“Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation and the number of people needing help is “shocking” for a country not in conflict, a United Nations special expert on the right to food said Thursday,” reported New Zimbabwe.
“I urgently call on the government, all political parties and the international community to come together to put an end to this spiralling crisis before it morphs into a full-blown conflict,” said Hilal Elver, the UN special expert.
She blamed widespread corruption, mismanagement, natural disasters, droughts and sanctions for the crisis. “It comes from (a) dysfunctional system,” she said.
This makes shocking reading, the more so because this is a nightmare we have seen coming these last 39 years and have done little to stop it.
Many Zimbabweans out there have known that corruption, for example, was rampant. In 2016 Mugabe admitted the nation was “swindled out of US$ 15 billion in diamond revenue alone”. The dictator never arrested even one swindler and/or never recovered even one swindled diamond dollar.
When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe after the 2017 military coup; he promised “zero tolerance on corruption”. End words! Two years down the line, he too has yet to arrest one diamond swindler and/or recovery one swindled diamond dollar.
We know the wholesale looting of diamonds and other resources is still going on to this day. In 2017, the then Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, told parliament government was getting 1/6 of the expected diamond revenue. That has not changed!
The diamond mining has continued at its frantic pace. Mugabe booted out of the country a Chinese company, one of the many companies accused of the wholesale looting. The Chinese played a key role in bankrolling Mnangagwa’s blatantly vote rigging of the 2018 elections and, as a reward, the booted out Chinese company was allowed back in Zimbabwe.
Very few Zimbabweans have ever raised such issues as corruption, mismanagement, vote rigging and the myriad of other local problems with the Zanu PF government. Even now with the country now in serious economic, political and social trouble; Zimbabweans have not raised these burning issues with the country’s corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders, much less putting an end to the madness.
Zimbabwe is a failed and dysfunctional nation and whist the international community can help up get out of this mess but it is for us, Zimbabweans, to take a lead in demanding meaningful change. So far, for the last 39 years, we have done very little.
3 comments:
The last 40 years have been "worst of times, the age of foolishness, the epoch of incredulity and the season of Darkness", as Charles Dickens would put it, for Zimbabwe. The country is in this mess because for 40 years it was stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship. The people could not remove it from office because it rigged elections, simple as.
We, the people of Zimbabwe, buried our heads in the sand and pretended not to see the vote rigging and the bad governance.
Yesterday Strive Masiyiwa was proposing paying the doctors a living wage and here Dr Mandaza is following up with suggestion to get houses and cars for doctors. This will solve nothing since there are no nurses, no equipment, no medicine, no water, no electricity, no fuel, no cash, etc., etc. The two are just burying their heads in the sand and thus the age of foolishness continues!
Zimbabwe will not accomplish anything of substance until we deal with the elephant in the room - the rigged elections and bad governance!
"I urgently call on the government, all political parties and the international community to come together to put an end to this spiralling crisis before it morphs into a full-blown conflict," said Hilal Elver, the UN special expert.
I agree with Ms Hilal Elver that the political and economic mess in Zimbabwe has indeed dragged the nation right up to the edge of the precipitous abyss and the country can tumble over the edge any day. Zimbabweans are starving, the country’s public health care is now all but dead, the regime failed to come up with any solution to revive the economy, etc.; the situation is dire and cannot go on like this for much longer.
Ms Elver has herself acknowledged that the country’s ruling party, Zanu PF, is corrupt and dysfunctional and the opposition is equally corrupt and incompetent. Many Zimbabweans now agree that both the ruling party and the opposition are responsible for dragging the nation into this mess, they are the “man” behind this man-made problem. Zimbabweans now know both Zanu PF and MDC cannot play any role in getting the country out of this mess. They cannot be solution in a matter in which they are the problem.
Zimbabwe is a dictatorship in which the voices of both Zanu PF and the MDC are the only ones heard; this is to be expected after all it is a self-serving dysfunctional system. Still, the UN and the international community should start to engage the alternative voices of reason, they are there.
@ Musindo
You have hit the nail on the head right there. Kasukuwere has just launched a new political party with the usual funfair and no expense was spared. Where do you think he got the money from if not looted wealth spirited away over the years.
Of course, Kasukuwere and his former Zanu PF colleagues will not want to see Zimbabwe change into a healthy and functioning democracy and so will use their looted wealth to keep the dictatorship. They will use their looted wealth to stop change and hence the reason why we would be foolish to let these Zanu PF thugs keep the looted wealth.
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