"EU relations are thawing as seen by observance of 2018 elections" - rubbish P Guramatunhu

It is easy to see why Zimbabwe is in this economic mess, the pitiful lack of quality in all spheres of our governance say it all!

“It is estimated, for those who have done the studies, that Zimbabwe has lost an estimated US$42 billion in revenue because of the sanctions,”  Minister Sibusiso Moyo told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Herald reported.

“The country lost multi-lateral donor support which is estimated at about US$4.5 billion annually since 2001 (total to date US$90 billion) and US$ 12 billion in the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank loans which could have developed infrastructure in this country and commercial loans estimated at US$ 18 billion which could gone to the private sector and into other areas and as a result of that, a reduction of GDP of over US$21 billion.”

This is just bull s***t.

It is a matter of historic fact that the IMF, WB and most other financial institutions stop giving Zimbabwe and financial assistance at the end of 1999 because Harare was failing to service its existing debts. This was at the end of the second of IMF and WB sponsored five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP), programmes had failed to bring about any meaningful economic recovery and Mugabe went to town blaming the two financial institutions. The regime had failed to honour its promised reforms.

When Mugabe fell out with the West he turned East with his “Look East!” drive. All financial assistance from China soon dried up for the same reason – Zimbabwe is a bad debtor.

When Mnangagwa took over he too revived the “Look East!” and signed many mega deals with China. Two years latter there has been little going on because China is still insisting that Zimbabwe pays the outstanding debts first.

There are other reasons why foreign investors and lenders have continued to shy away from doing business with Zimbabwe even after the watershed November 2017 military coup that saw the removal of Robert Mugabe. The country is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrants. No one was ever fooled by the “new dispensation” whitewash.

“That’s why since his inauguration, His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) has dynamised Zimbabwe’s quest to normalise relations with the West through re-engagement,” Minister Moyo explained.

“However, the new dispensation has enabled the thawing of relations with the EU as seen by their observance of the July 31 elections and continued exchange of high levels visits.”

Why not even one of the parliamentary committee members reminded the Minister what the EU Election Observer Mission said, is another mystery!

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” stated the EU Mission report.

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

In 2016 the then President Mugabe admitted that the country was “swindled out of US$15 billion in lost diamond revenue”. Mugabe never arrested one swindler or recover one dollar. Mnangagwa promise there would be “zero tolerance on corruption”. He too has failed to arrest one diamond swindler or recover one dollar.

We know that the looting has continued to this day because former Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, admitted in 2017 that he was getting 1/6 of the diamond revenue he expected. Mnangagwa has admitted corruption is “deep rooted”.

It is laughable that the regime should be expending so much time and energy blaming sanctions for exaggerated financial losses when all Zanu PF should have done to get financial assistance and get the sanctions lifted was to service its debts and hold free, fair and credible elections. Worse still, why has the regime down nothing to stop the life threaten haemorrhage of resources through corruption?

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. Minister Moyo’s report of billions of dollars in increased economic activity if sanctions are lifted and of the progress in re-engaging the West are all a mirage. As long as Zanu PF remains in power Zimbabwe will remain stuck in this hell-hole the regime dragged us into.

Nothing good will ever come out of this Zanu PF regime, it is clearly incapable of reforming itself. The regime rigged last year’s elections and pressure must now be brought to bear to force it to step down to allow the nation to implement the reform necessary for free, fair and credible elections.

"MDC does not discuss strategies on twitter" - it has none - dare you to name just one! P Guramatunhu

Opposition MDC President Nelson Chamisa has refused to divulge his party’s strategy and plans on social media.

Chamisa was responding to a Twitter user who asked for a way forward in relation to the ever sinking economy.

Anyone who believes MDC has any strategy for anything other than how to sell-out and get on the gravy train by hook and by crook is naïve. We have all heard of such claims as “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” And yet when push came to shove it turned out the party did not even have the common sense to demand the ZEC produced something as basic as a verified voters’ role as is required by the law!

“MDC has the key to legitimacy and economic recovery!” Chamisa has often claimed in the party’s desperate effort to force Mnangagwa to form a power sharing arrangement. Chamisa is lying, he has no such keys!

"Legitimacy is an issue - last year's elections were illegal, and not free and fair. All reasonable observers concede that," admitted David Coltart, MDC Alliance Treasurer General.

Mnangagwa and this Zanu PF regime are illegitimate by virtue of the election being “illegal and not free and fair”. Surely it is not for MDC to bargain and grant legitimacy to anyone; legitimacy is derived from the people and not some self-proclaimed upstarts!

Zimbabwe’s economic is in total meltdown because Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. No one wants to do business with thugs. The addition of one or two MDC leaders to the Zanu PF regime will not change the pariah state status of the regime. Chamisa thinks that it will change but is only deluding himself and Mnangagwa!

“Let me say this once and for all …. I will not talk about strategies and plans on this Twitter platform. So pardon me my dear,” twittered Chamisa.

You are hiding behind your little finger Mr Chamisa; I dare you to name just one strategy or plan that MDC has ever produced on any platform in all its 20 year history. Name just one! “Usa yere nyoka negavi, iyo iripo!” As one would say in Shona.

"Did you vote MPs to live large" asked N Moyo - how insulting, he helped Zanu PF rig the vote W Mukori

“As you continue to suffer, your representatives in parliament and government are preparing to receive brand new cars. Is this what you vote them in to office for? To live large in the face of crisis?” twittered Dr Nkosana Moyo’s APA Zimbabwe.

What a foolish remark!

Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections, how many times must one say this before it finally sinks in?

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission final report.

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

There is no denying that Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections. Worst of all you, Dr Moyo, and you APA Zimbabwe, Nelson Chamisa and his MDC and the rest of the 23 presidential candidates and 130 political parties who contested last year’s elections KNEW the elections would be rigged. ZEC failed to produce something as basic to free, fair and credible elections as a verified voters’ roll; it is nonsense to suggest anyone missed that!

If the opposition KNEW all along the elections process was full of flaws and illegalities; why then did they participate? Simple – greed.

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, David Coltart, gave a detailed account of how Zanu PF was flouted the electoral rules and how it was clear to him and the nation at large that the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. It was obvious to all that they should not participate in the elections and yet they did participate regardless!

“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,” he explained in the Book.

“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.”

After the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections resulting in the humiliating GNU, as far as Mugabe and Zanu PF were concerned, Mugabe learned that he could still rig elections and get away with it if he allowed the opposition to win a few bait seats. It worked; it was these few bait seats the opposition was after that compelled them to participate is flawed elections.

Before the 2018 elections three of the main MDC factions formed the MDC Alliance coalition and still they participated in the flawed and illegal elections for the same reason, greed – proof that Coltart’s excuse participating in 2013 election because the two MDC factions had failed to unity was a lie!

Dr Nkosana Moyo and many other opposition parties and candidates joined the rat race and contested last year’s elections knowing fully well Zanu PF would rig the elections for the same reason – greed!

What is worse, by participating in these flawed and illegal elections the opposition are giving the rigged elections some modicum of political credibility as Coltart acknowledged. In other words, Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate because the election process was flawed and illegal, the regime does not have the people’s mandate to govern. The regime clinging on to power on the basis that the opposition participated.

As long as Zanu PF assures the opposition of winning a few seats, we can be certain Dr Nkosana Moyo and the rest in the opposition camp will contest the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process. If Zimbabwe is ever to hold free, fair and credible elections then it is up to us, the long-suffering electorate to demand that this illegitimate Zanu PF regime steps down so the nation can appoint an interim administration to implement the reforms.

Both MDC, Zanu PF and all those who participated in previous elections cannot be in the interim administration for the simple reason that we cannot trust them. Greed got the better of them forcing them to participate in flawed and illegal elections in the past; greed will get the better of them again.

“Did you vote MPs to live large in the face of crisis?” Dr Nkosana Moyo is adding insult to injury since he knows the people did not vote for these Zanu PF thugs, the elections were rigged and Dr Moyo and his opposition friends helped the regime rig the elections!

"ZEC to display unverified voters' roll" - to what purpose especially for rigged 2018 N Garikai

"THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is next month set to initiate a pilot project of displaying the voters' roll outside a polling station during three by-elections to be held in Matabeleland North province," reported Bulawayo 24.

ZEC is going to display the voters’ roll which is failed to produce for verification, which denied 3 million Zimbabwean in the diaspora a vote, etc., etc. To what end and purpose, one has to ask, especially now after the elections were rigged and ZEC played a major role in the rigging?

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” stated the EU Mission final report.

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

Last year’s elections were not free, fair and credible as the process was full of flaws and illegalities it is nonsense to suggest such a process can ever produce a legal and legitimate result. Utter nonsense!

Zimbabwe does not have a legitimate government with the people’s democratic mandate to govern. The Zanu PF government is illegitimate and hence the reason the country is a pariah state.

As long as Zimbabwe remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs the country will never achieve any meaningful economic recovery. No investor wants to do business with thugs!

Zanu PF has rigged elections in the, insisted the elections were free and fair, declared itself the winner and legitimate government and presented the nation and the world at large with a fait accompli. Rigging the elections, ipso facto confirming the country it’s pariah state status, was the easy bit. With investors shying away, the regime has to “rig” economic recovery too – clearly a bridge too far!

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has pushed unemployment to nauseating heights of 90%, millions now live in abject poverty and basic services such health care have all but collapsed. The country has a chronic shortage of fuel, food, medicine, etc.

In a futile attempt to “rig” economic recovery the regime has prematurely abolished the use of the multi-foreign currencies as legal tender unleashed the scourge of hyperinflation. Inflation was 97% when the regime imposed the Z$ as the only legal tender a month ago; it has since surged to 175%. Last time inflation soared to 500 billion % and the economy was left in ruins; we are clearly set for a repeat!

As much as Zanu PF would like to pretend otherwise, Zimbabwe is not a democracy and the country is in serious economic trouble and the situation is getting worse, not better!

As stated above, as long as the country remains a pariah state; the economic situation will only get worse. The only way out is for Zanu PF to step down so the nation can appoint an interim administration tasked to implement the reforms and end this curse of rigged elections and pariah state. There is no other way out!

ZEC was required by law to produce verified voters' roll, to display on each polling station the V11 forms, summary of votes cast for each candidate, etc., etc. and it failed to do any of these things. Now ZEC wants to display the unverified voters' roll at each polling station as if that will make all the difference to the July 2018 rigged elections!

"Mission: Zanu PF realise link between Z$, knowledge and production" - how, when they know best W Mukori

Last month the Mnangagwa government enacted the Statutory Instrument 142 (2019) in which the regime banish the use of the basketful of multi-foreign currencies as legal tender in Zimbabwe leaving the local currency in its multiplicity of formats and names; Bond Notes and coins, RTGS$ and Ecocash all to be known from hence forth as Zimbabwe Dollar (Z$). Zimbabwe is not the first nation to make such a bold move, one of the first to do so was the United States of America in 1862.

In an article “A currency backed by nothing”, eBusiness Weekly, also available in Bulawayo 24, explain is the simplest language why USA’s bold move worked and why Zimbabwe’s is doomed to fail.

“On February 25, 1862, United States President Abraham Lincoln signed the Legal Tender Act, a brainchild of Elbridge Spaulding. Those were terrifying times. The republic was at war with itself and would be till 1865,” wrote eBusiness Weekly.

“Through the Act, Treasury would issue federal dollars backed by nothing. The new currency was quickly nicknamed "greenback", The greenback was to be used for all local transactions except custom duties and interest on government bonds which were to be paid for in the old gold-backed dollars or gold. The National Banking Act in 1863 would make it clear that banks could still issue own banknotes only that now, with the Legal Tender Act, such notes had to be backed by the greenback and not gold as before.

“They were worried inflation would soar once the anchorless currency circulated. They were wrong. Why? Well, war can be good business. Factories keep running because a lot of stuff must be produced and moved quickly to make way for more stuff to be produced. With such activity, the anchorless currency did not chase few goods, it oiled industry.”

In Zimbabwe SI 142 has enacted in a huff, inflation was soaring and traders, workers and everyone with the economic clout to pick and choose which currency to be paid in was doing so to the detriment of the local currency. SI 142 was enacted to banish all foreign currency as legal tender and force everyone to use the local currency. In a country with a skewed trade deficit and little local production, prices of goods and services are tied to foreign currency. Increasing the amount of local currency without increasing production and available foreign currency was bound to fuel inflation.

At the time SI 142 was passed inflation was already 97% and it opened the door for the regime to print more money to meet the lost buying power of the local currency. As slippery slope as this caused a new wave of price increases fuelled inflation. In the last four weeks inflation has already surged to 175% and is set to grow exponential as the latest price and wages increases of 40% and even 1 000% with zero and even negative increased production take effect.

“What made it (USA bold move) work? Hastily, some will say trust and confidence,” concluded eBusiness Weekly. “But, what we know and is irrefutable is that when the greenback was introduced in the early 1860s, industrial production, thanks in part to the war, made it work.

“We must, however, realise that production is an end, it is an outcome of peculiar knowledges and insights of what to produce and how to produce it. Zimbabwe and indeed Africa hasn't quite figured that out. In this is the mission of our time.”

Well our mission is mission impossible in that power and authority to change anything is now invested and monopolized by those who believe they know best when in fact they know nothing.

“I know nothing and that is the only knowledge I have!” said the great Greek Philosopher Socrates (470 -399 BC). The Socratic paradox, given he is one of the “wisest”, as the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, readily acknowledged.

What made Socrates such a wise man is his humility to admit he does not know and thus opened his mind to learn and have everything questioned from all possible angles. "The unexamined life is not worth living,” he argued.

Socrates, like his fellow Greeks of his age, had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, embrace the need for freedom of expression and free speech and gave birth to democracy. Greece prospered and thrived. It was Greece’s golden age!

In Zimbabwe we are ruled by men and women who believe they have the divine right to rule and have been rigging elections to ensure they iron grip on power. They have stifled all meaningful debate there is no freedom of expression and no free media because they cannot bear being questioned much less held to democratic account.

SI 142 is doomed to fail; it is but one of the many Zanu PF voodoo economic policies to fail with disastrous economic consequences to the nation. Even after 39 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and the national economy in ruins; Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies still believe they know best and are they only one competent to rule Zimbabwe.

Our mission is impress on these Zanu PF thugs that they are humans, like all humans, they do not have the monopoly of knowledge. And that after 39 years of blundering from pillar to post, proof their do not know best, they must accept they have failed to govern.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies must accept they rigged last year’s elections, this Zanu PF regime is illegitimate and must step down.

 As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and unaccountable thugs, the country will continue to sink into the abyss; is the one thing I do know for certain. 

Of all the feeble excuses for imposing Z$ Minister Mthuli Ncube's excuse takes the biscuit - sanctions P Guramatunhu

Of all the feeble excuses proffered by this Zanu PF regime for ending the use of the multi-currency basket in favour of the local currency as the only legal tender; Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube’s excuse takes the biscuit! Sanctions!

“There were certain banks that were told to stop supplying US dollars to Zimbabwe because certain transactions would involve entities in Zimbabwe that are under sanctions.,” he explained.

“CBZ was fined US$350 million for doing some transactions where they thought they were helping and we are still negotiating a way out of that liability.

“Therefore the more we used US dollar, the more we expose the transactors and businesses to fines.”

China, South Africa and Botswana have not imposed any targeted sanctions on anyone or any company in Zimbabwe so why did the Minister end the trade in the US$ and British Pound and retained local trade in the Yuan, Rand and Pula?  

The truth is the regime hurriedly enacted Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 banishing the basket of other foreign currency as legal tender to impose the local currency as the only legal tender to forestall the growing trend by traders and workers refusing to be paid in the local currency and demanding to be paid in the stable foreign currencies instead. The local currency had been losing its value as inflation has risen from about 10% in January 2019 to 97% at the time SI 142 was enacted.

Having impose the local currency as legal tender, government has been able to meet its soaring expenditure by printing more money at a time when its revenue has been sinking because to reduced economic activity due to the savage up to 19 hours a day power cuts, cyclone Idai, drought, etc. Printing money has solved one problem but created an even bigger problem – it has fuelled inflation. Since the passing of SI 142 inflation has soared from 97% to 175%, almost double in three weeks!

The hyperinflation gene is out of the bottle, there is no putting it back! Zimbabweans remember only too well the hyperinflation of 2000 to 2008 when inflation peaked at 500 billion % and the local currency was not even the paper it was printed on, at Z$ 35 quadrillion (35x10^24) = US$1.00. Most economic activity seized, it was impossible to do business and be paid in a currency who value was disappearing like water poured in the desert sand. It was not worthwhile going to work, shop shelves were empty and finding enough to eat and other essentials was a nightmare. We are heading for those 2008 nightmare days again!

The Z$ was scrapped and the multicurrency as legal tender was introduced in November 2008 to restore confidence in a stable currency. One only hopes that sanity will prevail and the stable currency reintroduced long before inflation hit the dizzying height of 2008 and survival is once again near impossible!

"Sikhala case expose MDC confusion" - Zanu PF is no better; must clear deck for clean start N Garikai

Dear Noble Runyanga

Ref: your Bulawayo 24 article “Sikhala case exposes MDC confusion, dilemma”

You are right that MDC is a party with no sense of direction and purpose, given to prevaricating and even when they act it is only to issue a perfunctory statement no one, not even the party leaders and supporters themselves believe.

“If Chamisa was a serious leader worth the term he would unequivocally condemn Sikhala's utterances irrespective of the party members' views thereon. He should have told them of the negative consequences of the statements and the legal implications thereof. Chamisa generally loves populism. It enables him to make up for his lack of substance,” you said.

“Given this background, Chamisa and his hangers-on are torn between toeing their handlers and owners' line of dialogue and development and the party's own unnecessarily confrontational approach.  They are torn between losing their members who desire a non-existent Chamisa win and "Government" like yesterday and pleasing their masters by participating in dialogue which will take the country forward. He is insisting on the non-existent illegitimacy issue as the sole trump card to while up some time for, as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the patience of the world, which includes his handlers, will snap leaving him exposed.

“The world has watched as Chamisa and the late Morgan Tsvangirai, before him, claimed election rigging on the part of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in favour of ZANU PF to make up for their own party's shortcomings only to embarrass themselves by failing to adduce any irrefutable evidence to buttress their claims.

You are right that no one beyond MDC leaders, their sheepish supporters and the Zimbabweans so desperate for change they believe anything, has ever supported Chamisa’s foolish claim that he “won” the presidential race. But if the truth be told the same people have also rejected Zanu PF’s claim of electoral victory for the same reasons; ZEC “failed to adduce any irrefutable evidence to buttress Zanu PF claims”!

“The electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” stated the EU Mission final report.

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

And yet in your article you talk of the international community accepting Zanu PF’s election victory claim.  

“After the congress and Chamisa's ominous threats of "war" one would have expected a repeat of the 14 to 16 January protests within a week in gargantuan proportions given his propensity for student activism-like destructive and violent protests but this has not happened. This is because the owners of the project, which he fronts as a titular leader, have moved from the "Mugabe/ Mnangagwa must go!" politics of yesteryear to give President Mnangagwa and his team a chance following his poll victory last year. They now prefer dialogue to Chamisa's baseless confrontation. They have accepted the reality of a Mnangagwa electoral victory and the resultant Government,” you claim.

No one of substance has ever backed Mnangagwa’s call for dialogue and his Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) forum because it is nothing but a talk-shop with no power to change anything.

No one has backed Chamisa’s proposed power sharing Transition Authority (TA) because it is nothing but a watered-down version on the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The latter failed to implement even one democratic reform. “We sat and ate and did nothing!” Chamisa admitted last week. There is nothing to suggest MDC leaders will do anything else other than sit and eat in the TA.  

Zimbabwe is in this seeming intractable economic and political mess because the nation has had the great misfortune of having an incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical ruling party Zanu PF. Asking MDC to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship has not worked because the opposition turned out to be equal corrupt, incompetent and “confused”, as you said. To get out of the mess we need to think outside the box, to look beyond Zanu PF and MDC!

Last year’s elections were flawed and illegal and failed to produce a legitimate winner or runner up. Both Zanu PF and MDC conspired to go ahead with the elections knowing the whole process was a farce. It therefore does not make any sense for the nation to look to either of these two parties to chart the nation’s way out of the mess.

Both Zanu PF and MDC are now part of the problem and therefore can never be part of the solution too!     

As long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs there will be no meaning economic recovery. This is a fact and a reality!

After 39 years of ruinous Zanu PF misrule the people of Zimbabwe must finally grasp the nettle and stamp out this curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, the regime is illegitimate and it must step down now. MDC must step down too for their part in participating in flawed elections. We need to clear the political deck and have clean start!