Many people held Strive Masiyiwa in high regard, not until the heard him say “Mnangagwa was sincere” in seeking meaningful political and economic change in Zimbabwe. Masiyiwa also argued that the sanctions imposed of the Zanu PF dictatorship should be lifted.
The statements are totally divorced from the political and economic reality in Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa has just rigged the recent elections, for example; was he being sincere in keeping his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections! It was little wonder that all those with a working brain, Zimbabweans and foreigners alike, were outraged by Masiyiwa’s foolish statements and told him so in no uncertain terms.
Someone should have told Masiyiwa that when you are in a hole, stop digging because in his attempt to explain his foolish statement he has only dug an even deeper hole for himself!
“As an entrepreneur, on many occasions I have had initiatives for my country Zimbabwe, which could have created tens of thousands of new jobs. When I have discussed them with either investors or banks, they have turned me away, saying:
"We don't want to violate the sanctions in your country.” Wrote Masiyiwa.
“I have documents and emails from bankers and investors. I tried so hard to persuade some of them, often suggesting that they are not interpreting the sanctions correctly.
“In my case I was forced to go to China to secure loans to support our Zimbabwean businesses. But this was not always ideal. I have spoken about it publicly on many occasions even in the US and China itself.”
The sanctions imposed by the western nations targeted specific individuals and companies and unless your proposed projects involved working with any of those on the targeted list then there was no reason why the would-be investors refused to fund you. As you yourself acknowledge some failed to interpret the sanctions correctly.
Your whole argument to have the sanctions lifted is nonsensical is discussed in isolation, one must consider why the sanctions were imposed. The Americans spelt out in detail what the Zanu PF government had to do to ensure the recent elections were free, fair and credible. Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the elections and so the sanction stayed.
It is shocking that anyone who with half a brain would ever call the person who has just committed high treason, rigging elections is high treason, “sincere”!
By rigging the elections, Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. A hell lot more investors and lenders have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe not so much because there are these targeted sanctions but because the country is pariah state.
Whilst sanctions have costed the country tens of thousands of new jobs; being a pariah state has costed the nation the millions of existing jobs with companies closing and millions of new jobs in lost investment opportunities.
“Now, if Zimbabwe had been a person who committed a crime, for which they went to prison, would you not say 20 years is enough? Zimbabwe has served its prison time. It's time for the country to be given a chance to get back on its feet,” continued Masiyiwa.
To start with it is not Zimbabwe or ordinary Zimbabweans who “committed a crime” it is President Mnangagwa and his junta who committed high treason in systematically denying the people their freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life itself. The ordinary people are the victims of the corrupt and tyrannical regime.
How can you say Mnangagwa and his junta have “served their prison time” when they just blatantly rigged the elections and on the 1st August had seven unarmed civilians shot dead by the army? A warning the regime will shot to kill all those who dare raise their voice again its continued tyrannical rule.
Zimbabwe will never ever register any meaningful economic recovery as long as the country remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. NEVER EVER!
7 comments:
@ Steve Hanke
Renowned economist and currency expert, Professor Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University has advised ZANU PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa to adopt the strategy of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister.
The executives appear to behave as if they own the money, and can do as they please with it. Zimbabwean depositers have been swindled without mercy. The looters have gotten away with robbery. It is said the best way to rob a bank is to own one, precisely what Obert Mpofu did. The clever crooks in Zimbabwe figured out an easier path than owning a bank; secure a position as an executive so that you can steal from the poor with complete impunity.
Bank executives know that they can abuse poor Zimbabwean depositers since the executives know fully well that they have the government on a leash and completely pacified with some of the filthy lucre. The bankers have allowed the government to participate in the grand larceny. It was none other than Robert Mugabe who openly said so. Speaking at a rally in Bindura, he told us that the government can no longer go to the banks to get money because companies and individuals have stopped depositing their money in the banks. Here we were told that the government was simply taking the depositers’ money for the sake of running the nation. The owners of the money had no say in that one. As far as getting that money back, the depositers can simply forget about it!
The fact that we have crooks and liars in full control of our government and financial sector kills even the slightest notion that Zimbabwe can replicate what Singapore has accomplished. No sane person will put any money in a Zimbabwean bank.
4. Lastly, Singapore is politically stable. The stability is a function of the booming economy. Zimbabwe is politically dead. It is a zombie nation, a nation of the walking dead run by a government of the walking dead. Zimbabwe is literally a political graveyard. Such a state of affairs can only be good for morticians and grave diggers. Zimbabwe is not Singapore, and will never come anywhere near Singapore for as long as ZANU(PF) is around.
Do I see promising congruities between Zimbabwe and Singapore? You bet, I do! However, I shall keep this to myself until the right time comes!
This makes sad reading the more so because it is true. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the recent elections and yet it is shocking that many Zimbabweans out there have no clue what happened. The regime failed to produce something as basic a verified voters’ roll, mention that to many Zimbabweans and you will be greeted with blank faces, it is all Greek to them! Only an electorate that is politically dead would have no clue what constitutes free and fair elections.
Zimbabwe is in deep, deep trouble, 38 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical rule by this Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country's economy in ruins and the people reduced to serfs with no freedoms and basic rights. Mnangagwa and his junta have claimed the country had turned the corner for the better since the ouster of Robert Mugabe and a few around him in last November's military coup.
A years latter it is clear that nothing has changed. Even those who had wanted to ignore the tell-tale signs the dictatorship was alive and well were finally forced to admit Zimbabwe is still a pariah state when Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the elections.
The sanctions were imposed for the purpose of forcing Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections, the only credible way to end the dictatorship and lift the pariah state curse. Ending the dictatorship is the most pressing issue of our generation; the 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule has taken a heavy toll on the nation, the economic and political situation is unsustainable. The country is standing on the edge of a precipice, if nothing is done to end the dictatorship Zanu PF will drag the nation over the edge.
It is therefore disgusting and unforgivable that some like Strive Masiyiwa should choose to falsify the facts and reality; talk of Mnangagwa being sincere and deserving to be given a chance to rule knowing fully well Mnangagwa is a corrupt and vote rigging tyrant who is determined to retain the dictatorship at all cost.
"I BELONG TO EVERYBODY, AND I BELONG TO NOBODY”
What a feeble excuse to justify selling out! No one is asking you to belong to them; what we are demanding is for you to stop spreading falsehoods of Mnangagwa being a sincere man when the tyrant is dragging the nation into the abyss!
People like Strive Masiyiwa are dangerously naive. He clearly believes that Zimbabwe can still be a stable and prosperous nation even if nothing is done to end the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The country is in this economic and political mess precisely because the nation has beeb stuck with the regime these last 38 years. In all these years the nation has marched deeper and deeper into this hell.
After nearly a year in power in power, one thing is clear the nation is blundering deeper and deeper into this hell. By rigging the elections Mnangagwa has just slammed the doors shut to all would-be investors. No investor would ever want to do business in a politically and economically unstable nation - which is what a pariah state is. It really defies belief how Masiyiwa could ever claim that Mnangagwa was sincere about bring political and economic change when he was dinging the exact opposite.
After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule that has left millions of our people is abject poverty and the nation dangerous poised for total economic collapse and social chaos or worse; the only real challenge here is whether we have the courage to demand change before it is too late! Village idiots like Masiyiwa are asking the nation to give Mnangagwa a chance to destroy the nation and we must stand up and say no to that!
@ Nqaba Matshazi
“One of the issues that has dominated the Zimbabwe political landscape for a while is the matter of sanctions, with campaigners for their removal saying they are holding back Zimbabwe, but I argue this is nothing but a red herring from people who really do not want to confront the biggest problem that the country is facing,” you wrote.
“Sanctions are inherently bad and must be condemned. But there is a context and calling for the removal of sanctions without addressing why they were put in place in the first place is akin to treating symptoms, a disingenuous exercise.
“The worst sanctions that Zimbabwe faces are inflicted by the government s inaction when it comes to fully implementing the constitution.
“America also wants Zimbabwe to hold an immediate inquiry into the disappearance of prominent human rights activists such as Patrick Nabanyama, Itai Dzamara, and Paul Chizuze.
“Can anyone tell me what is wrong with these demands? I hear some saying we are a sovereign nation and America cannot dictate to us what to do, and so is America, a sovereign nation which can choose who to deal with and who not to conduct business with.
“These are legitimate demands, which are enshrined in our constitution, but surprisingly those that want sanctions removed are mum about such violations of our constitution.
“If Zimbabwe is serious about the removal of sanctions, then it knows what it has to do, instead of hollow pronouncements that in the end count for nothing.
“The worst form of sanctions that Zimbabwe suffers from is the failure by its own government to uphold the rule of law and implement the constitution.
“As any person would know, any strategist would say let s deal with what is in our control first and then take on external factors next. Instead, we are more preoccupied with external issues instead of putting our house in order.”
Thank you for the excellent article. One hopes that there are a few more rational individuals like you; if so then there is hope of Zimbabwe pulling itself out of the hell-hole Zanu PF landed us in.
One of the key democratic reforms Zimbabwe has been crying to be implemented is the one designed to deliver freedom of expression and ensuring we has a free and independent media. Our people have been brainwashed so much so they have failed to see the common sense of addressing “what is in our control first and then take on external factors next”, as you put it.
Zanu PF propaganda has left the people so thoroughly brainwashed they have often completely failed to recognise nothing else other than the external factors. It is common to hear people complaining about how sanctions are responsible for the country’s economic meltdown; they will not even accept that mismanagement and corruptions have played a part.
Sanctions were imposed in 2001 and by then the country’s economy was clearly in trouble because we had already had the two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes starting in 1990. Such basic facts go in one ear and out the next without even leaving as much as a footprint in the brain-dead Zimbabweans.
It is very disappointing when people like Strive Masiyiwa, some one people expect to have some working grey stuff between his ears, focus on sanctions as the big issue and says nothing about political reforms.
@ Conway Tutani
The Zimbabwe you are talking about is not the real Zimbabwe we know!
“It’s now up to those supporters to open their eyes and see for themselves that what they are being told is at variance with the reality on the ground which shows political freedom has been greatly broadened —as observed not only by Masiyiwa, but even by the international community. But this should not be confused with having a free-for-all fight with no rules and no limits,” you say.
“To quote civil rights lawyer Zechariah Chafee, "the right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins", meaning your freedom ends where my freedom begins, that you cannot have the freedom to do whatever you want — like openly calling for rebellion using all sorts of gratuitous insults — and then cry foul when you are arrested”
The EU, the Americans and all the nations with a history of holding free, fair and credible elections have all condemned Zimbabwe’s recent elections. No one cares what a countries like China said on the matter since they do not hold free and fair democratic elections. So which international community has “observed the greatly broadened political freedoms” in Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Zimbabwe, under Mnangagwa, is still a pariah state ruled, except for Mugabe and a few who were booted out, by the same corrupt and vote rigging thugs!
38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule has left 75% of our people living in abject poverty and hopeless despair. The nation has been pushed right up to the edge of the precipice; this is socially and politically unsustainable; the danger of total economic collapse and riots breaking out to protest the heartbreaking suffering is real and eminent.
We must stop burying our heads in the sand and pretend, given time, the Zanu PF dictatorship will finally deliver economic recovery after 38 years of doing the exact opposite! Whilst people like Masiyiwa can afford to give Mnangagwa a chance the millions living on US$1.00 or less a day cannot afford it, time has long run out for them.
I admire your passion! But if we are serious about getting out of the mess we are in we will need to step up our game beyond passion.
People must understand HOW Zanu PF rigged the recent elections, for example, and not just say the elections were rigged!
Yes, it is good to get people out on the streets to say: "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" It is even better if these people have a clear idea what they want to happen next if Mnangagwa was to resign!
German ambassador to Zimbabwe, Thorsten Hutter, has revealed that his country is ready to engage with Zimbabwe, calling on government to reduce its budget deficit in order to boost investor confidence.
He said the government’s excessive spending does not aspire investor confidence.
Reducing budget deficit; hold free, fair and credible elections; pay off debt arrears; restore the rule of law; these are some of the many things Zanu PF must do to restore investor confidence. The only realistic hope of having these things done properly is for President Mnangagwa and his junta to step down and allow the appointment of an interim administration to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
In 1979 Ian Smith accepted the game was up and negotiated to end the civil war and a peaceful transition from white colonial rule to black majority rule. Mnangagwa should know the game is up for him since he rigged the elections but cannot rig economic recovery. Sadly one cannot expect Mnangagwa to accept stepping down given his Colonel Gaddafi mentality of hanging on to power to the bitter end.
The longer Mnangagwa hangs on to power the bitter the end will be!
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