Tuesday 26 December 2017

"Prisons not fit for human habitation," says First Lady - please spare us the sauce N Garikai

New brooms sweep clean! President Mnangagwa and his wife are certainly trying very hard to give credence to that maxim.

“First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa took a swipe at prison authorities and the Ministry In Charge of Prisons for the appalling conditions at the country’s prisons,” reported Zimeye.

“The First Lady may have quickly forgotten that her husband Emmerson Mnangagwa who is now the President was until a month ago the Minister of Justice responsible for prisons. “I visited the places where you, sleep, bath and even eat and was shocked because the place are not fit for human habitation,” said the First Lady.

“She promised the inmates in front of the prison authorities and Ministry officials who had accompanied that the conditions in the prison must be worked on and completed by end of January next year. Mrs Mnangagwa shared Christmas goodies with the 180 female inmates in the prison which also houses 15 children under the age of 12 who are staying with their mothers in the filthy conditions.

Well, well! Instead of a new broom we have the same old broom, instead of sweeping the dirty it is raising a lot of duct to attract attention! We have a busy-body First Lady who is fishing for limelight coverage. One day she is in a hospital masquerading as a patient, the next day she is carrying a street-kid on her back and today she has been exchanging niceties with prison inmates. Promising to end all these people’s suffering; she is just getting cheap publicity at these people’s expense because she will not end their suffering.


Zimbabwe’s public institutions such as the hospitals and prisons are in a sorry state because of decades of neglect and poor funding. Decades of misrule and corruption by this Zanu PF regime has resulted in the country’s economic meltdown; compounding the ordinary people’s lives who are totally dependent on these public institutions and cannot afford anything else.

Until something is done to cure the cancers of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, there is very little anyone can do to improve the lives of street kids, to improve funding to hospitals and prisons, etc. In turn, until something is done to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, there nothing one can do cure the nation of these cancerous tumours of mismanagement and corruption.

Zimbabwe’s economy is in serious economic meltdown because the nation is stuck these last 37 years and counting with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime that has been rigging elections to stay in power.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, is a simpleton still she is, nonetheless, aware of the rampant corruption in Zimbabwe. She and her husband are part of Zimbabwe’s few filthy rich ruling elite and she is aware of the grown chasm that has opened the rich and the filthy poor majority. She knows that her husband, President Mnangagwa, is one of the richest individuals in Zimbabwe and that he was named as one of the Zimbabweans involved in the wholesale looting by Zimbabweans in DRC. Even a simpleton like her would know that filthy rich have amassed their wealth at the expense of the impoverished majority.

So, if our First Lady is serious about end the economic suffering of the poor she tackle the root cause poverty - corruption. The question she must answer is: is she ready to ask her husband to stop his looting and give up the creature comforts and luxuries it has brought?   

Instead of dealing with the nation’s problems head-on our First Lady thinks she have her cake and eat it too, keep the looting and her luxuries and end the poverty by waving a magic wand.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, like her husband, has waited for 37 years to be First Lady and now that she has final achieved that position, she is relishing every second of it. Nothing would please her more than if she was to be Zimbabwe’s own Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in Wizard of Oz. Following her recent visit to one hospital; a few months later, wallah! Every hospital and clinic in Zimbabwe is spotless clean, has a full complement of qualified nurses and doctors, has nothing but the most modern equipment money can buy and has well stocked medicine cabins.

By the end of January next year, as she promised, wallah! All prisons in Zimbabwe have got rid of all their lice infested bedding and inmates are treated to a Hotel California style five course meal complete with pink champion on ice.

My prediction is none of Glinda’s wishes would ever come true and as the nation approach the next elections she would look more and more like Miss Almira Gulch, the Wicked Witch of the West. For one thing, she will be play her part all the usual dirty vote rigging tricks her husband and Zanu PF have always employed to retain power at all cost. It is simply not in the DNA of a Zanu PF Wicked Witch, male or female, to risk losing absolute power by holding free, fair and credible elections.  

Such is the insufferable arrogance of bullies and tyrants, they not only deliberately inflict all the suffering and deaths on others. The odd occasion, they are forced to acknowledge the misery of their victims; they feign shock that anyone should suffer, make a big song and dance about ending the suffering and yet promptly forget they ever made such a promise.


“Prisons are not fit for human habitation!” says Zimbabwe’s First Lady. Will you, Mrs Mnangagwa, join those demanding the implementations of the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections? If not, then please spare us all the empty rhetoric and tomato sauce! The right to free and fair elections is not a privilege; woe to you all Zanu PF thugs who have ridden roughshod over our people’s freedoms, human rights, hopes and dreams and their very human dignity for your selfish gain!

11 comments:

Patrick said...

Our hospitals, school, prisons, roads, everything are all falling apart because of the decades of neglect and mismanagement. Madam "spot it" is going around pointing out all these things as if she is noticing them for the very first time. Worse still, she, like the rest of her kind the filthy rich ruling elite, is noticing the rot but failing to notice the source of the rot- the insatiable greed for power and wealth of the filthy rich ruling elite

She was something done about the hospitals, prisons, etc. as long as that does not mean her having to give up even one of her privileges and excesses especially her devin right to be First Lady. Mrs Mnangagwa knows only too well that Zanu PF has had to rig elections to stay in power and she would be the first one to be furious at her husband was he to implement the reforms and put her stay in State House at risk!

Patrick said...

President Mnangagwa has said there will be free, fair and credible elections next year and yet he has failed to implement even one single democratic reform designed to dismantle the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut. It is not as if he does not know about the juggernaut, he knows it only too well since he is the one who have serviced it and operated it. He knows the juggernaut is primed to deliver another landslide victory for Zanu PF and will not be lifting a finger to stop the vote rigging.

whilst President Mnangagwa and his cronies are preparing to rig next year's elections the rest of the ordinary Zimbabweans must make sure the regime is not allowed to get away with it!

Patrick said...

“Without Mugabe [ZANU PF] is dead. it will be buried in 2018 elections,” said Professor Jonathan Moyo.
If Zanu PF dies then it would not be because Mugabe is no longer in control because the party started dying whilst he was still in control. The coup that ousted Mugabe was just one of the stages in the demise of the dictator and the Zanu PF dictatorship itself.
Professor Moyo thought himself a genius per excellence, the grandmaster of political intrigue. He fouled up with his 2004 failed Tsholotsho coup he was cocksure he had everything worked out this time. He fouled up again and, this time, I have a feeling he will not stage another comeback and resurrect his political career! This time the grandmaster of political intrigue is finished.
“Chidya matovo akazodzipwa nedoro remhuru!” (The man who thinks himself invincible is often tripped by the last thing one expected!)

Patrick said...

@ Jongwe

True but give 3/4 of the nation now live on US$1.00 or less a day it is certain that she is not going to help all the needy even if she was to give back a cent she and her husband have looted. What the nation needs is a competent government and all she has to do is ask her husband to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. I do not think she would do that somehow!

Patrick said...

MDC was going to contest next year's elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process - Coltart is first in line!

Nomusa Garikai said...

“She (First Lady) promised the inmates in front of the prison authorities and Ministry officials who had accompanied that the conditions in the prison must be worked on and completed by end of January next year.”

Sounds like a tall order but given the materials the inmates could clean the prisons and completely transform the place. The quality of the meals served to the inmates would improve considerable by putting a little bit of effort in its preparation and making sure it is served hot, for example.

Allowing the prison condition to fall to the level they are not fit for human habitation may be an expression of the institute that does not care about other humans. The ruling elite are the one section of society that has long stopped treating other people as if they are subhuman.

The denial of everyone else their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful vote is the ultimate cases of the ruling elite treating others as subhuman. The demand for free and fair elections is not just a fanciful demand but the key that will unlock Zimbabwe’s economic, political and social log-jam.

Demanding the implementation of democratic reforms to allow free, fair and credible elections is the ultimate expression of the refusal to be treated as if one is subhuman. If other human beings enjoy these freedoms and human rights and take them for granted why should even one Zimbabwean be denied the same freedoms and rights!

More pointedly, why Zimbabweans still be fighting for all these basic freedoms and rights 37 years after independence. The next elections must be free, fair and credible; there is no excuse why that should not happen or why anyone even half a brain should accept being short changed on something as basic as this even one more time.

Nomusa Garikai said...

“The likelihood of an HIV positive mother giving birth to an HIV positive baby was at 40 percent, but because of treatment that we give it is now at 5,4 percent,” said Parirenyatwa.

“When you want to see the markers of an improving health system you look at issues like the life expectancy and the prevalence of epidemics such as HIV and AIDS. Our life expectancy had fallen to 37 years, but it has shot up to 59 years,” he added.

I find it hard to believe these figures give that unemployment is 90% plus and nearly ¾ of our people live on US$1.00 or less a day. Our health deliver system has all but collapse forcing, those who can afford it, to seek health care outside the country. Where poverty reigns there too will her companions hunger, disease and death will reside.

I have heard of doctors being instructed never to admit to any case of malnutrition.

I will not believe these official figures until they are verified and confirmed by an independent body.

Nomusa Garikai said...

“A former President of Zimbabwe, who has at any time since the 31st December 1987, been President of Zimbabwe for at least one full term of office, shall be entitled to the use and enjoyment of the following services and allowances,” read the notice.

So, VP Mphoko will get nothing since he served less than one full term.

If it can be proven beyond all reason doubt that the VP or President had rig the vote and was therefore illegitimate all these benefits fall away. After all no nation on earth would want to be seen as rewarding criminals! Proving that Zanu PF rigged the July 2013 elections is going to be a walk in the park!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Manyande

I think you should take some of your advice you give so freely!

“This is negative journalism at its worst. Sad article, clearly very pessimistic. Criticise yes, but try to balance the known and the unknown. Just a little positive energy goes a long way!” you say.

You criticise the writer for being negative and yet fail to give us even one example where she was unduly negative! The trouble with people like you is that you do not want the truth told. The prison conditions are not “fit for human habitation,” that is a fact which the First Lady acknowledged herself. The root cause is the corruption and greed of the filthy rich Zanu PF ruling elite another fact. Now you provide the “positive energy” from that!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Gift

The trouble with shallow minded people is that you do not think. It was not the "negative journalism", as you call it that got us into this mess - assuming you can see this as a mess - but the corruption and failure to hold free and fair elections and thus allowing the corrupt regime to stay in power all these last 37 years.

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Tinotenda

Yes “Brand Ambassador to team Zanu PF 2013”, it is idiots like you who have cheered and applauded Mugabe and Zanu PF and dragged as into this economic and political mess!

“This is dire embarrassment to the ethics of journalism. What did you want her to do? Become a replica Gucci Grace? I bemoan the editor's decision to publish such a laughable article. Learn to acknowledge others' good deed,” you say.

You should have had the common sense to change you tag name, you idiot. Until last month it was “Dr Amai Grace” and now it is “Gucci Grace”! For your own information there is no difference between Mugabe and Mnangagwa in that they are all incompetent, corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrants. All this euphoria that Zanu PF has somehow become a party of law abiding democrats is nonsense, Zanu PF is still a party of ruthless corrupt and vote rigging thugs with or without Mugabe.

Mai Mnangagwa does not have as large a collection of designer shoes as Grace Mugabe or any ambition to be president but only a fool you think she is a saint! She has benefited from the wholesale looting, vote rigging, etc. as many other Zanu PF members. Her visit to prison, hospital, etc. are publicity stunts no different from Grace Mugabe orphanage in Mazoe!

¾ of the people in Zimbabwe today live on US$1.00 or less a day because of the wholesale looting of these Zanu PF thieves. First Lady Mnangagwa has a photo opportunity where she is seen giving prisoners a loaf of bread and a can of coke (all paid for by the taxpayer) and we must all show our eternal gratitude! This is no different from slave-master who gives the slave a piece of soap and the latter is expected to grovel, smiling from ear to ear with gratitude. It is slave labour that has paid for the slave-master’s vast wealth and yet his thanks is a whip to any “cheeky nigger!” who fails to impress with his grovelling.

No doubt the First Lady will soon out on the election campaign trail with lorry loads of freebees (all paid for by taxpayers) to buy votes!

The slave who demand his freedom is considered cheeky just as Nomusa here is being considered cheeky for calling for free, fair and credible elections.

“Learn to acknowledge others' good deed!” Yeah right!