Wednesday 28 February 2018

"Open for business will be determined by free media," argue Chinono - yes, but now not after elections

Let me start by thanking you brother Hopewell Chinono for the thoughtful articles on Zimbabwe in Zimeye and Nehanda Radio. I hope many Zimbabweans out there will take the time to read and digest them.

“Mugabe punched above his weight and with disastrous economic consequences to the country and citizens,” you said in one of the articles.

“Our government has been talking politics for far too long. It now needs to talk business, commerce and trade.  …. It is only commerce and trade that will see the realization of a new and successful Zimbabwe. That is the only language our political actors should be talking for now. We have had 17 years of experience to know that ideological outburst are just that, outbursts.”

There will not be many Zimbabweans out there would disagree that former President Robert Mugabe punched way above his weight; one blast of ideological nonsense after another, mostly; with disastrous economic and political consequences to the nation.

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has seen the country fall from its perch in 1980 as the jewel of Africa with robust economy, the breadbasket of the region and with the potential to be the South Korea of Africa. Today the country cannot even feed its own people, unemployment has soared to 90%, most basic services like education and health have all but collapsed, etc. ¾ of our people now live on US$1.00 or less a day.

Zimbabwe people are the poorest in Africa!

The only reason why Zimbabweans could not shut Mugabe up even when we all knew the “ideological outbursts are just that, outbursts”, is because the tyrant had usurped the people’s basic freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life!  

The people of went out in the street to celebrate on 18 November 2017 when they learned Mugabe had resigned; just the thought that they will never again have to hear any more of the nonsense was a welcome relief! But that was nothing more than everyone celebrating the first rains to mark the end of a particularly long drought. We have work to do!

Whilst I acknowledge that we need to do everything to revive the economy as quickly as possible I am, however, minded to point out our economic meltdown itself a consequence of our failed political system. We could not remove Mugabe and his cronies from office even when it was self-evident the regime was corrupt and incompetent. For us to therefore focus on the economy and fail to address the political dimension will get us nowhere!

“The President’s clarion call is that Zimbabwe is open for business, how he will deal with the German issue (farms seized from the German nationals) will show whether Zimbabwe is indeed open for business. Most western diplomats are convinced that Zanu PF will win the upcoming general elections. It is what it will do with that mandate that will determine whether we have indeed put the Mugabe years behind us,” Chinono argued.

“Open for business will be determined by a free media, respect for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, adherence to constitutionalism, prosecution of corrupt government officials and so on. Capital is afraid of flowing where all the above are missing.”

I agree that capital will shy away if the country does not address the democratic deficiencies that has earned Zimbabwe the pariah state status all these years. The point is we should insist in having all these democratic deficiencies addressed now and not after the elections.

President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections and yet he has done nothing ever since coming to office to make this possible.

He was not just a senior member of Mugabe’s government for 37 years, he was the tyrant’s second in command when it comes to the political shenanigans to undermine the country’s democratic system and he carried out most of the vote rigging, political violence and the looting to finance the regime’s dirty political activities. President Mnangagwa does not need reminding on what democratic reforms are required to ensure free and fair elections; he knows them all!

If President Mnangagwa does not implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair election, then the people of Zimbabwe must refuse to participate in yet another flawed and illegal electoral process. There is only one reason why President Mnangagwa and his Junta partners will not want to implement the reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections – they, like Mugabe before them, do not want the people to be held them to democratic account!

The people of Zimbabwe must demand the full restoration of their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe.

Economic recovery is tied to good governance which in turn is tied to free, fair and credible elections. How President Mnangagwa deals with the German issue is important but, without the reforms, that would be wilfully inadequate.


Zimbabweans have waited for good governance and the first free and fair elections for 38 years they is no excuse why they should have to wait for another day!

6 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

"Open for business will be determined by a free media, respect for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, adherence to constitutionalism, prosecution of corrupt government officials and so on. Capital is afraid of flowing where all the above are missing."

I agree that capital will shy away if the country does not address the democratic deficiencies that has earned Zimbabwe the pariah state status all these years. The point is we should insist in having all these democratic deficiencies addressed now and not after the elections.

President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections and yet he has done nothing ever since coming to office to make this possible.

It is not so much Ambassador Lang who would be disappointed if we should ourselves once again stuck with President Mnangagwa and his Junta; the people of Zimbabwe will be disappointed but will only have themselves to blame for having failed to secure their democratic freedoms and rights up front!

Nomusa Garikai said...

Part 1 of 2

The only political matter on the national agenda since the November coup is demands for the new regime to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. And for some strange reason Hopewell Chinono is saying we should take this off the national agenda.

"Our government has been talking politics for far too long. It now needs to talk business, commerce and trade. …. It is only commerce and trade that will see the realization of a new and successful Zimbabwe. That is the only language our political actors should be talking for now," he is arguing.

He was the matter of the "democratic deficiencies", as you call them, postponed until after the elections and even then only brought up in the context of the economy.

"The President's clarion call is that Zimbabwe is open for business, how he will deal with the German issue (farms seized from the German nationals) will show whether Zimbabwe is indeed open for business. Most western diplomats are convinced that Zanu PF will win the upcoming general elections. It is what it will do with that mandate that will determine whether we have indeed put the Mugabe years behind us," Chinono argued.
"Open for business will be determined by a free media, respect for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, adherence to constitutionalism, prosecution of corrupt government officials and so on. Capital is afraid of flowing where all the above are missing."
I have four points here:

1) The first point and by far the most important point to be made here is Hopewell Chinono has completely failed to understand that if President Mnangagwa was a true democrat committed to a new progressive and democratic Zimbabwe he would have implemented all the democratic freedoms and rights with any further ado. President Mnangagwa staged the November coup to restore the legacy, of himself, those like Mutsvangwa who too had been fire from the party and government and all those like Chiwenga who knew their numbers were up getting back into power. They not only wanted political power but all the Zanu PF dictatorial powers including the power to rig elections which underpinned the party's no-regime change mantra.

2) The freedoms and basic human rights of the ordinary people, including the right to free and fair elections, are inalienable, they should have never been denied in the first place. The suggestion that they should be put on the back burner in the interest of promoting economic recovery is pure mischievous. To concede to such a proposal is to concede to the freedoms and rights alienable.

3) It is pure nonsense to suggest that granting of the individual freedoms and rights would, in any way interfere with the implementation of the economic reforms.

Nomusa Garikai said...

Part 2 of 2

4) Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess precisely because the people had lost their fundamental freedoms and rights including the right to hold the government of the day to account. To allow the Zanu PF regime to continue to enjoy these oppressive and tyrannical power is madness. The argument that Mnangagwa is not a tyrant like Mugabe and therefore should be allowed to return the oppressive power is irrelevant as no one, tyrant or democrat should ever be allowed to have tyrannical powers.

5) To suggest the people should give their democratic mandate to Zanu PF without a firm commitment by the regime to reform and hope to get the regime to implement the reforms afterwards is foolish because we all know it is not in the DNA of politicians to give up power, especially regimes his grip on power is totally dependent on holding on to their undemocratic powers

With Professor Jonathan Moyo now out of the picture there is a vacancy for a chief minister of propaganda; Chinono has failed to give there even one rational reason why Zimbabweans must stop demanding the implementation of reforms, all he is offering here is propaganda to justify why the regime should not be punished to failing to implement reforms; Chinono must be fancying himself as Mnangagwa's spin doctor! From what he has written one can see he is very articulate but , more significantly as far as Mnangagwa is concerned, he has no qualms selling out the nation's freedom, human dignity, everything for the regime!

Nomusa Garikai said...

"Job I have failed to have confidence that none of them will be able to continue with my legacy in the event that anything happens to me. I have done this as an alternative measure so that I open the race to everyone. So that anybody that is interested has an opportunity to be heard. However, I specifically did the appointment of the two vice presidents because I have got no confidence in all of the current top leadership of the party," said Tsvangirai.
On July 15, 2016, Tsvangirai appointed Chamisa and Mudzuri as vice presidents in a move that was seen as an attempt to map out a succession roadmap.
The sheer arrogance of Tsvangirai is nauseating, here is the man who has blundered from pillar to post ever since he staggered onto the political stage as MDC leaders. He has failed to get even one democratic reform implemented even when he had the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU. And yet he considers himself talented none of followers are competent to lead after him, which explains why he had the two-term limit clause remove from the party's constitution and why he refused to give up the leadership even when his health was failing.

Nomusa Garikai said...

"My government is fully committed to the holding of free, fair and credible elections which are in line with Southern African Development Community and African Union principles and guidelines governing democratic elections," said President Mnangagwa.

Which SADC is he talking about? The SADC we all know was very clear to both Zanu PF and MDC that Zimbabwe should not hold elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop the blatant cheating and wanton violence which had marred past elections.

"If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done," SADC leaders had warned the MDC leaders before the 2013 election.

MDC leaders paid no heed and we all know what happened. Still with not even one reforms was implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections, it is already clear Zanu PF is going to rig this year's elections.

If the regime got away with the November coup by calling if a "military assisted transition" and thinks it can therefore also get away with rigging the elections and call them 'free, fair and credible'; it has something else coming!

Nomusa Garikai said...

The demand for free, fair and credible is not negotiable. SADC leaders have already said Zimbabwe must implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections following the rigged 2008 elections. No one, not even those in Zanu PF, can deny that none of the reforms were implemented during the GNU and since the rigged 2013 elections.

SADC leaders told both Zanu PF and MDC leaders in June 2013 that elections must be postponed to allow the reforms to be implemented before the 2013 elections. Since no reforms have ever been implemented, SADC's position has not changed - NO ELECTIONS WITHOUT REFORMS.

Zanu PF keeps promising free and fair elections but has done absolutely nothing to implement even one reform.