"The United States calls on all sides to come together immediately in national dialogue. The dialogue process must be credible, inclusive, and mediated by a neutral third party,” said US government deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino.
"In order for such a dialogue to succeed, the government of Zimbabwe should end its excessive violence and intimidation, immediately release the civil society activists who have been arbitrarily detained and hold security force members responsible for human rights violations and abuses accountable.
"We also reiterate our call for the government of Zimbabwe to enact promised political and economic reforms.”
We totally agree and support the Americans’ call for meaningful dialogue leading to meaningful political reforms - ie a democratic political dispensation whose starting point will be marked by the holding of free, fair and credible elections.
Given that both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance leaders were involved in the last Government of National Unity in 2008 to 2013 which failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform; it is imperative that the two parties are never given the impression they will play the dominant roles going forward.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because decades of failure to hold free, fair and credible elections ending up with the country being stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime, Zanu PF. The opposition parties, especially the MDC Alliance, have played their part in this by failing to implement the reforms even when they had the golden opportunity to do so.
What Zimbabwe needs is a chance for a fresh start. The country needs an interim administration that can be trusted to implement the democratic reforms required to dismantle the de facto one-party autocracy Zanu PF imposed on the nation. Neither Zanu PF nor MDC Alliance members can be trusted to carry out this task.
The recent use of wanton violence by this Zanu PF regime should be seen for what it is - the regime is holding the nation to ransom. Mnangagwa and his cronies must be told in no uncertain terms that what they are doing will not be tolerated and must stop forthwith.
6 comments:
Ncube's 2% tax is netting $50 million a month but at the cost of the usual lost freedoms, human rights and treasure and now human lives too. We really must do something to end the curse of bad governance.
There are many out there who know that President Mnangagwa rigged last July's elections and know that the economic meltdown will only get worse because investors and lenders do not do business in pariah states ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. They also know that the only working solution is to force Zanu PF to step down so the nation can have the political space for a fresh start. They cannot face up to Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs and tell them the truth and so they are coming with all manner of excuses to appease the regime.
After 38 years in which it has been shown that the more the nation appeased Zanu PF the more the thugs demanded, dragging the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth we now find ourselves in. It beggars belief how anyone would still think appeasing Zanu PF would get us out of this hell!
The people of Zimbabwe had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and the best of which were during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, you Mr Chamisa and your friends wasted them all, you failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. It is nonsensical to say the oppressed will alway prevail over the oppressors because that is not true.
Zimbabweans have moved from white colonial oppressors to Zanu PF oppression without a pause. Indeed, if MDC Alliance were to get into office, it is hard to see how life for the ordinary people will be any better given how corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders have already proven to be.
One of the things one has noted over the years is what opportunists many Zimbabwean politicians are. Remember Mai Mujuru and how she had defended Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF all her life until the day she was booted out of the party. “Puppies do not open their eyes the day they are born.” Yeah right! What breed of dog takes 34 years to open its eyes!
Tendai Biti was more like a pendulum, swing back and forth. He was a critic of Zanu PF and Mugabe when he wanted people to vote for him. During the GNU he joined other MDC leaders in singing praises of Mugabe. Mugabe was “the unflappable father of the nation and fountain of wisdom”, according to Biti. No wonder MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU; they did not want to do anything to annoy “fountain of wisdom”.
It was only after Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections and they had lost their gravy train seats that the MDC leaders started criticising Zanu PF again.
When Tendai Biti fell out with the late Morgan Tsvangirai, Bit even went so far as to consider Mugabe an angel compared to Tsvangirai. The hatred was mutual as Tsvangirai went out of his way to have Biti and all his break-away MPs and Senators booted out of parliament although he had no intention of trying to win the seat back!
Linda Masarira is showing the world that she too has now principles and will shoot from the hip if there is anything to be gained from it. MDC-T led by Thokosana Khupe failed to make any impact during last July’s elections and since then the party has become pro-Zanu PF. She was back to arguing the sanctions against Zanu PF leaders were imposed over the land issue.
“The reason why the Americans and their British counterparts wanted Zimbabwe to stick with the 1998 agreement on land reform was and still is to give back the whites the land they stole from us because they value land knowing that wealth is in the land,” she argued.
MDC-T is bending over backwards to please Zanu PF in the hope the party would be invited by Zanu PF to play a major role in the proposed talks as a counter weight to MDC Alliance. This is just opportunism on MDC-T’s party because they know that:
a) Zanu PF has denied Zimbabweans their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful vote. The regime has denied this was so and it is an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean that Zanu PF should have denied them their freedoms and rights and denied doing so regardless of the land issue.
b) For the 2018 elections the land issue was irrelevant because Zanu PF had already seized most of the white-owned land. Why Linda is bring it up now is because MDC-T is supporting Zanu PF over last year’s rigged elections and since it cannot justify that position on the basis of any current issues they are using historic ones to do so.
Zanu PF promised the create 2.2 million new jobs in the next five years before the 2013 elections. The party failed to create any new jobs and instead there was a net lose of job in the five years. The nation did not hold the party to account precisely because the people have no political power to do so. This is in fact a common theme everyone in Zimbabwe should be well aware of.
Why it has not clinked to many Zimbabweans out there that it is futile discussing such Zanu PF policies as the Bond Notes, the TSP, etc. when the people will be helpless to do anything to the party even if these policies are a total failure is a great mystery. How many times are the people going to be cheated before they finally realise they are being cheated!
There is no point in talking about the economic dimension when you have no political power to influence what happens much less punish the regime if it messes up!
@ Sarah
Tendai Biti is just a corrupt and incompetent politicians desperate for some limelight. Whether you call the local currency a Z$ or Bond Note is neither here or there.
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