Chaos and confusion is when one says this, second says that and third says something else which is neither this nor that! It is bad enough when it is the ordinary people who are confused it is a serious matter when it is those in positions of power and authority whose decisions affect us all!
Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess right now. The national economic is in total meltdown 2/4 of the population are living in abject poverty and many are dying for want of US$5 of medicine. The economic situation is unsustainable and the nation’s political leaders have no clue what to do.
President Mnangagwa has his 30 member strong cabinet, 2/3 majority in parliament and senate to chart the way forward. If he should need any back-up, he can call upon Mugabe’s old cabinet members, permanent secretaries, etc. whom he has put out to pasture on their full salaries and allowance. And, if he still needs help, he has appointed a 24 member President Advisory Council including luminaries such as Trevor Ncube.
Sadly, 8 months since the new government took office it is clear the country’s economic problems are getting worse and not better. President Mnangagwa has proposed the formation of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) forum comprising all the 23 presidential candidates in last year’s elections plus other selected stakeholders. The forum will be tasked to formulate solutions to end the economic turmoil.
Most of the other opposition leaders have agreed to join Mnangagwa’s dialogue forum; Chamisa has refused because he was a Transition Authority (TA) in which he and a some of his MDC A leaders will be given cabinet positions.
The TA is just a watered down version of the 2008 to 2013 GNU in which MDC members a tiny minority in cabinet, parliament and senate and therefore will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for!
Not one to accept being left out Norton Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa has come up with his own proposal. "What the country needs isn't GNU but a Govt of National Reconstruction (GNR). Admittedly Zimbabwe has suffered over decades, so no matter the vision one has, you can't begin to tackle the challenges without a team of competent, passionate Zimbabweans the world over with focus on Zimbabwe first."Mliswa proposed.
Mliswa added that Mnangagwa must appoint members of that government from other places other than ZANU PF.
"This team with all its expertise will then "reconstruct" the country. Without this we aren't going anywhere Mnangagwa needs to be very strategic on appointing such a team. He's given his Party a chance & now it's time to give the Nation a chance.”
So the emerging consensus is that the nation needs a body of persons; let us put to one side what name to give it after all GNU, POLAD, TA, GNR, etc. is all semantics; to chart the nation’s way out of this mess. The other emerging consensus is that President Mnangagwa will president over the appointment of the individual members in this body.
The question that must be answered is; what is there to suggest that Mnangagwa is competent to select the individuals?
It must be remember here that he is the one who selected the 30 member cabinet, selected the 2/3 Zanu PF majority in parliament and senate by rigged last year’s elections, kept the Mugabe deadwood cabinet and appointed the 24 member PAC and they have all without exception proven to be utterly useless. This POLAD, GNR or whatever name it is given will be a waste of the nation’s time, energy and treasure.
All the solutions proffered above have one thing in common; they all seek to legitimacy Mnangagwa and Zanu PF and allow the regime to remain in office till 2023 elections. If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023, the party will see to it that no meaningful reforms ever see the light of day and Zanu PF will rig the elections.
In the worsening economic meltdown, Zimbabwe is facing a real, serious and urgent existential threat, the country does not have the time, energy and treasure to waste on gimmick solutions. The only viable solution is for Zanu PF to step down; the party rigged last July’s elections and is, ipso facto illegitimate and should not even be in power.
Zimbabwe needs to suspend the illegitimate and dysfunctional Zanu PF presidency, parliament, etc. to create the space for the appointment of interim administration; as happened following the rigged 2008 elections to create the GNU.
Whilst both Zanu PF and MDC leaders were allowed to play leading roles in the GNU they will be expressly excluded from holding an office in the interim administration. They failed to implement even one reform last time and, since reforms are still the number one priority, we must not risk that happening again.
The principle challenge right now is that Zanu PF is illegitimate and must step down and those seeking to appease Mnangagwa by offering excuses to hang on are undermining the efforts of those demanding he steps down. As for how or who will select the members of the interim administration that is a minor issue that can easily be settled in one afternoon. International organisation like the UN can step in to advise and even supply the supporting staff.
We must get Mnangagwa to step down and stop wasting time with these TA, GNR, etc. gimmicks! Mnangagwa rigged last July’s elections, he is illegitimate and must go; that is no negotiable.
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In a development that could collapse the already troubled Zimbabwe health care system, nurses at public health institutions have announced that they are, with immediate effect, reducing their working week to two days.
This has been attributed to poor salaries and cost of transport.
This was bound to happen! If the nurses’ salary is barely enough to cover their transport cost for two days then they will come to work for two days only. Where would they get the money to pay for the other days?
The tragedy is that the sick need health care 24/7 and so the consequences of the 24/2 reduced service is that there will be more suffering and deaths; suffering and deaths that could have been easily avoided.
The elephant in the Zimbabwe house is the Zanu PF dictatorship. For the last 39 years we have all watched this corrupt and tyrannical regime destroy the nation's economy and ride roughshod over our freedoms and rights and we have all said nothing in the hope the thugs will stop. Well they have not stopped and their greed for absolute power and all it brings has been insatiable even with millions of our people now living in abject poverty and hopelessness, they still continue to looted and driving the nation deeper and deeper into poverty and despair.
I agree the solution to Zimbabwe's political and economic mess is for for Zanu PF to step down but very few Zimbabweans out there are saying it because it is simply unthinkable to expect Zanu PF to give up power. Zanu PF is the elephant in the house and also the sacred cow that must be left untouched. All the solutions being proposed POLAD, TA, GNR and even SADC leaders' own 2008 GNU all had one thing in common - Zanu PF was allowed to stay in power.
Well the economic situation in Zimbabwe is now so desperate it is simply irresponsible to continue with this costly policy of appeasement. Zanu PF must step down or the very stability and existence of this nation is at stake.
The announcement by the Minister of Defence Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri that the army is on standby to crush any anti-government protests has been condemned by political analysts.
Professor Jonathan Moyo said, "So the Defense Forces (ZDF, created in the constitution to defend the people) has morphed to Zimbabwe Attack Forces (ZAF, usurped to attack the people). Evidence of the coup and military rule."
One has to dismiss Professor Moyo’s remark with the contempt it rightly deserves. ZDF morphed into “Zimbabwe Attack Forces (ZAF, usurped to attack the people), as he said, a long time ago. The ZDF was behind the barbarism and wanton violence of the 2008 elections and the Gukurahundi before it. Moyo and others in Zanu PF did not see any of the ZDF’s barbarism in the past because they benefited from the barbaric acts. He is seeing the November 2017 coup because it affected him. That was chicken feed and, besides, the chicken were coming home to roost.
To Minister Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri and the rest of the Zanu PF thugs in Chibuku Building; the economic situation in Zimbabwe is unsustainable, you cannot expect the people to continue to suffer and die and remain silent like sheep in a slaughter house. The cup is full to overflow and change is now a certainty.
Hoo to you, who should shed innocent blood to rest change because there will be harsh judgement meted out to all those with the blood of the innocent on their hands!
Former Vice President Joice Mujuru has cautioned the Minister of Defence Oppah Muchinguri against using the national army to crush opposition members if they protest against the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
"If you see the need to point guns at the Zimbabwean people it means you don't have their support in whatever you are doing. Let us not abuse our armed forces. Do the correct thing." Mujuru said. "The situation in the country has reached another level. We keep repeating the same mistake."
Did you, Mai Mujuru, warn Mugabe against using the Army, Police and CIO to crush the opposition in 2008 and worse still Gukurahundi? The nation should be wary of political opportunists like you who will stop at nothing, including wanton violence, to further their selfish political interests. When they are out of office, they are at the front preaching endless platitudes!
The biggest mistake the people of Zimbabwe have made is electing corrupt and incompetent leaders like you, Mai Mujuru, Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe and Mnangagwa; not once but again and again. We have a knack for election rubbish and recycling it again and again. If we are serious about getting out of this mess then we, the people, must learn to be diligent in paying attention to detail so we are not so easily conned by upstarts like Joice Mujuru!
Anyone who has followed Zanu PF’s political history will tell you that the one time when Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs’ iron grip on power was most threatened was during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The party had blatantly cheated and used the worst violence ever seen in Africa elections. Mugabe was then forced to go into a power sharing arrangement with MDC after signing the Global Political Agreement (GPA) agreeing to the implementation of the raft of political reforms which, once implemented, would have stopped once and once for all Zanu PF rigging elections.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies knew they would never win free, fair and credible elections and so they task was to ensure no reforms were implemented. They had to stop MDC leaders implementing the reforms, a tall order in itself since MDC leaders and their supporters has been the victims of the regime’s cheating, beating, rape and murders. Everyone expected MDC to ensure the reforms are implemented.
Besides, SADC remained the guarantor of the GPA and retained the supervisory role. They will see to it that MDC implemented the reforms and Zanu PF did not hold back the reforms!
So the GNU was set to be the most daunting period for Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies as they were going to sit there twiddling their thumbs as brick by brick their Zanu PF dictatorship was dismantled and replaced with a democracy, the very thing they had worked hard to dismantle. They could not believe it when after five years of the GNU not even one reform had been implemented. Not one!
Mudenda, just like Mnangagwa, readily acknowledges that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections thus leaving the country with no legitimate government – exactly the same political fix the country was in after Zanu PF rigged the 2008 elections. He accepts that Zanu PF is illegitimate and some form of arrangement will have to be made to foster new legitimacy and replicating the 2008 to 2013 GNU would suit Zanu PF to the T!
"We enjoyed serenity of politics during the GNU. That spirit must come back. It must come back,” called Jacob Mudenda.
Of course, Zanu PF enjoyed serenity of politics during the GNU, there was not even any token attempt at dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship – what else did Zanu PF wish for. The country is in this mess of economic meltdown, rigged elections, etc. precisely because the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and move the country forward was wasted. It would be insane to have another GNU and yet again fail to implement the reforms.
To be absolutely certain that the reforms are implemented fully Zanu PF will be asked to step down; the regime will not be allowed to remain in office in any capacity. I agree, all these political machinations by Mnangagwa to ensure he remains in power must be seen for what they really are – the regime is using violence to hold the nation to ransom. Enough is enough!
@ Witness Bote
“How will they solve it now as they are already participating in that parliament and very soon they the MDC will get juice in the form of $4 Million which Chamisa will grab the third of it for his personal use,” you said.
You are right, Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends will want a bigger slice of the gravy train spoils but they certainly do not want the political status quo changed. We should not be surprised because they sold-out big time during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. We, the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, must accept that MDC leaders are now hunting with the Zanu PF hounds and running with the hare, us povo. This has been going on since the last GNU and we cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend MDC is still on our side. The bitter pill of betrayal is one of the hardest to swallow and yet, to move on, we must swallow it!
We should focus our time and energy on getting Zanu PF to step down, that is the big challenge. Zanu PF has used the MDC’s participation in the elections as proof the elections were free, fair and credible and the regime will continue to exploit MDC’s weakness to justify the regime’s own illegitimate clinging on to power. We should make it clear that MDC no longer represent the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, like Zanu PF, they now represent their own selfish political interests which are contrary to those of the populous.
Our real challenge is to get the ruthless Zanu PF thugs to step down, we know they would rather burn down the whole country than give up power and they have the means to set the country alight. These thugs are dangerous and must be stop! They will be stopped!
We should not lose any sleep over what Chamisa and his lot will do – they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent; whatever they do we should never be found wanting as how to deal with it.
Mnangagwa has already said last year's elections were "free, fair and credible"! But to placate his political critics he has also agreed to implementing reforms. He has been very careful to say nothing else about these reforms knowing the naive and gullible amongst would assume they are the necessary reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. He is just buying time, he knows he will never implement any meaningful reforms. Never!
Since he is not going to get the Americans to lift the sanctions by holding free, fair and credible elections he is stepping up his drive to have the sanctions lifted by hook and by crook. The upholding of the freedoms and human rights of blacks in a distant country like Zimbabwe is not exactly a top priority in all Americans' mind. Besides by insisting on these values the Americans have allowed their economic competitors like China and Russia benefit from looting Zimbabwe's resources. There are many Americans who would want a piece of the action - middle finger to rigged elections!
Meanwhile there are clearly lobbyists willing to make a killing by promising Mnangagwa he can indeed have his cake and eat it too, he can rig elections and get the sanctions lifted too!
Corrupt and the failure to hold free and fair elections are the main causes of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, not sanctions. ,
Mnangagwa and Zanu PF rigged last year's elections, the regime is illegitimate and should step down. The regime has use the corrupt and incompetent opposition parties who participated in the flawed and illegal elections to give itself some modicum of credibility. The worsening economic meltdown is piling on the pressure for the regime to step down.
If the regime was to nicodemusly get the sanctions lifted it will give is cause to hang on to power as it will use the move as endorsement by the Americans that last July's elections were indeed free, fair and credible and thus the regime is legitimate! An act of desperation by a desperate regime! We must fight to make sure the sanctions remain in place.
Of course, stealing elections pays especially in a country like Zimbabwe with no rule of law. Being a politician who can rig the elections - be they the party's own internal elections or the national one - has become the surest ticket to great wealth and influence even for those who are brain-dead like Mnangagwa and Chamisa!
There are people like Dr Ruhanya who clearly believe they can stop the political rot in Zimbabwe by parroting cliches! Unfortunately there are many people who goad themselves of these repeated cliches and use them as the excuse for going nothing to save themselves and the nation from consequences of Zanu PF dictatorship.
@ Jones Musara
“President ED could have easily changed the law on funding of political parties just to deny the hostile MDC funding. But President ED is not vindictive. Even at the risk of appearing to be adjusting austerity he opted to follow the law instead of using the law to fix his opponents,” you said.
“Or its bad manners to talk whilst eating?”
You are clearly an armature with no clue what you are talking about. Mnangagwa is a corrupt, incompetent and ruthless tyrant whilst he would have happily sort to “fix his opponents” at every turn before. since the 2008 GNU he has learned that corrupt and incompetent opponents like MDC leaders are God-sent, they are gold dust.
Everyone with half a brain condemned last year’s elections as a farce.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” was the scathing final report from the EU Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
If Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition parties and candidates who had participated in the flawed and illegal elections, even when ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, had come to their senses and condemn the elections too; Zanu PF would have been left to hang and dry! By endorsing the flawed elections the opposition have given Zanu PF’s election victory claim some modicum of political credibility.
Paying Nelson Chamisa the $3.5 million out of the political fund finance bill is but a small token of appreciation by Mnangagwa for what MDC has done to save his backside! Not at all surprise to see that you, Musara, has failed to understand that but that is because you are just a naïve and gullible political greenhorn! The truth is there for all to see but not everyone has the eyes to see much less the intellect to comprehend it!
Real and meaningful political change is coming and long over due. If the Zanu PF regime thinks it can stop the change using brute force then it has learnt nothing from history! Human being will suffer and die in silence like sheep to the slaughter but sooner or later they will raise their voices and demand change. In Zimbabwe the cup is full to overflow the country is dying for change!
HARARE – The Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare is crumbling at the seams, assailed by overcrowding and a critical shortage of medicines, food and other basics as the economically-crippled country battles to care for its inmates.
Convicts and wardens alike bemoan packed cells where running water is erratic and shortages of food, clothes and bedding prevail.
This is a human tragedy that has been long in coming and yet we have all sat back and did nothing to stop it. Now the tragedy is everywhere and we do not even know where to start to fix it assuming we know how to fix it!
Of course it is wrong for President Mnangagwa to keep denying the people of Zimbabwe a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The targeted sanction were imposed and have been retained for the purpose of forcing Zanu PF to stop denying the people their basic rights and freedoms. It is therefore cynical and wrong that Mnangagwa should therefore be paying lobbyists US$ 1 million of Zimbabwe taxpayers' money so he can continue to deny us our basic rights with impunity!
We are paying dearly for being denying our right to elect leaders of our choice. We are now being forced to pay lobbyists who will help Mnangagwa abuse and deny us our human rights and dignity. This is a slap in the face followed by a spit in the face and we are expected to be thankful for both!
Investors have continued to shy away from doing business in Zimbabwe because the country is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. We are just wasting time and resources trying to attract investors whilst the country remains a pariah state!
@ Simba Mujuru
You are really incapable of separating the message from the messenger and to evaluate the value and validity to the former with letting your own personal pride and prejudice cloud your thinking.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 39 years all because the nation could not vote the regime out of office. Zanu PF usurped the people's democratic right to a meaningful vote by threatening that the civil war would continue if the party lost the 1980 elections. Once in power the threats, intimidation, beatings, rape and even cold blooded murder have continued.
The people of Zimbabwe did not need the Americans or anyone else to tell them that Zanu PF was denying them their freedoms and rights; they KNEW it themselves.
So, when the Americans and the other nations in the West imposed sanctions of the Zanu PF leaders and other selected institutions and companies to pressure the regime to stop its human rights violations, this is something Zimbabweans themselves who understood what was going on in the country supported whole heartedly. For Simba Mujuru to then argue that Zimbabweans, out of patriotism no less, must oppose the imposition of the sanctions points to one of two possibilities:
1) Simba is one of those Zimbabweans who clearly have no clue what constitutes free, fair and credible elections and even with the benefit of 39 years of Zanu PF rigging elections he still fails to accept that Zanu PF has been rigging elections in Zimbabwe and that this is not just wrong but is at the very heart of our national crisis.
2) Or whilst Simba accepts Zanu PF has indeed been rigging elections and that this is a completely justified national cause well worth fighting and even dying for; still he is putting all that to one side in demanding that the sanctions must be lifted not because he no longer believes in free, fair and credible elections but because he resents the fact that the Americans and the West are championing the cause.
Either way this only shows Simba Mujuru and many others like him are shallow, thick and slow and dictators the world over thrill best in those nation where there are many people like Mujuru. Of course, there is nothing patriotic about undermining one’s own values and principle in support of the lawlessness of a tyrant. Cannot think of anything more idiotic than that!
People like Simba Mujuru are so uncomfortable in their black skin, they feel inferior to the white to the point of going over the top to prove there are not inferior. They are prepared in this case to abandon their fight for free, fair and credible elections just to prop up Mnangagwa under attack from the whites! Their hatred of white is clouding their judgement and the very fact that the whites are fighting in their corner! Of course, it is a stupid position and if being patriotic means being stupid then I am not patriotic!
"ZANU-PF cannot realistically be expected to reform a system that it not only profits from, but on which its rule depends. Future reform has to dismantle the corrupt political economy, whilst also expanding the productive sector."
This is getting to be tedious! We all know that you are desperate to be appointed Minister of Finance. You will not get even one meaningful reform implemented. Why did you fail to get even one reform implemented during the last GNU?
Why have you been participating in flawed and illegal elections even when you knew the elections will be rigged?
We all know why and so does Zanu PF. Mnangagwa knows that MDC will participate in elections regardless of how flawed and illegal the process got because you lot are greedy!
“Without governance and transparency, the only investors we will get in Zimbabwe are cowboys and opportunistic traders, a mafia by another name. Without political change and the necessary will, reform will only amount to empty words. As I often say, it's just putting lipstick on a crocodile,” said Tendai Biti.
Biti, you should try some of that lipstick on your own crocodile mouth!
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect Eddie Cross and his fellow MDC friends so they will implement the reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship. All these MDC idiots have ever done is try to make the dictatorship "work" by pretending it is a democracy.
What is the point of wittering day after day about free market economic policies, ending corruption, etc. when these things work in a healthy and functioning democracy. Zanu PF's Zimbabwe is a dictatorship and voodoo economic, corruption, etc. work very well because they have made the ruling elite filthy rich.
The fault here lies with the people of Zimbabwe themselves, especially the MDC sheep who follow like sheep no questions asked. A healthy and functional democracy demands a diligent and wide-awake electorate.
MDC leaders sold-out in failing to implement even one reform, it is unforgivable that there are still people who still look up to MDC for leadership out of the mess we are in. Corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders like Eddie Cross are part of the problem not the solution!
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