British vote to "LEAVE" EU was wise because EU is a dysfunctional union. By Wilbert Mukori

For the record, the British vote to leave the EU was a wise decision for the British people and for the rest of the world including developing countries like Zimbabwe and even the rest of the EU. Why?

 

You have heard a multitude of reasons both for and against leaving the EU, forget them all except one – the EU was not working.

 

The EU started as an economic union but, with time, has become an economic (trade in goods and services), monetary and political union – the latter by stealth with disastrous consequences. To make the economic and even more so the monetary union work the member country found that they had to work to the same laws and regulations and hence the need for the European Parliament.

 

However the idea of the United States of Europe on the same lines as the United State of America with Federal Government making all the key decision affecting all Americans and each State government handling local matters, the super duper local council if you like, never took off. Most EU member states still wanted their national parliament to retain real power hence the reason why national parliamentary elections were considered more important that elections to the European Parliament.

 

Still, the European Parliament started chaining more and more laws and regulations dictating to the national parliaments of the individual countries. Worse still, key decisions in the European Union are made by European Commissioners, unelected but rather individual appointed by respective national governments.

 

For a country like Britain with a healthy and functional democracy the last thing the British people wanted was to be hamstrung by the bureaucratic and, sometime indecisive, EU parliament which many considered superfluous to their own London parliamentary system.

 

On the other hand those national governments whose democratic system was not working as well as it should, countries like Greece, they would have been better off letting the EU dictate to the local government. The EU put its foot down with Greece after the got into serious economic trouble after the 2008 financial crush; after the horse had bolted, some would say.

 

Since 2008 the Greek people have again and again voted for an anti-hostility national government but only for the EU, to force the new government to follow the same hostility policies dictated by the EU or the EU rescue package would be withdrawn.  

 

Greece is not yet out of the financial woods and will need more financial help in the future; the more prosperous EU member state will have to dig deeper to bail it out.

 

For the EU to work and avoid another Greek economic meltdown in a member state, then there have to be more political union. The United State of Europe is a choice but a survival necessity if the EU is to survive into the future; something everyone in the EU seems to loath, having existed as independent nations.

 

An EU without the federal state powers, complete with its democratic deficit, will not produce an economically and politically strong Europe; at least there will be many members countries who will feel they are being held back by the others, Britain will be one such country. A politically and economically enfeebled Britain will not be in the world’s interest.

 

There not one voter who was refused the right to vote, there were no bussed voters casting multiple votes, no NIKUV to tamper with the voters roll, etc. The British electorate heard the arguments for remaining and leaving the EU and made their free and democratic choice. Sadly the same cannot be said about Zimbabwe; we are in the 21^st century on paper but in reality we are the dark ages.

 

Over 33 million Britain voters cast their vote on 23 June 2016 and nearly 52% of them voted to leave the EU; time will tell if it was a wise decision but what can never ever be doubted is that the whole electoral process was free, fair and credible from start to finish!

 

One day, Zimbabwe too will hold free, fair and credible elections, all we need to do is to implement all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms. That will be Zimbabwe’s independence day; the 18 April 1980 independence day was stolen from them!

"Politics is a game of numbers!" still with conman Mugabe - watch out. by Wilbert Mukori

Four Zanu PF wins! Surprise, surprise it is once again a four!

 

I for one was not fooled by Mugabe’s one-million man march, his is a loaded dice; but clearly some people were impressed.

 

“Critics say although the numbers were far less than 100 000, love him or hate him, President Mugabe showed he is a master at commandeering the full might of everything at his disposal to round-up the populace despite the bulk of the 13 million citizens wallowing in abject poverty,” said a Fingaz report.

 

The operative word here being “commandeering”!

 

Zanu PF spent a cool $2 million to stage the 7 April 2016 meeting of 10 000 war veteran members and Mugabe, according to the War Vet Minister’s own statement who organized and paid for everything. So for the 1 000 000 man-march the regime would have spent $200 million.

 

$200 million is a fortune to anyone but more so to a party like MDC-T that is broke it was asking its councillors to contribute to pay for a party rally in Kadoma recently.

 

To Zanu PF $200 million is small charge; this is a party that gave its parliamentary candidate in the 2013 elections brand new car plus $15 000, paid NIKUV $10 million to tamper with voters roll, etc. According to Partnership Africa Canada, Mugabe pocketed $2 billion from his share of looting of Marange diamonds in 2012 alone; of course the tyrant is loaded!

 

So with $200 per head to spend it is not surprising the one-million man march was well supported!

 

"Indeed numbers do matter in politics," says Maxwell Saungweme.

"Whether by hook or crook (President) Mugabe has shown he has support," he said.

"But numbers matter more if they are numbers of declining unemployment levels, declining poverty levels, increased household incomes, improved corruption perception indexes, improved human rights indexes, increased access to drugs, housing, among other things lacking in Zimbabwe," Saungweme added.

 

If unemployment can soar to dizzying height of 80% plus and stay there for donkey years as has happened in Zimbabwe and one is still able to have a landslide victory as Mugabe has done again and again surely that proves that as long as you can rig the vote nothing else matters!

 

“Politics is a game of numbers!” true; but only a fool confines himself to a simple head count at a rally, demo or cast vote because with a war chest full of cash there is no limit to the size of hired-crowd and come elections pay those who organize and count the votes and suddenly it is a totally different ball game!

 

Everyone has a right to meaningful say in the governance of one’s country, this is fundamental right not a privilege, and hence the reason the elections must be free, fair and credible. So if the count is suspect then the primary task must surely be to have this put right first and not be sucked into a head count contest of “by hook or crook” count.

 

The primary task of the opposition parties must be implementing all the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections; until this is done it is a waste of time to do anything else! Zanu PF does not want to hear anything about implementing democratic reforms because the party knows it will never win free and fair elections.

 

So the only logical reason why the opposition has still not implemented any meaningful reforms, especially during the GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so, is because they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

 

Throughout the GNU years, Mugabe saw to it that Tsvangirai and his MDC enjoyed the gravy train lifestyles plus a $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, bribes to stop them implementing the reforms. There is no doubt the tyrant is still doing his best to keep the opposition occupied with demos, rallies, coalition building, anything except implementing reforms. He is even allowing them to hold demos and rallies without the usual accompaniment of Riot Police beatings and tear-gas and, just to stop the implementing of reforms, would even fund the demos and rallies. He is loaded!

 

The greatest challenge facing this nation today is implementing the democratic reforms and thus ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible; until this is done this nation will not do anything of substance. The economic meltdown the nation is facing and the tragic human suffering it has brought is the heavy price we are paying for having failed to carryout out this key task until now. The longer we drag our feet over this the harder the task becomes and the heavier the penalty we have to pay, the economic meltdown is getting worse!

After 500 days in a hotel, Mphoko still refuse to go - primeval greed turned into madness. By Wilbert Mukori

VICE-PRESIDENT Phelekezela Mphoko is giving government nightmares as he is refusing to vacate a five star hotel.

 

Here is a nation whose health service has all but collapsed for lack of funds and yet it has money to house the ruling elite in a five star hotel for 500 days! The regime has already poured $4 million in buying the individual a new mansion and he is not moving in because it is not yet perfect!

 

One has heard of people being greedy and of insatiable primeval greed; what is happen in Zimbabwe, seen as it must with the contrasting back drop of the grinding poverty, hopelessness and despair of the impoverished mass; is greed gone mad.

 

 Zimbabwe is now being ruled by the certified lunatics; they cannot be held legally of politically responsible for anything they say or do!

 

“If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards."
Boswell: Life of Johnson

 

The madness at the heart of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite has now reached point where their insatiable primeval greed constitutes a serious threat to the human lives and national cohesion and stability.

 

We must knock down the ruling elite to save them from eating all super refined five star foods every day and the very soles of their feet are evolving into skin from wearing Gucci designer shoes, slippers and socks! Besides how can we continue to justify the suffering of the millions, without whose sacrifice of bare necessities of life the ruling elite would not afford their obscene luxuries, knowing all this good living is eroding the ruling elite’s health and sanity!

 

36 years of absolute power has turned Zanu PF ruling elite into raving lunatics we must implement the democratic reforms to stop the party rigging elections; that is the only sure way to get these lunatics out of office and save ourselves from the consequences of their insatiable greed.

War vets Mugabe called "dissidents" are "scarred stiff" but so is he - this is deadly endgame phase. By Nomusa Garikai

Life is sweet and no one would want their life cut short. Still there are some people out there who would are murderous thugs and would cut short other people’s lives for selfish gain and, worse still, they boost about it drumming their chest like some big silver-back gorilla! What is really funny is how quickly they cow-down and have their tails between their legs the minute someone threatens them!  

During the war of independence the freedom fighters, as war veterans were called then, were feared but loved and respected by the nation. The war veterans of 2000 who speared headed the njambanja invasion of white owned farms and terrorized the people into voting for President Mugabe and Zanu PF were feared but despised and loathed and for good reasons too. Whereas the freedom fighter of yesteryear was risking his/her life for freedom and human rights and dignity of all Zimbabweans; these rogue war veterans were denying the people their freedom and rights to gratify a corrupt and murderous tyrant’s insatiable hunger for power and wealth.

The fact that former freedom fighters like Chris Mutsvangwa and Jabulani Sibanda would allow themselves be used as Zanu PF’s storm troopers to commit heinous crimes against defenceless people goes to show they were never really freedom fighters but rather mercenaries.

A mercenary’s debt is never repaid; it was one thing holding the nation to ransom but when the war veterans tried to hold the gun to President Mugabe’s head; the tyrant did not like it one bit. When the war veterans tried to hold a meeting to press their demands on President Mugabe in February the latter had the lot tear gassed!

"HE (Mugabe) revisited and revised that sensationalisation on the following day, as he addressed the national consultative assembly. I am still touched by the humility of HE in the apology he proffered when war veterans were manhandled and water cannoned earlier this year," Chris Mutsvangwa commented.

If President Mugabe thought the tear-gassing incident was enough to scar the rogue war veterans and force them to accept his wife as the next party and national president. The war veterans want VP Mnangagwa, someone with liberation war credentials to be the successor for obvious reasons; one of their own would give their mercenary demands a sympathetic hearing that someone like Grace Mugabe who has already denounced their greed. With so much at stake it is not surprising the rogue war veterans crossed swords with the tyrant again.

The war veterans told President Mugabe they were “the stockholders of Zimbabwe and he was merely a stakeholder who will come and go.”

President Mugabe is not one to suffer fools and he was bound to hit back and he did. He called the rogue war veterans “dissidents”.

Of course the rogue war veterans have good reason to be afraid, who needs reminding of the murderous barbarism of President Mugabe and his Gukurahundi in his hunt for “dissidents”.

"There is genuine fear that ED (Mnangagwa) and (War veterans' chairman, Christopher) Mutsvangwa's lives are in danger. Given the fact that it was the President, the most powerful man in the country, who described people as dissidents and you tie this to history, then you can understand where we are coming from," an executive member of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA), who declined to be named, said.

"The other people whose lives could be in danger are (ZNLWVA) spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya and secretary-general Victor Matemadanda, but those would be second thought from what we understand. They are scared stiff, but will not say it publicly."

What is interesting is that these rogue war veterans are now running scarred but were the one drumming their chest yesterday whilst hunting down innocent civilians. What a bunch of cowards.

Still there is a lot at stake for both President Mugabe, his wife is absolutely desperate to be the next president because giving up her Gucci lifestyle is unthinkable, and the rogue war veterans they are staring abject poverty in the face with the little allowance the regime is giving them take that away and they are sunk! It is clear that neither side is going to back down, the spectra of bloodshed is real.

What both President Mugabe and the war veterans must understand is that Zanu PF dictatorship as a system of government has failed this nation, the economic meltdown the country is facing right now is real and it is only going to get worse as long as Zanu PF, it does not matter which faction, remains in power. Whilst the nation will shed no tears if Zanu PF implodes as long as it does not drag innocent people into its factional wars. At the end of the day Zanu PF must understand that the country wants an end to corrupt and tyrannical rule and that is not negotiable!

Elections will sort "who is who in Zoo" say MP Cross - yes but only free and fair elections. By Wilbert Mukori

"Peace for our time" is a phrase, spoken on 30 September 1938 by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his speech defending the Munich Agreement and the Anglo-German Declaration. The speech has gone down in the annals of history as a costly act of naivety and folly for in less than a year the Germany dictator Adolf Hitler invaded Poland and declared war on France, United Kingdom and many, many other nations beside. “Peace for our time!” was violently and utterly shattered into a million pieces!

 

The Second World War was the very antithesis of peace; for the next seven years the world was to witness what man can do to his fellow man, millions of human lives were lost and there was wanton destruction of property. It has taken generations to rebuild the cities and nation who bore the brunt of the WWII but the scar the war left on humanity will never be forgotten. Never!

 

Whilst no one blames PM Chamberlain for what Hitler unleashed on us all, still no student of history worth his salt can deny that by being so naïve and gullible the British PM did make it easy for Heil Hitler to do as he pleased. What makes it worse is that PM Chamberlain was warned of the dangers of appeasing a snake like Hitler and he chose to ignore the warning.  

 

History has the habit of repeating itself or be it at a smaller national or personal level, but the consequences are just as disastrous for those involved.  In the last 16 years the people of Zimbabwe has suffered untold human misery and many have lost their lives because, PM Chamberlain, former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai has been naïve and gullible and would not listen to the warnings of the dangers of appeasing Mugabe.

 

“Finally the election took place, Zanu-PF was soundly defeated and then the process fell apart, SADC leaders failed to follow through and after 9 months of messy political activity, a Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed and took control of the State in early 2009,” wrote Eddie Cross, senior and trusted “kitchen cabinet members” of PM Tsvangirai.

 

Whilst it is true that SADC leaders blundered in proposing the formation of GNU after the July 2008 presidential run-off marred by violence it is nonetheless equally true that the MDC could still have stopped Mugabe doing as he pleased if the party had not been so naïve and stubborn.

 

When it was clear Zanu PF had lost the March 2008 elections but was deliberately refusing to announce the result; MDC leaders met Zanu PF’s Nicholas Goche and offered some Zanu PF members cabinet positions in the new MDC led government. Of course this was a blatant act of appeasement on MDC’s and proof the party lacked the confidence to govern alone. Mugabe took full advantage of this and to “cook” the election results to justify a presidential run-off and to demand more power in the GNU partnership.

 

In the GNU Mugabe reduced PM Tsvangirai to nothing more than his Office boy. Many people advised Tsvangirai not to accept the arrangement notably the USA Ambassador, James Mcghee, who described it have “more holes than Swiss cheese”. Tsvangirai et al ignored the advice and went into the GNU.

 

Still even with all its political limitation there is no doubt that GNU could have accomplished its principle task of implementing the democratic reforms to ensure Zimbabwe’s future elections were free, fair and credible. To fair to SADC leaders, they did their best to remind MDC to implement the reforms. Sadly, MDC leaders ignored the warning and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years!

 

“Then, just as in 2005 when Zanu-PF engineered a two thirds majority in the House of Assembly, they did it again (in 2013) and MDC was kicked back into opposition,” wrote MP Eddie Cross, commenting on the rigged 2013 elections.

 

What MP Cross, former PM Tsvangirai and most of the MDC leaders has refused to admit and is refusing to do so to this day is that simple fact that by failing to implement even one reform to appease Mugabe during the GNU they had per se “engineered” their own defeat. Their continued denial of their failure since the July 2013 is not doing the nation any favours because it means nothing is being done to implement the reforms and so Zanu PF will once again be free to blatantly rig the next elections just as happened in 2013!

 

Morgan Tsvangirai assured the people of Zimbabwe the 2013 elections would be “free, fair and credible” just as PM Chamberlain assured the British “Peace for our time”. When Hitler shatter the Chamberlain’s illusionary peace the British people ditched the dreamer to fight a bitter war before there was peace. We are did not have free and fair elections in 2013 and are now paying dearly for having listened to Tsvangirai. It is sheer folly for this nation to once again believe MDC leaders’ promise of free and fair elections when we know they have still not implemented even one democratic reform!

 

“Unlike 2008, the Zanu-PF Party is completely fractured into at least 4 factions. It cannot be put back together in any sort of semblance of what it has been and no reconciliation is possible. The opposition is no less fractured and comprises over 30 Parties. Who is who in the Zoo can only be determined by an election,” acknowledged MP Cross.

“Major figures in the Parties do not want an election because they well know that they could not win an election that is run on the basis of the SADC rules for democratic elections.”

 

Wrong the 2013 elections were not run on the basis of the SADC rules; SADC reminded MDC to implement the democratic reforms but you lot would not listen.

 

The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political paralysis is simple Zimbabwe; implement all the democratic reforms MDC failed to implement during the GNU designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections but most important of all designed to end the stifling of meaningful debate and democratic competition. For it is the free debate and democratic competition that will separate the wheat from the chuff.

 

We are not interested in sorting out “who is who in Zimbabwe’s political zoo” but in in getting rid of the tyrants and the thugs and all those who have made a career of appeasing tyrants that is why we want not just any elections but specifically free, fair and credible elections.

Mugabe chides doctors to "put people first" - nonsense, service build on benevolence will collapse. By W Mukori

Mugabe chides doctors for putting money before the wellbeing of their patients.

"We appreciate the work of doctors, they deserve to be rewarded accordingly. However, they must also understand the limitations the government is facing. We are still fighting for our liberation, there are sanctions that are affecting our capacity to honour our obligations to workers," said Mugabe.

"Dr Muchemwa, as one of the first doctors who gave medical services to the liberation war fighters, had that understanding and we need his peers to understand also, he never put money first, but the people first and made great sacrifices. Right now as I speak there is a stand-off between our medical staff and us the government on remuneration."

He was commenting on the on-going saga of private sector doctors who are now demanding cash payment up front from patients whose medical aid institutions have failed to on time the doctors for services rendered. Some of the bills have not been paid for years and, to rub salt into the doctors’ open wounds, government has been forcing them to pay income tax on unpaid income!

Mugabe’s habit of blaming the country’s worsening economic crisis on sanctions is utter nonsense and an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean. How can the nation prosper when corruption is so rampant that $15 billion in diamond revenue alone, by his own admission, is looted and no one is arrested and, for all we know, the looting is still going on right now!

Given these are targeted sanctions, how is it then that they are affected everyone else except the targeted individuals? There is no money to pay civil servants their below poverty-line wages and yet there is plenty of cash to pay for Mugabe and his family's extravagant lifestyles, for example. In the first five months of this year alone he has squandered $80 million on overseas trips alone, according to a local report.

When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections he was cocksure he would go on to rig economic recovery too with his $27 billion ZImAsset economic plan. The plan was going to create 2.2 million new jobs in five years; there two out of the five years left and the nation has not seen any new jobs. Instead of acknowledging there will be no economic recovery because the ZimAsset plan is dead in the water; not even the "all weather" Chinese friends were prepared to bankroll the exorbitantly expensive hare-brain scheme; Mugabe continues to blame the sanctions for the economic crisis.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is real and it is causing untold human suffering and claiming human lives. If Mugabe real value human lives over his insatiable greed for absolute political power and the vast material wealth in the form of looted resources it has brought him and his cronies then he must finally accept that it is corrupt and tyrannical rule that is the root cause of the economic meltdown. Just how long can he continue to hide behind the sanctions finger whilst the nation suffer and die!  

After 36 years of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness these problems are now deeply imbedded in the nation, it will take a tough and visionary government to uproot them to get the national economy back on track. This Zanu PF regime is the one spawned the problems and allowed them to grow and spread; it is naïve to the regime to be the tough and visionary government.

The only practical way to get the visionary government is for the nation implement the 2008 GPA democratic reforms, everyone agreed at the time were necessary for free, fair and credible elections, and then hold fresh elections. There is nothing to be gained from refusing to admit Zanu PF has failed just as there is nothing to be gained from chiding the private sector doctors for asking to be paid for their work!

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest," said the great Economist, Adam Smith.

Government has failed to pay the country’s public sector health service bills and with even big referral hospitals like Parirenyatwa are now in such a deplorable state the hospital often gone for days on end without something as basic as clean running water! If private doctors are forced to continue treating these patients and not be paid it will not be long before the private sector health service too falls into the same sorry state as the public sector.

“It is not from the benevolence of the doctors that we expect our health care services, but from their regard to their own interest,” to paraphrase Adam Smith. After all, these doctors too need their dinner and the butcher, brewer, etc. would be touched to hear they are treating their patients for free but still expect to doctors to pay cash for their meat, beer, etc.!

Zanu PF align 159 laws including NERA - Tsvangirai has no excuse but guarantee free elections by Wilbert Mukori

Be careful what you wish for!

Instead of calling for the structural democratic reforms of the security services, media, ZEC, etc. as agreed in the 2008 GPA,  the opposition parties, especially MDC-T and all the other 14 parties who signed-on to its National Electoral Reforms Agenda (NERA) insisted the aligning the existing laws to the new constitution was adequate. We now learn that the government has completed its work and aligned most of the existing laws.

“Out of the 299 Statutes in our books, we have so far aligned 159 statutes. We have identified about 200 Statutes requiring alignment and out of that number, 159 have been completed and processed through this House, through the General Laws Amendment Bill and other independent Statutes," VP Emmerson Mnangagwa told the Senate.

"The ones that have not been processed are from line ministries where Ministers have not been able to process in time the areas of their concern or mandate. However, with regards to such alignment relating to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, the Government or the Executive directly, that has been completed."

It is now for Signor Morgan Tsvangirai et al to now go through the aligned laws and confirm two things:

1. That the alignment is correct and in accordance with the word and spirit of the new constitution. If not, the nation expects him and his team to propose the amendments.
    
2. To confirm that the alignments, complete with his amendments, will now deliver the free, fair and credible elections; free of all manner of abuse of state resources including looted wealth such as Marange diamond, free of all manner of vote rigging trickery and free of all manner of intimidation, coercion and violence; we have all been waiting for all these years.

Given the importance of free, fair and credible elections and how time is no longer on our side, it is two years to the next elections; it is our fervent hope that the Monsignor will respond to the two pints above in the next month, two months at most!

The reader is advised not to hold their breath; Signor Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

They wasted five years of the GNU writing a feeble and weak new constitution and completely ignored the calls to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA, they maintained that the new constitution strong and adequate to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections and MDC leaders, to the man and woman, have since admitted the elections were rigged.

But instead of admitting the new constitution is weak and thus reverts back to the structural reforms called for in the GPA reform MDC has insisted aligning all the existing laws to the new constitution will be enough to stop Mugabe and Zanu PF rigging future elections. Just as MDC had wasted five years during the GNU on the new constitution which failed to stop vote rigging, history is repeating itself, they have wasted the last three years demanding electoral law alignments which too will not stop vote rigging.

Veritas, a local Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters has gone through all the proposed alignments of existing laws and said even if they were all implemented fully this will not deliver free and fair elections as these are “inadequate and incomplete”. The problem is with the new constitution it is weak, feeble, inadequate, incomplete, pick your pick!

“Zimbabwe also needs a new constitution. It must be the genuine product of a national dialogue that embodies our hopes and aspirations, unconstrained by our fears; it must be founded on a strong Bill of Rights, and elicit the best in us,” said Trevor Ncube the executive chairman of Alpha Media Holdings - publishers of the NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard.

“The current document is the outcome of horse-trading between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions. It fails to lay a strong foundation of the rule of law, strong national institutions, transparency and accountability. And, of course, the sanctity of life and respect for private property must find full expression.”

It was because MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent, breathtakingly so, that they failed to implement even one GPA reform during the GNU and instead of producing a democratic constitution produced a weak and feeble one that will never deliver free, fair and credible elections because it gives Mugabe dictatorial powers with none of the usual democratic checks and balance.

Still Signor Tsvangirai has been strutting around demanding the alignment of the existing laws, his wish has been granted now can he assure the nation of free and fair elections or was he being his usual self – Signor windbag making a lot of noise!  

If we want free, fair and credible elections in 2018 then it is up to us, the people, not the corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians, to demand the full implementation of the GPA reforms. The country is now in hell-hole and will only get out when we have a good and competent government which means free and fair elections.