$30 billion compensation for seized farms turn chefs into snub-nosed monkeys. By Patrick Guramatunhu

Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent leaders have a lot in common with the snub-nosed monkeys of Asia.

By seizing white owned farms, Zanu PF leaders cut off their own noses to spite their faces!

“ZIMBABWE’S cash-strapped government could face a US$30 billion bill for compensation of land expropriated from white farmers under the country’s controversial land redistribution exercise that saw the country plunge from being a regional breadbasket  to a basket case,” reported the Financial Gazette.

Talk of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face, well this sure takes the biscuit. So President Mugabe in his infantile wisdom seized the white-owned farms, turned the nation from a breadbasket to a basket case of a nation starving in the Garden of Eden and now the nation has $30 billion bill to pay!

As if that was not bad enough, the nation learnt in March this year from none other than President Mugabe himself that $15 billion worth of Marange diamonds were looted in 2010 to 2015. Minister Kasukuwere has since said shed some more light on the story when he said that former VP Mujuru was responsible for “chunk” of the $15 billion diamond loot.

No one who knows anything about this Zanu PF regime would ever believe that Mai Mujuru was the only who was looting, the whole bloated leadership is corrupt. It is no secret that the Police, Army and CIO plus individuals like Mai Mujuru and President Mugabe himself all had mining concessions in Marange. According to Partnership Africa Canada said the President pocketed $2 billion from the looting of Marange diamonds in 2012 alone.

 So if Mai Mujuru pocketed $15 billion in six years and Mugabe pocketed $2 billion a year and the looting has been going on for the last ten years, it is quite possible that over the last decade $100 billion, at least, was looted!

Sadly most of our snub-nosed monkeys will have very little to show for the vast fortunes they stole, seized or looted, it has all been wasted on luxuries pleasure of the flesh.

Still when it comes to who should compensate the white farmers, without even a moment’s hesitation, it must be those who seized the farms and were given the farms and never paid a single penny to the original farmer of the State for them. No stone must be left unturned in the effort to recover what they stole away from the white farmers and the misery they brought on the nation at large. Why should the nation be burdened with $30 billion bill when those who did still benefiting from their ill got fortune.

MDC-T have no "clue" how to stop Zanu PF meddling, admits MP Cross - what use is a clueless opposition? P Guramatunhu

“A MEMBER of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T)'s shadow cabinet has admitted that his party does not know how to deal with Zanu-PF's strategy of meddling with urban constituencies,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“MDC-T's secretary for local government, Eddie Cross, told the Financial Gazette that the opposition was in the proverbial catch 22 situation over the ruling party's intensive drive to expand urban constituencies in selected towns and cities by creating new settlements under the National Housing Delivery Programme through which it plans to deliver over 300 000 housing units before the 2018 elections.”

Well if the truth is to be told, and it must be told because the nation’s very survival is now at stake here, MDC has no clue on not just how to stop Zanu PF meddling in urban centres but how to stop the regime looting in Marange, rigging national elections, you name it! MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and utterly, utterly useless and this nation is paying dearly for failing to see this all these years.

After MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented during the GNU, SADC leaders and all the MDC’s donors deserted them in droves. The Zimbabwe electorate has continued to sheepishly follow and trust Tsvangirai, Biti, Cross and others to this day even with the benefit of hindsight of GNU events and the disaster of the rigged July 2013 elections because they have failed to understand that MDC sold-out during the GNU. If the Zimbabwean people were not so thick, naïve and gullible then they too would have finally deserted the clueless MDC in droves by now.

The country’s worsen economic meltdown has push the panic button in the Zimbabwe public, they are shoaling round MDC like herring under attack. What the country needs is to implement the democratic reforms and as long as nothing is done to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections nothing will ever change, the economic meltdown will get worse. Holding endless demos and rallies has become an excuse for doing nothing to implement the reforms; no doubt Zanu PF is doing its best to encourage the demos just as killer-whales would encouraged the panicked herring to form a tighter ball for easy picking!  

If we are serious about getting out of this hell-on-earth that President Mugabe has dragged us into then we must start thinking like humans and not panicked herring. We need to take our duty to elect competent leaders with the seriousness the matter demands.

We are in this hell-hole because we have been a naïve and gullible electorate that elected a corrupt and murderous tyrant and failed to him as such for 20 years. When we finally realized we had a corrupt and murderous tyrant for president we put our trust in Morgan Tsvangirai, a corrupt, incompetent and clueless village idiot, to remove the tyrant. God only knows how long it is going to take this nation to realize that a clueless village idiot will never remove a cunning fox like Mugabe from power! 

It has taken 16 years of MDC blundering from pillar to post to force MP Eddie Cross to admit MDC leaders have no clue what they are doing; this is the nearest he has ever got to apologizing for selling-out the nation on the critic matter of democratic reforms. As for resigning, this is the one thing Mr Cross or any of his MDC friends will ever do; they clearly have no clue what they are going in parliament but they will fight like devils to hang on to power.

If this nation wants leaders who have a clue what they are doing then it is the voters themselves who have to finally wake up to that political reality because it is the people themselves who keep voting corrupt and murderous tyrants, corrupt and clueless village idiots, etc., into power again and again. 

By renewing funding to Zanu PF IMF IS helping the regime's no-regime-change agenda

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats call on the Paris Club, IMF, WB and all the other Financial Institutions and governments all over the world, particularly the Chinese, to stop extending financial assistances to the Zimbabwe government until President Mugabe has implemented meaningful democratic reforms.

The Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown, unemployment has soared to 90% and government is failing to pay its workers let alone pay for other necessities like consumables for hospitals and schools. The economic situation is clearly unsustainable.

It should be noted that this situation is of government’s own making following decades of gross mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness that have destroyed the country’s robust and promising economy it inherited at independence in 1980. President Mugabe’s regime borrow heavily during the first twenty years of our independence to fund its reckless spending and yet had very little to show for it.

The country’s debt ballooned to $10 billion and only stopped growing when the international financial institutions like the Paris Club, IMF, WB and individual nations in government to government funding stopped granting the Zimbabwe government more financial assistance because Harare was failing to service its existing debts.

There is increasing talk of IMF, WB and Paris Club renewing financial assistance to the Zimbabwe government. Tomorrow, 30 June 2013 a Zimbabwe government team led by Minister of Finance, Right Honourable Patrick Chimanasa, will be attent a Paris Club Conference in France to discuss the details of re-engagement.

We believe the Paris Club, IMF, WB and all the other key players are asking the Zimbabwe government to pay off all the outstanding interest changes on the existing debt, a sum of $1.8 billion. As noted above, the Zimbabwe government is failing to pay civil servant wages and so will never raise the $1.8 billion from its own sources. The regime is set to borrow the $1.8 billion so it can be allowed to borrow even more to pay for its bloated recurrent expenditure.

There is no evidence on the ground to suggest the Zanu PF government has abandoned is reckless spending, mismanagement and corruption of yesteryears that landed the nation in this financial and economic crisis.

The is no evodence of the Paris Club, IMF, etc., demanding an undertaking by this Zanu PF to carry out meaningful economic reforms to ensure the renewed financial assistance is used well and not end up increasing the national debt with nothing to show for it as before. If the Paris Club was to demand an end to corruption, for example, the country would be able to pay off its entire $10 billion debt straight away. President Mugabe admitted in March that $15 billion of Marange diamond wealth had been looted!

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats believe the only sure way to deliver meaningful economic recovery is by ensuring Zimbabwe has a competent government that can be trusted to tackle the economic problems of mismnagement and corruption that are killing the Zimbabwe economy. The only sure way to get a competent government is by ensuring the country has free, fair and credible elections.

During the 2008 to 2013 GNU, Zimbabwe had the political opportunity to ensure the next elections are free and fair, all the MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirai had to do was implement the agreed democratic reforms. Sadly, after five years not even one reform was implemented and so President Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the 2013 elections and stay in power.

Since the 2013 elections the country‘s opposition parties have promised to implement the reforms so the next elections in 2018 will finally be free and fair and produce the competent and accountable government the nation solely need. Sadly this has not happened. 

This week Tendai Biti, himself a former MDC Minister of Finance in the GNU, admitted that no reform will be implemented before the next elections. So, unless there is some other way of pressuring Zanu PF to accept political reforms, Zimbabwe is set for yet another Zanu PF rigged election.

The only other viable way of forcing Zanu PF to accept political reforms is what we have right now – the worsening economic situation. The regime must be told in no uncertain terms that the only way to end the soaring unemployment, cash shortage, etc., is by implementing the democratic reforms and have free and fair elections.

What the Paris Club, IMF, etc.,are offering by opening the taps for new funding is allow this Zanu PF regime to resume its reckless spending, increase the national debt burden without delivering any real meaningful economic recovery. The arrangement will certainly buy Zanu PF time to keep the economy ticking to the next elections which the party can rig and secure another five years in power.

What the people of Zimbabwe need is an end to the economic and political chaos that has cause so much suffering and misery and deaths. They need a cure to the present corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical system of government and implementing the reforms is that cure. They would be better off enduring another year of the present economic meltdown or whatever it takes to force this Zanu PF regime to accept meaningful political reforms than take the painkillers Paris Club and friends are offering

There is no doubt whatsoever that renewing financial assistance to this corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF regime at this point will help the regime avoid the pressure to implement meaningful political reforms whilst increasing the nation’s debt burden. We, in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats, therefore call upon the Paris Club and their friends to ask themselves whose interests they are serving in granting financial assistance to President Mugabe because it is certainly not the interests of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe.  

Signed

Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats.

UK now needs Churchill not Major type PM - so reason must triumph over grudge.

Britain has a history of changing leaders in mid-stream; notable in 1940 and more recently in 1990. The question now will PM David Cameron be replace by a mediocre leader as happened when John Major took over from PM Margaret Thatcher in 1990 or would he replace by a strong and decisive leader as happened when Winston Churchill replaced PM  Neville Chamberlain in 1940.

PM Margaret Thatcher was forced out of No 10 in 1990 as a result palace coup within her own party. She conspired to ensure that her real challenger at the time, Michael Heseltine, did not succeed her. John Major benefited from the Iron Lady’s, as Mrs. Thatcher was popularly known, vengeful anger because few would doubt the Heseltine would have made a better PM that Major as history showed. It is rumored; the Iron Lady went endorsed Tony Blair, of New Labour leader, who went on to defeat John Major, her Conservative party protégé in the 1997 general elections.

The pressure for PM Neville Chamberlain to go in May 1940 where of his own making in that he had failed to see the Germany Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, for what he was - the ruthless tyrant hell-bend on war and conquest. Hitler took full advantage of PM Chamberlain and others’ policy of appeasement to rearm Germany and to carry on with his acts of aggression. The string of defeats of the British and her Allies at the hands of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Army made is untenable for PM Chamberlain to continue as leader. He was succeeded by the decisive and gritty Winston Churchill.

The political reality of the IN/OUT EU referendum has forced PM David Cameron to resign. He had campaigned for IN, and put everything in it, “his passion, mind and body” as he readily admitted. By resigned when the OUT won the day, PM Cameron was tacitly acknowledging he had put his political career as PM on the line too!

The present British political crisis is more like the 1940 than the 1990 crisis in that the country is setting off into unknown territory with lots of unknowns. The country needs a decisive and gritty leader, someone who really believed that Britain was better off OUT of the EU. This is hardly the time for a steady-she-goes type leader who believed that Britain was better off IN the EU and will therefore be going out but always wishing they had stayed.

Of the two leading candidates fighting to replace PM Cameron; Boris Johnson is decisive and gritty and he passionately believes Britain can thrive and prosper OUT of the EU, he is therefore the ideal candidate to lead the nation at this critical point.

Home Secretary Theresa May campaigned to remain in the EU; whether her mind body and soul was in that campaign it is hard to say but what matters here is her mind, body and soul in where the country is going now – OUT of the EU. Having decided to leave the EU the last thing Britain want is to sail off into the unknown with a captain who is there in flesh but his/her mind and passion is still in the EU.

The Conservative MPs, party members and the nation at large need a cool head and put the nation’s needs above all else. The country needs right now is a Winston Churchill type leader and not a John Major type and to elect the right leader, reason must triumph over the grudge and sentiment. 

There will be no reforms before 2018 admits Biti - enough to finally open voters's eyes. By Nomusa Garikai

Tendai Biti admits the opposition parties are not going to get any meaningful reforms implemented before the next elections. The interesting question is the admission enough to open Zimbabwe’s naive and gullible electorate’s eyes to finally see MDC leaders for what they really are – useless, corrupt and incompetent to the man and woman?

“The biggest crisis facing this economy is a breakdown of trust, a breakdown of the social contract — people don't trust in the government, people don't trust and believe in President Robert Mugabe, people don't trust and believe in Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and people don't trust and believe in Zanu-PF,” Tendai Biti told DailyNews senior assistant editor Guthrie Munyuki.

“So, more than anything else, what has collapsed is confidence. There is a kwashiorkor of confidence in the national psyche, in the international psyche and we find ourselves in this deep structural problem. And part of the structural problem which we are facing is that we are not producing.”

It is easy to see why the ordinary people have lost all confidence in President Mugabe and Zanu PF; they are the ones responsible for the country’s economic meltdown that has seen unemployment soar to new world record of 90% plus and force 76% of the people into a life of abject poverty and hopelessness.

If the truth be told, it is an absolute necessity that it is said because it is necessary in our search for a way out of this mess that we deal with the truth as the only currency, the nation with not have President Mugabe and Zanu PF still in government if MDC leaders including Mr Tendai Biti had not betrayed the people.

The people lost their confidence in Zanu PF years ago but they have failed to remove them from office because the regime rigs elections and it has even murdered many people just to stay in power. However in there desperate effort to end the economic hardship and brutal oppression by the regime the people have risked life and limp to get meaningful democratic changes to ensure there are free and fair elections the pre-requisite for good and accountable government.

The country’s best chances to implement the reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship were, by far, during the GNU. President Mugabe committed himself to the democratic reforms by signing the 2008 GPA. SADC heads of State, as the guarantor of the GPA, wanted to see the reforms implement and end the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe which was causing so much suffering to the people of Zimbabwe and cause so much social upheaval in the whole region. MDC leaders were tasked to implement the reforms and in five years failed to implement even one reform.

It was MDC’s failure to implement even one reform that allowed President Mugabe to rig the 2013 elections and remain in power to cause the economic and political chaos the nation is experiencing today.

Mr Biti is right to say the international community has lost confidence in President Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs but that is only half the story. The international community particularly SADC leaders have lost all confidence in the MDC leaders because they failed to implement any reforms.

Yes many Zimbabweans have lost confidence in President Mugabe and his cronies but only some of the people have lost confidence in MDC leaders but that is so because they have never understood what happen during the GNU and even with the benefit of hindsight they still fail to understand that MDC betrayed the nation and sold-out to President Mugabe on reforms.

MDC leaders “were too busy enjoying being in the GNU they forgot why they were there,” remark SADC leaders in sheer frustration.

The truth is that the Zimbabwe electorate are so naïve and gullible they not only elected President Mugabe, an incompetent, corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant, it too them twenty or so for them to finally see him for the tyrant he is. They rejected Mugabe to embrace Tsvangirai et al and regardless of the mountain of evidence of the latter being corrupt and incompetent the people still continue to follow Tsvangirai, Biti, Ncube, blindly like sheep.

Whilst it is true that President Mugabe is responsible for landing us into the political and economic mess we are in today the ultimate responsibility is ours, in that we are the ones who have paid the heavy price for the mess paid in lost treasure, human suffering and even human lives. We were naive and gullible and thus failed to see him for the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is. Just as ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law; being naïve and gullible is no excuse for electing a tyrant.

Similarly whilst it is true that MDC leaders are response for all the wasted opportunities to get us out of this political and economic hell-hole. However ultimately it is once again ours, the electorate, who paid dearly for it and must should the final responsibility for wasted opportunities. We are the ones who are naïve and gullible to elected the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders.

As long as we have a naïve and gullible electorate so slow to learn it took nearly twenty years for most of them to finally see a corrupt and murderous tyrant like President Mugabe, although by the end of the first five years he had already murdered over 20 000 in the Gukurahundi massacres, it is hard to see how we will ever get out of the hell-hole we now find ourselves stuck in. We are still counting on MDC leaders like Tsvangirai and Biti to implement the reforms and get us out and yet they have failed to do so already when the task was a lot easier during the GNU.

“I don't think so,” admitted Biti when he was asked if the reforms will be implemented before the next elections. “Not with Zanu-PF. I don't see Zanu-PF reforming itself out of power. There is no class that commits suicide and there is no elite that commits suicide.

“So we have to push for reforms, we have to demand reforms and that is why one of the fundamental imperators (is) that the opposition has to get together now so that it can begin with one voice, to push for these reforms.”

MDC wasted the five years of the GNU and failed to get even one reform implemented; history is repeating itself, they will not implement even one reform before the next elections. Will that be enough to finally convince the naïve and gullible Zimbabwe electorate that MDC leaders like Tsvangirai and Biti are corrupt and incompetent? My money is on a 5 to 10% shift at best; as I said they are very slow learners! 

'Is leave EU vote legally binding' ask Msipa - but what true democrat would ask such a stupid question. by W Mukori

“Is the UK referendum result to leave EU legally binding?” asked Lloyd Msipa (Bulawayo 24 opinion).

Actually, only a vote rigging tyrant like Mugabe and his acolytes, who have never believed in the right of every citizen to a meaningful in the governance of the country as a universal and inalienable right and as the only solid guarantee good and accountable government, would ask such a blatantly stupid question.

In answering the question for PM David Cameron you, Msipa, argue the PM should find ways to keep the UK in the EU against the expressed democratic wishes of the majority of the British people. Why don’t you just come out and say he should have gone to Mugabe for expert advice on how to rig the vote. No doubt the Zimbabwe tyrant would have put the British in touch with his NIKUV friends, experts at tampering with voters roll; Mugabe would have paid NIKUV’s usual princely fee too.

When it comes to cash, the nation may be broke but not Mugabe, the tyrant is loaded. In March 2016 he admitted that $15 billion in Marange diamond revenue was looted; so far not even one person has been arrested and so the looting continues. In 2012 Africa Partnership Canada reported that Mugabe pocketed a cool $2 billion, his share of looting and plundering of Marange diamonds. Which, by the way, is a very good reason why Mugabe has bribed, cheated and even murdered over 30 000 just to stay in power; the thought of losing absolute power and fabulous wealth it has brought is simply unthinkable!

When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections there was an avalanche of articles from not just the usual Mugabe apologists but from Zimbabwe’s intellectuals too all arguing the one thing – that we should just accept the rigged result as fait accompli and move on. They were fuming at those who were demanding the result must be put aside and a thorough investigation carried out on the blatant vote rigging by Mugabe.

Here we have a case where the referendum was free, fair and credible and the same dodgy intellectuals are up in arms arguing one thing – put the result aside and find ways to undermine the democratic wishes of the populous. For all their pretences of their love democracy, these intellectuals’ democratic credentials are potato skin deep; it does take much to rub off, to reveal the true tyrant in his blinding multi-coloured Joseph dream coat!

“The question in most people's minds is whether the referendum result "to leave" is legally binding on the United Kingdom,” you said. Where are these “most people” coming from? The UK is a healthy and functional democracy with healthy and functional democratic institutions; the democratic right of the people to a meaningful say in the governance of the nation is held in high regard right across British society, it is sacrosanct. No doubt, the question has exercised the minds of a certain tyrant and his apologists.

Mugabe and his cronies should, by right, being having sleepless nights on how to fix Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown; fix the 90% unemployment rate, fix the cash shortage, end the corruption and looting, etc. Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections and now he cannot rig economic recovery! Given the state of the Zimbabwe economy he is certainly having nightmares and no wonder he is now known to doze off standing up – if you cannot sleep at night you will have cat naps at the drop of a hat!

Too many nightmares and you are prone to catnaps at the drop of a hat – even standing up!

Lloyd Msipa, PM David Cameron has done the right thing by resigning because he is surely not the right person to captain the ship now given he never believed in leaving the EU. Now that the decision to leave has been made; he should let someone who believes in where the nation is going lead. He, unlike some tyrants we know, has the humility to know he is not the only person capable of leading the nation! The British do not need your stupid advice Lloyd.

Tell you what, why don’t you advice Mugabe on the futility of rigging elections when you then fail to rig economic recovery. If he keeps dozing off standing up, one of these fine days he is going to fall, he has a history of falling because he refuses to use a walking stick or wheel chair as his wife has suggested, and will never get up!

'Is leave EU vote legally binding' ask Msipa - but what true democrat would ask such a stupid question. by W Mukori

“Is the UK referendum result to leave EU legally binding?” asked Lloyd Msipa (Bulawayo 24 opinion).

Actually, only a vote rigging tyrant like Mugabe and his acolytes, who have never believed in the right of every citizen to a meaningful in the governance of the country as a universal and inalienable right and as the only solid guarantee good and accountable government, would ask such a blatantly stupid question.

In answering the question for PM David Cameron you, Msipa, argue the PM should find ways to keep the UK in the EU against the expressed democratic wishes of the majority of the British people. Why don’t you just come out and say he should have gone to Mugabe for expert advice on how to rig the vote. No doubt the Zimbabwe tyrant would have put the British in touch with his NIKUV friends, experts at tampering with voters roll; Mugabe would have paid NIKUV’s usual princely fee too.

When it comes to cash, the nation may be broke but not Mugabe, the tyrant is loaded. In March 2016 he admitted that $15 billion in Marange diamond revenue was looted; so far not even one person has been arrested and so the looting continues. In 2012 Africa Partnership Canada reported that Mugabe pocketed a cool $2 billion, his share of looting and plundering of Marange diamonds. Which, by the way, is a very good reason why Mugabe has bribed, cheated and even murdered over 30 000 just to stay in power; the thought of losing absolute power and fabulous wealth it has brought is simply unthinkable!

When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections there was an avalanche of articles from not just the usual Mugabe apologists but from Zimbabwe’s intellectuals too all arguing the one thing – that we should just accept the rigged result as fait accompli and move on. They were fuming at those who were demanding the result must be put aside and a thorough investigation carried out on the blatant vote rigging by Mugabe.

Here we have a case where the referendum was free, fair and credible and the same dodgy intellectuals are up in arms arguing one thing – put the result aside and find ways to undermine the democratic wishes of the populous. For all their pretences of their love democracy, these intellectuals’ democratic credentials are potato skin deep; it does take much to rub off, to reveal the true tyrant in his blinding multi-coloured Joseph dream coat!

“The question in most people's minds is whether the referendum result "to leave" is legally binding on the United Kingdom,” you said. Where are these “most people” coming from? The UK is a healthy and functional democracy with healthy and functional democratic institutions; the democratic right of the people to a meaningful say in the governance of the nation is held in high regard right across British society, it is sacrosanct. No doubt, the question has exercised the minds of a certain tyrant and his apologists.

Mugabe and his cronies should, by right, being having sleepless nights on how to fix Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown; fix the 90% unemployment rate, fix the cash shortage, end the corruption and looting, etc. Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections and now he cannot rig economic recovery! Given the state of the Zimbabwe economy he is certainly having nightmares and no wonder he is now known to doze off standing up – if you cannot sleep at night you will have cat naps at the drop of a hat!

Too many nightmares and you are prone to catnaps at the drop of a hat – even standing up!

Lloyd Msipa, PM David Cameron has done the right thing by resigning because he is surely not the right person to captain the ship now given he never believed in leaving the EU. Now that the decision to leave has been made; he should let someone who believes in where the nation is going lead. He, unlike some tyrants we know, has the humility to know he is not the only person capable of leading the nation! The British do not need your stupid advice Lloyd.

Tell you what, why don’t you advice Mugabe on the futility of rigging elections when you then fail to rig economic recovery. If he keeps dozing off standing up, one of these fine days he is going to fall, he has a history of falling because he refuses to use a walking stick or wheel chair as his wife has suggested, and will never get up!

The Brits voted to leave EU, there is nothing to fear except fear itself.

The British people have voted to leave the EU. Those campaigned for remain on basis of fear of the unknown are scratching the bottom of the barrel for the doom’s day economic collapse they had predicted and feared. The “proof” of the doom’s day of the morning after has raged from the fall in value of British Pound which suffered a dip in value but has since recovered, to the other EU leaders now demanding the UK “must leave with further delay” (because they are fearful other countries will follow UK example), to the threat of another referendum on Scottish Independence (will the Scottish people still want to join the EU if a few more nations join UK to take the high road?)

What the REMAIN lost the argument and thus the vote because they could not deny that the EU was not working because it is expected to do what it was never envisaged to do. The EU started as an economic common market to facilitate the trade of goods and services and along the way was added the monetary union. In order to deliver the economic and monetary union the EU has added on the political arm in the form of the European parliament, commission and courts making laws and regulations over riding these coming from the individual nations’ parliament

For the EU to work it is necessary that there is free movement of people and with free movement of people other things follow such as welfare and health care. Britain’s National Health Service, for example, was to be accessible to all EU nationals regardless where they came from.

Whilst it is true that for the EU to work national government have had to concede more and more power to the EU political arm in Brussels and individuals have had to give up national identity in favour of the common European identity the fact of the matter is that this was not what the people envisaged when the joined the EU 43 years ago, for the British people.

Over the years the politicians have resisted calls for a referendum on continued membership of the EU under the pretext that there have been any significant material changes to the EU of people joined in 1973. This is a lie the remain-camp could not sustain in the face of the call for Britain to get back its independence.

However for the EU to function fully it is necessary for Brussels to get even more political powers and for greater integration, something national governments and citizens have resisted for years hence lies EU’s Achilles heel. There is no doubt that the financial crisis that has bedevilled Greece for years now, for example, would have never happened if Brussels was not pulling in one direction and the Greek government was overriding it and pulling in the opposite directions.

Instead of the remain camp admitting the EU will needs to be given more power they tried to give the impression national governments can demand more power back from Brussels. Whatever PM David Cameron demanded from the EU “favourable terms” as he called them, were not written into law so EU would have taken them back in the future.

The hamstrung EU was bound to stumble from one crisis to the next and it was not just the British people who had notice this but other nations too and it was just a matter of time before they demanded an IN/OUT vote.

Of course, everyone likes to be seen as team players and having been a member of a team it is hard to leave and go it alone. But the need to be a member is hardly a reason for one to join; one must look objective at whether one’s economic needs, in this case, are best served by being in or out of the EU. A dysfunctional EU stumble from one crisis to the next will never serve the best interests of those who know they can do better on their own.

The British knew the EU was not serving their best interests and vote to leave. I believe many other nations will follow the British’ example and leave the EU. It is not the British who fear the future but the EU now facing the real possibility of the domino effect of more nations tumbling out of the EU.

Britain has strong and robust democratic institutions and a well-informed and focused electorate; these have served the nation very well in the past and will do so again now. They have nothing to fear.

Those who wanted to remain in the EU used “project fear” before the referendum and they are still banging the same drum because they will not accept they lost the vote. There is nothing to be feared but fear itself. Beside, now that the people have made the democratic decision to leave the EU the nation must look forward, where it is going, and not risk a trip and fall because it was looking back or failed to see the many opportunities because it was paralysed by fear. 

British vote to "LEAVE" EU was wise because the EU is a dysfunctional union.

For the record, the British vote to leave the EU was a wise decision for the British people and for the rest of the world including developing countries like Zimbabwe and even the rest of the EU. Why?

You have heard a multitude of reasons both for and against leaving the EU, forget them all except one – the EU was not working.

The EU started as an economic union but, with time, has become an economic (trade in goods and services), monetary and political union – the latter by stealth with disastrous consequences. To make the economic and even more so the monetary union work the member country found that they had to work to the same laws and regulations and hence the need for the European Parliament.

However the idea of the United States of Europe on the same lines as the United State of America with Federal Government making all the key decision affecting all Americans and each State government handling local matters, the super duper local council if you like, never took off. Most EU member states still wanted their national parliament to retain real power hence the reason why national parliamentary elections were considered more important that elections to the European Parliament.

Still, the European Parliament started chaining more and more laws and regulations dictating to the national parliaments of the individual countries. Worse still, key decisions in the European Union are made by European Commissioners, unelected but rather individual appointed by respective national governments.

For a country like Britain with a healthy and functional democracy the last thing the British people wanted was to be hamstrung by the bureaucratic and, sometime indecisive, EU parliament which many considered superfluous to their own London parliamentary system.

On the other hand those national governments whose democratic system was not working as well as it should, countries like Greece, they would have been better off letting the EU dictate to the local government. The EU put its foot down with Greece after the got into serious economic trouble after the 2008 financial crush; after the horse had bolted, some would say.

Since 2008 the Greek people have again and again voted for an anti-hostility national government but only for the EU, to force the new government to follow the same hostility policies dictated by the EU or the EU rescue package would be withdrawn.  

Greece is not yet out of the financial woods and will need more financial help in the future; the more prosperous EU member state will have to dig deeper to bail it out.

For the EU to work and avoid another Greek economic meltdown in a member state, then there have to be more political union. The United State of Europe is a choice but a survival necessity if the EU is to survive into the future; something everyone in the EU seems to loath, having existed as independent nations.

An EU without the federal state powers, complete with its democratic deficit, will not produce an economically and politically strong Europe; at least there will be many members countries who will feel they are being held back by the others, Britain will be one such country. A politically and economically enfeebled Britain will not be in the world’s interest.

There not one voter who was refused the right to vote, there were no bussed voters casting multiple votes, no NIKUV to tamper with the voters roll, etc. The British electorate heard the arguments for remaining and leaving the EU and made their free and democratic choice. Sadly the same cannot be said about Zimbabwe; we are in the 21^st century on paper but in reality we are the dark ages.

Over 33 million Britain voters cast their vote on 23 June 2016 and nearly 52% of them voted to leave the EU; time will tell if it was a wise decision but what can never ever be doubted is that the whole electoral process was free, fair and credible from start to finish!

One day, Zimbabwe too will hold free, fair and credible elections, all we need to do is to implement all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms. That will be Zimbabwe’s independence day; the 18 April 1980 independence day was stolen from them! 

"Politics is a game of numbers" but against a conman, it is a different ball game! By W Mukori

Four Zanu PF wins! Surprise, surprise it is once again a four!

I for one was not fooled by Mugabe’s one-million man march, his is a loaded dice; but clearly some people were impressed.

“Critics say although the numbers were far less than 100 000, love him or hate him, President Mugabe showed he is a master at commandeering the full might of everything at his disposal to round-up the populace despite the bulk of the 13 million citizens wallowing in abject poverty,” said a Fingaz report.

The operative word here being “commandeering”!

Zanu PF spent a cool $2 million to stage the 7 April 2016 meeting of 10 000 war veteran members and Mugabe, according to the War Vet Minister’s own statement who organized and paid for everything. So for the 1 000 000 man-march the regime would have spent $200 million.

$200 million is a fortune to anyone but more so to a party like MDC-T that is broke it was asking its councillors to contribute to pay for a party rally in Kadoma recently.

To Zanu PF $200 million is small charge; this is a party that gave its parliamentary candidate in the 2013 elections brand new car plus $15 000, paid NIKUV $10 million to tamper with voters roll, etc. According to Partnership Africa Canada, Mugabe pocketed $2 billion from his share of looting of Marange diamonds in 2012 alone; of course the tyrant is loaded!

So with $200 per head to spend it is not surprising the one-million man march was well supported!

"Indeed numbers do matter in politics," says Maxwell Saungweme.

"Whether by hook or crook (President) Mugabe has shown he has support," he said.

"But numbers matter more if they are numbers of declining unemployment levels, declining poverty levels, increased household incomes, improved corruption perception indexes, improved human rights indexes, increased access to drugs, housing, among other things lacking in Zimbabwe," Saungweme added.

If unemployment can soar to dizzying height of 80% plus and stay there for donkey years as has happened in Zimbabwe and one is still able to have a landslide victory as Mugabe has done again and again surely that proves that as long as you can rig the vote nothing else matters!

“Politics is a game of numbers!” true; but only a fool confines himself to a simple head count at a rally, demo or cast vote because with a war chest full of cash there is no limit to the size of hired-crowd and come elections pay those who organize and count the votes and suddenly it is a totally different ball game!

Everyone has a right to meaningful say in the governance of one’s country, this is fundamental right not a privilege, and hence the reason the elections must be free, fair and credible. So if the count is suspect then the primary task must surely be to have this put right first and not be sucked into a head count contest of “by hook or crook” count.

The primary task of the opposition parties must be implementing all the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections; until this is done it is a waste of time to do anything else! Zanu PF does not want to hear anything about implementing democratic reforms because the party knows it will never win free and fair elections.

So the only logical reason why the opposition has still not implemented any meaningful reforms, especially during the GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so, is because they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

Throughout the GNU years, Mugabe saw to it that Tsvangirai and his MDC enjoyed the gravy train lifestyles plus a $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, bribes to stop them implementing the reforms. There is no doubt the tyrant is still doing his best to keep the opposition occupied with demos, rallies, coalition building, anything except implementing reforms. He is even allowing them to hold demos and rallies without the usual accompaniment of Riot Police beatings and tear-gas and, just to stop the implementing of reforms, would even fund the demos and rallies. He is loaded!

The greatest challenge facing this nation today is implementing the democratic reforms and thus ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible; until this is done this nation will not do anything of substance. The economic meltdown the nation is facing and the tragic human suffering it has brought is the heavy price we are paying for having failed to carryout out this key task until now. The longer we drag our feet over this the harder the task becomes and the heavier the penalty we have to pay, the economic meltdown is getting worse! 

After 500 days in hotel, Mphoko still refuse to go - primeval greed turned into madness.

VICE-PRESIDENT Phelekezela Mphoko is giving government nightmares as he is refusing to vacate a five star hotel.

Here is a nation whose health service has all but collapsed for lack of funds and yet it has money to house the ruling elite in a five star hotel for 500 days! The regime has already poured $4 million in buying the individual a new mansion and he is not moving in because it is not yet perfect!

One has heard of people being greedy and of insatiable primeval greed; what is happen in Zimbabwe, seen as it must with the contrasting back drop of the grinding poverty, hopelessness and despair of the impoverished mass; is greed gone mad.

 Zimbabwe is now being ruled by the certified lunatics; they cannot be held legally of politically responsible for anything they say or do!

“If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards."
Boswell: Life of Johnson

The madness at the heart of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite has now reached point where their insatiable primeval greed constitutes a serious threat to the human lives and national cohesion and stability.

We must knock down the ruling elite to save them from eating all super refined five star foods every day and the very soles of their feet are evolving into skin from wearing Gucci designer shoes, slippers and socks! Besides how can we continue to justify the suffering of the millions, without whose sacrifice of bare necessities of life the ruling elite would not afford their obscene luxuries, knowing all this good living is eroding the ruling elite’s health and sanity!

36 years of absolute power has turned Zanu PF ruling elite into raving lunatics we must implement the democratic reforms to stop the party rigging elections; that is the only sure way to get these lunatics out of office and save ourselves from the consequences of their insatiable greed. 

MP Cross elections will sort "who is who in the Zoo" - yes but only free and fair elections.

"Peace for our time" is a phrase, spoken on 30 September 1938 by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his speech defending the Munich Agreement and the Anglo-German Declaration. The speech has gone down in the annals of history as a costly act of naivety and folly for in less than a year the Germany dictator Adolf Hitler invaded Poland and declared war on France, United Kingdom and many, many other nations beside. “Peace for our time!” was violently and utterly shattered into a million pieces!

The Second World War was the very antithesis of peace; for the next seven years the world was to witness what man can do to his fellow man, millions of human lives were lost and there was wanton destruction of property. It has taken generations to rebuild the cities and nation who bore the brunt of the WWII but the scar the war left on humanity will never be forgotten. Never!

Whilst no one blames PM Chamberlain for what Hitler unleashed on us all, still no student of history worth his salt can deny that by being so naïve and gullible the British PM did make it easy for Heil Hitler to do as he pleased. What makes it worse is that PM Chamberlain was warned of the dangers of appeasing a snake like Hitler and he chose to ignore the warning.  

History has the habit of repeating itself or be it at a smaller national or personal level, but the consequences are just as disastrous for those involved.  In the last 16 years the people of Zimbabwe has suffered untold human misery and many have lost their lives because, PM Chamberlain, former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai has been naïve and gullible and would not listen to the warnings of the dangers of appeasing Mugabe.

“Finally the election took place, Zanu-PF was soundly defeated and then the process fell apart, SADC leaders failed to follow through and after 9 months of messy political activity, a Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed and took control of the State in early 2009,” wrote Eddie Cross, senior and trusted “kitchen cabinet members” of PM Tsvangirai.

Whilst it is true that SADC leaders blundered in proposing the formation of GNU after the July 2008 presidential run-off marred by violence it is nonetheless equally true that the MDC could still have stopped Mugabe doing as he pleased if the party had not been so naïve and stubborn.

When it was clear Zanu PF had lost the March 2008 elections but was deliberately refusing to announce the result; MDC leaders met Zanu PF’s Nicholas Goche and offered some Zanu PF members cabinet positions in the new MDC led government. Of course this was a blatant act of appeasement on MDC’s and proof the party lacked the confidence to govern alone. Mugabe took full advantage of this and to “cook” the election results to justify a presidential run-off and to demand more power in the GNU partnership.

In the GNU Mugabe reduced PM Tsvangirai to nothing more than his Office boy. Many people advised Tsvangirai not to accept the arrangement notably the USA Ambassador, James Mcghee, who described it have “more holes than Swiss cheese”. Tsvangirai et al ignored the advice and went into the GNU.

Still even with all its political limitation there is no doubt that GNU could have accomplished its principle task of implementing the democratic reforms to ensure Zimbabwe’s future elections were free, fair and credible. To fair to SADC leaders, they did their best to remind MDC to implement the reforms. Sadly, MDC leaders ignored the warning and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years!

“Then, just as in 2005 when Zanu-PF engineered a two thirds majority in the House of Assembly, they did it again (in 2013) and MDC was kicked back into opposition,” wrote MP Eddie Cross, commenting on the rigged 2013 elections.

What MP Cross, former PM Tsvangirai and most of the MDC leaders has refused to admit and is refusing to do so to this day is that simple fact that by failing to implement even one reform to appease Mugabe during the GNU they had per se “engineered” their own defeat. Their continued denial of their failure since the July 2013 is not doing the nation any favours because it means nothing is being done to implement the reforms and so Zanu PF will once again be free to blatantly rig the next elections just as happened in 2013!

Morgan Tsvangirai assured the people of Zimbabwe the 2013 elections would be “free, fair and credible” just as PM Chamberlain assured the British “Peace for our time”. When Hitler shatter the Chamberlain’s illusionary peace the British people ditched the dreamer to fight a bitter war before there was peace. We are did not have free and fair elections in 2013 and are now paying dearly for having listened to Tsvangirai. It is sheer folly for this nation to once again believe MDC leaders’ promise of free and fair elections when we know they have still not implemented even one democratic reform!

“Unlike 2008, the Zanu-PF Party is completely fractured into at least 4 factions. It cannot be put back together in any sort of semblance of what it has been and no reconciliation is possible. The opposition is no less fractured and comprises over 30 Parties. Who is who in the Zoo can only be determined by an election,” acknowledged MP Cross.

“Major figures in the Parties do not want an election because they well know that they could not win an election that is run on the basis of the SADC rules for democratic elections.”

Wrong the 2013 elections were not run on the basis of the SADC rules; SADC reminded MDC to implement the democratic reforms but you lot would not listen.

The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political paralysis is simple Zimbabwe; implement all the democratic reforms MDC failed to implement during the GNU designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections but most important of all designed to end the stifling of meaningful debate and democratic competition. For it is the free debate and democratic competition that will separate the wheat from the chuff.

We are not interested in sorting out “who is who in Zimbabwe’s political zoo” but in in getting rid of the tyrants and the thugs and all those who have made a career of appeasing tyrants that is why we want not just any elections but specifically free, fair and credible elections. 

Mugabe chides doctors to put "people first" - nonsense, private like public sector, will too collapse.

Mugabe chides doctors for putting money before the wellbeing of their patients.

"We appreciate the work of doctors, they deserve to be rewarded accordingly. However, they must also understand the limitations the government is facing. We are still fighting for our liberation, there are sanctions that are affecting our capacity to honour our obligations to workers," said Mugabe.

"Dr Muchemwa, as one of the first doctors who gave medical services to the liberation war fighters, had that understanding and we need his peers to understand also, he never put money first, but the people first and made great sacrifices. Right now as I speak there is a stand-off between our medical staff and us the government on remuneration."

He was commenting on the on-going saga of private sector doctors who are now demanding cash payment up front from patients whose medical aid institutions have failed to on time the doctors for services rendered. Some of the bills have not been paid for years and, to rub salt into the doctors’ open wounds, government has been forcing them to pay income tax on unpaid income!

Mugabe’s habit of blaming the country’s worsening economic crisis on sanctions is utter nonsense and an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean. How can the nation prosper when corruption is so rampant that $15 billion in diamond revenue alone, by his own admission, is looted and no one is arrested and, for all we know, the looting is still going on right now!

Given these are targeted sanctions, how is it then that they are affected everyone else except the targeted individuals? There is no money to pay civil servants their below poverty-line wages and yet there is plenty of cash to pay for Mugabe and his family's extravagant lifestyles, for example. In the first five months of this year alone he has squandered $80 million on overseas trips alone, according to a local report.

When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections he was cocksure he would go on to rig economic recovery too with his $27 billion ZImAsset economic plan. The plan was going to create 2.2 million new jobs in five years; there two out of the five years left and the nation has not seen any new jobs. Instead of acknowledging there will be no economic recovery because the ZimAsset plan is dead in the water; not even the "all weather" Chinese friends were prepared to bankroll the exorbitantly expensive hare-brain scheme; Mugabe continues to blame the sanctions for the economic crisis.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is real and it is causing untold human suffering and claiming human lives. If Mugabe real value human lives over his insatiable greed for absolute political power and the vast material wealth in the form of looted resources it has brought him and his cronies then he must finally accept that it is corrupt and tyrannical rule that is the root cause of the economic meltdown. Just how long can he continue to hide behind the sanctions finger whilst the nation suffer and die! 

After 36 years of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness these problems are now deeply imbedded in the nation, it will take a tough and visionary government to uproot them to get the national economy back on track. This Zanu PF regime is the one spawned the problems and allowed them to grow and spread; it is naïve to the regime to be the tough and visionary government.

The only practical way to get the visionary government is for the nation implement the 2008 GPA democratic reforms, everyone agreed at the time were necessary for free, fair and credible elections, and then hold fresh elections. There is nothing to be gained from refusing to admit Zanu PF has failed just as there is nothing to be gained from chiding the private sector doctors for asking to be paid for their work!

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest," said the great Economist, Adam Smith.

Government has failed to pay the country’s public sector health service bills and with even big referral hospitals like Parirenyatwa are now in such a deplorable state the hospital often gone for days on end without something as basic as clean running water! If private doctors are forced to continue treating these patients and not be paid it will not be long before the private sector health service too falls into the same sorry state as the public sector.

“It is not from the benevolence of the doctors that we expect our health care services, but from their regard to their own interest,” to paraphrase Adam Smith. After all, these doctors too need their dinner and the butcher, brewer, etc. would be touched to hear they are treating their patients for free but still expect to doctors to pay cash for their meat, beer, etc.!

Gvt has aligned 159 laws including NERA - can Signor Tsvangirai finally guarantee free elections

Be careful what you wish for!

Instead of calling for the structural democratic reforms of the security services, media, ZEC, etc. as agreed in the 2008 GPA,  the opposition parties, especially MDC-T and all the other 14 parties who signed-on to its National Electoral Reforms Agenda (NERA) insisted the aligning the existing laws to the new constitution was adequate. We now learn that the government has completed its work and aligned most of the existing laws.

“Out of the 299 Statutes in our books, we have so far aligned 159 statutes. We have identified about 200 Statutes requiring alignment and out of that number, 159 have been completed and processed through this House, through the General Laws Amendment Bill and other independent Statutes," VP Emmerson Mnangagwa told the Senate.

"The ones that have not been processed are from line ministries where Ministers have not been able to process in time the areas of their concern or mandate. However, with regards to such alignment relating to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, the Government or the Executive directly, that has been completed."

It is now for Signor Morgan Tsvangirai et al to now go through the aligned laws and confirm two things:

1)      That the alignment is correct and in accordance with the word and spirit of the new constitution. If not, the nation expects him and his team to propose the amendments.

2)      To confirm that the alignments, complete with his amendments, will now deliver the free, fair and credible elections; free of all manner of abuse of state resources including looted wealth such as Marange diamond, free of all manner of vote rigging trickery and free of all manner of intimidation, coercion and violence; we have all been waiting for all these years.

Given the importance of free, fair and credible elections and how time is no longer on our side, it is two years to the next elections; it is our fervent hope that the Monsignor will respond to the two pints above in the next month, two months at most!

The reader is advised not to hold their breath; Signor Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

They wasted five years of the GNU writing a feeble and weak new constitution and completely ignored the calls to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA, they maintained that the new constitution strong and adequate to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections and MDC leaders, to the man and woman, have since admitted the elections were rigged.

But instead of admitting the new constitution is weak and thus reverts back to the structural reforms called for in the GPA reform MDC has insisted aligning all the existing laws to the new constitution will be enough to stop Mugabe and Zanu PF rigging future elections. Just as MDC had wasted five years during the GNU on the new constitution which failed to stop vote rigging, history is repeating itself, they have wasted the last three years demanding electoral law alignments which too will not stop vote rigging.

Veritas, a local Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters has gone through all the proposed alignments of existing laws and said even if they were all implemented fully this will not deliver free and fair elections as these are “inadequate and incomplete”. The problem is with the new constitution it is weak, feeble, inadequate, incomplete, pick your pick!

 “Zimbabwe also needs a new constitution. It must be the genuine product of a national dialogue that embodies our hopes and aspirations, unconstrained by our fears; it must be founded on a strong Bill of Rights, and elicit the best in us,” said Trevor Ncube the executive chairman of Alpha Media Holdings - publishers of the NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard.

“The current document is the outcome of horse-trading between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions. It fails to lay a strong foundation of the rule of law, strong national institutions, transparency and accountability. And, of course, the sanctity of life and respect for private property must find full expression.”

It was because MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent, breathtakingly so, that they failed to implement even one GPA reform during the GNU and instead of producing a democratic constitution produced a weak and feeble one that will never deliver free, fair and credible elections because it gives Mugabe dictatorial powers with none of the usual democratic checks and balance.

Still Signor Tsvangirai has been strutting around demanding the alignment of the existing laws, his wish has been granted now can he assure the nation of free and fair elections or was he being his usual self – the old windbag making a lot of noise!  

If we want free, fair and credible elections in 2018 then it is up to us, the people, not the corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians, to demand the full implementation of the GPA reforms. The country is now in hell-hole and will only get out when we have a good and competent government which means free and fair elections.