On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. The world has
witnessed yet another horror story of death and destruction, the barbarism and inhumanity
man.
Last week the United Nations (UN) General Assembly voted on
resolution expressing "grave concern at the ongoing human rights and
humanitarian crisis in Ukraine". The resolution to expel Russia from the
UN Human Rights Council and it passed with 93 YES, 24 NO and 58 abstentions.
This was the first time ever in the UN’s history that a member nation has been
expelled from one of the UN organs.
Some people would have wanted Russia expelled from UN body
altogether. This would have required a unanimous YES vote by the Security
Council; impossible in this case since Russia is one of the five permanent
members who wield a veto.
Zimbabwe was one of the 24 nations that voted NO.
“In his first public comments over Russia's invasion of
Ukraine, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said it (invasion) was a
"robust" response by President Vladmir Putin to
"provocation" by NATO, a military alliance of 30 countries including
the United States and Britain,” commented Zimlive in Bulawayo 24.
"Our activities in the past two months, and going forward, should be
understood from that broad, regional, continental and global perspective,"
quoting President Mnangagwa.
"Zimbabwe, itself already a victim of western
unilateralism, is in the full glare of all these global headwinds. Against
NATO's provocative eastward expansion in Europe, and the Russian Federation's
robust response to that threat of encirclement by NATO, a new situation has
arisen which requires that we re-map the world with a view to finding our own
place and securing our interests.
"Like in the case of Zimbabwe which has endured more than two decades of
illegal sanctions, the conflict raging in Eastern Europe has made many nations
realise how powerful nations and global interests still function on old and
archaic notions of ‘spheres of influence', and that they will not hesitate to
use unilateral economic coercion to bully independent-minded states unwilling
to kowtow to their whims and interests."
What is Mnangagwa wittering about? It is Russia, not NATO
and the West, which is “still functioning on old and archaic notions of spheres
of influence”!
The economic and political of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1989 marked the end Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw
Pact) as all the countries is Eastern Europe left in droves and abandoned the
socialist system of government in favour of the Western Europe democratic
system. USSR itself broke up as many groupings/regions demanded independence
from Moscow.
Ukraine is one former USSR republics that broke away and has
since abandoned socialism in favour of democracy and capitalism. It is the
people of Ukraine who have been sorting closer ties with the West, they have
already expressed interest in joining the European (economic and political)
Union (EU) and then to join NATO (military alliance).
President Putin has objected to Ukraine, an independence and
sovereign nation, joining NATO and is the one using brute force, bombing whole
cities in Ukraine killing defenceless civilians, women and children.
President Mnangagwa did not condemn the murderous barbarism
Russia in inflicting on the people of Ukraine because he got the wrong end of
the story. He is supporting President Putin’s contemptuous disregard of rule of
law and the freedoms and rights of Ukrainians to decide their own future and
even the right to life because Mnangagwa too has no respect for rule of law and
the freedoms and rights of others.
Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, President
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have waged a war of attrition on the people
in their resolve to retain absolute political power at all costs. The regime
has murdered over 30 000 Zimbabweans for political gain in its 42 years reign
of terror.
"Like in the case of Zimbabwe which has endured more
than two decades of illegal sanctions!” The sanctions were imposed on a select
few Zanu PF leaders for the regime’s repeated failure to hold free and fair
elections and many other human rights violations.
The country is gearing for the 2023 national elections and
there is already evidence of blatant vote rigging, of voters being frog marched
to attend Zanu PF rallies and of wanton violence including beating and cold-blooded
murder of political opponents.
Zanu PF is set to blatantly rig the 2023 elections. And, sadly
for the country, the corrupt and incompetent opposition will participate in the
flawed and illegal elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
The Western countries have imposed wide ranging economic
sanctions of Russia and President Putin. It is time the West upgraded the
sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leaders and add the sell-out opposition leaders to
the list. The economic and political situation in Zimbabwe has reached crisis
point, the nation is desperate for meaningful political change, for free and
fair elections.
It is no surprise that Zimbabwe was one of the 24 nation who voted NO to the resolution to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. President Mnangagwa and President Putin have many things in common including their contempt for rule of law, freedom and human rights including the right to life!
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President Nelson Chamisa has called for the immediate intervention of SADC in the escalating political crisis in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans are fleeing the country to seek greener pastures in neighbouring countries and beyond due to the deepening socio-economic crisis.
Zimbabweans are facing persecution in Diepsloot, South Africa as a result of the economic quagmire in the country.
This is just tedious political posturing by Nelson Chamisa and SADC leaders will ignore it. SADC leaders were the prime movers behind the 2008 Global Political Agreement in which Zanu PF agreed to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship and end the curse of rigged elections. It was none other than Nelson Chamisa and his fellow MDC friends who failed to implement even one reform. Worse still, it is MDC who have insisted in participating in these flawed elections against SADC advice to given Zanu PF legitimacy.
The only meaningful intervention SADC can make is to reiterate its advice to postpone elections until reforms are implemented. Which advice MDC has stoically refused to follow in the past and will not do so now. It is clear CCC are hell bent on participating in these flawed and illegal 2023 elections.
Zimsec said the pass rate for this year increased by 1,57% to 26,34% compared to those from last year.
“We are excited that we are releasing the results earlier than was the case for the 2020 results which were released on May 3 2021,” the statement reads.
How many of those who failed, the 74%, will still go on to do A levels? Indeed, one can ask How many of those who failed had failed the Form Two exams two years ago? It is naïve to expect these students to pass their A levels when they have failed all their school exams up to now!
What a criminal waste of resources, spending all the time and money giving someone a sub substandard quality of education just for the sake of quantity. The real tragedy is the students themselves who are being condemned to a lifetime of ignorance.
What could be worse for the nation than writing off 74% of the students, year after years! No nation can expect to thrive with an ill-educated populous!
@ Josephine Jombe
“We are about a year or so away from the 2023 General Election, and there is an atmosphere of hope that we are on the cusp of history being made in Zimbabwe. The recent by-election success for the Citizens Coalition For Change (CCC) led by Nelson Chamisa and the positive response to the ongoing mass campaign to get people to register to vote show that things are moving in the right direction.
However, despite the positivity in the Zimbabwean public, there is hard to ignore evidence that the political environment remains hostile to the opposition. It seems everywhere the CCC goes to campaign, they are faced with intimidation and hostilities from the police and a range of other agent provocateurs.
We as a people need to continue drawing attention to this hostile environment and intimidation of opposition members and supporters.
The eyes of the world need to see this. The political environment is more hostile now than it was going into the 2018 general election.”
MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and stop the curse of rigged elections during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to get even one meaningful reform implemented in five years because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, very generous salaries, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc.
“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the trappings of high office, they will never rock the boat!) boasted one Zanu PF crony when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms during the GNU.
Ever since the GNU debacle, MDC leaders have claimed to have “winning in rigged elections strategies”. All nonsense, just a cover to justify why they have continued participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. They have participated for the same reason they failed to implement reforms during the GNU – greed. Zanu PF has offer a few gravy train seats to entice them and they have found the bribe irresistible!
The real surprise is that many ordinary Zimbabweans have failed to understand what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold out. And worse still, in their naivety they believe the oxymoronic nonsense of “winning rigged elections” even after 42 years of rigged elections! Very sad!
The whole world knows that MDC leaders sold out, every one except the naive and gullible Zimbabweans themselves!
@ Victor Bhoroma
“Notable achievements
The IMF Board applauded the government on the swift response in managing the COVID-19 pandemic with mass vaccination and social support which helped contain the adverse impact. In 2021, the government spent about 1.6% of GDP on vaccinations and COVID-19 related interventions which were partially financed by the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation. Zimbabwe received about US$961 million from the IMF SDR allocations in August 2021. As of November 2021, US$311 million had been utilized. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) also introduced a medium-term bank accommodation lending facility and private sector lending facility to cushion the economy from the pandemic induced losses.
Forecast and Risks for 2022
The Zimbabwean government forecasts a 5.5% economic growth in 2022 while the IMF predicts a modest growth of 3.1% in 2022. Major drivers for the growth will be the reopening of the economy (particularly the tourism sector) as COVID-19 subsides, bullish mining commodity prices, improved capacity utilization from industry and infrastructure spending by the government.
Notable risks emanate from the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war which exert imported inflationary pressures, high levels of inflation on the back of unabated money supply growth and foreign exchange market instability. Similarly, the country has already entered the election season where agriculture inputs subsidies and infrastructure spending will likely push money supply growth northwards and election related violence might dent investor sentiments on the country.
However, IMF press releases show a similar pattern in recommendations on structural weaknesses and constraints in the economy. The repetition on the same issues points to lack of appetite for reform from the government. The repeated aspects include:
Foreign exchange reforms
As with the last 2 press releases, the IMF recommended further monetary tightening, given the persistently high inflation in Zimbabwe. Annual inflation for March 2022 increased to 73% from 61% at the beginning of the year. The Bretton Woods institution emphasized the need to increase the operational independence of the central bank, ending quasi-fiscal operations and moving towards exchange rate flexibility by allowing a more transparent and market-driven price process.”
When it comes to reforms, economic and political reforms, IMF and everyone knows this is a lost battle. Zanu PF will never ever implement any meaningful reforms because the reforms are all linked to the party’s political patronage system. Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s continued stay in power is totally dependent on the blind loyalty of those wielding economic and political power and political patronage is the system which bribes these people; stop the bribes and the blind loyalty will evaporate and disappear like mist in the warming sun!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU offered the best chance for Zimbabwe to implement meaningful democratic reforms followed by free and fair elections. The emerging government would have had the courage and political will to implement economic reforms and dismantle the political patronage system. Sadly MDC leaders sold out and failed to implement even one reform.
The only way out is to have yet another GNU and, this time, appoint competent individuals who will implement the reforms. There is no other way out!
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's ruling Zanu-PF party purportedly plans to fast-track a controversial law that would punish citizens deemed "unpatriotic".
The National Assembly last week adopted a motion calling for the crafting of the Patriotic Bill, whose draft was accepted by government in October 2020.
The proposed law will criminalise and impose stiff penalties on private correspondence by what were termed as "self-serving citizens", with foreign governments or any officer or agent.
Activists say the law is targeted at government critics and opposition leaders like Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa and his deputy Tendai Biti, whom government claims called for sanctions to be imposed on the country, as the country heads towards the 2023 general elections.
Government information tsars were last week infuriated when journalist-cum-activist Hopewell Chin'ono addressed a human rights summit in Geneva, Switzerland, where he detailed human rights abuses and failure to invest in public health in the country.
The tough reality is that Zimbabwe is a pariah state with no rule of law and the ruling elite have ridden roughshod over the people denying them their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.
The regime is proposing to pass this unpatriotic law so that it can now beat its opponents and critics and hide behind its finger under the pretext it is the law of the land and not have the headache of always trying to come up with fabricated charge!
What Russia is doing in Ukraine is unforgivable. The people of Ukraine, like so many other nations in former USSR and the satellite countries harangued by Russia to remain in Russia's sphere of influence, have tasted freedom and liberty and clearly determined to break free from Russia. And it is for that reason Russia has waged this war on Ukraine.
Emmerson Mnangagwa has the same mentality as Putin; Putin is bombing Ukraine to coerce the Ukrainians in his sphere of influence. Mnangagwa is prepared to shoot to kill Zimbabweans to retain his iron grip on power.
The economic sanctions imposed on President Putin and his cronies are tough and they are clearly having some positive effect on the Russian regime. Sanctions work. After over 20 years of punitive sanctions imposed against Mnangagwa and his cronies it is high time the sanctions are reviewed and made more effective.
Mnangagwa and Chamisa is secret talks to cancel 2023 elections and form a new seven year GNU. If the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement even one meaningful reforms what hope is rgere this one will do any better, given there will be no SADC formulated GPA.
They are giving the middle finger to the Zimbabwe electorate who will not even have the token say of rigged elections this time. This is an outrage!
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