“A recent survey by the
University of Zimbabwe, shows that of the 13,1 million in Zimbabwe, about eight
million or 60 percent have no access to electricity,” Energy and power development minister, Samuel Undenge said in a speech read on his behalf by
his ministry’s permanent secretary Partson Mbiriri.
“Surely, in this 21st
century, we cannot continue to accept and take such situations as the norm,”
said the minister.
And the remaining 40%
with access to electricity their access must be qualified – they are connected
to the grid yes but are switched off 18 hours out of 24 hour-day.
“ZESA MOTO MUZHINJI!”
(ZESA MORE ELECTRICITY!) was the power utility’s slogan when it was formed by
bring the various power companies like CAPCO which operated Kariba Hydro Power
Stations on the Zambia and Zimbabwe side, Electricity Commission which owned
and operated Hwange Power Station, etc. The system was efficient and very
reliable.
“If it works do not fix
it!” one would have said but you tell that to a reasonable man; Mugabe is NOT a
reasonable. He passed a law to breakup all the electricity companies to form
one big company called ZESA with his brother-in-law, Sydney Gata, (Zimbabwe is
Mugabe’s personal property and has always been ruled as a family affair) as its
manager complete with the “ZESA MOTO MUZHINJI!” slogan.
The one thing ZESA
completely failed to do was increase power supply in Zimbabwe; the utility has
wasted billions and billions of dollars on dead end projects like Rural
Electrification only to have a politician’s house at the end of line hundreds
of kilometres long and on the usual corruption and mismanagement.
To hear the Minister
talk of “this 21st century, we cannot continue to accept and take such
situations as the norm” only the naïve and gullible the government is going to
actually DO something about the country’s chronic power shortage.
We did not get into this
situation in the last month or five years; this situation has been a stead
state decline that started way back in 1980. And the decay and rot has not only
happened in the electricity industry but in every other facet of our lives.
Unemployment has soared
to 90% plus because companies have closed right, left and centre; that is not
the norm in the 21st century. Cities and towns across the country
are failing to supply clean running water, even a big Hospital like
Parerenyatwa has had no clean running water; in this day and age.
As for the bit “we
cannot continue to accept and take such situations as the norm” the “we” refers
to Mugabe, himself and the rest of the Zanu PF regime and not any of us povo
constituting 90% or so, we have no say in this, never did.
Minister Undenge is a
seasoned Zanu PF politician schooled in the party’s way of doing things; it has
taken decades before the party finally acknowledged there is a power supply
problem in the country, that is phase one. Now phase two, the regime will
public denounce the shortage and declare that it is not acceptable; as long as
the regime talk about the problem it does not have to do anything.
As for us povo we are
stuck with the situation, of course it is not acceptable that so many people so
have no electricity, running water, no formal employment, etc. 16% of our
people are living in abject poverty. Zimbabwe has some of the best land for
food production and yet 1.3 million are facing starvation right now; we are
starving in the Garden of Eden.
We are stuck with Mugabe
and Zanu PF because we have been denied our freedoms and basic human rights
including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life
itself.
“ZANU PF THE PEOPLE’S
CHOICE!” that is just another empty slogan just like the ZESA slogan. Mugabe
has vowed that there was going to be no regime change in Zimbabwe and has been
ruthless in ensuring there was no regime change.
In the 2008 presidential
run-off the nation was subjected to some frightful scenes of wanton violence,
the worse the nation has ever seen, as Mugabe forced the electorate to vote for
him. The violence was so blatant and brutal that even SADC and AU election observers,
known for their see-nothing, hear-nothing and say-nothing approach to election
monitoring, could pretend not to have seen and heard what happen.
Zimbabwe’s economic
situation is set to get worse not better dragging the nation deeper and deeper
into the Dark Ages as long as Zanu PF remains in power. If we, the people,
povo, are serious about ending this relentless much into hopelessness and
despair then we must demand the implementation of all the democratic reforms
agreed in the 2008 GPA. Without the reforms and thus free and fair elections we
will never have a meaningful say in the governance of this country.
“ZESA MOTO
MUZHINJI!” “MUGABE THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE!”
Yeah right!
7 comments:
@ Murewa
The bottom line is Zimbabwe is an economic mess and this did not happen overnight or last few years but has been a long march that started where back in 1980. Sadly the march into the abyss has not stopped.
“It would be an oversimplification for a rather complex issue to say that the Zimbabwean government is making a mistake in implementing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rec-ommendations for reviving the economy,” you said.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has talked endlessly about implementing the reforms but that is all he has done for two years, talk. For the last two years the regime has dither back and forth on whether or not to scrap the obnoxious indigenisation laws and Mugabe’s nephew, Minister Patrick Zhuwao, settled the matter, the laws will stay, and told Chinamasa off.
The nation continues to lose billions of dollars a year from the looting and plunder going on in Marange and Chiadzwa. Minister Chinamasa tried to do something to stop it but has since given up as a lost cause.
This Zanu PF regime will never implement the economic reforms necessary to revive the nation’s economy the party’s leaders do not have the political will, vision or courage to do this. The only way out of this mess is for the country to implement the 2008 GPA reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Only the government with a clear electoral mandate will have the political muscle to implement the economic and political reforms the situation demands.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa is not fooling anyone, let alone IMF, with all this talks of government making progress in reviving the economic when there is no progress. The pre-sent economic situation is not socially and political sustainable so it is just a matter of time before the whole façade finally collapse and allow regime change!
@ John Sigauke
“Of course, the current power outages are not good for the nation for they retard productivity in the industry and subsequently encumber economic growth. However, the problem sur-rounding the shortage of electricity is largely due to circumstances beyond any human effort. Largely I say. Vice President Cde Emerson Mnangangwa told parliament on Wednesday that the dwindling volume of water in the Kariba dam occasioned the power crisis. He also pointed out that government was considering a raft of short-term measures to arrest the problem.”
You can say what you wish, you are paid to say nonsense anywhere, by the fact on the mat-ter is the power cuts are a culmination of 35 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. There is not one sector of the nation that has not been left untouched by these cancerous curses; not one. Health and education have all but collapsed, there is no clean running water, factories and companies have closed sending unemployment soaring to nau-seating heights of 90% plus, 1.3 million Zimbabweans are facing starvation according to a recent UN report, etc.
Of course ZESA has not been spared the decay and rot that has crippled every other organ-isation right across the land. The minute Mugabe appointed his brother-in-law to be manager ZESA’s fate as just another failed company was sealed.
The reality is Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is Mugabe and Zanu PF’s making and the tyrannical regime does not have the political will, the vision, the resources, political credibility, you name it, to end the economic crisis. As long as Mugabe and Zanu PF remain in power the economic situation will continue to get worse and worse.
Like it or not the Zanu PF regime is doom to collapse because the present economic situation is socially and politically unsustainable! Regime change, the most dreaded phrase in Zanu PF circles, is now as certain as a ripe mango falling!
“The problem surrounding the shortage of electricity is largely due to circumstances beyond any human effort,” what else would you have said, you a Zanu PF apologist paid to falsify the facts. But even you cannot deny the economic meltdown and then regime change for much longer; the former is here already and the latter is just round the corner!
Mugabe he just arrived back from the UN and already he is being force to support one group or the other in Mutare or Chimaninmani the Mnangagwa camp or the G40 camp.
Mugabe fired the first shot by purging Mujuru last year in the in fighting in the party that is now set to burn the whole party to ashes. If he thought that everything would fine once Mujuru is out of the way, he was wrong, a year later he is still purging the party of Mujuru supporters and before he has done that two factions has since been formed and they are fighting each other already!
Chawakadya chamuka Gushungo iweeee!
@ Nomusa
I remember reading about that one, Tsvangirai should have learnt to listen but sadly he did not!
On the other hand if Zimbabweans had learnt the lesson that Tsvangirai was all hair no brain just like the silver-back gorilla they would paid closer attention to what the silver-back was going. Who knows with closer attention we could have got the silver back to implement at least some of the democratic reforms!
@ Mudhara
There we are we have found common ground Mudhara, I agree 100% "we must seek the political rights and the economic rights will follow" as Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah, once said.
I will not mention which reform we should implement to achieve our political rights, I do not want to spoil this very rare moment we have shared a common platform! There will be many other occasions to throw mud at each other, so let us enjoy this one and not spoil it! Cheers! (I will log off and have a beer!)
Chinamasa has been talking about these reforms for two years now! This regime does not have the political will, vision and/or courage to do anything of substance to revive the economy. The only way out now is for the nation to have the reforms necessary for free and fair elections implemented and hold fresh elections. Only a new regime with a truly democratic mandate will pull the nation out of this mess!
Many Zimbabweans who knew David Coltart held him in very high regard right up until the water-shed July 2013 rigged elections. David Coltart, like all the other MDC leaders in the GNU played his part in doing nothing to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA. To rub hot chilli to the open wound MDC leader campaigned hard for the people to accept the weak and feeble new constitution assuring the nation it would deliver free and fair elections.
Some MDC leaders like Sipape Nkomo and Tendai Biti have admitted MDC betrayed the nation with Biti calling it an act of "collective idiocy". David Coltart has stubbornly refused to acknowledge MDC sold-out.
Zimbabwe has been hit by powerful political and economic hurricane that has forced unemployment to soar to 90% plus forcing millions into poverty and hopeless despair. And as long as Zanu PF remains in power, there is worse to come. God only knows how this is going to end and when!
This hurricane could and should have been avoided if MDC leaders, including Mr David Coltart, had not sold-out and faithfully implemented the reforms and drafted a democratic constitution. Those who still prophesy to hold MDC leaders like David Coltart is high regard either do not understand what he did during the GNU and/or are sentimental fools!
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