the two MDC faction leaders with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about implementing the reforms.

SADC leaders, who had helped to hammer out the 2008 Global Political Agreement and got Mugabe and Zanu PF to agree to the raft of reforms, literally begged MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 elections until the reforms were implemented. SADC leaders wanted the elections postponed until reforms were implemented.

Zanu PF was quick to point out that MDC leaders had never tabled any reform proposals in parliament, which was true. Patrick Chinamasa, who was Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs throughout the GNU, called a press conference to confirm there were no outstanding reform proposals. None!

So, MDC leaders had failed to implement even one reform during the GNU because they were corrupt and were bribed to forget about the reforms using the trappings of high office. They could not boycott the 2013 (and future) elections to protest (pressure Zanu PF) the failure to implement reforms because it was none other than MDC leaders themselves who had sold-out on reforms. And so MDC have participated in the flawed and illegal elections since the GNU because they had no choice; they had the golden chance to implement reforms and they wasted it.

As Coltart readily admitted above, by participating in flawed and illegal elections MDC are giving “the process credibility” and by extension giving the result legitimacy. True enough, Mnangagwa has given the 23 presidential candidates in the July 2018 as proof Zimbabwe is a healthy democracy and the elections were free, fair and credible.

The reason why the opposition have participated in the flawed elections is greed, they knew Zanu PF was offering a 1/3 or so gravy train seats plus a corresponding share of the annual Political Party Finance Act pay out. The opposition have found this bait irresistible.

As can been seen from the details above many things must change, must be reformed. It is a legal requirement that ZEC must produce a verified voters’ roll, for example. So one must then look at what reforms are required to force ZEC to carry out this task?

It is common knowledge that state institutions like ZEC, Police, Judiciary, Public Media, are all but Zanu PF departments in all but name. The State President has the power to appoint and fire ZEC, Police, etc. The law must be changed force these public officials to appear before a parliamentary committee with the power have the official removed from office if their performance is unsatisfactory.

In some cases the open up of the democratic space would produce the desired change, for example a healthy and competent media will expose the corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians who have been participating in flawed elections out of greed.

Here is a list of five democratic reforms Zimbabweans should be demanding before the next elections in 2023;

a) a verified voters’ roll

b) Zimbabweans in the diaspora what have a vote

c) Zanu PF must stop politicising state assistance especially in the rural areas that has turned the people into medieval serfs beholden to Zanu PF leaders and their proxies

d) want a free public media, Police and other state bodies

e) corruption must be stamped out, this is the source of billions of dollars bankrolling the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut.

See bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-198673 for more details of the above reforms.

The link below will open many other articles on elections and other related issues.

It is no exaggeration than many Zimbabweans out there would say the 2018 elections were rigged. Ask them why and it’s light out!

If we want a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe, then we must earn it. There really is no excuse why the majority of people do not know what constitute free, fair and credible elections in this day and age. If we cannot be bother to ensure we have free, fair and credible elections then we deserve the corrupt and vote rigging dictatorship. And we have certainly got our just deserve!

 

"Will be a friend of West, they disgruntled with our land reforms" - povo, not West, are ones dying for change N Garikai

 

"I would like to be a friend of all and an enemy of none," announced Zimbabwe’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Fredrick Shava, after taking his oath of office.

"We are going to try our best to reaffirm our friendship with our all-weather friends and we will also bring countries that have been disgruntled by our land reform programme and imposed sanctions on us so that we talk to them (West)."

Minister Shava has just started on the wrong foot!

Zimbabwe is facing a serious and existential threat from the economic and political crisis that has dragged the nation deeper and deeper into the abyss. And the root cause of the crisis is the 41 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawless that has turned the country into a Banana Republic.

Last week the Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Dr John Mangudya, said Zimbabwe has the resources to bankroll not only its economic recovery but economic prosperity.

"We don't need anyone's money as we can do it on our own. Sometimes it's just the mindset and belief to achieve that," Dr John Mangudya told Business last week. 

"Like what oil is to Nigeria, gold is to Zimbabwe. The precious mineral alone has the potential to turn around the country's fortunes.”

And yet for the last 41 years Zimbabwe has continued down this path of economic ruins because of corruption. The RBZ has said the country is losing an estimated US$1.2 billion every year to gold smugglers.

It is as clear as day that Zimbabwe much now do something address the scourge of corruption and mismanagement and that something is implementing democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.

The Zanu PF ruling elite have done nothing to end corruption and endemic misrule because they have remained unaccountable to the people. By rigging elections, they placed themselves above the people who, without a meaningful vote, are utterly powerless.

Many ordinary Zimbabwe have long realised the need for democratic reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections as the only way out of this hell-on-earth the nation finds itself stuck in.

It is therefore most disheartening that Zimbabwe’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs is dismissing the West’s call for democratic reforms on the same feeble grounds that the West is “disgruntled by our land reform programme”. And has once again completely ignore the ordinary Zimbabweans demand the same reforms; not only do we have no democratic vote, we have no voice either!

Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as education and health care have completely collapsed and 50% of our people now live in abject poverty. This economic and political situation is unbearable, unsustainable and socially and economically reprehensible because it is wholly a man-made crisis.

It is incumbent on every Zimbabweans to now demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and restore the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life!

For 41 years Zanu PF has rod roughshod over us, denying us our freedoms and rights. The regime has completely ignored our suffering and has murdered over 30 000 to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship we lived under all these years.

Zimbabwe is standing on the very edge of the precipitous abyss and must urgently implement meaningful democratic changes to stop going over. Dr Fredrick Shava, cannot conduct the nation’s affairs on the same basis as his predecessors, denying the need for change and ignore the tragic reality on the ground, crying for change.

Zimbabwe cannot continue resist democratic change on the false grounds that it is the West who are asking for change; it is not the westerners who are living in abject poverty and hopelessness and despair. It is ordinary Zimbabweans and they have been crying for change, a voice and a meaningful vote. Zanu PF must embrace change, the days of the dictatorship are over!

"We benefited from Tsvangirai's strategic (2008 GNU) choice" - then why are we still stuck P Guramatunhu

 

There is no denying that Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential economic and political crisis. There is no denying that a national dialogue leading to the full implementation of the democratic reforms and the holding of free, fair and credible elections can help end the crisis.

Dialogue that will lead to the formation of another GNU with no chance of implementing the reforms is a waste of time; we must learn from the past.

Sadly, the country’s two main opposition parties, MDC-T and MDC A, have learned nothing and are hell bend on the national dialogue for dialogue’s sake or, at the very best, to produce a new GNU with no political muscle to implement any reforms.

“MDC Alliance deputy spokesperson, Clifford Hlatywayo, said it was already engaging SADC and other African countries, to help with the push for all-inclusive dialogue aimed at ending the country's decades-long political and economic crises,” reported Daily News.

“MDC-T chairman, Morgen Komichi, also told the Daily News that they intended to approach the regional bloc to mediate the much talked about dialogue.”

Calling for dialogue has become the excuse for failing to do the right thing – implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

Zanu PF has no intention of implementing any democratic reforms and hence the reason why the party has made it clear it welcomes dialogue only in the context of POLAD. And to join POLAD, one must accept the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible and the Zanu PF regime is legitimate.

Chamisa and company participated in the 2018 and the 2013 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF would rig the elections. Zanu PF offered the opposition a few gravy-train seats plus a cut of the annual Political Party Finance Act pay out – the opposition found that irresistible! Zanu PF knows Chamisa and company will participate in the 2023 elections even if not even one reform is implemented because their greed will once again have the better of them!

At the 2014 MDC-T party congress, Morgan Tsvangirai and his followers made a congress resolution the party will not participate in any future elections until democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections are implemented. “No reform! No elections!” was the party’s new clarion call!

Of course, Zanu PF knew Tsvangirai and company would never boycott the elections, the party’s resolution to do so was just a bluff. The call for dialogue and reforms is just another bluff; MDC leaders will participate in the 2023 elections even if not even one token reform is implemented.

"Quarrels are not working. Let us follow what Tsvangirai did. He went to the negotiating table to solve the country's crisis, and as the MDC we are going for dialogue with other political parties,” said Douglas Mwonzora the new leader of the MDC-T.

"The benefits that Zimbabweans received as a result of Tsvangirai's strategic choice are now a matter of historic record."

The last GNU failed to resolve the country’s economic and political crisis precisely because Morgan Tsvangirai failed to carry out the primary task of the GNU – to implement the democratic reforms and restore the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free, fair and credible elections.

What is the point of the national dialogue if the key players in the proposed dialogue only pay lip-service to reforms, at best, or else outright reject the need for reforms!

Schools to reopen 15 March - they will not be covid-19 hotspots again and teachers are capacitated? P Guramatunhu

The Zanu PF cabinet in its collective wisdom has decided to reopen schools in two weeks time! announced the phased reopening after the Cabinet meeting yesterday.

"Cabinet agreed that the school calendar for 2021 starts on a slightly phased approach, with the examination classes opening on 15th March and the rest on 22nd March 2021,” announced Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa.

"Teachers for examination classes should therefore report for duty on 10th of March, and the rest on 17th March, 2021.”

Here we go again! 

By the time schools closed last year, a number of school had corona virus cases. As we all know there have been very few cases of young people catching the virus which would suggest the viral load in our school setting must be high. 

It is no secret that it is impossible to maintain social distancing and other basic corona virus preventive measures are near impossible where 40 or more student share the same washing and toilet facilities. 

What measures have government put in place to ensure school are not going to be corona virus hotspots again?

Schools should be reopening after the country has vaccinated 10 million people, it target head immunity. The government is not likely to reach this target until end of 2022 because it was slow off the mark in purchasing the vaccines. 

Government should ramp up its testing so it can test all the students and staff and quickly isolate those with the corona virus infection. Last year it could only test 47 out of 1 000 at Dadaya High School! 

Then there is the issue of paying teachers a living wage. Has this thorny issue been resolved? 

Zimbabwe is a rich nation and can afford to pay its teachers, nurses, dictators, etc. a living wage. 

"We don't need anyone's money as we can do it on our own. Sometimes it's just the mindset and belief to achieve that," Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr John Mangudya told Business last week. 

"Like what oil is to Nigeria, gold is to Zimbabwe. The precious mineral alone has the potential to turn around the country's fortunes.”

The reason why Zimbabwe’s economy is in total meltdown, has been for decades now, and have failed to turn it around is because the wealth from diamonds, gold and other resources is wasted through gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube has admitted the country is losing as much as US$ 1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers.

In 2016 the now late President Robert Mugabe admitted the country had been “swindled out of US$ 15 billion worth in diamonds alone”! As we all know he never arrested even one diamond swindler nor recover one swindle dollar. 

You sir, President Mnangagwa, promised “zero tolerance to corruption” when you took over following the November 2017 military coup. Well, you too have failed to arrest one diamond swindler or recover one swindled dollar!

Indeed, ever since the November 2017 military coup corruption has spread to other areas such as the procurement of fuel and gold smuggling. 

Zimbabwe should not be reopening schools just because other nation in the region are do the same! Countries like SA have ramp up their tests regime, they are set to reach their target head-immunity this year, etc. We have no such system in place.

It is utterly pointless talking of reopening schools when there will be no teachers because they are incapacitated. The recent poor grade 7 results  showed the pass rate has sunk to less than 40% with many school register 0% pass rate. A nation that fails to educate its young is doomed. 

The root cause of our failure to address the corona virus challenges and the failure to pay teachers, etc a living wage is the criminal waste of resources through corruption and mismanagement. The nation has been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent government for 41 years and counting because Zanu PF rigged the elections. 

Zimbabwe has been kicked the can of rigged elections and bad governance down the road for four decades and the nation has paid dearly for this folly as the country’s economy has sunk deeper and deeper into the abyss. The corona virus pandemic has made our economic crisis worse and thus underline the urgency of our situation. We must deal with the problem of rigged elections now. 

The 2023 elections must be free, fair and credible and the democratic reforms to make this possible must be implemented now and not a year before the elections. 

Zanu PF leaders will never stamp out corruption because they are the Godfathers of corruption and whilst corruption rule the roost it is naive to expect the corona virus challenges etc. to be addressed! Zimbabwe is not getting out of this hell-on-earth the nation finds itself stuck in until we deal with the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

"We take umbrage to Timveous mischief" says MDC A - strange, leaders sold out big time during GNU and never even notice it N Garikai

 The trouble with people who are shallow, thick and slow is they have the propensity to make mountains out of mole-hills and thus waste not only their time and energy but that of everyone else involved.

MDC has been on the political stage for 20 years, 5 of which in the GNU, they have failed to bring about even one democratic change in all these years. Not even one! 

The party had the golden chance to implement the reforms during the GNU. SADC leaders had got Mugabe and Zanu PF to agree to the democratic reforms by signing the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ primary task in the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented and the golden opportunity was lost. 

Having failed to implement the reforms the party has changed tactic; it has been participating in elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections. The narrative was if the opposition was better organised and united, it will win rigged elections. 

“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” boasted Chamisa before the July 2018 elections. Ever since the elections he has insisted on calling Mnangagwa illegitimate because he “stole the July 2018 elections!” Chamisa has conveniently forgotten that he is the one who boasted MDC would stop Zanu PF stealing the elections. 

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A, Douglas Mwonzora and his MDC-T and the rest of the opposition entourage are preparing to participate in the 2023 elections. They all know that since the July 2018 election not even one meaningful reform was implemented and therefore Zanu PF is going to once again rig those elections; guaranteed! No doubt, Chamisa, Mwonzora, etc. will all come out with their own Winning In Rigged Election (WIRE) strategies. 

The real reason why MDC leaders have been participating in flawed and illegal elections, especially after the watershed 2008 elections when Zanu PF showed that its power to rig elections was infinite, is to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait. Zanu PF needs the opposition to participate to give the flawed election process so credibility and to give the result legitimacy. The opposition have found the bait irresistible.

After 41 years and counting of rigged elections it is criminal and insane to drag the nation into yet another flawed and meaningless elections. 

Every Zimbabwean with half a brain should be spending all their time and energy on making sure that democratic reforms are implemented before the 2023 elections. If the elections go ahead with no reforms then the plebiscite must be declared null and void. 

Every Zimbabwean with half a brain should be spending all their time and energy reminding the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition that the nation is sick and tired of their deceitful WIRE strategies. 

“It has come to our attention that former MDC Alliance national executive committee members Lilian Timveous and Blessing Chebundo have resigned from the party and joined the ruling party Zanu-PF,” call the statement from MDC A Harare.

“While we wish our former colleagues well at their new political home, we take umbrage at their mischievous attempts to justify their shameful actions by casting aspersions on the MDC Alliance leadership in general and the secretary-general of the party in particular.

“Allegations by former deputy national treasurer-general Timveous against secretary-general Chalton Hwende cannot pass the veracity test as the claims are outright falsehoods concocted to justify her treacherous and selfish decision to abandon the people's struggle in order to join the Zanu-PF gravy train.”

How tragic that Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leadership sold out big time during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and have continued to sell-out by participating in flawed elections with tragic consequences to the whole nation. And yet, ever to this day, the majority of the MDC A members have continued to sheepish follow these corrupt and incompetent leaders oblivious of the consequences of their own folly. 

The MDC members have always come to life, agitated as bees whose hive is under attack; because, this time, two-party leaders resigned! The consequences of their going, to the party worse the nation, is manicure but you would think so from the commotion in the party. This is just another MDC storm in a tea cup! 

The tragedy here is the nation will be dragged into yet another flawed and meaningless election in 2023 and MDC leaders will participate and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy! And all because the nation cannot get MDC leaders and their members to stop wasting time on trivial matters and focus on the real important issues - implementing the reforms and ending the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

It is not only Zanu PF that is holding the nation to ransom; the party now has junior partners in MDC!