Monday 17 May 2021

"Mnangagwa has allowed corruption to thrive to coup proof regime" says Mutambara - bombastic nonsense P Guramatunhu

 

Ever since his University of Zimbabwe student days, Arthur Mutambara has earned a reputation of being very loud, bombastic and loves baffle and blast his opponents out of the water with bullshit. The intervening years at Oxford University, five years as Deputy Prime Minister, etc. have made him even more arrogant and bombastic!

“Consequently, the Zimbabwean junta is scared stiff of a second coup d’état. Hence, they are busy coup d’état-proofing their administration through the unconstitutional amendments, establishing a tribal hegemony, a clansman-based patronage system and systemic corruption,” argued our bombastic Professor in his SAPES Trust discussion.

Of course, this is just nonsense. If Robert Mugabe was alive today he would have been the first one to tell Mutambara that these are things Zanu PF has done ever since it got into power in 1980 resulting in the economic meltdown and tyrannical oppression of the last 41 years. By instituting the de facto one-party dictatorship Mugabe stifled debate and democratic competition and sacrificed quality. By rigging elections Zanu PF slammed the door shut to peaceful change and fostered violent change.

With the economy in meltdown and millions sinking into poverty and despair this is a recipe for social unrest. If we did not have the military coup in 2017 we were going to have street protest, our own Arab Spring. The coup plotters were aware of this hence the reason they gave for the coup was to arrest the economic chaos and stamp out corruption.

The coup plotters promised many things but have failed to delivery. And for Mnangagwa and company to do the same foolish things that Mugabe was doing and calling it “coup d’état-proofing” is the most idiotic thing anyone can say!

The November 2017 military coup changed nothing of substance and so Zimbabwe is socially and politically unstable. Since the country is, seemingly, incapable of holding free, fair and credible elections; the stage is set for yet another military coup or an equally violent civil unrest.

I said “seemingly incapable of holding free, fair and credible elections” deliberately because the three main stakeholders who should break the vicious cycle of rigged elections either lack the intellect to know what to do and/or the will and vision to do it.

First and foremost, Zanu PF created the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since the country’s independence in 1980. The Zanu PF thugs have enjoyed absolute power and all the benefits of influence and wealth it brought. They have become addicted to absolute power and the looted wealth and they are not going to risk losing it by implementing the democratic reforms and holding free and fair elections.

“The 2018 elections were a forgone conclusion. They had to be won by the junta, by any means necessary,” argued our bombastic Professor in his SAPES Trust discussion.

“The purpose of those polls was to cure and sanitise the coup d’état of November 2017. Otherwise, what would be the point of the military intervention? Why carry out a coup d’état, commit treason, and then hand over power to the opposition? It would not make sense.

“Now, today in 2021, we have a military-based regime, a product of a coup d’état. In 2023 we will still be within the context of a coup d’état!”

Mutambara was only stating the obvious and should have left it at that and not go off at a tangent about Mnangagwa pursuing all the tribal hegemony, a clansman-based patronage system and systemic corruption to coup d’état proof the regime. All these activities only show this is a regime that, either, has no clue what got the nation into this mess much less what to do to escape.

Or else Mnangagwa knows that corruption and mismanagement are the root causes of the economic meltdown, for example, but is powerless to stamp them out. The Godfathers of corruption and the Joint Operations Command, the Junta that booted Mugabe out of office when he threatened their power and licence to loot. Mnangagwa will too be booted out of office if he threatened to stamp out corruption.

The MDC leaders have their golden opportunity during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented.

Mugabe bribed them with the trapping of high office and MDC leaders were bust enjoying themselves they forgot why they were in the GNU. Yes, even our Oxford University Professor, was himself bamboozled and outwitted by Mugabe!

Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders have participated in flawed and illegal elections; knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging the elections and worst of all knowing that by participating they were giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF.

So, why have MDC leaders continued to participate in these flawed elections regardless, you might ask? Answer: they also know that Zanu PF is giving away a few of the gravy train seat to entice the opposition. The opposition have found the bait irresistible.

In the 2018 elections; there were 23 presidential candidates and 130 political parties plus thousands of independent candidates contested for the parliamentary seats! Mnangagwa has given this as proof Zimbabwean elections are free, fair and credible and has dismissed all calls for democratic reforms.

Both the Chamisa led MDC A and the Mwonzora led MDC-T are gearing for the 2023 elections, regardless of the fact not even one token reform was implemented and therefore Zanu PF will once again rig the process. The two parties are fighting over the few gravy train seats and bragging rights to coveted title of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party.

The only other political players who could put an end to this political circus of rigged elections are the Zimbabwe electorate by demanding that reforms must be implemented and refusing to participate in meaningless election. Sadly, this is easier said than done!

Zanu PF has used its dictatorial and coercive powers to turn many people especially rural voters into nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing landlords, Zanu PF thugs. The party has already started mobilising and training the war veterans and youth militia, the green bombers, the party’s foot-soldiers. There are reports of teachers in rural Mutoko being forced to attend Zanu PF rallies and to register as Zanu PF voters. The rural voters, who constitute 60% of the electorate, will frog-marched to participate in the 2023 elections.

The next significant segment of the electorate is the opposition supporters; the MDC leaders have always come up with all manner of “Wining In Rigged Election (WIRE) strategies” to justify why they keep participating in these flawed elections. They have never admitted it is out of greed for the bait gravy train seats. What matters is the naïve, gullible and now increasingly desperate (for change) public have believed all this nonsense.

The people of Zimbabwe have been dragged into these meaningless rigged elections for the last 41 years and counting. It is insane to keep participating expecting to win rigged elections which Zanu PF has carte blanche powers to rig. The challenge is not for us, the voters, to work hard to jump three metres because even if we do achieve that, Zanu PF will raise the bar to 3.5 metre to 4 m, etc. We will never ever win this rat race!

The sane thing to do is to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and restore all the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life itself. Only then can the elections go ahead. This is not rocket science, it is common sense or should be!   

5 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

Government has filed notice of appeal against the High Court decision to annul the extension of Chief Justice Luke Malaba's service beyond the age of 70.

The appeal is against the entire judgment by three judges, Justices Happias Zhou, Edith Mushore and Justice Jester Charewa on Saturday blocking the extension of Chief Justice Malaba's service by five years.

The trio ruled that Chief Justice ceased to be the Chief Justice upon reaching 70 years on May 15 2021 and that the extension of the service does not apply to incumbent judges of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court.

Both Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Attorney General Advocate Prince Machaya, a few minutes, ago filed their separate appeals challenging the lower court's decision.

Many people stayed awake late Friday night to hear the High Court’s decision on Court challenges to the Amendment Bill No 2 as regards the extension of Chief Justice Luke Malaba term beyond the age of 70 years. And over the weekend the social media was full of stories on the same subject.

It must be said the people’s interest in the story stems from their detest of the Zanu PF regime. The people are angry they have yet to enjoy many of their basic freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections because Zanu PF has dragged its feet over aligning existing laws with the new constitution. And yet the regime is spending time and resources amending vast sections of the new constitution to consolidate its strangle hold on power. The regime has captured the judiciary, like so many other state institutions, and the amendment bill will extend Chief Justice Malaba’s stay in power will only make him even more beholden to the state President.

There is a distinct possibility that the Zanu PF apparatchik’s appeal, they have appealed against every aspect of the high court ruling including trivial matters as whether Malaba turned 70 at 0.00 hours on 15 May or at the end of the day at 24.00 hours, for the sake of having the ruling set aside and forgotten because the appeal will never be heard. The people have an active interest in this case and one only hopes that the regime will not treat them with its usual contempt by kicking the case in the tall grass!

Zimbabwe Light said...

JUSTICE Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi's appeal on a High Court ruling that last Saturday ended Chief Justice Luke Malaba's tenure of office will not have any effect, a Harare lawyer has said.

However, according to a top lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, Ziyambi faces contempt of court charges and the lawyers have drafted a complaint to the Registrar of High Court, Judge President George Chiweshe, and all cited judges following Ziyambi's weekend outburst.

After Saturday's High Court ruling, the Justice Minister claimed the country's judiciary was "captured" by unnamed hostile foreign powers and the government would not accept that
"Owing to the gravity of the matter we wish to advise that we have firm instructions from our consultant to take the necessary action, including the institution of proceedings for contempt of Court should the law not be faithfully and scrupulously adhered to," said Mpofu.

The lawyers' consultant is Musa Kika, the director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.

"Whilst an appeal can, all things being equal, be lodged against a declaratur, the position in law is that an appeal does not suspend the operation of the declaratur," said Mpofu.
I am persuaded to think we have too many lawyers in Zimbabwe who are employing other lawyers to sue anyone and everyone to keep the ever-growing herd of lawyers employed. Unemployment has soared to nauseating heights of 90% plus in Zimbabwe but would not be surprised to hear unemployment amongst the lawyers is one of the lowest!

One of the favourite employment opportunities for lawyers in politics, both Zanu PF and MDC have countless lawyers, and yet the two parties are making one legal blunder after another. Some of the blunders defy common sense, one does not need to be a lawyer to question the rational of Chamisa’s claim he won presidential race when he did not have all the V11 forms, Polling station vote count summary sheet. The way the Constitution Amendment Bill No 2 has been handled shows both the President and Minister of Justice have village idiots for legal advisors!

Many people have said Zimbabwe’s judiciary is captured by Zanu PF because of the foolish judgements like Justice George Chiweshe who ruled the November 2017 coup was “legal, justified and constitutional”!

Mugabe told Didymus Mutasa “In whose Court!” when the latter threaten to challenge his booting out of Zanu PF. So is poor Mutasa had dare to say the Courts were captured by Mugabe he could well have face a contempt of court lawsuit over and above being booted out of Zanu PF and having no legal recourse on the matter.


Zimbabwe Light said...

I was particularly disappointed by Professor Mutambara’s failure to acknowledge what the GNU was about much less the blatant betrayal by the MDC leaders in failing to implement even one democratic reform.
“The year 2008 was the best year for the opposition. In the Lower House, ZANU-PF had 99 MPs, MDC-T 100 and MDC-M 10. For the first time, ZANU-PF was in the minority – its 99 MPs against the opposition’s combined strength of 110. After holding onto the presidential results for six weeks, the ZANU-PF regime then announced that Mugabe had lost to Tsvangirai 43.2% to 47.9%, while Simba Makoni was awarded 8.3% of the vote. ‘There was no winner. Let us go for a runoff,’ they declared. What can the opposition learn from the outcomes of 2008? What did the regime learn from its rigging efforts in that year? After the lapse of the GNU, ZANU-PF went for the jugular and attained 160 MPs to the MDC-T’s 49. Robert Mugabe claimed a handsome 61.1% versus Tsvangirai’s measly 34.9%. What does this all mean?” he said.
One of the most eventful years in Zimbabwe’s turbulent history completely airbrushed out as if nothing happened in the five GNU years! More significantly those involved in these turbulent years learned nothing from the experience. Even now with the benefit of hindsight, the MDC leaders still fail to grasp the importance of implementing the democratic reforms as the only peaceful option to ending the Zanu PF dictatorship.
As far as Mutambara is concerned the nation has no choice but to participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place.
“We must be our own liberators through (a) massive voter registration, (b) massive voting and, of course, (c) defending the vote.
“We, the people of Zimbabwe, must become the electoral revolution we wish to see in 2023.
“History must not repeat itself!” he concluded.
Of course, history will repeat itself, Zimbabwe will have another rigged elections and Zanu PF will get away with it thanks to the MDC leaders who would have fought hard to give the regime legitimacy! History will repeat itself because we have learned nothing from the past and are foolishly repeating the same mistakes over and over again!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Mari Matutu

If the 2018 elections were free. fair and credible I do not think Zanu PF would have the 2/3 majority in parliament and in the senate. Our trouble is we participate in flawed elections, give Zanu PF the chance to rig the elections to secure majority and by participating give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and then try to live with the consequences of our folly! We have a captured judiciary and are having to rely on age limit clause in the constitution to stop Mnangagwa reappointing Malaba Chief Justice! That is scrapping the bottom of the barrel!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Rushizha Patrick

“If the truth is to be said, the MDCs and other opposition parties are very comfortable with the current situation because they don't see any need for reforms. As far as they are concerned there are no outstanding reforms. It is you, Guramatunhu and a few others who are not in opposition hierarchy who are talking of reforms but you don't say exactly what needs to be reformed.”

MDC leaders are indeed very comfortable with the current arrangement: they will participate in flawed elections the know Zanu PF will rig to secure 2/3 majority and the presidency and, as their reward for participating and giving Zanu PF legitimacy, MDC get the 1/3 gravy train seats plus a corresponding share of the annual Political Party Finance Act payout.

By creating POLAD Mnangagwa has allowed the leaders of the smaller political parties to also get a share of the spoils of power. After all they too played their part in giving the vote rigging Mnangagwa legitimacy by fielding 23 presidential candidates!

If the truth be told, if anyone out there still does not know what the democratic reforms are, then they will probably never know even if one was to spell them out here. It is not only Guramatunhu who has spoken endlessly about the reforms others like the Americans and EU have done the same.

If anyone believe the elections were not free, fair and credible then they have to ask why and the reforms are what you need to stop the same vote rigging happening again.

3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, for example. 3 million out of 5 million who voted is about 40%. You cannot have credible elections in which 40% of the voters are denied the vote. Need the laws passed, the reform, to ensure the people in the diaspora have the vote.