Zimbabwe is the Garden of Eden, we are starving in the Garden of Eden - greatest testimonial to human incompetency!

Zimbabwe qualifies to be called the Garden of Eden; it was rich soils and the ideal weather condition to grow crops and farm animals. The fact that the country has now been turned from the breadbasket of the region to one where millions are facing starvation is proof of just how corrupt and incompetent Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs are. 

 

Mugabe and his immediate family own no few than 13 commercial farms and the rest of the Zanu PF ruling elite are not far behind. Other than Mugabe and his family's farms which kept up production but only because they receive massive direct and indirect subsidies most commercial farms have fallen into disuse. The days of large fields of tobacco or maize during the rainy season and wheat during the cold months are long gone. 

It was no accident that Zimbabwe's economic meltdown started hot on the heels of the farm seizures; Zimbabwe's agriculture formed the backbone of the national economy. When the agricultural sector collapsed the national economy collapsed too. 

Mugabe and his cronies destroyed the economy by seize the white own farms and sharing them out amongst themselves; blaming the economic collapse on sanctions is a total nonsense.



We live in the day and age where technology has allowed people, clever people, to turn deserts into blooming fields. We live in the nearest thing to the Garden of Eden where we require the bare minimum of effort to have a bumper harvest and yet we are starving. If anything has captivated the very essence of Mugabe and his cronies' breath-taking incompetence it has to be how their have turned Zimbabwe from a breadbasket of the region into a nation of beggars, ever begging for food!

 

 

Where other people have made the desert bloom, a great testimonial in human ingenuity; here in Zimbabwe we are starving in the Garden of Eden, the greatest testimonial in human incompetency!

"Africa is on the move" said President Obama sadly not so for Zimbabwe!

US President Barack Obama on his first official visit as President to Kenya tells his the people of Kenya and the rest of Africa that the continent is on the move.

“I wanted to be here, because Africa is on the move, Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world,” Obama said.

“People are being lifted out of poverty, incomes are up, the middle class is growing and young people like you are harnessing technology to change the way Africa is doing business.”

 

Whilst many African countries have enjoyed significant growth in the last two decades, Zimbabwe is one of the few countries whose economy has shrunk throughout those years. Zimbabwe suffered it world record beating economic shrinkage of 84% in the six year period 2002 to 2008. The country recorded its other world record of the highest inflation rate for a nation not at war when inflation soared to 500 billion %.

 

Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate soared in line with the country’s shrinking economic fortunes to 80% plus by 2008 and has never recovered.

 

The country’s economic down turn plateaued during the GNU years of 2008 to 2013 and took yet another nose dive after the rigged July 2013 elections. Shares on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange dropped 35% on hearing that Zanu PF had blatantly rigged the elections to get back into power. After 33 years of mismanagement and corruption the national economic was disappointed to learn the Zanu PF misrule was to continue.

 

Mugabe was confident he would rig economic recovery just as he had rigged the July 2013 national elections with his ZimAsset plan. The plan was to overwhelm all the inherent economic waste through mismanagement and corruption with cash $27 billion – which is seven times the government’s collected $4 billion annual revenue. The plan failed because Mugabe failed to get any donor willing to bankroll the hare-brain scheme.

 

Mugabe’s ZimAsset plan is dead!

 

Whilst Zimbabwe’s neighbours have enjoyed some modest economic growth spurred by increased Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) Zimbabwe has failed to attract any DFI. Since Zimbabwe passed its 2008 Indigenisation law compelling investor to sell 51% of their company shares to local blacks many investors have shied away from Zimbabwe. In 2013 Zimbabwe had 4% of what Mozambique got in DFI, for example.

 

 Mugabe promised ZimAsset would create 2.2 million new jobs in the five years 2013 to 2018. It is now half way down the line and the nation has registered net job losses and the situation is set to get worse not better.

 

Yes, President Obama, Africa is on the move but whilst many other countries are registering economic growth and reducing poverty Zimbabwe’s economy is in total meltdown and poverty is on the rise. Two decades of economic recessions have taken a heavy toll on the Zimbabwe economy, unemployment is now stuck of 90% plus and 76% of our people now live of less than $200 per month with 16% or 2 million living in abject poverty.

 

Zimbabwe is now the second poorest nation on earth.

 

Whilst many African countries are racing to escape poverty, we in Zimbabwe are leading the rat race to the bottom!

 

President Obama did not mince his words when it came to naming Africa greatest enemy to economic progress – corruption.

 

Zimbabwe has a diamond bounty worth $800 billion from Marange and Chiadzwa alone and yet the nation is not getting even a dollar in revenue. Beginning of the year Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, tired of giving feeble excuses why government was failing to collect and revenue of the diamond mining, told the nation that there were no alluvial diamonds left. That was a blatant lie because the Russians had only started mining in September 2013. In May the Minister changed his story, he told IMF government was not collecting any tax because the diamond mining industry was experiencing some financial difficulties. That too was just another lie.

 

Foreign diamond mining companies and their local partners are NOT declaring the quantity, quality or dollar value of their diamond mining activities, according to the late Edward Chindori Chininga, a Zanu PF MP’s, 2013 parliamentary report. Since no one in authorities knows how much in is being mined, no one pays any tax.

 

According to Africa Partnership Canada, a Canadian GNO monitoring the diamond industry, Mugabe got $2 billion as his share of the looting and plundering of Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds in 2012 alone!  

 

35 years of mismanagement, corruption and misguided economic policies are dragging Zimbabwe down into new depths of economic poverty and despair. Zimbabwe will need to carry out serious economic reforms to end its economic decline and then to reverse the process to register economic recovery and these economic reforms will only happen after serious political reforms resulting in free, fair and credible elections.

 

Kenya is the one country that is enjoying significant economic growth and recovery after decades of mismanagement and corruption. The country’s turning point was the successful implementation of the democratic reforms by the country’s 2008 to 2012 GNU resulting in free and fair elections.

 

Sadly Zimbabwe’s 2008 to 2013 failed to deliver the free and fair elections because not even one of the reforms were ever implemented.  Unlike Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, who stuck to his set task of implementing the reforms, Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai sold-out ; he “was busy enjoying himself and forgot why he was in the GNU”, as SADC heads later of his performance.

 

If Zimbabwe is serious about joining many other African countries that are enjoying economic recovery and pulling their people out of poverty then we must implement ALL the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Like it or not, good governance is the pre-requisite of economic prosperity!  

British to re-engage with MDC - T after GNU fallout - so what road to Damascus changes has MDC had!

Douglas Mwonzora, MDC-T Secretary General, is heading a party delegation visiting UK, Norway and Australia at the invitation of these nations.

 

“We are also going to take that chance to meet with our party structures in these countries and intensify our 2018 political campaigns which have already started in earnest,” said Mwonzora.

 

Mwonzora confirmed MDC-T has abandoned its “No reform no elections” stance although he would not say what the party’s new strategy would be. This is just another case of the party flip-flopping on key policies.

 

Zanu PF has panicked at the prospect of the MDC-T’s re-engaging with some of the Western countries. MDC lost all political credibility with SADC and most other countries especially in the West after the party failed to get even one democratic reform implemented after the five years in the GNU.

 

“Firstly, we are worried by the issue of external funding because the whole essence of funding political parties from the fiscus is to develop politics loyal to the nation,” threatened George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesman.

 

“When you have overtly hostile stance hinted by MDC-T, we have to reassess our own re-engagement efforts with the EU. Surely the EU cannot run with hares at the same time hunting with the hounds.”

 

This is just Zanu PF shooting from the hip; MDC has not received a cent of the $3 million the party is entitled on the basis of the 2013 election result because government is broke so the threat to withhold political party funds is a hollow one.

 

As for the EU –Zimbabwe re-engagement the whole process has stalled because Zanu PF has failed to end the cancer of corruption, scrap the obnoxious indigenisation law and other key economic reforms necessary for meaningful economic engagement.

 

What is sickening about the Zanu PF over-the-top reaction that the tyrannical regime should make a big song and dance about MDC-T sourcing their own funding when the regime source it funds from stealing for the impoverished people of Zimbabwe!

 

In the last few years Zanu PF’s biggest source of funds has been from the plunder and looting of Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds. Mugabe received as much as $2 billion in loyalty from the diamond plunder in 2012 alone according to Partnership Africa Canada. 

 

 

Years of underfunding have resulted in the collapse of basic services like health and education and most towns and cities cannot supply clean running water because government revenue is not enough to pay wages let alone anything else. During the GNU former Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, complained that government was receiving a fraction of the tax from the diamond mining. Since the rigged July 2013 elections which resulted in Zanu PF resuming total control of all facets of political power tax from the diamond industry has dried up completely.

 

First finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said there were no alluvial diamonds left in Marange and Chiedzwa. He then changed his story and said government had suspended collecting tax from the industry “to help them through their financial problems”. All nonsense of course; the wealth from diamond bounty is going straight into the pockets of the Zanu PF ruling elite and their foreign mining partners, the ordinary people are to have none of it!

 

 

Right now millions of Zimbabweans are starving and thousands will die because the country has once again failed to produce enough to feed its own people. Ever since the Zanu PF chefs seized the white owned farms in 2000 the nation has been forced to import food every year; a serious fall for a country that until then was the bread basket of the whole region. Still, the country could buy the food if the wealth from diamonds was not being looted!

 

 

 

It is therefore rich that Zanu PF should be the one making a big song and dance condemning MDC-T for finding someone rich to fund their political activities when Zanu PF is taking bread out of the mouths of starving masses of this country to finance its corrupt and tyrannical activities.

 

 

At the end of the day we have to deal with the reality that Zimbabwe is still in this political and economic mess because MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the GNU and thus allowed Zanu PF to rig the July 2013 elections. The only reason why no reforms were implemented is because MDC leaders have no “ideology, principles and vision”, as Professor Welshman Ncube, one of the leading MDC leaders in the GNU, has since admitted.

 

 

So one has to ask the British, Norwegians and Australians what Saul on the road to Damascus transformative moment has befallen Morgan Tsvangirai turning him from the individual with no principles and vision to the competent leader and thus worthy they re-engagement with MDC-T? We are certainly not aware of any such change; indeed Tsvangirai has since the rigged 2013 continued to blunder from pillar to post – as with the recall of the MDC-Renewal MPs only to give the seats away to Zanu PF –, to flip-flop – as with abandoning of the no reform no elections stance -, etc.

 

 

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because for the last 35 years the people have made the mistake of believing the nation can enjoy freedom, peace, human rights, economic prosperity, etc. even if the nation’s lacked common sense much less principles and vision. The country’s serious economic meltdown and brutal political oppression has forced the people to think and the lesson of electing competent leaders was slowing sinking in, finally. The last thing the people of Zimbabwe want is for someone to give them the false hope that the nation can enjoy freedom, peace, etc. by once again electing corrupt and incompetent leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai.

 

 

No politician in UK, Norway or Australia with half as bad a track record of corruption and incompetency as MDC leaders would ever be re-elected into public office. So why are these British, Norwegians and Australians abusing their financial muscle to impose these corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders on the people of Zimbabwe?  

Kasukuwere calls for end to Zanu PF infighting - first end economic meltdown!

Zanu PF Political Commissar, Kasukuwere calls upon party cadres to stop the infighting. He said the party's Harare leaders were fast losing discipline and respect for each other as evidenced by petitions and vote of no confidence constantly being passed on each other.

 

So the Political Commissar is calling for end to infighting and discipline in Zanu PF and yet he said nothing last year when Mugabe and his wife vicious attacking Mai Mujuru and her supporters because she was set to win power in the upcoming congress. Mai Mujuru and all her supporters have since been ruthlessly kicked out of government and party and many continue to be haunted to this day because they have dared reveal that Zanu PF has been rigging elections, for example.

 

This is typical of Zanu PF modus operandi; the leaders make a big song and dance condemning corrupt and lawlessness and yet are themselves the main instigators of lawlessness and have grown filthy rich from corruption. Mugabe has used infighting to ouster Mai Mujuru and her supporter to get what he wanted now the party members are doing the same. The country’s economic meltdown has meant that there is not enough wealth to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the Zanu PF members for loot; the members now have to fight for the scraps.

 

 

If President Mugabe is serious about stopping the infighting in Zanu PF then he must bring back the good times of easy money, jobs galore complete with the good roads, clean running water and electricity in every home, working health service and free education, etc., etc.; just as the nation had soon after independence.  Indeed the nation is in this sorry economic state precisely because of the 35 years of reckless spending, mismanagement and corruption; now the chicken have come back home to roost in their millions like red billed quelea.

 

Mugabe can neither stop the economic meltdown, a consequence of his own 35 years of misrule, nor can he stop the infighting in Zanu PF which itself is being fuelled by the economic meltdown. Mugabe has kept Zanu PF thugs happy and contended all these years by allowing them to loot; now there is nothing left for them to loot the party is imploding as the thugs fight over the scraps.

 

Zanu PF was always doomed to fail because it was based on mismanagement and looting which are not sustainable.

 

This corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF kleptocracy was unsustainable and now it must go for this nation to have fresh start. The only danger to watch out for is that Zanu PF does not drag the whole nation down the precipice with it!

Zim NGO call on ZEC to condemn Zanu Pf for using Chiefs to rig elections!

Election Resource Centre (ERC) said the Chiefs were used by Zanu PF in intimidating voter to vote for Zanu PF candidates in the 10 June 2015 by elections.

“Chiefs, headman and village heads were ordered by known political leaders especially from the ruling party to keep registers of their people and lead them to voting.

This was reminiscent of earlier by-elections in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe,” said ERC.

ERC said ZEC should openly condemn such actions because they point to electoral fraud.

What is really shocking here, beside the fact that millions of Zimbabweans continue to be denied their basic right to a meaningful, free, fair and credible vote, how naïve our NGOs are. Does the ERC really believe that is ZEC “openly condemn” the undemocratic behaviour of the chiefs and other traditional leaders the vote rigging will stop?

Zanu PF has been paying the country’s traditional leaders to do its bidding for years now, the whole system is thoroughly corrupt through and through; even if ZEC in was to publicly censor the Chiefs their paymaster will tell them it was all political posturing by ZEC they should ignore it.

If we are really serious about ending Zanu PF’s vote rigging schemes then we must implement all the democratic reforms agreed the 2008 GPA and stop wasting time in calling for measures that will achieve nothing of substance.

ZEC should condemn the Chiefs; to what end and purpose!   

MDC call for fresh start - no fresh start as long as the same corrupt MDC leaders remain in opposition!

MDC’s views the people coming together in the Itai Dzamara prayer meeting as a sign the people are joining the party’s big tent coalition call.

 

“The MDC would like to encourage all patriotic Zimbabweans, living in the country and in the Diaspora, to join hands in peacefully pushing the corrupt, insensitive, incompetent and violent Zanu PF regime out of power. ……… etc., etc. Zimbabwe needs a fresh start,” wrote MDC spokesman Obert Gutu.

 

The nation is in this political and economic hell-hole because for the last 35 years, we, the people, have failed to take the business of election competent national leaders with the seriousness and importance the matter demands. If the nation is to end the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule then we must first of all elect competent men and women who will finally implement the democratic reforms the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders failed to implement during the GNU. 

 

MDC leaders will never accept that Zimbabwe had its best chance ever during the GNU to implement all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA which would have stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship once and once for all. MDC failed to get even one of the democratic reforms implemented. Not one.

 

MDC had the time, five years; had the opportunity, the GPA; and had the backing and encouragement of SADC, who were the guarantor of the agreement; to implement the reforms. There are only three reasons why MDC did not implement any reforms; the party’s leaders are breathtakingly incompetent, corrupt and they are sell-out.

 

How does electing the same breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and a sell-out constitute “a fresh start”?

 

MDC is taking advantage of the people’s worsening economic misery to get themselves elected back into power; they know a desperate electorate will do desperate things.

 

What the electorate should understand is that MDC will never get the nation out of this hell-hole because they will never end Zanu PF’s tyrannical rule. If MDC failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU when the party had all the tramp cards what chance is there of them doing so now when it is Mugabe and Zanu PF who now hold all the tramp cards?

 

The only way the nation is going to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus have a truly “fresh start” is by first of all getting rid of the country’s corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition leaders and electing competent ones!

 

The people of Zimbabwe were naïve, gullible and foolish to have trusted corrupt and incompetent leaders like Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai to deliver on their promise of bringing democratic change. It will be an act of unforgivable folly for this nation to elect corrupt and incompetent leaders ever again much less to elect the same village idiots who have already proven beyond all doubt that they are indeed corrupt and incompetent!

 

The key to ending our political nightmare, a fresh start, is for the electorate to elect competent leaders, something both Zanu PF and MDC have actively brainwashing the people turning them into sheep who blindly follow the leaders without ever asking any questions. We need a thinking electorate and the worsening economic situation should force us to think and not to panic.  

Opposition ask Zanu PF and ZEC to implement reforms - proof they are clueless!

The calibre of our political leaders has been the nation’s Achilles heel in our search for democracy and good governance.

 

Here we are, we have all the country’s opposition parties meeting in Bulawayo hosted by Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Zimbabwe’s premier Civic Organisation concerned with delivery of free, fair and credible elections, at great expense. After hundreds of man-days of deliberation and debate they, in all their collective wisdom, tell us that “the ruling party Zanu PF and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to implement reforms so as to level the political field.”

 

Zimbabwe had its best chance of getting all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms, everyone accepted were necessary for free, fair and credible elections, implemented during the GNU. The task of implementing the reforms fall upon the two MDC factions in the GNU naturally; it was naïve to expect Mugabe and Zanu PF to want any of these reforms implemented since they would never win a free and fair election.

 

The GNU was supposed to last 18 months in the end it lasted five years, more than three times as long. Sadly not even one of the reforms was implemented. Not one!

 

A number of the attendees to the ZESN were senior members of MDC, they are the ones who should have drafted the proposed reforms and approved them in parliament. They did no such thing. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the gravy train life-style, a $4 million Highland mansion for Tsvangirai, and they kicked the reforms into the tall grass to be forgotten until now.

 

There was a deafening silence from all the other opposition parties, Mavhambo, Zapu, etc., throughout the GNU about MDC’s failure to implement the reforms. Where were they, on holiday or fast asleep!

 

The NGOs and civic groups including ZESN were MDC’s cheerleaders, cheering and applauding whilst MDC blundered from pillar to post. Did ZESN not help campaign for a yes vote to approve the Copac constitution in the March 2013 referendum on the basis that it was enough to deliver free and fair elections?

 

For the opposition parties and ZESN to now call for Zanu PF to implement the reforms shows just how shallow they all are. Having successfully bribed MDC to do nothing about the reforms during the GNU, Zanu PF will now consider the matter settled.

 

To get Zanu PF to accept that the reforms were never implemented during the GNU is a challenge in its own right. Having done that; it would be naïve, to say the least, to then expect Zanu PF to implement any of the reforms just as it was naïve to have expected the party to implement them during the GNU.

 

As for the call on ZEC “to implement the reforms” that shows just how down right stupid the delegates to this ZESN workshop really are; ZEC has no constitutional power to change its modus operandi!

 

If we are ever to end Zanu PF’s corrupt and tyrannical rule and have our first free, fair and credible elections then we will have to do a lot better than have all these endless opposition talk-shops that come up with totally meaningless and wishful resolutions that everyone ignores.

The deplorable poor quality of Zimbabwe’s political leaders is the country’s Achilles heel; the country would not have landed in this mess if we had competent and visionary leaders in 1980 instead of the corrupt and the murderous Zanu PF tyrants. We certainly would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship in 2013, if not long before then, if we had competent leaders with some common sense instead of the breathtakingly incompetent and corrupt MDC.

 

Worse of all, we are not getting out of this hell-hole as long as we have continue to have individuals with no common sense championing our cause for free and fair elections. The ball is in our court, us the people; it is incumbent on us and no one else to remove these absolutely useless, corrupt and incompetent opposition and Civic Society leaders and elect competent leaders!  

Charamba says Mugabe is not responsible for Dzamara - what happened to "buck stops with President" ethos!

Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, says Mugabe is not responsible for the investigation of Itai Dzamara’s disappearance. Nonsense, of course Mugabe is responsible for investigating the disappearance of Itai Dzamara if not responsible for the disappearance itself! 

 

Mugabe is the state president, the highest authority in the land; he has other officials who are responsible for carrying out the various duties including, in this case, investigating the disappearance of Itai, but when these officials fail, the buck stops with him!

 

The Zanu PF regime had a dilemma as to what to do about Itai Dzamara. When Itai started his “Occupy Africa Square” campaign demanding that Mugabe should go because he had failed; his actions throw the cat amongst the pigeons.

 

Of course Itai was right that Mugabe had failed, the worsening economic situation in the country was a daily reminder and proof of the sheer extend of that failure. The difficult for the regime was to either ignore Itai, and risk the his action and the authority’s failure to remove him inspiring other people to join him or start similar protests. The worsening economic situation made the risk of similar protest a certainty! Or remove Itai and hope that no one will notice.

 

The regime chose to make Itai “disappear” but unfortunately for it many people did notice and there increased public protest the regime had set out to avoid are now happening. People are united in their call for an end to State inspired human rights violations and the total indifference with which those in authority, right up to Mugabe himself, handle these cases.

 

The worsening economic situation, the cause Itai was protesting about, is now unbearable and it is this that in spurring all these people to see Itai as a hero. If the Zanu PF thinks the Itai protests will end soon, they are wrong; the protests are set to grow and the voices demanding his release will grow louder!

 

In Zimbabwe 90% of the people are unemployed, 76% of the population are now living on $200 per month, Zimbabwe is the second poorest nation on earth in stark contrast to its vast wealth and potential, etc. This situation is socially and politically unsustainable; the public protests or worse were a certainty; if the protests were not centred round Itai’s disappearance they would be centred round a dozen other issues but all fuelled by the one thing – the desire to end the economic meltdown!

Tsvangirai announce "first convergence" for change - forgetting the 1980 and 2008 convergence!

Morgan Tsvangirai tells the 2000 people gathered to remember and pray for Itai Dzamara’s safe return the gathers is raising the bar to stop future political abductions.

 

“For the first time, there is a convergence on what needs to be done to bring Zimbabwe back on track. We have raised the bar and never again in Zimbabwe will a person disappear without trace and nothing is done about it,” said Tsvangirai.

 

Was MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) not founded on the promise to bring democratic change in Zimbabwe? Back then in 1999 there was a convergence on change and many people have since been beaten, raped and over 500 murdered in 2008 alone. Their sacrifice did allow you, Comrade Morgan Tsvangirai and many of your MDC colleagues to get into government and cabinet and the best chance to bring about the democratic reforms.

 

For five years of the GNU MDC had the best chance this nation has had in 35 years to end this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship by implementing the democratic reforms agree in the 2008 GPA. Not even one reform was implemented. Not one!

 

MDC failed to implement even one reform because Mugabe had bribed its leaders with the gravy train good life to kick the reforms into the tall grass. They accepted the bribes and kicked the reforms into the tall grass. You Mr Tsvangirai you got the $4 million Highlands mansion as party of your bribe.

 

MDC leaders sold out on the democratic reforms which, if implemented, would have stopped Zanu PF rigged the July 2013 elections; stop the lawlessness including the abduction of Itai Dzamara; etc.

 

No Mr Tsvangirai this is not the first time the people of Zimbabwe have converged to demand democratic change and justice. The first time was before independence; from the ordinary men and women in the villages who helped shelter and feed the freedom fighters, to the young men and women, the Mujimbas and Chimbidos, who acted as messengers right up to the freedom fighters and their commanders; all the people played a part is the liberation of the country.

 

Sadly, soon after independence Mugabe bribe his Zanu PF cronies with the promise of the gravy train good life if they betrayed the people’s dreams of freedom, justice, human rights and a fair share in the nation’s abundant wealth.  Just as MDC have done, Zanu PF cronies too accepted the bribe and help Mugabe build this corrupt and murderous tyrannical regime and the rest is history.

 

So there was a national political convergence to end white colonial oppression and exploitation before independence only for Mugabe and Zanu PF to betray the people and deny them their basic rights and freedoms soon thereafter. There was another national political convergence notably in 2008 to end the Zanu PF dictatorship which failed because MDC leaders sold-out.

 

Mr Tsvangirai you do not want to acknowledge the 2008 political convergence and sacrifice made by the people of Zimbabwe because you do not want to acknowledge that you and your MDC friends betrayed the people and sold-out. As a result of the rigged July 2013 elections, you and your MDC friends were kicked off the gravy train; you are calling for a new political convergence in the hope that it will propel you back into power.

 

Mr Tsvangirai you have never cared about bringing “Zimbabwe back on track” because you would have done so during the GNU when the country had its best chance ever to do so. All you have ever cared about is being on the gravy train.

 

The people of Zimbabwe have been yearning for freedom, justice, human rights and a life with dignity. They were foolish to have trust Mugabe and Zanu PF to delivery good governance in 1980; very foolish to have trusted you and MDC in 2008, considering they should have learned from the nation’s recent history; and it would be an unforgivable act of folly if the nation should trust yet again the same MDC leaders who sold-out during the GNU!  The people of Zimbabwe must now know what MDC want is a seat back on the gravy train.

Zanu PF MP cries in parliament over sanctions - just want to be a minister too!

A Zanu PF MP, Rossy Mpofu, complained why MDC have failed to apologize for inviting the sanctions. She still blames the sanctions for the country’s economic problems.

 

“... Ipoint of order yami, nxa bona (MDC) bekwazi ukuthi kasibo abasapota amaBritish why bengaxotshi amasanctions eZimbabwe (If they deny they invited sanctions on the country, why don’t they openly denounce them),” blurted out MP Mpofu during a parliamentary debate on the country’s worsening economic situation.

 

MP Mpofu was told to shut up but broke into tears!

 

The very fact that there is anyone who still believes the country's economic woes were caused by sanctions when the country's economy was already in trouble by 2002 when the sanctions were imposed; contrary to the repeated denial of corruption by the regime, there is overwhelming evidence corruption is rampant; etc. One has to be really naïve and gullible to still believe in the hen-teeth stories of sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. It is worrying when the country’s political leaders and MPs are among the naive and gullible! 

The country is serious economic trouble and it is looking to MPs to chart the way out of this mess but clearly there is no hope of them doing so if they are clearly mentally impaired!

MDC Mkoba MP, Amos Chibaya, dismissed the crying Mpofu with the contempt she rightly deserved. “Haiwawo, madhimoni aya (This is a result of demons)” shouted Chibaya.

 

No doubt MP Rossy Mpofu has heard of how people like Shuva Mahofa was rewarded with a ministerial appointment for dancing like one possessed by demons; may be Mpofu is hoping to similarly rewarded by crying like one possessed. 

"Democracy is a government by the people for the people" after 35 years, Zimbabweans are still not ready for such a government!

In this life, we all have our own yoke to carry be it as an individual, family or nation. And life itself is like a game of snakes and ladders with a definite beginning, the day we are born, and a definite end, the day we die; and in between we will be rewarded with breaks and uplifting moments or dragged down and punished depending on how we are preforming.

 

Zimbabwe is a very rich country with rich lands and wonderful weather; we should be growing enough food to meet all our people’s needs and yet for the last fifteen years the nation has relied on important food aid. The country has a great abundance of minerals and other resources; our nation should be one of the wealthiest nations on earth and yet 76% of our people now live in abject poverty and prospects are things are set to get even worse.

 

Each generation has its own trials and tribulations to deal with, its yoke to bear. For the post-independence Zimbabwe generation our task was to deliver the freedom, justice, human rights and economic prosperity the nation had risked life and limb to attain. The task was simple enough to state but, as the facts on the ground now show, clearly not so easy to accomplish.

 

Zimbabwe is in a political and economic mess, the facts on the ground speak for themselves. Mugabe and Zanu PF will give you an earful of excuses why this has happened. But to rephrase the set challenge of the post-independence generation; it was to ensure the nation delivered freedom, justice, etc. to all and no excuses.

 

After 35 years of relentless match deeper and deeper into this political and economic hell whatever Mugabe has to say to explain why the country is in such a mess is both pathetic and irrelevant. His usual excuse that it the sanctions imposed by the West that have cause the country’s economic woes, for example, are just noise. Because if Mugabe has failed to come up with ways round these sanctions, after 35 years with the country is such a mess it is self-evident that he has indeed failed; then the people reserve the democratic right to find someone else able to find a way out.

 

It is deeply regrettable that the people themselves have allowed the nation to be dragged into such depths of hopelessness and despair for all these 35 years.

 

When the country attained her independences all those 35 years ago the people were given the greatest gift, which used wisely would have guaranteed all their other desires, freedom, justice, etc., the right to vote. Sadly the people have allowed Mugabe and Zanu PF to cheat them and deny them a meaningful democratic vote.

 

At the very heart of Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess is the Mugabe mantra of “no regime change”. The country has held regular elections but Mugabe has done everything; undermined democratic institutions, disregarded the law, rigged elections, intimidated and beat the voters and even murdered thousands to ensure there was no regime change.

 

The mistake the people of Zimbabwe have made is to make it easy for Mugabe to deny them their right to a meaningful vote. In the last 35 years the people have had many opportunities to reclaim their right to a meaningful vote, the best chance being during the GNU, but they have wasted all the chances.

 

During the GNU the people made fundamental mistake of electing the corrupt and incompetent MDC to implement the democratic reforms; not even one reform was ever implemented. The people themselves did not understand what the required reforms were and, not surprisingly, they elected politicians who too did not know what the reforms were.  

 

It was US President Abraham Lincoln who said “democracy is government by the people for the people.”

 

It is clearly that the people of Zimbabwe are not ready for democratic rule and thus per se elect to have the corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship. After 35 years one would have thought that the people had suffered enough to want change but clearly they have not.

 

In this world we are rewarded for making the right decision and punished for making the wrong ones. For the last 35 years Zimbabweans has done nothing to ensure the country had good government and have paid dearly for and we will continue to pay dearly for this until we take the challenge of good governance with the seriousness it deserves!

 

It last month’s by-elections the voter turnout was as low as 5% showing that the 1985 to 1999 days of voter apathy are back again. Voter apathy changed nothing then it will not change anything now. When the voters have suffered enough they will re-engage, hopefully, this time they will hopefully pay full attention on the democratic reforms and whatever else the country needs for a healthy and functional democracy.

 

Zimbabwe is independent and it is up to us and no one else to make sure the country is properly governed!