"Mnangagwa honored 2% of 2018 pledges, a call to elect Chamisa" - actually, elections were rigged with Chamisa's connivance P Guramatunhu

 

According to Stephen Sarkozy Chuma, MDC Alliance Youth Assembly National Spokesperson, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has only managed to carry out 5 out of the 237 electoral promises he pledged in 2018, the 5 only 2%!

“Never mind about his useless and senseless “huge progress” rhetoric, Mnangagwa is failure personified!” commented Chuma in Zimeye.

“Among a plethora of lies that he promised, Mr 2% failed to fulfil his 1,5 million housing program, 2000 new schools and employment pledges.

“This is a wake-up call to all Zimbabweans that we should elect servant leaders who honour their promises. A pro-people and God-fearing leader in the mould Advocate Nelson Chamisa can surely do better if given a chance.

“It’s time to reject Mr 2 % and all that he represents – failure!”

The people of Zimbabwe have known for decades that Zanu PF had failed them. By the late 1980s the nation was painfully aware that Robert Mugabe’s promise of mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as he never seemed to tire of saying it; was transforming into mass poverty as the country lost its lofty position as a middle-income nation, the breadbasket of the region to become a Banana Republic wallowing in abject poverty and now dependent on food aid.

By the late 1990s the nation finally wake-up to the political reality that the country’s relentless economic decline will continue as long as Zanu PF remain in power and the party will remain in power as long as Mugabe and company continue to exercise their dictatorial powers to rig elections. The nation needed democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections or there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends launched their party in 1999; if elected into power, they promised to deliver the democratic changes to end the curse of rigged elections the nation was dying for. The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb, the price they have had to pay for supporting any other political party other than Zanu PF, to elect MDC leaders for the sake of meaningful democratic change and reform.

MDC leaders have been on the political centre stage for 21 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, MDC leaders have failed to bring about even one token democratic change in all those years. Not a sausage!

The 2008 to 2013 GNU was, without doubt, the best opportunity the nation has ever had to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship once and for all. Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trapping of high office and with their snouts in the feeding trough they forgot about the reforms for the five years of the GNU.

Worst of all, ever since their blatant betrayal during the GNU, MDC leaders has all but abandon the cause of demanding reforms and free, fair and credible elections; they have participated in flawed and illegal elections giving the process credibility and the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy all because they could not resist Zanu PF’s bribe of a few gravy train seats for participating.

“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 elections,” confessed David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe. Mr Coltart was an MDC Minister in the 2008 to n2013 GNU and is Treasurer General in the MDC A.

“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.”

Well, Mr 2% and his Zanu PF cronies are gearing for the 2023 elections and with not even one token democratic reform implemented, it is certainty the party will blatantly rig the election to yet another landslide victory. Indeed, the blatant rigging has already started with the party announcing that it will continue to deny the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, another broken Mnangagwa promise. The diaspora vote is very significant considering Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes!

The truth is Mr 2% and company did not want to risk losing the 2023 elections by implementing even one reform because he KNEW Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends will participate in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be as long as he offered them the few gravy train seats bribe – which he is doing.

What are you, Chuma, wittering about, "This is a wake-up call to all Zimbabweans that we should elect servant leaders!" The people of Zimbabwe did not elect Mnangagwa and his cronies, they rigged the elections and got away with it thanks to Chamisa and company who participated giving the process credibility and Zanu PF regime legitimacy.

Right now, Mr 2% is gearing to blatantly rig the 2023 elections; confident Chamisa and company will participate to guarantee the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy!

No, the real wake-up call for all Zimbabweans is to the political reality that MDC leaders will never ever implement any meaningful democratic changes and with no democratic reforms, the nation will never have free and fair elections, will never ever end the curse of bad governance and thus will never, never ever end the criminal waste of human and material resources behind the country’s economic ruin.

Democracy, Mandela's greatest legacy to SA, had it's stress test, Trump test, and passed W Mukori

 

“Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, statesman and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election,” states Wikipedia.

Wikipedia does not do justice to the man, Nelson Mandela was above all else a visionary leader and, as befitting all visionary leaders, his influence was felt during his lifetime and will echo for many, many more generations to come.

What makes Nelson Mandela such a colossus is that visionary leaders are rare, one in a dynast if you luck, one in a generation if you are very, very luck. In Africa, it is no exaggeration to say visionary leaders are so rare one was given to believed they are extinct. Mount Everest stands majestic as the highest peak in the Himalayas Mountain range. How much more majestic Mount Everest would be if all round it was land as flat as a pancake with a few anthill and rock outcrops a few metres high; such is the standing of Nelson Mandela amongst his fellow Africans.

Some people have criticized Nelson Mandela for failing to lift his fellow blacks out of poverty, “as President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, has done!”.

Full kudos to Paul Kagame for he has indeed managed to stamp out corruption and implement very progressive economic and social policies which have improve the qualitative and quantitative standards of living of Rwandans. Paul Kagame has had the time to implement his transformative agenda; he has been president for the last 20 years and before that, 1994 to 2000, he was VP; Mandela was president for 5 years.

Paul Kagame has created a political system that has allowed him to stay in power regardless of the democratic wishes of the people. It has been ok whilst he remained in power because he has clearly shown that he has very sound economic and social policies to take the nation forward. The problem arises with those who will come after him they will all want to enjoy the same carte blanche powers that has allowed Kagame to stay in power all these years, regardless of their leadership abilities.

All living things will seek power and dominance over others, Charles Darwin called it survival of the fittest or natural selection; it is the most primeval and dominant force on planet earth and will rule supreme to the end of time. What has taken Kagame nearly three decades to accomplish will take a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant - the overwhelming majority of African leaders fit the bill – will destroy in a matter of months! And there lies the distinction between Paul Kagame and Nelson Mandela.

Mandela’s legacy is one of a healthy and functioning democratic system of government enabling society to elect the most competent competitive individuals into power and, just as important, to remove them from office before their primeval instinct to dominate kicks in. There is nothing Paul Kagame has done in Rwanda to stop that country being stuck with just another mediocre leader or, worse, a murderous tyrant.

All Kagame’s achievements are just sandcastles, easily washed away in the next tide or wave. Mandela laid a solid foundation on which a stable and prosperous SA can be built.

True, none of Nelson Mandela’s successors, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and now Cyril Ramaphosa, have accomplished anything of note in their years in office. If the truth be told the ordinary South Africans themselves are to blame for failing to take advantage of the country’s democratic institutions to ensure the elected leaders with some common sense. One hopes that the last 25 years of mediocre to downright corrupt governance under Zuma has a steep learning curve for all South Africans.

Of course, it is very frustrating to every South African that the country has not made any significant inroads into ending poverty in that country; however, no one can deny that the country’s next elections will be free, fair and credible and thus there is hope the nation will be more careful and elect leaders with some common sense, at least.

South Africans are better off than other nations like Zimbabwe in which the individuals who fought to end white colonial rule turned the guns on the ordinary people to impose themselves as the nation’s next rulers; for 41 years and counting the nation has been stuck with corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Zimbabwe’s economy is in total ruins; the nation has sunk from a upper middle income nation in 1980 to one of the poorest in Africa.

Zimbabwe is due to hold elections in 2023 and already it is clear that Zanu PF will rig the elections, the party has already said it will, once again, deny 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Mnangagwa reportedly won the 2018 presidency with 2.4 million vote constituting 50.8% of the cast votes! How can an election in which 30% of the eligible voters are denied the vote be a legal, free, fair and credible elections!

The last few weeks have stress tasted SA’s democratic system of government. Former SA President Jacob Zuma and his supporters triggered some of the worst looting, burning and lawlessness since the country’s independence to protest the imprisonment of Zuma. They believe Zuma is above the law and the looting and burning was not going to stop until Zuma was released!

The looting and burning has largely stopped and the lunatics who inspired it are now condemning. They have had the chance to sober up, look down the precipitous fall into the abyss and turn back. They are now agreeing on the need for rule of law, that no one should be above the law, and are ready to embrace Nelson Mandela’s legacy of democracy as SA’s system of government.

In 2016 the American made the mistake of electing Donald Trump President and his four years in office was to tress-test that country’s democratic institutions like nothing since that country’s civil war. The institutions held and in 2020 the nation replace Trump and the country and most of the free world heaved a big sigh of relief!

South Africa and most African nations heaved a big sigh of relief when the looting and burning in SA stopped and Zuma was still in prison where he belongs!

If rule of law and democracy, Nelson Mandela’s greatest legacy to SA, SA will thrive and, in good time elect competent and accountable leaders who will finally address the nation’s economic and social challenges to create a more just, free and prosperous nation in which no one is left behind. If democracy and good governance is proven to work in SA, the pressure for the other African countries to adopt it as a tried and tested system of government will be irresistible. And so Mandela’s legacy to SA will sweep the continent, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, like the life giving rain storm after a prolonged drought!

Zimbabweans have never ever participated in a legal, free, fair and credible elections; a right many the world-over take for granted but one which we have been promised but cheated of again and again. As a child I used to dance for joy in the first rain to mark the end of the dry season I know many Zimbabweans will cry for joy the day Zimbabwe holds its first ever free, fair and credible elections given how long the nation has had to wait for that day!  

Looting and burning are echoes of apartheid era and proof SA's failure to make quantum leap W Mukori

 

“Before independence corruption was considered a bold and patriotic act especially as the corruption was considered an act of defiance against white colonial government. It is just that after independence the corruption continued; Nigerians consoled themselves by arguing Nigeria is very rich and there is plenty more where the looted wealth came from!” A Nigerian acquaintance once told.

“Cold comfort! Look what Sani Abacha has done; completely destroyed the country!”

If the truth be told, many African countries have been in economic decline ever since they attained their independence for various reasons including corruption. The corrupt and incompetent ruling elite have conned the ordinary people into believing there was nothing wrong with corruption, lawlessness, rigged elections, etc., etc. and those advocating for these values are brain washed puppets of the dethroned colonial whites who are seeking regime change and then recolonize the country.

I had hoped that South Africans would have learned to avoid the mistakes Nigerians and the rest of independent Africa before them made; they would not be so easily conned into throwing out the baby with the bath water. The basic rule that no one should be above the law is pivotal to fighting corruption, I thought every South African will see that!

Many South Africans are still living in abject poverty, the country’s wealth is still in the hands of the whites. Independence brought an end to political apartheid in the sense that blacks now have a vote and the racist laws have been abolished. However the laws and practices that had given the whites the economic advantage before independence have remained; economic apartheid is alive and thriving; as far as the impoverished majority are concerned.

The Court that sentence former SA president Jacob Zuma to 15 months for contempt of court has enforced property rights and other laws that have helped maintain the economic apartheid and so it comes as little surprise that the ordinary South African should revolt against the Court and reject rule of law.

The overwhelming majority of the owners of the shops, factories and businesses that were looted and burnt belong to the privileged white owners; burning shops, factories, etc. before independence was considered a legitimate target and since the economic emancipation did not happen in1994, the struggle continues.

A luta continua!

Deng Xiaoping. China’s economic miracle that has transform that nation from a marginal nation to the world’s second largest economy happened when Chairman Xiaoping embraced capitalism as an ideology to drive economic growth. Chairman Mao Zedong, his predecessor had rejected capitalism born out of the deep-rooted mistrust of the British, Americans and the West.

"It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice." Argued Chairman Xiaoping.

In the first two decade of China embracing capitalism the country’s economy grew in leaps and bounds puling hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty and the country has never looked back ever since!

Africa can too, enjoy its economic miracle, we have the rich soil and wonderful weather to produce the food, the vast minerals wealth and the flora and fauna “lovely beyond any singing of it” as Alan Paton put it so poetical. Sadly, Africa’s economic renascence is more uncertain now that South Africans have too the capitulation and rejected the rule of law for no better reason than it is a carryover from the apartheid era!

To paraphrase Chairman Xiaoping, "It doesn't matter whether the judge is black or white, as long as he/she enforces the rule of law and stamp out corruption!" I do not see Cyril Ramaphosa and certainly not the likes of Zimbabwe’s Emerson Mnangagwa ever making that quantum leap; the former lacks the intellectual ability whilst the latter lacks the intellect and is rotten to the core with corruption to ever change!  

"Zimbabwe's covid-19 response in the best in Africa!" bragged Zanu PF - damned lie and an insult P Guramatunhu

"Despite Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations, for government, a single death is one too many," said information minister, Monica Mutsvangwa.

This is just an insult and one thing I hate above all others is being taken for a fool!

The Zimbabwe government announces there were 2 661 new corona virus cases and 51 deaths bringing the total number of cases and deaths to 76 381 and 2332 respectively since the outbreak of the corona virus in March 2020. If this was true, then our hospitals and clinics will not the overwhelms and the graveyards looking like freshly ploughed fields with new graves.

Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 figures have remained low because the country has not followed the WHO and common-sense recommendation of testing, tracing, tracking and isolating. It is common knowledge that Zimbabwe has deliberately and consistently carried out the fewest covid-19 tests per capita even at a time when the is a significant surge in the covid-19 cases.

In December last year for example, when there was a significant number of corona virus cases in both SA and Zimbabwe; whilst SA was carrying out over 44 000 test per day, Zimbabwe with ¼ SA’s population should have been doing over 11 000 test per day. We were doing 1 500, maximum!

If you were not tested for corona virus then you will never be counted as a corona virus case or death. So, the fewer the tests the fewer the official figure of covid-19; it sounds cynical because it is cynical.

The nation has paid dearly for the bragging rights of “Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations!” By failing to carry out the tests, the nation could not carry through the follow up activities of tracing, tracking and isolation. And so many individuals who should have been in isolation were left to mix and mingle with the rest spreading the virus far and wide and fast!

There is no such thing as good time for a disease outbreak much less a pandemic; this corona virus has happened at the worst time for Zimbabwe. The outbreak occurred at a time when the country’s economy is in total meltdown and its health care service has all but collapsed after decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and, to crown it all, the nation was still stuck with the corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Ever since the country attained her independence in 1980, over 40 years ago; Zimbabweans have known the country’s ruling elite were corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who rigged elections to stay in power. The nation has had a number of golden opportunities notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but wasted them all.

In the long run, nations get the government the deserve. We in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt and utterly useless opposition parties, all 130 of them at the last count.

There is no denying if the corona virus pandemic had happened before independence or some thereafter when Zimbabwe’s economic and health care service were robust and strong, the nation will have fared a lot better than it is doing right now – forget the official covid-19 figures there are lies and an insult!

The corona virus storm is not over and no one knows how long it will last. Whilst we mourn and bury our died, we must remember the worst of this catastrophe could have been avoided if only we, the people of Zimbabwe, had taken our duty to ensure the country had competent and accountable government with the seriousness and urgency the matter demanded. And, more significantly, reflect on what we must do now to finally put an end to the tragic human suffering and deaths that will continue as long as we have a corrupt, tyrannical, vote rigging and utterly useless government.

The Zanu PF government has already started rigging the 2023 elections by arrogantly announcing that 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora will once again be denied the vote. How can the elections be legal, free, fair and credible when 30% of the electorate are denied the vote for no other reason than that Zanu PF does not trust them to vote for the party and it has no opportunity to rig the vote?

It is incumbent on all Zimbabweans to ensure all democratic reforms are implemented to guarantee free and fair elections. Zanu PF and it’s acolyte MDC opposition are gearing for the 2023 elections to proceed with no reforms, knowing fully well the elections will be rigged. It is our duty to make sure the elections are legal, free, fair and credible.

The Zimbabwe ravaged by corona virus whilst the government of the day insults us by falsifying the seriousness of the pandemic and our suffering and deaths is NOT the Zimbabwe we want. And it is high time we demanded the Zimbabwe we, the people, want.

In Zimbabwe it is the ruling elite, tail that has been wagging the dog; that must change, it is the people who must call the shots. “Nyika vanhu!” (It is the ordinary people who constitute a nation!) as one would say in Shona. 

"Citizens duty to correct (reform) delinquent Zanu PF" said Chamisa - and what is MDC's duty N Garikai

 "The national army is a people's army. Citizens have a duty to correct delinquent characters whose misconceived and misbegotten view seeks to reduce a people's military into a militia of a political party," Nelson Chamisa, leader of MDC Alliance, to New Zimbabwe.

"Those utterances are not only a source of national instability and threat to national security but also earn the country a banana republic and pariah status."

Chamisa was responding to Patrick Chinamasa, Acting Zanu PF National Commissar, who was boasting that the bond Zanu PF and Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) was “unbreakable”.  We all know that the army has played a key role in the rigging of elections to keep Zanu PF in power notably in the 2008 elections and the 2017 military coup to topple the late dictator Robert Mugabe.  

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect Chamisa and his MDC friends into power on the understanding they would implement the democratic reforms necessary to end Zanu PF’s strangle hold on ZDF, Police, ZEC, Judiciary and all the other state institutions. It was for you, Mr Chamisa, and your fellow MDC friends to propose the democratic reforms to break the unholy Zanu PF – ZDF, Zanu PF- Police, etc. bonds during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when you had the best chance ever to do so. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU.

The tragic reality is not only did Nelson Chamisa and his fellow MDC friends waste the golden opportunity of the GNU to implement the democratic reforms but, worst of all, they will never ever get any reforms implemented in the future even if they were given another golden opportunity to do so because they have no clue what these reforms are, how they should be implemented and by whom!

Chamisa is expecting the people to “correct” Chinamasa and his fellow Zanu PF thugs and break the Zanu PF – ZDF bond. He does not say what it is exactly the people are expected to do or say much less how these action will end Zanu PF’s strangle hold on the Army and all the other corrupt state institutions under the regime’s spell.

The last 41 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins and political paralysis – stuck with a vote rigging corrupt and tyrannical ruling party, on the one hand, and on the other, an equally corrupt and incompetent opposition that does not even have the common sense as how to end the dictatorship. The economic situation is now so bad basic services such as education and health care have completely collapsed and 49% of the population now live in abject poverty. The situation is socially, economically and politically unsustainable; we need to implement the democratic reforms, they are the prerequisite for meaningful political and economic change, as a matter of great urgency.

Just because Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends have failed to implement even one reform in 21 years does not mean no one else can do it. We need to find the men and women who will implement the reforms a.s.a.p.

MDC leaders have failed to implement even one democratic reform these last 21 years because they have never understood what the reforms are much less who should implement them. This is a cold political reality many Zimbabweans have been slow to accept as shown by the number of people who continue to follow Chamisa et al and participate in these flawed and illegal elections. Like it or not, by participating Zimbabweans are giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF; this is insane and we must stop the madness.

“Citizens have a duty to correct delinquent Zanu PF leaders!” So now it is the citizens’ “duty to correct” Zanu PF thugs, deliver the democratic changes and we will all live happily ever after! No wonder MDC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in 21 years; they have been waiting for povo to implement the reforms! 

“Judiciary abuse liberator, Zuma; stark warning for Zanu PF” – indeed, for no one is above the law! P Guramatunhu

 In the Movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” there is a scene where Jack Sparrow tells the young Will Turner “Stay here! And please don’t do anything stupid!” Pretty damn good advice one should give to our Dr Masimba Mavaza for his stupidity, as expressed in his articles, knows no bonds!

“The problem of judges playing to the gallery is that they will expose the law to ridicule. The situation in South Africa has pitted the judicial system against the democracy and political system,” charged Dr Mavaza.

“It is indeed a shame on the South African Constitutional Court judges for failure to understand their own supreme law. They ignored their own constitution just because they want to fix and not to help. It is a wonder that when the constitutional court set they forgot to be guided by the law and by their own constitution.”

He was commenting on the sentencing of Former President Jacob Zuma to 15 months in jail for contempt of court by SA Constitutional Court. The former president has not been cooperating with the court’s investigation into his corrupt charges and abuse of office.

Jacob Zuma was forced to step down as president in February 2014 when his own party ANC threatened to have him impeached. It is right and proper that the courts have since pursued the corruption charges against with due diligence and thus reaffirming the fundament principle that no one, not even a former state president is above the law.  

One has to plough through a lot of rubbish before finally arriving at it is Mavaza’s found objectionable about the court judgement in this case.

“But in this case the constitutional judges have acted to settle scores,” he argued.

“In this case one would ask how can a Constitutional Court convict and sentence an individual to prison as a court of first instance and leave the accused person without a right to appeal? This question is the reason of all the uproar in South Africa today.”

Of course, this is just Mavaza making a mountain out of a mole hill! The Constitutional Court is the supreme court in the land and, per se, there is no other court to appealing its judgement. Mavaza and the overzealous Zuma supporters who have been holding public demonstrations and even threatening to “shut down South Africa” would not be pacified even if Zuma was allowed to appeal against the court’s judgement; it is the very idea of Zuma being held to accountable in a court of law that they find unpalatable!

“What we see in South Africa now are lessons to be learnt and a stark warning to Zimbabwe. What happens there will happen to our revolutionary stalwarts once they leave office. The judiciary is behaving as the avengers sent by the disgruntled colonialists cum Westerners. This is legal system at war with the executive,” wrote Mavaza. The title of the article was “When The Judiciary Abuses The Liberators: Revolution Under Attack The Zuma Debacle”.

Thank God South Africans have never allowed themselves to be swayed by the foolish notion revolutionary stalwarts are special and therefore above the law. The country’s democratic constitution has delivered on its promise to protect the freedoms and rights of the citizens; keeping the checks and balance between the three arms of government, the executive, judiciary and legislature; etc.; and long may this continue. The same cannot be said about Zimbabwe.

Mavaza should know Zanu PF ruling elite will never ever being brought before a court of law to account for their amassed wealth, rigging elections, staging military coups, Gukurahundi massacre, etc., etc. At least, not in any of Zimbabwe’s courts as the judiciary, like all the other state institutions in the country are Zanu PF departments in all but name. High Court Justice George Chiweshe ruled the 2017 military coup was “legal, justified and constitutional”; just to underline how utterly useless and “capture” the courts are.

The root cause of Zimbabwe economic meltdown and political paralysis is the 41 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness earning the country the Banana Republic and pariah state status. The country is in economic ruins, 49% of the population now live in abject poverty, basic services such as education and health care have collapsed, etc. The economic and social situation is simple unbearable and the demand for meaningful change, for a competent and accountable government, is now political reality that Zanu PF cannot ignore.

Change is coming and the day Zanu PF’s ruling elite will be brought before the court of law to account for their past is nigh upon us. Like it or not Zanu PF's ruling elite will be asked to account for their past. 

 “Judiciary abuse liberator, Zuma; stark warning for Zanu PF” – indeed, for no one is above the law! The suggestion that liberation war heroes are above the law is foolish and the reason why Zimbabwe is in a mess!

"It is not up to Zanu PF but ZDF to be a professional army" - naive, neither will reform themselves out of office N Garikai

"Chinamasa is an attention seeker and just wants to be slightly relevant. The fact of the matter is that it is not up to Zanu-PF for the Zimbabwean military to be professional, it is not even up to Chinamasa. It is up to the military to decide whether or not it remains professional and that there is no party, state conflation," Nkululeko Sibanda said.

Sibanda, MDC A leader, Nelson Chamisa, was responding to Patrick Chinamasa, Acting Zanu PF National Commissa, who was boasting about Zimbabwe Defence Forces’ (ZDF) checked history of political interference, at the behest of Zanu PF, in the country’s politics from the vote rigging, the military coup and the Gukurahundi massacre.

 “Always be mindful that there is this unbreakable continuity between the liberation struggle and Zanu PF, between the armies of liberation Zipra and Zanla and the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) of independence,” boasted Chinamasa.

“Any notion which seeks to break this bond should be rejected outright.” 

Zimbabwe is not the only nation to have gained her independence out of a bitter armed struggle. Many other nations had a similar experience and still they have managed to produce an integrated national army’s loyalty is to the nation and not to the political party or parties that waged the armed struggle. Zanu PF corrupted the ZNA; just as it did with many other state institutions such as the judiciary, ZEC, Police, etc.; for selfish political gain.  

Indeed, ever since the late 1990s the number one priority on the national agenda has been to implement democratic changes designed to break corrupting bonds Zanu PF had fostered on ZNA, judiciary, etc., etc. The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the understanding the party will deliver the democratic reforms the nation was dying for.

The 2008 to 2013 GNU gave Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader then and of whom Chamisa is his successor, the best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms to break all the tyrannical bonds Zanu PF leaders had created to corrupt and control the army and all the other state institutions. Alas! MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years and we know why! Tsvangirai and company had no clue what the reforms were much less how they were to be implemented. Even to this day, with all the benefit of hindsight and volumes explaining what the reforms are, etc.; MDC leaders still have no clue what reforms are about.  

It was USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who said Morgan Tsvangirai “was a flawed and indecisive character” and, if he ever got into power, “would be an albatross round the nation’s neck”!

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power. MDC leaders have been on the national political stage; for the last 21 years, 5 of which in the GNU; they have not only failed to bring about even one reform but, worse still, by participating in flawed elections they are the ones giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.

Last week, Patrick Chinamasa announced that Zanu PF will deny the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West remain!” Of course, this is just a feeble excuse; one does not beat up ones’ wife and children because they quarrelled with the neighbour.

Chinamasa’s announcement was not exactly a bolt out of blue, Zanu PF has resisted demands for diaspora vote for decades; this was just one more piece of evidence that the party was rigging the 2023 elections. Zanu PF knows the party will get away with yet another rigged elections as long as the MDC leaders participate; they have always done so in the past and, all signs are, they will do so again. Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to the MDC leaders to entice them to participate regardless how flawed and illegal the election process got – it has worked!

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will implement the democratic reforms necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Zanu PF has since corrupted the MDC leaders, they now do Zanu PF’s bidding and hence are now an albatross round the nation’s neck, just as Ambassador Dell had predicted.

“It is up to the military to decide whether or not it remains professional and that there is no party, state conflation!” How nauseatingly naïve and idiotic! Of course, the Zanu PF ruling elite who are also the top brass in the Army will never reform themselves out of office. The people have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders on the understanding they will implement the reforms and now they are fighting in Zanu PF’s corner, resist reforms!