Mnangagwa was cocksure his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" was going to revive the country's economic. Well it is now clear the flood of investors and lenders he expected to answer his call have never materialized. He appointed ostentatious individuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube and Newspaper magnet Trevor Ncube into his cabinet and 24 strong President Advisory Council respectively; again, cocksure they will have the Zimbabwe economy back on track in double quick time. Instead of signs of economic recovery there are signs galore of total economic meltdown as inflation soars and dragging the prices of goods and services up and up.
It is near impossible to do business in such a volatile economic environment. The empty shop shelves of 2008 when the country’s hyperinflation soared to nauseating heights of 500 billion % are coming back.
President Mnangagwa is calling for political dialogue for one simple reason; he has tried everything to revive the economy and is hoping someone else can come up with a viable solution.
So far, the 20 or so presidential opposition candidates and their parties who have answered his call and attended his Political Actors Dialogue forum have not offer any working solution to ease the economic meltdown. The forum was launched a few weeks ago with the usual fanfare and no expense spared. None of the participants have offered anything of substance, none of them had the common sense to see the fertility participating in an election without something as basic a verified voters’ roll, and so the economic meltdown, like the Salvation Army, has matched on.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A have so far refused to join the Mnangagwa dialogue. They are demanding a Transition Authority (TA), as contrast to Mnangagwa’s talk-shop forum, in which Chamisa and other MDC A leaders share political power - the one thing Zanu PF regime has so far said it will not do.
“The national dialogue called by President Mnangagwa across all political parties is not a power sharing negotiation, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has said,” reported the Herald. The challenges being faced by the country required collective effort and unity of purpose at all levels.
"It is for this noble cause that His Excellency the President called for national dialogue across all political parties so we put our minds together to confront our challenges and work as a nation to move the country forward.
"I want to take this opportunity to clarify that dialogue is not the same thing with power sharing negotiations. Every time we go for elections to elect a Government, losers selectively choose components of the election results to accept and reject."
“Losers selectively choosing components of the elections results to accept and reject” was a barb aimed at Chamisa and his MDC A friends. MDC A, just like all the other opposition parties who took part in last year’s elections, knew the whole election process was full of flaws and illegalities and still participated regardless. The opposition candidates were after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was offering and did not care that Zanu PF was set to rig the elections. Whilst all the other opposition participants have accepted the election results, Chamisa et al had the cuss hypocrisy to accept the results of the parliamentary elections and reject the presidential result. Of course, this is blatant cherry picking!
Still, Zanu PF is equally guilty of cherry picking itself. The regime rigged last year’s election cocksure the party had competent individuals to formulate sound economic policies and implement them to not only revive Zimbabwe’s comatose economy but make it thrive. The party rigged the elections to secure the presidency and 2/3 majority in parliament and in the senate; all the manpower and political authority it needs. The regime does not need corral anyone else into this national dialogue under the pretext “of collective effort and unity of purpose at all levels”!
Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections confident the party will deliver economic prosperity. The party wanted absolute political power but now wants everyone to share the blame for the worsening economic meltdown. How typical, the party wants to have its cake and eat it too!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is 39 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and obnoxious lawlessness which systematically destroyed the country’s once robust and promising economy and made it impossible to do business. By blatantly rigging last year’s elections Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Contrary to his claim that “Zimbabwe was open for business!” he had just slammed the door shut and locked it!
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse!
Even if Zanu PF finally cave in to MDC A demands to share power and form the Transition Authority in which Chamisa and a few MDC A leaders hold cabinet positions; that will not be enough to revive the economy. The addition of corrupt and incompetent MDC A leaders to the Zanu PF pariah state will not change its illegitimacy, fool investors, etc., etc.
The only way to end Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is by ending the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, the regime has no mandate to govern and it is, ipso facto, illegitimate. Zanu PF must step down. There is nothing else for it!
The proposed political dialogue is just an excuse to keep Zanu PF in power to appease Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta who cannot bear the thought of anyone else ruling the country other than themselves, regardless of their heart-breaking track record of economic ruin and oppression and cold-blooded murders. After 39 years of political appeasements and with millions of our people now living in abject poverty and robbed of all hope and human dignity it will be insane to let this madness go on one more day.
No comments:
Post a Comment