Sunday 29 November 2015

Economic meltdown is the force behind Grace's dogged resolve to be next president

Grace Mugabe is not just as keen as mustard, she is desperate, to succeed her husband as the next president!

"All the rallies and meet-the-people campaigns, and her so-called donations are meant to create a certain image and prepare people for the inevitable announcement of her grand political ambitions,” said Dewa Mavhinga.

"Whoever says there is no bigger plan behind Grace's whirlwind campaigns across the country is lying with a straight face. This could very well be the establishment of a Mugabe dynasty, if the people of Zimbabwe allow it." Mavhinga is spot on there.

As Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Grace has enjoyed a privileged style for decades now and therefore giving it up would not be easy for her. So she will be keen as mustard to step up on the political ladder to become president and not down and because just another minister or worse! But it is the economic consequence of her stepping down the ladder that has fired her to fight for the top job!
Zimbabwe’s very turbulent economic situation has her worried sick; she knows that she and her family will need all the help they can get to survive let alone thrive and the only sure way to get that help is for her to be president. She is absolutely desperate to be president.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is real and even from the comfort of the presidential limo or helicopter it is impossible not to see the rot and decay everywhere and jaded look everywhere of years of stress, poverty, hunger, hopelessness and despair. Stress, poverty, etc. used to be povo’s problems but not anymore; the ruling elite are suffering too.

It was in the papers the other day that Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri's property will be auctioned to pay off her debts. She is not the only Zanu PF Chef in financial trouble. The days of cheap bank loans, generous salaries and allowances, etc. are over and the Chefs are feeling the ill effects.

Grace Mugabe may be naive but not that naive not to know that her business interests have benefited from all direct and indirect help she has been getting because she is Mugabe's wife. In the present economic climate when the government is failing to pay PSMAS the money it has collected from members there is no doubt all the monetary subsidies to her will stop that day she seizes to be First Lady. She will well and truly on the slippery slope of stress, poverty, etc.

Even if she has money and business interests outside Zimbabwe in countries with very stable economies; she cannot be sure of holding on to her wealth in the face of the country’s deepening economic crisis. In a country that is failing to supply something as basic as clean it impossible to justify why someone should be allowed to keep their ill-got wealth whilst the people from whom the wealth was looted are forced to drink dirty water!

The only way Grace Mugabe can be sure of at least keeping a semblance of her privileged lifestyle in Zimbabwe’s chaotic and ever deepening economic crisis is by keeping Mugabe in power as long as possible and taking over from him at the next opportune moment. She has no other option.

To accomplish her objective of keeping the presidency in the family Grace has had no choice but to throw all caution to the wind and go for it, proof of just how desperate she is too be president.
Her first challenge was to muscle everyone in Zanu PF with presidential ambitions out of the way. The front runner last year was Joice Mujuru and Grace did not mess around but went straight for the jugular vein! As soon as Mujuru was booted out of the party Grace set her sight on VP Mnangagwa.

In her effort to get rid of her challengers for the presidency, Grace has forced Zanu PF papered over cracks to develop into gapping chasms. Many people have argued, with good supporting evidence, that the booting out of Mujuru has fatally damaged Zanu PF’s electoral chances of successfully rigging the next elections. Mujuru still has too many supporters, some of whom are still Zanu PF card carrying members, who are familiar with Mugabe’s vote rigging tactics for him to get away with it.
Grace has no choice but go after VP Mnangagwa too but she is only weakening Zanu PF even further.

Grace’s second challenge is winning the national vote. Even if she managed to emerge as the Zanu PF top dog, with the party unified behind her she will not be out of the wood yet. The country's worsening economic situation has brought back echoes of 2008. The people then were so desperate for change Zanu PF was forced to use wanton violence to force them to vote for Mugabe. Zanu PF will be forced to use similar extreme measures again.

History has the habit of repeating itself; if Zanu PF uses wanton violence in the next elections the whole world will, as happened in 2008, refused to accept the result as a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people. Instead of being given the option of the GNU soft-landing Zanu PF will be forced to implement the democratic reforms followed by fresh free and fair elections.
Zimbabweans will go out of their way to make sure they vote in the fresh elections just to be absolutely sure Zanu PF is trounced!

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the driving force behind Grace’s desperate efforts to ensure she becomes president after Mugabe. The irony is it was the 35 years of gross mismanagement, of rampant corruption and lawlessness and greed that has triggered the economic meltdown. If economic meltdown has made Grace is desperate to be president it has made the people even more desperate to see an end to Zanu PF dictatorship.


Grace and her husband can scheme all they want, there is no way either of them will win the next elections! People will never be fooled by Grace’s political gimmick of missing her chocolate soufflĂ© desert “in sympathy with the starving millions”; mocked sympathy will not fill an empty belly! People do not want these rally hand-outs where only a tiny number get enough for a day and starve the rest of the year. People want jobs and a future!

9 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

Nikuv was working with Registrar-General (RG) Tobaiwa Mudede’s office to compile the voters’ roll and was paid in excess of US$10,5 million between February and July though the RG’s Office’s FBC account.

A day before the elections, Nikuv founder and CEO Emmanuel Antebi, in the company of his deputy Ammon Peer, met Mugabe and then defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, then transport minister (former state security) Nicholas Goche and Central Intelligence Organisations deputy director Aaron Nhepera for an hour-and-half at State House.


As a nation we owe it to ourselves and to history to have a thorough investigation carried out in all vote rigging allegations. The truth must be established one of these fine days as a matter of cause!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Ken Yamamoto

There is no doubt that Mugabe is corrupt and having allowed corrupt to grow and spread for these years, 35 years, he is helpless; even if he wanted to end corruption he cannot. Mugabe has become the puppet controlled by those below him he has allowed to be corrupt.

“Jinping also knows that his host (Mugabe) has become a puppet,” you said. “Due to his mindless lust for power at any cost, he owes a lot of people, and has been propped up by people who have become puppeteers – his wife Grace, the CIO under Happyton Bonyongwe and most importantly, money peddlers like Sam Pa who Jinping has arrested back home.”

No doubt Sam Pa never for one minute thought he would ever be arrested and his corrupt activities opened like a book for all to see. Happyton Bonyongwe and all the others in Zimbabwe must be worried sick to know Sam Pa was arrested and his past is an open book; they know their corrupt past too is now an open book too since Sam Pa’s life and theirs have so many chapters in common!

Mugabe and Zanu PF’s hold on power is waning in fighting tearing the party apart and the worsen economic situation due to years of wasteful misrule just as the tyrant’s own strength is waning due to old age and poor health. Bonyongwe will have their day in court as their past is opened up for the whole world to see!

Zimbabwe Light said...

Since when has Bhasikiti become aware that Mugabe had turned Zanu PF into his personal property?

Whatever answer he gives it will lead to one conclusion and one only; that for a senior member of the party he and all the others have proven just how incompetent they are. All these years they have sat there foolishly unaware that was happening to the party (if they were they have foolishly done nothing to stop the rot).

Bhasikiti you and the other People First idiots are finished; you can dream of getting back into power but will never do so in reality!

Zimbabwe Light said...

"We, together with many other Zimbabweans were part of the struggle, and we did not participate in that struggle to be misgoverned but for democracy to take root in the country,” said Didymus Mutasa.

The echoes of his own words mock him if only he had the intellect to hear those.

Mr Mutasa you were in government for 34 years, right at the heart of government, you have been often described as Mugabe’s close confidante for Pete’s sake was the nation not “misgoverned” then? You Mr Mutasa have been involved in the harassment, rape, beating and even murdered of innocent Zimbabweans in you fight to remain in power at all cost.

What do you know of the burning to death of the boy Christpower? Is that the democracy you want to bring should you be elected back into power?

You and your friends in People First are no different from your former colleagues still in Zanu PF; you are all corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. You can dream of getting back into power, but let me tell you here and now THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Patrick

The burst up between Oppah and Grace was reportedly because the former had complained that as the most senior member in Manicaland Province she should be informed of any planned party activities in the area. Grace has deliberately bypassed her in recent visits in the province but that was because Oppah has not yet switched her allegiance from Mnangagwa to Grace.

Grace gave Oppah a tongue lashing at the politburo to remind her that she, Grace, was the new kid on the block calling all the shots. Mnangagwa was as silent as the grave and did not dare defend Oppah because he would have been “baby dumped” on the spot!

What is interesting is Mnangagwa should have expected this and one would have thought he would be a bit smarter than Joice Mujuru who was completely outwitted and fight back. He clearly did not have a plan, not this time.

The politburo meeting outburst was to access the strength of the enemy and to soften them up. There is no doubt Grace and her man were pleased with their day’s work. No doubt they will be a lot more confident at introducing the next move of a woman in the presidium and it will be final curtain call for Mnangagwa.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Patrick

The bigwigs in Zanu PF accepted the custom initially because they thought it would brainwash povo and they were very happy with that. They too started wearing the uniform out of fear of being labeled anti-Mugabe and now they too have been completely brainwashed.

Zanu PF members going to the party congress in Vic Falls have packed their bags and every-thing in these bags other than socks and underwear will have Mugabe, Zanu PF and/or, the lat-est addition, Dr Grace written all over them! They all know, to the last man and woman that they look utterly stupid and sheepish in all that get-up but none of them will dare step out of line!

Mujuru, Mutasa and the rest of the mob who were kicked out of the party will be watching the conference coverage of TV and saying to themselves; "At least one good thing has come out of being kicked out of Zanu PF; I do not have to wear those David White Head print ever again! Thank God!"

Of course Mugabe has been able to do as he pleased, corruption, rig elections, murder, etc.; none of those sheepish idiots have ever dared question him on anything. No wonder the nation is a mess with sheep running the nation's affairs it is hard to expect anything else but a mess!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Peacemaker Zano

Mugabe signed the "mega deals" with China last year and still nothing has come of it because the Chinese are shrewd enough to know they are dealing with one of the most corrupt and in-competent regimes in the world. They are happy to take part in the looting and plunder of Zimbabwe's diamonds and other resources but they are not going to invest their good money with a regime that is imploding under its own dead weight after decades of misrule.

You can drum up the situation with all this talk of this is the moment "Look East Policy" finally pays off. After 15 years of the policy, you really think the Chinese were not aware Mugabe was looking at them until now? The Chinese are squinty eyed but still they have seen other invest-ment opportunities in many other nations including the British – Mugabe’s sworn enemy, the Chinese were really rubbing salt and hot chilli into Mugabe's eyes there.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Vince

Mugabe came up with his "Look East" policy 15 years ago confident the Chinese will fill the yawning financial gap left by IMF, WB and other Western Financial Institution who cut off funding the regime because it was corrupt and wasteful. The Chinese have stepped in but only to take their share of the looting and plunder of Zimbabwe's resources.

The Chinese have been investing billions of dollars in other countries including countries that did not have a "Look East" policy and did not consider China their "all weather friend". Last month the Chinese signed a deal with the British worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the next five years with potential for even more thereafter. That must have hurt Mugabe a great deal.

How can the Chinese invest hundreds of billions of dollars with the British, Mugabe's sworn enemy, when he has been looking east for 15 years and all the Chinese ever gave him was a four billion dollar deal of unsigned cheques. The Chinese has insisted they will not sign any of the cheques until Zimbabwe pays off its outstanding debts. The Chinese really rub salt and hot chilli into Mugabe's eyes here!



Still Mugabe did not have time to waste feeling sorry for his weepy eyes when he heard President Xi Jinping will be visiting Zimbabwe. He has been very busy these last two day
grovelling to the Chinese leaders begging him to sign at least one of the cheques.



Even if President Xi Jinping signed all the cheques for the $4 billion mega deal China pledged last year that is a tiny fraction of Mugabe’s own $27 billion ZimAsset recovery plan.



Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is now totally dependent of the country restoring confidence at home and abroad that it is serious about ending corruption and restoring law and order. And the only way we can do that convincingly is by implementing the 2008 GPA reforms and holding free, fair and credible elections! To try anything else is a waste of time, money and human lives - Zimbabweans are now paying for this failed Zanu PF dictatorship with their very lives!

Zimbabwe Light said...

Zanu PF bussed in the usual hired crowd to welcome and impress the visiting Chinese president. This time the hired crowd was abandoned and many had to walk 12 kilometres or more back home.

Mugabe was desperate to impress the Chinese President to get him to finally sign at least one of last year's $4 billion mega deals. China did not sign any of the cheques last year because it wanted Zimbabwe to pay back the outstanding debts first.

The Chinese know Mugabe is looting billions from Marange, they know because they are there looting with him; so they know he can pay his debts. They also know that the regime is imploding and so there is really no point China wasting a dollar propping up the regime anymore!