There are many reasons
one can give as why Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess; amongst
the top five must be our failure to stay focused on the task on hand and see it
through. We get easily distracted. “Tinokangamwa chezuro nehope!” (We sleep and
forget yesterday’s troubles!) as one would say in Shona.
The people of Zimbabwe
have realised as far back as the late 1990s that Mugabe and his Zanu PF
dictatorship were destroying the country and reached the consensus that the
nation must implement democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship
to stop the regime rigging elections. Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends tapped
into this popular sentiment of democratic change and named their party the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Alas, it was soon clear that neither
Tsvangirai, his MDC friends nor the people themselves understood what the
changes the wanted were and/or had the intellect to stay the course and get
them implemented.
Zimbabwe has had many
opportunities to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging
elections, the best chances being during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, but has wasted
them all. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends took their eyes off the reforms after
Mugabe bribed them with the trapping of high office, a former white-owned farm
and a $4 million mansion for Welshman Ncube and Tsvangirai respectively, etc.
The people of Zimbabwe
themselves could have forced MDC leaders to implement the reforms if they too
had not been distracted. The scrapping of the Z$, the lifting of price controls
and one or two other economic policy changes ended the country’s 500 billion
per cent hyperinflation, etc. restored confidence in the economy. Empty shop
shelves filled up again and the economy registered a 12% growth rate. However,
if the people had been paying attention they would have noticed that the
country’s commerce, industries, mines and, even more significantly, the
agricultural sector – the engineer of Zimbabwe’s economy – were still under
performing. A clear sign that not all was well; the GNU was not implementing
the democratic reforms necessary for meaningful and sustainable economic
recovery.
The golden opportunity
to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU was created by SADC leaders
forced Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement agreeing to the
implementation of the raft of democratic reforms. The opportunity was wasted
and the door was slammed shut when Zanu PF rigged the July 2013 elections and
got back into power.
With unemployment at
90%, 72.3% of the population living on US$1.00 or less per day, etc. a head of
steam has been building up for meaningful change in Zimbabwe. The dog-eat-dog
infighting in Zanu PF itself has left the party weak and therefore vulnerable
to pressure on it to accept change – opening the window to revisit the reforms!
Sadly, the window has now been closed still with no reforms implemented because
we have once again taken our eyes off the ball – getting the democratic reforms
implemented.
Although most
Zimbabweans had seen the dog-eat-dog fighting in Zanu PF as a positive
development which will leave the party weakened the mode changed completely
when Mugabe fired Mnangagwa clearing the way for his wife to succeed him. It
was the prospect of Grace Mugabe as president that forced many Zimbabweans to welcome
the coup that forced Mugabe to resign. In their hast to stop Grace Mugabe
becoming president the people forgot that Mnangagwa, although he is miles ahead
compared to Grace, is nonetheless just another variation of the Zanu PF
dictatorship we have been fighting to remove from power all these years.
General Chiwenga,
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the coup plotters plus a few other together with Robert Mugabe
himself, are all members of the Joint Operation Command (JOC), the shadowy
Junta, that has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist all these last 37 years. It is
JOC that has corrupted the country’s state institutions like the Police, Army,
Judiciary, Public media, ZEC, etc. turning them into Zanu PF departments in all
but name. And they have all abandoned their public duties to up hold the rule
of law and guarantee the individual freedoms and human rights in pursuit of Zanu
PF’s selfish no-regime-change agenda.
A Mugabe led Zanu PF
dictatorship has looted the nation blind, rigged elections and used wanton
violence to stay in power. The dictatorship has removed its old figure head,
Mugabe, and replaced him with Mnangagwa but has otherwise not change. The
looting, vote rigging and all the other dirty activities by the dictatorship to
retain power at all cost will continue as before.
President Emmerson
Mnangagwa promised the nation three things in his inauguration speech yesterday;
1) to revive the economy and create “Jobs, jobs, jobs!”
2) End the scourge of corruption
3) Bring a new era of democracy and hold next year’s elections as
planned.
After 37 years of
Mugabe’s voodoo-economics there is no doubt the economy will pick up, the
tyrant’s departure alone has been greeted with a huge sigh of relief. President
Mnangagwa has already announced that he will restore normal relations with the
rest of the world and, no doubt, he will be scrapping some of Mugabe’s stupid
laws like the indigenisation law. There could be as much as 15% economic growth
rate on the cards, comparable to what the GNU achieved. If Mnangagwa was able
to deliver on the other two promises, the economic recovery could be even
stronger! He not stop the corruption or deliver any meaningful democratic
change.
Mnangagwa cannot stop
the wholesale looting that is going on in Marange and Chiadzwa, for example,
because General Chiwenga and the posse of generals staged the coup for no other
reason than to protect their looting interests. Mnangagwa is himself considered
one of the richest man in the country and his wealth was amassed from
corruption. So how can he stop corruption when he is himself guilty of the same
crime!
After 37 years of
rigged elections if the people of Zimbabwe are finally offered a chance to vote
Zanu PF out of office in a free, fair and credible election; my money is on
people seizing that opportunity and voting the regime out. Zanu PF members will
ever agree to implementing reforms and risk losing power in free and fair
elections. They stand to lose their looter wealth and, worse still for many of
them in leadership position, being called to account for the vote rigging and
many other serious acts of treasonous acts including murder.
11 comments:
@ John Ward
The people of Zimbabwe were supposed to be focusing their undivided attention on pressuring the weakened Zanu PF party to accept the implementing of democratic reforms. And we could have achieved our goal if many of the had not lost their nerve. The firing of Mnangagwa brought home the reality of Mugabe imposing his foolish wife Grace this close to succeeding him and many people panicked. They welcomed the coup forcing Mugabe to resign and stop his wife’s vaulting ambition.
Whilst Mnangagwa is but a continuation of the old Zanu PF dictatorship of yesterday in that the corruption, vote rigging and tyranny will continue people saw it as infinitely better that Grace Mugabe chaos that was coming. If the shoe was in the other foot and the coup had been stage to stop Mnangagwa presidency to impose Grace Mugabe, the nation’s reaction would have been totally different.
Even after Mugabe was forced to resign the people could have stood firm and refused to be sucked into Zanu PF’s dirty politics and demanded that the only real change the wanted to see was one brought about after the holding of free, fair and credible elections. As it is President Mnangagwa has promised the nation free elections but will never ever deliver that.
Mnangagwa is like Mugabe and every other tyrant out there, he sees himself as the Lord God’s special gift to Zimbabwe, the country’s benevolent dictator and benefactor and, for their own good, he will not allow povo to make the mistake of voting him out of office!
Right now Mnangagwa thinks that he is going to turn the country’s economy around so quickly and convincingly that the electorate will vote for him. When the penny starts to fall that the economic turnaround will take a lot longer than eights he has before next elections he will get his guys to service the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut and put it into operation.
Next year’s elections are not going to be free, fair and credible; of that we can be certain! President Mnangagwa has risked all to rig elections so Mugabe can stay in power, he will not lose his nerve and fail to rig elections when it is for his own benefit!
President Mnangagwa has been very careful in his inaugration speech to make sure he does not promise free, fair and credible elections.
"That peace and harmony should be characteristic of how we relate to one another before, during and after the 2018 harmonised elections which will be held as scheduled," he said.
"Today the Republic of Zimbabwe renews itself. My Government will work towards ensuring that the pillars of the State assuring democracy in our land are strengthened and respected. We fully reaffirm our membership to the family of nations, and express our commitment to playing
"Here at home, we must, however, appreciate the fact that over the years, our domestic politics had become poisoned, rancorous and polarising. My goal is to preside over a polity and run an administration that recognise strength in our diversity as a people, hoping that this position and well-meant stance will be reciprocated and radiated to cover all our groups, organisation and communities."
In 2008 the JOC launched the now infamous operation "Mavhotera papi" (Whom did you vote for!) in which Zanu Pf unleashed its thugs backed by the Army, Police and CIO to punish the voters for having dared ti reject Mugabe in the March vote.
"What was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!" former President Mugabe ordered.
Zanu PF went on to reverse Tsvangirai's 73% vote to claim 84% victory. The party claimed the elections were free, fair and credible, maintain any talk of violence must be ignored as there was violence from both sides, although no one else did including SADC and AU. No doubt President Mnangagwa's reference to our elections being "poisoned, rancorous and polarising" is him maintaining the position that violence is from both sides! This is a nonsense.
“I think he created a foundation [that is] now enabling us to move forward,” said Oppah Muchinguri – Kashiri. “We have had all sorts of experiences and we feel that the country is mature enough.”
If people thought Zanu PF under President Mnangagwa was going to be different from Robert Mugabe’s corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship they could not be more far wrong. The regime has removed the public face of the dictatorship but only to replace him with the very man Mugabe had trusted to do all the dirtiest jobs in his 37 years of reign of terror! The rest of the Zanu PF team has hardly changed and, worst of all, their political philosophy has not changed one bit.
Zanu PF has imposed a ruthless dictatorship on the nation and they are absolutely 100% committed to resist all democratic reforms and give up power regardless of how undemocratic and disastrous the party’s continued rule might be for the nation.
Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian President has congratulated the newly sworn-in Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Obasanjo, while congratulating the new Zimbabwean leader, expressed optimism that Mnangagwa will execute the responsibilities expected of his new office with the greatest political acumen he is known for.
What Zimbabwe needs is democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. In the July 2013 elections Zanu PF failed to produce something as basic a verified voters' roll. General Obasanjo was the chairperson of the AU election observer team and all he did was note this as an irregularity that Zanu PF should fix in future! How pathetic was that!
We, in Africa, need to take the rule of law serious and not just pay lip-service to such matter! African leaders like Obasanjo are not doing Africa Proud!
While Mnangagwa claimed that Speaker Jacob Mudenda was under pressure from people who wanted to stop impeachment, Mukonori said Mugabe only phoned to be advised on the timelines.
“And the Speaker said the momentum had already started running so he couldn’t wait. I think it was a misunderstanding because the President was not saying cease the meeting, but he wanted to know the leeway for him to put it in writing,” said Mukonori.
“So, eventually, we decided to call the staff of the President’s Office who know the issues. So, we invited the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General. They came and the President said ‘this is the issue, I have decided to resign. I have decided to put in writing in terms of the Constitution’.
“The AG said, ‘Yes you can do that’, and the President then said ‘If I am being told that the process of impeachment has already started, and so if I am going to write the letter as if I am trying to stop the impeachment, it (will seem) as if I have decided to cover up what would be brought about to show the guilt that I have. Then, probably I should let it go because as far as I am concerned, I have not committed a crime which deserves impeachment’.”
Eventually the letter was written and managed to reach the speaker just after debate of the charges Mugabe faced had begun as both houses sat to impeach him. Mudenda read it out to an excited crowd and the nation began partying.
Tyrants live in their own bubble divorced from the real world. Here is a tyrant who has destroyed the nation’s economy to feed his insatiable appetite for absolute power and the political influence and wealth it brought. He and his cronies have robbed the nation blind, 72.3% now live on US$1.00 or less a day whilst he and his fellow looters have enjoyed lifestyles even beyond Holy Wood Megastars. He has rigged elections and used wanton violence to stop the people voting him out of office. He has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans for his de facto one-party dictatorship. And right up to the day he is forced out of office he still maintains he has done nothing wrong.
Mugabe’s exit was negotiated by men and women who are themselves criminals and it was in their own selfish interest that Mugabe was left off the hook with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. It is imperative that Mugabe’s wrong doing are documented properly, as much of the looted wealth is recovered, those guilty of treason are punished and the history record is set right. It would be a failure and betrayal of all those who have suffered and many died because of Mugabe’s corrupt and murderous rule if history should fail to portray him for what he is – a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant.
“For the war veterans, the idea of styling themselves as defenders of freedom sits uneasily with much of their history as enforcers in Mugabe’s regime,” reported News24.
“They were the shock troops of Mugabe’s violent election campaigns, especially in 2008, and were often implicated in the beating, intimidation and even killing of opposition supporters.
“Starting in 2000, they also led the violent campaign to seize white-owned farm in what Mugabe encouraged as a correction of the British colonial legacy of black people having only small areas of poor-quality land.
“Often drunk or on drugs, mobs of “war veterans” – who have always included many activists too young to have actually fought in the war – attacked farmers and labourers with machetes and axes, with the president’s support.”
No matter how much they now try to recast themselves as freedom fighters rogue war veterans who sold their body and soul to the devil, Robert Mugabe and his band of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs will never again be trust by povo. Never!
“It was something where we had to stand with the truth,” said Father Mukonori. “What was important was to be frank with each other, telling each other the truth without emotions, but seeking the truth because that is what God wants.
“It is the work of God. There is a time when one has to rest while another person continues.”
You should not insult our intelligence Father! You have heard Mugabe’s ear for decades how many times have you stood with the truth about the tyrant’s corruption, vote rigging and murderous tyranny? The truth was the price you and many other men and women of cloth have willingly and knowingly paid for the privilege of hobnobbing with the likes of Robert Mugabe! It is not God’s work to turn your back on the victims of Mugabe’s decades of misrule such as the 90% unemployed, the 72.3% living on US$1.00 or less a day, etc.
He is promising democracy but is unwilling to end the Zanu PF dictatorship by implementing the democratic reforms. The dictatorship and democracy cannot coexist because every brick used to build one to make it stronger is a brick denied the other to make it weaker!
Mugabe has spent the last 37 years systematically dismantling the multi-party democracy we inherited in 1980 to build the de facto one-party dictatorship we have today. If we are serious about getting out of this hell-hole we are stuck in, then we must implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship, the root cause of the economic and political mess we are in.
President Mnangagwa can promise a new democratic era, economic recovery, ending corruption, etc. as often as he wishes but none of these things will ever come true until we end the dictatorship, the black dog curse in our midst!
President Mnangagwa will never ever implement the democratic reforms because he and his Zanu PF cronies will be reforming themselves out of power. No dictatorship in human history will ever preside over its own demise, that is counter intuitive. We will have to exert a lot more pressure on this Zanu PF dictatorship to get the democratic reforms implemented. The nation has to wake up to the political reality that the removal of one dictator to replace him with another as a result of internal party factional war within the dictatorship is not going to force Zanu PF implement the reforms to destroy itself; that is just wishful thinking.
So, the congress will not be giving any democratic say in all these changes that have taken place in the party, congress will be held to rubber stamp the changes. Mugabe was catapulted into party leadership following the act of a handful of Individuals and he has stayed in that position for 50 years without ever being elected by party members in a free, fair and credible elections. He manipulated the process so that all elective party congress since had only his name in the hat so that instead of an election it was always a coronation. Well that is certainly what is going to happen next month.
Zanu PF will be gearing itself for next year's national elections and, instead of free, fair and credible elections, the party rig the vote; the nation, like party members, will be rubber stamping yet another Zanu PF landslide victory!
President Mnangagwa has promised a new democratic era but he clearly did not mean that povo will have their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a free and meaningful vote. If we want our freedoms and basic human rights then we will have to fight for them.
@ with God
God does not do what man can do for himself. The Zanu PF dictatorship in composed of mortals like you and me and per se they reign of terror can be stopped by mere mortals too. You praying to God to remove the dictatorship just because you are too lazy to elect competent leaders who will get the democratic reforms to dismantle the dictatorship implemented. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU, for example, but wasted it. Was that God's doing?
Tendai Biti is still in denial that Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU and it was Biti and his MDC friends who sold out!
Whilst it is true that we need some transition arrangement to take the nation forward out of this mess there can be no question that both Zanu PF and MDC leaders cannot be in this transitional administration because they all sold out during the last one.
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