Tuesday 19 December 2017

"Sanction undermine Mnangagwa's economic recover," says Daily News - blackmail and base thuggery W Mukori

The Daily News has waded into the current debate on whether or not Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa and Dewa Mavhinga of Human Rights Watch were right to recommend that sanctions against the Zanu PF regime should be retained. Daily News’ staunch anti-sanction position has not only betrayed its commitment to educate and inform the public but left it with that sinking feeling; it has waded into pond believing itself a duck only to discover it is a chicken!

“Their testimonies triggered a public backlash as there were seen as undermining President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government and his own commitment to making sweeping electoral reforms before the 2018 elections are held,” commented the Daily News.

“What infuriated most Zimbabweans was the recommendation to the US government to maintain sanctions against Zimbabwe until Mnangagwa's administration had instituted democratic and electoral reforms as demanded by the opposition and local civic society organisations.

The people of Zimbabwe have the right to expect their newspapers, at least those pretending to be independent, to inform and educate them and not to be parroting the narrow views of the Zanu PF ruling elite and their paid acolytes in Herald House and Pocket Hill. The three gentlemen were right in saying the departure of Mugabe did not change the Zanu PF; it is still a ruthless dictatorship. A black mamba that has shed its old coat does not seize to be a dead snake black!

If the Daily News believes, the removal of Mugabe and one or two others from Zanu PF has transformed the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs into law-abiding democrats; then it must should say so. It will be asked to provide some damn reasons to backup its position.

Even if the Daily News can provide convincing evidence to prove Zanu PF has indeed under gone the equivalent of the black mamba evolving into some delicious fish; still the three gentlemen are entitled to express their doubts and to call for caution. The call for sanctions to remain until the Mnangagwa administration has proven itself beyond all doubt is still very logical.

The claim that sanctions will “undermine” the regime’s ability to implement its reform agenda is pure nonsense. Unless the paper produces the evidence, the claim must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves!

“The majority of ordinary Zimbabweans is concerned by bread and butter issues and would want to see if Mnangagwa can depart from Mugabe's previous ruinous polices and improve livelihoods,” continued Daily News.

“No well-meaning Zimbabwean would want to hear about sanctions especially at a time there is hope that the departure of Mugabe could lead to a new beginning for the suffering lot. Rights groups and the MDC appear to be driven by self-interests to the detriment of the ordinary citizens considering that they decided to arrive at the conclusion of having the US maintain sanctions without having presented their demands to Mnangagwa's government.

If this was boxing, the reporter would be disqualified and banned from boxing for life for hitting below the belt.

With unemployment at a nauseating height of 90%, basic services such as clean running water a thing of the past, etc. and with ¾ of our people living on US$1.00 or less a day. Of course, every Zimbabweans is very concerned about the bread and butter issues! The more reason we should deal with these issues honestly and with the seriousness the matter demands. It is therefore irresponsible to suggest sanctions are the cause of the economic meltdown when that is just cheap propaganda.

The root cause of the country’s economic meltdown is the decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions. No nation of earth can sustain the loss of $15 billion very two years, by Mugabe’s own admission, for example; much less a country like Zimbabwe with a GDP of $10 billion. The mismanagement and corruption have grown and spread for the last 37 to the killer cancerous tumour they are today because the nation was stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime. Zanu PF has rigged elections to stay and hence the reason the people have watched the country being destroyed and were helpless to do anything to stop it.

Every thinking Zimbabwean has supported the imposing of the sanctions from the word go because it has been one way to pressure the Zanu PF dictatorship to hold free and fair elections. The idea of imposing sanction to pressure the regime is not new or unique. UN sanctions were imposed on Ian Smith’s white racist regime to pressure it to black oppression.

It is ironic that many of blacks who are dead against the imposition of any sanctions on this Zanu PF dictatorship supported the imposition of the sanctions on the Smith regime. They are hypocrites who do not care about the suffering of the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans, the victims of the regime’s failed and oppressive rule. The philosophical argument to justify the sanctions has not changed and it is still valid.

Whilst the imposition of the sanctions will cause short-term hardships these must be balanced against the short, medium and long-term hardships brought on by the failure to remove a corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging regime. The very fact that the Zanu PF regime has lasted these last 37 years allow corruption to grow and spread to the killer tumour it is today goes to show even tougher UN sanctions should have been imposed.

Zimbabwe cannot afford another rig election and be dragged even deeper into this economic and political mess. The call to lift the sanctions just because the Zanu PF dictatorship has replaced its old figure head for another given the seriousness and urgency of the country’s situation is therefore preposterous. If anything, the sanctions must be stepped up just to be absolutely certain next year’s elections are free, fair and credible.

“And considering that Mnangagwa and his government have been in office for less than a month, the actions of the MDC and the rights group expose lack of serious strategy needed by the opposition to conjure up a new narrative,” Daily News report concluded.

“Where Zimbabwe stands today needs a new thrust by politicians - the MDC included - to chart a new beginning. The sanctions mantra, whether for or against, does not work anymore because the biggest story right now is that of bread and better issues.

Nonsense. Nothing President Mnangagwa announcing the scrapping the obnoxious Ministry of Information cum Propaganda in his inauguration speech and telling the nation there and then that every Zimbabwean will enjoy their freedom of expression and the country will have a free media, for example!

Talk of a “new narrative, new beginning, a new Zimbabwe and a new Zimbabwean”; what could be better than that very Zimbabwean out there must demand their freedoms and their human rights including the right to free and fair elections are their birth right. The country is in this economic and political mess because we have allowed the Zanu PF thugs short change us and ride roughshod over our dreams, hopes and our very humanity. Enough is enough!

Sanctions were imposed to force Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections and therefore they must remain until the regime restore all our individual freedoms and human rights including the right to free elections. There is nothing in the sanction to stop Zanu PF implementing the democratic reforms and all suggestions to the contrary is blackmail; no nation worth its salt will succumb to base thuggery! 

6 comments:

Nomusa Garikai said...

There is no excuse for contesting flawed elections, we know all we need to know about how Zanu PF rigs elections and we do not need the lesson repeated. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have never contested the July 2013 elections as SADC leaders had rightly advised.


MDC leaders promised after the July 2013 election "No reform, no elections!" We, the people must hold them to account and make sure they honour that resolution! Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged elections!

Nomusa Garikai said...

@ Farai Maguwu
Now with Generals masquerading as cabinet officials, the biggest weakness of Mnangagwa’s government is capacity. The Generals will continue to see everything through the military lenses. Failure is certain. Violence shall be used to suppress dissent but violence has a threshold and this limit will be reached soon.

Thus the military coup is only but a painkiller that will momentarily suppress the ZANU PF illness without taking it out. The demise of ZANU PF is imminent as the party has no capacity or desire to reform. ZANU PF has failed even to learn from fellow liberation movements such as ANC which has cultivated a rich culture of internal democracy. Only yesterday Cyril Ramaphosa won a hotly contested ANC election whilst ZANU PF spent millions of dollars to ENDORSE Emmerson Mnangagwa as party first secretary and President whom they mandated to APPOINT his Politburo. In ANC the top 6 was elected by the Congress but in ZANU PF they are appointed by an individual. This is the hallmark of an outdated and dying political institution.
ZANU PF will fall from power within the next 5 – 10 years and thereafter the party will be in the same category with the Nazi party of Germany.
You are spot on there. What makes our case such a tragic tale is we had a golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended Zanu PF’s reign of terror and MDC wasted it. They had five years to implement the reforms and failed to get even one reform implemented.
If we play our cards rights, we can still force this Zanu PF dictatorship to revisit the reforms if we can show next year’s elections are a sham. With the opposition contest the flawed elections and giving the process some credibility, this may not be easy to achieve!

Nomusa Garikai said...

These are the same individuals who have imposed the Zanu PF dictatorship on the nation by rigging elections. No one who object to anyone getting into power as long as they have done so through free, fair and credible elections!

Zimbabwe Light said...

President Mnangagwa thanked Gen Chiwenga for showing consistency and steadfastness during his tenure.

“I, therefore, urge you to maintain the same loyalty, robustness and dedication to duty as you move to your next assignment which is quite prominent.”

“Our Defence Forces are renowned and respected nationally, regionally and internationally for their professional conduct of duties,” he said.

After 37 years of absolute power it is not surprising that Zanu PF thugs have grown to believe that they are invincible and infallible. The world and reality is whatever they say it is. The regime is one of the most corrupt and tyrannical regime in modern history, they have destroyed the country’s once promising economy and murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabwe in their 37 years reign of terror but to hear them speak, you would think they brought the golden age to rival that of Greece.

The ZDF has a checked history of corruption, vote rigging, staging coups and violence against innocent civilians including murders for selfish political; many of the top brass leaders should have been locked up a long time ago. And yet the same thugs are being showered with praise as exemplary professionals.

The coup last month has consolidated the Zanu PF dictatorship’s hold on power and all those in power today have all been in power all along and amassed a lot of wealth and skeletons too. Still, their hunger for power and wealth is razor sharp.

The state of Zimbabwe’s economy and the tragic human suffering it has brought says the nation is desperate for meaningful political change without which there will be very little economic recover. Mnangagwa and his cabal are so desperate to hang on to power, they will kill for it just as Mugabe has taught them how.

It is moment like this that the seriousness of MDC’s failure to implement the reforms during the GNU hits home and hit hard. If only Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not sold-out, we would not be looking up the barrel of the gun with dread. If only!

Zimbabwe Light said...

Trust Ziwake That is very true, MDC should have implemented the reforms during the GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so. What matters most now is that we do whatever we can to ensure next year's elections are free and and fair. Keeping the sanctions is one of the few options we have to pressure Zanu PF to implement reforms and it will be foolish of us to disregard the sanction.

Zimbabwe Light said...

Zanu PF is a party of thugs and like all thugs they never want the details of their past wrong doing discussed and, instead, want to ram their "let bygone be bygone" mantra down our throats. This is a well-established tactic by bullies and we must resist falling into that trap. We must insist in discussing the details of the past wrong doings and make sure those responsible are punished. Forgiveness, regardless how well intended it might be must not be allowed to interfere with the law and justice.

Zanu PF thugs have ridden rough shod over our freedoms, human rights, hope and dreams for the last 37 years. They have rigged elections to stay in power and they have even stage a coup against one of their own dictator. The issue of free and fair elections is central to the country's economic recovery and political stability and it is therefore of paramount importance that the truth behind rigged elections and political coups must be examined thorough and not swept under the carpet under the pretext of let bygones be bygones.

If we do not know how elections were rigged in the past how can we be sure this will not happen again next year?

President Mnangagwa can repeat "let bygones be bygones" a thousand times a day but he must be told in no uncertain terms that the blood-stained hatchet will not be buried until the murderous thugs responsible for the heinous crime are behind bars!

The law is there for the sole purpose of protecting us all from those who would disregard the law for selfish gain. The worst thing society can do is to undermine the law to appease those who have broken the law. All society has done is open the Pandora’s Box because without the law the criminals will run riot!

President Mnangagwa has not even admitted that Zanu PF rigged past elections and yet has been promising that next year’s elections will be free, fair and credible! How can that be possible when he has not implemented even one reform designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote. This is just as preposterous as allowing a known multiple murderer go free and take his murder weapons with him and hope against hope that he has forgotten how to use them!