Mai Mujuru speaks out against the serious
corruption in Zimbabwe rich diamond industry that has brought unparalleled prosperity
in foreign lands whilst Zimbabweans have nothing to show for it.
“Right now they are claiming that the Marange
diamonds have been exhausted but no one here has any diamond rings or other
jewels,” she told a church gathering. “No jobs were created locally in diamond
polishing. All the diamonds were taken to India where they have built a town
from Chiadzwa diamonds – it’s called Surat and yet Zimbabweans continue to
struggle.”
This is not the first time Zimbabweans have heard
that there is serious corruption in the country’s diamond industry. The late
Zanu PF MP, Chindori-Chininga said exactly the same in parliamentary report in
2013. The report should have been followed up with a thorough investigation,
sadly nothing was done.
Instead of now demanding that this matter should
be thoroughly investigated all this corrupt and tyrannical regime can think of
seeking to have the would matter swept under the carpet under the pretext that
even Mai Mujuru’s raising of the matter risks damaging Zimbabwe’s relation with
India.
“You can’t make that
statement without facts because you’re throwing mud at a whole country,” said a
government official.
“The claim that India
started a town afresh with Zimbabwean diamonds is quite serious. It’s
unbelievable. If that doesn’t trigger a diplomatic storm, nothing ever would. For
a senior person to be making allegations of that nature, it’s very, very bad.
It’s quite alarming. You can’t have a junior official even making that kind of
allegation.”
In Zimbabwean diamonds
have found their way into India illegally then it is the duty of the Zimbabwean
authority to thoroughly investigate the matter and make sure those responsible
are brought to book and the corruption stopped. We would expect the Indian
government to assist in uncovering the criminals; to do anything else would
definitely sour relationship with India. India would not tolerate any
foreigners undermining its national interests by conniving in any criminal
activities so why should Zimbabwe be expected to act any differently!
However it is Mai Mujuru’s motive in saying
this that one has to question. Is she saying this out of concern to end this
scourge of corruption or for selfish political gain? As already stated above,
corruption and even murder have been rampant is Marange and Chiadzwa ever since
the discovery of alluvial diamonds deposits in these areas; it is therefore
unbelievable that someone in Mai Mujuru’s position did not know what was going
on all these years.
Is it possible that Mai Mujuru is spilling the
beans of the Chiadzwa diamonds to win favours with the Zimbabwe electorate? When
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and committed all the other countless
criminals against the nation; she did not see, hear or benefit from them. Or
could it be that she said nothing all these years because she had lost her
voice and she is speaking now because she has just recovered her voice?
Mai Mujuru is a liberation war heroine who,
since independence, she systematically denied the people all the rights and
freedoms for which so many lost their very lives to achieve. She is seeing the
Zanu PF wrong doing now because she see it as her only way of winning back the
nation’s trust and thus remain in power. She is an integral part of this corrupt
and tyrannical regime; she will never ever deliver the justice and democratic
system the nation has been dying for, literally.
Zimbabweans should be wary of corrupt and
incompetent leaders whose respect of justice and human rights and dignity is like
the moon that grows, waxes and completely disappears to leave you lost in the
dark. This nation needs competent and principled leaders with the consistency
and luminosity of the sun.
25 comments:
Constantine Chiwenga - a close ally of Mugabe, who could hold the key to the veteran ruler's succession - said the military would not get involved in "minor issues."
"Only if Zimbabwe is being threatened, then we will come in," he said in rare politically-tinged comments, delivered to the state-owned Herald newspaper.
The single most important thing people like Chiwenga should have learnt a long time ago was that the Zanu PF dictatorship was the greatest threat to the nation's stability because the economic and political system it was fostering on the nation was doomed to fail. The economic meltdown caused by decades of misrule is real and it is the one behind the economic hardships affecting us all including the reality of soldiers being forced to take two weeks off every month just to save on the food bill.
General Chiwenga together with all the other senior members in the security sectors have been involved in Zimbabwe politics until now by propping up the Zanu PF dictatorship. The only sensible thing for Chiwenga to say now would be to public acknowledge that Zanu PF has failed and that he and the other security service top brass were wrong in undermining the democratic process and pledging their blind loyalty to Mugabe and Zanu PF and not the nation.
@ Guest
True but else could we have done with incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai? If we are ever going to get out of this hell-hole Mugabe landed us in we will have to hate Mugabe and be smart enough to know an incompetent leader like Tsvangirai will never get Mugabe out of State House.
Since the rigged July 2013 elections Zimbabweans have failed to get their heads round why Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the elections much less to think what to do next!
The economic meltdown is going to hit the nation hard, the entertainment value of annoying Zanu PF will be lost. We want to get out of the hell-hole, there is no denying that. We are absolutely desperate to get out; we just do not know how that's all!
@ Madziwa
What we do first is end the cancer of corruption that is killing the economy and the only way to do so is by getting this mother of all corruption Zanu PF to step down. Mugabe has tried to deny this problem only to allow it to grow and spread and now the cancer is the size of a tennis ball; Mugabe cannot remove it we must get someone else who can.
As long as Mugabe remains in power the Zimbabwe economy will continue on its present path of decline, of that there is no question. Those who think the nation can still prosper if we worked harder are thinking like the horse, Boxer, in Animal Farm and like him they too will break their backs for nothing.
Zimbabwe is subject to the same laws of physics, thermodynamics and economic as the rest of the world. Corruption is the sure way to ruin that is a fundamental law of economics that Mugabe has tried to defy and failed. We must acknowledge that and have the courage to reset our compass or accept the consequences of the folly making the same mistake and never learning from the past.
@ William Doctor
I agree that politically China is a powder keg; as long as the economy continues to grow the CCP's hold on power is secure. The recent economic success has created a big middle class in China and they are not going to see and watch their standards of living go down if corruption was to return to China! Indeed once their economic wellbeing is fairly secure these Chinese will start demanding a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
There will always some corrupt Chinese just as there are corrupt people in other countries like Israel, Lebanon and India who will continue to do business with corrupt regimes like Mugabe's as long as there is some there for them to plunder!
@ Oswald
The Chinese are working very hard in Marange right now; I understand they have a 24/7 mining operation there now. All the diamonds they are mining are all going to China and even Mugabe does not have an idea how much they are shipping out of the country.
China is not in Zimbabwe to help the country prosper; it is taking full advantage of a corrupt regime that is selling its nation's treasure for a song just to stay in power, period. If we the Zimbabweans are stupid enough not to sell this reality then it is us who will pay dearly for being blind!
The Chinese know Mugabe is a bad debtor, they told him so to his face two weeks ago when he went there begging for money, that is why they flatly refused to give him cash for the budgetary support. They agreed to fund definitive project but even then only up to $2 billion – a far cry from the $27 billion Mugabe wanted in his original ZimAsset plan. They did so because they want to buy time to continue with their other activities like the 24/7 Marange mining. The Chinese are probably making as much as $2 billion a month from the Marange looting alone and so what they are spending in these so called mega-deals is small change!
The Chinese are spending but a fraction of what they are plundering from our resources and we are so stupid we think they are doing us a great favour – that is the price Zimbabwe is paying for being a nation of very ignorant and stupid people led by equally stupid and corruption leaders!
@ Motormouth
The fact that the plundering has already driven millions of ordinary Zimbabweans into a life of abject poverty is not important as far as you are concerned. Well the poverty has no respect of party rank; even Zanu PF grandees like Nathan Shamuyarira and Enos Nkala died paupers.
Even Chihuri is being affected by the worsening economic situation. Police Officers are having to buy their boots from road block bribes he was no so lucky. He passed out the other day because his shoes were too tight, he cannot afford a new pair!
If you think the nation will continue to tolerate the economic meltdown just to keep Mugabe in power, think again. No one buys your sanctions nonsense because those on the sanctions list continued to prosper whilst those not on the list suffered which shows that sanctions had nothing to do with the economic melt-down.
The economic meltdown will get worse as long as Mugabe remains in power. Trust me. Mugabe's days in power are numbered!
@tsk tsk
And all those on the sanctions list have thrived whilst us not on the list has suffered. In any case the EU has removed everyone except Mugabe and his wife from the sanctions list and the economic meltdown has continued without even noticing this. It is self-evident that the economic collapsed was caused by some-thing else and not sanctions. We all know that something else is corruption!
Mugabe is not going to get away from the economic meltdown the same way he got away from Tsvangirai by rigging the elections!
@ Motormouth
Of course corruption is everywhere but how many countries are spending $1 million of leader's birthday party, $5 million on his daughter's wedding, $20 million on his mansion, etc, when over 100 children are dying of preventable diseases, etc.
Yes my dear friend if you look at someone with lust you are committing a sin just as Mugabe is a sinner for murdering over 30 000 innocent Zimbabwe to establish and maintain his de facto one-party dictator-ship. Now that the regime is collapsing and regime change is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow; we will see how many who hang for lust and how many for shedding innocent blood!
Of course you would like to see the economic meltdown end and Zimbabwe prosper just like the rest of us. The only reason why you still continue to support Mugabe is because of the blood on your hands. Just is just and let justice be done; you will have to account for it and rightly so too! I want to see the economic meltdown end and justice done!
@ Whichfool
And Mugabe loves blacks Zimbabweans so much that he cheated them by denying them a vote and forcing millions into a life of abject poverty.
Poverty has no respect of the party rank! The late Nathan Shamuyarira died a pauper you know. Of course Mugabe did not want the world to know that and so he, in his cynical way, painted his house the day he died to hide the decades of neglect, rot and decay. I will bet you, he painted the front only! Well there is the tyrant showing his hatred of the whites and LOVE of the blacks!
@ Jukwa
After all your macho display the fact still remains that Mugabe went to China begging for money and the Chinese told him to his face that he was a bad debtor. He wanted cash and they did not give him a dollar.
The Chinese are in Marange right now running a 24/7 mining operation taking out as much as $2 billion worth of diamonds a month. They are going to spend $2 billion in the next five years in Zimbabwe and Mugabe is glorious happy and boosting of "mega-deals"! This only shows just how stupid, ignorant and corrupt Mugabe really is. He is selling the nation for a song and he thinks he is being clever!
@ Henry Jacob
We have repaid the debt we owed to the Chinese for helping us before independence a thousand times over what they are doing now is taking advantage of a corrupt regime desperate to stay in power it will sell the nation's wealth cheap! We did not drive the white colonialist out of the country only to sell it off cheaply to the Chinese and denying ourselves and posterity any of the nation's riches! Only Mugabe and your his cronies subscribed to that nonsense!
@ Oswald
In 1980 when the country attained its independence life expectancy was 58 years and in 34 years it has dropped by 34 years. It would have fallen even further if the donors were to walk out. 98% of the country's medicines and drugs are pay for by donors for example. If that is not proof that we are being led by stupid and corrupt leaders then I do not know what other proof you want.
As for the people we too must be equally stupid to elect stupid leaders to ruin our lives and dreams. People get the government and opposition they deserve, after 34 years, there is no doubt that we deserve Mugabe and his murderous Zanu PF thugs and Tsvangirai and his breathtakingly incompetent village idiots!
I am a black Zimbabweans but I would not count myself with people like; I admit the nation has make a fcuk up, I am smart enough when, where and who made the fcuk up and, most important of all, I am smart enough to know that by pretending there was no fcuk is sheer folly because I will be making the same mistake over and over again and paying dearly for it every time. There are the real stupid people like you whose minds are a hermetically sealed can impermeable to reason and hence have yet to admit to the Mugabe fcuk up even when presented with a mountain of evidence.
It took 15 years for some Zimbabweans to finally accept Mugabe was a corrupt, neurotic and murderous tyrant only for them to blunder into Tsvangirai’s influence. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have proven beyond all doubt that they are breathtakingly incompetent by failing to get even one democratic reform implemented in their five years in the NGU. It is disappointing of course that there are still thousands of Zimbabweans out there who have yet to see the MDC leaders for the village idiots they are.
@ William Doctor
So you do not think I am doing something about it? Making you aware of the plundering that is going on before your eyes is the single most important task. I would not entrust it to the feeble and brainless idiots in MDC for example, I did that and look at the fcuk up they did during the GNU! This time the job will be done and done properly - watch this space!
@ Whichfool
The EU has been "re-engaging" with Zimbabwe for over a year now; what is this nonsense. Engage or fcuk off!
If you think that the EU will ever engage with Zimbabwe so the the much need FDI will flow in that will never happen. No one is going to invest in a country where they will be force to give up 51% of the share to some good-for-nothing Mugabe parasite and where corruption is so rampant nothing works.
All those people flocking to Zimbabwe right now are the vultures who thrive on exploiting corrupt regimes like that of Mugabe but are smart enough to plunder without spending a penny of their own money!
@ Mazankila
Jukwa may have a university degree or even a PHD (Mugabe will get him/her one as he did for his wife) than will never make any difference; he/she has no common sense. Mugabe has his seven university de-grees but look where the idiot has landed the country! The tyrant like Jukwa has never had any common sense.
University do not teach common sense and so if you never had any to start with there is nothing they can do for you.
There are people like Jukwa who are going to support Mugabe to the bitter end simply because they have loot to protect and many have also shed innocent blood. They dread what will happen to the loot and to them if the tyrant is kicked out of office. They did not have the common sense to think that the looting was not economically sustainable and that the truth of their murderous past will ever come out.
Well the day of the dreaded regime change and judgement is fast approaching and we all have to face up to the reality of our past.
Zimbabwe is seeking to buy weapons from Russia.
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi held a closed-door meeting with officials from the Russian state arms dealer Rosoboronexport on Monday.
This is a nightmare; Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown, unemployment is a staggering 85% plus, many cities and town has no running water, 98% of the country's medicine and drugs are bought by donors, etc.; and yet the country has money to spend on weapons.
@ SekaQinisela
Sadly there hundreds of thousands of such fools out there this is why the international community have largely ignored the opposition in Zimbabwe. If we are so stupid to listen to MDC then the international community has no time to waste listening to stupid people!
@ Mukachana
This is nonsense, if Zimbabwe was a democratic country that "religiously upholds" the democratic practises and norm then there is no reason why Tsvangirai's demo should incite violence or bloodshed.
It is important that elections should be held at regular intervals but, more significantly, they must be free, fair and credible. Zimbabwe has been independence for 34 years and it is yet to have free, fair and credible elections.
Mugabe and Zanu PF are gearing themselves to crash all democratic and peaceful protest against the regime's failure to stop the economic meltdown the country is suffering under. So the nation is caught between the hell of economic hardships or the regime's riot Police. Since the economic hell is set to get worse the people will be better off facing the riot Police demanding an end to the economic meltdown then face the despair of further hardships with no end in sight.
These deals are not going to stop Zimbabwe's economic meltdown for three reasons: one, Mugabe did not get the ready cash in budgetary support he was after. Two, the deal do not end the corruption, a key requirement for economic recovery.
And three, the regime has done nothing to restore investor confidence that the regime will not seize their investments, the Russians are not being asked to surrender 51% of their investment here but only because this is part of the price Mugabe is paying for their political support. The will be no flood of new investors from China or Russia let alone the West.
The Chinese told Mugabe to his face that he was a bad debtor they and the Russia are signing these deal with Mugabe because they stand to make huge profits. Mugabe is literally selling Zimbabwe's wealth and our children future for a song!
China has been running a 24/7 diamond mining operation in Zimbabwe and shipping out the gems uncut back to China without paying anything. According to the late Chindori-Chininga's report no one in Zimbabwe knows what is going on.
Russia has vast Platinum reserves of its own but why would they want to mine their own when they can get Zimbabwe's minerals at a fraction of the price!
Mugabe has been under great pressure since the rigged July 2013 elections to step down and allow the democratic reforms to be implemented and then held free, fair and credible elections. Elections everyone knows he would not win. Here is a tyrant who has already murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish his de fact one-party dictatorship; of course he would do anything to stay in power, especially now when his corrupt and murderous past is catching up with him.
Selling the country's jewels and silver cheap to the Chinese and Russians is therefore nothing!
He has also been shopping around for more weapons from the Russians, Zimbabwe is one of the heavily armed nations per GDP per capita, second only to North Korea. Most cities and towns do not have something as basic as clean running water because of the decades of chronic under funding. This is a serious health time bomb! And yet the country has money to spend buying more weapons. For what, you might ask?
Be rest assured Mugabe intents to use brute force to stop people protesting the hardships brought on be the worsening economic meltdown. Now he has secure China and Russia's political support, Mugabe intents to crash all those who dare protest economic hardship, regardless how low the national economy sink and how great the human suffering he is determined to remain in power!
@ Zhuwao
Zanu PF was united because Mugabe was able to keep everyone happy dishing out cushy jobs, corrupt deals and loot. Zhuwao is himself a beneficiary of this patronage system, he was appointed to a ZESA board for no other discernible reason other than that he is Mugabe's nephew. The economic meltdown has seen all these cushy jobs, etc. disappear like mist under the African sun and the infighting in the party is proof of the party falling apart because Mugabe has run out of the super-glue that has held the party to-gether in the past.
There is nothing Mugabe or anyone can do to stop the infighting because there is nothing anyone can do to stop the in fight and save the party because the patronage system on which the party is founded is itself wasteful and unsustainable and was always doomed to fail!
@ Mai Samero
Obert Gutu has a motor-mouth; he is known to witter on and on talking absolutely nonsense because his mouth will be in over drive when his brain is not even in first gear! He is wittering here about putting Zimbabwe first; well throughout the GNU years when he was deputy Minister, did he put Zimbabwe second or third? No; he did not even think of the country then otherwise he would have implemented the reforms or at the very least not lied to the people that there would be free, fair and credible elections when he knew and was warned repeatedly that there would be no such think.
What I find really disappointing about people like you, Mai Samero, is that you failed to see people like Gutu, Tsvangirai, Biti, etc. for the incompetent leaders they are throughout the years of the GNU. You followed them blindly like sheep to the slaughter. After the rigged election, with the benefit of hindsight and people explaining to you in detail what went wrong; still you have failed to see these MDC leaders for the village idiots they are. It is now over a year since the rigged elections are still you will not see reason; years of sloth-like existence has turn most of your brain into sheep-tail fat, impermeable to reason.
Zimbabwe is in this mess because of corrupt and murderous tyrant like Mugabe, that is true; but also be-cause the country has had the great misfortune of having a significant number of its electorate hard wired to follow whoever is put before them be it a tyrant or village idiot without ever asking any questions.
Of course you "agree with ALL" Gutu said because you are hard wired to do just that!
Poor Zimbabwe, what chance does she have of ever getting out of this mess with an electorate that is so thick and slow someone recklessly betray them and there is a mountain of evidence of that and yet they still embrace the traitor as a hero! Of course, one despairs what else can one do but despair!
@Mai Samero
People risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power and many lost their limbs and lives because they believed MDC would bring democratic change. As soon as Tsvangirai and company were in power they immediately forgot about their promises to the people. As soon as Tsvangirai got his Highlands man-sion and the opportunity to gallivant round the world chasing women of ill repute he decided he was not going to upset Mugabe who had made all this possible by implemented the democratic reforms.
Mugabe himself has done exactly the same. Many risked life and limb to end white oppression and mil-lions lot a leg, an eye or a leg and 300 000 died. For freedom, human rights and dignity they died! As soon as Mugabe took office on 18 April 1980 he set off to systematically deny the people all these freedoms and rights for which the nation had dreamed and paid so dearly to get. Mugabe has turned out to be just as oppressive as the white and worse still corrupt and incompetent to boot. The tyrant has destroyed the vibrant economy the nation inherited from Ian Smith and has thrown the door open to the Israelis, Lebanese, Indians, Chinese and now Russians to plunder.
If all you care about is for someone to do "something" then of course both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have done a great deal - they have betrayed this nation big time for selfish personal gain! They are the Judas Iscariot of our day and, yes it would have been better is they had never been born! I realise that you do not comprehend the enormity of their betrayal, not with that half dead brain.
I am not insulting you, I am telling you the truth; you just do not want to hear it, that is all. It is people like Obert Gutu who are insulting every thinking Zimbabwean out there by betraying the nation and now out to con the nation again with all this nonsense and empty promises. As for you, I feel sorry for you that you should be taken in so easily again by village idiots like Gutu. I am also angry that idiots like you should have a vote because it is you who are holding the nation back.
Trust me, I do not enjoy kicking the backsides idiots like you who have their heads burying in individuals like Gutu and Tsvangirai’s backside hence the reason why you cannot think – your brain is starved of oxygen. After a few kicks some have been force to take a breath of fresh air; there others like you, Mai Samero, who will require some serious kicking.
You asked what I have done; well kicking idiots like you is hard work that must be done and done well if the nation is to get out of this mess; I am doing it, and doing it well! My message to you madam is stop going around with you head stuck in Gutu’s a*** or you will have your a*** kicked!
@ Mai Samero
You will also agree with me then that after being given the opportunity to put his words into practice, a chance to put Zimbabwe first in this case, and he did not many people find it impossible to believe anything an idiot like Gutu says! Gutu was elected to bring democratic change and not to talk about it until the cows come home.
You clearly have thought about this issue but you have to accept that there had many others out there who have not done so. So you must understand my frustration with people like that because like it or not Zimbabwe will never get out of this mess as long as we have people who still continue to follow blindly, too lazy to think for themselves!
Mugabe went to China to beg for hard ready cash in the form of budgetary support. The Chinese told him in his face that he was a “bad debtor”, according to Finance Minister Chinamasa who accompanied the “bad debtor” dictator, and so gave him nothing. He came back empty handed.
This Zanu PF regime is notorious for is reckless spending and spending way beyond its means hence the mountain of debt and its failure to pay back. For the last year the regime has been scouring around for cash, it was struggling to find enough to pay the civil servant wage bill let alone everything else. Soldiers were being forced to take two weeks leave every month, the army could not feed them.
The regime was already milking the national economy for every drop it could get. But with China giving Mugabe the two fingers on budgetary support the regime returned from China with just one grim choice – cut the reckless spending; a first for a regime used to spend, spend. But in-stead of biting the bullet Chinamasa was told to milk the national economy even hard. Instead of being milked twice or thrice a day the Zimbabwe cow is now being milked every hour on the hour 24/7! The poor thing is not having any time to graze but of course the regime will get very little extra cash.
I agree with you Vince, there will be no “paradigm shift in government” as long as Mugabe re-mains in office but the economic melt will continue. The regime will have to ask all the soldiers to be permanently on leave and still it will not have enough cash to get out of this hole! The economic meltdown will force the paradigm shift!
Emmerson Mnangagwa has devised a strategy to assume the presidency from President Robert Mugabe by February next year, senior intelligence sources have revealed, reported The Zimbabwean.
Mnangagwa and his strategists should be planning how they are going to rig economic recovery, something that Mugabe has tried and failed. If these thugs that they are going to stay in power even in the face of the worsening economic meltdown, hopelessness and despair across the nation then they are in for a rude awakening.
Zimbabwe has been ruled by the Joint Operations Command, a group of self-appointed thugs elected by no one and accountable to no one but themselves, for far too long. Enough is enough!
Post a Comment