MDC MPs continued to demand an explanation for Brigadier General Nyikayaramba’s treasonous threat to subvert the electoral will of the people should Mugabe lose the next elections much to the annoyance of Mugabe who ordered parliament not to discuss the matter.
It is really encouraging to see that MDC is taking the bull by the horn at long last. Mutsekwa, one of the MDC MP who has spoken out of this matter, could have made a difference in his last position as Joint Minister of Home Affairs if only he had not been napping. He seems to have finally woken up now; assuming of course that does not dose off again!
If Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not been fast asleep for the last two and half years, the country would not be in this mess! MDC have the majority in parliament but so far one would be forgiven to think that Zanu PF had total control of the august house!
“As Commander-in-Chief of the security forces, I want to make it very clear that no one should meddle with the command. Parliament cannot be Commander-in-Chief of the security forces. It has no business debating the conduct of individuals in command, let them raise that with me in appropriate forums,” Mugabe said.
It is within parliament's power and duty to demand that Nyikayaramba explain to parliament and the nation what exactly he meant with his treasonous statements. What could be more treasonous that a senior member of the security services saying he would do "anything" to subvert the electoral wish of the people.
The respect of the democratic will of the people lies at the very heart of our freedom, peace and liberty. Those seeking to undermine the express will of the people are therefore guilty of high treason. They must be hunted down and punished.
If Mugabe believes it is his duty as Command-In-Chief to discipline rogue officers; why has he not done so? These treasonous threats have been made as far back as 2002.
No one is above the law. And no one should be allowed to hide behind their public office to commit treason or protect those committing this heinous crime! Many Kings and Emperors have lost their heads literally and physically over this; Mugabe would do well to remember it!
8888
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, said the Zimbabwe economy could achieve an 11 – 15% growth rate. The economy is expected to grow by 4.7% this year and achieved much less in the past.
"Security of tenure and production is important for our agriculture, and production is still limping because of the political instability which is affecting performance of the economy," Biti said.
After years of saying the GNU is working, it is refreshing to hear some one in MDC admit that actually the GNU is NOT working.
It is not in the nature of flawed and indecisive characters like PM Morgan Tsvangirai or Finance Minister Tendai Biti to finally admit that entering the power sharing arrangement with Mugabe was a blunder and apologise to the nation who, after all, are the ones who have paid heavily politically and economically for the mistake. It was a political blunder because MDC must have expected the arrangement to produce political stability and not the opposite. If MDC did not factor in political stability in the arrangement – there is clear evidence that all MDC leaders cared about were the political posts and the perks they got – then it is even more reprehensible!
The signing of the GPA is one of the biggest political blunders in Zimbabwe’s political history. After the sham June 2008 Mugabe was on the hook because the whole international community was united in rejecting him as the legitimate head of state. By signing the GPA, MDC allow him into State House with all his previous dictatorial powers and gave him the time to reorganise secure the funds for refresh violent elections!
Friday 29 July 2011
Thursday 28 July 2011
Minister Coltart says Mugabe is not a monster - how patronising!
“This power-sharing arrangement, which has brought members of the opposition into government alongside Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party, is a very fragile set-up,” Zimbabwe’s Education Minister, David Coltart, said. “Anything could happen. But at the moment it’s working. We will inevitably go through more upsets. But things have at least stabilised.”
Soon after independence white Zimbabweans were tripping over each other is singing Mugabe's praises - they were making up for all the years of abusing blacks. I have met and known David Coltart for a long time and I would say he is a liberal white Zimbabwean but would never count him among the masses appeasing Mugabe. So why would he say this GNU, which is just a Mugabe dictatorship by another name, “is working”?
Minister Coltart joining MDC knowing fully well that the party had so much dead wood it could never be effective. Former USA Ambassador Chris Dell described Tsvangirai as a “flawed and indecisive character”; David Coltart is smart enough to have known that from the start. So given all these serious limitation within MDC anything the party does is to be applauded. The party has made so many serious blunders not least of which was getting Mugabe off the hook by forming the GNU.
Claims by MDC leaders from both sides of the MDC divide that the GNU has brought "stability" to the nation is an economic exageration and political lie!
The empty shops have filled up again since 2008 but that was the end product of scrapping the Z$ and thus putting and end to the coutnry's hype inflation which had peaked at 500 000 000%. Another world record! The Z$ was scrapped in November 2008 and the GNU was formerd in February 2009!
Mugabe and his cronies have retained control of the key resources like land, indeed the farm invasions have continued since the formation of the GNU, and economic recovery will remain a pipe dream until these resources are put back into productive use. Unemployment, which had soared to 90% in 2008 has hardly charged, 80% plus are still out of work. The political violence and lawlessness that swept the nation during the April to June 2008 presidential run-off have remained and even got worse. This is not where the nation wants to be muchless to settle and stabilise.
“No, Mugabe is no monster,” Minister Coltart said of Mugabe.
Here is the tyrant who murdered over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship. In 2008 he defied all civilised rules governing the contact of free and fair elections; millions were terrorised, thousands raped and beaten and over 500 were murdered. The scene is set for the next elections to be just as violent. What else does Mugabe have to do for you, Minister Coltart, to finally accept Mugabe for the monster he is!
Of all people Minister David Coltart knows Tsvangirai is an incompetent leader and that Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant. What the Minister is doing is bring down the performance standard so low that even an idiot like Tsvangirai can score an A+! As for tyrants like Mugabe in Africa; well they can do no wrong! None!
I wish people would stop being so damn patronising; we may be poor and ill educated but please, please, we too know when a leader is incompetent or worse still when they are a ruthless tyrant! Damn it; we are not all STUPID!
Soon after independence white Zimbabweans were tripping over each other is singing Mugabe's praises - they were making up for all the years of abusing blacks. I have met and known David Coltart for a long time and I would say he is a liberal white Zimbabwean but would never count him among the masses appeasing Mugabe. So why would he say this GNU, which is just a Mugabe dictatorship by another name, “is working”?
Minister Coltart joining MDC knowing fully well that the party had so much dead wood it could never be effective. Former USA Ambassador Chris Dell described Tsvangirai as a “flawed and indecisive character”; David Coltart is smart enough to have known that from the start. So given all these serious limitation within MDC anything the party does is to be applauded. The party has made so many serious blunders not least of which was getting Mugabe off the hook by forming the GNU.
Claims by MDC leaders from both sides of the MDC divide that the GNU has brought "stability" to the nation is an economic exageration and political lie!
The empty shops have filled up again since 2008 but that was the end product of scrapping the Z$ and thus putting and end to the coutnry's hype inflation which had peaked at 500 000 000%. Another world record! The Z$ was scrapped in November 2008 and the GNU was formerd in February 2009!
Mugabe and his cronies have retained control of the key resources like land, indeed the farm invasions have continued since the formation of the GNU, and economic recovery will remain a pipe dream until these resources are put back into productive use. Unemployment, which had soared to 90% in 2008 has hardly charged, 80% plus are still out of work. The political violence and lawlessness that swept the nation during the April to June 2008 presidential run-off have remained and even got worse. This is not where the nation wants to be muchless to settle and stabilise.
“No, Mugabe is no monster,” Minister Coltart said of Mugabe.
Here is the tyrant who murdered over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship. In 2008 he defied all civilised rules governing the contact of free and fair elections; millions were terrorised, thousands raped and beaten and over 500 were murdered. The scene is set for the next elections to be just as violent. What else does Mugabe have to do for you, Minister Coltart, to finally accept Mugabe for the monster he is!
Of all people Minister David Coltart knows Tsvangirai is an incompetent leader and that Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant. What the Minister is doing is bring down the performance standard so low that even an idiot like Tsvangirai can score an A+! As for tyrants like Mugabe in Africa; well they can do no wrong! None!
I wish people would stop being so damn patronising; we may be poor and ill educated but please, please, we too know when a leader is incompetent or worse still when they are a ruthless tyrant! Damn it; we are not all STUPID!
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Mugabe has spent US$20.6m globetrotting so far - enough to buy anti-retroviral for half million for six months!
Mugabe has spent US$20.6m on travel so far this year out of a budget of $15 m. Tsvangirai and his two deputies PM have spent $3.7 m so far out of their annual budget of $5 m. According to the World Health Organisation, the money spent by these four individuals for far is enough to pay for anti-retroviral treatment for almost 600 000 people for six straight months!
Biti told Parliament a fortnight ago that civil servants’ salary increments would cost the government an extra $29 million per month, pushing the wage bill to 70 percent of government expenditure on salaries up from 45 percent.
So if government is spending 70% of its revenue in wages the rest is mopped up on foreign travels, cars for ministers, etc. It is no wonder government has no money left for other basics like food for prisoners – hundreds of prisoners are reportedly dying of starvation and medicines like anti-retroviral. So money that could be used to save 600 000 Zimbabwean lives in need of anti-retroviral treatment is being used instead to pay for the globe trotting passion of four individuals!
Biti told Parliament a fortnight ago that civil servants’ salary increments would cost the government an extra $29 million per month, pushing the wage bill to 70 percent of government expenditure on salaries up from 45 percent.
So if government is spending 70% of its revenue in wages the rest is mopped up on foreign travels, cars for ministers, etc. It is no wonder government has no money left for other basics like food for prisoners – hundreds of prisoners are reportedly dying of starvation and medicines like anti-retroviral. So money that could be used to save 600 000 Zimbabwean lives in need of anti-retroviral treatment is being used instead to pay for the globe trotting passion of four individuals!
Parliament speakers calls for the arrest of disruptive Zanu PF mob - how naive!
A Zanu PF mob disrupt parliament proceeding on Saturday 23 July 2011. The mob assaulted an MDC MP and some journalist.
Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, like many who commented soon after the disturbances, called on the police to “move with speed and take necessary measures to bring to book the sponsors and the perpetrators of the violence.”
Moyo speaks of political violence as if he has spent every hour of every day of the last three cocooned in parliament without ever listening to the radio or reading the news papers and hence was totally unaware of what has been happening.
How many incidences of political violence have taken place everyday across the country? So now that the violence is taking place in his ivory tower he calls on the Police to do something about it. Of course, the Police did nothing to stop the violence because they were waiting for Mr Moyo to tell them to act. Now that he has, all those involved will arrested and punished before the end of the week. Yes, thank you Mr Speaker, Sir!
The idiot does not even know that the Police have themselves instigated most of the violence!
The sheer incompetency and naivety of Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC ministers and leaders makes one despair. What chance does the nation have of digging itself out of this political and economic hell-hole with people like Moyo and Tsvangirai leading the fight!?
Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, like many who commented soon after the disturbances, called on the police to “move with speed and take necessary measures to bring to book the sponsors and the perpetrators of the violence.”
Moyo speaks of political violence as if he has spent every hour of every day of the last three cocooned in parliament without ever listening to the radio or reading the news papers and hence was totally unaware of what has been happening.
How many incidences of political violence have taken place everyday across the country? So now that the violence is taking place in his ivory tower he calls on the Police to do something about it. Of course, the Police did nothing to stop the violence because they were waiting for Mr Moyo to tell them to act. Now that he has, all those involved will arrested and punished before the end of the week. Yes, thank you Mr Speaker, Sir!
The idiot does not even know that the Police have themselves instigated most of the violence!
The sheer incompetency and naivety of Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC ministers and leaders makes one despair. What chance does the nation have of digging itself out of this political and economic hell-hole with people like Moyo and Tsvangirai leading the fight!?
Sunday 24 July 2011
"Blacks are incapable of self rule" white supremacists said: that is set to change!
“Blacks are incapable of governing themselves!” said George. That hurt so bad, I felt like he had stubbed me. And for years I felt like I was bleeding all over again each time I remember George’s words. His words have haunted me all these last 35 years; until a week ago, I rationalised to myself what he meant.
George and me were in a group of eight students on a week long camping trip in Chimanimani Mountains in Eastern Zimbabwe, Rhodesia then, just before the country’s independence in 1980. This was a mixed race trip, a novelty given that whites hardly interacted with blacks at any level other than the master – servant.
George was one of the white students and I was one of the black students. In racially divided Rhodesia the whites were the privileged class, they had everything. Blacks were more like third class citizens, exploited and denied any say in the governance of the country. The race issue was bound to come up during the camping trip for two reasons. Firstly, the chasm difference between the two races came to the fore each time the two races were brought together. And the second reason was the whites were losing the civil war and therefore everyone was talking of the changes round the corner.
The white supremacists had always demonised blacks to justify their continued repression and abuse since the slave days. No white person had ever said these things to my face but aware these things were being said. I was hurt by what George said because I liked him and he had dared said it to my face; I reasoned. The truth is; George’s words touched a raw nerve – deep down I feared that he might be right.
By the late 1970s many African countries had gained their independence only for chaos to reign supreme. Our camp was a few kilometres from the Mozambique boarder; a country that went straight from a war to end colonial rule into an equally bloody civil war pitting blacks against their fellow blacks with the defenceless civilians caught in the middle.
In Rhodesia the blacks looked forward to the end of white colonial oppression and at the same they were fearful of the country going down the same ruinous path taken by so many other independent African countries.
It did not take long for Mugabe to prove George right and confirm our worst fears. Today, after thirty years of Mugabe dictatorial rule with the national economy in total melt down, with tens of thousands murdered by the regime to establish and maintain its de facto one-party dictatorship and the rest routinely denied their basic human rights and freedoms there can be no doubt that self-governing under Mugabe was a total failure.
The white supremacists would have us believe that blacks have a low IQ and thus are incapable of self government. Nonsense!
People like Mugabe understood well enough the injustice of white colonial oppression. They are rightly regarded as liberation heroes because they fought for liberty and human dignity. It is nonsense therefore to suggest that they did not understand what justice and liberty meant before independence. These are simple concepts that do not rocket-science IQ level intellect to appreciate.
The challenge leaders like Mugabe faced was equally simple; fight white colonial oppress to restore the rule of law or to replace white colonial oppression with black oppression. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you!” we learnt from the Bible. How readily we remember this when we are the down trodden and boot is on our neck. I believe when Jesus Christ said this he was addressing those in a position to give and wearing the boot! After all laws are there to protect the weak and powerless from the strong, powerful and the lawless. The challenge then is to the strong to do to the weak what they would have the strong do to them if they were the weak.
Doing unto others as we would have them do to ourselves is not easy. It is walking the straight and narrow path.
"Having joined government and tasted the warm sweetness of power, the MDC formations no longer want elections. They want elections suspended indefinitely and their governorship extended to infinite." Mugabe said recently of his political opponents. The same of course can be said about him. Having tasted the warm sweetness of power the talk of restoring the rule of law was quickly forgotten and to extend his own and Zanu PF’s rule to infinite and those fighting to help him retain power were above the law!
What made it that much easier for a tyrant like Mugabe to establish a ruthless dictatorship is that he was surrounded by like minded individuals with no vision nor moral compass and easily enticed by promises of “the warm sweetness of power” to forget the common cause they foreswore to stand for all their lives.
To people like Mugabe and the ruling elite, the warm sweetness of power certainly turned the straight and narrow path to freedom, liberty and prosperity for all into a razor thin and impossible to travel on.
The country’s intelligentsia should have known better and thus resist the undermining of democratic institutions and rule of law by Mugabe. They did not content to go along to get along. Their lives may be better than that of the peasants and urban poor, still their lost the most economically from the economic melt down. And, certainly, the denial of freedom of expression is felt more by those who can express themselves than those who can not.
So to the down trodden masses independence has been nothing more than the replacement of one oppressive regime with another; the colour of the oppressors it is a matter of indifference to them and their suffering. Betrayed by those they are considered their liberators and abandoned by those who should have known better the masses had no choice but to resign themselves to their totalitarian rule and all that was to follow.
Decades of mismanagement, corruption and brutal repression have left many African countries with a mountain to climb economically and political to get back into the light of prosperity and liberty. When a nation elects Tsvangirai, a flawed and indecisive character, leader when a Hercules is called for; one despairs.
Tsvangirai and his MDC party are supposed to be spearheading the nation’s fight for democratic change and yet they went on to sign an agreement that effectively condoned the intimidation, rape and murders by Mugabe in the sham June 2008 presidential run-off. The agreement gave the tyrant all his dictatorial powers and in the coming elections he is set to use the same brutal trickery to deny the nation their most basic and fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country!
Mugabe’s head was on the block after the international community refused to accept him as the legitimate head of state. Mugabe’s reign of terror was finished if only Tsvangirai did not allow him to have the Lazarus moment!
The agreement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai was so base it can be compared to Oliver Cromwell granting King Charles 1 a last minute reprieve and grant him all his dictatorial powers to boot! Where would England be today?!
MDC members had the chance to redeem their past mistake of electing such incompetent leadership. What they did instead is re-elect Tsvangirai and his entire kitchen cabinet. The Zimbabwe electorate seems have blindly accepted MDC commiting the nation to God only knows what more blunders.
Still, "'Tis not too late to seek a newer world," as Lord Alfred Tennyson rightly advised.“. . . We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.“
As a black person I have to acknowledge that the white supremacists had a point; as a people we blacks have a propensity to pick the easy broad ways of the lawless tempted by the empty promises of “the warm sweetness of power” here and now. We avoid like a plague the straight and narrow path of just and humble. My contention with you George, 35 years after the camping trip, and all the other white supremacists is that blacks have certainly made a very disappointing start to self-government not because there are stupid to understand the intricacies of government but because they have sort the easy route when the only path was the straight and narrow.
Africa has had the great misfortune of having more than its fair share of tyrants like Mugabe whose love of power blinded them to the suffering of their own people. There have been visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela whose have shown that blacks can rule themselves well. The tragic suffering from years of dictatorial rule has opened the eyes of many in Africa to resist tyranny in future. Someday soon, competent, democratic and accountable governments will become the norm and not the rare exception in Africa; mark my word!
George and me were in a group of eight students on a week long camping trip in Chimanimani Mountains in Eastern Zimbabwe, Rhodesia then, just before the country’s independence in 1980. This was a mixed race trip, a novelty given that whites hardly interacted with blacks at any level other than the master – servant.
George was one of the white students and I was one of the black students. In racially divided Rhodesia the whites were the privileged class, they had everything. Blacks were more like third class citizens, exploited and denied any say in the governance of the country. The race issue was bound to come up during the camping trip for two reasons. Firstly, the chasm difference between the two races came to the fore each time the two races were brought together. And the second reason was the whites were losing the civil war and therefore everyone was talking of the changes round the corner.
The white supremacists had always demonised blacks to justify their continued repression and abuse since the slave days. No white person had ever said these things to my face but aware these things were being said. I was hurt by what George said because I liked him and he had dared said it to my face; I reasoned. The truth is; George’s words touched a raw nerve – deep down I feared that he might be right.
By the late 1970s many African countries had gained their independence only for chaos to reign supreme. Our camp was a few kilometres from the Mozambique boarder; a country that went straight from a war to end colonial rule into an equally bloody civil war pitting blacks against their fellow blacks with the defenceless civilians caught in the middle.
In Rhodesia the blacks looked forward to the end of white colonial oppression and at the same they were fearful of the country going down the same ruinous path taken by so many other independent African countries.
It did not take long for Mugabe to prove George right and confirm our worst fears. Today, after thirty years of Mugabe dictatorial rule with the national economy in total melt down, with tens of thousands murdered by the regime to establish and maintain its de facto one-party dictatorship and the rest routinely denied their basic human rights and freedoms there can be no doubt that self-governing under Mugabe was a total failure.
The white supremacists would have us believe that blacks have a low IQ and thus are incapable of self government. Nonsense!
People like Mugabe understood well enough the injustice of white colonial oppression. They are rightly regarded as liberation heroes because they fought for liberty and human dignity. It is nonsense therefore to suggest that they did not understand what justice and liberty meant before independence. These are simple concepts that do not rocket-science IQ level intellect to appreciate.
The challenge leaders like Mugabe faced was equally simple; fight white colonial oppress to restore the rule of law or to replace white colonial oppression with black oppression. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you!” we learnt from the Bible. How readily we remember this when we are the down trodden and boot is on our neck. I believe when Jesus Christ said this he was addressing those in a position to give and wearing the boot! After all laws are there to protect the weak and powerless from the strong, powerful and the lawless. The challenge then is to the strong to do to the weak what they would have the strong do to them if they were the weak.
Doing unto others as we would have them do to ourselves is not easy. It is walking the straight and narrow path.
"Having joined government and tasted the warm sweetness of power, the MDC formations no longer want elections. They want elections suspended indefinitely and their governorship extended to infinite." Mugabe said recently of his political opponents. The same of course can be said about him. Having tasted the warm sweetness of power the talk of restoring the rule of law was quickly forgotten and to extend his own and Zanu PF’s rule to infinite and those fighting to help him retain power were above the law!
What made it that much easier for a tyrant like Mugabe to establish a ruthless dictatorship is that he was surrounded by like minded individuals with no vision nor moral compass and easily enticed by promises of “the warm sweetness of power” to forget the common cause they foreswore to stand for all their lives.
To people like Mugabe and the ruling elite, the warm sweetness of power certainly turned the straight and narrow path to freedom, liberty and prosperity for all into a razor thin and impossible to travel on.
The country’s intelligentsia should have known better and thus resist the undermining of democratic institutions and rule of law by Mugabe. They did not content to go along to get along. Their lives may be better than that of the peasants and urban poor, still their lost the most economically from the economic melt down. And, certainly, the denial of freedom of expression is felt more by those who can express themselves than those who can not.
So to the down trodden masses independence has been nothing more than the replacement of one oppressive regime with another; the colour of the oppressors it is a matter of indifference to them and their suffering. Betrayed by those they are considered their liberators and abandoned by those who should have known better the masses had no choice but to resign themselves to their totalitarian rule and all that was to follow.
Decades of mismanagement, corruption and brutal repression have left many African countries with a mountain to climb economically and political to get back into the light of prosperity and liberty. When a nation elects Tsvangirai, a flawed and indecisive character, leader when a Hercules is called for; one despairs.
Tsvangirai and his MDC party are supposed to be spearheading the nation’s fight for democratic change and yet they went on to sign an agreement that effectively condoned the intimidation, rape and murders by Mugabe in the sham June 2008 presidential run-off. The agreement gave the tyrant all his dictatorial powers and in the coming elections he is set to use the same brutal trickery to deny the nation their most basic and fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country!
Mugabe’s head was on the block after the international community refused to accept him as the legitimate head of state. Mugabe’s reign of terror was finished if only Tsvangirai did not allow him to have the Lazarus moment!
The agreement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai was so base it can be compared to Oliver Cromwell granting King Charles 1 a last minute reprieve and grant him all his dictatorial powers to boot! Where would England be today?!
MDC members had the chance to redeem their past mistake of electing such incompetent leadership. What they did instead is re-elect Tsvangirai and his entire kitchen cabinet. The Zimbabwe electorate seems have blindly accepted MDC commiting the nation to God only knows what more blunders.
Still, "'Tis not too late to seek a newer world," as Lord Alfred Tennyson rightly advised.“. . . We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.“
As a black person I have to acknowledge that the white supremacists had a point; as a people we blacks have a propensity to pick the easy broad ways of the lawless tempted by the empty promises of “the warm sweetness of power” here and now. We avoid like a plague the straight and narrow path of just and humble. My contention with you George, 35 years after the camping trip, and all the other white supremacists is that blacks have certainly made a very disappointing start to self-government not because there are stupid to understand the intricacies of government but because they have sort the easy route when the only path was the straight and narrow.
Africa has had the great misfortune of having more than its fair share of tyrants like Mugabe whose love of power blinded them to the suffering of their own people. There have been visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela whose have shown that blacks can rule themselves well. The tragic suffering from years of dictatorial rule has opened the eyes of many in Africa to resist tyranny in future. Someday soon, competent, democratic and accountable governments will become the norm and not the rare exception in Africa; mark my word!
Friday 22 July 2011
Archbishop Tutu appeals for aid to feed the starving in the horn of Africa!
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has appealed to the international community to take action to alleviate the suffering in Somalia and other drought-stricken African countries.
This is a tragedy and all hands to the wheel and help push. Every life is worth saving. Remember, but for the grace of God, it could easily have been you!
After this is over and the hungry have been fed and returned to their homes. We in Africa need to seriously look at the question of why Africa got it so wrong – it is potentially one of the riches continents in the world and yet its people remain the poorest. This time we must not wait until the next civil war, drought, tyrant, etc. emerge and millions of lives are on the line to ask why this is so?
55555
Yes Africa's ruling elite have millions of dollars and drive the latest models of cars. I have nothing against the rich but when the wealth is made on the back of the poor from corruption and looting; my stomach turns.
6666
@Forte
If the truth be said and it must; it is the corrupt ruling elite who talk of African solution to African problem because they do not want their corrupt and repressive practises discussed. The poor and the millions starving in the horn of Africa have never said a word – they are the voiceless masses.
If those of us who can help the millions who are totally helpless and in desperate need of help fail to do so then we would have let all of them down. To punish the starving millions just to get at the ruling elite is totally illogical; they are the silent victims of the corrupt ruling elite and we are punishing them for that!
This is a tragedy and all hands to the wheel and help push. Every life is worth saving. Remember, but for the grace of God, it could easily have been you!
After this is over and the hungry have been fed and returned to their homes. We in Africa need to seriously look at the question of why Africa got it so wrong – it is potentially one of the riches continents in the world and yet its people remain the poorest. This time we must not wait until the next civil war, drought, tyrant, etc. emerge and millions of lives are on the line to ask why this is so?
55555
Yes Africa's ruling elite have millions of dollars and drive the latest models of cars. I have nothing against the rich but when the wealth is made on the back of the poor from corruption and looting; my stomach turns.
6666
@Forte
If the truth be said and it must; it is the corrupt ruling elite who talk of African solution to African problem because they do not want their corrupt and repressive practises discussed. The poor and the millions starving in the horn of Africa have never said a word – they are the voiceless masses.
If those of us who can help the millions who are totally helpless and in desperate need of help fail to do so then we would have let all of them down. To punish the starving millions just to get at the ruling elite is totally illogical; they are the silent victims of the corrupt ruling elite and we are punishing them for that!
Thursday 21 July 2011
Mugabe to bring up sanctions at the next SADC meeting - a Mugabe game!
Mugabe will bring up the sanctions issue at the next SADC meeting in Angola, Zanu PF spokesman said.
Zanu PF has perfected the game of smokes and mirrors. They know that the targeted sanctions have had little effect even on those on the list because they had many ways of mitigating the sanctions. Mugabe and his cronies have been in and out of the West contrary to the travel ban using the loop hole of UN business, for example. Mugabe has blamed the sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down to take the heat from the real causes; years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and, in the last tens years, all-out looting. And he also wants to draw attention away from the serious human rights violations and political repression.
The ease with which Mugabe has forced the sanctions issue on the SADC agenda year after year is itself a measure of just how ease it is to fool SADC; they have yet to see through Mugabe’s cunning game!
6666
@Sooth Slayer
Who says Tsvangirai did not get 50% + 1 after the March vote? The same people who took five weeks to count the votes.
What made the run-off a sham is the political violence used by Mugabe and all observers, including SADC observers, said the result could not be a true reflection of the free will of the people. If Mugabe had any sense of shame then he would not claim to have won a sham election. The international community refused to accept him as the legitimate head of state, putting him on the hook. Tsvangirai got him off the hook by agreeing to the power sharing arrangement which has turned out to be a one-sided affair in which Mugabe has all the power. Of course Tsvangirai was stupid to get the tyrant off the hook only to be kicked in the teeth!
Mugabe has used the time since the signing of the GPA to reorganise his party’s terror machine and secure war-chest to pay for it. Tsvangirai has made half hearted attempts to push for democratic reforms with nothing to show for it.
What Tsvangirai should have done after the sham June 2008 elections is demand fresh elections there and then. Back then Mugabe was at his weakest politically and would not have risked holding another sham election with the world watching. Now, it is totally different kettle of fish; Mugabe will risk yet another sham election. The nation will have to face all the intimidation, rape, murders, etc. all over again because of Tsvangirai’s stupidity!
44444
Police and Zanu PF youth disrupt a public meeting to be addressed by the US Ambassador.
If Mugabe and his thugs can dare intimidate the US Ambassador in the centre of Harare in broad daylight; what will these thugs do in the dead of the night to the poor peasants in Zimbabwe's rural back waters!
Zanu PF has perfected the game of smokes and mirrors. They know that the targeted sanctions have had little effect even on those on the list because they had many ways of mitigating the sanctions. Mugabe and his cronies have been in and out of the West contrary to the travel ban using the loop hole of UN business, for example. Mugabe has blamed the sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down to take the heat from the real causes; years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and, in the last tens years, all-out looting. And he also wants to draw attention away from the serious human rights violations and political repression.
The ease with which Mugabe has forced the sanctions issue on the SADC agenda year after year is itself a measure of just how ease it is to fool SADC; they have yet to see through Mugabe’s cunning game!
6666
@Sooth Slayer
Who says Tsvangirai did not get 50% + 1 after the March vote? The same people who took five weeks to count the votes.
What made the run-off a sham is the political violence used by Mugabe and all observers, including SADC observers, said the result could not be a true reflection of the free will of the people. If Mugabe had any sense of shame then he would not claim to have won a sham election. The international community refused to accept him as the legitimate head of state, putting him on the hook. Tsvangirai got him off the hook by agreeing to the power sharing arrangement which has turned out to be a one-sided affair in which Mugabe has all the power. Of course Tsvangirai was stupid to get the tyrant off the hook only to be kicked in the teeth!
Mugabe has used the time since the signing of the GPA to reorganise his party’s terror machine and secure war-chest to pay for it. Tsvangirai has made half hearted attempts to push for democratic reforms with nothing to show for it.
What Tsvangirai should have done after the sham June 2008 elections is demand fresh elections there and then. Back then Mugabe was at his weakest politically and would not have risked holding another sham election with the world watching. Now, it is totally different kettle of fish; Mugabe will risk yet another sham election. The nation will have to face all the intimidation, rape, murders, etc. all over again because of Tsvangirai’s stupidity!
44444
Police and Zanu PF youth disrupt a public meeting to be addressed by the US Ambassador.
If Mugabe and his thugs can dare intimidate the US Ambassador in the centre of Harare in broad daylight; what will these thugs do in the dead of the night to the poor peasants in Zimbabwe's rural back waters!
Saturday 16 July 2011
Mugabe denying Zimbabweans free elections to extend his own rule "to infinite", to paraphrase him!
"Having joined government and tasted the warm sweetness of power, the MDC formations no longer want elections. They want elections suspended indefinitely and their governorship extended to infinite." Mugabe told his Zanu PF Politburo in his push for elections to be held this year. MDC say elections the elections should be push to 2013 or 2012 at the earliest!
Well to paraphrase Mugabe; he was elected thirty years ago and having “tasted the warm sweetness of power” he no longer want free and fair elections so he can extend his own rule to life-president!
88888
It does it take three years to sort out the voters' roll and all the other reforms required for free and fair elections? No it does not!
Even if the elections were delayed by eight or twelve months to next year; what is there to make one believe the reforms would finally be carried out? None!
Whoever was responsible for making sure that democratic reforms were carried out dropped the ball. And the finger of blame points at MDC.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were stupid to sign the GPA and having signed it they blundered further by doing nothing to push for reforms. Giving them another year will not change the fundamental fact that reform is being spear headed by blundering idiots! This is the elephant in the room that must be acknowledged first and only then will we have hope of finding the way out of this mess!
7777
The June 2008 presidential run-off were violent so violent that even the SADC and AU election observers could give the whole process a clean bill of health. So where does this talk of the process being "inclusive" come from?
After the sham June 2008 the whole international community including SADC refused to accept Mugabe as the legitimately elected head of state. The power sharing was a way out for Mugabe. Tsvangirai did not have to accept it. That was the once in a lifetime chance for Zimbabwe to end the Mugabe dictatorship and Tsvangirai blundered.
For Zimbabwe the June 2008 was a very important and significant moment comparable to fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He did not seize the moment.
Now we trust the same idiot not to blunder again if another opportunite should arise. How dumb can we be!
Well to paraphrase Mugabe; he was elected thirty years ago and having “tasted the warm sweetness of power” he no longer want free and fair elections so he can extend his own rule to life-president!
88888
It does it take three years to sort out the voters' roll and all the other reforms required for free and fair elections? No it does not!
Even if the elections were delayed by eight or twelve months to next year; what is there to make one believe the reforms would finally be carried out? None!
Whoever was responsible for making sure that democratic reforms were carried out dropped the ball. And the finger of blame points at MDC.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were stupid to sign the GPA and having signed it they blundered further by doing nothing to push for reforms. Giving them another year will not change the fundamental fact that reform is being spear headed by blundering idiots! This is the elephant in the room that must be acknowledged first and only then will we have hope of finding the way out of this mess!
7777
The June 2008 presidential run-off were violent so violent that even the SADC and AU election observers could give the whole process a clean bill of health. So where does this talk of the process being "inclusive" come from?
After the sham June 2008 the whole international community including SADC refused to accept Mugabe as the legitimately elected head of state. The power sharing was a way out for Mugabe. Tsvangirai did not have to accept it. That was the once in a lifetime chance for Zimbabwe to end the Mugabe dictatorship and Tsvangirai blundered.
For Zimbabwe the June 2008 was a very important and significant moment comparable to fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He did not seize the moment.
Now we trust the same idiot not to blunder again if another opportunite should arise. How dumb can we be!
Monday 11 July 2011
Tsvangirai's double talk is dangerous for Zimbabwe!
“We need to mobilise against those that commit violence against us. We cannot continue to watch and fold hands when our members are being assaulted out there,” said Tsvangirai.
This is typical Tsvangirai double talk; he talks of mobilising the people against those who have who have terrorised and tormented them without saying what exactly he expects the people to do. We are not talking about a few hundred over zealous ruffians acting in isolation but hundreds of thousands of Zanu PF Youths and War Veterans; trained, coordinated and funded by Zanu PF from the sell of diamonds and through civil service pay role. These thugs have the full state machinery backing from the Police, Army, CIO and all other state security organs.
Mugabe has justified continued use of violence on the grounds that the political violence is by both his party and MDC. No doubt Mugabe will use this empty call by Tsvangirai to justify increased violence against our people.
This is typical Tsvangirai double talk; he talks of mobilising the people against those who have who have terrorised and tormented them without saying what exactly he expects the people to do. We are not talking about a few hundred over zealous ruffians acting in isolation but hundreds of thousands of Zanu PF Youths and War Veterans; trained, coordinated and funded by Zanu PF from the sell of diamonds and through civil service pay role. These thugs have the full state machinery backing from the Police, Army, CIO and all other state security organs.
Mugabe has justified continued use of violence on the grounds that the political violence is by both his party and MDC. No doubt Mugabe will use this empty call by Tsvangirai to justify increased violence against our people.
Sunday 10 July 2011
Tsvangirai was stupid to trust Mugabe now he is extending the stupidity further!
Tracy Mutinhiri, a Zanu PF deputy Minister, seeks Police protection after Zanu PF thugs invade her farm. The thugs were sent by Minister Sekeramayi, a Mugabe supporter, because she is “friendly” with Prime Minister Tsvangirai.
The PM is reportedly cultivating a close relationship with other Zanu PF leaders including none other than Minister Kusukuveri, the very Minister who recruited the thousands of Zanu PF Youth thugs and has been spearheading the seizure of mines now that there are no white owned farms left in the country.
How did Mutinhiri get the farm? Has she suddenly become aware of what Zanu PF does to those considered a threat to its rule.
Reports of Tsvangirai's growing friendship with proven Zanu PF criminals is just another worrying thing about the MDC leader. He got the nation into this mess because he was stupid enough to trust Mugabe in signing the GPA and now the idiot thinks he can steal the Zanu PF thugs under Mugabe's very nose and turn them to be law abiding citizens. US Ambassador Chris Dell was right Tsvangirai is a “flawed and indecisive character” whose stupidity will extend the rule of this Zanu PF dictatorship yet again.
The PM is reportedly cultivating a close relationship with other Zanu PF leaders including none other than Minister Kusukuveri, the very Minister who recruited the thousands of Zanu PF Youth thugs and has been spearheading the seizure of mines now that there are no white owned farms left in the country.
How did Mutinhiri get the farm? Has she suddenly become aware of what Zanu PF does to those considered a threat to its rule.
Reports of Tsvangirai's growing friendship with proven Zanu PF criminals is just another worrying thing about the MDC leader. He got the nation into this mess because he was stupid enough to trust Mugabe in signing the GPA and now the idiot thinks he can steal the Zanu PF thugs under Mugabe's very nose and turn them to be law abiding citizens. US Ambassador Chris Dell was right Tsvangirai is a “flawed and indecisive character” whose stupidity will extend the rule of this Zanu PF dictatorship yet again.
Bisbanding ZESA is not enough: we need a political sea change!
Zimbabweans from all walks of life call for the disbanding of ZESA after years of power cuts and soaring electricity bills.
Yes ZESA has been hanging round the nation's neck like a mile stone and should have been disbanded a long time ago. In fact the nation was doing very well thank until the five or so power suppliers were melted to form ZESA.
But come to think of it; we would probably be in the same mess we are in today even if this creature "ZESA" had never existed. In other words we will still have power cuts and astronomical electricity bills even if ZESA was disbanded today.
ZESA has suffered from chronic mismanagement and corruption. Sydney Gata has been a complete disaster for ZESA; he should have never been appointed CE. As long as politicians like Mugabe can appoint cronies, his brother-in-law in this case, to run companies like ZESA (disbanded or otherwise) then the rot will continue.
We need a political sea change. Every position from the headman to State President must be filled by the person judged best able to that job on merit and not on the basis of one’s political connections or loyalty to the self serving and tyrannical political system we have in the country today.
Yes ZESA has been hanging round the nation's neck like a mile stone and should have been disbanded a long time ago. In fact the nation was doing very well thank until the five or so power suppliers were melted to form ZESA.
But come to think of it; we would probably be in the same mess we are in today even if this creature "ZESA" had never existed. In other words we will still have power cuts and astronomical electricity bills even if ZESA was disbanded today.
ZESA has suffered from chronic mismanagement and corruption. Sydney Gata has been a complete disaster for ZESA; he should have never been appointed CE. As long as politicians like Mugabe can appoint cronies, his brother-in-law in this case, to run companies like ZESA (disbanded or otherwise) then the rot will continue.
We need a political sea change. Every position from the headman to State President must be filled by the person judged best able to that job on merit and not on the basis of one’s political connections or loyalty to the self serving and tyrannical political system we have in the country today.
Friday 8 July 2011
Blog to Oppressed opprosser!
Just because I am a Zimbabwean and from a country led and ruined by a ruthless dictator do not mean that I therefore have nothing to say about democracy and good governance.
It is bad enough that Zimbabwe has become a failed state with tragic consequences for the people of Zimbabwe and the whole region. This must not be allowed to happen to any other country. There are worrying signs that the same could well happen to SA and it is in all our interest, South Africans and none South African alike, to make sure SA remains a beacon of democracy, stability and hope. It is in all our interest that demagogues like Mugabe, Malema and their acolytes are not given the chance to ruin our future.
Oppressed you are clearly having a tough time accepting this concept of freedom of expression. You can barely contain your anger at all the blogs on this site critical of your blinked point of view. When the criticism is from a black person; it is more than you can bear! And if that black person happened to be from Zimbabwe, your demagogue knee jerk reaction was to censor.
“What are you doing in our web-sites,” you fumed. Your web site?!
No this web site and many like it in SA and the world over belongs to all those who believe in freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas. What is a racist demagogue like you doing on our web site?
@ Oppressed
No I have never heard of a black member of the KKK. What a stupid question to ask. The KKK was a white racist organisation, so how can the organisation have black members, the very race they were out to lynch, and still remain a whites only organisation?
Mugabe has been prosecuting whites in Zimbabwe seizing their property, beating them and even murdered some. Even on the rare occasion when the laws of the land have said what Mugabe was doing was against the law, the dictator his disregarded the court rulings. Mugabe has systematically denied many Zimbabwean and South African whites and whites from other countries their basic human rights to own property, to legal protection, to life, etc. Of course the dictator will never admit he is a racist and has offered a multitude of excuses for his barbarism. The bottom line is the whites have become the scapegoats for the regime’s failed economic policies, its corruption and greedy and continued political repression.
SA’s apartheid regimes never admitted to being racist, we all know that they were. So you accession “Blacks can’t be racist!” is just what the white racist said when they had the boot on the necks of blacks. It is rhetorical nonsense that proves nothing!
@Oppressed
You sure are a racist and a nuisance. Mugabe is a racist and a nuisance, just like you. Sadly for Zimbabwe, Mugabe is in Zimbabwe and worse still in power so had the opportunity to do a lot of mischief. You are in SA and let us hope racists like you will never be in power.
“Oppressed” what a name! Oppressed by whom? Apartheid died years ago and blacks are in power and they have the choice to use that political power for the good of all or use it to oppress whites, foreigners, etc. to cover up for their own shortcomings. Just change your name to “Oppressor” and be done with it; it goes better with you being a confirmed racist!
If I am a nuisance because I am worrying South Africans of the dangers of electing racists like you into office; then I wear the label with pride! I have no intention of ever giving up my democratic right to express my views freely on this site or any other free web-site to appease a racist like you. I know this drives racists like you nuts; well that is your problem. You either get off these sites or you will be called a racist, rightly so too!
9999
There are sure powerful forces trying hard to pull SA out of the light of enlightenment back into the darkness of hatred, racism and lawlessness. I pleased to note that these forces have failed the test of democratic scrutiny. Two cheers for free press and freedom of expression!
It is bad enough that Zimbabwe has become a failed state with tragic consequences for the people of Zimbabwe and the whole region. This must not be allowed to happen to any other country. There are worrying signs that the same could well happen to SA and it is in all our interest, South Africans and none South African alike, to make sure SA remains a beacon of democracy, stability and hope. It is in all our interest that demagogues like Mugabe, Malema and their acolytes are not given the chance to ruin our future.
Oppressed you are clearly having a tough time accepting this concept of freedom of expression. You can barely contain your anger at all the blogs on this site critical of your blinked point of view. When the criticism is from a black person; it is more than you can bear! And if that black person happened to be from Zimbabwe, your demagogue knee jerk reaction was to censor.
“What are you doing in our web-sites,” you fumed. Your web site?!
No this web site and many like it in SA and the world over belongs to all those who believe in freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas. What is a racist demagogue like you doing on our web site?
@ Oppressed
No I have never heard of a black member of the KKK. What a stupid question to ask. The KKK was a white racist organisation, so how can the organisation have black members, the very race they were out to lynch, and still remain a whites only organisation?
Mugabe has been prosecuting whites in Zimbabwe seizing their property, beating them and even murdered some. Even on the rare occasion when the laws of the land have said what Mugabe was doing was against the law, the dictator his disregarded the court rulings. Mugabe has systematically denied many Zimbabwean and South African whites and whites from other countries their basic human rights to own property, to legal protection, to life, etc. Of course the dictator will never admit he is a racist and has offered a multitude of excuses for his barbarism. The bottom line is the whites have become the scapegoats for the regime’s failed economic policies, its corruption and greedy and continued political repression.
SA’s apartheid regimes never admitted to being racist, we all know that they were. So you accession “Blacks can’t be racist!” is just what the white racist said when they had the boot on the necks of blacks. It is rhetorical nonsense that proves nothing!
@Oppressed
You sure are a racist and a nuisance. Mugabe is a racist and a nuisance, just like you. Sadly for Zimbabwe, Mugabe is in Zimbabwe and worse still in power so had the opportunity to do a lot of mischief. You are in SA and let us hope racists like you will never be in power.
“Oppressed” what a name! Oppressed by whom? Apartheid died years ago and blacks are in power and they have the choice to use that political power for the good of all or use it to oppress whites, foreigners, etc. to cover up for their own shortcomings. Just change your name to “Oppressor” and be done with it; it goes better with you being a confirmed racist!
If I am a nuisance because I am worrying South Africans of the dangers of electing racists like you into office; then I wear the label with pride! I have no intention of ever giving up my democratic right to express my views freely on this site or any other free web-site to appease a racist like you. I know this drives racists like you nuts; well that is your problem. You either get off these sites or you will be called a racist, rightly so too!
9999
There are sure powerful forces trying hard to pull SA out of the light of enlightenment back into the darkness of hatred, racism and lawlessness. I pleased to note that these forces have failed the test of democratic scrutiny. Two cheers for free press and freedom of expression!
Thursday 7 July 2011
Mugabe to press ahead with mine grab - pushing up the price to be paid in human suffering for economic recovery!
“Zimbabwe could take over mines that fall short of laws requiring them to sell majority stakes to locals by September, a government minister said on Wednesday” News 24 reported.
This is crazy; the Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a staggering 84% in the six years 2002 to 2008 following the country wide seizure of white owned farms. The end result was the economic melt, mass unemployment, etc. The same Zanu PF cronies who seized the farms are now back demanding more and the have their beady eyes on the mines. There will be a significant fall in productivity in mining industry just as happened in agriculture.
The nation is desperate to see some economic recovery instead Mugabe and his cronies will bring yet another wave of negative growth. Zimbabweans are yet to realise that it was infinitely easier to get minus 84% GDP growth rate than to get positive 84% GDP growth rate. Destroying is easy, it is like pushing a stone down hill; creating something is the real challenge, it is like carrying a bolder to the top of the mountain! If Mugabe and his cronies are allowed to destroy the few companies that survived the economic melt down; this will make the task of economic recovery that much harder. This will demand even greater sacrifices in terms of human suffering and human lives!
This is crazy; the Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a staggering 84% in the six years 2002 to 2008 following the country wide seizure of white owned farms. The end result was the economic melt, mass unemployment, etc. The same Zanu PF cronies who seized the farms are now back demanding more and the have their beady eyes on the mines. There will be a significant fall in productivity in mining industry just as happened in agriculture.
The nation is desperate to see some economic recovery instead Mugabe and his cronies will bring yet another wave of negative growth. Zimbabweans are yet to realise that it was infinitely easier to get minus 84% GDP growth rate than to get positive 84% GDP growth rate. Destroying is easy, it is like pushing a stone down hill; creating something is the real challenge, it is like carrying a bolder to the top of the mountain! If Mugabe and his cronies are allowed to destroy the few companies that survived the economic melt down; this will make the task of economic recovery that much harder. This will demand even greater sacrifices in terms of human suffering and human lives!
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Mugabe never won the economic argument of his BEE policies only the racism argument!
As a black Zimbabwean I can honestly say that leaders like Mugabe and Tsvangirai have never had the nation's whole hearted support because one had the nagging feeling than whilst each condemned the abuses and excesses of the regime before them they nonetheless had no intention of abolishing the system but install themselves as the new lord-of-the-manor!
In 1980 Zimbabweans voted for Mugabe because they knew if Mugabe lost the civil war would continue. They were desperate to end the war. After that all they could do was hope against reason that his promise of mass prosperity would come true. Reason said that was a pipe dream and time has proved that to be so.
In 2008 Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai because they were desperate to get rid of Mugabe. After that all the people could do was hope against reason that Tsvangirai would deliver the democratic change he promised. Reason said it would take a visionary and determined leader to end a deeply entrenched dictatorship and deliver lasting democratic change. Tsvangirai, a blundering idiot, would never achieve such a feat! Time has once again proved reason right, twelve years MDC blundering have achieved nothing.
We always seem to marry in a great hurry and regret at leisure. But to make matters worse, having pick our leaders we elevate them to such nauseating height little wonder they assume the mentor of infallibility.
5555
Black racists like Mugabe and Malema's economic prosperity ethos are founded on one simple argument i.e. “The whites are rich because of the years of white racist policies. Now that the blacks have political power; they should not shy away from using the same racist policies in reverse to enrich the impoverished blacks!”
The knee jerk response from the white was to deny that white racism and apartheid ever existed. This was a gift to Mugabe and his propagandists; they have gained a lot of mileage from this.
A second sector of whites attributed their economic wealth purely to “hard work”. Of course people like Mugabe would attribute their success to the political system that allowed them because of the colour of their skin to have a leg-up from the day they are born at the expense of the blacks.
The truth of the matter is the whites’ economic prosperity can be attributed to both hard work and help from the racist system, a third sector acknowledge that much. Mugabe and Malema would argue that all they are advocating for is that the blacks should be given the leg-up too!
Sadly the time, energy and expense expended in the above has left most people exhausted to consider the really important point in this argument and thus allow demagogues like Mugabe to claim having made the home-run. The clinching argument here is that racist policies at best will benefit a few at the expense of the majority and at worst the overwhelming majority will be thrown into a life of abject poverty and despair whilst a marginal few squander the nation’s wealth away on trivia.
Where as white racist policies encourage hard work amongst the white beneficiaries of the system and thus the nation prospered economically. The greatest weaken of white racism was that the national wealth was not shared fairly. Mugabe’s black empowerment is thinly disguised corruption and looting and all those taking part know nothing about generating wealth only how to spend it! The Zimbabwe economy has declined under Mugabe, going into total melt down following the country wide seizure of white owned farms.
Mugabe was able to carryout his ruinous black racist policies not because he won the all important economic argument against them but because he won the side issue of race which is of no real consequence.
999
@Oppressed The question you should be asking is whether the nation as a whole thrived or suffered under any form of discrimination? The answer has to be no and so why is SA matching down that route again of black racism?
In 1980 Zimbabweans voted for Mugabe because they knew if Mugabe lost the civil war would continue. They were desperate to end the war. After that all they could do was hope against reason that his promise of mass prosperity would come true. Reason said that was a pipe dream and time has proved that to be so.
In 2008 Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai because they were desperate to get rid of Mugabe. After that all the people could do was hope against reason that Tsvangirai would deliver the democratic change he promised. Reason said it would take a visionary and determined leader to end a deeply entrenched dictatorship and deliver lasting democratic change. Tsvangirai, a blundering idiot, would never achieve such a feat! Time has once again proved reason right, twelve years MDC blundering have achieved nothing.
We always seem to marry in a great hurry and regret at leisure. But to make matters worse, having pick our leaders we elevate them to such nauseating height little wonder they assume the mentor of infallibility.
5555
Black racists like Mugabe and Malema's economic prosperity ethos are founded on one simple argument i.e. “The whites are rich because of the years of white racist policies. Now that the blacks have political power; they should not shy away from using the same racist policies in reverse to enrich the impoverished blacks!”
The knee jerk response from the white was to deny that white racism and apartheid ever existed. This was a gift to Mugabe and his propagandists; they have gained a lot of mileage from this.
A second sector of whites attributed their economic wealth purely to “hard work”. Of course people like Mugabe would attribute their success to the political system that allowed them because of the colour of their skin to have a leg-up from the day they are born at the expense of the blacks.
The truth of the matter is the whites’ economic prosperity can be attributed to both hard work and help from the racist system, a third sector acknowledge that much. Mugabe and Malema would argue that all they are advocating for is that the blacks should be given the leg-up too!
Sadly the time, energy and expense expended in the above has left most people exhausted to consider the really important point in this argument and thus allow demagogues like Mugabe to claim having made the home-run. The clinching argument here is that racist policies at best will benefit a few at the expense of the majority and at worst the overwhelming majority will be thrown into a life of abject poverty and despair whilst a marginal few squander the nation’s wealth away on trivia.
Where as white racist policies encourage hard work amongst the white beneficiaries of the system and thus the nation prospered economically. The greatest weaken of white racism was that the national wealth was not shared fairly. Mugabe’s black empowerment is thinly disguised corruption and looting and all those taking part know nothing about generating wealth only how to spend it! The Zimbabwe economy has declined under Mugabe, going into total melt down following the country wide seizure of white owned farms.
Mugabe was able to carryout his ruinous black racist policies not because he won the all important economic argument against them but because he won the side issue of race which is of no real consequence.
999
@Oppressed The question you should be asking is whether the nation as a whole thrived or suffered under any form of discrimination? The answer has to be no and so why is SA matching down that route again of black racism?
Tuesday 5 July 2011
"Regime change" is an essential by product of free election - not some dirty phase!
Professor Jonathan Moyo may be a “serial political turncoat” as Thelma Chikwanha said; still he is raising a very important question here. Is President Zuma aiding the West’s “regime change agenda” in Zimbabwe?
It is a simple enough question and one President Zuma’s Chief Adviser Lindiwe Zulu should answer. For her to dismiss Moyo as distraction just because he is not in Zanu PF’s negotiating team is a feeble attempt to avoid answering the question.
Mugabe recalled Moyo “from the (political) abyss to the Party” as Morrison Makuvastine rightly pointed out because he is a shrewd strategist. Who would have thought Mugabe would do such a thing after all Moyo had said and done; describing Mugabe as “unelectable he could lose to a donkey”, the Tsholotsho “coup” of 2004, etc. Mugabe had to put his huge ego aside and recall Moyo because if it was not for the Professor Mugabe would have certainly lost the 2000 and 2002 elections. The forthcoming elections are going to be the toughest ever and Mugabe will need all the shrewd strategists he can get.
“Mugabe made a mistake (in appointing Moyo)”, Makuvastine said. Well you could not be more wrong!
Mss Zulu is wrong in dismissing Moyo because, although he is not in Zanu PF’s negotiating team, what he says counts. Chimenasa and the rest of his team might just as well be taking direct instructions from Moyo particularly after the Zanu PF team was roundly criticised for giving in to security sector and other key reforms during the last GPA talks.
In Zanu PF we have a political party that now firmly believes that they have the right to use all means necessary including intimidation, rape and murder to ensure elections do not result in regime change. Sadly SADC, the South African facilitating team and much less MDC have all shied away from addressing this point head on.
Elections are not some meaningless ritual nations have to perform every so many years. Elections are the very heart of what distinguishes us humans from all the other creatures; our rights and freedoms. Every human being has a right to a meaningful say in the governance of his or her country is just as important as the right to life!
Indeed when hundreds of thousands of our people have been murdered for no other reason other than that they dared demand free and fair elections and a meaningful vote it goes to show that the denial of one right or freedom has always resulted in the denial of all the other rights and freedoms.
Elections are always a gladiatorial affairs between those in power and those challenging to take their place in which the electorate are the arbiters whose vote will decide the winner. Like every other contest, there must be rules governing the contact elections stating what all the participants can and can not do. The use of violence against the opposition and the electorate, for example, is unacceptable. Elections should be gladiatorial clash of ideas not Police batons hitting innocent and defenceless people as has become the norm in Zimbabwe. Of course it is right that there should be Police reforms to end this outrage.
Freedom of expression and free press gives the citizens to opportunity to question and criticise those exercising political power on their behalf. Elections gives the citizens the chance to replace, if they so wish, to replace those to hold public office. Yes one can call it “regime change” because that is what it is and there is nothing wrong with it.
Mugabe became Prime Minister and the Executive President of Zimbabwe in April 1980 and has remained in office to this day, over thirty years! In that time USA has had six presidents and Britain other democratic nations have had a similar change of leaders.
It is the democratic nations’ ability to hold meaningful competition and to change leaders that is behind their dynamism and prosperity. Zimbabwe like all nations is which tyrants have stifled debate and change has suffered from stagnation and rot.
Regime change is not a dirty phase as Mugabe, Moyo and the rest in Zanu PF would have us believe. It is the only way out of a political stagnation, years of corruption and economic melt down and the only way to restore the dignity and hope of the people of Zimbabwe. Using violence and other repressive means to frustrate the electorate’s democratic wishes is treason and serious crime against humanity. People like Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and now Lindiwe Zulu have repeatedly shied away from taking a bold and unequivocal stand against Mugabe’s lies and bullying tactics and thus failed the people of Zimbabwe!
It is a simple enough question and one President Zuma’s Chief Adviser Lindiwe Zulu should answer. For her to dismiss Moyo as distraction just because he is not in Zanu PF’s negotiating team is a feeble attempt to avoid answering the question.
Mugabe recalled Moyo “from the (political) abyss to the Party” as Morrison Makuvastine rightly pointed out because he is a shrewd strategist. Who would have thought Mugabe would do such a thing after all Moyo had said and done; describing Mugabe as “unelectable he could lose to a donkey”, the Tsholotsho “coup” of 2004, etc. Mugabe had to put his huge ego aside and recall Moyo because if it was not for the Professor Mugabe would have certainly lost the 2000 and 2002 elections. The forthcoming elections are going to be the toughest ever and Mugabe will need all the shrewd strategists he can get.
“Mugabe made a mistake (in appointing Moyo)”, Makuvastine said. Well you could not be more wrong!
Mss Zulu is wrong in dismissing Moyo because, although he is not in Zanu PF’s negotiating team, what he says counts. Chimenasa and the rest of his team might just as well be taking direct instructions from Moyo particularly after the Zanu PF team was roundly criticised for giving in to security sector and other key reforms during the last GPA talks.
In Zanu PF we have a political party that now firmly believes that they have the right to use all means necessary including intimidation, rape and murder to ensure elections do not result in regime change. Sadly SADC, the South African facilitating team and much less MDC have all shied away from addressing this point head on.
Elections are not some meaningless ritual nations have to perform every so many years. Elections are the very heart of what distinguishes us humans from all the other creatures; our rights and freedoms. Every human being has a right to a meaningful say in the governance of his or her country is just as important as the right to life!
Indeed when hundreds of thousands of our people have been murdered for no other reason other than that they dared demand free and fair elections and a meaningful vote it goes to show that the denial of one right or freedom has always resulted in the denial of all the other rights and freedoms.
Elections are always a gladiatorial affairs between those in power and those challenging to take their place in which the electorate are the arbiters whose vote will decide the winner. Like every other contest, there must be rules governing the contact elections stating what all the participants can and can not do. The use of violence against the opposition and the electorate, for example, is unacceptable. Elections should be gladiatorial clash of ideas not Police batons hitting innocent and defenceless people as has become the norm in Zimbabwe. Of course it is right that there should be Police reforms to end this outrage.
Freedom of expression and free press gives the citizens to opportunity to question and criticise those exercising political power on their behalf. Elections gives the citizens the chance to replace, if they so wish, to replace those to hold public office. Yes one can call it “regime change” because that is what it is and there is nothing wrong with it.
Mugabe became Prime Minister and the Executive President of Zimbabwe in April 1980 and has remained in office to this day, over thirty years! In that time USA has had six presidents and Britain other democratic nations have had a similar change of leaders.
It is the democratic nations’ ability to hold meaningful competition and to change leaders that is behind their dynamism and prosperity. Zimbabwe like all nations is which tyrants have stifled debate and change has suffered from stagnation and rot.
Regime change is not a dirty phase as Mugabe, Moyo and the rest in Zanu PF would have us believe. It is the only way out of a political stagnation, years of corruption and economic melt down and the only way to restore the dignity and hope of the people of Zimbabwe. Using violence and other repressive means to frustrate the electorate’s democratic wishes is treason and serious crime against humanity. People like Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and now Lindiwe Zulu have repeatedly shied away from taking a bold and unequivocal stand against Mugabe’s lies and bullying tactics and thus failed the people of Zimbabwe!
Monday 4 July 2011
A bastard is a bastard regardless of the missionary and University education he received.
@Hilbert
I do not agree with your statement "democracy only works if the majority is educated".
There are more educated people in Zimbabwe or South Africa today than there were in 1774 America or in Greece during its Golden Age. Democracy thrived in the latter two countries and in SA the flame of democracy is being buffeted by gale force winds. In Zimbabwe, the flame was snuffed out the very day Mugabe and Zanu PF assumed office. Mugabe has seven University degrees not counting the numerous honorary degrees bestowed on him and yet he has turned out to be an ignoramus, devoid of any common sense, and heartless tyrant.
If we take Mugabe as our case study then it proves the exact opposite. He was a bastard before all the quality missionary education and the numerous University Degrees he obtained from some of the highly regarded institutions of learning. At the end of it all he was still a bastard. So capped or not a bastard is a bastard is a bastard!
33333
CCJP supported those fighting to end white racism and Mugabe, then, was leading that charge and so yes, CCJP supported Mugabe. Since independence Mugabe has changed to become a ruthless tyrant. CCJP have never changed, their compass needle has continued to point true North, and they have been critical of Mugabe's abuse of power. CCJP was one of the organisations to condemn and document Mugabe's murders in the mid 1980s, for example. Yes some Catholic Priests have had a shamefully cosy relationship with the dictator; still it would be hasty to say one should not trust the Roman Catholic because of that.
77777
Chaminuka
As a Zimbabwean myself I am getting sick and tired of hearing Zimbabweans castigating SADC and President Zuma for doing nothing to end the madness in Zimbabwe in one breath. And then in the next breath praise Tsvangirai and MDC to the rafters for doing nothing!
If the idiot, Tsvangirai, had not signed the GPA, against the deafening chorus of advice not to, we would not be in this mess. As if that not bad enough; for the first two years of the GNU Tsvangirai never tired of telling us all that the arrangement was “working”. Whenever things have become unbearable the idiot has turned to SADC to sort things out. Why? Because he and his MDC friends do not have the foggiest idea what to do; they had no plan “B” when they signed the GPA and they still have no plan “B” now that it is self evident the GPA has failed.
Even if President Zuma acted and somehow had Mugabe removed, that will not stop the madness because another dictator will emerge to take his place. Tsvangirai, like many other Zimbabweans, believes Zimbabwe will revert to rule of law, economic prosperity, etc. if remove Mugabe, Chihuri and three or four others were removed. He is naïve, of course. There is a lot more to the Zanu PF dictatorship than top leaders, besides the juggernaut has gathered so much momentum to be stopped at the drop of a hat by anyone.
The very best SADC can do for Zimbabwe is force Mugabe to give up power; they may even hand the presidency to Tsvangirai in a silver platter but, sadly, they is nothing they can do to stop some one else in Zanu PF seizing power from Tsvangirai. The latter is just too feeble and naïve; a fact Zimbabweans have been to proud to acknowledge and address!
I do not agree with your statement "democracy only works if the majority is educated".
There are more educated people in Zimbabwe or South Africa today than there were in 1774 America or in Greece during its Golden Age. Democracy thrived in the latter two countries and in SA the flame of democracy is being buffeted by gale force winds. In Zimbabwe, the flame was snuffed out the very day Mugabe and Zanu PF assumed office. Mugabe has seven University degrees not counting the numerous honorary degrees bestowed on him and yet he has turned out to be an ignoramus, devoid of any common sense, and heartless tyrant.
If we take Mugabe as our case study then it proves the exact opposite. He was a bastard before all the quality missionary education and the numerous University Degrees he obtained from some of the highly regarded institutions of learning. At the end of it all he was still a bastard. So capped or not a bastard is a bastard is a bastard!
33333
CCJP supported those fighting to end white racism and Mugabe, then, was leading that charge and so yes, CCJP supported Mugabe. Since independence Mugabe has changed to become a ruthless tyrant. CCJP have never changed, their compass needle has continued to point true North, and they have been critical of Mugabe's abuse of power. CCJP was one of the organisations to condemn and document Mugabe's murders in the mid 1980s, for example. Yes some Catholic Priests have had a shamefully cosy relationship with the dictator; still it would be hasty to say one should not trust the Roman Catholic because of that.
77777
Chaminuka
As a Zimbabwean myself I am getting sick and tired of hearing Zimbabweans castigating SADC and President Zuma for doing nothing to end the madness in Zimbabwe in one breath. And then in the next breath praise Tsvangirai and MDC to the rafters for doing nothing!
If the idiot, Tsvangirai, had not signed the GPA, against the deafening chorus of advice not to, we would not be in this mess. As if that not bad enough; for the first two years of the GNU Tsvangirai never tired of telling us all that the arrangement was “working”. Whenever things have become unbearable the idiot has turned to SADC to sort things out. Why? Because he and his MDC friends do not have the foggiest idea what to do; they had no plan “B” when they signed the GPA and they still have no plan “B” now that it is self evident the GPA has failed.
Even if President Zuma acted and somehow had Mugabe removed, that will not stop the madness because another dictator will emerge to take his place. Tsvangirai, like many other Zimbabweans, believes Zimbabwe will revert to rule of law, economic prosperity, etc. if remove Mugabe, Chihuri and three or four others were removed. He is naïve, of course. There is a lot more to the Zanu PF dictatorship than top leaders, besides the juggernaut has gathered so much momentum to be stopped at the drop of a hat by anyone.
The very best SADC can do for Zimbabwe is force Mugabe to give up power; they may even hand the presidency to Tsvangirai in a silver platter but, sadly, they is nothing they can do to stop some one else in Zanu PF seizing power from Tsvangirai. The latter is just too feeble and naïve; a fact Zimbabweans have been to proud to acknowledge and address!
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