Throughout
his inauguration speech, President Mnangagwa, very careful NOT to promise the
nation that next year’s elections will be free, fair and credible.
"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."
He is
promising the nation a democratic era but will not guarantee free and fair
elections – one of the key tenets of a democracy!
In
2008, the Joint Operation Command (JOC) headed by the three amigos; Chewanga, Mnangagwa
and Robert Mugabe; 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 to reject
Mugabe in the March vote.
"What
was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!" barked former
President Mugabe, encouraging the wanton violence.
Zanu
PF went on to reverse Tsvangirai's 73% vote to claim a landslide 84% victory.
The party claimed the elections were free, fair and credible, maintaining that
all talks of violence were misplaced as violence was being committed by both
sides. No one else, not even SADC and AU, accepted Zanu PF’s hen’s teeth tale.
Zanu PF was forced to sign the Global Political Agreement and accepting the
need to implement the wide ranging democratic reforms to restore the individual
freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections.
President
Mnangagwa knows that not even one reform was implemented during the five years
of the GNU. No doubt his reference to our elections being "poisoned, rancorous
and polarising" is meant to reinstate the long held Zanu PF position that both
Zanu PF and the opposition parties are equally to blame for the country’s
culture of vote rigging and politically motivated violence! This is a nonsense
that must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves for two reasons:
1)
The
victims of all the harassment, beating, rape and murders have all been
overwhelming opposition supporters and for Zanu PF’s benefit; proof the political
violence is of Zanu PF’s making.
2)
It is
the duty of the Police, Army and other state institution to maintain the peace,
rule of law and deliver free and fair elections. They have all in failed in
their statutory duties because they have all been corrupted and compromised. Police
Commissioner, Augustine Chihuru, has confirmed in his recent doctorate thesis that
the Police have been preoccupied with stopping “agents of regime change”, a
Zanu PF euphemism for all the party’s political opponents and critics.
Whilst
President Mnangagwa has tried acknowledged the country’s past mistakes, “errors
of commission or omission” and desperately wanted to sound a note of the
willingness to change.
“While
we cannot change the past, there is a lot we can do in the present and future
to give our Nation a different, positive direction,” he said.
“As we do so, we should never remain hostages to our past. I thus humbly appeal
to all of us that we let bygones be bygones, readily embracing each other in
defining a new destiny. The task at hand is that of rebuilding our great
country. It principally lies with none but ourselves.
“I implore you all to declare that NEVER AGAIN should the circumstances that
have put Zimbabwe in an unfavourable position be allowed to recur or overshadow
its prospects. We must work together, you, me, all of us who make up this
Nation.”
The
spirit is willing to embrace democratic change but the intellect and political
will are feeble!
President Mnangagwa you can scream “NEVER AGAIN” all you want but as
long as the country fails to implement the democratic reforms designed to free
the Police and all the other State Institution to carry out their duty and
restore the rule of law, free and fair elections, etc. Zimbabwe will remain a
hostage of the Zanu PF dictatorship that has ruled the country with an iron
fist these last 37 years.
11 comments:
President Mnangagwa too was blaming the West for all Zimbabwe's problems in his inauguration speech.
“Zimbabwe's journey since independence, has provided us with many lessons, some bigger and others so pleasant. In particular, some bigger nations have attempted to make us bend to their dictates, working feverishly to confine us to the pariah status. We have successfully maintained good relations with the preponderant majority of the family of nations. In truth, we never deserved to be maligned and/or economically and politically mistreated. I stand here today, to say that our country is already for a sturdy re-engagement programme with all the nations of the world,” he said.
So, if Zimbabwe has indeed “maintained good relations with the preponderant majority of the family of nations”, then why do you keep blaming those few that imposed the targeted economic sanctions for the country’s total economic collapse?
Two years ago, Mugabe admitted that the country lost US$15 billions of diamond revenue to “swindling”. No one has ever been arrested, not a single dollar recovered and the then Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa admitted that he was only receiving 1/6 of the expected revenue from diamond – proof the swindling was still going on. No nation with a GPD of $10 billions, as Zimbabwe has, can economically sustain, much less thrive, such serious wholesale looting. And yet the Zanu PF dictatorship has continued to down play corrupt as a serious economic problem just as it has down played free and fair elections on the political front.
President Mnangagwa believes that he is going to turn the economy around in no time, like Mugabe he is beaming with self-confidence who promised the nation 2.2 million new jobs in the 2013 elections. Mugabe only created two new jobs, for his daughter and her husband. Mnangagwa will do a lot better in the remaining 8 months before the next elections but not enough for him to dare give-up the Zanu PF veto and hold free and fair elections.
I agree, unless we the people demand the implementation of the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and taking away the regime’s veto we will remain hostages to the dictatorship. President Mnangagwa is paying lip-service to democracy just as Mugabe had paid lip-service to freedom, liberty, one-man-one-vote, etc.
"We must remind those behind the current treacherous shenanigans that, when it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in," Chiwenga said, reading from a prepared text.
He was talking of the G40 faction’s attempt to succeed Mugabe in place of the Mnangagwa faction. The ordinary Zimbabweans who have assumed the coup was about ending the Zanu PF dictatorship itself were hopeless wrong, Chiwenga and others did not correct this misconception because is supported their own purpose to have the coup treated as a national matter and not just a Zanu PF factional war matter.
After 37 years of being stuck with the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant, Robert Mugabe, the edge to join the hundreds of thousands who marched demanding his resignation on November 18 was simply irresistible. The nation's attention was focused on getting Mugabe out we ignored everything else.
People were warned that getting Mugabe to resign was important but even more pressing was the need to dismantle the dictatorship itself that had kept him there all these years. With the dictatorship itself orchestrating the removal of Mugabe, alarm bells should have been ringing in the people's heads because it was certain coup would be pursuing a very limited agenda of removing Mugabe, making sure the dictatorship itself remains untouched, and replace him with another dictator. And that is exactly what has happed.
In getting Mugabe removed from power the nation took one or two steps forward but in allowing the Zanu PF dictatorship do this for us we forgot that the dictatorship itself must go, we took ten steps back. However much we may try to cheer ourselves about the two steps forward it will not be long before the reality finally dawns on the nation that we did not make any progress. We regressed.
2 steps forward plus 10 steps back = 8 steps backward not forward
= regressed and not progress
@Muchena
“Zimbabweans cannot stop smiling. The elation is palpable. The national mood has not been so upbeat since Independence Day in 1980. There is unbounded optimism that a new era has dawned,” you said.
“A myth is already emerging that all Zimbabweans came together to remove Mugabe. The reality is that the military and the war veterans cleverly manipulated the emotions of the people and invited them onto the streets in order to give a semblance of legality to the coup that was not a coup. That was no spontaneous popular uprising. The people were manipulated and exploited by those in power. That was no “Zimbabwe Spring”.”
You are spot on, on both counts the euphoria of removing Mugabe was a false dawn. Removing Mugabe was two steps forward but allowing the military and war veterans, the hard-core of the Zanu PF dictatorship which had imposed Mugabe on the nation all these decades, to do it we took ten steps back because we have not only allowed the dictatorship to survive but, worse still, given it a new lease of life by making the thugs the heroes of the day!
2 steps forward plus 10 steps back = 8 steps backward not forward
= regressed and not progress
“If we are to have any chance at all, Nelson Chamisa must step forward to quickly rally the disparate opposition parties into one cohesive force. He must transform the MDC Alliance into the Zimbabwean Alliance and lead a truly united opposition into the election,” you concluded!
I agreed with you up to this point. Have you a very selective memory because you would have remembered that it was in fact Chamisa and his fellow MDC friends who landed us in this mess. They had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have seen Mugabe and Zanu PF booted out of office in free, fair and credible elections in July 2013. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years because they sold-out. How can we still trust sell-outs with taking us of on the hell-hole?
Are we really incapable of making even one step forward without taking two or more step backwards? Are we really incapable of seeing the pros and cons of the subject matter and weight them careful before we make the move? Are we destined to blunder from pillar to post making one step forward but two or more steps backwards?
In 1980 the people of Zimbabwe were so happy to see the back of Ian Smith we paid no attention to who was taking his place. It took us 20 years or so to realise that Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs were destroying the nation and holding us all as their hostages. By then the dictatorship was well established and dug in. When it was clear that Mugabe was finally going to be flushed out, the people were so thrilled at the prospect they did not care how and who was flushing out the cunning fox. Big mistake!
The worsen factional war in Zanu PF had the dictatorship divided and Mugabe was being forced out of office by one faction, the Mnangagwa faction. What people should have seen as clear as day is that the removal of Mugabe in a factional war was NOT the death of the Zanu PF dictatorship itself. And as long as the dictatorship itself is allowed to survive it will appoint a new dictator and our suffering will continue as before.
Zimbabweans have been like a slave who celebrate the demise of the old slavemaster forgetting that he is still a slave. It is the abolish of slavery that would earn him his freedom and not the swapping of one slavemaster for another!
Images of thousands of Zimbabweans grovelling to the Army to show their gratitude for the coup that forced Mugabe to resign will return to haunt us all. How can we forget that it is the same army and rogue war veterans who have been Mugabe's storm troopers who denied us our freedoms and human rights to impose the tyrant until now. Now that the army and war veterans have now replace Mugabe with Mnangagwa they will use the same ruthlessness to impose him on the nation.
"Kukangamwa chezuro nehope!" (We forget our yesterday's troubles with sleep!)
A nation that forgetful is bound to repeat yesterday's mistakes over and over again; no wonder we are stuck in the past. We are stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship as President Mnangagwa's regime will prove. Different dictator but same s**t; that is Zimbabwe!
@ Malala
“One of the greatest acts of disservice that we Africans do to our fellow citizens is to keep quiet when our brothers and sisters lose their way. We cast down our eyes and hold our tongues when it is time to speak directly and with a clear voice,” you said.
“So I will not apologise for saying clearly and loudly and repeatedly that Zimbabweans have been hoodwinked. They have been lied to. They have been sold a bum steer. They have been bamboozled with words. And they have swallowed the lie that a new dawn has come. It makes me want to weep, watching so many being fooled by so few.
“The Zimbabwe state broadcaster greeted new President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s reign with the words: “This is a new dawn, a new era.”
“What a load of horse manure. Mnangagwa is known by his nickname “The Crocodile”. Unless he has changed to “The Chameleon”, then, believe me, nothing has changed in Zimbabwe. Things will get worse.”
You are right, we have been lied to and bamboozled into believing that the demise of Mugabe is a new dawn. Sadly, this is not the first time we have been sold “bum steer” either.
People risked life and limb to vote Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC banded mongooses into power on the understanding they would implement the democratic reforms design to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years because they sold-out. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, a former white-owned farm for Welshman Ncube, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. and they kicked reforms straight out of the window.
Instead of keeping their eyes on the ball, implementing the democratic reforms, the people have been bamboozled by the Army and their side-kick the rogue war veterans into believing the removal of Robert Mugabe is tantamount to a new democratic Zimbabwe. All nonsense of course because democracy cannot take root in a land where the dictatorship rules the roost. The coup was about removing Mugabe and making sure the Zanu PF dictatorship survived to rule and thrive. General Chiwenga called the coup operation “Restore Legacy”, the dictatorship is the legacy he wanted restored.
As long as the people are naïve and gullible it will be easy to lie and bamboozle them into believe right is wrong, a dictatorship is a democracy, etc. In been naïve and gullible Zimbabweans are our own worst enemy!
@ Thorton
Are you saying Mnangagwa, as a member of Mugabe's cabinet (forget what office he held) during Gukurahundi was innocent of what happened?
Mnangagwa was a member of the Joint Operation Command, the Junta, that has rigged elections, carried out the looting and terrorised the nation. Only someone who is naive and gullible would disregard the historic evidence and suggest Mnangagwa is a democrat and not a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant.
President Mnangagwa said he would hit "the ground running"; so why has it taken him over a week since it was clear Mugabe was going to resign and he was set to takeover for him to name his cabinet?
Mugabe has managed to stay in power for 37 years because he surrounded himself with some of the most simple minded people he could get. Who could ever forget simpletons like the late Simon Muzenda and Joice Mujuru. Mnangagwa himself is a simpleton too, only a real moron would agree to do some of the dirty jobs Mnangagwa has done for Mugabe. Thanks to all these simpletons, Mugabe stayed several blocks ahead of them all these years and very nearly hoodwinked them all to get his wife to succeed him.
Even Julius Malema, himself with a few working brain cells, could not fail to see just how helpless incompetent Zanu PF leaders had proven to be in get Mugabe to go even when he was a doodling old man.
President Mnangagwa is a thug per excellence but above all he is a simpleton and his failure to appoint a cabinet timeously is just one of the many, many failures to follow!
The mansion must be taken away from the Mugabe family because there is no way anyone can ever claim the tyrant earned the fortune required to build it legally in a country whose economy was in total economic meltdown under his rule.
Only his fellow looting thugs would have agreed to let the tyrant keep the mansion from God knows what other loot he has in Zimbabwe and outside plus grant him US$ 10 million as a bonus for a looting job well done!
We must take back the mansion plus as much of the looted wealth as the nation can recover and give it all back to the impoverish povo of Zimbabwe, the rightful owners from whom all this wealth was stolen.
I am Shona and I have never seen Zanu PF's dictatorial tendencies as anything else other than Mugabe and his cronies' ruthless pursuit for absolute. If this was anything else other than blind greed then Zanu PF thugs would have never turned on their political opponents regardless what tribe they come from.
You call yourself "The Truth" but you do not even know what the truth is. Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have been a curse to the nation because of their insatiable greed for power people like you are dangerous to the nation because of your tribal hatred. You are using Mugabe's barbarism of the last 37 years to justify your tribal hatred.
@ Zvaazvinhu
Mnangagwa has been Mugabe's right hand man and chief enforcer and everything about the Zanu PF dictatorship has not changed. The people are making the common mistake of thinking the removal of Mugabe, the dictator, is the death of the dictatorship too; it is not! Mnangagwa is even boosting of Mugabe being his mentor.
“To me personally, he remains a father, mentor, comrade-in-arms and my leader. We thus say thank you to him and trust that our history will grant him his proper place and accord him his deserved stature as one of the founders and leaders of our nation,” said Mnangagwa in his inauguration speech.
People who think there will be any meaning political change; end to corruption, vote rigging and tyranny, etc.; are wishful in their think. Meaningful political change will come from dismantling the dictatorship itself and not swapping one dictator for another.
We are, sad to say but it must be said, a nation of wishful thinkers and hence the reason the nation is in this hell-hole. Until we learn to think logically we will never get out of this hell-hole, that I can tell now.
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