Next week SADC is meeting to decide on what to do about the political chaos in Madagascar and decide on Zimbabwe's US$ 2 billion aid package!I do not agree with the way the elected regime was changed in Madagascar. However I SADC is being hypocritical to talk of punishing the new regime when the same body endorse Mugabe's shameless and bloody election fraud six months ago!
As for the US$ 2 billion bail out Zimbabwe is asking for; there are a number of points SADC heads will have to consider.
1) Will the GNU in Zimbabwe put the money into productive use or will they be throwing good money after bad. For a start the Zimbabwe government has the most bloated regime in SADC and Zimbabweans leaders, everyone of them, are well known for their lavish life styles and that has not changed. The international community including the West, IMF, WB, etc have all said financial aid to the Zimbabwe regime at present would be money wasted.
2) Is the US$2 billion financial package for Zimbabwe the one off or just the first instalment of many and bigger demands to follow? The present package will cover Zimbabwe’s bloated public expenditure and very little will go towards infrastructure repair or the private sector which are the key areas to economic recovery. As if that was not bad enough, the ongoing farm invasion and the threat by Mugabe to force the few remaining private companies to sell their majority shares to blacks is like shooting oneself in the leg before the start of the race.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will remain a pipe-dream as long as the waste by the ruling elite is not reined in, the bloated public continues to weigh down the nation and property rights and the rule of law is not restored. SADC will be in for the long haul; this will be only one of the many bailouts for Zimbabwe.
3) The US$ 2 billion will constitute a significant part of the 15 SADC members’ total national budget. A significant part of the most SADC countries, if not all of them, budget is financial aid from the West. If you depend on begged money yourself, you are not in a position to give aid yourself.
Sunday 29 March 2009
Thursday 19 March 2009
MUGABE TALKING PEACE IS LIKE THE DEVIL QUOTING THE SCRIPTURE: WATCH OUT
When the Devil talks of peace and reconciliation and quotes the scriptures for his own purpose; watch out!
Mugabe has promised us many things only to delivery the exact opposite. Back in 1980, he promised mass prosperity – gutsa ruzhinji – and today the country is in economy ruins; unemployment has soared to 95%, inflation is 230 million %, etc. and the whole population, right across the board, now live in abject poverty. He claims to be the nation’s liberation hero and he promised us freedom, peace and justice. By the mid 1980s Mugabe had the blood of 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans on his hands. Last year half a million Zimbabweans had to abandon their homes, hundreds of thousands were assaulted and/or raped and over 200 lives were lost in his murderous drive to retain the presidency against the democratic wishes of the people.
“We should move away from expending our energies and resources by engaging in unproductive, divisive and destructive activities,” said Mugabe at the launch of the GNU’s economic blueprint for economic recovery. “We should devote ourselves to constructive and beneficial socio-economic reconstruction programmes that will create national wealth and uplift the living standards of our people.”
What is Mugabe talking about; who stopped him keeping his promise of mass prosperity, freedom, etc.? He is the one who was responsible for the reign of terror and mindless violence and is now calling on his victims to end the violence. What an insult!
Some Zimbabweans have latched on Mugabe’s comments as proof that the man has changed. They are naïve and desperate and in their desperation they are clutching at straws.
Mugabe is not concerned about the suffering masses of Zimbabwe. If he was, why did he spend millions dollars buying posh car for the ruling elite when hospitals and schools were closing for lack of funds? He wants the targeted sanctions lifted so that his cronies can once again spread their wings and enjoy their lives of luxury.
On the political front, he has not given up on use of violence to achieve his political goals. He politicised the Police, Army and all the other security agents so that they would do his bidding. After the formation of the GNU Mugabe has resolutely refused to these institutions under anyone else’s control because he still them to cause the mayhem should his hold on power be threatened. He is holding the whole nation to ransom.
Talking the language of peace will not change Mugabe; he remains the ruthless, corrupt and incompetent dictator he has always been. As long as he remains in control Zimbabwe’s economic will continue its nose dive and we will never know freedom and the rule of law.
How long will the likes of Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti pretend Mugabe has changed?
Mugabe has promised us many things only to delivery the exact opposite. Back in 1980, he promised mass prosperity – gutsa ruzhinji – and today the country is in economy ruins; unemployment has soared to 95%, inflation is 230 million %, etc. and the whole population, right across the board, now live in abject poverty. He claims to be the nation’s liberation hero and he promised us freedom, peace and justice. By the mid 1980s Mugabe had the blood of 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans on his hands. Last year half a million Zimbabweans had to abandon their homes, hundreds of thousands were assaulted and/or raped and over 200 lives were lost in his murderous drive to retain the presidency against the democratic wishes of the people.
“We should move away from expending our energies and resources by engaging in unproductive, divisive and destructive activities,” said Mugabe at the launch of the GNU’s economic blueprint for economic recovery. “We should devote ourselves to constructive and beneficial socio-economic reconstruction programmes that will create national wealth and uplift the living standards of our people.”
What is Mugabe talking about; who stopped him keeping his promise of mass prosperity, freedom, etc.? He is the one who was responsible for the reign of terror and mindless violence and is now calling on his victims to end the violence. What an insult!
Some Zimbabweans have latched on Mugabe’s comments as proof that the man has changed. They are naïve and desperate and in their desperation they are clutching at straws.
Mugabe is not concerned about the suffering masses of Zimbabwe. If he was, why did he spend millions dollars buying posh car for the ruling elite when hospitals and schools were closing for lack of funds? He wants the targeted sanctions lifted so that his cronies can once again spread their wings and enjoy their lives of luxury.
On the political front, he has not given up on use of violence to achieve his political goals. He politicised the Police, Army and all the other security agents so that they would do his bidding. After the formation of the GNU Mugabe has resolutely refused to these institutions under anyone else’s control because he still them to cause the mayhem should his hold on power be threatened. He is holding the whole nation to ransom.
Talking the language of peace will not change Mugabe; he remains the ruthless, corrupt and incompetent dictator he has always been. As long as he remains in control Zimbabwe’s economic will continue its nose dive and we will never know freedom and the rule of law.
How long will the likes of Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti pretend Mugabe has changed?
Saturday 14 March 2009
FINANCE MINISTER BEGS FOR MONEY: WHAT HE NEEDS ABOVE ALL ELSE IS COMMON SENSE!
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has warned that the GNU will fail if the international community does not step forward and give the regime the financial assistance it solely needs.
“If we fail, the consequences will be dire, “warned the Minister of Finance, “such as a military coup or civil unrest.”
The international community have said they will not give the GNU no financial assistance until they are satisfied the new regime has broken away from the old Mugabe and Zanu PF corrupt and wasteful economic ways and has accepted democratic reforms. It was to see how Mugabe would allow any of these changes as long as he remained in total control of the GNU. So, naturally, the International community took the “wait and see” position, a position Minister Biti compared to the chicken and egg.
“Our capacity to deliver is linked to economic stability and we need help,” Minister Biti argued. “It cannot be a chicken and egg situation; there has to be a chicken, or an egg, first.”
Minister Biti is not any economist but so are many of us out there, still many people have said the bloated government was a bad start. Surely the good Minister should have realised this was a chance for the GNU to show the world that it was ready to break away from Mugabe’s past of reckless spending and do its bit. Instead all MDC was interested in is securing as many ministerial positions for as many of its numbers as was possible even though that meant a bloated regime.
The MDC should also have realised the International Community was distrustful of Mugabe, for good reasons too, and devised ways to rein him in. As it turned out Mugabe has been shooting his big mouth at every opportunity; confirming again and again that he was in total control of the GNU and that nothing has changed.
Minister Biti has warned of “dire” consequences should the GNU fail. He is right on the ball there. But what the Minister, Tsvangirai and the whole MDC leadership should have considered before joining Mugabe to form the GNU was obvious: that the GNU was in fact the old Zanu PF in everything but name. Minister Biti would agree that in the past pumping billions of dollars into the old Zanu PF regime has made the ruling elite rich and hungry for more whilst the poor got poorer. It is very naïve of Minister Biti to think that the same corrupt and wasteful Zanu PF regime would do any better now just because he is the Minister of Finance. A Minister of Finance whose powers are so limited he is forced to implement the economic policies of the Reserve Bank Governors!
The GNU is doomed to fail whether or not the international community step up and gives Minister Biti all the money he asks for- the more the regime receives the more it will waste.
Zimbabwe’s economic, political and social recovery and long term prosperity and stability are totally dependant on one factor, restoration of good governance. MDC are wrong to think that the throwing more good money after bad will make the country’s fundamental the problem go away. They are thinking like Mugabe and his ruling elite. Of course no responsible government is going to do that, much less in these very difficult days of a world wide deep recession!
“If we fail, the consequences will be dire, “warned the Minister of Finance, “such as a military coup or civil unrest.”
The international community have said they will not give the GNU no financial assistance until they are satisfied the new regime has broken away from the old Mugabe and Zanu PF corrupt and wasteful economic ways and has accepted democratic reforms. It was to see how Mugabe would allow any of these changes as long as he remained in total control of the GNU. So, naturally, the International community took the “wait and see” position, a position Minister Biti compared to the chicken and egg.
“Our capacity to deliver is linked to economic stability and we need help,” Minister Biti argued. “It cannot be a chicken and egg situation; there has to be a chicken, or an egg, first.”
Minister Biti is not any economist but so are many of us out there, still many people have said the bloated government was a bad start. Surely the good Minister should have realised this was a chance for the GNU to show the world that it was ready to break away from Mugabe’s past of reckless spending and do its bit. Instead all MDC was interested in is securing as many ministerial positions for as many of its numbers as was possible even though that meant a bloated regime.
The MDC should also have realised the International Community was distrustful of Mugabe, for good reasons too, and devised ways to rein him in. As it turned out Mugabe has been shooting his big mouth at every opportunity; confirming again and again that he was in total control of the GNU and that nothing has changed.
Minister Biti has warned of “dire” consequences should the GNU fail. He is right on the ball there. But what the Minister, Tsvangirai and the whole MDC leadership should have considered before joining Mugabe to form the GNU was obvious: that the GNU was in fact the old Zanu PF in everything but name. Minister Biti would agree that in the past pumping billions of dollars into the old Zanu PF regime has made the ruling elite rich and hungry for more whilst the poor got poorer. It is very naïve of Minister Biti to think that the same corrupt and wasteful Zanu PF regime would do any better now just because he is the Minister of Finance. A Minister of Finance whose powers are so limited he is forced to implement the economic policies of the Reserve Bank Governors!
The GNU is doomed to fail whether or not the international community step up and gives Minister Biti all the money he asks for- the more the regime receives the more it will waste.
Zimbabwe’s economic, political and social recovery and long term prosperity and stability are totally dependant on one factor, restoration of good governance. MDC are wrong to think that the throwing more good money after bad will make the country’s fundamental the problem go away. They are thinking like Mugabe and his ruling elite. Of course no responsible government is going to do that, much less in these very difficult days of a world wide deep recession!
MUGABE HAS CALLED TSVANGIRAI A BRITISH PUPPET: HE NOW SMUG, HE IS NOW PULLING THE STRINGS!
On Saturday 14 March 2009 the late Retired General Vitalis Zvinavashe was laid to rest at the National Hero’s Acre. It is not for me to speak ill of the dead but it will suffice to say that before the 2002 presidential elections he would not salute Tsvangirai if he should was to win the elections. If that is not an act of treason, I do not know what is.
Tsvangirai attended the burial service of Zvinavashe at Hero’s Acre, underlining that he too considered the late to be a national hero. This is just another example that it the old Zanu PF values not MDC values that is dictating the direction by with the GNU sail.
Mugabe attended the funeral service and used the occasion to lambast the British. So the nation was subjected to another session shadow boxing!
Mugabe called Tsvangirai a puppet of the British and the West and that was his excuse for using all kinds of dirty tricks including murder to stop his election and to deny Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country. According to Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s independence and sovereignty was at stake if that was allowed to happen and that was sacrilege. Of course he never ever produced one iota of evidence of a British scheme to re-colonise Zimbabwe because White Hall never hatched such a scheme. It was all a fragment of Mugabe’s imagination, a feeble attempt to hide his dictatorial and brutal intentions to hang on to power at all cost.
Now that the MDC has sold-out and jointed Zanu PF on Mugabe’s terms, his dictatorial terms; one would think Mugabe would finally give this British threat rubbish a break. No chance; he is still ranting on about “British interference”!
Zimbabwe is facing the greatest national economic crisis – a result of three decades of Mugabe’s misrule – which is causing untold human suffering. Instead of addressing this problem the nation is instead wasting time fighting an imaginary enemy!
Throughout the years, Tsvangirai failed to shake-off the “puppet” label Mugabe gave him. Mugabe grudging accept Tsvangirai as his Prime Minister – with no real political power – to lead his charm offensive to win the Western economic assistance to get the country’s economy out of its current hell-hole. But because Mugabe does not want to accept that he is responsible for the economic melt down he has to maintain his position that it is the British and the West who destroyed Zimbabwe. And poor Tsvangirai has to mount his charm offensive with a begging bowl in one hand and beating an anti-west drum!
In the picture above, Mugabe has a smug grin on his face. So he should too, he is sending the “British puppet” Tsvangirai to the British and everyone knows it is him who has the full control of the puppet!
Of course the West will send Tsvangirai back empty handed. They have already said they will “wait and see” if there was any real change in Harare. Common sense dictated that the GNU was nothing more than a white-washed Mugabe dictatorship and all this anti-west rhetoric only confirms nothing has really changed.
Least we forget, the people of Zimbabwe are the ones paying the ultimate price for all this shadow boxing when we should be addressing the things that have turned their lives into a nightmare!
Tsvangirai attended the burial service of Zvinavashe at Hero’s Acre, underlining that he too considered the late to be a national hero. This is just another example that it the old Zanu PF values not MDC values that is dictating the direction by with the GNU sail.
Mugabe attended the funeral service and used the occasion to lambast the British. So the nation was subjected to another session shadow boxing!
Mugabe called Tsvangirai a puppet of the British and the West and that was his excuse for using all kinds of dirty tricks including murder to stop his election and to deny Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country. According to Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s independence and sovereignty was at stake if that was allowed to happen and that was sacrilege. Of course he never ever produced one iota of evidence of a British scheme to re-colonise Zimbabwe because White Hall never hatched such a scheme. It was all a fragment of Mugabe’s imagination, a feeble attempt to hide his dictatorial and brutal intentions to hang on to power at all cost.
Now that the MDC has sold-out and jointed Zanu PF on Mugabe’s terms, his dictatorial terms; one would think Mugabe would finally give this British threat rubbish a break. No chance; he is still ranting on about “British interference”!
Zimbabwe is facing the greatest national economic crisis – a result of three decades of Mugabe’s misrule – which is causing untold human suffering. Instead of addressing this problem the nation is instead wasting time fighting an imaginary enemy!
Throughout the years, Tsvangirai failed to shake-off the “puppet” label Mugabe gave him. Mugabe grudging accept Tsvangirai as his Prime Minister – with no real political power – to lead his charm offensive to win the Western economic assistance to get the country’s economy out of its current hell-hole. But because Mugabe does not want to accept that he is responsible for the economic melt down he has to maintain his position that it is the British and the West who destroyed Zimbabwe. And poor Tsvangirai has to mount his charm offensive with a begging bowl in one hand and beating an anti-west drum!
In the picture above, Mugabe has a smug grin on his face. So he should too, he is sending the “British puppet” Tsvangirai to the British and everyone knows it is him who has the full control of the puppet!
Of course the West will send Tsvangirai back empty handed. They have already said they will “wait and see” if there was any real change in Harare. Common sense dictated that the GNU was nothing more than a white-washed Mugabe dictatorship and all this anti-west rhetoric only confirms nothing has really changed.
Least we forget, the people of Zimbabwe are the ones paying the ultimate price for all this shadow boxing when we should be addressing the things that have turned their lives into a nightmare!
Wednesday 11 March 2009
MUGABE EXTENDS AN OLIVE BRANCH IN ONE HAND AND A SPEAR IN THE OTHER!
“People don’t know the troubles and dirty wars that we fight,” said Mugabe at the funeral service of Susan Tsvangirai. He is right there; the man does fight dirty alright. What Mugabe did last year to win the presidential run-off was dirty, ruthless and brutal – it is certainly one of the dirtiest elections in human history. In some lucid moments he has even boasted of having “degrees in violence!”
Last year’s dirty fight got him what he wanted; the right to remain the State President with all his dictatorial powers and that his cronies are allowed to keep all their loot. The fly in Mugabe’s ointment was Zimbabwe’s economic melt down; unless he addressed this economic problem, his continued rule was in doubt.
By 2000 Mugabe had earned himself a reputation of a two faced double crossing dictator and the international community had stopped giving Zimbabwe an financial assistance marking the beginning of the country’s economic melt down. So fighting dirty to retain the presidency was one thing getting the international community back whilst he still remains in State House was a different challenge. A challenge Mugabe is losing!
Getting Tsvangirai and MDC to join him and Zanu PF in this GNU as a junior partner with no meaningful power has fooled no one except Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leadership. The GNU is nothing but a white-wash Zanu PF tomb!
“We have just started a new life after years of fighting each other and insulting each other,” Mugabe said. “We have said let’s give peace and harmony a chance and work together.” Mugabe’s peace overtures will fool only the gullible, not whilst all those responsible for past human rights violation remain free and whilst the Police and Army remain under his political spell ready to fight his next dirty war!
Mugabe wants to have everything his way; he wants to be a great statesman and be acknowledged as such and is ready and will, at a drop of a hat, to fight dirty anyone who dares say he is not a great statesman! He would like to see Zimbabwe prosper, “gutsa ruzhinji” but destroyed the country’s agricultural sector- the backbone of the country’s economy- to please his cronies. He has vowed his cronies will keep the farms although they have clearly failed to put them into productive use. He has reached out for peace, by extending an olive branch in one hand whilst holding on to his spear, red with the blood of his last victim, in his other hand!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and Mugabe is a living example of the later. Having enjoyed absolute power for three decades the man has become so big-headed he thinks he can forgive himself of all his past crimes and everything will be forgotten. He does not have to show any sign of remorse, promise dismantle the repressive system he created nor promise not to use the system again. Nothing!
Last year’s dirty fight got him what he wanted; the right to remain the State President with all his dictatorial powers and that his cronies are allowed to keep all their loot. The fly in Mugabe’s ointment was Zimbabwe’s economic melt down; unless he addressed this economic problem, his continued rule was in doubt.
By 2000 Mugabe had earned himself a reputation of a two faced double crossing dictator and the international community had stopped giving Zimbabwe an financial assistance marking the beginning of the country’s economic melt down. So fighting dirty to retain the presidency was one thing getting the international community back whilst he still remains in State House was a different challenge. A challenge Mugabe is losing!
Getting Tsvangirai and MDC to join him and Zanu PF in this GNU as a junior partner with no meaningful power has fooled no one except Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leadership. The GNU is nothing but a white-wash Zanu PF tomb!
“We have just started a new life after years of fighting each other and insulting each other,” Mugabe said. “We have said let’s give peace and harmony a chance and work together.” Mugabe’s peace overtures will fool only the gullible, not whilst all those responsible for past human rights violation remain free and whilst the Police and Army remain under his political spell ready to fight his next dirty war!
Mugabe wants to have everything his way; he wants to be a great statesman and be acknowledged as such and is ready and will, at a drop of a hat, to fight dirty anyone who dares say he is not a great statesman! He would like to see Zimbabwe prosper, “gutsa ruzhinji” but destroyed the country’s agricultural sector- the backbone of the country’s economy- to please his cronies. He has vowed his cronies will keep the farms although they have clearly failed to put them into productive use. He has reached out for peace, by extending an olive branch in one hand whilst holding on to his spear, red with the blood of his last victim, in his other hand!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and Mugabe is a living example of the later. Having enjoyed absolute power for three decades the man has become so big-headed he thinks he can forgive himself of all his past crimes and everything will be forgotten. He does not have to show any sign of remorse, promise dismantle the repressive system he created nor promise not to use the system again. Nothing!
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