Monday 27 June 2011

Simpleton B-General Nyikayaramba shooting himself in a bide to stop regime change!

This is a sick joke: Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba is telling us the Police, Army, CIO and other Security Agents are protection “our national security interests” by intimidating, raping and murdering our people. What other national interests could these be, more valuable than safe guarding the people’s basic human rights including the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life itself!

The Brigadier-General is restating the tyrants’ code: “Mighty is right!” and then offering a feeble excuse to justify it. He is justifying the brutalisation of a whole nation denying the people a meaningful vote to stop them voting for Tsvangirai because he is a puppet of the West."He takes instructions from foreigners who seek to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe,” the Brigadier-General says. We have all heard that one before.MDC was formed twelve years ago and ever since the innuendoes of Tsvangirai being a puppet have never stopped. Why has he not been brought before a court of law charged and convicted?

The late Edgar Tekere was accused of being a “counter revolutionary” and he and his supporters were haunted. The same happened to the late Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu supporters. Tens of thousands of his supporters were murdered to establish the de facto one-party Zanu PF dictatorship.

After thirty years of absolute power this Mugabe-Zanu PF dictatorship has proven once again that mighty is not right. Thirty years of corruption and looting has destroyed the national economy so that basic services like health and education have collapse throwing millions into abject poverty. That is not right!

The people are desperate for change. It is the people of Zimbabwe who want to effect regime change not some imaginary “foreigners”. After thirty years of this repressive rule the cup is full and over flowing. No amount of intimidation, rape and murder is going to stop regime change in Zimbabwe. Indeed that should have happened in 2008 was it not for Tsvangirai’s blundering.

After the sham 2008 presidential run-off most international community took a principled stand not to recognise Mugabe as the legitimately elected head of state. It was clear to Mugabe and some of his cronies that the game was up. None of them believed Tsvangirai would be that stupid to let them off the hook. And for what, the most one sided power sharing agreement ever!

Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba is reaffirming that the Zanu PF dictatorship will use the same brutal tactics to secure another Mugabe and Zanu PF victory in the next elections. The party decided to retain power at all cost years ago, the dye was cast then; it is too late to change now. The reality now is regime change is coming regardless; not even Tsvangirai would be that stupid as to Mugabe off the hook again!

Zanu PF MP, Edward Raradza told his listeners at a public rally, “Jesus beat people in the temple, so we are not the first ones to beat (people),” he said. When the devil starts (mis)quoting the scriptures for his purpose, he must be really desperate.
Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple because they were turning it into “a den of thieves”. What Raradza is suggesting is the money changers driving the worshippers out of the temple so they can turn it into a den of thieves for all time. Mugabe and his cronies may have turned Zimbabwe into a den of thieves and deny the people hope and dignity for thirty years but that is not to say it was right or that things must remain so.

MP Raradza, Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba and a few others are die-hard Mugabe supporters desperately trying to stop something as inevitable as day following night. We should be on our guard, desperate men do desperate things; we must keep a detailed record of their machinations. Smarter Zanu PF cronies know change is coming and they have started distancing themselves from the party’s brutal activities; it is the simpletons like Raradza and Nyikayaramba who will be ones left carrying the bag and the blame!

Friday 24 June 2011

Dr King said blacks' freedom is “inextricably bound” to that of the white - so it is!

There are many admirable and inspiring things in Dr Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Washington but one of those is his total grasp of urgency of a solution NOW. Not next generation, next year – NOW!

“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality,” said King.

“ … This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. …. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” Argued King in total contrast to many of Africa’s failed leaders who have argued that the fight for freedom, justice and human dignity is “not an event but a process” to justify their failure to deliver.

Dictators like Mugabe have turned from being champions of justice and freedom to the worst violators human rights and freedoms. They have tramped on these freedoms and rights because only the capitalists and their petty bourgeois friends are concerned and benefit from these rights. They are serving the masses whose concerns are putting food on their table and a roof over their heads. This is false choice these tyrants present because political and economic rights are not mutually exclusive. Indeed one can even say deny a person their political rights and everything else they have is yours to do as you please including their very life!

The other great thing about Dr King was his vision; he skilfully guided the blacks away from hating those who hurt them.

“The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people,” advised Dr King, “for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

Tyrants like Mugabe have presented the evils whites racists inflicted on the blacks as not just as incurable and festering wounds but worse still that the whites are forever looking for every opportunity to inflict fresh wounds and therefore blacks must be on their guard at all times! Whatever he has done including the systematic denial of our people’s basic human rights and dignity it was for one principle purpose; to hit black at the whites and/or safe guard the independence and sovereignty of Zimbabwe. He has been quick to label his fellow black critics and opponents, white-man’s puppets, are thus has had no qualms them their human rights including the right to life!

Tyrants like Mugabe have hidden their continued human rights violation of millions of our people behind the smoke screen of fighting and hurting the whites. We should have never allowed Mugabe to deny whites their right to own property because that was the slippery slope that led to blacks being their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and ultimately to thousands losing their right to life.

Recently Mugabe has taken to blaming the whites for his failed economic policies and corrupt rule. The West has stopped the WB and IMF lending money to Zimbabwe, for example, as punishment for seizing land from the white farmers, he claims. He does not say that Zimbabwe is already up to her ears in debt to the two international institutions, amongst others; debts the country was failing to service. Mugabe is bitter the two would not give him the money regardless his failure to repay; no one would do that.

Dr King was right, the freedom of blacks is “inextricably bound” to the freedom of whites. Who have guessed that a black tyrant would drag the whole nation into the dark ages in the name of punishing the whites!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

White racists are creating black racists like Julius Malema and Robert Mugabe!

“The ANC and President Jacob Zuma’s reluctance to discipline ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has led to his recent comments and actions the past weekend, the Freedom Front Plus Youth said on Monday.”

That is a statement of fact and few people would disagree with that!“FF Plus youth leader Jan van Niekerk said Malema’s comments on nationalisation and that white capitalism was the enemy, would lead to race polarisation and economic instability in southern Africa.”

Is not just stating the obvious but worse still it is the proverbial pan calling the kettle black.

Of course Julius Malema is playing a race card when he says blacks should take away land from the white. But is Jan van Niekerk is playing the race card too by denying the apartheid ruled SA was racists and everything the regime did was deliberated and calculated to benefit the whites at the expense of the blacks.

Apartheid did put the whites at a great advantage economically, educationally, socially, etc. Now that SA has a black government it is perfectly natural that blacks should want the government to do something to uplift them. These are basic facts that can not be denied and should be acknowledged.

The torrent of comments from whites on this page and on many other occasions slamming down black leaders like Julius Malema are clearly in denial that the whites have had the leg up during the days of apartheid and/or that blacks have no legitimate right to seek the same advantages that whites now take for granted. Whatever their reason(s), these whites are being racists. And in my humble opinion it is these white racists who have created monsters like Malema and Mugabe and made it is ease for them to spread their gospel of hate.

White racists resisting any policy designed to redistribute the national wealth have only helped swell the numbers of blacks supporting such policies blindly.

Blacks and whites should condemn Malema’s threat to seize white owned farms and give them to blacks purely from an economic view point. The policy does not make economic sense. The nation’s continued prosperity can only be assured by increased productivity. And that means making maximum use of the nation’s material and human resources.

Land is a material resource that should be allocated to whoever, black or white, best able to use it. “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white; if it can catch mice (farm land efficiently) it is a good cat!” said Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader credited for setting China on the path of economic boom.

Those blacks keen to try their hand in farming should be encouraged by sending them to Agricultural Colleges. And when their come out of College, State Land should be made available for them to farm.

Malema’s policy is based on punishing the whites for all the years of apartheid and on greed. Just as happened in Zimbabwe the farms will be taken over by Malema and other party loyalists killing the country’s agricultural sector.

Mr Malema is a very rich man already and he would not deny that he used his political muscle to get his riches. One would have to be naïve to think that he would not use the same muscle to seize white owned farms, mines, etc.

South Africa should have a proper debate on the nationalisation of mines, forced seizure of white owned farms, etc. Julius Malema has stifled all meaningful debate by behaving like a play ground bully. Yes President Zuma and the other ANC leaders have been slow in reining Malema in and what goes round comes round, now Malema in bullying President Zuma!

COPAC inspire recipe of new constitution for Zimbabwe: glass of milk + 5 spoon sewage = glass of sewage!

Each time Tsvangirai has hit a brick wall in the GNU because Mugabe would not honour his GPA agreement he has asked SADC to intervene. Again and again SADC leaders have nothing more than slapped Mugabe on the wrist and every time Tsvangirai has gone over the moon with joy convinced SADC was this time firm and decisive. After the 11 June SADC meeting the regional leaders gave no firm roadmap on any of the teething Zimbabwe problems; the drafting of the new constitution is still bogged down, the political violence is getting worse, no meaningful media and security sector reforms have been carried out, etc. So what is it that Tsvangirai and his MDC supporters are crawling about?

Ever since the SADC meeting two weeks ago both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have competed with each claiming regional leaders supported their position with the MDC leader going to the extend of calling Mugabe a liar at an MDC rally.

“The problem in this country is that people like lies and don’t want to tell the truth. We were also there and can’t be lied to. It’s surprising that a grown up man lies about what happened but we will tell the truth,” Tsvangirai told his supporters. The truth is SADC leaders once again failed to address the core issues; and Tsvangirai said nothing about this failure.

The 11 June 2011 SADC meeting on Zimbabwe was billed as the meeting where President Zuma was going to tell off Mugabe and give a sense of direction and purpose in Zimbabwe political crisis. President Zuma “vachaudza Mugabe chinotadzisa imbwa keseka kunyenama ichigona” as we would say in Shona. None of these things happened!

It will soon be three years since the signing of the GPA and there is no clear date when the new constitution will be ready to be put to the people’s vote. It is almost certain; the new constitution will contain enough Zanu PF contaminants to make it unacceptable.

Mugabe will use his dictatorial powers to ensure there are clauses in the new constitution giving him dictatorial powers to negate all the other positive clauses contained in the rest of the new constitution thus making the whole document unacceptable. It is in his DNA as a dictator to do so.

MDC’s COPAC representative, Douglas Monzora has been arguing people not to reject the new constitution before they have seen the document. Zimbabweans have good reasons to prejudge it because
a) the constitution writing process has taken nearly twice as long already as the more than generous time of eighteen months by the GPA (to say nothing of the cost) and there is still no end date in sight. The nation suffered its worst economic melt down in 2008 and yet all economic recovery plans have been put on the backburner until the end of this GNU. Just how much longer is this nation supposed to wait?
b) Zanu PF thugs did hijack outreach meetings and so the data on which the new constitution will be based has been contaminated already. One has to be really naïve to believe the end product will not have the same contaminants.
c) MDC was warned against signing GPA because it was foolish to give Mugabe dictatorial powers and then hope he would not use them to disrupt attempts to bring about any meaningful democratic reforms. It is not surprising therefore that the drafting of the new constitution is proving to be a long drawn out process nor that Zanu PF thugs hijacked outreach programmes, etc. Mugabe is a dictator and he can not be expected to president over democratic change; he has his own agenda of resisting regime change at all cost.

MDC is facing the same stubborn resistance from Mugabe and Zanu PF in its efforts to reform the Media, Police, etc. as it is facing over the new constitution.

“We have a politicised military. They are everywhere, terrorising people. There has to be security sector reform, soldiers must stay in the barracks, police must stay in the barracks,” Minister Tendai Biti told the same rally.

PM Tsvangirai and Minister Biti should not be reminding us again what the outstanding GPA issues are but tell us the truth of how the party has failed to have these issues resolved nearly three years since the signing of the GPA.

Recipe of the COPAC inspired new constitution for Zimbabwe:

Glass of milk + 5 spoon of sewage = glass full of sewage

Zanu PF thugs successfully hijacked the outreach programmes to ensure the Cholera contaminated sewage is included in the recipe. MDC are fighting a rare-guard battle to ensure the spoonfuls of sewage are not increased. It is a matter of indifference as to how many spoonfuls of sewage will be added since the end product will not change – it will still be a glass full of sewage!

Sunday 19 June 2011

USA Ambassador say it is not enough to get rid of Mugabe we need to change "the whole system".

“We have problems in Zimbabwe that have developed over decades and how could someone in his right mind think that removing one individual, no matter how powerful, smart and handsome he is could solve the country’s problems,” said USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray.I say AMEN to that.

It is when you realise this that one also realises just how stupid Tsvangirai and MDC were in signing the power sharing agreement because the GPA did not even seek to have Mugabe replaced nor even reduce any of his dictatorial powers. And yet Tsvangirai convinced Mugabe had changed and the GNU would deliver democratic change and economic recovery. How naïve can one be! Of course none of these changes ever materialised and the West rightly refused to bankroll the pipe dream.

As if having had a corrupt and repressive dictatorship for three decades was not bad enough the country has just wasted three years following MDC’s madness of ending the dictatorship by “incremental changes” as Minister Tendai Biti would say when we need to bit the bullet and change the whole system.

“The problems here are too complex and what is needed is to change the whole system,” said Ambassador Ray.

Sadly no one in MDC is listening. It was hard enough to make Tsvangirai and his MDC friends listen when they were the opposition which was why Ambassador Ray’s predecessor said Tsvangirai was a “flawed and indecisive character”. Ever since Tsvangirai and his friends were sworn in as Prime Minister and Minister – empty positions with no real power and authority as it turned out – talking to MDC has been like talking to a brick wall. What Zimbabwe needs right now is leaders with a bit of common sense and would listen to good advice.

9999

After all the talk of President Zuma finally putting his foot down and force an election roadmap on Mugabe during the 11 June SADC meeting we can now say it was all hot air. All that has come out of the meeting is that the Zimbabwe parties to the GPA will continue to talk about talks!

88888
"We are giving you an alternative, expropriation of the land without compensation." Said the firebrand ANCYL President, Julius Malema, at the close of the congress that elected him for a second term.
I am a black Zimbabwean and like so many of my fellow country men and women applauded Mugabe's promise of mass prosperity through various black empowerment schemes including nationalisation of many key industries and taking away the white owned farms. Julius Malema has clearly learned a lot from Mugabe because he is now expounding the same rhetoric. Mugabe did not allow for any real national debate on any of his hare brain schemes and it is interesting to note that Malema is stampeding ANC into nationalising mines, etc.

Yes Mugabe and his cronies have become multi millionaires but at the expense of destroying the national economy, Zimbabwe’s economy shrunk by a staggering 84% in the six year period 2002 to 2008, and turned million of our people into abject poverty. The same will happen to SA if the country goes down the same path!

No nation has ever prospered by looting, that is a fact!

Saturday 18 June 2011

Mudede says Zimbabwe's voters' roll is "perfect" although there are clearlt thousands dead still on the roll - some dead "voted" in 1995!

According to Zimbabwe’s voter roll there are 41 000 Zimbabweans over the age of 100 years four times the number of centenarians in Britain although the latter has more than twice Zimbabwe’s life expectancy and five time our population.

I wish the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) had dug deeper into Zimbabwe’s voting system because they would have uncovered a lot more dirty. In 1995 Ms Margret Dongo, an Independent candidate but former Zanu PF MP and CIO operative, challenged the result of the Harare South parliamentary election giving victory to her Zanu PF opponent. Ms Dongo produced sworn statements from people who had been bused from other constituencies by Zanu PF had voted in Harare South. A number of dead people were still on the voters’ roll and surprise, surprise some of the dead had “voted” too!

Before the Ms Dongo court challenge Registrar General Mudede would have no doubt boasted the Zimbabwe’s voters’ roll was “100% perfect”. In 1995 Mudede conceded there were irregularities in the initial 1995 Harare South elections. Ms Dongo won the rerun.

The Mugabe dictatorship is a big monster with long tentacles touching every corner of Zimbabwe society and it has corrupted everything that touched. It is not just the Police, Army, Judiciary, Media, the Reserve Bank and a few other more obvious institutions that require reforming in Zimbabwe; everything façade of Zimbabwe society need democratic reform.

Mudede is a very important part of the Zanu PF dictatorship and having a multitude of errors in the voters’ roll gives the regime countless ways to rig results. Of course the voters’ roll is perfect for Mugabe’s the sinister purposes!

Still the pressure for regime change has been mounting year after year; not even the creativity manipulation of the voter’ roll or the brutal intimidation of the voters could deliver a Mugabe victory in March 2008. Zimbabweans are more determined than ever, the coming elections will deliver a decisive victory for the people and the serious business of reforming the Police, the Army, Registrar General’s Office, etc can begin.

99999

@Madmom

We sometimes make the mistake of demanding democratic qualities from our leaders or more specifically national leaders when these same qualities are noticably lacking in the rest of our society. If there is no democratic debate in our schools, offices and homes how can we expect it in parliament?

I do not like to be criticised and I do like to "Lord" over everyone. But I admit I hate anyone "Lording" over me and I do reject the notion that I should not express my opinion on matters affecting my life - even if the said opinions should turn out to be wrong, I still believe it is my right to express them.

Societies that have encourage the free flow of information and ideas, debate and criticism have greatly benefited because the competition it created has force everyone to think through carefully before they spoke or acted. This has allowed few mistakes to be made and, when mistakes have been made, to learn from them and thus avoid repeating them. When there is no debate or competition half digested ideas are the steeple food. And when mistakes are made; autocratic system compound them by going into denial or finding a scapegoat for their failures.

Stifling criticism will benefit the individual but like it or not mankind is a social animal and no nation let alone individual can exist in total isolation and so, as a society, we have to agree on the rules to govern our interaction.

The problem is not so much that the Julius Malema and Robert Mugabe of our world do not know the basic human rights and freedoms which should be the entitlement of all citizens. That they do; they never tire to remind us how the white colonial regimes denied them and the blacks these rights. They problem is that now they are in a position of power and authority they see nothing wrong with denying everyone else these same rights.

They have managed to conned the black majority to go along with them by tell them a) that political rights like freedom of expression, the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life are not important. It is the economic rights they should be concerned about.
b) the mismanagement, corruption and ultimately the looting of the nation’s wealth and resources will benefit the poor when in reality it is the few who benefit at the expense of the majority.

“I have found the leaders and their adherents do not like criticism,” you said. I would agree with that too. Leaders like Mugabe wanted a one-party dictatorship and never made any bones about it. The same can be said about almost all the African leaders. Their followers were whipped into believing a one-party dictatorship will be best for them too. It is easy to see why they followed like sheep; the only political debate they knew and understood was that of dominate or be dominated; eat or be eaten!

Mugabe devoured the opposition and with all his critics silence he turned on all Zanu PF supporters who dared complain that his policies were hurting them! After thirty years of corruption and repression there no Zimbabweans, except the dictator’s cronies, who still believe the dictatorship was good.

Even latter African leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai and Museveni of Uganda who stood on a platform of democratic reform they too are as autocratic as the leaders they sought to replace. MDC is no more democratic than Zanu PF.

Given a chance the ordinary people will embrace democracy, like the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, they will agree with whoever happened to be speaking at the time at first but with time they will learn to distinguish rhetoric from fact. Left to their on devices leaders will never allow the electorate to criticise them The Arab Spirit has shown the rest of us how to break the vicious cycle of replacing one dictatorship with another.

Friday 17 June 2011

Minister Biti calls loan for CIO College "criminal" and still he approved it!

“Finance Minister Tendai Biti has described a US$98 million loan agreement between Zimbabwe and China to boost the military as “criminal”, despite penning his signature to the mortgage,” reported the Daily News.

If Tendai Biti really believed the Zino-Zim loan agreement to build a state-of-the-art College for the notorious CIO was criminal then why did he approve and sign it. I do not buy the Minister’s story that he was put under pressure to sign. Zimbabweans have heard similar feeble excuses before from the likes of Enos Nkala, Simba Makoni, Dumiso Dabegwa, etc. when they are asked why they did not do anything to stop Mugabe after all their years in power.

Minister Biti signed the “criminal” agreement because he did not want to lose his ministerial job and all the perks that go with it. The same can be said about Tsvangirai, the rest of the MDC leaders, NKala and the rest of Zanu PF leaders died and alive. What Minister Biti and all these politicians lack is principles. Mugabe knows that and has exploited that weakness; he knew if he gave any one of them a Mercedes Benz they will sell their own mothers for a song. And the tyrant was right!

This is not the first time Minister Biti has turned coats and shocked the nations. It is only a year or two ago that the Right Honourable Minister Biti was describing Mugabe as a "Victorian gentleman" who should be "knighted". A ruthless tyrant and murderer who has crashed the very soul of the nation and murdered hundreds of thousands of our people in cold blood a Victorian gentleman!?

Power is indeed a powerful hallucinogenic drug and taken by those with no backbone, no principles, and they sell their own mothers and be proud they had a mother to sell!

Zimbabwe is dying because it does not have principled men or women who will fight for freedom, rule of law, justice, human rights, etc today and not forget these values tomorrow when they are in positions of power and authority.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

MDC approve new US$1 billion CIO College to suppress freedom of expression!

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have proven again and again that they are really not fit to govern Zimbabwe and their approval of the agreement with the Chinese to build a College to train CIOs in the art of eaves dropping on the private individuals’ mobile phone and e-mails and to jam private radio station transmissions is the one of the many MDC costly blunders.

Zimbabweans must be amount the most brainwashed people on earth already and MDC, of all people should understand that; unless of course the party’s promise to bring democratic change is just empty rhetoric.

The printing press is credited in being the first technical innovation to bring information, knowledge and ideas to the masses. It is the bedrock of the age of enlightenment. Those nations that embraced freedom of expression and the great opportunity technology provided to educate and enlighten their people progressed in leaps and bounces. New inventions of the telephone, radio, television, computers, internet, etc. have accelerated the flow of information and exchange of ideas and with it development.

Many nations had the great misfortune of having the ruling elite who saw an enlightened populous as a threat to their autocratic rule. These tyrants have used the printing press for their own darker and sinister purpose, to brainwash the populous with propaganda. The Mugabe dictatorship has maintained a strangle hold on the country’s print and electronic media and only undermining the people’s basic right to freedom of association and expression.

Tyrannical regimes have found it a lot more difficult to have the same strangle hold on the internet and mobile phone but where there is a sinister will there is a way. And the Chinese have found all manner of unscrupulous ways to monitor, disrupt and hack into their nationals’ and other nations’ internet and mobile phones traffic. The Zimbabwe government has just signed an agreement worth nearly US$1 billion for the Chinese to build and equip an Intelligence College to train Zimbabwe’s notorious CIO in the art of silencing all democratic voices and brainwashing the public.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC party could and should have blocked this trade agreement. How could they agree to something that seeks to undermine further one of the key pillars of democracy – freedom of expression and association? MDC rubber stamped the agreement because “they are part of government and not the opposition”. What a feeble excuse!

MDC is a feeble political party with no political backbone and no solid principles. They will never deliver the democratic changes the nation is dying for!

The sum total of Tsvangirai’s GPA media reform was that the public media was to stop calling him a puppet! That was all he thought and cared about!

Tanonoka Joseph Whande is right in calling on calling on MDC members to replace Tsvangirai and his kitchen cabinet with some competent leaders.

Before independence Zimbabweans had their attention focused on ending colonial rule they did not think of the monster Mugabe who to take over from the white. Today we are concerned about getting rid of Mugabe we are once again ignoring the equally important matter of who will replace him. We can not afford to get rid of a dictator only to replace him with a “flawed and indecisive character” as former USA Ambassador Chris Dell so aptly said of Morgan Tsvangirai. We have to learn to joggle with two balls; we must!

Sunday 12 June 2011

SA Official claim Mugabe will not hoodwink Zuma "again" - want to bet!

“The facilitation team is adamant that this time around, they have to come up with strong resolutions against Mugabe and his Zanu PF party. They will not be hoodwinked again,” said the highly-placed South African official, the Daily News reported.

It is pleasing to hear President Zuma’s team admitting “they will not be hoodwinked again” by Mugabe. After years of bending over backwards to appease Mugabe; granting his regime billions of Rands in soft loans, imposing a one-sided power sharing arrangement when the tyrant lost the elections, turning a blind-eye to the tyrant’s continued repression, veto UN resolutions designed to force Mugabe to end his brutal repression in Zimbabwe, etc. Instead of showing his appreciation for all SA was doing for him the tyrant had the audacity to insult President Zuma when the latter dared to remind the tyrant he had to implement some token changes at least.

“We are a sovereign and independent country,” Mugabe said. “We will not be lectured to.” There is the thanks from a super brat!

The insults had the one desirable effect; it forced President Zuma to take off the hoodwinks and the kid gloves – for few weeks at least!

The same paper also said Mugabe met President Zuma for three hours ahead of the SADC meeting; enough time for the tyrant to sweet talk Zuma, kiss and make up, I would say. Mugabe has the gift of the gab and President Zuma is a simpleton (Professor Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s chief propagandist said as much of Zuma) – Mugabe has hoodwinked Zuma thousands of times in the past (and Zuma’s team admit that themselves) and who is to say Mugabe can not do so again a million times!

June 21 Public Sector strike must go ahead - why should they pay for the regime's incompetency and arrogance!

Mugabe’s attempt to blame Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti , for the country’s economic problems and the pittance pay of teachers and civil services is laughable. The dictator promised teachers a hefty pay increase for this month and the Minister Biti is saying there is no money. This situation epitomises what was wrong in Zimbabwe and the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse; i.e. that a single individual make a serious policy decision for selfish political gains without a plan or discussion with anyone and, quite often, contrary to dictate of common sense and damn the consequences. In the past it was Mugabe who made arbitrary decision and now, sadly, Minister of Finance has taken it upon himself to do the same much to the fury of the dictator!

Mugabe, like all dictators, thinks he is a cut above all other mortals and so if he says “a” is “b” then it is so regardless what the universal laws governing “a” and “b” say. For three decades he really believed he would create mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji” in Shona, by spending recklessly and, when that failed to produce the desired results, by looting! Spending and looting are the sum total of Mugabe’s economic policies; “Mugonomics” some people called it.

Of course there is nothing special about Zimbabwe, the country is subject to the same universal laws of physics, economics, etc. No nation can prosper by being wasteful, that is basic economics. “Mugonomics” is a criminal waste of human and material resources and the nation has paid dearly for it as all the economic performance indicators showed. For decades the Zimbabwe economy struggled and went into total melt down after 2002 when the looting began in earnest. In the six years 2002 to 2008 the Zimbabwe economic shrunk by 84%, a world record, inflation soared to 500 billion percent, another world record, the Z$ - on par with US$ in 1980 - devalued to another world record Z$4 trillion to US$, etc.

Teachers’ wages fall to US$15 a month and banking restriction allowed them to withdraw a maximum of US$1 at a time. So the US$200 a month salary the teachers and other civil servants received after the GNU was a significant improvement. It is laughable if Mugabe thinks the teachers or anyone would want to see a return to his Mugonomics. Teachers have the memory of an elephant, they are known to remember your name and the childish pranks you played forty years ago; they will never forget nor forgive Mugabe for the human misery and deaths he brought upon the nation. Still that does not mean the teachers have no bone to chew with Minister Biti; they have.

After decades of Mugonomics, anyone with a bit common sense will be a genius compared to Mugabe. Minister of Finance Tendai Biti has definitely shown that he has some common sense but nothing more. The Teachers and the nation have good cause to expect a lot more than common sense from Minister Biti and his follow MDC leaders if the nation is ever to get out of the hell hole Mugabe landed us.

Full marks to Minister Biti for bringing government spending under some degree of control by resisting civil servant wage rises, for example. The Minister has to put his foot down on travel expenses especially Mugabe. But it is not enough to for the Minister to control the public sector without doing something all the other sectors. The Minister’s failure to institute similar controls in key government owned companies like Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) undermined whatever economic benefits the national economy got from the reduced the public sector burden. ZESA fat cats salaries have soared for example.

“The ZCTU has released a document which shows that executives in parastatals earn $11,000, in manufacturing over $9,000, those in insurance $6,000 and the average executive at a non-governmental organisation earns $10,000” S W Radio Africa reported. “But currently the average wage across all sectors for workers is $200, and comes down to $150 after deductions.”

ZESA bills have soared to pay the fat cats salaries. Domestic consumers’ electricity bill is typically US$400 a month making a mockery of the US$ 200 monthly paid to civil servant. Private companies like Sable Chemicals and Zimbabwe Alloys major electricity users have closed citing huge ZESA bills has a contributory factor. Power cuts have remained, of course.

Whilst it is true that reducing Zimbabwe’s bloated public sector is vital for economic recovery it is equally true that on its own is not enough. The teachers and the civil servants are being asked to take the bitter medicine for no real national gain because of poor planning on the part of the Minister. Of course the medicine will have to be taken all over again, at double the dosage and double the period. Of course the teachers have good reasons to be angry with Minister Biti; they are just the guinea pigs in a macabre experience!

The whole nation has good reason to be angry with Minister Biti, Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the whole MDC leaders; where is the democratic change they promised us? In this case, MDC should have commissioned a through economic study whose findings would be made public and from which the party formulated its own economic roadmap which the Minister would present in parliament and be subjected to public scrutiny and debate. Public affairs are just that, public affairs. Zimbabwe’s national economic policies affect us all and must not be decided by a Minister alone much less be subject to the whim of a tyrant like Mugabe.

Like Mugabe MDC has the same contemptuous disregard of the Zimbabwe public. Zanu PF and MDC have been engaged in endless political negotiations whilst they have disagreed or failed to honour their word they on many issues they have been one when it comes to keeping the Zimbabwe public in the dark on what they talked about. MDC’s chief negotiator on these interparty talks is none other than Minister Tendai Biti.

The Teachers and Civil Servants threaten to go on strike 21 June 2011 if the salary increases Mugabe promised them do not materialise.

Mugabe fearful of the mass protests similar to those in the Arab Spring has given Minister Biti an ultimatum to pay the salary increases, according to Independent Newspaper report. This could well be the public protest that will deliver the regime change the nation has been waiting for and Mugabe dreads. The dictator is reported livid with Minister Biti accusing the minister of “usurping” presidential power and exercising them himself.

As for Minister Biti he has said there was no money to meet the hefty salary increases and awarding them regardless will throw the country back on the slippery days of hyperinflation, etc. Minister Biti’s name will be mud if that happened.

So the battle lines Mugabe has his guns pointing at Finance Minister Biti but has the Riot Police ready to ruthless stop all public protest. The Minister is fighting back both Mugabe and the Civil Servants with the simple fact that there is no money to meet the salary increase. The Civil Servants have the formidable arsenal against both Mugabe and Minister Biti if the country’s affairs were competently managed they would be paid a living wage. How long are they expected to suffer for the regime’s incompetency and arrogance?

Sunday 5 June 2011

Mugabe will have his way on 10 June SADC meeting but it is Zuma will have the last laugh!

It is clear that Mugabe will concede moving elections date from this year to early next year but that is about all he will give. President Zuma can forget about pushing any democratic reforms to ensure the elections are free and fair; that is NOT going to happen. Losing elections is a hard thing under the best of times but when you are a tyrant facing the life of pauper if the loot is taken away from you and all your cronies – which is a must if the country’s economic recovery is be assured – and, worse still, you will be have to account for the serious human rights violation including the murder of hundreds of thousands then losing an election is simply UNTHINKABLE!

Mugabe can not win free and fair elections and so he has to resort to using intimidation, rape and murder as happened in 2008. He has his terror machine oiled money from the sell of Marange diamonds and the party militia, Police, Soldiers and CIO who will do the dirty work have been deployed countrywide already.

Mugabe is well aware that using violence could land him in the sticky situation in which the international community judge his election victory “illegitimate” as happened after the 27 June 2008 presidential runoff. Tsvangirai got him off the hook by signing the GPA but even Tsvangirai will not be that stupid to do it again. But hai, what else can he do?

The only thing to stop Mugabe using violence is if SADC deployed the Police and Soldiers to enforce peace. SADC Police arresting ZRP and disarming ZNA, is something that even President Zuma would want to do.

President Zuma would have no choice but to let Mugabe have his violent elections. He will hit back by joining the international community in condemning the sham election and pronounce Mugabe’s victory, illegitimate. President Zuma can launch his pre-emptive strike by finally releasing the SA report on Zimbabwe’s 2002 now. The report will confirm the elections were not free and fair and thus underline the historic fact that Mugabe has repeatedly failed to hold free and fair elections.

Yes the 10 June President Zuma and Mugabe meeting is going to be a show down in which the Zimbabwe tyrant is bound to have his way but it is President Zuma who will have the last laugh.

Saturday 4 June 2011

This time Mugabe's bacon is fried and President Zuma may yet drive the last nail in the tyrant's coffin!

The International community refused to recognise Mugabe as the legitimate head of Zimbabwe after the 27 June 2008 run-off not because Tsvangirai had withdrawn from the race but because what had happened to force him to withdraw. Mugabe will have no choice but to resort to the same intimidation, rape and murder tactics to win the next elections. The violence has already started. The international community will once again reject him from the commune of nations.

SADC and South Africa in particular played a major role in pressuring MDC to sign the power sharing agreement that got Mugabe off the hook last time. They wanted to give Mugabe’s fall from power a soft landing but instead of walking quietly into the sun set the tyrant decided to stay on by hook and by crook.

Mugabe’s arrogant behaviour towards President Zuma in the last few months has undermined the latter’s standing in SA and the world at large. President Zuma can hit back.

President Zuma has refused to release the report on Zimbabwe’s 2002 elections by high ranking SA Officials. Everyone knows the report will confirm what we already know, that the elections were not free or fair. The report would be the final nail in Mugabe’s coffin; it will confirm the tyrant has habitually failed to hold free and fair elections particularly if the violence of 2008 were repeated again. No nation would want to deal with him, not even some of his fellow dictators for fear of drawing adverse attention on their own tyrannical rule.

Mugabe is facing a no win situation; if Mugabe does not use violence he will lose the elections; if he does use violence, no nation will recognise him as legitimately elected. So what ever happens, one thing is certain Mugabe’s bacon is fried!

The greatest tragedy of these coming elections is that the nation has to be subject to the 2008 intimidation, rapes and murders or worse before Mugabe is finally forced out of office all because the idiot Tsvangirai signed the GPA and got Mugabe off the hook!

777

Yesterday the verbal abuse and physical threats were directed at DA candidates and their supporters today it is at all those from his own party challenging Malema to be leader. For those of us coming from Zimbabwe this is a familiar path, a well trodden Mugabe path. Parties and nation will only benefit from having quality and there is no better way of differentiating the good, the bad and the ugly than by good old fashioned competition. What Julius Malema is doing by going into this torrent of verbal abuse and threats to use violence is kill all meaningful debate and competition.
The ANC Youth members and the party must ask Malema to produce the evidence and not let him get away with making outrageous innuendoes.

9999

The Chinese Communist Party remembers the 3 June 1989 democracy protests in Tiananmen Square by arresting would be protesters.

China's economic boom since the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989 has definitely taken the sting out of those demanding democratic reforms, but did not kill the wasp.

The economic boom has allowed even millions of Chinese people to escape the life of abject poverty which was, until 1989, was their lot. The boom has also allowed these people to look beyond the boarders of China and see the economic and political riches democracy offers compared to the precious little communisms offers. The next time the Chinese economy falters Tiananmen Square will have millions of protesters not the solitary protester barring the advance of the regime’s tanks.

To realise its full potential Zimbabweans get rid of Mugabe and get visionary leaders to replace him!

“Once the politics are not on the way of economic development, Zimbabwe will need not more than seven years to stand alone without foreign aid. Zimbabwe has a mixture of advantages that range from good mineral deposits to the educated human resources and in 10 years Zimbabwe will be supporting other African countries,” said the outgoing Germany Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Albrecht Conze.

.Ambassador Conze is right; the Zimbabwe economy has the potential to recover to its 1980 level in 10 years. But for that to happen, we need visionary, bold and decisive leaders. Leaders who will take back the farms, mines, etc looted by Mugabe and his cronies or given away to the Chinese in dodgy trade agreements. Leaders who will restore the rule of law and build strong democratic institutions; placing them beyond the reach of unscrupulous politicians like Mugabe for all time.

MDC does not the visionary leaders to achieve the growth rate of 20% plus to get GPD to its 1980 level in ten years. A few weeks ago Tsvangirai said an MDC government would deliver “about 10%” economic growth rate. With unemployment seating at a nauseating 80% it would not generate enough jobs for the new jobseekers let alone those still out of work.

Zimbabweans are totally focused on getting Mugabe out; still, we must also think of what we want after Mugabe is gone. It will be too late to consider this after MDC is in power; think how thick skinned MDC leaders have become. We would not be in this GPA mess if Tsvangirai had listened to the advice not to sign the one-sided agreement.

Zimbabweans have to learn to joggle two balls – getting rid of Mugabe and getting quality leaders after him – if the nation is live to its potential.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Zimbabwe is set for another election marred by violence: will the Police do Mugabe's dirty work?

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely and when that happens, the whole edifice will come crashing down. Leaders are like the rocks seating at the top of a great mountain power tends to makes them think they are more important than the rocks below them and on whose shoulders they stand.

Absolute power makes the leaders think they are diamonds and the ruled are nothing but dirty in comparison.

The ruled are not inert rocks and they know when they are being treated like dirty and respond by withdrawing their support. Ordinary people can express their disapproval of their leaders by voicing the views through the various media, by holding public protests and, ultimately by booting the leaders come elections. Absolute rulers have countered by making sure that there was no freedom of expression, that all public protests are brutally repressed and that elections are not free and fair.

But after thirty year of tyrannical rule that has left millions of people in abject poverty and despair the Zanu PF dictatorship is finding it near impossible to retain its strangle hold on power. It can no longer whip Zimbabweans back in line and continue to support the regime. Thirty years of mismanagement, corruption, looting and brutal repression has eroded public support of Mugabe and his cronies. They are still the diamonds seating at the apex of a high mountain but with no supporting base!

In the past Mugabe had used lot more subtle means to retain power in the last ten years the pressure for change has forced him to through all caution to the wind. In the past Mugabe allowed his loyal supporters to be corrupt, in the last tens years he has allowed them to loot. In the past the Police, CIO and judiciary had turned a blind eye to Zanu PF inspired lawlessness now the Police, CIO and Army are spear heading the lawlessness and political murders. It is a measure of just how desperate Mugabe and Zanu PF are to retain power.

In 2008 Mugabe was forced to some extreme level of political violence in which millions were subjected to some form of intimidation, thousands were raped and hundreds were murdered. The whole international community refused to recognise Mugabe as the legitimate head of state of Zimbabwe after the sham elections. It was only through the stupidity of Tsvangirai and MDC who let the dictator off the hook by signing a bogus power sharing agreement.

To “win” the next election Mugabe and Zanu PF no choice but to use violence and evidence on the ground shows that is exactly their game plan. Mugabe has used the last three years to reorganise his party and overhaul and retool his terror machine. Another sham election will only mean Mugabe be rejected again and this time not even the stupid Tsvangirai will dare let the tyrant off the hook. The whole Mugabe dictatorship is set to crumple!

People like Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba, Police Commissioner Chihuri, ZDF commander Constantine Chiwenga and all the other high ranking Officers and Zanu PF leaders who are part and parcel of the dictatorship edifice are not going to abandon Mugabe; they will go down with the ship and captain!

It is the middle and lower ranking members of the Police, Army, CIO, etc who will have some tough decision to make in the coming months. The dictatorship would want they to play any increasing active role in the political violence. It will be infinitely better for them to be fired now than soil their hands with the blood of innocent people. All those found wanting in the carrying out of their duties as a Police Officer will never certainly lose their jobs after the collapse of the dictatorship. And those with blood on their hands will hang.

It is tragic that Zimbabwe has to go through yet another process in which the people have to demonstrate their resolve to rid the nation of this tyrannical dictatorship of Mugabe and the tyrant, for his part, has to resort to brute force to frustrate and deny the people their wish. The dictator will promise a lot to those ready to do its dirty work but whatever they get will be nothing compared with the punishment that will follow the fall of the dictatorship. The Mugabe dictatorship is doomed!

888

@Townsend
Tsvangirai is naive and sometimes down right stupid. Mugabe is a ruthless murderer. It is not a crime to be naive but it is to murder.

Mugabe has murdered hundreds of Zimbabweans and with the coming elections will murder even more just to stop them electing a naive leader! Is that what you think should be Mugabe’s line of defence?

Tsvangirai was stupid enough to get Mugabe off the hook after the sham 2008 elections. Even he is not that stupid to do it again. Mugabe can get you, Townsend, as his legal adviser in the trail!

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Zim Cop killed in a protest sending Zanu PF terror machine into overdrive!

A Zimbabwe Police Officer was killed during a protest in Glenview, Zimbabwe. The Police say MDC activists were responsible although the party deny it. Over 30 MDC activists have already been rounded up and, no doubt, worse is still to come.

Zanu PF does not need an excuse to unleash its campaign of intimidation, rape and murder but the beating or murder of one of its own will encourage its terror machine into overdrive.

When Tsvangirai signed the power sharing agreement with Mugabe he must have thought he would somehow get the tyrant to change. Many people told Tsvangirai the leopard can not change his spots but he would not listen. There is a school of thought who says Tsvangirai never stopped to think about such niceties as restoring the rule of law, creating a free public media and all the other things one would expect from a party promising democratic change. His head was full of grand visions of himself as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe; there was real no room for anything else. Like the cartoon character, Homer Simpson, who admits that every time he learns something new it pushes old stuff out of his head.

Of course, whether Tsvangirai even thought of stopping Mugabe’s tyrannical rule or not it is now academic. The end result is that he has completely failed to stop the tyrant. The nation is sleepwalking into lawlessness and violence as that seen in 2008 or worse!

6666

MDC are without doubt the main driving force behind the writing of the new constitution but because of poor planning on its part the long awaited new constitution will not be worth the paper it is written on!

A Voice Of America Studio 7 reporter was right to said the new constitution writing process was dogged with “disorganized and often over-budget”. It is scandalous that millions dollars have been wasted on a money-making scam given the nation’s dire economic condition. But worse still, Zanu PF hijacked the outreach meetings lying to rest all pretence the collected data a true reflection of the people’s wishes.

Since the new constitution will not be worthless, one hopes, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend Douglas Monzora will do the decent thing and fall on their own swords for their part in this criminal waste of money, time and opportunity!