Zimbabwe Light

Incompeyent Tsvangirai has failed to end dictatorial rule in Zimbabwe!

2012-02-15T10:43:00.001-08:00

MDC is letting the people of Zimbabwe down by their failure to properly document the Zanu PF inspired political violence and the Police’s failure to arrest the thugs responsible. Two MDC supporters were murdered last week alone.

We all know that the Police do nothing to investigate and punish all Zanu PF inspired violence including murder and has happened here. But has MDC itself done enough to pressure the Police to do their work?

Did MDC gather all the necessary evidence; a doctor to certify the cause of death, get sworn statements from the witnesses, take the photos of the victim and scene, the name of the Police Officer(s) to whom the murder was reported, what follow up has been carried out locally and with other relevant authorities, etc. It is not enough to say that the Police are not doing anything to end political violence; we need documentary evidence to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt.

Although hundreds of Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood in the last three years and those responsible are known it will be no surprise if even a handful of the Zanu PF thugs will ever be convicted in the future for lack of evidence. Indeed, MDC does not even have an accurate record of the number of MDC supporters who have been murdered let alone evidence to convict those responsible. Mwonzora admitted “we suspect that there are more that have not been reported yet.”

“We are very worried because political violence is on the rise. We are also filled with a sense of hopelessness on the part of the MDC in government, because we are unable to protect our supporters,” Mwonzora said. Typical!

Mugabe and Zanu PF are brutal tyrants and murderers. Tsvangirai and MDC on the other hand are both naïve and incompetent. Of course an incompetent leader is infinitely better than a murderous one but this is not a beauty contest and to view it as such is to miss the point. Tsvangirai and MDC were elected on the ticket of ending the Mugabe and Zanu PF dictatorship and they have singularly failed in that task because they are incompetent!

Zaka MDC supporter murdered in Mugabe's lattest gutter political violence!

2012-02-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

An MDC supporter from Zaka East was murdered by Zanu PF thugs after they burnt had set his granary of fire. “They chopped off Mukwena’s hands and it was a truly gruesome murder incident,” said Honorable Harrison Mudzuri, area MDC spokesman.

As usual the Police have made no arrests although the thugs

MDC have the majority in parliament, right! I refuse to accept that parliament, the law making institution in the land with the power and authority to impeach the State President if need cannot get some-good-for-nothing Police Officers to arrest some murderous village thugs. Why has the MDC controlled parliament been so totally toothless?

The real national tragedy here is that because MDC have done nothing to restore law and order the dark days of 2008 elections are coming back again.

There are those calling on MDC supporters and all Zimbabweans calling for the restoration of law and order and thus targets of Zanu PF thugs to fight back. That is exactly what Mugabe would want us to do; he wants us to come down from our moral high ground and fight him in the gutter, his level. Over 500 Zimbabweans died in 2008 because they voted for MDC. Because they believed in parliamentary democracy and that it would use power and authority to restore peace and justice in the land. They all died in vain not because parliament is toothless but because MDC MPs are toothless!

Wake-up call for black Africa; you are lazy - some home truth!

2012-02-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

This is a no-holds-barred or “must read” article for all black Africans as my friend put it. The writer hits the nail smack on the head!

“They call the Third World the lazy man's purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent-totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it "the dark continent" for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

"It's amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die," the man next to me said. "Get up and do something about it." Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year's Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist. "My name is Walter," he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat. I told him mine with a precautious smile.

"Where are you from?" he asked.

"Zambia."

"Zambia!" he exclaimed, "Kaunda's country."

"Yes," I said, "Now Sata's."

"But of course," he responded. "You just elected King Cobra as your president." My face lit up at the mention of Sata's moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S. "I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s," he continued. "I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians." He lowered his voice. "I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off." He smirked. "Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all-the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy."

"Are you still with the IMF?" I asked.

"I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We'll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater."

"No, you won't," I said. "King Cobra is incorruptible. He is ..."

He was laughing. "Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick."

Quett Masire's name popped up. "Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do."
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

"Isn't that beautiful," Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably. "That's white man's country," he said. "We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia."

I grinned. "There is no Lake Zambia."

He curled his lips into a smug smile. "That's what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels-crumbs. That's your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that's crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That's what lazy people get-Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World."

The smile vanished from my face. "I see you are getting pissed off," Walter said and lowered his voice. "You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That's how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let's for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?"

"There's no difference."

"Absolutely none," he exclaimed. "Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino,and black people on this aircraft are the same."

I gladly nodded. "And yet I feel superior," he smiled fatalistically. "Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he's a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend."

For a moment I was wordless. "Please don't blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don't give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer."

I was thinking. He continued. "Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense."

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst. "You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy," he said. "When you rest your head on the pillow you don't dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state."

"That's not a nice thing to say," I protested.

He was implacable. "Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?"

I held my breath. "Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don't. We reserve the evening for brainstorming."

He looked me in the eye. "And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don't care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked-oh, I have a PhD in this and that-PhD my foot!"

I was deflated. "Wake up you all!" he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. "You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country's treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them."

He paused. "The Bwana has spoken," he said and grinned. "As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole."

He tempered his voice. "Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god's sake."

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston's Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand. "I know I was too strong, but I don't give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty." He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. "Here, read this. It was written by a friend."

He had written only the title: "Lords of Poverty."

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia's literati-the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed-how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line. I believe King Cobra's reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our owncar, he would throw me out.

"Naupena? Fuma apa." (Are you mad? Get out of here) Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter's level let's begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let's dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don't be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It's time to change our political culture. It's time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don't be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.

Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.

END

Field, we do not need to invent a water filter to drink clean water! All we have to do is dig proper water well and not drink from the shallow wells or straight from the contaminated river. It is not rocket science. But of course we do not and until some white man from Child Aid or Oxfarm digs a well for us five black African children will die every minute from drinking dirty water!

Field Ruwe has said here what needed to be said; as far I am concerned he has made his "discovery" for Africa which if put to good use could change Africa forever just as any other scientific discovery out there has done for the rest of mankind!

Tsvangirai could well be the worst electoral mistake Zimbabwe has ever made!

2012-02-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Prime Minister Tsvangirai is reportedly seething with anger after his letter to Mugabe was leaked and published in the Sunday Mail.

I am tired of hearing about Tsvangirai "seething" about this and holding "explosive" meeting with Mugabe about that and everything nothing comes out of it all!

Zimbabweans have made some monumental mistakes in the last 30 years electing Mugabe in 1980 and Tsvangirai in 2008 are the biggest. The latter is the worst of the two for three reasons:
1) After making the first mistake of electing Mugabe, Zimbabweans should have been more careful who they voted for.

2) It is Tsvangirai’s incompetency that has kept Mugabe in power for these last ten years. Mugabe was finished after the sham 2008 elections and it was Tsvangirai who got him off the hook by signing the one-sided power sharing agreement.

3) Even if Mugabe was to give up power after the next elections, Tsvangirai is too weak to stop the country slipping into lawlessness or worse. After thirty years of this ruthless Zanu PF dictatorship; thousands of Zimbabweans have gained financially from the system and, worse still, many of them have the blood of innocent people. They have an invested interest in maintaining the status quo and they are armed to the teeth. Tsvangirai would only to keen to appease them! The chaos that has engulfed countries like Somalia and more recently Egypt can well happen in Zimbabwe; yet.

ELECTORATE MUST HAVE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL TO SAY FOR MEANINGFUL SAY!

2012-02-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

If we call the tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? The answer is four; because calling the tail a leg does not make it a leg! A dog with a crippled leg may wish the tail was a leg still the tail will remain a tail regardless of the dog’s desperate need.

By the same token, many people will claim themselves to be champions of justice, freedom fighters, democrats, servants of the people, etc., etc.; they will never be any one of these people just because they said so. But out of folly and our own craving for saviours we, the people, have willingly accepted these people as heroes per excellence never to be questioned by ordinary mortals, us!

After thirty years of black majority rule; most Zimbabweans would now admit that the freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity they had hoped for and many had died for have not materialised. Of course the explanation why this has happened is simple enough; we trusted Mugabe and Zanu PF no questions asked. What else; they were the country’s liberation heroes. Sadly, we clearly learnt nothing from the blind trust of Mugabe; because now we are doing exactly the same with Tsvangirai and MDC.

It is not so much that Zimbabweans failed to realise what a tyrant Mugabe was until it was too late; they could not. How could they when they were almost blind to what was happening. If Zimbabweans had followed the countless blunders Tsvangirai has made ever since he stepped in the country’s political scene, particularly in the last three years; it is inconceivable how anyone would still support him.

It is one thing talking about the individual right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. But what use is that right if the individual has NOTHING meaningful to say. Zimbabwe’s thorniest problem today is without doubt the Security Sector fuelled political violence, notably the Police and CIO. Few Zimbabweans have an opinion on the matter and thus have failed to push Tsvangirai to address the matter. Needless to say Tsvangirai has no solution on the matter either. This is not rocket science!

Zimbabweans have to take an active interest in what is happening to them and drive the agenda for freedom, justice, etc. and not leave everything to the likes of Mugabe and Tsvangirai. It is impossible to have a functional democracy without an informed electorate.

Even with hindsight Tsvangirai still believes the NGU is in the long term interest of Zimbabweans!

2012-01-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

MDC’s Minister of Public Service, Ms Matibenga, and a former Trade Unionist herself, has been under increasing criticism for not pushing hard for civil servant wage increases. Her excuse for doing nothing is that she “can’t run with the hounds and the rabbits together.”

What the civil servants and the nation at large want to know, Minister Matibenga, is why this government had the money to pay Ministers like you good salaries and generous perks but have no money to pay civil servants a living wage? Yes Minister, you are now a member of the pampered ruling elite, the hounds, and you certainly can't hunt with the hounds and run with the rabbit! You are no longer one of the oppressed and impoverished mass.

Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs were yesteryear’s national liberation heroes but as soon as they tasted power they became the ruthless tyrants we see today. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have undergone a similar transformation. What the nation need is leaders who really care about building a free, democratic and just nation and not people who pay lip-service to these values.

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Zambia President Sata calls Tsvangirai a "stooge" - heard that one before!

2012-01-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

Zambian President Sata calls Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, a “stooge”. It was a very undiplomatic remark to make, to say the very least. Still, this is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, Tsvangirai’s leadership ability will be called into question.

As far back as 2001, the then USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell told his bosses in Washington Tsvangirai was a “flawed and indecisive character”. The cable was not meant for public consumption and it would have remained a secret were it not for WikiLeaks. After years of Tsvangirai’s blundering, the biggest blunder was allowing Mugabe back into power through the back door; only the blind MDC supporters still have any doubt Ambassador Dell was wrong.

Zimbabweans have to deal with this elephant in the room, Tsvangirai, if this country is ever to get out of this mess!

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Amnesty International calls on the Zimbabwe government to end human rights abuses.

What else can AI do other than high light the abuses and campaign for them to end.

What I cannot accept, and I am not the only one here, is why this MDC controlled parliament has been so totally useless at stopping this madness. Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans were beaten and/or rapped and over 500 lost their very lives to give MDC its parliamentary majority because they believed in a parliamentary democracy to end this dictatorship. They were wrong; this MDC parliament has been more subservient to Mugabe than all the other Zanu PF controlled parliaments!

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Zimbabwe had its best chance to end Mugabe's reign of terror after the 2008 elections sadly we had the most incompetent political party led by the most indecisive character in the country's political history! Tsvangirai allowed Mugabe back into State House through the back door and has since been at the dictator's beckon and call.
Parliamentary democracy works as but like anything else even the best designed system will never achieve its intended objects in the hands of half-hearted or worse human operators.

Zimbabweans voted MDC to stop the gravy train not to get on it!

2012-01-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

The gap between what Minister BIti and MPs get in salary, allowances and other perks and that even the most senior civil servant like School Head or Doctors are paid is now a chasm. It simply does wash that a Doctor should be paid starvation wages whilst politicians are paid luxury wages in comparison. There is certainly a crying need for a more equitable allocation of scarce national resources.

The people are forced to live in abject poverty whilst the politicians are getting filthy rich. The politicians are in power to enrich themselves and escape the grinding poverty. They are there to look after number one - themselves. This is why politics has become such a dirty game; it stinks and, like a rotting carcass, it is attracting the worse in our society, the vultures and hyenas.

Holding public office is about serving the common good first and last and not a chance for individuals to enrich themselves. Well paid teachers, for example, will mean a quality education system; everyone will to benefit from that. Using the money to buy luxury cars for the Ministers, which is what this regime is doing, will serve to message the individual’s ego. Having two or three luxuries cars will not make the Minister perform his/her public duties any better? If anything, it is the promise of these luxuries and an escape from the growing poverty in the land that most of these politicians seem to care. Indeed holding public office has become so lucrative and of those aspiring for office have lied, cheated and even killed to for what they consider to be unfettered access to public funds and resources for selfish gain.

In some rural constituencies the MP’s expenditure constitute a significant part of total public expenditure in the constituency. Rural School and Clinic are barely functioning and yet hundreds of thousands are spent the constituency representative.

Zimbabweans risked all and over 500 lost their lives to elect Minister Biti and his MDC friends in the hope that they will stop the run-away Zanu PF gravy train. They did stop the gravy train, long enough to get on and then it was full steam ahead!

Those who have no interest in serving public interests other than their own should do so within the confines of the private sector and not the public sector.

The public have a right to demand a more equitable allocation of public resources, and a public strike is their way of registering that demand.

Free Zimbabwe demonstrators should blame MDC for lack of progress not SA.

2012-01-22T08:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend there were demonstrations to pressure SA to end the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

Whilst it is true that "South Africa, through its former President Thabo Mbeki, was the chief architect of the GPA and the coalition government"; the fact remains that MDC was free to refuse entering into the agreement, particularly by the time the GPA was signed it was clear Mugabe had all his dictatorial powers.

It is very simplistic to say South Africa must “take measures against the Mugabe regime”. To start with there is no such thing as a Mugabe regime any more; we have GNU, totally dysfunctional but a GNU nonetheless. Secondly, and more significantly, what measures can SA take against Mugabe? Short of SA sending SA Police Officers to arrest the rogue ZRP Officers, for example, what else can stop the scourge of political violence increasingly orchestrated by ZRP?

Ever since signing the GPA MDC has committed one blunder after another thus further strengthening Mugabe’s tyrannical hand. Why has MDC failed to use its parliamentary majority to rein in the rogue ZRP baggers belief?

Zimbabwe is NOT a one-party dictatorship. It is a de facto one-party state which is not the same thing. MDC's parliamentary majority should have tested this political presumption to destruction. The only reason why this has not happened is because MDC is a party with no vision led by a flawed and indecisive character.

As far back as 2001, the then US Ambassador to Zimbabwe cabled Washington to say Tsvangirai was a “flawed and indecisive character”. With all the hindsight and blundering since; we should acknowledge the Ambassador was right. And better still start the serious business of getting a competent team before we start pointing fingers at South Africa.

If these demonstrators are serious about freeing Zimbabwe then they should targeting MDC to finally make good use of the electoral mandate the people of Zimbabwe gave him in 2008!

The last thing Zimbabwe is for SA to do what Tanzania did in Uganda by kicking out Idi Amin and kick out Mugabe. Uganda ended up with yet another dictator; we could well end up with a Somalia as the country breaks up into warring factions. Tsvangirai will not be able to hold the country together even after it is given to him in a silver platter; that is just how incompetent the man is!

Mugabe says there will be no security sector reform!

2012-01-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

In the boldest statement Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba has made it clear that there will be no security sector reforms.

“They should move to other areas,” Charamba reportedly told The Daily News in respond to calls to replace Police and Army chiefs Chihuri and Chiwenga whose terms of office are coming to an end next month. “Apa pavatanga pakasungwa neutare (This is a no go area)”.

This power sharing arrangement has always been one sided - Mugabe does all the cherry picking and Tsvangirai has to accept whatever is left; which, so far, has meant nothing of any consequence.

Elections are about the people freely electing who should rule; if that means regime change then so be it. Mugabe and Zanu PF should not be allowed to deny the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country! And it is Tsvangirai who is allowing the tyrant and his thugs to do this.

Tsvangirai got his mandate to rule from the people of Zimbabwe who voted in droves in March 2008 for regime change and paid dearly for it.

It was bad enough that Tsvangirai brought Mugabe back into power through the back door by signing the stupid GPA. But if at the end of the GNU the people are once again denied a meaningful say in the governance of the country, and all signs are that this is exactly what will happen, one has to ask why the devil Tsvangirai signed it! The only thing MDC gained from the GNU was that they got to drive Ministerial cars!

Zimbabwe is stuck in this political and economic nightmare because for decades after independence the people did very little to get Mugabe and Zanu PF out of office although it was clear the later was a ruthless tyrant running a dictatorship. And now the people making the same mistake by giving their political support to Tsvangirai; an incompetent and indecisive character. We will have to do a lot better if we are ever to get out of this mess!

Zimbabweans are stuck in a rat race, running in circles!

2012-01-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend the Police raided MDC-T’s party offices in Bulawayo and arrested a number of the party’s supporters and looted the offices. Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told VOA Studio 7 that party was “making efforts to reclaim the seized property”.

This is a typical mother hen response after the eagle has snatched one of her chicks the nation has learnt to expect from MDC - make a big farce cursing and swearing and running and flapping her wings as if to say this time she will eat the eagle alive but, of course, her feet never even leave the ground! What makes the Zimbabwe situation so intolerable is that rogue Police Officers are nothing more than gutter crows and the mother hen is in fact the all powerful fish eagle!

Parliament is the most powerful institution in the land, it could have had all the Police Officers involved in this raid fired and jailed. Why have parliament failed to do so in this case and in all the other similar cases across the land? Unlike in the past, since the 2008 elections Tsvangirai and his MDC party have the majority in parliament.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police have repeated failed the people of Zimbabwe by failing to arrest unruly Zanu PF thugs. It is the Police’s sacred duty to maintain law and order. Their excuse for doing nothing was that their hands are tied when it comes to political violence by Zanu PF supporters. MDC’s Home Affairs Ministers has said again and again that the Police are getting their instruction “from high places” to do nothing against Zanu PF thugs.

The situation has got even worse now; the Police are themselves directly involved in the political violence, as happened with this raid in Bulawayo.

It is a well known fact that Mugabe has used his position as State President to undermine the independence of country’s democratic institutions including the Police to impose his one-party dictatorship. He has denied the people their basic and fundamental rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life.

Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant.

It is a tragic curse to befall a nation when those in positions of power and trust such as State President, Zanu PF leaders and the Police abuse their positions. It is an abomination those entrusted to guard against such blatant abuse of power, out of cowardice or for selfish gain, do nothing; their inaction is aiding and abetting the abusers.

It is the ordinary Zimbabweans one fells sorry for; they are the ones who are paying dearly for all the rampant lawlessness and abuses. For years they have hoped against hope for the return of law and order, freedom and peace; sadly the situation has been getting worse and not better! They are caught up in a rat race going nowhere!

“When people
run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad world”
Sung Gary Jules.

Zimbabwe is become that mad world!

MDC Ministers are nothing more than prefects with Mugabe as the Autocratic Headmaster!

2012-01-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe Home Affairs Minister Makone says she can not stop Police Officers who are terrorising the public.

This is really tragic. If the Minister of Home Affairs can not do anything to force the Police carryout their duties; who can?

The reality is the Minister has the law and authority to rein in these rogue Police Officers. MDC, Minister Makone's party, has control of parliament. MDC and Minister have, out of cowardice and incompetency, have failed to their parliamentary power and authority to restore the rule of rule. Zimbabwe desperately need competent Ministers and political leaders and not this MDC lot who view themselves as nothing more than school prefects before the Headmaster, Mugabe!

Postpone elections in not the answer to Zimbabwe's violence!

2012-01-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

The GNU was a stop gap measure whose main task was to draft a new constitution and, although it was not stated explicitly, then organise fresh elections. There was an explicit time scale for drafting the new constitution - 18 months starting February 2009. By end of this month the GNU would have had 36 months, twice the time allowed for, and yet have not even produced the first draft. Judging from the undue influence Mugabe and Zanu PF have during the consultations, the proposed constitution would not be worth the paper it is written on.

Those who want elections delayed on the grounds that the country needs a new constitution must shut up because they had had three years already to carry out a task that could have been completed in six months or less. And, which is more, the nation can not wait for something we already know is worthless!

All those familiar with Zimbabwe will have good reasons to want to postpone the elections for fear of political violence. Still one has to ask; why has been done in the last three years to end this national scourge? Mugabe won the “one-horse” race in 2008 after Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the race because of the country wide institutionalised political violence whose sole purpose was to force the electorate to vote for Mugabe. The one thing top on Tsvangirai and MDC’s list, one would think, was to ensure there would never again be political violence in Zimbabwe. Without concrete guarantees of meaningful democratic reforms then there was absolutely no reason why Tsvangirai agreed to be party to this GNU!

Sadly Tsvangirai did not demand concrete guarantees the GNU will deliver on its promise to end political violence because he is a “flawed and indecisive leader”, as USA Ambassador Chris Dell rightly said back in 2001.

Holding regular elections is a key requirement in functional democracy. We should not postpone elections because we fear political violence or those who seek to undermine the democratic process. We should instead seek to end the scourge of political violence and punish those responsible for the lawlessness.

Elections are more than putting X on a ballot paper!, much more

2012-01-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Come February 2012 it will be exactly three years since the swearing in of Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and marking the start of the GNU. A lot was expected from this government; Zimbabwe was in a great political and economic mess - a man made mess, one must add.

Three years since the formation of the GNU the political mess is still there; untouched!

Three years since the formation of the GNU the economic mess is still there; hardily touched!

Before the GNU the national economy had sunk by a staggering 84% in the six years 2002 to 2008 alone. The two things that the GNU did was scrap the by then worthless Zimbabwe dollars and the misguided price controls bringing some sense of financial sanity and stability. Sadly nothing has been done to address all the other important and critical tasks like the restoration of the rule of law and stamping out the mismanagement, corruption and looting. These were the cancers behind the economic melt down and thus the failure to address them has meant the much hoped for economic recovery has failed to materialise.

The Zimbabwe economy has remained firmly stuck in the doldrums; unemployment has hardly improved from 90% to 80% and basic services like education and health have never recovered.

On the political front nothing - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - has been achieved. Before the formation of the GNU the country was under the iron grip of a tyrannical and oppressive regime. Tsvangirai and his MDC party promised the people democratic changes and the most significant of these changes was putting an end to the use of violence for political gain.

The GNU was never meant to last for much more that two years. And now with fresh election looming, the prospect of another violent election hangs over the nation like the sword of Damocles.

What Zimbabweans should be asking themselves today is was the GNU what they risked their lives in 2008 for. Sadly the answer has to be a resounding no.

Yes, there are some people who are bending over backwards to find excuses for Tsvangirai and MDC’s failures out of loyalty to the leaders. The reality is Tsvangirai is a “flawed and indecisive character” as the former USA Ambassador, Chris Dell once said and it is his breath taking incomplete that has left the nation in this mess. It is this blind loyalty that has encouraged tyrants like Mugabe and incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai to remain in power and ruin people’s lives.

Every generation has its challenge and this generation’s challenge of the last thirty years has been how to deliver the promise of economic prosperity, freedom, liberty and human dignity - the promise of independence. So far we have not done well. We installed a ruthless tyrant into State House and, for the last ten years, have appointed a totally incompetent man as the front man in our attempt to dethrone the tyrant. We should have done a lot better. We must redeem our past failings.

The greatest weakness of the Zimbabwean people, one that runs true throughout, is being naïve; naïve enough to entrust the leaders with a blank cheque to delivery the economic prosperity, etc. We have yet to understand that leaders, regardless of their past heroic exploits, must always be held accountable to the people. Looking at Mugabe, it would right to say it is him who is holding the people to account. It is the tail that is wagging the dog!

Elections are a lot more than putting an X on a piece of paper. The voting is just one aspect of a multifaceted process of judging leaders and holding them accountable. The electorate have a duty and obligation to at least try to understand what should and can be done to deliver the economic prosperity, freedom, liberty, etc.

Dabengwa says Zanu PF is a party of killers - the hypocrite speaks!

2011-12-22T04:29:00.000-08:00

“ZAPU President Dumiso Dabengwa says they pulled out of the Unity Accord with Zanu PF because the former ruling party was brutal and could do anything including killing to remain in power.” Reported the Daily News 19 December 2011.

Is Mr Dabengwa suggesting that Zanu PF did not harass or kill anyone since the signing of the unity accords in 1987 until 2008 when he walked out? He is lying because we all know Zanu PF has always used political violence to retain power.

Dabengwa, Simba Makoni and many others supported Mugabe as long as they stood to benefit. They only stopped when they lost their seat at the tyrant's high table. These are not men of principles and the nation must reject them as part and parcel of Zanu PF because they are.

Dabengwa is no more principled than Mugabe and the rest of the Zanu PF dictatorship! Dabengwa is being hypocritical!

"Abandon your critical faculties ... a world of idiotic bliss is yours" C Hitchens

2011-12-18T03:42:00.000-08:00

" . . . we have the same job we always had, to say, as thinking people and as humans, that there are no final solutions, there is no absolute truth, there is no supreme leader, there is no totalitarian solution that says that if you will just give up your freedom of inquiry, if you would just give up, if you will simply abandon your critical faculties, a world of idiotic bliss can be yours. We have to begin by repudiating all such claims – grand rabbis, chief ayatollahs, infallible popes, the peddlers of mutant quasi-political worship, the dear leader, great leader, we have no need of any of this." Christopher Hitchens

We in Africa have indeed "abandoned our critical faculties" and got our due reward a thousand fold; we inherited that "world of idiotic bliss!"

Christopher Hitchens died last week. He was a writer of renoun. Nick Cohen in the Observer (UK) 18 December 2011 describe Hitchens as the most 'intellectually generous' man he has met. Christopher had "a laconic voice from the English upper middle class, putting our arguments better than we could, and urging us to square our shoulders and speak our minds."

Rest in peace, brother Christopher.

Mugabe is Zanu PF presidential candidate for next elections: only one heartless for violent campaign!

2011-12-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

The just ended 2011 Zanu PF Conference has confirmed Mugabe as the party’s presidential candidate for the next elections!

Yes on the face of it, it seems picking Mugabe as the party’s candidate for the coming elections was a “huge gamble” given his poor health condition and advanced age. Election campaigns are physically demanding particular for a presidential candidate who would be expected to travel all over Zimbabwe particularly given just how unpopular Zanu PF is with the electorate. But there lies the really reason why Mugabe is the ONLY candidate Zanu PF could have if they are to “win” the election.

The only way Zanu PF can “win” is if the party used violence just as it has done in the past. The level of violence in the June 2008 run-off election was shocking by any standard. To win the coming elections the party will have to resort to the same brutal violent tactics including cold blooded murder.

Most people would cringe at the thought of hitting someone particularly some one who is innocent, helpless and totally defenceless. Only the heartless thugs often high on drugs can rape and kill. But when it comes to masterminding the rape and murder of tens of thousands only someone with “degrees in violence” can do it. Only Mugabe has degrees in violence as he has said repeatedly and proved beyond doubt in practice!

The last three years have shown beyond doubt that Tsvangirai and MDC are completely useless. And yet if there were free and fair elections in Zimbabwe MDC would win the election hands down; a show of how much the electorate detest Zanu PF. The level of violence Zanu PF has to use to reverse this grim reality is indeed a mountain Everest to climb. Only a proven psychopath, Mugabe, can pull this off; if anyone can!

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Mugabe asks donors to help feed prisoners.

I have an alternative suggestion Mr Mugabe; why don't you use some of the vast fortune you looted to support these inmates!

Tsvangirai says there a 20 human rights violations a day: what has he been doing?!

2011-12-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Tsvangirai says there are 20 human rights violations a day!

Whilst the rest of the world has moved on we in Zimbabwe are like a scratched vinyl record repeating the same line over and over again.

It was over fifty years ago that the Americans designed and built a rocket that took men to the moon and brought them safely back to earth. “Whilst others are going to the Moon, we are still struggling to cross the street!” moaned then President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere! And since then the world has made even more giant strides in terms of development. Today the Scientific world has just announced they may well have recreated what happened on the moment of creation with the possible discovery of the Higgs Boson subatomic particles. And in Zimbabwe we learn that up twenty Zimbabweans are routinely denied their basic human rights!

Surely, surely the restoration of basic human rights must have been at the very top of Tsvangirai and MDC’s “TO DO” list! If there was any doubt that the GNU could deliver this then MDC should never have signed the power sharing agreement with Mugabe!

PM Tsvangirai can not blame Mugabe for the GNU’s failures. He clearly underestimated Mugabe’s stubbornness and thus proving his own incompetency. For the last three years Tsvangirai has become the milestone round the nation’s neck; as long as he remains in any position of power and authority this nation will continue to suffer. Tsvangirai must go!

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For the last three years MDC has been part of the Zimbabwe government. Other than tell lies about how Mugabe has changed and enjoy the perks given to them as Prime Minister and Ministers, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have made no difference. Many Zimbabweans still consider MDC the nation's saviour just as they once regarded Mugabe national hero per excellence. It will take a few more years before it finally dawns on them than Tsvangirai is useless! Am I a black Zimbabwean, still I have to admit it; we are a thick nation!

ANC Secretary-General Mantashe promise to help Zanu PF "win" the next elections. Not surprised, not really!

2011-12-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe attending the just ended Zanu PF conference promised to send “campaign strategy teams” to help Zanu PF win the coming elections.

Since SA's ANC led government passed the Secrecy Bill which everyone could see was retrogressive and an affront on democracy; President Zuma and ANC knew they could never again lecture Mugabe on democracy and good governance. Lindiwe Zulu, President Zuma’s right hand person in his role as SADC mediator to the Zimbabwe crisis toned down her up to then softly, softly approach to nothing. The week before the Secrecy Bill was passed she was in Zimbabwe talking of a coming visit by President Zuma to get the principal to the GPA to address outstanding issues. After the bill was passed the visit was abandoned.

So Mr Mantashe’s promise to help Mugabe “win” the next elections is to be expected. Since ANC has lost all pretence to democratic credibility and will now openly support a fellow “liberation movement” that lost all democratic credibility a long time ago!

"The ANC wishes to affirm her commitment to being a good and trustworthy neighbour to a fellow liberation movement," Secretary- General Mantashe said. Given that Mugabe and Zanu PF has proved to be NOT a good and trustworthy neighbour; why does that leave President Zuma and ANC?

It was very naïve of Tsvangirai to have signed the GPA believing Mugabe can some how be transformer from the ruthless tyrant to a democrat and that SADC would ever push Mugabe to change.

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The UN has received less than half of the US$ 478 million to meet the urgent needs of vulnerable Zimbabweans next year. The UN blames it on donor fatigue.

According to the UN a million rural Zimbabweans will need food assistance, 34% and 2.4% of the children suffer from chronic and acute child malnutrition and 30% of the rural population are exposed to waterborne diseases because they drink water from unprotected water sources.
It is ease to see why donors are tired of Zimbabwe's begging, especially during these hard times when everyone is cutting back. Zimbabwe continues to spend a cool US$ 45 million on Mugabe's globe trotting in one year alone and then says it has no money!? How does one square that round hole!

Zanu PF's vultures and hyenas are out for blood and Mugabe is in their sights!

2011-12-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Zanu PF War Vet leader, Jabulan Sibanda calls Zanu PF leaders calling for Mugabe to go according to the WikiLeaks cables dogs to the rapturous applause from party conference delegates.

“Those people are serious sellouts, who pretend to like the President in his presence but go to the enemy behind him and criticise him. Dogs are even better than these people,” said Sibanda.For years we have heard of the two warring Zanu PF factions; the Mujuru and the “Ngwena” (Crocodile) Mnangagwa factions. How Mugabe, the loner with not even one person in the party he could call friend, has managed to play one faction against the other to retain the crown is a measure of the mental dexterity of the cunning fox.

Many of the Zanu PF big wigs like Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo had become increasingly bitter. Neither of the two factions considered them important for their cause and hence never bothered to invite them. Mugabe too must have considered them losers and so in his fight against the factions, he too ignored them completely. The WikiLeaks revelations have suddenly given Mutasa, Gumbo and all the other Zanu PF losers a life-line!

The WikiLeaks cables have revealed that a number of Zanu PF leaders had been calling for the removal of Mugabe. The Zanu PF losers are set to see all those named’s political wings clipped if not kicked out of the party. Such a move will break up the current factions and allow new factions and loyalty to emerge. They, hopefully, be the king-making, at very least! The very fact that there was such a loud cheer from the conference floor when Sibanda called those named in the WikiLeak “worse than dogs” goes to show there are indeed many “losers” beside Mutasa and Gumbo!

Ten years ago; the cunning old fox would have relished taking the WikiLeak “dogs” on. He is too old and feeble to do so now. After all the years of being played for fools, every one of these dogs would want nothing better than to go for the jugular vein if he dared take them on!

Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans hate Mugabe for the suffering and misery he brought on the nation. In a free and fair election Zimbabweans would “vote for a donkey than Mugabe,” Professor Jonathan Moyo rightly concluded. And like it or not Mugabe has to face the Zimbabwean electorate next year!

It suited Mugabe to divide his party into fighting factions; divide and rule. The in fight is now dog-eat-dog and the consequences, whatever happens, are not going to be pretty! Thugs like Sibanda and so too are many in the Police, Army and the notorious CIO are all throwing in their lot in the fight for political power.

It is the Zanu PF thugs who have carried out the lion’s share of the dirty work of the political violence that has kept Mugabe and Zanu PF in power. These thugs has had to contend themselves with nothing better than positions in the security sector. They had their fair share of the farms but, like everyone else, they soon realised farming is hard work. They are now aiming for higher jobs as MPs and Ministers denied them so far because they were not educated.

“A dog is not educated but it can understand better and defend its home than these people. Some of these people are even educated and some of them are even holding degrees!” Sibanda and his fellow thugs are pitching for the top jobs in the country!

Zimbabwe’s economic melt down has been devastating to the ordinary Zimbabweans; they have seen their hopes and dreams of freedom, a life with human dignity and economic security crashed! The Zanu PF ruling elite have not been spared either; with each passing year they love of power and wealth has grown and grown meanwhile the national cake has shrunk and shrunk. The daggers are out Zanu PF thugs will fight Mugabe to the death just as readily as they will fight and each other and their political opponents.

The Zanu PF vultures and hyenas are hungry and there is no much to satisfy their ravenous appetites. Mugabe nurtured all these ruthless creatures and is destined to be torn to shreds this party of ruthless thugs turn on each other.

Everything is piling up high for Mugabe and the old tyrant does not know which way to turn. No one is his right mind would want to be in Mugabe’s shoes; not for all the tyrant’s beautiful mansions, executive cars, thirteen farms, billions in foreign bank accounts, etc., etc. He would gladly give up all this wealth and the absolute power to boot for one hour of real peace of mind!

“The evil that men do lives after them” wrote William Shakespeare. “The good is oft interred with their bones!” The evil Mugabe has done is not waiting for his death; it is haunting him now and will continue to do so to the tyrant’s dying day!

Who will guard against the Zanu PF demigods given that they have absolute power!

2011-12-08T10:49:00.000-08:00

When the late Solomon Mujuru died is a mysterious fire on his farm outside Harare; the Harare Fire truck arrived at the farm many hours after they had been notified of the fire. Peter Lobels, a US based businessmen and son of the founder of Lobels Bakery, and his wife who visited the Harare Fire Department at the time decried the deplorable state of disrepair of department’s trucks and equipment.
“This is crazy,” Mrs Lobels said. “We have a commitment to uplifting the people of Zimbabwe and one of the ways is through providing better services.”
The Lobels donated two fire trucks to Harare Fire Department.

Commitment to uplifting the lives of the people of Zimbabwe and providing them better services!? Well that was certainly double Dutch to Mrs Mujuru and would be to Mugabe and the rest of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite. For is it not the thirty years of the greed, corruption and looting by the ruling elite that is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic melt down and collapse of even the most basic services like education, health and, in this case, fire prevention?

The Mujurus have reportedly amassed a fortune after all the years of corruption and looting. The farm where Mujuru died was looted from a white farmer who driven off with little more than the shirt he was wearing. The farm, like all the other looted farms, was never put to full productive use cause a steep drop in agricultural production and the precipitous national economic decline. A very familiar story in Zimbabwe!

The people know they live in abject poverty because of the years of rampant mismanagement, corruption and looting. They are powerless to do stop it; they have been systematically and ruthlessly denied a meaningful say in the governance. Another familiar story in Zimbabwe!

The donated Fire Trucks were received by a “tearful” Mrs Mujuru. The ruling elite like to officiate on such occasions. Indeed, they demand to be there; as many donors in Zimbabwe would testify. The Mujurus’ amassed fortune exceeds that of Mr Lobels and yet it would be unthinkable of her to donate the trucks even when she stood to benefit too as is clearly the case here. Still she had to be there because no one else other than the ruling elite should ever be seen as capable of doing anything to improve the lives of the masses. Donors who have failed to observe this protocol have been kicked out of the country leaving the aid recipients to suffer.

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guards themselves?)” AskedJuvenal Satires, Roman poet & satirist (55 AD - 127 AD.

Yes who indeed will guard the guards themselves if they should be corrupt! The task becomes near impossible if the guards are themselves the legislators, enforcers, the judges, the jury and executioners and the victims are not Roman citizens who understand their entitlement to the full protection of the law but voiceless slaves! Zanu PF “guards” have become nothing short of demigods and have ruled accordingly!

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Chief Lucious Chitsinde Negomo of Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central Province has summoned Prime Minister Tsvangirai to his court for breaking an old custom forbidding one to marry in the month of November! With all Zimbabwe’s problems one would think the Chief would have more important things to do.

Chief Negomo, how many children are sick and dying because the clinics and hospitals in Chiweshe have closed or they are so poorly equipped and staffed to be of any help? We all know the route cause of this human tragedy and yet you have done nothing. In your infinite wisdom you think pursuing Tsvangirai for marrying in November is what you are there for?

Before independence Zimbabwe had leaders like Chief Tangwena, a man of courage and vision. Today from the village-heads, to the Chiefs, to MPs, Ministers, Prime Minister and his Deputies right up to the President himself and his Vice Presidents; none of them have shown they have common sense let alone courage and vision. Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is a man-made problem; for the last three decade the nation has pursued policies that defy common sense!
The Zanu PF dictatorship has brainwashed and stifled this nation. It swept away the light of reason, truth, love and justice and replaced it with the darkness of fear and ignorance. Out of this culture of fear only scum can rise to the top, to be leaders!

In the search for quality leaders the ego of the individual is not important!

2011-12-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

@Tahir
It is not the fate of Morgan, you, me or anyone else out there that is at stake here. It is the fate of Zimbabwe, the fate of the whole nation, all the 12 million of us. Zimbabwe is in a hell-hole today politically and economically and the tragic consequences of that are there for us all to see. It was the nation’s leaders who landed us in this mess and we all played our part - active, direct or whatever - electing these incompetent men and women into power and keeping them there. We must now play our part in making sure we elect the most competent leaders into power if we are ever to get out of this mess.

There are many reasons why this nation has been ruled and ruined by tyrants like Mugabe; misfits like Gono, Simba Makoni; half wits like Chihuri, Muzenda, Tsvangirai; etc. One of those reasons has to be that once we have elected someone leader we want him or her to succeed so badly we refuse to acknowledge they are even capable of making a mistake. For 20 years after independence the nation simply refused to acknowledge that Mugabe, the great war-hero, could do wrong. Even with all the evidence of growing corruption, political repression and the blood of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans on his hands; we refused to accept Mugabe was a ruthless tyrant. We are doing the same with Tsvangirai.

Signing the GPA and thus allow Mugabe back into power was a monumental blunder by Tsvangirai. And he has made numerous more blunders beside. Why are you finding it so difficult to accept that?

The willingness to accept that a leader can make mistakes, that they are fallible, or to accept that there are other alternative points of view other than those of the current leadership is an essential quality if we are ever to get quality leaders. It is this willingness to accept that all leader a fallible and that there can be some one else better them him or her that will force the leader to hard to prove they are the best. And those challenging the leader will strive hard to prove why they should lead. It is because of the competition that we can be sure of electing and retaining the best leaders possible!

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Ghana’s former President, J Rawlings, criticise IIC for “humiliating” Gbagbo following the latter’s arrest. Gbagbo faces four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and inhuman acts, over post-election violence the UN said cost about 3 000 lives.
The trouble with some African leaders is that they really think once someone becomes Head of State they deserve special treatment even if they commit very serious crimes against the nation. By refusing to step down after losing the Election Gbagbo cause the political chaos that costed many lives. The nation could have easily slip into a bloody civil war, for Christ sake. All J Rawlings is concerned about is Gbagbo's comforts. Why did he not tell Gbagbo to step down and thus saved something more important than the misplace ego of a tyrant - human lives!

@ Agbodzi
What are you talking about? Do you accept that Gbagbo lost the elections and refused to step down? If so, do you accept that by refusing to step down he caused the upheaval that followed? If so then it is right that Gbagbo should account for it.

Africa has already seen a number of leaders lose elections and refuse to hand over power. We must stamp this out. The ICC is helping us do just that and so what are you complaining about?

Africa's salvation lies in turning the subservient masses into a thinking and self assured electorate!

2011-12-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Tony Hawkins wrote an article “Economy: growth or recovery” in which he question Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister. Tendai Biti’s forecast 2% growth rate. I did not care much whether the 2% was considered growth or recovery; that was all semantics. I was disappointed that in the last three years the Zimbabwe economy has only managed such a miserable growth rate when it could have achieved a 20 % rate plus.

We should remember that the Zimbabwe economy had registered a staggering 84% economic shrinkage in 2002 to 2008. If the GNU had managed to end the corruption, restore rule of law, etc. the country would have had billions in foreign aid and investment and with efficient utilization of our own human and material resources there is no reason why the national economy should not have taken off big-time. Why not; after all the country still had the infrastructure and the skilled workers.

The vitriolic attach against Tony was totally unjustified. Some people question his qualification to criticise without ever making a single economic argument to disprove Tony’s points. Across the board the Zimbabwe media and public had given Minister Biti’s budget a big thumbs-up! And all these people were now angry that Tony to expose their ignorance.

Anger is the shield and spear of choince of the ignorant!

People have often lamented the lack of quality leaders in Africa and of course they are right but what these people forget to mention is the lack of a quality electorate. Africa’s salvations lies in the transformation of a subservient, gullible and blissfully contended, sometimes to the point of hostility against those who dare remind them of their folly, masses into a thinking and confident electorate. For without a quality electorate; the quality leaders, even if a few could emerge, will never have the mass public support to change much!

(Tony Hawkins’ article is in the New Zimbabwe and SA’s Financial Mail.)

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This is a really interesting and important subject and thank you very much for bringing it up. I would not say the "ball is in the people's court" at least not as far as JOC is concerned. JOC believes they have the guns and therefore they can dictate what they please. The ball is in their court in that they call all the shots and like it or not we, the people are powerless to do anything. And admittedly that is exactly what we see on the ground.

The ball is in the people’s court in the sense that it is up to them now to do something to end this intolerable and repressive situation. And I say that the people have done something end this dictatorship.

In March 2008 the people of Zimbabwe voted in droves to give Mugabe and Zanu PF the biggest electoral defeat and Tsvangirai and his MDC party the mandate to rule Zimbabwe. The people knew that Mugabe and Zanu PF will not take kindly to any electoral revolt and the tyrant’s retribution was both swift and severe. He refused to accept that he lost the vote and demanded a presidential run-off tyrant and made sure that that the electorate were beaten into submission before the June 2008 vote.

Of course what Mugabe did in 2008 was an outrage and the whole international community was condemned the sham election. They refused to accept him as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai did not have to go into any power sharing agreement with Mugabe, not after what the tyrant had just done. And to add insult to injury sign a power sharing arrangement in which the tyrant had all his dictatorial power. That was down right stupid on Tsvangirai’s part and the nation has paid dearly for it.

Still even within the frame work of the GPA the opportunity to end the repression still existed. The March 2008 vote gave MDC control of parliament. Parliament has the power and authority to rein in Chihuru and all the other rogue security officers, for example, who have taken it upon themselves to neglect their duties of enforcing the rule of law or worse in their drive to keep Mugabe and Zanu PF in power at all cost. Parliament has the power and authority to impeach Mugabe himself if it can be proven that he has ever said or done anything to encourage the scourge political violence that has caused so much suffering and deaths in the country for all these years.

MDC had 57 MPs in the 2005 parliament but they made no difference supposedly because it was a Zanu PF controlled house. What is MDC’s excuse for doing nothing this time!

Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans were beaten or raped and over 500 lost their lives for a useless and powerless parliament; a paper tiger! Why anyone should ever bother to vote for Tsvangirai or any of his MDC friends beggars belief!

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Ray Bennet calls Zanu PF a “Mafia” gang. Has this reality just dawned on him now or is he saying this now because he was denied a chance to join his MDC friends at the table presided over by none other than the tyrant Mugabe himself!

It is rich for Mr Bennet to be calling Zanu PF the Mafia today and yet he like the rest of MDC leaders approved MDC's singing the GPA with Mugabe and for a long time after it said nothing! He is not different from all the other Zanu PF turncoats like Makoni, Nkala, Dumiso Dabengwa who had nothing but praise for Mugabe when they were in power only to criticise him when they fell out with the tyrant! We want principled leaders not good weather friends.

The American presidential race is on, we should learn the true rigours on democracy but never do!

2011-12-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the American political cycle again where all aspiring candidates to hold various public offices including the top job, President of the United States of America, put their names in the hat and under goes a rigorous test at the end of which the party members seek who they want to be their party candidate. After that the winning candidate will have to undergo an even more torturous acid test at the end of which the whole nation gets to pick the winner. This is what is noticeably lacking in Africa!

For all their rhetoric about championing democratic change Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have stifled debate and competition within the party itself, just as Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have done. Indeed the only difference between Tsvangirai and Mugabe is that the latter stifled democratic competition against him and his Zanu PF candidates to the point of death! Is it any wonder then we have ended up with a tyrant Mugabe as president and an incompetent and indecisive Tsvangirai as the alternative.

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Tony Hawkins, one of the leading Economist in Zimbabwe asked the key question: Economy: is it growth or recovery?

“AT first sight it is almost too good to be true. Zimbabwe’s economy has “grown” about 2 percent in the three years since dollarisation and the launch of the seriously misnamed government of national unity in February 2009,” wrote Tony.

Zimbabwe’s 2% growth is at the back of a staggering 84% economic shrink in the six year period 2002 to 2008. With sound economic policies and political will the country should be registering 20% plus growth. Zimbabwe did not have any foreign aid or investment for example, one of the key requirements for economic recovery, because the country to this day is still seen as a lawlessness and corrupt country.
For a country facing 80% plus unemployment rate a 2% economic growth rate is nothing. It is really disappointing that some Zimbabweans including the Finance Minister himself should be pleased with the 2%. Yes it is infinitely better than what the nation had at the tail end of Mugabe's rule; still should we be comparing ourselves with a failed dictatorship or what we can be?!

Minister Biti bows down to MPs' outrageous US$ 3.3 million allowances demand!

2011-12-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

Minister Biti has reportedly bowed to MPs demands for their US$ 3.3 million allowance back pay. Why am I not surprised!

The country’s health and education systems, Prisons, etc. are all in a shocking state because for decades now government has failed to make adequate budgetary provisions for these important public services. The budget Minister Biti presented last week was no different; the rot in the public service will continue. And millions of Zimbabweans who now live in abject poverty for no fault of their own and are therefore totally dependent on these meagre public services will continue to suffer and dies.

A US$ 3.3 million budgetary allocation to the ministry of health can mean the difference between the buying enough polio vaccines for a million children, for example, or condemned them to heart breaking misery should they catch the disease. Yes, Zimbabwe’s budgetary squeeze has sunk to nauseating depth of depravity! It is in this contrasting light that the MPs’ US$ 3.3 allowance demand and Mugabe gobbling up of US$ 45 million on foreign travel alone - all paid from the same public pot - must be seen.

Mugabe has lavished power and money on all those holding in position of power from the lowly village heads and traditional Chiefs to MPs and Ministers to buy their blind loyalty and keeping him in power. Tsvangirai and his MDC MPs can complain about Mugabe refusing to honour everything else since the signing of the GPA but one thing; the tyrant has honoured his promise to let MDC members to enjoy the spoils of power same as his Zanu PF cronies. And for their part, Tsvangirai and company have been careful never to do anything to seriously threaten Mugabe’s hold on power.

MDC MPs joined Zanu PF’s own MPs in demanding the US$ 3.3 million out of a sense of entitlement; their share of the loot! Of course, Mugabe, Tsvangirai all these MPs know that their looting is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic melt down and the heart breaking suffering of the millions across the land and they do not care. All they care about is to hang on to their public office position and have a get as much of the loot as they can while they can.

The Zimbabwe economy has remained in the stuck in doldrums these last three years because the GNU has failed to carry through the necessary structural changes. The West has not given Zimbabwe a single penny for the much hoped for foreign aid because they do not pour water in a leaky bucket. God knows they have explained to Minister Biti what Zimbabwe needs to do. Biti did not push through any of these changes because he did not want to rock the boat. It did not take much arm twisting for him to give to the MPs the US$ 3.3 on this occasion! He too knows which side of his bread is buttered.

All MDC’s talk of democratic change is nothing but empty rhetoric. Tsvangirai and MDC have had countless opportunities to force through change and end this ruinous dictatorship but failed to follow through on all occasions because they are “now busy eating” as Tanonoka Joseph Hwande has so aptly put it!
Until we have quality leaders who will stand up to Mugabe and all those who have sold their souls to the tyrant for thirty pieces of silver; only then will Zimbabwe have real change and hope for a better future.

Zimbabweans need the intelectual eyes of the chameleon: one fixed on Mugabe the other on Tsvangirai!

2011-11-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

Tsvangirai blame State Media and the CIO for interfering in his relationship and says marrying Locadia now is “inconceivable”.

He said he had become a, “spectator in this relationship and things are happening too fast, on camera and without my knowledge. This has led me to conclude that there is a greater and thicker plot around this issue which has undermined my confidence in this relationship.”
By his own admission Tsvangirai is saying he had been going out with someone he should not. No doubt the two had been going out for a while, long enough to get the woman pregnant, and all this time he did not realise she was a bad woman. This is not the first time Tsvangirai has shown he is a bad judge of character.

Tsvangirai signed a power sharing agreement with Mugabe in 2008 and for two years insisted the political marriage was working. “There is nothing Mugabe does that I do not know,” Tsvangirai said.

Tsvangirai is a weak and indecisive leader and his repeated failure to see dubious characters for whom they really are is just another manifestation to his incompetency as a leader.

Zimbabweans have their eyes fixed on getting Mugabe out of office and rightly so too. Still we also must stop to assess the competency of the man we are proposing to take Mugabe’s place. We must not behave like a duck whose eyes can only focus on one thing and one thing only.

Before independence we had our minds fixed on getting rid of Ian Smith and thus failed to scrutinise the men and women we were electing to lead after independence. Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends showed their tyrannical streak long before independence and when they assumed office their true sadistic colours were there for all to see. And yet for 20 years Zimbabweans refused to see Mugabe for the tyrant he is. History has a habit to repeat itself; for the last three years Tsvangirai has blundered again and again and still many Zimbabweans refuse to acknowledge he is a weak and indecisive leader.

After the mandate the people of Zimbabwe gave Tsvangirai is 2008 there is no reason why Mugabe should be around terrorising and messing our lives. The tyrant is still firmly in charge today only because Tsvangirai blundered and allowed the tyrant back into power through the back door, the stupid GPA.

It was Zimbabweans’ failed to keep one eye on Smith and the second eye on Mugabe that landed the nation into this hell-hole. To get out; we must keep one keen eye on Mugabe and Zanu PF and the second eye on Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. We all want to get rid of Mugabe and his dictatorship but that will never happen if the individuals we have entrusted to do this are so incompetent the dictator is running rings round them at every turn! We must develop the fixable intellect like the eyes of the chameleon if we are to avoid the pitfall of once again blocking the stable after the horse has bolted - acknowledge Tsvangirai’s shortcomings after ten years of indecision and blundering!

Locadia Tembo threatened to kill herself because Tsvangirai would not marry her!

2011-11-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo was determined to marry Tsvangirai, so determined that she threaten to kill herself when he said no.

It must have been the thought of losing out on the endless foreign travel, the shopping, looted farms and all the unimagined luxuries as the wife of Zimbabwe’s P M and, fingers crossed, some day soon the Zimbabwe’s First Lady that drove this woman to do all these things! Grace Mugabe showed the same grit determination to get her man - she deserted a husband and child to be impregnated twice by then married Robert! To be fair the two ladies; both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have themselves too sold their souls to the devil to get what they want!

Robert Mugabe destroyed the nation’s economy through rampant corruption and looting - bribing his cronies - and murdered tens of thousands of Zimbabweans who dared exercise their basic right to have a meaning vote. Tsvangirai went into the 2009 political "marriage" with the dictator in which he has received nothing but abuse! The irony is Tsvangirai had the nation’s mandate to rule and therefore he did not need to enter into this one-sided agreement. Sadly, he was too excited at the prospect of being PM and too stupid to realise that!

"On discovering that Tsvangirai was not interested in marrying her, she threatened him with exposing the affair, the pregnancy and throwing herself in front of Prime Minister's official Mercedes Benz vehicle while it was in motion. This is when people realised she was serious," the report said, quoting a close Tsvangirai family member.

There is nothing wrong with being rich but when people start valuing money and luxuries above everything else including the sanctity of human life itself - leaders murdering thousands of innocent people and women threatening to end their own lives for a chance to marry the ruling elite and a share of the good life - we have gone too far. It is morally reprehensible that people like Mugabe and his wife should live such an extravagant lifestyle in the midst of millions living in abject poverty. It is an unforgivable crime against the nation that the ruling elite’s wasteful lifestyles should be built of the misery and suffering of the poor and helpless in society.

MPs will delay approval of budget: they are demanding new cars for themselves!

2011-11-28T05:03:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe’s MPs are threatening to delay the approval of the national budget because they too want to be pampered like Mugabe and Tsvangirai! MPs are demanding new cars and back pay of salaries and allowances outstanding since 2008.

The Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a staggering 84% in the six years 2002 to 2008 a position from which it has yet to recover three years since the formation of this GNU. The economic melt down has left 80% plus of our people out of work and into abject poverty. Many of the same MPs were in the last parliament; what did they do to stop the economic melt down? Nothing! The economy should have registered a significant recovery since 2008 if only the country had restored the rule of law and stopped the madness of corruption and looting. Three years later and Zimbabwe is still a lawless country!

Most civil servants are paid a merge US$300 or less. What makes these MPs believe they deserve more than the US$ 500 they are getting? MPs got new cars three years ago; they really do not need these cars replaced.

It is very true that the executive, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara are pampering themselves with multiple luxury cars and other perks. How can anyone justify spending a cool US$ 3 million on one foreign trip when hundreds of thousands of children across the nation can not be vaccinated because there is no money to buy the vaccines. Instead of the MPs putting their foot down to end this criminal waste of resources they are using it to justify their own demand to be pampered too!

“It is very unfortunate that people can perceive that we are trying to arm twist the government when the truth is that government is not looking at our welfare issues,” said Paddy Zhanda. It is very unfortunate that Zimbabwe is ruled by a sick and selfish executive and an equally sick and selfish legislature!

Zimbabwe's leaders spent US$ 45 million on travel alone!

2011-11-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Zimbabwe top leaders alone have spent a staggering US$ 45.5 million or 1.2% of the national budget, on foreign travel alone in January to September 2011.

“All the three GNU principals and Cabinet have developed a penchant for jet setting” reported Gift Phiri of Daily News. Although I would say this is not something Zimbabwe’s ruling elite has “developed” in the last few years. Even back in the 1990s when the country implementing savage economic cuts in line with WB reform programmes, Mugabe continued to spend millions of dollars on foreign travel. People used to ask when the last time he “visited” Zimbabwe! He is still globe trotting today, even with the national economy in total melt down!

This government has been paying highly qualified civil servants an allowance of US$300 a month (even the regime is ashamed to call it a salary) because it has no money. It is an outrage that Mugabe should spend US$3 million – enough to pay 10 000 civil servants - on just one of his innumerable globe trotting trips! Finance Minister Tendai Biti is right to call this outrage a “cancer”. A point sadly missed by Prime Minister Tsvangirai.

During Prime Minister’s question time Tsvangirai justified Mugabe’s medical trips to Singapore on the dubious grounds that the nation must take care of its national leaders. Spending US$3 million goes far beyond living within one’s means because Mugabe did not need to take his usual entourage of cronies and hangers-on for yet another shopping spree.
None of Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance has ever succeeded in getting Mugabe and his cronies to rein in their extravagant spending. I compliment Minister Biti for trying; he is not likely to get very far given that his own MDC leader does not even understanding what he is doing!

It was Tsvangirai not Zuma who should have led the push for democratic change in Zimbabwe!

2011-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe political analyst, Sanderson Makombe, tells S W Radio Africa that President Zuma is to blame for bringing no democratic change three years after the signing of Zimbabwe’s GPA. One has to ask what exactly did people like Makombe expect President Zuma to do.

In my humble opinion SADC and President Zuma was only suppose to play a supportive and not the lead role in the search for a solution to Zimbabwe political problems. In this case Tsvangirai has repeatedly shied away from playing a leading role. Indeed one can even say Tsvangirai has even decided to do nothing in the expectation that SADC and President Zuma will do everything. You say SADC and President Zuma have done nothing in the three years of the GPA and of course you are right. But one has to ask what has Tsvangirai himself done in the three years? Nothing!

Zimbabwe needs to carryout so many democratic reforms before we can have free and fair elections. Surely Tsvangirai can not be that helpless and powerless to push at least one reform in three years! All he has done is make a big hu –ha about writing a new constitution at great expense too, one must add; only for Mugabe’s thugs disrupt and scupper the whole thing. Anyone with any common sense saw this coming; anyone that is except Tsvangirai.

It is ease to blame President Zuma for Zimbabwe’s continued mess but if the truth be told, and it must be, Zimbabweans risked a lot to elect Tsvangirai and MDC in 2008. Tsvangirai has the people’s mandate to change things in Zimbabwe but sadly for three years he has done nothing with that power!

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The targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies imposed by the West to push the dictator to accept democratic reforms are not working. The tyrant and his cronies are richer than ever even though the country has been suffering the worst national economic melt down in human history. After nearly ten years these sanctions, it is time the America and the West fine tuned these sanctions or else scrap them.

SA pass "secrecy" law - a black day for SA!

2011-11-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

ANC government pass the “secrecy” law which will gag the press. It is a black day for SA.

The tragedy of this case is that many blacks see it as a black vs white issue and thus the black majority will support the ANC leaders without question. In reality this law is an affront against freedom and democracy and that knows no race, gender, or any other division.

What ANC leaders are doing is play the race card just to confuse the blacks for their own selfish gain. This is the price the whole nation is paying for the years of racism by the whites!

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies must be celebrating; they know President Zuma has lost all pretence of occupying the moral high ground. Mugabe and his thugs can now continue to ride the people rough shod and President Zuma has no moral authority to tell him to stop! Tsvangirai should have never counted on SADC to bring about meaningful democratic change and now with President Zuma in disgrace this should force MDC to finally accept that it is from within Zimbabwe we must find a solution to the country’s problems.

Code of conduct is NOT the answer to Zimbabwe's violence: impeach Mugabe!

2011-11-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

So the country has suffered and thousands have lost their lives in politically motivated violence because we did not have a CODE OF CONDUCT!? This is what the great indaba - meeting of the three principals in the GNU and their respect parties' executive committees - came up with? This is simply unbelievable!

We have a culture of violence because those responsible for the violence are above the law. In the past the Police has turned a blind eye to Zanu PF inspired violence. Only their shadowy cousins in the CIO have played an active role in the violence. When Mugabe lost the March 2008 presidential race the Police and the Army planned and executed the orgy of violence and mayhem that secured Mugabe’s ‘win’ in the June 2008 presidential run-off.

Mugabe had the December 2009 Zanu PF Congress passed a resolution committing the Police, Army, CIO and all other State Security Organs endorse the outrageous conduct of these organs in the June 2008 election violence and in future on the dodgy grounds that Zanu PF was “the only party of the revolution”.

It was the Police in Victoria Falls who chased away the people attending the MDC-T’s rally and closed the gates into the stadium in Tsvangirai’s face. The Police cancelled MDC-N’s rally and told Professor Ncube to his face they did not recognise anything other political party other than Zanu PF!

We have a culture of violence in Zimbabwe because Mugabe has granted himself tyrannical powers which he has then used to undermine the work of the Police, the Courts, the Media and all the other democratic institutions so that he and his thugs are above the law and thus free to do whatever they deem necessary to maintain his struggle hold on power.

After three decades of intimidation, rape and brutal murders – hundreds of thousands have been beaten and tens of thousands murdered in cold blood - Zimbabwe should not be talking of having the “green bombers” or the Chipangamo gang members arrested. They are the small fish, the foot soldiers. We should not even be talking of having the rogue army generals of Police Officers fired; we can but still that will not be enough. What this country needs is to stop pussyfooting and at last take the bull by the horns - impeach Mugabe as a ruthless murderer and tyrant.

Since the March 2008 election Tsvangirai and MDC had the people’s mandate to end Zimbabwe’s culture of violence by having the thugs arrested and punished, by acting swiftly against those in the security sector found wanting in their conduct or failed to carryout their public duties and thus stop the rot spreading and, now, by failing to impeach Mugabe. There could well be the last very last chance for this nation to stop this madness of pointless and barbaric violence and instead of taking the decisive action the situation demands the great indaba is to produce a code of conduct!

When Tsvangirai signed the power sharing agreement that got Mugabe off the hook many people said the arrangement would achieve nothing and time has proved beyond doubt that they were right. When Tsvangirai took the oath of office as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe it was clear why he signed the GPA, this was the pinnacle of his dreams and nothing anyone else said was going to stop him being PM. Whatever Tsvangirai and his friends have said or done about Mugabe since they all became members of the GNU it was understood by both sides as political posturing. They would never say or do anything to upset Mugabe and therefore they would never, never ever impeach Mugabe. No, not even if the very lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans were at stake, as is clearly the case now.

Whilst the Indaba work on the code of conduct Mugabe will be distributing the millions of weapons he imported from his friends in China. He now has clearance to sell the stockpile of Marange diamonds and use the money to fund his campaign of violence and murder. Tsvangirai endorse the lifting of the ban on the sale of Marange diamonds knowing Mugabe and his cronies were conducting a very lucrative but secretive diamond business.

To retain his vice grip on power Mugabe has turned the people tasked with keeping law and order into murderous thugs and poisoned society so that one is forced to abandon reason and all humanity in a violent strangle for survival. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends will be just as responsible for the suffering and lost lives this new wave of Mugabe madness brings as the tyrant himself because they can and should stop Mugabe now. Impeach Mugabe now before it is too late; writing a code of conduct is but a feeble copout!

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So the Indaba met and decided that Zimbabwe needs a "code of conduct" to end the political violence! What a sick joke!

Matters have gone beyond the arrest of some murderous thugs or firing of the rogue Police or Army Officers; parliament must impeach Mugabe himself. He has vowed there will be no regime change in Zimbabwe and now he has the thugs, the weapons, money; everything to start an orgy of mindless violence. There is nothing new or deferent that a new code can come up with here. What has been lacking all these years is the political will and courage to deal with the various challenges the nation has faced including curse of violence. It is high time Tsvangirai stood up and be counted and this talk of a code is nothing but a cynical copout!

Proceeds from diamond sells funding violence: says "disaster" Tsvangirai!

2011-11-10T04:40:00.000-08:00

Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of running a parallel government and using diamond money to fuel political violence. “Of note is the continued sale of State resources such as diamonds without the knowledge of the Treasury. There have over five diamond auctions to date and only two have been accounted for by the Treasury. The resources accrued are not known and have been used to facilitate the operations of this parallel government,” said the MDC dossier sent to President Zuma.“Clearly, this remains why some elements in government have refused the call for transparency and nationalisation of diamonds in Chiadzwa. It is also possible that these diamond resources are now being used to perpetrate violence against civilians in Zimbabwe. This is also very plausible as security forces remain active in the extraction and selling of diamonds in Chiadzwa.”

It was for these very reasons that many people within Zimbabwe and outside had campaign long and hard to stop the sell of Zimbabwe’s Chiadza diamonds. The ban was lifted last week at the behest of none other than Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC Deputy Minister of Mines, Gift Chimamikire. The two publicly rubbished all reports including one from a fellow MDC MP, Eddie Cross, claiming the mining of diamonds in Chiadza was still marred in violence and corruption.

Like it or not once MDC changed its position in support of lifting the ban on sell of Chiadza diamonds, there was little anyone else could do to stop that from happening. Of course the KP Committee is not going to reinstate the ban just because Zimbabwe’s dithering Prime Minister has had yet another change of heart.

Yes it was the same PM Morgan Tsvangirai who lobbied that Mugabe should be allowed to sell the Chiadza diamonds who is now saying the money from the sells will be used to finance political violence. This is just one of the many blunders Tsvangirai has made and, as usual, it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who will pay dearly for it! Thank you very much Prime Minister “Disaster”!

Tsvangirai says GPA is on the verge of collapse and still he knows not what to do!

2011-11-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

Tsvangirai says the GNU is on the verge of collapse. “The political and security situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating at an alarming and scaring pace and the MDC calls on Sadc to intervene to ensure the GPA does not collapse,” reads 11-page dossier to President Zuma.

“The sad reality is that of the 24 issues agreed, none has been implemented to date,” says the report. And the tragic reality is that the circus has been going on for over thirty months now and there is really no hope of anything changing. Mugabe is set on his dictatorial ways and he clearly has no intention of changing course. And poor Tsvangirai does not have the foggiest idea what to do to force the tyrant to change and never did.

The irony is Tsvangirai has the power to end all the political violence and force through all the democratic reforms. Parliament has the power and Tsvangirai’s MDC has the parliamentary majority. He has not used this power either because he has not realized he has it or else, which is almost certain, because he is frightened stiff of doing anything to upset the tyrant Mugabe.

Much as we love complaining about how powerless we are because of Zimbabwe’s undemocratic constitution and institutions after thirty years of Zanu PF tinkering with the constitution and corrupting the Police, Media, Judiciary, etc. There are many opportunities to rein in the dictatorship if only we would take full advantage of these opportunities. Parliament has the power to rein in Mugabe but because the house is full of lackeys to the tyrant nothing has happened.

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Unoti uchamboti ‘totenda dzamwa dzasera nebenzi’ uchiti zvemwe zvichaita nane! Izvi zvaMugabe naTsvangirai zvanyanya. Mugabe anoziva chinhu chimwechete, humhondi. VaTsvangirai vangu tigere hedu, hatina chokuziva. Nhasi anoti ndinondotaura naMugabe mangwana ondo chemerai vaZuma. Makore natatu adarika achingo chingoit hwakumukwaku seguguvo asipasina chinoitwa.

Kanazuva nezuva mombe dzichisvera mumunda, benzi ndiwe anorenge benzi richirisa mombe achingoti "Tontenda dzamwa!" Zviri pachena Tsvangirai ashaya zano rokuti budisa mupfupfu yohumhondi hwaMugabe neZanu PF yake. Zvikoni zvikoni mimba haibvi nengosoro. Vanhu veZimbabwe tinofanira kutwa mumwe mutugamiri anotorera Tsvangirai.

Varipo vazhinji vanokwanisa kubvisa Mugabe pachigaro kudze kwaTsvangirai. Kusaradza mutunganiri anoziva zvaanoita rwendo, kutenda kuti Tsvangirai atadza ndiru hwaru dzokutanga!

Violence is to Zanu PF what Christ is to Christians - Tsvangirai is yet to realise that!

2011-11-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

Reports of political violence continue to flood in. Zanu PF youths stopped an MDC rally in Chitugwiza on Sunday. Hundreds of MDC supporters were beaten up, seven of them are in Hospital for treatment. As has become the norm, the Police did nothing to stop the Zanu PF thugs.

“They watched us as these Zanu-PF youths destroyed our property and assaulted our members," MDC’s Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, told a news reporters later.

Zanu PF is a party that firmly believes in violence as the only way of achieve it’s political objectives. Violence is to Zanu PF what Christ is to the Christians.

Zimbabweans should have asked themselves before taking up arms to fight the racist white regime of Ian Smith; what kind of leaders the armed struggle would throw up? And, more poignantly, will such leaders with victory on the battlefield still ringing in their ears want to listen to the voices of ordinary people.

“What was achieved by the bullet can not be undone by the ballot!” said Mugabe to “justify” the wanton political violence during the sham June 2008 presidential run-off in which millions of Zimbabweans beaten, raped or otherwise had their lives turned up side down. Over 500 Zimbabweans lost their lives!

Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant who would stop at nothing to retain his iron grip on political power and all the privileges that has gone with absolute power. The threat of him and his cronies being called upon to account for their murderous past if Zanu PF should lose power has only hardened their resolved to retain power at all cost.

Anyone who has followed the politics in Zimbabwe is hardily surprised at the growing political violence sweeping the country now. What is surprising is how little MDC has done in the last three years to address this thorny problem. In a way, that is not surprising given just how incompetent Tsvangirai and MDC have proved to be in the past!

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@Madulla
Yes President Mbeki could have played a more constructive role in Zimbabwe but ultimately the blame for the mess in Zimbabwe has to be laid on Tsvangirai's door for two reasons:
1) The GPA proposed by Mbeki gave too much power to Mugabe, everyone said so and warned Tsvangirai and yet he still signed it.
2) Even within the context of the GPA Tsvangirai and MDC had the power, authority and opportunity to take the rogue Police Officers and Army Generals to task, for example, and thus challenge Zanu PF's culture of violence head-on. Again and again MDC has done nothing.
Ultimately it is the people of Zimbabwe, not SADC, NATO or anyone else, who will decide the country’s destiny. Right now MDC is playing a key role in defining that destiny; it is a great pity that the party is led by a weak and indecisive leader!

Now that Zanu PF got what it wanted out of the GPA it is withdrawing its negotiators!

2011-11-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the Herald ZANU-PF “no longer (has) energy, inclination or willingness to maintain the team of negotiators as a forum of resolving any disagreements.” This throws the whole GPA into turmoil.

The GPA was unworkable for two reasons:
1) it gave Mugabe dictatorial powers.
2) MDC agreed to things like lifting the sanctions which they could not deliver and now Mugabe is holding the whole process hostage to these things.

MDC use its parliamentary majority to force through many of the democratic reforms. There have been many chances to force change in Zimbabwe what has been lacking is visionary leaders to make the most of these chances!

Tsvangirai tells Mugabe to step down - something no dictator will ever do, stupid!

2011-11-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

Tsvangirai says Mugabe should step down. "The question of age is catching up, the question of health is catching up. I am sure that advisably he would be in a position for the sake of the country, for the sake of his legacy, for the sake of his children to consider stepping down," Tsvangirai told a news conference.

Age and ill health (and his evil past) have certainly caught up with Mugabe; he would not be lording over us today if it was not for Tsvangirai’s naive stupidity to allow the dictator back in after the sham 2008 elections! Indeed Tsvangirai should get off his fat backside and finally address Zimbabwe's omnipresent cancerous problem of political violence. Tsvangirai has wasted years and countless opportunities waiting for Mugabe to step down and hand over power to him. And still he has not learnt that Mugabe has no intention of giving up power; it is not in the nature of a tyrant to do that, ever!

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@Smell
You are right, Tsvangirai should stop "sucking up" to Mugabe. Tsvangirai is a weak leader and has never had the confidence to stand up to Mugabe and Zanu PF and hence the need to appease.

It is naïve to think that the Zanu PF dictatorship will disappear the day Mugabe goes. Mugabe is but the one of the snake heads on the monster Medusa which is Zanu PF! Even if Mugabe goes, and signs are that he is going, I can not see Zimbabwe moving because Tsvangirai will be "sucking up" to Mujuru, Mnangagwa, Chihuri, and all the other Zanu PF thugs who make up the Zanu PF dictatorship!

What Zimbabwe needs to do desperately is to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and lawlessness and that requires a leader who will stand up not suck up to the dictatorship!

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@Dhlamini

By signing the power sharing agreement with Mugabe in 2008, Tsvangirai gave Mugabe back all the tyrannical powers which the later has used to continue to intimidate and terrorise our people. The GPA was one sided from the word go and Tsvangirai was aware of that. And yet he still signed the agreement to appease Mugabe. Of course it was very naïve and stupid of Tsvangirai to have done so and it is ridiculous to call him a “peace-maker” for it!

Police bar Prime Minister Tsvangirai from addressing a rally - some Prime Minister!

2011-10-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

The Police stopped Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai addressing a rally in Victoria Falls. They blocked the games into the stadium where the rally was to be held.

“The behaviour of the police in the past 72 hours tells us that there is no rule of law in the country and that the police are at the forefront of promoting lawlessness,” Tamborinyoka said.

Well there is a real surprise! For over thirty years now Zimbabweans have been systematically denied their basic human rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life itself! Mugabe and Zanu PF have rod rough shod over us and have crashed our hopes, dreams and our very souls. And Tamborinyoka, the man who should know better just how much the nation has suffered and therefore the urgency to bring this repression to a speedy end was not even aware of the lawlessness in the country until 72 hours ago!

Zimbabweans have to once again ask Tsvangirai what exactly he expected to achieve when he signed the power sharing agreement with Mugabe after the sham 2008 elections. The restoration of the rule of law was surely the number one priority for the nation then and it is clearly we have not moved an inch on that issue.

The task of removing an entrenched and ruthless dictator like Mugabe clearly demands a cunning, decisive and strong leader. Tsvangirai is incompetent and indecisive and for all his rhetoric has clearly failed to comprehend the true nature of the Zanu PF dictatorship “beast”. Of course Tsvangirai will continue to blunder along as long as the nation let him.
Zimbabweans can bury their heads in the sand and pretend Tsvangirai will bring the democratic change we are all dying for or accept that he is not up to the task and therefore start the challenging task of looking for the competent leader. And to make sure this time the nation does not pick a tyrant like Mugabe or a blundering idiot like Tsvangirai; we must define the qualities we want to see in our leaders and what tests we intend to carryout to ensure the individuals have those qualities!

Tsvangirai calls for the arresr of Zanu PF thugs: yes, but who will do it!?

2011-10-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

“Those who commit violence should be arrested," Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said in reply to the question of what government was doing to end the politically motivated violence. He added that the national leaders of all three political parties in government would meet to discuss how best they could curb the political violence.

It is impossible to take Tsvangirai serious; either he is stupid or blind as bat! This nation has suffered this scourge of political violence for the last three years when all that was required to end it was to arrest the thugs and for the leaders to meet! Why in the name of God have these things not happened?

The issue of ending political violence should have been at the very top of his mind in 2008 after the sham elections that saw millions beaten or raped and left over 500 murdered. The power sharing agreement he signed with Mugabe should have delivered above all else an end to this mindless culture violence. Sadly this is the one thing it failed to deliver. If anything things are worse now than ever; Mugabe has used the last three years to re-organise and secure funding for his terror machine.

Zanu PF thugs are now so bold they even beat up MPs and Police Officers. Everyone knows these Zanu PF thugs are above the law; no one dares arrest them. It therefore beggars belief that the PM should be the one not aware of this well established fact.

The trouble with Tsvangirai is that he does not have the imagination or the courage to deal with a ruthless tyrant like Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs. And so Tsvangirai buries his head in the sand and pretends Mugabe and his murderous henchmen are all reasonable and peace loving people who will handover power one of these fine days! Tsvangirai has no redlines beyond which he will not be pushed and has thus allowed Mugabe, his partner in the GNU, to continue to loot and murder as he pleased.

Tsvangirai loves coming up with all these novelty solutions like the classic fairy tale mouse who suggested tying the bell round the cat but ignored the important andpractical detail of who would do it! Zimbabwe has the reality of a ruthless dictatorship to deal before the important task of digging ourselves out of the mess the regime created can start. Tsvangirai's mickey mouse timid grasp of the problem and childish solutions are, at best, a waste of time and energy and folly!

In 2008 Zimbabweans risked so much to vote for Tsvangirai hoping he would bring about the democratic change. The people knew Tsvangirai was a weak leader still none of them ever realised that he was this feeble and stupid!

&&&&&&&&

Sunil Prasad, secretary-general of the Commonwealth Trade Union Group, says Mugabe would rather hand over power to his wife than anyone from his party.

One can see why Mugabe would rather appoint Grace than anyone else from Zanu PF particularly in the light of the WikiLeaks. However Prasad is completely off the mark when it comes to Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai is an incompetent, weak and indecisive leader; how can such a leader "change the fortunes" of Zimbabwe?

Tsvangirai admits considering a coalition with Zanu PF back in April 2008!

2011-10-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

“According to Goche, Mugabe had agreed to step down to ensure proper transfer of power, there was need for us to take some of their Zanu PF winners into the coalition administration,” said Tsvangirai in his book, AT THE DEEP END.

Mugabe would not have considered stepping down if Tsvangirai had not won the 50% plus one and therefore Tamborinyoka is right in saying Mugabe was “defeated outright”. Having said that one has to ask what Tsvangirai himself said on this key point in his book.

We have to remember that when ZEC starting dragging their feet about releasing the results MDC announced that Tsvangirai had polled 60% and then a few days later the party revised the figure downwards to 55%. So what does Tsvangirai say he polled this time? More significantly does he explain why MDC had shot itself in the foot by having to revise it own figures?

The whole world would want to know why Tsvangirai jumped to the conclusion that he needed to take some Zanu PF members into his administration. With the Zanu PF ship sinking it was not surprising that many top Zanu PF officials would want to jump ship. Still Tsvangirai neither owned them anything nor did they deserve any consideration let alone favours.

Tsvangirai has made a big song and dance about how SADC and AU forced him into a power sharing arrangement with Mugabe, particular whenever the latter is playing hardball – which has been often. The truth is Tsvangirai did not need any persuading; he was clearly thinking of forming a coalition anywhere.

There is nothing wrong with being magnanimous and invite one’s defeated rivalries into a coalition administration in a grand gesture of reconciliation and forgiveness per se. It all depends on the motive behind the move.

Zimbabwe has suffered from gross mismanagement, rampant corruption for thirty years and, in the last ten years, from all out looting by the country’s ruling elite. This has resulted in the worst economic melt down in human history and millions of Zimbabweans have been thrown into object poverty and life expectancy, the quantitative and qualitative acid test of life, has plummeted from 65 years to 34 years. This has all happened because the ordinary Zimbabweans were denied their basic and fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah was right; “Seek you the political rights and the economic rights will follow.” The people of Zimbabwe have seen their hopes and dreams of freedom, liberty and economic prosperity turned into a nightmare in which their suffering and lives count for nothing. They have failed to stop this juggernaut onslaught because they had no political rights!

The banner behind which all black Zimbabweans stood before independence in 1980 was: “No Zimbabwean should ever be treated the same way the white colonialists treated us!” It is totally unacceptable should still be treated as if they were the scum of the earth thirty years after independence. And three years since the formation of the GNU nothing in that regard has changed!
For all his posturing as his own man committed to democratic change, Tsvangirai has always been scarred stiff of Mugabe and Zanu PF. He never believed that he could rule the country without Mugabe and Zanu PF’s cooperation regardless the size of the electoral mandate he may get from the electorate. Getting Mugabe off the hook after the sham June 2008 elections and then granting him all his dictatorial powers to loot and terrorise was not a gesture of reconciliation but a shameless act of appeasement of a ruthless dictator and his cronies. The biggest loser of this political prostitution is the ordinary people whose hopes of finally seeing an end to tyrannical rule and a life in dignity have once again been dashed.

Gaddafi found cowering in a rat hole and killed: Mugabe is next!

2011-10-21T03:11:00.000-07:00

Gaddafi is no more! It is interesting to note that he was caught cowering in a storm drain like a sewer rat and was killed like one! The people of Libya must now round up all the others sewer rats and, of course, recover all the money and wealth stolen over the years.

Meanwhile it is nice to see the Libyans celebrating their freedom. Lets hope unlike in the 1969 revolution that took the wrong turn this time it would result in a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Libya!

I can just imagine what Mugabe must be thinking after seeing the graphic end Gaddafi. The two were very close friends; indeed they had the same DNA of ruthless tyrants. It was not a pleasant sight for Mugabe to see a fellow rat cornered, killed and a whole nation celebrating. He knows that is the fate that awaits him too!

Zimbabwe had its chance to get rid of Mugabe in 2008 but, thanks to the blundering Tsvangirai, let it slip away. Three years down the line we would have made significant progress of rebuilding the nation and thus alleviate the suffering of our people. Instead we are still stuck in this hell-hole with 80% out of work (the deportation from SA will made things worse), Zanu PF thugs are circling the few remaining business ready to start another looting spree and so the nation is set to sink into even deeper economic trouble. On the political front Mugabe’s terror machine is well oiled with money from selling bloody diamonds so the repression will be even more brutal.

The suffering is hardening the nation’s resolve to end Mugabe’s rule and events in Libya will be shot in the arm to egg them on!

The people of Zimbabwe joyfully joint the people of Libya on this historic day when the rat who had terrorised them for nearly 42 years is no more and all he stands for destroyed. We are look forward with renewed hope to the day Mugabe will take his turn and punishment.

Without a discerning and assertive electorate it impossible to have democracy!

2011-10-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

@ Another Day

You asked who else other than Tsvangirai was there to vote for. The short answer to that is anyone who has publicly said Tsvangirai is a weak leader and that Mugabe is a tyrant for a start!

Democracy has not worked in Zimbabwe and in Africa in general because we have a gullible electorate who will believe anything, the more outrageous the better. It is easier to con them than to do otherwise; they can not digest even the most basic facts of life. Is it any wonder than we have con men and women in all positions of power and authority?

Zimbabweans will vote for Tsvangirai is droves in the next elections if they are given half the chance. Not because they believe him to be a great leader but because they are desperate after thirty years of misery. They are so desperate they are not even willing to serious consider how Tsvangirai has performed in these last three years. Tsvangirai knows the people are desperate and so he is not even making the token effort to improve.

Countries like Zimbabwe are now caught in a vicious circle. Abject poverty has pushed electorate into a mental stampede; they are so desperate for change they simple have no time to think. The ruling elite are cashing in big time and are doing everything in their power to ensure the masses never escape from their poverty trap. Whilst MDC leaders and Zanu PF leaders may fight over who has what they have acted as one in making sure the public are kept in the dark about everything that would empower them in anyway, be it information on the leaders’ never ending power negotiations, how the leaders are keeping the lion’s share of the national wealth to themselves, how they pay lip-service to the suffering and deaths of the masses, etc. We need a thinking and assertive electorate to end this corrupt and repressive system of government. How can people choose right from wrong when they do not know the difference between the two? Even if Zimbabwe’s national debt was wiped out and everyone was given a rich economic inheritance, the rule of law restored complete with strong, independent and functional democratic institutions – indeed that is exactly what we had in 1980 – it would not be long before we drifted back into the hell-on-earth we find ourselves in if we remained the same gullible electorate we were back in 1980! Today we are still the same gullible electorate but only more so because we are desperate.

By stating the obvious, i.e. that Tsvangirai is a weak leader; I would say people like Biti have distinguished themselves (in Zimbabwe that is as good as they ever get!) Common sense would dictate that people should vote for him but that is assuming the people have common sense, of course.
Zimbabweans often boast about being one of the highly literate people in Africa. For all our College Diplomas, University Degrees and Doctorates we seem to have missed out on the most basic learning of them all – common sense!

%%%%%%%

@ Another Day

“Is Biti likely to on his own?”

I can not speak for Tendai Biti or anyone of his fellow MDC leaders named in WikiLeaks. I do not know what they will do next but can guess.

First of all we have to admit that these gays knew Tsvangirai was incompetent and that he had a lot of deadwood around him and yet they still joined MDC. Even when Tsvangirai signed the GPA with Mugabe and thus betrayed everything MDC said they stood for; democracy, the memory of all those who had lost their very lives fighting for change and the future and dreams of the whole nation; Biti and his WikiLeaks bigmouths remained in their positions close to Tsvangirai. They stayed for the loot period; they have no sense of honour or principles.

As I said before Tsvangirai is aware that he is not as clever as the likes of Biti and that is why he has surrounded himself with a lot of deadwood like himself. There is safety in numbers. Now that the gene is out of the bottle Tsvangirai and his allays would want to purge the party of all the Smart-Alex a.s.a.p. Tendai Biti and his friends are well aware of this and they would jump ship but only if the move would enhance their political careers. They are opportunists through and through.

It is worth pointing out that anybody who is anybody in Zanu PF was involved in the WikiLeaks backstabbing of Mugabe. Mugabe himself would derive little comfort from the faces of those who took no part; they too wanted him out but did not have the guts and wit to say it. What plausible schemes to oust Mugabe can “Diesel from a rock” Didymus Mutasa or sleepy Sidney Sekeramai conceive? The American Ambassador would have them thrown out if they as much as criticised Mugabe in the Ambassador’s presence.

By even agreeing to talk to corrupt and ruthless people like Jonathan Moyo, Gideon Gono, Kasukuwere, Joyce Mujuru, etc. about the demise of Mugabe it shows the Americans were desperate. Still they would have been down right stupid to discuss such delicate matters with people like Mutasa!

Simba Makoni, there is another Smart-Alex and opportunist who was Mugabe’s blue-eyed boy for years but clearly did not have any respect for the tyrant but stayed in Zanu PF for the power and loot. When he finally broke away and tried to brand himself as a smart and principled alternative to Mugabe; the nation did not buy it. Smart, yes but principled, no! Biti and his friends now face the same problem. The people know that there is nothing more dangerous than giving power to a Smart-Alex with no principles or humanity; the nation has suffered these last three decades under one such Smart-Alex by the name Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

But this is not to say there are no smart and honourable Zimbabweans out there who saw Tsvangirai and Mugabe for the weak and indecisive leader and the latter for the tyrant he is and said so publicly. These quality men and women would take up position of leadership if the nation was ready to accept them.

If the masses ever stopped for one moment to consider what kind of a leader Tsvangirai and Mugabe were; I am convinced after a year in power the people would have realised what rotten leaders were and made sure they were voted out of office. It is the willingness by the electorate to scrutinise and if necessary reject leaders that will create the competitive environment necessary for the quality leaders to rise to the top. It took twenty years for Zimbabweans to realise what a tyrant Mugabe was. It will probably take tens years for Zimbabweans to realise what an incompetent leader Tsvangirai is.

Even if there was to be the Albert Einstein of politics the Zimbabwean electorate would not recognise him. How can they? Even if he was to use the simplest of languages they will not hear him; not whilst they are bend double naval gazing! The challenge is to get the electorate to pay attention and start to think for themselves and ask the would-be leaders and leaders the searching questions. Out of this tried and proved process will come out the best leaders the country has; they may not be geniuses but at least they will have common sense!
So would Biti or someone else of quality challenge Tsvangirai and Mugabe for presidency? The answer to that is yes Biti or someone else equally competent will stand for elections if Zimbabweans stop the naval gazing and take on the solemn and important task of electing leaders with the gravitas it deserves.

Tsvangirai is a weak leader it is folly to pretend is not!

2011-10-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

Morgan Tsvangirai is a “weak and indecisive leader.” Outsiders like former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe Chris Dell have said so. Numerous ordinary Zimbabweans have said the same thing and so has leading MDC leaders like Tendai Biti, Ray Bennet and Nelson Chamisa. The gene is out of the bottle and there is no putting it back.

Morgan Tsvangirai has been a leading player in Zimbabwe politics for the last tens years and the last three on the coal face as the country’s Prime Minister. Clearly the nation has had enough time for them to make their own decision on whether or not Tsvangirai is indeed a “weak and indecisive leader.” My own straw poll (unscientific) of Zimbabweans who have voted for Tsvangirai and MDC I 2008 and got the following result:

WikiLeaks reports are “WikiLies” (MDC’s official position) 60%
WikiLeaks reports are true but do not agree 30%
WikiLeaks reports are true and agree Tsvangirai is a weak 10%

WikiLeaks reports have also shown that there have been many leaders close to Mugabe who did not think much of him they wanted him to step down as President. Asking the same people whether they believed these reports the result was telling.

WikiLeaks reports are true and Mugabe should go 90%
WikiLeaks reports are not true 10%

It was interesting to note that most of the people who very readily dismissed WikiLeaks revelations about Tsvangirai as lies readily accepted the reports about Mugabe as true. Turn back the clock to say 1990 and ask the same Zimbabweans above the question: “Is Mugabe a tyrant?”

No Mugabe is not a tyrant 80%
Yes Mugabe is a tyrant 20%

Considering that by 1990 Mugabe held two post independence elections and none of them were anywhere near free and fair and to top that he had murdered over 20 000 in his effort to eliminate PF Zapu and establish the de facto one-party dictatorship which the nation has lived under ever since.

After all Tsvangirai’s many blunders in the last ten years it is unbelievable that anyone can even doubt that he is anything but a weak and indecisive leader. The biggest blunder Tsvangirai has made was to allow Mugabe back into power after the sham June 2008 run-off election by signing the power sharing agreement with the tyrant. From the word-go people told him the arrangement would not work and it took two years for Tsvangirai to finally admit it he had no real power.

As a people we love burying our collective head in the sand when we should be facing the threat before us, hoping that it would go away. Our failure to stop Mugabe in 1990 has costed us dearly and we should have learnt the lesson. Sadly, we learnt nothing because now we are glossing over Tsvangirai’s serious shortcomings as a leader just as we did with Mugabe.

Tsvangirai signed the power sharing agreement with Mugabe because he KNEW he was weak and would not be able to rule the country with the dictator’s cooperation even with the overwhelming electoral mandate. It is for the same reason that Tsvangirai has consistently refused to use MDC’s parliamentary majority to stop Mugabe autocratic abuse of power. The WikiLeaks revelations have made things even worse; now he also KNOWS that many of those close to him consider him a “weak and indecisive leader”. Even if he was to win the next elections convincingly, Tsvangirai will go out of his way at least one of the Zanu PF faction on his side.

The price Tsvangirai will have to pay for Zanu PF’s support is that the later get to keep all their loot and all their past crimes will be swept under the carpet. Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is totally dependent on get the looted land, mines, wealth, etc. being recovered and put to good use for the benefit of all. If people like Police Commissioner Chihuri are allowed to keep their job and Chipangano Gangsters are integrated into the security services, for example, then this chance to finally build a democratic Zimbabwe will be snuffed out for years to come!

There are two types of man in this world; those going somewhere and those going nowhere! As a nation, in Zimbabwe we are going nowhere. To blame the leaders like Mugabe for Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is to miss the point because the nation should have never allowed him to have tyrannical power let alone wield it again and again with such tragic consequences. We all want a free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe but will not pay the price demanded – an electorate who take their duty of electing quality leaders very serious! Tsvangirai is a weak and indecisive leader and there is volume of evidence to prove that and therefore to ignore this is sheer folly!

Tsvangirai calls for prayers to end Zimbabwe's violence: whislt doing nothing himself!

2011-10-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

“Before December we are going to organise a national day of prayer to pray for this country,” said Tsvangirai. God helps those who help themselves; what have we done to help ourselves?

So Tsvangirai’s answer to Mugabe’s culture of violence is that we all go on our knees and pray? What exactly does Tsvangirai want from God? We all know the faces of the thugs who have been beating, raping and terrorising the nation. We all know it is a waste of time reporting the thugs to the Police; if you are lucky they will do nothing otherwise you would be the one thrown in jail. Indeed since 2008 the Police, CIO and the Army have themselves played an active role in the violence and political murders. We all know who is behind all this culture of violence and why; Mugabe and the Zanu PF ruling elite because they do not want the people to exercise their basic right to free and meaningful say in the governance of the country. Mugabe and his friends know they will lose the wealth they have looted and worse still many of them will be asked to account for all the innocent blood they have shed in establishing and retaining the de facto one-party dictatorship in Zimbabwe. But most important of all, we all know the only body with the power and authority to end this culture of violence is parliament.

We all know it is the duty of the Police to keep law and order and to arrest those who disturb the peace and NOT to harass or arrest the victims of these crimes! Surely it is the responsibility of parliament to investigate why this is happening in Zimbabwe and put it right. In March 2008 people of Zimbabwe vote in droves to give Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC party the parliamentary majority, and now the nation is asking the PM to use this parliamentary majority to end the madness sweeping our country.

A few weeks ago Prime Minister Tsvangirai was asking SADC to step in and end the violence. Today is asking God to do the same. The nation, SADC and God Himself might well ask the PM what he is doing or has ever done to end Zimbabwe’s culture of violence. Why has he not used his parliamentary majority to force the Police back to their posts!

“We do not force people to vote for us, but people vote MDC for change,” PM Tsvangirai told the people. The first part is true enough; MDC has certainly never coerced anyone to vote for it. The party has countered on the suffering brought on the nation by Mugabe to bolster its own popularity. Yes the people had hoped for change and sadly, got none!

I know the country’s political and economic situation has left millions of Zimbabweans destitute and desperate for change. Tsvangirai is counting on this despair to force the people to over look all his blundering incompetency of the last three years and risk life and limb at the hands of Mugabe’s thugs and the Police and vote for him once again in the coming elections.

“There is no vision for the past, but vision is for the future. You cannot have a party with a vision of the past. The challenges we have are huge to have people who are past - focused. We need people with the right wisdom to take this country forward,” Tsvangirai said. If some one who does not even have common sense Tsvangirai should not even talk about wisdom or vision.
Tsvangirai is a weak and indecisive leader and it was this fundamental weakness that made him to into an outrageous and unworkable power sharing arrangement. It too three years for him to admit this but he now does. His failure to end the Zanu PF culture of violence means that party’s bigwigs and their army of thugs will continue to have a strangle hold on the nation. Tsvangirai would only be too keen to bolster his only position by position by accommodating these despicable criminals.

The WikiLeaks revelations have shown that many within his own party also consider Tsvangirai a “weak and indecisive leader who has to be led by the hand”, gene is out of the bottle. Tsvangirai will be even more susceptible to sign power deals with Zanu PF making him their puppet. Over 500 Zimbabweans lost their lives to elect Tsvangirai in 2008 it is not worth one more Zimbabwean life voting for Tsvangirai ever again.

I pray that Zimbabweans wake up to the reality that they have allowed others – the whites before independence, then Mugabe and his corrupt cronies and now Tsvangirai – to define their destiny. We must stop being willing tools in other people’s hands so easily fooled, abused and cheated. We need to learn and develop and working understanding of economics, politics, justices; everything affecting our daily lives, so that these politicians can not lie to us and take us for fools. It is a tail order to ask; one we should have started long before independence and have paid dearly for having failed to do so. And until we finally undertake this critical task; we will continue to corrupt and incompetent leaders ruling over us and ruining our lives.

It will take more than a call to pray by a weak and indecisive leader to turn Zimbabwe into a law abiding and prosperous nation. What we need is competent leaders but for that to happen we need an enlightened electorate who know where they are going and how and when they intent to get there!

888

@Vincent
So the call to prayer is for Mugabe to go? What exactly do we want God to do?

What other people do when they want to get rid of a leader is vote him out. Zimbabweans did that, at great risk to themselves and over 500 murdered, and Tsvangirai the parliamentary majority which, if it wanted, can force the Police to do their duty. If Mugabe is stopping them, then Parliament should impeach him!

"Well done Morgan"! Well done for what; for him, like the Police, chickening out of his responsibility too? Tsvangirai is the most incompetent leader this nation has ever seen!

Zimbabweans should be open-minded or be stuck with mediorce leaders like Tsvangirai!

2011-10-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

@ Admin

So you do not think Tsvangirai is week and indecisive because he has held MDC “together just like Mugabe is holding ZANU PF together”? You should not compare Tsvangirai to Mugabe; aim higher!

Mugabe has used the wealth he looted from the nation to held Zanu PF together from the outside. And from the inside he has used the blood of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans killed to establish and sustain the de facto one-party dictatorship. By the mid 1980s many Zimbabweans had given up hope of unseating Mugabe not because he was popular but because the tyrannical system poisoned the political waters making it impossible for quality leaders to emerge. And for their part, the Zimbabwe electorate had switched-off, convinced their vote would not count.

The hardships of the last ten years have forced Zimbabweans back to the polling stations in desperation. Many Zimbabweans are aware that MDC has not done anything even with its majority in parliament and they are also aware of the many blunders Tsvangirai has made. They are desperate for change, yes; but they are not stupid!

As for your assertion, “If anybody thinks they are better than Tsvanson, where are those people, where are your parties guys?” It is a remark symptomatic of those with tunnel vision.

For the last thirty years Zimbabwe has suffered under the tyrannical rule of one man, Mugabe. Does that then prove there were no other leaders from Zanu PF and outside that party who have done a better job? Of course not! No other leader has emerged because the oppressive political system and closed mentality of the made it near impossible for quality leaders to do so.

For all its rhetorical promise to bring democratic change to Zimbabwe, MDC has clearly failed to grasp the very essence of democracy – debate and competition. If there was serious debate within the party then MDC not have made so many political blunders. Only a “kitchen cabinet”, as some people have christened Tsvangirai and his inner circle making all the party’s decisions, would have failed to see the folly of signing a power sharing agreement with Mugabe, for example.

Tsvangirai nearly doubled the size of the party’s Executive Committee to accommodate the leaders who lost their positions in the party following the party congress in May 2011. Mugabe has used the same tactic himself; Zimbabwe’s cabinet, civil service, Army, etc. are all bloated to accommodate cronies, sycophants, party loyalists, etc., etc. As if it was not bad enough that the Zimbabwe public paid, direct or indirectly, the up keep of all these super numeral busybodies but worse still, the system stifled competition leaving brain-dead people to run and ruin the country.

There are other more competent leaders even with in MDC than Tsvangirai; only it demands that one should have a open mind to find them. Ask yourself whether Tsvangirai has delivered on any of the things he promised and what the nation expected from him and MDC? (Assuming one has carefully thought through what could and could not be done.) An open-minded person would have the confidence to give their honest assessment of Tsvangirai’s performance, for example, regardless of whether or not there was another leader or political party better than him or MDC.

Even if Tsvangirai had scored well; an open-minded person will not shut out the possibility that could be someone out there even better. Indeed if Tsvangirai knew he would his performance would be subjected to close scrutiny and not the blind endorsement of a desperate electorate or the unquestioning supporter he pay attention to those giving him sound advice and not to those flattering him.

Zimbabwe is dying for the need of competent and quality leaders; they are there but it will take an open-minded electorate to find them.

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SA’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe has finally complained about Zimbabwe’s continuing violent farm invasions which have resulted in the white farm owners being literally kicked off the farms. SA national have too been caught in the madness in direct violation of the trade agreement between Harare and Pretoria. The Ambassador complained to Prime Minister Tsvangirai about the invasions.

Well it has taken the SA authorities to finally acknowledge there is a lawless and tyrannical regime in Harare! Some of us have suffered under the dictatorship for over thirty years and when we screamed for help no one seemed to hear.

Some the Ambassador complained to Prime Minister Tsvangirai about the farm invasions! Waste of time, if you ask me; the PM has experienced the violence first hand and for three years he has proved to be totally ineffective at stopping it and all the other lawless conducts by Mugabe.

8999

MDC and Zanu PF Councillors in Mutare spoke with one voice in a rare show of unity in their demands for perks including residential stands.

They councillors have learnt from the country's MPs; when it came to getting cars and other perks the MPs were united. Come to think of it, the MPs have done little else in the last three years other than demand perks!

Mugabe and Tsvangirai haunted by the truths of WikiLeaks traitors!

2011-10-13T03:54:00.001-07:00

Mugabe has played one Zanu PF leader against the other, one faction against the other, in a game of divide and rule for thirty years. Remember the Karanga faction led by the late Edson Zvobgo, he neutralised its influence by favouring a rivalry faction led by the brain-dead late Simon Muzenda. The dictator played the same dirty trip all the other aspiring leaders in his party; Simba Makoni, John Nkomo, Mnangagwa, Mujuru, etc. Each time they thought they were Mugabe’s successor – BANG! – Mugabe would bring them crashing down to earth.

The WikiLeaks have shown that all the competing leaders wanted Mugabe out of power. Mugabe has a simple choice, he can purge all those named by WikiLeaks but at the end of the day he will have no party. It is all very well for loners like Mutasa and Gumbo egging Mugabe to punish all those named in WikiLeaks. They see this as the best chance to rise to the top not realising that there would be no party left for them to lead!

Mugabe, himself a loner, knows all the leaders named in WikiLeaks are itching for a fight, they had bottled their frustration at his refusal to step down all these years, they will attend the purge with safety pin pulled out of the hand grenade. Mugabe’s ill health and reports of his amassed wealth is making him look like a fat goose in encircled by squawking vultures!

Poor Mugabe, his instinct tells him – do nothing. The plotters from all the different factions are for once united in daring him hold the purge. And outsiders like Gumbo will not let the matter rest for a day; they want the purge! Mugabe must be wishing for death but it seems the grim-reaper is enjoying seeing the tyrant tormented!

Tsvangirai has his own WikiLeaks problems. A number of his senior leaders told the Americans he is a “weak, indecisive and inconsistent” leader. Which is of course true, Zimbabwe would not be in this mess if it was not for Tsvangirai’s blundering incompetency!

Tsvangirai thought the problem of his incompetency would go away if he pretended it was not there; last month he was talking the Americans he was a “visionary” leader, it was the best joke of the decade! Back in Zimbabwe the same week Professor Ncube broached the subject of Tsvangirai’s incompetency again. This week, Gutu, one of the senior leaders named in WikiLeaks was suspended by party members and then Chamisa, also named in WikiLeaks, nearly came to blows with another senior leader over the same issue.

Tsvangirai is incompetent and MDC must deal with this cancer; it is not going away but spreading instead!

African leaders plan a dignified retirement for Mugabe: they never learn!

2011-10-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

African leaders are reportedly planning an “irresistible” retirement package for Mugabe. Ghana is one country Mugabe could retire to.

Is it any wonder that Africa is in a mess; we never seem to learn anything! African leaders are talking of a “dignified” retirement for Mugabe. Was it not the same foolish sentiment that made the same continental leaders propose the power sharing in 2008 after Mugabe lost the March vote and then used brute force to when the June run-off ? If SADC and the AU had expected Mugabe to use the time since the signing of the GPA and the next elections to pick his bags, take the bow before the final curtains to his political career; they were wrong.

Mugabe has used the last three years to reorganise his party and secure funding for its terror machine. He lost the March 2008 elections because he had allowed some democratic reforms and worse still, he had used kid gloves to punch his opponents. For the run-off it was back to the iron fist and the whole nation fell back into line. When everyone shunned Mugabe for the sham elections, he finally realised that he could not get away with such blatant denial of the people’s basic right to a meaningful say in the governance of their country and the violation of the right to life. He has no intention of removing the iron fist, he can not afford to do that and lose power, his will be the iron fist in a velvet glove!

Even if the African leaders can negotiate for him a golden and all-sins-forgiven retirement for Mugabe with rock solid guarantees; what about all those around him? The Zanu PF dictatorship is much more that a one-man show. It is widely believed that Mugabe was ready to throw in the towel after the March 2008 defeat but many of those with blood on their hands and loot to lose told him in no uncertain terms that the cabal would break every rule of human decency to “win” the run-off. These thugs are not going to give up power and face the music of their evil past; salt Mugabe away and the violence will still continue. The worst case scenario is that Zanu PF will break-up into warring factions triggering even more bloodshed.

At best one Zanu PF faction will agree a deal with MDC in which Zanu PF thugs get to keep all they looted from the nation and all their rapes and murders are swept under the carpet. That will be a great deserve to Zimbabwe because the country’s economic recovery is totally dependent on getting the nation’s resources such as land back into full production. Mugabe and his cronies expropriated most of the farms, although they have clearly failed to put them into productive use, still they will not give up any of the farms. The culture of violence is born out of the failure in the past to bring those responsible for serious human rights violations to account. Zimbabwe must deal with this issue this time!

Instead of considering what is good for Mugabe AU and SADC leaders must consider for a change what is good for the mass of Zimbabwe and the country. Appeasing Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF thugs is the last thing the people of Zimbabwe would want to do; we have been doing for thirty years and look where it got us! It is time for Mugabe and his cronies to return to the people of Zimbabwe what they stole and accounted for the thousands of innocent blood they shed!

777
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams, has been warned that he risks handing a propaganda coup by shaking the Zimbabwe dictator, Mugabe’s hand. Dr Williams is visiting Zimbabwe at a time members of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe are being prosecuted by a rogue Bishop Kunonga allied to Mugabe.

What Mugabe is doing is wrong and people should not be afraid of telling him so, particularly those in positions of power and authority, like Dr Williams. If Dr Williams is to be silence then who is going to speak? Surely not the Priests and the ordinary church members who are being kicked about, the teachers and students whose schools Mugabe's Bishop closed, etc.; like the rest of the Zimbabwe populous, they have voice.

Dictators like Mugabe take great pride in seeing everyone cowering before them; their power is founded on fear. Dr Williams should not gratify the tyrant's sadistic ego by showing that he too is afraid of Mugabe!

8888

This is the kind of nonsense we have learnt to expect from Mugabe and his sycophants; what is at issue here is the many innocent Anglicans whose lives Kunonga, with the backing of Mugabe, has turned into a living hell.

When the Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 he told the world he would leave until Israel left all occupied Palestinian land! “So why should Kuwait be punished for whatever wrongs Israel has done?” people asked. By the same token, why should orphans and school children in Zimbabwe be punished because an Anglican Bishop in America is gay? Whatever quarrel Mugabe has with the West he should not pick on defenceless Anglicans in Zimbabwe to force Dr Williams to fight the British government on his behalf.

In 1990 world spoke with one voice in ordering Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait today the same voice is ordering Mugabe to end his tyrannical rule in Zimbabwe. The world does not want to hear Mugabe’s feeble excuses why he is a tyrant!

Arab Spring type uprising will not happen in Zimbabwe because people being desperate it is not enough!

2011-10-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

@ O’forth

It is hard being a Zimbabwean. Most people can only imagine what unemployment rate of 80% plus for over ten years and the economic hardship that comes with it real means. What makes it all even harder is all the political repression which has made it near impossible all these last 30 years to change. But this is all nothing; the hardest thing to bear is the betrayals by the people who yesterday one thought were on your side.

People fought the war of independence only for Mugabe and his thugs to betray the them and deny them, the freedom, liberty, human dignity, hope, everything so many had died for.

For the last thirty years many more Zimbabweans have suffered and thousands have died to end the Mugabe dictatorship. In 2008 the nation thought their goal had finally been achieved only for Tsvangirai to betray them and allow the tyrant back into State House. And only for an empty title of Prime Minister - Mugabe saw to it that the position had no real power or authority - that was the thirty pieces of silver Tsvangirai got!

Tsvangirai could still prevent the blood shed his blundering has made certain if only he will use his parliamentary majority to stop Mugabe. But he will not do it because for all the political posturing he is now one of the ruling elite and is enjoying all the benefits and privileges that go with it. Mugabe knew he only had to give him and his MDC friends a ministerial Mercedes Benz, endless foreign travel, etc. – “vhara muromo,” in Shona - and they will promptly forget their promise to bring democratic change, freedom, rule of law, etc. And that is exactly what has happened!

People have asked why Zimbabweans have not staged mass demonstrations against the Mugabe regime, similar to those in Tunisia, Egypt, etc? Many people would say it was fear of the regime’s brutal repression and point to the how the regime has always deployed the Riot police, Police and even the Army each time people stage any public gathering. The only public demonstrations allowed are those supportive of the regime the rest are considered a serious threat to maintaining public order and dealt with accordingly. But then the same was said about Tunisia and Egypt until the Arab Spring! There is more to why Zimbabweans have not taken their clue from Egypt and force the Mugabe regime out of office.

The people of Zimbabwe do not believe rising against Mugabe would bring them any nearer their cherished goal of freedom and liberty because the leaders who emerge at the end of the day will betray them just as readily as Mugabe and Tsvangirai has done. The people of Egypt and Tunisia had never risen against their dictators until now for the same reason.

The Egyptians and Tunisians had been desperate for change for decades, just like Zimbabweans. It was the desperation that drove the fruit seller in Tunisia to commit suicide. There was nothing new in that. In the past a few people would have come out in the street in sympathy only for the regime to fall on them like a tonne of bricks. What the Tunisian regime did not realise was that two things had changed: a) the people were better informed so instead of a few protesters on the streets there was a multitude. b) the people themselves were in control of the revolution and not some crooks who would betray them. It was these two fundamental changes that got the people into the streets in Egypt, Syria and Yemen day after day after day!

It was desperation that got Zimbabweans to vote for MDC in droves in March 2008 but when Mugabe turned his terror machine on them, the people quickly changed in June 2008 vote. MDC, true to form, betrayed the people the minute they enter office.

The people of Zimbabwe are even more desperate for change today as ever. Come the next elections many Zimbabweans will try once again to vote Mugabe out of office regardless of the threat of violence and the certain betrayal by the MDC or whoever else. That is why Mugabe has no choice but to step up the violence and MDC, for their part, are confidence of an election victory regardless of their dismal past performance.

There is no hope of ever achieving a free and democratic Zimbabwe until the electorate is enlightened enough to hold the leaders to account at every level. Being desperate should force the people to seek the enlightenment but, on its own, it is not enough!

Democracy is a good thing but it comes with a price tag - an informed electorate: a price Zimbabwe failed to pay!

2011-10-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Now that he has the terror machine responsible for the political violence set up, Mugabe wants elections as soon as possible. He needs the violence to “win” the elections. Tsvangirai does not want the elections until all the democratic reforms have been carried out and the violence stopped. In the last three years, he has failed to push through even one reform. He is too feeble to do it. Zimbabweans have their own wants.

Zimbabweans can not wait to see the back of this GNU which has really done little to change things on the ground for them; so they too want elections a.s.a.p. They are also aware that holding elections in the present climate of growing political violence will mean many of them will be subjected to the same abuses as happen in 2008 or worse. They will be forced to vote for Mugabe and Zanu PF again and therefore not got the regime change they desperately need. So the Zimbabwean people are damn if elections are held and damned if they keep being moved to some indefinite date in the future but it is their faulty they are in this mess.

All the democratic reforms to ensure free elections should have been carried out by now. Mugabe had his reasons for doing nothing and Tsvangirai has his excuses; reasons and excuses the public should have anticipated but clearly did not. Unless we come up with a way out; we can wait another year or two and still face the same prospects of holding elections with no democratic reforms.

The Zimbabwe public did not have any answers to how to end Zanu PF’s culture of political violence three year ago and today they still have no answers. An electorate that does not understand the challenges the nation faces and what can and can not be done can not make an informed choice of leaders or hold them to account thereafter.

Universal suffrage grants every adult the right to a free vote and takes for granted that every adult in well informed. In Zimbabwe the political system conspire to keep the electorate ignorant and desperate. There answers to the nation’s multitude of problems are always staring us, the electorate, in the face if only we opened our eyes.

The answer to ending the political violence, for example, is for MDC have to use its parliamentary majority to force the Police to arrest the Zanu PF thugs, the Courts to convict them, etc. It Mugabe is indeed the one giving the Police, etc the specific instructions not to carry out their statutory duty of maintaining law and order, then parliament must impeach him; he does not have the power or authority to do that.

Of course, it is highly probable Tsvangirai and MDC will never impeach Mugabe, they are too subservient to the dictator to ever make such a bold move, and therefore the political violence will continue.

When Mugabe stepped up the violence after losing the March 2008 vote, Zimbabweans voted for him on mass in the June vote. The political violence has already started and Zimbabweans have two good reasons to vote for Mugabe on mass once again. If the nation is subjected to the same level of violence as in 2008, all the evidence on the ground says it will be the same or worse, then the people will have no choice but vote for Mugabe and Zanu PF. The second reason is if MDC is powerless to change anything even when they have parliamentary majority, as they have already shown, then why the nation should risk the life of one more Zimbabwean voting for MDC.

If any other political party was to emerge by the time of the next elections then the electorate have to consider if that party will not betray the people just as Tsvangirai and MDC have done.

If the people of Zimbabwe are going to get out of the economic and political hell-hole Mugabe landed the nation in then we must transform ourselves from an ignorant and subservient voters to an informed ones willing and able to hold the leaders to account on every turn! Democracy is a good thing but, like all good things, it comes with a price tag – it demands an informed electorate.

888

Zanu PF is a party of vultures; it is tough enough to keep the peace when there is plenty of corpses and helpless victims for them to feed on. Now the national economy picked clean, there is nothing of value for them to loot, and the vultures hungry and angry. The vulture have been gawking at each and it will not be long before feather start flying and tire each other to piece.

It would have been hard enough for Mugabe to cope if this had happen ten years ago; he was younger then. Old age and poor health has turned him into a seating duck amongst the cultures. Reports of him hoarding 13 farms for himself and his family, US$ 3 billion starched away, etc. are turning him into a juicy roasted duck – everyone wants a piece!

Some people would even say the very suspicious and gruesome death of retired general Solomon Tapfumaneyi Mujuru last month marks the start of the feeding frenzy.

WikiLeaks could well be but the opportunistic last straw – the apple was ripe, even the butterfly’s wing beat is enough to set it off - to trigger the feeding frenzy to tear Mugabe and Zanu PF to pieces. Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs whose lives revolved around two things violence and looting with nothing left to plunder it little wonder they are turning on the leader and each other. They live by the sword; “I have degrees in violence!” boasted Mugabe. Now they must die by the sword, a befitting violent end!

Whether Mugabe punishes those named in WikiLeaks or not, he and his Zanu PF party are doomed to have a bloody end!

Mugabe is worth US$ 3 billion making him the 8 th richest African!

2011-10-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Mugabe worth US$3 billion and 8th richest African! Is it an wonder he has killed and will continue to do so just to remain president.

For years Gaddafi portrayed the image of a simple man living in a tent. He even held his court with visiting dignitaries in a tent. What gave always gave the game away is his reaction to any suggestion that he should retire to his simple Bedouin life: if looks would kill, his looks would vaporise you on the spot.

“My people love me!” the dictator would say. Yeah they love you so much that for forty years you have denied them their basic and fundamental right to elect you in a free vote!

When Gaddafi was finally toppled this year the liar of his simple life was exposed. A simple Bedouin with a private jet complete with a bed and Jacuzzi and with a cool US$56 billion bank balance. And in one mass grave in Tripoli people found the remains of over a 100 people; killed and buried by Gaddafi.

It looks Gaddafi’s brother Mugabe in Zimbabwe was not doing badly for himself, thank you. Mugabe and his family have 13 farms – farms supposedly redistributed to landless peasants – has mansion worth £3 million, US$3 billion in the bank and God knows what else besides. Mugabe has the blood of over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans from the Gukurahundi massacres alone; shed to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship. In 2008 he “declared war”, as Tsvangirai rightly said, on the people to force them to vote for him; hundreds of thousands were beaten and raped and over 500 murdered.

Tyrants like Gaddafi and Mugabe think the truth of their greed and repression will never come out. In the end, it all comes out; as we say in Shona “Rinemanyanga hariputirwi!”

The truth of what beady-eyed Zimbabwean dictator has done is coming out. Millions of Zimbabweans live in abject poverty and without the bear necessities and Mugabe, the sewer rat, has spirited away US$3 billion!

SA bow to Chinese pressure and refuse Dalai Lama visa - and SA wanted UN permanent seat!

2011-10-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Dalai Lama cancels his visit to SA after failing to get a visa. Many people believe SA did not issue him the visa to please China- SA biggest trading country.

The Dalai Lama was only visiting SA. Other countries like India have allowed people like the Dalai Lama to settle and come and go as he pleases. It was not even the SA government that was going to host the Dalai Lama and still it said no. It is to those that much has been given that much is expected. SA received a lot of support from people like the Dalai Lama during the dark days of apartheid; SA can give the people of Tibet its moral support at least -that is not too much to ask!

This is not the first blunder by this ANC government. President Zuma still has egg all over himself for his continued support of Gaddafi in the Libya uprising. The Zimbabwe nightmare is one monumental f*up that has simply refused to go away.

I think it is good that Africa, South America and South Asia should have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Brazil and India would make good candidates for the two latter regions. SA would have been the obvious choice for Africa but the performance of the ANC government ever since Madiba left office has been shocking. It is tragic enough that this ANC government should be making one disastrous policy decision after another for SA; it would be folly to let such a regime exercise veto powers on behalf of Africa!

Zimbabwe's political violence steps up a gear - Mugabe Je crache sur vous!

2011-10-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

A Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisations reports of increasing political violence in Zimbabwe. This is one nightmare that will never go away!

What we have done to deserve a tyrant like Mugabe for president!?

I am not one given to cursing and swearing but after thirty years of brutal oppression of a whole nation; Mugabe, that sewer rat, deserve to be curse for all time! Je crache sur vous le rat d'égout observé percé en vrille!

)))))

If the only thing that mattered was to punish the whites for the historic wrongs regardless of whom else is punished in the process then what Mugabe did was "right"! Some people will would be sickened by all that gratuitous brutality and violence against the white farmers and their black workers but when one is a tyrant with “degrees in violence,” as Mugabe himself never tire of reminding us, it is all water off a duck’s back!

Well I do care that the land redistribution was one of the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic melt down that has caused heart breaking economic hardships. I am also disappointed that the landless peasants who should have been the main beneficiary of any land reforms were left out. It is Mugabe and his cronies who now own most of the land.

If Mugabe was so sure his land policy was popular with the people of Zimbabwe why then did he go to such murderous lengths to deny them a free vote in 2008 and every other election before that! The agricultural sector was the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy and thus is the key to its recovery. We have to get Mugabe and his cronies off the land and resettle those who will put it to productive use. We can not do that as long as the tyrant remains in power and, as you can see, he has already started his murderous campaign of terror to deny the people of Zimbabwe their democratic right to a meaningful vote!

999
Mugabe denies he had gone to Singapore for medical reasons. He was visiting his daughter, Bona, he said.

Sure thing; this is the seventh time Mugabe has visited his daughter in nearly as many months! What kind of degree is she doing anywhere that does not allow her even a few days to visit her family? She has been away for donkeys years now. She, like the father, must have at least seven University degrees. As for the degree in violence, she will find no better teacher in the world than her own father.

Bona Mugabe is doing all these degrees because she, like so many other children of Zimbabwe's ruling elite, is ashamed to live in Zimbabwe. Indeed if the other ruling elite could afford it, they too, like Mugabe, would be getting all their medical needs, shopping, etc. outside Zimbabwe.

I will not wish Mugabe speedy recovery because, unlike him, lying does not come naturally to me!

)))))

@ Snow flake

The political violence in Zimbabwe is heartbreaking. This was the one thing Tsvangirai should have addressed but failed. All MDC have done in the last three years is give Mugabe a good public image whilst the tyrant continued in his evil and murderous ways.

MDC can use its parliamentary majority to rein in Mugabe. If parliament is useless then why in the name of God did we risk over 500 lives to give MDC parliamentary majority. Parliament can stop the political violence it just that MDC is itself too incompetent and cowardly to do it!

Zuma says Zimbabwe style farm seizures will not happen in SA - hardly a ringing assurance!

2011-10-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

Julius Malema is crystal clear what he really wants done with the white owned farms; kick out the white owners and give the farms to the few black ruling elite just as Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe. President Zuma and the rest of the ANC government have argued that they will not do “anything to harm the national economy”. That is wish-washy, to say the least, because they never said how such a policy would harm the economy.

“We cannot have a Zimbabwean situation in SA. We're saying we should do things within the law," explained President Zuma. Well that should sure make the position as clear as mud!

Malema and company will have no problem with that: “Go straight ahead Mr President,” they would say, “enact the law!” Mugabe did enact some laws but in the heat of the looting and to make a one-finger statement to the West, all the laws were disregarded.

Zimbabwe’s lawless and often violent land seizures did hurt the country’s economy badly but that was largely because agricultural production plummeted soon after Mugabe and his cronies seized the farms. They did not get the expected the bumper crops and fat cattle because, besides the land, one must also have the farming skills, the dedication and be prepared to work hard. “Munda hauzvirimi!” as one would say in Shona.

Malema has already said in SA the blacks who will get the seized farms should have formal training first. In the case of Zimbabwe, the lack farming skills was not even the half of it. Having to work hard was and still is the biggest stumbling block. Mugabe and his cronies have never done a honest day’s work for three decades, all their wealth was fleecing the public direct or indirectly as a public worker or from some corrupt activity. The white farms were just another national asset for them to loot and that they did. Even when it was evident that falling agricultural production was causing economic melt down; the looting continued unabated. Mugabe and his cronies did not care.

If property rights are disregarded in dealing with the land issue; then nothing is safe, investors know that. President Zuma’s failure to defend property rights robustly in his dealings with Mugabe and Malema has left people in no doubt he does not care about property rights nor the damage land seizures will inflict on the SA economy.

White SA farmers are set to lose their farms regardless of the certain damage this will do to SA’s economy. The only questions to be settled are when and whether the process will orderly or just as chaotic as happened in Zimbabwe!

ZANU PF WOMAN AND MOTHER OF ZANU PF GANGSTER TELL RADIO LISTENERS OF HER FEARS!

2011-10-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

THE CALL BACK (S W RADIO AFRICA) DISCUSSION WITH THE ZANU PF SUPPORTER LAST WEEK WAS VERY INFORMATIVE. THE LADY TOLD THE LISTENERS THREE BASIC REASONS WHY SHE IS A ZANU PF SUPPORTER AND WHY HER SON, A CHIPANGANO GANGSTER, IS DOING THE RIGHT THING:

1) MDC ARE PUPPETS OF THE WHITES AND THEREFORE DO NOT DESERVE TO BE TREATED WITH RESPECT. UNTIL MDC TAKE THE PROBLEM OF POOR LEADERS SERIOUSLY THE PARTY WILL NEVER SHAKE OFF THIS PUPPET IMAGE. WIKILEAKS REVEALED BITI, CHAMISA, GUTU AND BANNET HAVE TOO DISMISSED TSVANGIRAI IS INCOMPETENT AND YET HAVE DONE NOTHING TO REPLACE HIM.

2) HER SON’S GANG ACTIVITY IS DRIVING AWAY THE COMPETITION GIVING HER AND FELLOW ZANU PF SUPPORTERS THE OPPORTUNITY TO EARNING A LIVING SELLING VEGETABLES, ETC. HER SON TOO IS BRING IN MONEY. WHILST THE LADY READILY ADMITTED THE ZIMBABWE ECONOMY HAD COLLAPSED. SHE BLAMED THE SANCTIONS FOR THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE ALTHOUGH SHE KNEW THERE WERE OTHERS REASONS SHE DARED NOT SAY. IN THESE HARD TIMES SHE SUPPORTED HER SON’S GANGSTER ACTIVITIES AND WOULD HERSELF JOIN IN AND BEAT MDC SUPPORTERS TO ENSURE THERE WAS BREAD ON HER TABLE.

3) SHE DID NOT DARE QUESTION THE REIGN OF TEEROR ZANU PF SUPPORTERS HAD VISITED ON THE NATION FOR FEAR OF HERSELF BEING LABELLED AN OPPOSITION SUPPORTER AND PUNISHED. SHE CLEARLY DID NOT APPROVE WHAT HER SON WAS DOING BUT HAVE NEVER DARED RAISE THAT WITH HIM!

The interview illustrated one thing, Zimbabwe is a nation ruled by fear. And when the fear is institutionalised as has happened in Zimbabwe it grips one so tight paralysing some and driving others to do commit fearful crimes!

What the Zanu PF mother, her son and all the other Zanu PF supporters must know is that they are committing serious crimes against their fellow country men. Yes the regime has pushed into committing these crimes; still it is they and not Mugabe who strike the blow. And for that it is they and not Mugabe who will be held accountable one of these fine days. We are not dogs that will bite because they were trained to do so. We are human beings with a sense of honour and duty to ourselves and others.

What Mugabe is doing is despicable; he is deliberately withdrawing the Police and gauge and torment the people until a son is forced to betray his own mother and father and brother fights brother for his selfish political gain. Je crache sur vous, porcine sans coeur!

We have to break this cycle of fear born out of ignorance with reason. Sadly we are not yet ready to do so; we are not ready to listen to reason. Getting a competent alternative to the Zanu PF dictatorship is the critical first step. By electing and retain a flawed and indecisive leader like Morgan Tsvangirai all this years regardless of all his blunders the people of Zimbabwe have shown they are not ready for real change, they are not ready to see reason.

GOKWE FAMILY REFUSE TO BURY VICTIM OF MUGABE POLITICAL VIOLENCE: SHAKING THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THE DICTATORSHIP

2011-09-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

The four young thugs including the Zanu PF Governor Machaya’s son who murdered Moses Chokuda in August 2009 have finally been convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. The crime was committed at the time when political violence in Gokwe and the rest of Zimbabwe was the order of the day. The victim was a know opposition supporter a “crime” in Zimbabwe for which many have been and continue to be summarily beaten, raped and murdered. And the Zanu PF thugs who commit these extra judiciary crimes are never arrested.

The Chokuda family refused to bury their murdered relative and for the last two years his body has remain in the Hospital Mortuary; it was that single act that has kept this case alive!

ZANU-PF Parliamentary Whip Joram Gumbo said the tough prison sentences prove the judiciary does not favor ZANU-PF and that all perpetrators of violence are brought to justice and punished. Over 500 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered and hundreds of thousands were raped in 2008 alone and yet those responsible have not been arrested.

The ZRP Officers have a lot to answer for why the thugs who have terrorised the nation are not arrested. It will not be enough to say they were under strict orders not to arrest Zanu PF loyalists; even if they produced dated and signed orders as proof, the fact still remains that the orders were clearly illegal since they flew in the face of everything the public policing are about.

In the past Mugabe has always stepped in and granted the presidential pardon the rare party loyalists arrested and convicted in the courts, regardless of how heinous the crime happened to be. Mugabe was sending a message to all that Zanu PF thugs were above the law! Mugabe did not dare, as yet, step in and pardon the young Machaya and his three fellow convicted murders. The Chokuda family have yet to bury their relative and they want the families of the murderers to apologise and compensate them in accordance with African traditional culture! Until that happen, the convicted murderers will languish in Zimbabwe’s hell-on-earth (because of the living conditions) jails; much to the anger and exasperation of Mugabe.

What this case has done is challenge the very foundation on which this Mugabe and Zanu PF dictatorship stand. That is, that the dictator and his thugs are above the law and that those who dare challenge his authority will be severely punished. The Chokuda family refused to have the murder of their son dismissed as nothing more than a squashed ant. The young man’s life and their suffering at his brutal killing matter not at all. It took two years for the autocratic regime to finally realise that this was one political murder they can not bury and forget. Not even Mugabe himself can use his presidential powers to whitewash the grave injustice of cold blooded murder!

Governor Machaya’s son and his fellow murderers are not above the law and they are paying for their heinous crime. That should send a cold chill down the spine of all Zanu PF thugs with any common sense.

Ending this absurd notion that Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs are above the law has, without doubt, been the Holy Grail which would end Zimbabwe’s culture of political violence. Tsvangirai, for all his egotistic claims of being a “visionary” leader leading a party “of excellence”, had singularly failed to find an answer. Indeed Tsvangirai’s political blundering has allowed Mugabe to re-organise his terror machine and secure a war-chest to funds its murderous activities; the threat of even worse political violence hangs over the nation.

It took the courage and self sacrifice of a simple fruit-seller in Tunisia to start the Arab Spring has toppled one Arab dictator after another. Even Mugabe’s old friend Gaddafi has been swept away. What the Chokuda family have done could well be the butterfly wing beat in Gokwe that turned into the political hurricane to blow away the murderous dictator and their thugs out of State House, parliament and every village in Zimbabwe!

Minister Chamisa calls for Zimbabweans to "pray" as the answer to political violence!

2011-09-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

"Violence must stop and this demon of beating up people should not continue. But for it to stop, we need to pray," Chamisa says. Pray?!

We have a cunning and ruthless tyrant and instead of coming up with a sensible plan to stop the suffering and blood shed all MDC can come up with is pray.

Half the nation was traumatised and over 500 killed in 2008 to elect Chamisa and his MDC MP friends giving MDC the parliamentary majority. Parliament has the power authority and duty to the nation to rein in a rogue president but instead of carrying out this task all we keep getting from these MDC cowards is one excuse after another or that someone else should do it. Minister Makone last week said SADC should stop the violence, another MDC leader called on ordinary people to fight back and now Minister Chamisa is calling on God!.

God helps those who help themselves, Minister.

We have it in us as a nation to govern ourselves! Thousands of good men and women have given their very lives before independence and thousands more since end oppression so we can all live in peace, freedom and dignity. Mugabe and Zanu PF betrayed the nation by denying us our freedom and dignity and for three decades they have stopped us realising our dream. In 2008 the nation put its trust in MDC to bring about democratic change. MDC have failed to delivery because of the leaders’ blundering incompetence and cowardice!

What Zimbabwe needs is MPs with the political spine something that has been noticeably lacking in Zanu PF and now MDC! We should pay closer attention to whom we vote for in future. The good Lord has given us the intellect to discern the good from the bad, competent from the corrupt, visionary leaders from the cowards; we have so far displayed a knack for electing tyrants or idiots or both! If we are to pray, then we must pray that we learn from our past mistakes.

There nothing more obnoxious than someone who have the power and duty to stop a wrong being committed but, out of cowardice or greed, chose to do nothing. Tsvangirai and his cowardly friends have tried the patience of the people of Zimbabwe beyond endurance; we would have been better off without a single MDC MP!

55555

Just remember Tsirare that you and your fellow thugs will be called to account for all the innocent blood you shed! Mugabe is desperate to win and since he can not win free and fair elections he is resorting to using violence. There are always some idiot willing to do the tyrant's dirty work and be paid nuts. And when the day when we all have to answer for what we did, the tyrant will disown you!

If you think you are doing the right thing by terrorising innocent people whose only crime is exercising their basic right to a free vote, then go ago! But if I were you I would make sure you have all instructions to beat rape and murder in writing and signed. You will hang alone if you do not. Mugabe’s days in power are numbered whatever he does and all his thugs will answer for what they have been doing, alone!

5555

The Zimbabwe government has reportedly rejected Standard Chartered Bank's offer to cede 10 percent of its shares to local blacks under a new law requiring foreign firms to sell 51% majority stakes.

This is not by any means down playing the pressure Standard Bank must be under still the Bank must accept that by breaking rank it is putting all other Banks and foreign owned companies under increased pressure to comply with this Zanu PF demand. There is no legal, economic or logical basic for doing this other than it being yet another Zanu PF looting scheme.

Zanu PF passed this knowing fully well there will always be some companies who will seek to appease and comply. It is a great pity!

Zimbabwe should have considered what kind of leaders an armed struggle will produce - we would not be in this mess today!

2011-09-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

During India’s fight to end British Colonial rule of India some of the nationalist leaders urged that they should escalate the struggle by taking up arms.

“What kind of leaders will the armed struggle produced?” asked Nehru. “And are they the kind of men and women we would like to rule the nation?”

In Zimbabwe we chose to escalate the struggle by taking up arms. I am sure it was losing the bush war that hurried Smith out of power but by God the nation has paid dearly.

In independent Zimbabwe mismanagement, corruption and down right looting have gone unchecked destroying the country’s once promising economy. Millions now live in abject poverty. The nation has been completely helpless to stop this criminal waste because we are a nation paralysed by fear. The heroes of the armed struggle have gone on to rule the nation with an iron fist boasting that “What was won by the bullet can not be changed by a ballot!”

Mahatma Gandhi’s none-violence strategy may have delay India’s independence by a decade or two but it was well worth it because it allowed democratic leaders to emerge. The kind of leaders who have set India on a path of peace, freedom and prosperity. By taking up arms Zimbabwe brought forward the end of white colonial but cast into leadership role the village thugs who have dragged down the path of self destruction and despair.

It is not as if the war of independence did not have a price tag, many good men and women lost their lives in the war. And at the end we did end one exploitive and oppressive regime only to replace it with a corrupt and an even more oppressive one. In our hast for independence we took one step forward and two steps backward; we too should have considering what kind of leaders an armed struggle will produce!

Minister Makone says ZRP can not stop the political violence because their hands are "tied"!

2011-09-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

MDC Home Affairs Minister tell S W Radio Africa that the ZR Police can not stop the growing political violence because their hands are "tied".

I do not think Minister Makone's suggestion that the arrival of the three SADC members to JOMIC will help stop the growing political violence. This is a typical MDC solution to any Zimbabwean problem; passing the buck to SADC. And as usual this will not solve the problem.

What does she expect the SADC member to do? If she, as Zimbabwe's Minister of Home Affairs can not get the ZRP to do their duty of maintaining law and order it is nonsense to say a foreigner will do it.

Whether or not Zimbabwe can hold free elections next year will now hinge on whether or not something can be done to stop the political violence. I believe something can be done to stop the Zanu PF thugs' reign of terror.

By stopping the Police carrying out their constitutional duty of maintaining law and order Mugabe has over stepped the mark. As President Mugabe has the executive powers and parliament has the legislative powers. Parliament also has the power to monitor the performance of all the other arms of government including the individual Ministers and their areas of responsibility and if necessary change or punish the failing one. Parliament can impeach the State President is he should commit any serious offence. Stopping the Police carrying out their duty of maintaining law and order and safe guarding the security and safety of our people is a very serious crime.

Still it would be premature to impeach the President on the basis of Minister Makone’s claim that it is the President who is stopping the ZRP doing their duties. Parliament should put Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri of the rake to answer why the ZRP has not arresting the party thugs who have been causing all the political violence. The victims of the violence have often supplied the Police the names of those who attached them and yet no one has ever been arrested. Let Chihuri speak for himself.

If Chihuri refuse to appear before parliament or give a satisfactory explanation; then parliament can demand that he is sacked!

If Mugabe should resist having Chihuri sacked just as he has done with AG Tomana and RBZ Governor Gono then parliament should resign on mass.

If parliament can not even get the Police to maintain law and order then parliament is nothing but a tooth dog masquerading as the all powerful guard-dog of the nation. Alternatively, MDC can use its parliamentary majority to impeach Mugabe himself.

It is no secrete that Mugabe has undermined the independence, power and authority of parliament just as he has done with all our other democratic institutions. He has legal or illegally assigned and exercised those powers himself making him the all powerful tyrant he is today. If we are ever going to end his tyrannical rule we have to confront him head-on.

MDC’s habit of turning on to SADC every time Mugabe flexes his tyrannical muscles is the worst kind of cowardice – too cowardly to face Mugabe although they have the power to do they ask other with no power to do anything to fight the tyrant for them!

President Zuma promises to push for free elections in Zimbabwe - he will find it easier said than done!

2011-09-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

South Africa’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe says President Zuma will from now on take a hands-on approach to solving the Zimbabwe crisis to “expedite the full implementation of the GPA and help create conditions for a smooth election in Zimbabwe.”

Mugabe is a tyrant. He and his cronies have enjoyed the good life for three decades. For them to retain their iron grip on power, they have had to commit some heinous crimes. Free elections will mean regime change and then they will be forced to give up their loot and, worse still, their entire criminal past finally coming out. Mugabe and his cronies simply can not allow these things to happen.

If President Zuma thinks a shift from quite diplomacy to a more aggressive hands one approach will be enough to force Mugabe to accept regime change then he is naive. We all know the root cause of Zimbabwe’s political violence is failure by Police to arrest those responsible. The ZRP are under strict orders NOT to arrest the Zanu PF thugs. Indeed often the Police Officers themselves are the ones behind the violence. Short of SADC deploying its own Police Force with a mandate to arrest Zanu PF party thugs as well as ZRP Officers; the violence will not stop. I do not see President Zuma or any other SADC leader agreeing to such a commitment.

After the sham June 2008 elections Mugabe faced the greatest political crisis of his political life as many nations refused to accept his election victory as legitimate. SADC help him out by engineering the power sharing arrangement. The regional leaders have since had nothing be trouble from Mugabe and things are set to get even worse. And it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who will suffer the most; they are at the coal face of all the political and economic troubles the tyrant dish out.

999

@ Chamunorwa
I agreed with you about Zimbabwe's seemingly never ending problems. If you have been following Zimbabwe's tragic story closely then you should know that it was Tsvangirai who foolishly signed the GPA and thus let Mugabe back into State House through the back door. And Mugabe, true to his nature as a ruthless tyrant, has thanked Tsvangirai for it by kicking him in the teeth. I do not feel sorry for Tsvangirai; after all the suffering Mugabe has caused to the nation since signing the GPA and the increasing political violence shows we are in for a rough ride.
Tsvangirai and MDC's blundering incompetence has become part of the problem in Zimbabwe for the last three year as Mugabe and Zanu PF itself. The sooner Zimbabweans realise that the sooner the nation can start the difficult task climbing out of the hell-hole Mugabe landed us in

MDC controlled Parliament must challenge Mugabe's madness now - the survival of Zimbabwe is at issue here!

2011-09-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Tsvangirai and MDC have made one blunder after another and its decision to confront violent Zanu PF thugs with violence is yet another act of folly by MDC for the nation will pay dearly for in numbers of victims with broken heads and limbs and in body bags.

The art of war is knowing your strengths and weaknesses including those of the enemy and then to outwit him by engaging him at the opportune time and place to maximize your advantages and minimise your disadvantages. Robert Mugabe has toyed with Morgan Tsvangirai; coning Tsvangirai into signing a GPA truce when the dictator was down and out after the sham 2008 elections only for Mugabe to then refuse to implement not even one of the democratic reforms agreed. Tsvangirai’s greatest weakness is that he does not even know his strength nor has the intellectual attitude to use it!

The problem of politically motivated violence is getting worse and the Zanu PF thugs have the audacity of beating up people even in the presence of the Police!

“There is this unwritten law that is understood by ZANU PF that you cannot arrest their members. We have talked about it in parliament, in cabinet and party meetings. But what difference does it make if the hands of the police are tied," the MDC Co-Minister of Home Affairs Ms Theresa Makone said.

The Minister admitted the Police were getting instructions from Mugabe himself not to arrest the thugs. Surely it is up to Parliament to challenge the source of this “unwritten” law and what constitutional powers authorise Mugabe to gives instructions undermining the nation’s ability to carryout its most basic function of maintaining law and order and safe guard the security of the people.

The Parliament of Zimbabwe is the only body in the land empowered to write the laws of the lands. And Parliament, even with all the constitutional amendments and tinkering by Mugabe and Zanu PF over the last three decades, still remains the most powerful institution in the land. Parliament has the power and authority to have anybody or representative of any company or institution arrest, tried and punished. It can have the State President impeached, tried and, if convicted, de-robed and punished him!

MDC have the majority in Parliament and if parliament can not act on such a critical matter then who can?!

MDC has again and again referred Zimbabwe’s political problems to SADC. SADC would step in and help if it was a matter of lack of human or financial resources to ensure there was adequate policing for example. What is lacking here is the political will to stand up to those bend on subverting the rule of law for political gain.

Calls by MDC leaders to the party supporters to “defend themselves” against Zanu PF thugs is ill advised. Mugabe has boasted of having “degrees in violence” and he will have all the state military mighty to back his party thugs. MDC supporters and defenceless Zimbabweans will be like lambs to the slaughter.

Yes, the matter has now come down to Zimbabwe Parliament having to rein in the excesses of a tyrannical State President.

“What are we all?” Oliver Cromwell asked the British Member of Parliament when the British faced a similar challenge of a tyrannical King Charles 1. “Quivering and cowering like serfs! It is not the survival of the King that is at issue here. It is the survival of England. And England is NOT the King!”

The path of lawlessness and thuggery Mugabe has taken the country all these last three decades has costed Zimbabwe dearly in terms of all the economic hardships the people have suffered, plus the hundreds of thousands of broken heads and limbs and the tens of thousands murdered. Mugabe should not be allowed to go through with the next wave of madness he is unleashing on the nation before more innocent Zimbabwean blood is shed.

There is nothing more obnoxious than someone who has the power, authority, the opportunity; everything to stop a heinous crime being committed but fail to do so out of cowardice!

It is the survival of Zimbabwe that is at issue here not that of the tyrant!

Tsvangirai is an incompetent and indecisive leader - his lack of education is irrelevant and certainly not a virtue!

2011-09-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

@Kuju

You are not blind or do you have your eyes shut. You see the world like everyone else out there the only difference is you have a preconceived position that forces you to edit out what everything that does not fit what you expected. In the end you see everything in black and white when the real world comes in all the colours of the rainbow.

To you someone is either a baddy and so can not say or do anything right or he/she is a goody and everything and I mean everything they do or say is sheer genius. To you they are simply infallible. And anyone who dare remind you that everyone of us, you, me, those you have pigeon as the baddies and those you have labelled the goodies are capable of doing bad things as we are of doing good. We are fallible as we are mortal.

The GPA was the biggest political blunder in Zimbabwe’s modern history in that it allowed a ruthless dictator back into power complete with all his dictatorial powers. It allowed the tyrant time to regroup and put aside a war-chest of money to finance his terror machine and now he is ready.

Tsvangirai claims the last three years has allowed economic stability. “There is food in the shops” he tells us and you Kuju agree with him. There was food in the shops too in 1980 and thousands of jobs too; why then did we support the war of independence, one will have to ask, if all we wanted was food in the shops? We fought to end the exploitation and oppression so that we too can enjoy the same human rights others the world over take for granted. The same rights Mugabe has ruthlessly denied us for three decades.

In 2008 Zimbabweans risked life and limb to give MDC majority in parliament in the hope that MDC would use parliament to restore the rule of law and our human rights and dignity. Only a moron would accept Tsvangirai’s claim of delivering “food in the shops” as feeble excuse for failing not even one democratic reform.

Kuju, you need to concentrate on whether Tsvangirai is a good and competent leader and forget it is Ncube, a baddy, who said it. There is overwhelming evidence that Tsvangirai is a blundering fool and Ncube is only stating the obvious. Your jumping to Tsvangirai’s defence will not change the reality on the ground. It will only show you for what you are; another blundering fool. Two cheers for democracy; that it should grant a blundering fool like you one vote the same as me!

00000

@ Brain

This is not about Tsvangirai, Ncube or Mugabe. There is more at stake here than the individual. This is about Zimbabwe, the survival of the people of Zimbabwe.

After all the blunders Tsvangirai has committed in the last three years he is NOT going to get the country out of the mess Mugabe landed us in - that is a fact. And that is all that matters. The challenge before us is to start the serious search for a more competent leader and not bury our collective head in the sand.

After the circus that has been going on in MDC-N it is clear that Ncube himself, forget his university degrees, will not make a good leader either.

But this is not just a matter of either Tsvangirai or Ncube; there are many others who can lead. Zimbabwe has a population of 11 million, for Christ sake. Yes you can have your Tea Boy, Brain. But by insisting in having a blundering, flawed, indecisive and a hopeless judge of character as the man we want to rule the nation, even with hindsight of the blunders etc, only shows that as a people we are really incapable of self rule!

000000

Tsvangirai's poor leadership qualities is the elephant in the room. Ambassador Chris Dell called Tsvangirai a "flawed and indecisive character" way back in 2002. Even with all the evidence of Tsvangirai's countless blunders some people still refuse to accept he is way out of his depth. Professor Ncube hit on a raw nerve by stating the obvious. MDC-T had a chance to change its leaders in May and now it must pay for its failure; every punch will be aided at the raw nerve!

(((((((

I agree with Dan Williams, this has to be one of the best articles I have read on Zimbabwe for a long time. I am just concerned this will not be seen as an endorsement of Tsvangirai as a national leader given the political context today.

I can not dispute the fact that many of our well educated leaders have let us down because they lacked "principles, values, etc" as Andrew correctly pointed out. These leaders lacked common sense above all else and one does not need to hold a university degree to have that. But by the same token having no education does not necessarily mean one has common sense either.

Tsvangirai has shown again and again that he does not have common sense, principles, the ability to listen, etc., etc. If he had any common sense then he would have realised that the GPA he signed three years ago was a one side arranged giving Mugabe all the dictatorial powers and therefore unworkable. Many people told him he should not sign it but, of course, he would not listen.

We should be searching for a man or woman with common sense, humility, principles and all the other qualities of a good leader. We should accept that such a leader may or may not university qualification. We should be careful and not fall in the trap of making the lack of education a virtue just because we were betrayed by so many well educated men and women in the past!

)))))))

Prime Minister Tsvangirai shares a platform with Rev Jesse Jackson in Chicago, USA. Prime Minister appeals for America’s help in building a democratic Zimbabwe.

Mr Prime Minister you are right; "The major aim of the transitional government was to stabilize the economy and to put in place mechanisms to ensure a free and fair election in which the people’s aspirations are respected and protected." And you failed to deliver on both fronts.

People are simply sick and tired of your blaming Mugabe for these failures. People warned you the arrangement would not work but for two years you even insisting the GNU was making "progress" when all the evidence said things were getting worse.

"As Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, I commit to playing my part in providing visionary leadership that will take our people to a new Zimbabwe, a new country with new values and new ethos." The usual silverback chest-drumming!

Visionary leadership!? Well that is the one thing you, Mr Prime Minister, do not have; you can not give something that you do not and never had.

))))))))

@Black Dragon

Yes expanding Zimbabwe's education system was a very important and significant achievement by the Mugabe regime and for which Mugabe has himself receives numerous accolades. And rightly so too!

I am surprise you did not talk about the heroic sacrifice by Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF leaders in the struggle to end white rule, exploitation and oppression. That is Mugabe’s favourite topic and one he is known to speak for hours.

You were right to criticise the article for it failure to “balance” the mistakes and the achievements. But you will have to admit that balance in something that has been noticeably lacking for this Mugabe dictatorship for thirty years! Not only has the regime and its propagandists force fed the nation on the exclusive diet of the regime’s achievements. Or should I say exaggerated propaganda stories. The education system has all but collapsed, years ago during the economic melt down and has never recovered.

Hundreds of thousands of our fellow country men and women have been terrorised and raped and tens of thousands murdered by Mugabe in the last thirty years in his drive to establish and maintain the de facto one-party dictatorship we have lived under. Mismanagement, corruption and looting have destroyed the country’s once promising economy. And yet the regime has stifled all meaningful debate on these matters. Why have you, Black Dragon, never demanded a “balance” debate then?

It was not a “balanced” debate you want Black Dragon but to focus all attention on Zanu PF’s achievements and sweep all the mistakes under the carpet.

Given the economic hell-hole Mugabe landed the nation into forcing millions into a life of abject poverty and the blatant human rights violation including the cold blooded murder of tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans I would say Mugabe and cronies have a lot to answer for. On balance they had done this nation a lot more harm than good and therefore are more likely to hang than be declared national heroes!
99999

@ Robmug

If Tsvangirai realised that Mugabe had all the power in the GPA and he had none - as it now appears to be the case - then why did he agree to enter into such a pathetic arrangement?

Tsvangirai can not have it both ways; presenting himself as a competent leader an equal partner in the GNU one day and then helpless partner the next and yet still remain a "visionary" leader. When he signed the GPA he said it was not ideal but still it was workable. What did he expect to achieve then and how does that compare to the reality? If he did not achieve what he had hoped to achieve the he must accept that he is a poor judge of character and situations. If he achieved all he hoped to achieve then the list of his achievements makes a sorry reading, one would expect a lot more from claiming to be a "visionary leader".

In other words which ever way one looks at it, Tsvangirai made a blunder in signing the GPA and, sadly, he does not even have the intellect to realise that even when it is spelt out to him! If Tsvangirai was a relative of mine I would be on the phone and tell him to do himself, MDC and the nation one big favour and resign! He tried his best but it is now time to go, there is no shame in that.

Ncube says Tsvangirai's lack of education makes him unsuitable to rule - he has a point!

2011-09-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

Professor Welshman Ncube, leader of the smaller MDC faction, says Tsvangirai, leader of the bigger MDC faction, should not be allowed to rule Zimbabwe because he is not educated! Partisan loyalties aside; Tsvangirai would make a hopeless national leader!

Mugabe has seven University degrees but look where he got us!

Tsvangirai has made some serious blunders in his political career. He had educated people like Professor Ncube, when he was a senior member of MDC before the 2005 split, the Lawyer Tendai Biti, etc at his side but that did not stop him making the mistakes. No Zimbabwean worth the salt can honestly say, much more now with hindsight, Tsvangirai is a competent leader.

In 2008 we voted for Tsvangirai and MDC because we were desperate for change. Professor Jonathan Moyo has said, in one of his rare moments of honesty, that Mugabe would lose an election to a donkey; underlining the people's desperation.

Of course Tsvangirai has chosen to ignore the people's desperation, down play his blunders and blow his few achievements as sheer genius. He was drumming his chest like a silverback only last week. However, no amount of spin can change the fact that Tsvangirai is a "flawed and indecisive character" as US Ambassador Chris Dell once said of him. Professor Ncube is attributing Tsvangirai's incompetency to his lack of education. Educated or not Tsvangirai could still have made a good leaders if only he was able to comprehend his own limitations and to accept advise.

Of course, voting Tsvangirai into State House (assuming that he will not make yet another blunder and smuggle Mugabe or someone else in his place as happened in 2008) will meet our immediate need for change. Still we must also consider what happens next. We will want the Mugabe and his cronies to give up the farms, mines and all the other national resources they looted over the years. Get the farms back into full production, for example, is a “must” for economic recovery.

On the political front, those responsible for all the violence and murders must account for their crimes if there is ever to be closure in the upheaval Mugabe brought on the nation.

Tsvangirai has neither the intellect nor the political will to make those tough and necessary decisions! We can get rid of Mugabe and also get a competent leader to get us out of the mess Mugabe landed us if we do not let our desperation to achieve the first task blind us.

Mugabe's "High Priest" Mukonori wanted a "secure way- out for the tyrant!

2011-09-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

A Senior Roman Catholic Church Priest in Zimbabwe, Father Fidelis Mukonori SJ, was arguing the Americans and the British to arrange “secure way-out” of power for Mugabe according to a WikiLeaks. There is one man-of-the-cloth amongst many who has served the Zimbabwe tyrant well and served the oppressed masses badly.

Father Mukonori was right to say "ZANU-PF leadership around President Mugabe lacked the political clout, intelligence, experience or vision to lift Zimbabwe out of the hole they had dug". If Father Mukonori was not a member of the inner circle of Mugabe's dictatorship then he was he was certainly a very active member of the next tier of the leadership. He too lacked the political clout, intelligence, etc.
The Roman Catholic Church is rightly ashamed of the role played by some of its leaders throughout the dark years of Mugabe dictatorship. Church leaders like Father Mukonori allowed themselves to get too close to the tyrant and thus ended being used as "good will" ambassadors of the repressive regime. Their ego clouded their judgement; they should have known that he who dines with the devil needs a long spoon!

Mugabe is damned if punish the WikiLeaks plotters and damned if he does not!

2011-09-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

Mugabe to hold the first Zanu PF party meeting since the publication of latest WikiLeaks in which many of his senior party members plotted his down fall. Some people expect a bloodbath!

“This is democracy. I believe in democracy and let’s discuss this issue. I addressed this issue in Mutare last week at our party meeting and our supporters agreed with it,’’ said Didymas Mutasa a senior Zanu PF member.

Mutasa talking of "democracy" in and a democratic discussion on the "sell-out"! Well there is a joke!

Since when has Zanu PF had any discussion on anything let alone a democratic one?

Mugabe may be seething with anger on the number of senior party members plotting his down fall. Still he should remember “He without sin should cast the first stone!” The WikiLeaks say that Mnangagwa had a every senior member of the party followed by a shadow in dark glass! Mugabe was well aware of this; surely that constitute a worse crime than making a statement of fact that X is old!

The only reason why Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo would want all those named in the WikiLeaks punished is so that they can be promoted. Mugabe knows he can not trust Mutasa or Gumbo no more than he trusted the WikiLeaks plotters.

Mugabe will find the plunging the likes of Mnangagwa and Jonathan Moyo easier said than done. These two have helped him stay in power all these years and the months ahead will be the toughest yet. What ideas will Mutasa or Gumbo offer him? Beside Mnangagwa and Moyo know too much already; if they should decide to spill the beans, Mugabe will be finished!

“Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer,” goes the adage. Mugabe is seething with anger not so much plotters but at the fact that their public exposure is making it near impossible for him to keep them closer than his friends without appearing to be weak!

999999

Mugabe government threatening to sue the EU over targeted sanctions against him and 160 of his cronies. The sanctions were imposed for failing to hold free and credible elections. Mugabe is threatening to sue on the grounds that the EU failed to list and notify him of its reasons and not on the substantive issue of Zimbabwe’s institutionalised culture of political violence and murder.

Mugabe is known to be a stickler on matters of the law, he will make a big song and dance about every section, subsection, comma, dotting every i and crossing every t. When it suits him he will ignore or blatantly violate the very pillars on which a free and just society stand and then quote some minor point in an obscure regulation in defence. Here is a tyrant who has ruthlessly denied a whole nation a meaningful say in the governance of the country for three decades. When some one imposed so punitive measures to underline their disapproval of what he has been doing, he sues them on the grounds that they should have listed their objections and send them to him by registered mail marked FAO of His Excellence The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. What a sick joke!
I am looking forward to the day the people of Zimbabwe will finally have their say after all these years of torment and abuse. They will not be imposing any targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his thugs: they will have the hangman’s rope!

Tsvangirai is celebrating his blunders as successes - he refuses to face reality!

2011-09-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’ s keynote address at his MDC party’s 12th Anniversary Celebration was stereo typical self indulgence chest drumming in which the glaring failures and blunders are glossed over or ignored completely and the few flickering flames of achievements becoming the blazing torches giving light and warm to all! Reading through the Prime Minister’s speech remaindered of this pompous Master of Ceremony in my High School

My High School had a Ball every year. It was traditional to have a ticket draw in which only the girls from the visiting schools took part. The Master of Ceremony one year was this pompous individual who considered himself God’s gift to all the girls and as for us boys it was more like “look and learn!” Instead of calling the lucky number and give the winner the price Mr “Pompous” who loved to hear his own voice played the music “Is she lovely” by Steve Wonder and then gave a speech expounding on the beauty of the winner. No doubt all copied from the Miss World Beauty Contest; there was nothing original about Mr “Pompous”, he was a phony through and through.

As lucky will have it, the winner that year was fat short girl with molehill for pimples all over her face. Everything about her suggested she did not care how she looked. If there had been a beauty contest that day, she would probably have come last! Mr “Pompous” had picked his music and had his speech to deliver; he soldiered on regardless of the fact that the music and speech said the exact opposite of the female specimen before him. That was priceless! Prime Minister Tsvangirai was giving a repeat performance of Mr “Pompous”!

“So today you must congratulate yourselves! For 12 years, you survived violence and intimidation!” said the PM. “For 12 years, you braved the brutality of an entrenched dictatorship and kept your faith in democracy and non-violence!”

Mr Prime Minister, we did not set out to “survive the violence and intimidation” but to end it! In 2008 the people of Zimbabwe risked everything in voting for you and your party giving you the parliamentary majority. Mugabe and Zanu PF punished the whole nation during the presidential run-off that followed. Mugabe deployed not just his party thugs but the Police, Army and CIO to terrorize, rape and murder to ensure the people voted for Mugabe in the run-off. Over 500 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered, Mr PM: they did NOT survive.

Mugabe’s rule was over after the sham June 2008 election because no other nation would recognize him as the legitimate head of state after all the blatant disregard all the law governing the conduct of elections. It was only after you signed the GPA that Mugabe was allowed back into the commune of nation. As if that was not bad enough, you allowed Mugabe to have all his dictatorial powers. There was a chorus of voices advising you not to sign the clearly one-sided agreement but you chose to ignore them. In other words it was you Mr PM who has “entrenched” this Mugabe dictatorship.

What have you done with your MDC parliamentary majority that the nation risked so much to give you? Nothing! Mugabe has over the years reduced parliament into a gathering of lackeys with a lot of power and authority in theory but scared stiff to exercise it. Well this parliament might just as well have had a Zanu PF majority!

“We accepted this painful compromise (of the GPA) because we were guided by the righteous and noble objective of stabilizing the economy and rescuing the people from the precipice of poverty, uncertainty, starvation and indignity wrought by three decades of corruption and misgovernance,” said the PM.

You stabilized the economy? The only thing that happened was the scraping of the valueless Z$ and putting a stop to Gono’s money printing machine that had fueled the country’s hyper inflation. That was simple and common sense thing to do; indeed Mugabe had already done this by the time the GNU was formed in February 2009. That alone is hardly worthy of all the dramatic extravagancy of “rescuing the people from the precipice of poverty, … plunge into the abyss,” etc.

The real economic challenge was in putting an end to the lawless looting that had undermined investor and donor confidence and how to make decimated agricultural sector productive again. MDC ignored all these critical challenges and so the much hoped for economy recovery has not happened. Unemployment has hardly changed, 80% plus down from 90%. MDC has completely failed to stop Mugabe pushing his policy forcing foreign owned mines, banks and other business selling 51% stake to blacks. This is nothing but a new looting scheme by Mugabe and his cronies. The Zimbabwe economy will suffer yet another crippling blow if this madness is carried out and MDC has done precious little to stop Mugabe.

Since the signing of the GPA MDC has failed to bring about not even one democratic reform in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has not just stubbornly resisted all reforms; he has done further than that. In December 2009 Mugabe managed to get the Police, the Army and CIO to formerly plague their loyalty to Zanu PF which means these State Organs can now “duty bound” to support Zanu PF’s fight to stay in power. Mugabe has also amasses wealth from the sell of diamonds to pay his party thugs. Mugabe is ready for fresh elections alright.

“We must be ashamed as political parties that even the things we have agreed on have become outstanding issues because of non-implementation,” Tsvangirai admitted. “Partisan policing, a biased justice system and violence remain rooted in our culture to the extent that rogue elements can beat up elected MPs in the Parliament chambers and escape unpunished.”

As things stand, one thing is almost certain in the next elections; there will be plenty of violence. Mugabe has no choice but to use violence; as Professor Jonathan Moyo once said Mugabe would lose the election to a donkey if he did not use violence; that is how unpopular he is. Mugabe risks being declared illegitimate again if he used too much violence. My guess is he will use very subtle and targeted violence in combination with other vote rigging ways - enough for him and his party to win with a few seats for opposition.

“In 2008, the people spoke in an election that they wanted a new culture and a new beginning. But their vote did not count.” True enough Mr Prime Minister. “Those who lost the election were smuggled into an inclusive government that is now dysfunctional due to their intransigence and lack of a common vision.” PM you were foolish enough to smuggle the tyrant back into State House but lack the intellect to acknowledge it ever now with hindsight.

If MDC had the quality leadership then it would have never made the mind boggling blunders it has made all these 12 years. Morgan Tsvangirai is himself a “flawed and indecisive character” as former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, rightly pointed out. So flawed he failed to appreciate sound advise and now, with the nation facing the full enormity of his blunders, he is celebrating it all as success! But worst of all, the nation; if it does not do something about it now, is stack with him and his MDC!

“And I tell you, we could not have achieved this without the unity of the leaders you see here. I guarantee you that this unity will continue into the future,” continued Tsvangirai.

The nation will remember Tsvangirai for generations the same way I will remember Mr. Pompous the difference is I laugh and the nation will cry!

MDC "party of excellence" celebrating 12 years of failures and blunders - beggars belief!

2011-09-10T11:15:00.002-07:00

Today, 10 September 2011 the MDC party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is celebrating the 12 th Anniversary of the party at Gwanzura Stadium in Harare. Many people are fearful that there might be the usual Zanu PF inspired political violence. MDC has sort to assure the public that there will be no violence.

The MDC spokesman, Douglas Monzora, said the party are taken steps to protect the public. The party has retained its own security!

All those who had hoped that the formation of the GNU in Zimbabwe would bring an end to political violence and lawlessness were in for a big disappointment. The political violence and lawlessness have continued and now with talks of fresh elections next year, the violence has grown decidedly worse.

All our lives the people of Zimbabwe have lived in fear. Fear of being harassed, beaten, raped or worse still murdered. Mugabe used arms to force the white racist minority government of Ian Smith to accept black majority. But more significantly he used the same military muscle to impose his political will on the nation. When the blacks cast their very first votes in 1980, they were under no illusions that the victorious Zanu PF and PF Zapu would accept defeat.

“The vote must follow the bullet!” Mugabe told the nation at the time and has repeated the same message again and again for the last thirty years each time he felt his hold on political power threatened.

The 1980 elections was a vote to stop the war just as the June 2008 vote was to stop the beatings, rapes and murders. Some people would argue that both Mugabe and Nkomo would have accepted the 1980 election results even if they had lost. One has only to look at the brutality the two leaders have inspired since to retain power to know that can not be true.

Mugabe’s control of the Army, Police, CIO and all the other State Security Agencies has been total. Whilst these organs have done well in keeping law and order when Zanu PF’s hold on power was threatened they have all shown that their loyalty is to Mugabe and the party and not the nation.

Mugabe has used the members of the Zanu PF’s Youth and Women League and War Veterans has its foot soldiers to harass and intimidate the people and keep them faithful to the party. The Police have never, as a rule, arrested any these thugs. On the odd occasion that these thugs are arrested, those who shot and nearly killed the opposition parliamentary candidate Patrick Kombayi in 1990 for example, Mugabe himself stepped in and pardoned them. This has underlined the political reality that Zanu PF thugs are above the law.

Whilst the Zanu PF foot soldiers were deployed to provide the never ending political harassment, beatings, rapes and murders Mugabe has deployed the Police, Army, etc. at the drop of a hat whenever he felt the need to escalate the political violence. This is the reality on the ground in Zimbabwe today.

“The situation in Highfields (the suburb were Gwanzura Stadium is) is now back to normal and there is calm,” Monzora assured the public.
Calm? Does MDC really think whatever security the party has engage can stop the violence? Even if the party’s security can stop violence occurring in the Stadium itself it can not stop the violence outside. The party faithful have to get into the Stadium and Zanu PF thugs will ambush them and stop them getting in. The Police will standby and do nothing, as usual.

If there is no violence at Gwanzura Stadium, it will be because Mugabe and JOC directed that there would be no violence and not because of whatever security measures MDC claim to have taken.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai will reportedly give the key-note address to the gathering praising MDC’s achievements in bring about democratic changes in Zimbabwe. Threat of politically motivated violence still hangs over the nation, more ominous now than ever, and yet Tsvangirai claim there has been democratic change!

The only change that has taken place since MDC signed the power sharing arrangement that allowed Mugabe back into State House through the back door with all his dictatorial powers is that Tsvangirai and some of his fellow MDC leaders have been appointed into senior government positions. And they have since forgotten the plight of the ordinary Zimbabweans who still live in fear. “They mouths are too full to speak out for the masses,” as Joseph Whande has often said.

The people of Zimbabwe would have forgiven MDC for betraying the nation by signing the GPA if the party had delivered one thing – an end to the culture of political violence. That should have been the party’s last and none negotiable bottom line.

Tsvangirai will never deliver democratic change just as Mugabe failed to deliver freedom and liberty because he has never fully comprehended the complexities of subject. It takes some intellect to comprehend a subject and then to articulate and set goals. MDC has never had any set goals to achieve and so naturally the party does not view the last 12 years as a failure regardless of all the failures and blunders. The very fact that he is Prime Minister is itself cause for celebration for Tsvangirai and MDC; he will never accept that it is a glorified position with neither power nor authority!
MDC is in fact celebrating 12 years of failures and blunders; it beggars belief!

2011-09-10T11:15:00.001-07:00

Mankind is above all else a thinking animal!

2011-09-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

Mankind is above all else a thinking animal!

A human life lived to the full is one where
Half the time was spent in mental contemplation
Half of the remaining time was spent in listening
Half of the remaining time was spent in talking
Half of the remaining time was spent in doing
The rest spent in resting mind and body.

Those whose speak without thinking are but a hauling wind
They neither inform nor entertain, they annoy.
Those whose act before thinking through first
Know not where they are going and never get anywhere
At worst, they will shatter their own leg swatting a fly.

If you can tamper the exuberant energy and passion of youth
With the patience and wisdom of age
Out of iron and carbon you have forged the blade of steel.
The only excellent plan is one tested in battle and worked!

What is said or done matters only carefully thought through.

ANC's failure to deliver eonomic prosperity will force them to adopt Malema's quick fixs!

2011-09-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

The ANC government’s failure to deliver economic prosperity to the masses of SA is putting it under increased pressure to consider the cheap option of looting!

"If we may be allowed to pose the question: is there anything intrinsic in the private sector that makes it more efficient and competent? or, posed differently, is there anything in the public sector that makes it intrinsically antithetical to all of this." Said Public Enterprises Minister, Malusi Gigaba.

Yes Minister there is something intrinsically inherent in State –Owned-Enterprises that make them inefficient, incompetent and corrupt. Whilst those in the Private Sector know that if they are not competitive in any way; everyone in the company from the top to the bottom will go under. The same can not be said about those in SOE, the taxpayer will bailed the company regardless how they performed. Indeed instead of concentrating of the performance of the company SOE employees are often more concerned about pleasing those who helped them land their job. Is it any wonder then corrupt, incompetent and inefficient is endemic in SOE.

The purpose of government is to create the economic environment in which private sector can grow and thrive and all the citizens a fair crack of the whip. It is those who having failed to compete fairly in the private sector who seeks to replace the private sector with the SOE, BBE schemes, etc. in which they can use political connections and/or corrupt practices to gain the competitive advantage.

It is not a matter of political ideology that SOE have failed to delivery masses prosperity; it is a historic fact. All State who imposed SOE, do so in the name of the masses. When the masses realise that the SOE are making their economic situation worse and not better these State have turned to more and more repressive measures to silence the masses.

Tyrannical regimes are obsessed about political power and to them political power without economic power is simply unthinkable. The first thing that the Mugabe regime, for example, did as soon as it got into power was to buy off as many private sector companies and turn them into outright public sector companies or turn them over to individuals whose loyalty to the party was unquestionable.

There is a direct collation between the demise of Zimbabwe’s private sector, prominence of SOE and Zanu PF controlled companies and the country’s economic decline. With the economic decline came increased political repression to stop the electorate protesting.

Mugabe’s seizure of white owned farms did not make any economic sense and it was the last straw that resulted in the economic melt down. The only reason Mugabe pursued this is because, one, he had nothing else of economic value to bribe his wasteful and ever demanding cronies. Two, he desperately needed a smoke screen behind which to hide his increased brutal political repression. Mugabe has cleverly maintained it his land reform policy his political critics, especially the West, are against and he has to remain in power at all cost to ensure the policy is not reversed. The truth is he turned the party militia, the Police, Army and other state security operatives into thugs to terrorise and murder the electorate and stop them exercise their democratic right to a free vote.

SA’s ANC government is seeking to destroy the country private sector for the same reason Mugabe did but from a different angle.

Minister Gigala, your ANC government has failed to meet the economic aspirations of the people because your party did not have the visionary leaders required to harness SA’s full economic potential and deliver the mass prosperity. As if that was not bad enough, corruption in high places has become rampant undermining the power and authority of the leaders and thus of government to act on matters of public interest.

Opportunists like Malema are “cashing-in” on the ANC’s leadership failure weaknesses by offering the masses a short-cut out of their lives of poverty and want – Mugabe style forced seizures of white owned farms, nationalisation of mines, etc. A pie is the sky, of course, because these measures will result in the same economic decline as befall the Zimbabwean economy. Indeed the continued failure by the SA government to take a firm principle stand against Mugabe’s continued violation of property rights and Malema’s rhetoric have had a negative effect on SA’s economy. Who would want to invest in a country where property rights are not assured?

Minister Gigala and his fellow ANC leaders will very soon embrace the nationalisation of mines and all Malema’s other hare-brain schemes as a matter of politically expedience. No one in ANC would want to admit this, of course, and hence the announcement that the party will conduct an independent study on the viability of nationalisation as if there can be any economic merit to such a myopic scheme. It is ANC’s feeble attempt to present a political fudge as an ideological shift!

))))))))))))

The Economist has rated Harare “the worst city to live in”.

A Mugabe die hard supporter hit back claiming his whole family was moving back to Harare to leave “cr@p” London behind. One has to ask why did they leave Harare in the first place? ". This article was highlighting the plight of the ordinary people, the masses, the 80 to 90% of the population. Unlike you, your uncles, etc. who constituting the 10% or so; you have everything. You have the money to buy and run generators, who send their children to private school and have the choice to leave in "cr@p" London. They, on the other hand, have nothing; they have to put up with the water and power cuts, suffer because the health and education systems have all but collapsed. They would be glad to leave Zimbabwe for “cr@p” London and do any job going if they could!

You deride the findings above because it included the masses; to tyrants like Mugabe and you his cronies the masses count not at all and the regime has treated them accordingly; riding rough shod over their hopes, dreams and human dignity! Still poor and oppressive these long suffering Zimbabweans are human beings, even in death; not even Mugabe can deny them of that!
)))))

Malema before ANC disciplinarying hears at last!

2011-09-02T05:54:00.000-07:00

The ANC has finally started disciplinary hears against the fire brand ANCYL leader Julius Malema following his call for regime change in Botswana. He accused the Botswana government of President Ian Khama of working "in full co-operation with imperialists" and thus undermining the "African agenda". Whatever that was supposed to mean!

The ruling ANC has finally called Malema and a number of his fellow leaders in the ANCYL to a party disciplinary hearing for bring the party into disrepute. Malema asked the charges to be quashed on the grounds that he was not aware of the party’s constitutional clauses forbidding him making the outlandish statements.

Malema is a multi-millionaire in his own right and it is widely believed his fortune is from corrupt activities. It is clear; he could not have accumulated his fortune from his earning as President of ANCYL and all his other known legal business activities alone. The authorities have never investigated the many charges of corruption against Malema.

If the ANC find Malema guilt of bring the party into disrepute and throw him out of the party, may be then will the corruption charges be investigated.

What people have to ask is why is it that the ruling ANC party has to dump Malema first before serious charges of corruption against him are investigated? A rhetorical question, of course, because we all know in SA and, indeed, the rest of Africa the ruling elite are above the law.

If Malema is guilt of the corruption charges against him then he will have costed the SA public billions of Rands and thus threatened well being of the whole nation. Surely the well being of SA is more important than the reputation (What reputation, you might well ask?) of a political party.

Even if Malema was thrown out of the ANC there is no guarantee his corrupt past will be investigated! He pleaded ignorance of ANC’s constitution stopping him making outlandish statements but he is, no doubt, surprisingly well informed of the corruption taking place in high places. ANC leaders know they can not dare to throw Malema to the wolves because he will spill the beans and take many of them down with him!

Mugabe pushing hard for a "inclusive government" for Libya!

2011-08-31T04:14:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe has reportedly expelled the Libyan Ambassador to Zimbabwe after the later burnt the old Libyan flag of the hated Gaddafi regime and replaced it with that of the new NTC.

“The AU said the only way to resolve the issue is through dialogue and to come up with a political solution as provided for in the AU roadmap. TNC was rejected by 40 AU countries and if an all-inclusive government was set up, then AU would consider a representative of their government,” said Mugabe’s parrot Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi. The Minister announced that the Libyan Ambassador and his staff had 72 hours to leave Zimbabwe.

Well, well; look who is pushing for an "inclusive government" in Libya! No doubt Mugabe would have pushed had for Gaddafi to remain President with all his dictatorial powers just as happened in Zimbabwe. Of course Tsvangirai was stupid to allow Mugabe to do this in Zimbabwe; there is no chance NTC would allow such nonsense.

Gaddafi is finished, he is history; this is something Mugabe will find very difficult to swallow. In Gaddafi’s fall, he sees his own demise and rightly so too. There has been regime change in Libya and it is just a matter of months not years before the same happen in Zimbabwe. Gaddafi swore he would not let that happen in Libya but that only served to harden the resolve of the Libyan people. Zimbabweans are just as determined to see meaningful democratic change in their country and Mugabe, like Gaddafi, will be swept aside when the time comes!

The Libyan Ambassador and his staff will leave Zimbabwe beaming with pride. Now that they have broken the chains of servitude to the Gaddafi regime they are very proud to give the middle finger to some good-for-nothing tyrant trying to put his own chains on them!

Democracy will only come if the electorate are educated on the true value of the right to vote!

2011-08-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have come to the opposite conclusion; the bloodier the revolution the greater the chance of it spawning tyrants and not democrats. Those who reach for the gun are impatient, they do not have the time to reason nor listen to counter arguments, they want a revolution and have no time for evolution.

Whilst people like Mugabe would swear that only the gun would have brought Ian Smith to the negotiating table. It is no surprise that he now believe it is the bullet not the ballot that decides who is to rule. In fact it would be more accurate to say he has never believed in anything else.

We have to break the cycle of violence and blood shed in the name of freedom and justice. Freedom and justice are not born out of violence; only love and reason will produce freedom and justice.

The challenge before us is how to educate the masses to appreciate the vote can deliver the freedom, human dignity, economic prosperity and peace we all crave for just as it has done in all democratic nations the world over. The second thing the masses have to understand is that the vote will deliver all these things on one condition – that it is used wisely. It is not enough to vote for A and not B; one must have good reason for picking one and not the other. Having voted for a particular candidate, it is the solemn duty of the electorate to ensure that he/she delivers on their promise.

The vote is like a knife, in a skilled doctor’s hands it will give life and in a ruthless thug’s hands it will take life. In Africa the right to vote has become more a curse than a blessing because the unscrupulous leaders have granted it to an electorate whom they have done everything in their power to keep ignorant and frightened out of their wits.
It is hard enough to ask someone who has been denied his or her basis human rights, freedoms and human dignity to be patient. It is even harder to ask the same person to have to work hard up front before they get these benefits. But what makes this task near impossible is to make oneself heard over the cheap rhetoric of zealots like Malema and Mugabe offering the poor prosperity from institutionalised looting.

No individual or nation has ever prospered from looting. The mismanagement, corruption and looting by Mugabe and his cronies has turned a once prosperous nation full of promise and hope into an imperished nation. In the six year from 2002 to 2008 the nation's economy shrunk a staggering 84%. Instead of taking the responsibility for the economic collapse the regime has stepped up its brutality to silence the masses!

Congratulation Libya for toppling Gaddafi but this is a first step on a long and tough journey ahead!

2011-08-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

The AU refused to recognise the new government emerging in Libya after the toppling of Gaddafi. That is hardly surprising; most African leaders own a debt of gratitude to the Libya dictator with who they have a lot in common and never cared about the long suffering Libyans masses.

Gaddafi was considered the "big boss man" in the AU who bankrolled many countries' fight for independence and the continued stay in power of many of the continent's leaders. The other two key players in Africa's fight for independence were China and Russia; two countries with no democratic values to talk about! So most African leaders have been made in the image of Gaddafi, Chinese and Russian leaders in which the interests of the leaders and their cronies are more important than the interests of the rest of the populous. For all they care, the rest of the people may just as well be slaves!

President Zuma and many of his fellow AU leaders are more concerned about Gaddafi than the millions of Libyans he has terrorised and deny hope and dignity all these 42 years! If the truth be told President Zuma is more concerned about Mugabe and his cronies than he is about the rest of Zimbabweans and about Malema and the other ANC leaders than about the rest of South Africans.

As much as we the people would like to believe than we can hold our leaders to account; that is the one thing we have failed to do. In Africa, as is the case in all other countries under totalitarian rule, it is the leaders who hold the people to account. It is the tail that wags the dog!

One had hoped that the post independence leaders would be more concerned about the public good than the self centred leaders before them. Alas that has not turned out to be the case. President Museveni of Uganda has turned out to be just as oppressive as the rest, for example. He was critical of African leaders’ blind support of Idi Amin whilst he fought to depose the dictator but courted their approval as soon as he became President. Then he was one of them in more than the immediate sense of being a fellow leader; he too discarded the democratic values, banned multi-party system for example, that he had been fighting for to consolidate his own hold on power.

After the AU’s rebuff of Libya’s National Transition Council; it would be good if the future leadership in Libya would break the Gaddafi mould and show they care about the suffering masses of Libya. If would be even better if they can play a key roll is fostering the same values on the rest of Africa’s leaders just as Gaddafi help foster the tyrannical streak.

On the other hand the new leadership in Tripoli may have welcome NATO and the West’s help in defeating Gaddafi. When the dust has finally settled the leaders will find themselves under increasing pressure from the people to deliver on the economic and political front. It is then that they will find the temptation to silence their critics and opponents by denying them democratic rights and freedoms irresistible. The leaders will not get any sympathetic hearing from the West; they will be forced to court AU for that.

Whether or not Tripoli’s new leaders “kiss and make up” with the likes of President Zuma, Mugabe and the rest of the AU leaders will confirm whether or not Libya has broken the African mould of totalitarian government and joined the league of free and democratic nations.

I am not a betting man but if I had to; I would put my money on Libya becoming just another failed African country ruled by corrupt, incompetent and self-serving leaders. There are two reasons why true democracy will never take root in the desert of Libya. First of all, Libyans have known anything else other than tyrannical rule and are therefore are likely to want nothing else. In the heat of the uprising against Gaddafi it is ease for everyone to talk of freedom, democracy, justice, etc. But when the dust of all the bombing and shooting has settled it will become clear that what each and everyone were fighting for was to replace Gaddafi’s dictatorial rule with one of their own. So whoever can muster enough support will emerge as the new dictator.

It is a common mistake to think that the demise of a tyrant like Gaddafi and a few of cronies is enough for a democratic system to grow and thrive. A well established dictatorship like that of Gaddafi will have spawned tyrants at every level of society; they are the weeds who will choke off the seed of democracy, they have an invested interest in maintaining the status quo.

The second reason why the uprising in Libya is not likely to deliver the free, democratic and prosperous nation Libyans had been hoping for is to do with the ordinary Libyans themselves, they are not worthy of such a government. It is one thing to have the right to vote but quite another to make that vote count by holding those holding public office accountable to the public. Whereas the Egyptian public have shown a continued interest in what they wanted to see happen following the toppling of that country’s dictator, for example; the Libyans have not shown the same passion. People get the government they deserve.

Congratulations to the people of Libya in taking the significant first step in building a free and democratic nation in toppling the tyrant Gaddafi. This is not the first time Libya has taken this tentative step only to be disappointed; one hopes that will not happen this time round.

Gaddafi's 42 year reign of terror is over - Mugabe knows his days are numbered!

2011-08-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

Gaddafi, the man who has ruled Libya with an iron fist and vowed to rule for life, has been flashed out of his concrete bunker in Tripoli and is now on the run. It is just a question of days if not hours before he is caught. Libyans are free at last; free to shape their own destiny, free to breathe, dream and hope! It is a wonderful and glorious feeling after decades of stifling heat of tyrannical oppression.

Gaddafi, like all dictators never thought his reign would come to an end. Even with the whole nation up in arms against him, he still talked of “my people” will chase out the “rats” out of Tripoli.

After decades of autocratic rule the people of Libya face a difficult task of setting up a democratic government. Gaddafi had undermined the Police, Judiciary, Parliament, etc. so that he was the only power in the land. There will be many in the Police who would happily enforce the law selectively, for example; old habits die hard.

The coming months and years, the formative stage, will be important for Libya; what the people do now will decide whether the country becomes a democracy or slip back into the nightmare of totalitarian rule. We pray that the dramatic events of this week will mark the dawn of freedom and liberty for all the people of Libya and not a brief moment in the sun.

There going on in Libya was bad news for Mugabe and his cronies; each of them must e worried whether they will be next. Tsvangirai got the Mugabe dictatorship off the hook in 2008; that is not going to happen again. Yes Mugabe, your days of oppressive rule are numbered!

There is nothing more obnoxious than one entrusted with power but fails to act!

2011-08-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

"Our votes must go together with our guns," said Mugabe back in 1976. And ever since then he has backed ominous words with chilling acts of violence, rape and murder.

The right to meaningful say in the governance of the country lies at the very heart of what it means to be a citizen as contrast to being a subject or worse, slave. Besides granting all the nicety of being a citizen a truly democratic system allows society to reinvent itself and thus avoid the stagnation that of a monolithic de facto one-party dictatorship.

Thirty years of Mugabe one-party rule has result in economic melt down, the economy shrunk a staggering 84% in 2002 to 2008 alone. The nation is ruled by fear and not reason after years of intimidation, rape and murder of all Zanu PF critics and opponents.

MDC’s number one task was to end the dictatorship and bring meaningful democratic change. The only sure way to carry out the task was to challenge, head-on, this nonsense that the votes must follow the guns. In the 2008 elections the people of Zimbabwe gave MDC the power and mandate to do just that. Instead of challenging Mugabe the party saw it fit to appease the dictator by allowing back into State House with all his dictatorial powers.

There is nothing more obnoxious than someone entrusted with all the power and authority to do what is right and yet, out of cowardice or selfish gain, fail to do so. Tyrants count and thrive on this weaken!

It is right that tyrants should be tried and punished for their crimes against humanity. Still, I wish, cowards and sell-out should be tried along side them for aiding and abetting the tyrants!

MDC has failed to taken Mugabe to task for his guff using the gun to over ride the people’s vote. This has encourage the tyrant to back his threat with brute force and now rogue generals and village idiots like Raymond Chamba to parrot his guff publically.

SADC passes the Zimbabwe impasse back to Tsvangirai - he better not disappoint!

2011-08-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

"In terms of the problems leading to the referendum, they (Tsvangirai and Mugabe) are almost in the process of reaching an agreement in terms of the date of elections and I believe that what we have to do is to encourage them to finally come out with a common date on the referendum and election,” said SADC secretary at the end of the SADC meeting in Luanda.

Everyone was hoping against hope that SADC will for once come up with the goods. Tsvangirai and Mugabe have already said they can not agree on the necessary democratic reforms and election date. God knows they would have agreed by now if there had the political will; this circus has been going on since the sham presidential run-off of June 2008.

Well SADC have thrown the ball straight back for Tsvangirai and Mugabe to deal with. Of course, between the two it is what Mugabe wants that counts. And want the dictator want is for fresh elections to be held this year without any meaningful democratic reforms being carried out; period. In short Mugabe wants a rerun of the sham June 2008 elections in which political violence will be a certainty.

Tsvangirai has made some shockingly stupid decision in his political career but even he knows holding election without meaningful democratic reforms is to commit mass political suicidal for him and his party, MDC.

It is Tsvangirai who had placed all his hopes on SADC forcing Mugabe to agree on democratic reforms, etc at this SADC meeting. Every time Tsvangirai has hit a brick wall in his dealings with Mugabe he has gone running to SADC “as the guarantor of the GPA!” And again and again SADC has done nothing to force Mugabe to honour his part in the GPA.

How many times did people tell Tsvangirai the GPA was unworkable because it gave Mugabe all his old dictatorial powers? How many times was Tsvangirai told that the SADC guarantee of the GPA was not worth the paper it was written on? Countless times and Tsvangirai would not listen. He even claimed the agreement was “working”! Well Tsvangirai must now step up to the mark and stop passing the buck!
Mr Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, you knew that bringing democratic change in Zimbabwe was the nation’s top priority. You obvious believed YOU – not President Zuma, SADC or anyone else – would still deliver that change in the context of the GPA or you would not have signed the power sharing agreement. Some people have said all you cared about is the fancy title. Well this is you chance to prove these people wrong! You dare not disappoint us this time!

China continues to prop Mugabe in the name of "none-interference"!

2011-08-17T10:39:00.001-07:00

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Xin Shunkang, last week reaffirmed China's desire to see Zimbabwe develop, reported News 24.

"China is committed to the non-interference policy and will always support the just call of developing countries including Zimbabwe," said the Ambassador.

The people of Zimbabwe have called on the UN to impose sanctions of the repressive Mugabe regime for using violence and murder to denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. What Mugabe did to "win" the June 2008 presidential run-off was an outrage. History will remember that at the time Mugabe's Police and Army was terrorise the nation the Chinese were sending ship full of guns and bullets to rearm Mugabe's thugs.

The truth of Zimbabwe’s bloody diamonds in Marange is well documented and it is clear Mugabe is amassing the wealth from the sell of these diamonds to finance future politically motivated violence. The Chinese are involved in this venture, big time.

What the Chinese are doing in Zimbabwe is propping up a repressive regime – they call it “non-interference” - for their own selfish economic and political gain. Propping up a fellow repressive regime; the Chinese Communist Party is yet to hold free and fair elections.

Mugabe squanders US$20 m on posh cars and sleepy Zimbabweans are outraged - at last!

2011-08-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Zimbabwe government has spent US$20 million buying new cars for senior government officials. The ordinary Zimbabweans are reportedly outraged.

Ever since its formation three years ago, this GNU has little to get the nation out of the mess Mugabe landed us. Unemployment had soared to 90% in 2008, it is still a nauseating 80% plus today. Things are worse, on the political front, Mugabe has used the time to rebuild and secure funds for his thugs. Political violence hangs over the nation like a choking smoke blanket. Sadly very few Zimbabweans even noticed this; which, of course, explains why the whole GNU leadership was complacent.

The same GNU leadership squanders US$ 20 million on posh cars and the sleepy Zimbabwean electorate is outraged. Well it is better late than never; assuming of course these voters have not dose off already.
I am convinced Zimbabwe can recover from the economic and political nightmare Mugabe landed us in if only the country has a diligent and competent government. But such a government does not exist in a vacuum; it takes an equally diligent and informed electorate to foster one. Only a well informed electorate will know what the leaders can and can not do and thus hold them to account. In a country with a history of incompetent and corrupt leaders; the need for informed voters is critical.

Over 500 still missing since 2008 violence - a far cry from 200 MDC reported!

2011-08-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

More than 500 people are still missing since the 2008 election violence in Masvingo Province alone, according to a Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation report. The Organisation called on Zimbabwe’s National Healing and Reconciliation Organ resolve these human rights violation before the next elections.

According to MDC, a total of 200 people throughout Zimbabwe were killed that year.

This is the party that initially reported that Tsvangirai had won 61% of the presidential vote in the March 2008 vote. The party revised down the total downs twice making it ease for the world to accept the Mugabe result which gave Tsvangirai the lead but short of the 50% plus one to avoid the presidential run-off. MDC’s incompetency is simply amazing – the party had access to all the results and they could not even use a calculator to add the figures!

Still one expected MDC to be diligent when it came to counting its own supporters who had given their very lives voting for the party. Many of the victims of the 2088 political violence were MDC supporters. Clearly this report shows that once again that MDC can not be trusted to produce a complete and accurate list of the murdered victims. They could not care less!

“This toothless national healing organ should start doing something to resolve tension between the victims, relatives and the perpetrators. People out there are not ready for elections. They still have fresh wounds and memories of the barbaric activities of violence in 2008,” said Mukura the Organisation’s Director.

Godfrey Mtimba (Daily News Reporter) you are too kind to describe the National Healing and Reconciliation Organ as "largely moribund". Mukura is being honest in describing it as “toothless” organ. Mugabe saw to it that is was just that – a toothless organ.
What I find really amazing is how Tsvangirai and his MDC friends signed on to being a party to the Healing Organ. The party pick its own comical clown Mai Sekai Holland to be the MDC Minister in this charade. She relished the spotlight and she would shut up about the “excellent” work of the organ was doing. Time has proven than the Organ was just another toothless arm of an equally toothless GNU and all Minister Holland’s grand standing was nothing more than the proverbial frog boasting of putting out forest fire with it fart!

MDC calls on SADC to defend Zimbabweans' vote - too cowardly to it themselves!

2011-08-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

“We believe that time has come for Sadc to pronounce itself on this matter (security sector reforms). Sadc needs to make it clear that in terms of its treaty, the military has got no role to play in political processes and that Sadc stands ready to protect and defend the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe,” Jameson Timba told the diplomats.

What exactly does MDC want President Zuma and SADC to say or do about security sector reforms? What treaty is MDC talking about?

It is one thing to say SADC should stand “ready to protect and defend the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe” Mr Timba. We are keen to see that. Zimbabweans have been denied a democratic voice in the governance of the country all their lives. In 2008, in his determination to retain political power at all costs, Mugabe stepped up the political violence to new nauseating heights of violence, brutality and arrogance; he openly used the Police, Army and CIO to carryout out his dirty and murderous work. Yes Mr Timba, it would be nice if SADC or someone could make sure this does not happen ever again.

It is not enough, Mr Timba, for you, your leader, Prime Minister Tsvangirai, or anyone to simply call for the protection of the people’s democratic will without saying what exactly SADC is supposed to do. The devil is in the detail, Mr Timba. What exactly does MDC expect SADC do to?

Mugabe has again and again made his views known about security sector reforms. The Police and Army have behaved in a totally “professional” manner; the dictator said this again on Hero’s Day, hardly a week ago. There will therefore be no security sector reforms.

Short of SADC sending in the Army and Police – which it will never do – there is really nothing else SADC can do.

MDC should have used its Parliamentary majority to charge the rogue Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba of high treason for his threat to subvert the democratic will of the people should Mugabe and Zanu PF lose the next election. That would have settled the question of what those in the security sector can and can not do once and for all.

Parliament has the power to impeach the State President and Commander-In-Chief of all the State’s Armed Services, surely the same Parliament can charge a mere Brigadier-General of treason.

Parliament is the highest authority in the land but when those entrusted with the said authority fail to exercise it they make a mockery of Parliament itself! By failing to using the parliamentary powers to restore the rule of law MDC are doing Zimbabwe a great disserve; they are denying the nation the benefit of freedom and good governance.

MDC are calling on SADC to protect and defend the people of Zimbabwe’s democratic rights because the party is too cowardly to stand up to the mark itself! Tsvangirai is seeking in SADC a scapegoat for his own GNU years mind blowing incompetency and blundering.

Tsvangirai signed GPA to give Mugabe a "soft landing" - it is not the survival of Zimbabwe not the tyrant that is at issue!?

2011-08-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Has there been any progress on democratic reforms; security sector, new constitution, media, etc, etc.? Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai answered: “No!”

Has there been any progress in cleaning up the civil services to get rid of the “ghost workers” everyone knows to be Zanu PF militia responsible for all the political violence of 2008 and the on going violence? The PM once again answered “No!”

At least he is being honest. Until a few months ago he was the one telling the whole world the GNU was “working”. His continued snag demeanour shows he does not even comprehend historic position he occupies and therefore the enormity of his blundering.

Tsvangirai acknowledges, this is the very first time that I have ever heard him do so, that after the sham June 2008 presidential run off Mugabe had literally hang himself. “When we won the election in March 2008, they [other African leaders] were convinced that we had won and that’s why they said they couldn’t recognize what Mugabe had done in June 2008,” admitted Tsvangirai.

So without the GPA Mugabe would have never been accepted as State President, not even by his follow SADC Heads of State. So why in did he let Mugabe off the hook by signing the power sharing agreement? A one sided agreement giving Mugabe all his tyrannical powers at that!

If Tsvangirai had not signed the GPA, Mugabe would have been left with the simple choice of either accept he lost the election or hold fresh elections – in which he would not be able to use violence and therefore was certain to lose.

Two and half years after the formation of the GNU, Tsvangirai himself acknowledges that none of the necessary reforms to create a democratic Zimbabwe have been achieved. On the other hand Mugabe has been able to carry on with his tyrannical agenda of political violence and lawlessness to retain absolute power. Mugabe is politically stronger now than he was after the sham June 2008 elections.

Champions of none-violence to end an unjust system like Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King must be turning in the grave when none-violence is used as the excuse for incompetency and failure. Gandhi is known for his public burning of the Passes Indians were being asked to carry forcing the authority to scrap the idea. Dr King bus boycott ended bus segregation in the racists American South States. What has Tsvangirai ever done?

A few years ago MDC threatened to bring the people out on the street in match against Mugabe’s repressive regime in the so called “Final Push”. It turned out to be a complete flop!

To protest against Mugabe’s repeated failure to honour his part in the power sharing agreement Tsvangirai announced that he and his MDC Ministers would not attend cabinet meetings. He was not withdrawing from the GNU only boycotting its cabinet meetings, he explained. Whilst many people agreed the situation demanded action, it was hard to see what this one-leg out and one-leg in posturing was meant to achieve. In typical Tsvangirai blundering and grand standing style he ended the boycott although it was clear Mugabe not conceded to any of MDC's wish-washy demands!

“I think essentially it was a good decision,” was Tsvangirai’s reply to the question whether he thought the GNU was a good idea. Even with the benefit of hindsight, he still maintains this mindboggling blunder was a good decision. History has a nasty habit of casting some individuals in a role far beyond their intellectual ability in the end they neither appreciate their critical importance nor the enormity of their failure.

“I have degrees in violence,” Mugabe has often boasted. He might as well boast, the ease with which he has been able to twist Tsvangirai round his little fingers would certainly students of violence envious where it not for the fact that the tyrant’s adversary is himself a flawed and indecisive character.

“If he (your enemy) is taking his ease, give him no rest,” wrote the Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu.

If by signing the GPA Tsvangirai thought Mugabe would end the violence and repression so that he, Tsvangirai, would take it ease; he was in for a surprise alright. Mugabe step up the violence; Tsvangirai, his MDC leaders and supporters and the ordinary Zimbabweans have beaten, harassed, arrested on one trivial charge after another. Tsvangirai has responded to it all by condemning one act of violence after another, running from one courtroom to the next to pay bail for arrested members and burying the murdered one along the way.

The reality is with all this brutal repression by Mugabe a modern day Dr Martin Luther King, in whose image Tsvangirai models himself, is spoilt for choice of subject matter on which to make his none-violence stand. Dr King must be turning in his grave to hear Tsvangirai speak. Is it no bad enough that none violence should be used an excuse for doing nothing without the pretentious proponents of the philosophy ending as the best PR the tyrants could ever wish for!

Tsvangirai’s blundering is comparable to the incompetency of Edward Montagu, the second Earl of Manchester, the General of the Parliamentary Army at the start of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell’s criticism of Earl was legendary. “His failure to pursue this war with the urgency it deserved has tried my patience and that of the hard pressed army,” Cromwell complained. “It would be better if they joined the King’s side!”

In 2008 Zimbabweans risked their very lives in voting for Tsvangirai and MDC. Mugabe was to punish them for this, as the events of April to June 2008 were to show. Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai not because the people had confidence in his ability as a leader. They voted for him because they were desperate for change.

“Mugabe would lose the election to a donkey in a free vote!” wrote Jonathan Moyo, a former Mugabe Minister of Information and party strategist, underlining the Zimbabwe electorate’s desperation.

Zimbabweans will once again risk everything to bring an end to this repressive regime that has left them economically destitute and robbed them of hope and human dignity. There will be regime change regardless of Mugabe’s continued brutality and regardless of the wasted opportunities for change by the blundering of flawed leaders like Tsvangirai.

No doubt Tsvangirai would want to attribute the demise of this Zanu PF dictatorship to none-violence political posturing. For the last thirty years the nation has endured Mugabe’s liberation war hero lectures and anti-white rhetoric. The evidence on the ground tells the truth and the exact opposite; that he never sort to liberate the nation but to replace white-colonial oppression with his own even more oppressive and corrupt regime. And so too with Tsvangirai, the world know him to be a blundering idiot who in 2008 allowed Mugabe back into State House through the back door!

After thirty years of mismanagement and rampant corruption that had resulted in a total economic melt down throwing millions of Zimbabweans out of work and poverty and thirty years of brutal repression; one had hope Tsvangirai’s sympathy would be with the people who had suffered so much. Instead Tsvangirai was concerned about the tyrant.

After thirty years of absolute power, Mugabe was finding the very thought of being kicked out so unpalatable he step up a gear the terror, rape and murder that had kept him in power in the past. When not even SADC would accept his dirty tricks to retain power; Tsvangirai signed on to the GPA just so Mugabe can stay into power.

The very fact that allowing Mugabe back into office meant extending the suffering that his rule stood for the life time of this GNU was of no consequence to Tsvangirai. He was concerned about giving Mugabe a soft landing and did not care about ending the suffering his thirty years of misrule had caused to the nation. These are the same people who had risked their very lives to vote for him whose crying he now dismisses without a second thought!

If Tsvangirai had hoped that allowing Mugabe to stay in power a few more years was going to make the tyrant more amenable to democratic change, free elections and then ultimately to regime change. Then his “soft-landing” plans could not have been more wrong. Mugabe crossed the point of no-return a long time ago when he had the thousands murdered to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship.

It was really naïve of Tsvangirai to grant Mugabe all his dictatorial powers in the GPA and still hope the tyrant would NOT use these powers to stop the very democratic changes that would spell his own political demise! Mugabe a ruthless tyrant was to preside over the dismantling of his own dictatorship – what a stupid proposition!

Mugabe has used time since the signing of the GPA to reorganise his party and secure funding for his thugs. Mugabe has no intention of accepting any democratic reforms and free elections. He intends to use violence to resist regime change. Tsvangirai can see the writing on the wall for himself and he clearly is at a loss as what to do. He has sheepishly turned to SADC to stop Mugabe.

Of course, SADC too is at a loss as what to do. SADC will never authorise boots on the ground to stop the political violence particularly in a situation where the Police, Army and CIO – Zimbabwe’s own security services – and themselves involved in the violence. Even SADC itself should have remembered what a stubborn and arrogant tyrant they were dealing with in Mugabe and, more significantly, that unlike other dictators Mugabe had too many hidden skeletons to ever allow anyone else to rule in his life time.

“It is not the survival of the King that is at issue here,” Cromwell reminded some of his confused fellow country men at one point. “It is the survival of England. And the King is not England!”
For decades Zimbabweans have been fighting to end the corruption and repression of tyrannical regime. And in 2008 the country had its best chance ever to do so and has had many more others chances besides only for these chances to be wasted. It is not giving Mugabe a soft-landing that is at issue here but giving this nation hope and its human dignity; what will it take to make idiots like Tsvangirai understand that!

Tsvangirai to tell SADC Zimbabwe's election roadmap has NOT been agreed - as if he knew where he is going!

2011-08-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

For the first two years of this GNU Tsvangirai and MDC have insisted the arrangement was "working" contrary to all the evidence on the ground. It was only in the last eight months that they finally admitted that it was not working. But instead of the party seating down and come up with a detailed plan of the way out; they turned to SADC.

“The president (Tsvangirai) has been given instructions to advise Sadc correctly that there was no agreement finalised on the roadmap,” MDC spokesman, Mwonzora says. “There were certain areas where agreements were secured. But the entire roadmap has not been agreed to because we cannot have an agreed roadmap without agreeing on the three fundamental issues of Zec staffing, security sector reform and violence.”

Why Mwonzora picked on these three issues out of a raft of other outstanding and critical issues; the new constitution, media reform, voters’ rolls, etc, etc.? MDC has not accomplished anything to advance the nation’s search for democratic reform and free elections since joining the GNU over two and half years ago. Nothing, not a single thing!

The GPA gave Mugabe all the dictatorial powers to do as he pleased and, surprise, surprise the tyrant has done just that. The GNU has given the time to reorganise his party and secure funding for yet another violent election. It was clearly all along that Mugabe would never preside over his own down fall. He had terrorise the nation, had thousands raped and hundreds murdered to ensure there would be no free and fair elections and regime change in 2008. One will have to be really naïve to believe the same tyrant will honour the GPA and preside over reforms that would result in the very thing – regime change - he murdered to stop!

“The problem in the inclusive government is that Zanu PF has not changed its old tactics!" ? Tsvangirai told a rally in Kwe Kwe recently.

We all know that and have knon that for decades! What the nation want to know is what is he, as MDC leader going to do about it? Mr Prime Minister, you and your party promised the nation "democratic change" and for all your two and half years in the inclusive government you have not changed anything. Zanu PF has continued using its old dirty tactics as if you and your MDC friends were not even there!

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends led the nation into this political mess. They knew SADC was weak and had sided with Mugabe on countless occasions. They knew the regional body’s guarantee of the GPA was worthless and are therefore using SADC as an excuse for their own failure and naivety. Tsvangirai and MDC should do the honourable thing and apologise to the nation.

Zimbabweans, for our part, must now start a serious debate to chart the way out of this mess. Tsvangirai does not know where he is let alone where he should be going; to follow him any farther is sheer madness!

Mugabe's failed attempt to stop parliament questioning Nyikayaramba's treasonous statements!

2011-07-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

MDC MPs continued to demand an explanation for Brigadier General Nyikayaramba’s treasonous threat to subvert the electoral will of the people should Mugabe lose the next elections much to the annoyance of Mugabe who ordered parliament not to discuss the matter.

It is really encouraging to see that MDC is taking the bull by the horn at long last. Mutsekwa, one of the MDC MP who has spoken out of this matter, could have made a difference in his last position as Joint Minister of Home Affairs if only he had not been napping. He seems to have finally woken up now; assuming of course that does not dose off again!

If Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not been fast asleep for the last two and half years, the country would not be in this mess! MDC have the majority in parliament but so far one would be forgiven to think that Zanu PF had total control of the august house!

“As Commander-in-Chief of the security forces, I want to make it very clear that no one should meddle with the command. Parliament cannot be Commander-in-Chief of the security forces. It has no business debating the conduct of individuals in command, let them raise that with me in appropriate forums,” Mugabe said.

It is within parliament's power and duty to demand that Nyikayaramba explain to parliament and the nation what exactly he meant with his treasonous statements. What could be more treasonous that a senior member of the security services saying he would do "anything" to subvert the electoral wish of the people.

The respect of the democratic will of the people lies at the very heart of our freedom, peace and liberty. Those seeking to undermine the express will of the people are therefore guilty of high treason. They must be hunted down and punished.

If Mugabe believes it is his duty as Command-In-Chief to discipline rogue officers; why has he not done so? These treasonous threats have been made as far back as 2002.

No one is above the law. And no one should be allowed to hide behind their public office to commit treason or protect those committing this heinous crime! Many Kings and Emperors have lost their heads literally and physically over this; Mugabe would do well to remember it!

8888

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, said the Zimbabwe economy could achieve an 11 – 15% growth rate. The economy is expected to grow by 4.7% this year and achieved much less in the past.

"Security of tenure and production is important for our agriculture, and production is still limping because of the political instability which is affecting performance of the economy," Biti said.

After years of saying the GNU is working, it is refreshing to hear some one in MDC admit that actually the GNU is NOT working.

It is not in the nature of flawed and indecisive characters like PM Morgan Tsvangirai or Finance Minister Tendai Biti to finally admit that entering the power sharing arrangement with Mugabe was a blunder and apologise to the nation who, after all, are the ones who have paid heavily politically and economically for the mistake. It was a political blunder because MDC must have expected the arrangement to produce political stability and not the opposite. If MDC did not factor in political stability in the arrangement – there is clear evidence that all MDC leaders cared about were the political posts and the perks they got – then it is even more reprehensible!

The signing of the GPA is one of the biggest political blunders in Zimbabwe’s political history. After the sham June 2008 Mugabe was on the hook because the whole international community was united in rejecting him as the legitimate head of state. By signing the GPA, MDC allow him into State House with all his previous dictatorial powers and gave him the time to reorganise secure the funds for refresh violent elections!

Minister Coltart says Mugabe is not a monster - how patronising!

2011-07-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

“This power-sharing arrangement, which has brought members of the opposition into government alongside Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party, is a very fragile set-up,” Zimbabwe’s Education Minister, David Coltart, said. “Anything could happen. But at the moment it’s working. We will inevitably go through more upsets. But things have at least stabilised.”

Soon after independence white Zimbabweans were tripping over each other is singing Mugabe's praises - they were making up for all the years of abusing blacks. I have met and known David Coltart for a long time and I would say he is a liberal white Zimbabwean but would never count him among the masses appeasing Mugabe. So why would he say this GNU, which is just a Mugabe dictatorship by another name, “is working”?

Minister Coltart joining MDC knowing fully well that the party had so much dead wood it could never be effective. Former USA Ambassador Chris Dell described Tsvangirai as a “flawed and indecisive character”; David Coltart is smart enough to have known that from the start. So given all these serious limitation within MDC anything the party does is to be applauded. The party has made so many serious blunders not least of which was getting Mugabe off the hook by forming the GNU.

Claims by MDC leaders from both sides of the MDC divide that the GNU has brought "stability" to the nation is an economic exageration and political lie!

The empty shops have filled up again since 2008 but that was the end product of scrapping the Z$ and thus putting and end to the coutnry's hype inflation which had peaked at 500 000 000%. Another world record! The Z$ was scrapped in November 2008 and the GNU was formerd in February 2009!

Mugabe and his cronies have retained control of the key resources like land, indeed the farm invasions have continued since the formation of the GNU, and economic recovery will remain a pipe dream until these resources are put back into productive use. Unemployment, which had soared to 90% in 2008 has hardly charged, 80% plus are still out of work. The political violence and lawlessness that swept the nation during the April to June 2008 presidential run-off have remained and even got worse. This is not where the nation wants to be muchless to settle and stabilise.

“No, Mugabe is no monster,” Minister Coltart said of Mugabe.

Here is the tyrant who murdered over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship. In 2008 he defied all civilised rules governing the contact of free and fair elections; millions were terrorised, thousands raped and beaten and over 500 were murdered. The scene is set for the next elections to be just as violent. What else does Mugabe have to do for you, Minister Coltart, to finally accept Mugabe for the monster he is!

Of all people Minister David Coltart knows Tsvangirai is an incompetent leader and that Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant. What the Minister is doing is bring down the performance standard so low that even an idiot like Tsvangirai can score an A+! As for tyrants like Mugabe in Africa; well they can do no wrong! None!

I wish people would stop being so damn patronising; we may be poor and ill educated but please, please, we too know when a leader is incompetent or worse still when they are a ruthless tyrant! Damn it; we are not all STUPID!

Mugabe has spent US$20.6m globetrotting so far - enough to buy anti-retroviral for half million for six months!

2011-07-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Mugabe has spent US$20.6m on travel so far this year out of a budget of $15 m. Tsvangirai and his two deputies PM have spent $3.7 m so far out of their annual budget of $5 m. According to the World Health Organisation, the money spent by these four individuals for far is enough to pay for anti-retroviral treatment for almost 600 000 people for six straight months!

Biti told Parliament a fortnight ago that civil servants’ salary increments would cost the government an extra $29 million per month, pushing the wage bill to 70 percent of government expenditure on salaries up from 45 percent.

So if government is spending 70% of its revenue in wages the rest is mopped up on foreign travels, cars for ministers, etc. It is no wonder government has no money left for other basics like food for prisoners – hundreds of prisoners are reportedly dying of starvation and medicines like anti-retroviral. So money that could be used to save 600 000 Zimbabwean lives in need of anti-retroviral treatment is being used instead to pay for the globe trotting passion of four individuals!

Parliament speakers calls for the arrest of disruptive Zanu PF mob - how naive!

2011-07-27T02:51:00.001-07:00

A Zanu PF mob disrupt parliament proceeding on Saturday 23 July 2011. The mob assaulted an MDC MP and some journalist.

Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, like many who commented soon after the disturbances, called on the police to “move with speed and take necessary measures to bring to book the sponsors and the perpetrators of the violence.”

Moyo speaks of political violence as if he has spent every hour of every day of the last three cocooned in parliament without ever listening to the radio or reading the news papers and hence was totally unaware of what has been happening.

How many incidences of political violence have taken place everyday across the country? So now that the violence is taking place in his ivory tower he calls on the Police to do something about it. Of course, the Police did nothing to stop the violence because they were waiting for Mr Moyo to tell them to act. Now that he has, all those involved will arrested and punished before the end of the week. Yes, thank you Mr Speaker, Sir!

The idiot does not even know that the Police have themselves instigated most of the violence!

The sheer incompetency and naivety of Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC ministers and leaders makes one despair. What chance does the nation have of digging itself out of this political and economic hell-hole with people like Moyo and Tsvangirai leading the fight!?

"Blacks are incapable of self rule" white supremacists said: that is set to change!

2011-07-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

“Blacks are incapable of governing themselves!” said George. That hurt so bad, I felt like he had stubbed me. And for years I felt like I was bleeding all over again each time I remember George’s words. His words have haunted me all these last 35 years; until a week ago, I rationalised to myself what he meant.

George and me were in a group of eight students on a week long camping trip in Chimanimani Mountains in Eastern Zimbabwe, Rhodesia then, just before the country’s independence in 1980. This was a mixed race trip, a novelty given that whites hardly interacted with blacks at any level other than the master – servant.

George was one of the white students and I was one of the black students. In racially divided Rhodesia the whites were the privileged class, they had everything. Blacks were more like third class citizens, exploited and denied any say in the governance of the country. The race issue was bound to come up during the camping trip for two reasons. Firstly, the chasm difference between the two races came to the fore each time the two races were brought together. And the second reason was the whites were losing the civil war and therefore everyone was talking of the changes round the corner.

The white supremacists had always demonised blacks to justify their continued repression and abuse since the slave days. No white person had ever said these things to my face but aware these things were being said. I was hurt by what George said because I liked him and he had dared said it to my face; I reasoned. The truth is; George’s words touched a raw nerve – deep down I feared that he might be right.

By the late 1970s many African countries had gained their independence only for chaos to reign supreme. Our camp was a few kilometres from the Mozambique boarder; a country that went straight from a war to end colonial rule into an equally bloody civil war pitting blacks against their fellow blacks with the defenceless civilians caught in the middle.

In Rhodesia the blacks looked forward to the end of white colonial oppression and at the same they were fearful of the country going down the same ruinous path taken by so many other independent African countries.

It did not take long for Mugabe to prove George right and confirm our worst fears. Today, after thirty years of Mugabe dictatorial rule with the national economy in total melt down, with tens of thousands murdered by the regime to establish and maintain its de facto one-party dictatorship and the rest routinely denied their basic human rights and freedoms there can be no doubt that self-governing under Mugabe was a total failure.

The white supremacists would have us believe that blacks have a low IQ and thus are incapable of self government. Nonsense!

People like Mugabe understood well enough the injustice of white colonial oppression. They are rightly regarded as liberation heroes because they fought for liberty and human dignity. It is nonsense therefore to suggest that they did not understand what justice and liberty meant before independence. These are simple concepts that do not rocket-science IQ level intellect to appreciate.

The challenge leaders like Mugabe faced was equally simple; fight white colonial oppress to restore the rule of law or to replace white colonial oppression with black oppression. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you!” we learnt from the Bible. How readily we remember this when we are the down trodden and boot is on our neck. I believe when Jesus Christ said this he was addressing those in a position to give and wearing the boot! After all laws are there to protect the weak and powerless from the strong, powerful and the lawless. The challenge then is to the strong to do to the weak what they would have the strong do to them if they were the weak.

Doing unto others as we would have them do to ourselves is not easy. It is walking the straight and narrow path.

"Having joined government and tasted the warm sweetness of power, the MDC formations no longer want elections. They want elections suspended indefinitely and their governorship extended to infinite." Mugabe said recently of his political opponents. The same of course can be said about him. Having tasted the warm sweetness of power the talk of restoring the rule of law was quickly forgotten and to extend his own and Zanu PF’s rule to infinite and those fighting to help him retain power were above the law!

What made it that much easier for a tyrant like Mugabe to establish a ruthless dictatorship is that he was surrounded by like minded individuals with no vision nor moral compass and easily enticed by promises of “the warm sweetness of power” to forget the common cause they foreswore to stand for all their lives.

To people like Mugabe and the ruling elite, the warm sweetness of power certainly turned the straight and narrow path to freedom, liberty and prosperity for all into a razor thin and impossible to travel on.

The country’s intelligentsia should have known better and thus resist the undermining of democratic institutions and rule of law by Mugabe. They did not content to go along to get along. Their lives may be better than that of the peasants and urban poor, still their lost the most economically from the economic melt down. And, certainly, the denial of freedom of expression is felt more by those who can express themselves than those who can not.

So to the down trodden masses independence has been nothing more than the replacement of one oppressive regime with another; the colour of the oppressors it is a matter of indifference to them and their suffering. Betrayed by those they are considered their liberators and abandoned by those who should have known better the masses had no choice but to resign themselves to their totalitarian rule and all that was to follow.

Decades of mismanagement, corruption and brutal repression have left many African countries with a mountain to climb economically and political to get back into the light of prosperity and liberty. When a nation elects Tsvangirai, a flawed and indecisive character, leader when a Hercules is called for; one despairs.

Tsvangirai and his MDC party are supposed to be spearheading the nation’s fight for democratic change and yet they went on to sign an agreement that effectively condoned the intimidation, rape and murders by Mugabe in the sham June 2008 presidential run-off. The agreement gave the tyrant all his dictatorial powers and in the coming elections he is set to use the same brutal trickery to deny the nation their most basic and fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country!

Mugabe’s head was on the block after the international community refused to accept him as the legitimate head of state. Mugabe’s reign of terror was finished if only Tsvangirai did not allow him to have the Lazarus moment!

The agreement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai was so base it can be compared to Oliver Cromwell granting King Charles 1 a last minute reprieve and grant him all his dictatorial powers to boot! Where would England be today?!

MDC members had the chance to redeem their past mistake of electing such incompetent leadership. What they did instead is re-elect Tsvangirai and his entire kitchen cabinet. The Zimbabwe electorate seems have blindly accepted MDC commiting the nation to God only knows what more blunders.

Still, "'Tis not too late to seek a newer world," as Lord Alfred Tennyson rightly advised.“. . . We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.“

As a black person I have to acknowledge that the white supremacists had a point; as a people we blacks have a propensity to pick the easy broad ways of the lawless tempted by the empty promises of “the warm sweetness of power” here and now. We avoid like a plague the straight and narrow path of just and humble. My contention with you George, 35 years after the camping trip, and all the other white supremacists is that blacks have certainly made a very disappointing start to self-government not because there are stupid to understand the intricacies of government but because they have sort the easy route when the only path was the straight and narrow.

Africa has had the great misfortune of having more than its fair share of tyrants like Mugabe whose love of power blinded them to the suffering of their own people. There have been visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela whose have shown that blacks can rule themselves well. The tragic suffering from years of dictatorial rule has opened the eyes of many in Africa to resist tyranny in future. Someday soon, competent, democratic and accountable governments will become the norm and not the rare exception in Africa; mark my word!

Archbishop Tutu appeals for aid to feed the starving in the horn of Africa!

2011-07-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has appealed to the international community to take action to alleviate the suffering in Somalia and other drought-stricken African countries.

This is a tragedy and all hands to the wheel and help push. Every life is worth saving. Remember, but for the grace of God, it could easily have been you!

After this is over and the hungry have been fed and returned to their homes. We in Africa need to seriously look at the question of why Africa got it so wrong – it is potentially one of the riches continents in the world and yet its people remain the poorest. This time we must not wait until the next civil war, drought, tyrant, etc. emerge and millions of lives are on the line to ask why this is so?

55555

Yes Africa's ruling elite have millions of dollars and drive the latest models of cars. I have nothing against the rich but when the wealth is made on the back of the poor from corruption and looting; my stomach turns.

6666

@Forte
If the truth be said and it must; it is the corrupt ruling elite who talk of African solution to African problem because they do not want their corrupt and repressive practises discussed. The poor and the millions starving in the horn of Africa have never said a word – they are the voiceless masses.
If those of us who can help the millions who are totally helpless and in desperate need of help fail to do so then we would have let all of them down. To punish the starving millions just to get at the ruling elite is totally illogical; they are the silent victims of the corrupt ruling elite and we are punishing them for that!

Mugabe to bring up sanctions at the next SADC meeting - a Mugabe game!

2011-07-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Mugabe will bring up the sanctions issue at the next SADC meeting in Angola, Zanu PF spokesman said.

Zanu PF has perfected the game of smokes and mirrors. They know that the targeted sanctions have had little effect even on those on the list because they had many ways of mitigating the sanctions. Mugabe and his cronies have been in and out of the West contrary to the travel ban using the loop hole of UN business, for example. Mugabe has blamed the sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down to take the heat from the real causes; years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and, in the last tens years, all-out looting. And he also wants to draw attention away from the serious human rights violations and political repression.

The ease with which Mugabe has forced the sanctions issue on the SADC agenda year after year is itself a measure of just how ease it is to fool SADC; they have yet to see through Mugabe’s cunning game!

6666

@Sooth Slayer
Who says Tsvangirai did not get 50% + 1 after the March vote? The same people who took five weeks to count the votes.

What made the run-off a sham is the political violence used by Mugabe and all observers, including SADC observers, said the result could not be a true reflection of the free will of the people. If Mugabe had any sense of shame then he would not claim to have won a sham election. The international community refused to accept him as the legitimate head of state, putting him on the hook. Tsvangirai got him off the hook by agreeing to the power sharing arrangement which has turned out to be a one-sided affair in which Mugabe has all the power. Of course Tsvangirai was stupid to get the tyrant off the hook only to be kicked in the teeth!

Mugabe has used the time since the signing of the GPA to reorganise his party’s terror machine and secure war-chest to pay for it. Tsvangirai has made half hearted attempts to push for democratic reforms with nothing to show for it.

What Tsvangirai should have done after the sham June 2008 elections is demand fresh elections there and then. Back then Mugabe was at his weakest politically and would not have risked holding another sham election with the world watching. Now, it is totally different kettle of fish; Mugabe will risk yet another sham election. The nation will have to face all the intimidation, rape, murders, etc. all over again because of Tsvangirai’s stupidity!

44444

Police and Zanu PF youth disrupt a public meeting to be addressed by the US Ambassador.

If Mugabe and his thugs can dare intimidate the US Ambassador in the centre of Harare in broad daylight; what will these thugs do in the dead of the night to the poor peasants in Zimbabwe's rural back waters!

Mugabe denying Zimbabweans free elections to extend his own rule "to infinite", to paraphrase him!

2011-07-16T04:35:00.000-07:00

"Having joined government and tasted the warm sweetness of power, the MDC formations no longer want elections. They want elections suspended indefinitely and their governorship extended to infinite." Mugabe told his Zanu PF Politburo in his push for elections to be held this year. MDC say elections the elections should be push to 2013 or 2012 at the earliest!

Well to paraphrase Mugabe; he was elected thirty years ago and having “tasted the warm sweetness of power” he no longer want free and fair elections so he can extend his own rule to life-president!

88888

It does it take three years to sort out the voters' roll and all the other reforms required for free and fair elections? No it does not!

Even if the elections were delayed by eight or twelve months to next year; what is there to make one believe the reforms would finally be carried out? None!

Whoever was responsible for making sure that democratic reforms were carried out dropped the ball. And the finger of blame points at MDC.

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were stupid to sign the GPA and having signed it they blundered further by doing nothing to push for reforms. Giving them another year will not change the fundamental fact that reform is being spear headed by blundering idiots! This is the elephant in the room that must be acknowledged first and only then will we have hope of finding the way out of this mess!

7777

The June 2008 presidential run-off were violent so violent that even the SADC and AU election observers could give the whole process a clean bill of health. So where does this talk of the process being "inclusive" come from?

After the sham June 2008 the whole international community including SADC refused to accept Mugabe as the legitimately elected head of state. The power sharing was a way out for Mugabe. Tsvangirai did not have to accept it. That was the once in a lifetime chance for Zimbabwe to end the Mugabe dictatorship and Tsvangirai blundered.

For Zimbabwe the June 2008 was a very important and significant moment comparable to fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He did not seize the moment.

Now we trust the same idiot not to blunder again if another opportunite should arise. How dumb can we be!

Tsvangirai's double talk is dangerous for Zimbabwe!

2011-07-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

“We need to mobilise against those that commit violence against us. We cannot continue to watch and fold hands when our members are being assaulted out there,” said Tsvangirai.

This is typical Tsvangirai double talk; he talks of mobilising the people against those who have who have terrorised and tormented them without saying what exactly he expects the people to do. We are not talking about a few hundred over zealous ruffians acting in isolation but hundreds of thousands of Zanu PF Youths and War Veterans; trained, coordinated and funded by Zanu PF from the sell of diamonds and through civil service pay role. These thugs have the full state machinery backing from the Police, Army, CIO and all other state security organs.

Mugabe has justified continued use of violence on the grounds that the political violence is by both his party and MDC. No doubt Mugabe will use this empty call by Tsvangirai to justify increased violence against our people.

Tsvangirai was stupid to trust Mugabe now he is extending the stupidity further!

2011-07-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Tracy Mutinhiri, a Zanu PF deputy Minister, seeks Police protection after Zanu PF thugs invade her farm. The thugs were sent by Minister Sekeramayi, a Mugabe supporter, because she is “friendly” with Prime Minister Tsvangirai.

The PM is reportedly cultivating a close relationship with other Zanu PF leaders including none other than Minister Kusukuveri, the very Minister who recruited the thousands of Zanu PF Youth thugs and has been spearheading the seizure of mines now that there are no white owned farms left in the country.

How did Mutinhiri get the farm? Has she suddenly become aware of what Zanu PF does to those considered a threat to its rule.

Reports of Tsvangirai's growing friendship with proven Zanu PF criminals is just another worrying thing about the MDC leader. He got the nation into this mess because he was stupid enough to trust Mugabe in signing the GPA and now the idiot thinks he can steal the Zanu PF thugs under Mugabe's very nose and turn them to be law abiding citizens. US Ambassador Chris Dell was right Tsvangirai is a “flawed and indecisive character” whose stupidity will extend the rule of this Zanu PF dictatorship yet again.

Bisbanding ZESA is not enough: we need a political sea change!

2011-07-10T05:11:00.000-07:00

Zimbabweans from all walks of life call for the disbanding of ZESA after years of power cuts and soaring electricity bills.

Yes ZESA has been hanging round the nation's neck like a mile stone and should have been disbanded a long time ago. In fact the nation was doing very well thank until the five or so power suppliers were melted to form ZESA.

But come to think of it; we would probably be in the same mess we are in today even if this creature "ZESA" had never existed. In other words we will still have power cuts and astronomical electricity bills even if ZESA was disbanded today.

ZESA has suffered from chronic mismanagement and corruption. Sydney Gata has been a complete disaster for ZESA; he should have never been appointed CE. As long as politicians like Mugabe can appoint cronies, his brother-in-law in this case, to run companies like ZESA (disbanded or otherwise) then the rot will continue.

We need a political sea change. Every position from the headman to State President must be filled by the person judged best able to that job on merit and not on the basis of one’s political connections or loyalty to the self serving and tyrannical political system we have in the country today.

Blog to Oppressed opprosser!

2011-07-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Just because I am a Zimbabwean and from a country led and ruined by a ruthless dictator do not mean that I therefore have nothing to say about democracy and good governance.

It is bad enough that Zimbabwe has become a failed state with tragic consequences for the people of Zimbabwe and the whole region. This must not be allowed to happen to any other country. There are worrying signs that the same could well happen to SA and it is in all our interest, South Africans and none South African alike, to make sure SA remains a beacon of democracy, stability and hope. It is in all our interest that demagogues like Mugabe, Malema and their acolytes are not given the chance to ruin our future.

Oppressed you are clearly having a tough time accepting this concept of freedom of expression. You can barely contain your anger at all the blogs on this site critical of your blinked point of view. When the criticism is from a black person; it is more than you can bear! And if that black person happened to be from Zimbabwe, your demagogue knee jerk reaction was to censor.

“What are you doing in our web-sites,” you fumed. Your web site?!

No this web site and many like it in SA and the world over belongs to all those who believe in freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas. What is a racist demagogue like you doing on our web site?

@ Oppressed

No I have never heard of a black member of the KKK. What a stupid question to ask. The KKK was a white racist organisation, so how can the organisation have black members, the very race they were out to lynch, and still remain a whites only organisation?

Mugabe has been prosecuting whites in Zimbabwe seizing their property, beating them and even murdered some. Even on the rare occasion when the laws of the land have said what Mugabe was doing was against the law, the dictator his disregarded the court rulings. Mugabe has systematically denied many Zimbabwean and South African whites and whites from other countries their basic human rights to own property, to legal protection, to life, etc. Of course the dictator will never admit he is a racist and has offered a multitude of excuses for his barbarism. The bottom line is the whites have become the scapegoats for the regime’s failed economic policies, its corruption and greedy and continued political repression.

SA’s apartheid regimes never admitted to being racist, we all know that they were. So you accession “Blacks can’t be racist!” is just what the white racist said when they had the boot on the necks of blacks. It is rhetorical nonsense that proves nothing!

@Oppressed
You sure are a racist and a nuisance. Mugabe is a racist and a nuisance, just like you. Sadly for Zimbabwe, Mugabe is in Zimbabwe and worse still in power so had the opportunity to do a lot of mischief. You are in SA and let us hope racists like you will never be in power.
“Oppressed” what a name! Oppressed by whom? Apartheid died years ago and blacks are in power and they have the choice to use that political power for the good of all or use it to oppress whites, foreigners, etc. to cover up for their own shortcomings. Just change your name to “Oppressor” and be done with it; it goes better with you being a confirmed racist!

If I am a nuisance because I am worrying South Africans of the dangers of electing racists like you into office; then I wear the label with pride! I have no intention of ever giving up my democratic right to express my views freely on this site or any other free web-site to appease a racist like you. I know this drives racists like you nuts; well that is your problem. You either get off these sites or you will be called a racist, rightly so too!

9999
There are sure powerful forces trying hard to pull SA out of the light of enlightenment back into the darkness of hatred, racism and lawlessness. I pleased to note that these forces have failed the test of democratic scrutiny. Two cheers for free press and freedom of expression!

Mugabe to press ahead with mine grab - pushing up the price to be paid in human suffering for economic recovery!

2011-07-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

“Zimbabwe could take over mines that fall short of laws requiring them to sell majority stakes to locals by September, a government minister said on Wednesday” News 24 reported.

This is crazy; the Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a staggering 84% in the six years 2002 to 2008 following the country wide seizure of white owned farms. The end result was the economic melt, mass unemployment, etc. The same Zanu PF cronies who seized the farms are now back demanding more and the have their beady eyes on the mines. There will be a significant fall in productivity in mining industry just as happened in agriculture.
The nation is desperate to see some economic recovery instead Mugabe and his cronies will bring yet another wave of negative growth. Zimbabweans are yet to realise that it was infinitely easier to get minus 84% GDP growth rate than to get positive 84% GDP growth rate. Destroying is easy, it is like pushing a stone down hill; creating something is the real challenge, it is like carrying a bolder to the top of the mountain! If Mugabe and his cronies are allowed to destroy the few companies that survived the economic melt down; this will make the task of economic recovery that much harder. This will demand even greater sacrifices in terms of human suffering and human lives!

Mugabe never won the economic argument of his BEE policies only the racism argument!

2011-07-06T06:18:00.000-07:00

As a black Zimbabwean I can honestly say that leaders like Mugabe and Tsvangirai have never had the nation's whole hearted support because one had the nagging feeling than whilst each condemned the abuses and excesses of the regime before them they nonetheless had no intention of abolishing the system but install themselves as the new lord-of-the-manor!

In 1980 Zimbabweans voted for Mugabe because they knew if Mugabe lost the civil war would continue. They were desperate to end the war. After that all they could do was hope against reason that his promise of mass prosperity would come true. Reason said that was a pipe dream and time has proved that to be so.

In 2008 Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai because they were desperate to get rid of Mugabe. After that all the people could do was hope against reason that Tsvangirai would deliver the democratic change he promised. Reason said it would take a visionary and determined leader to end a deeply entrenched dictatorship and deliver lasting democratic change. Tsvangirai, a blundering idiot, would never achieve such a feat! Time has once again proved reason right, twelve years MDC blundering have achieved nothing.

We always seem to marry in a great hurry and regret at leisure. But to make matters worse, having pick our leaders we elevate them to such nauseating height little wonder they assume the mentor of infallibility.

5555

Black racists like Mugabe and Malema's economic prosperity ethos are founded on one simple argument i.e. “The whites are rich because of the years of white racist policies. Now that the blacks have political power; they should not shy away from using the same racist policies in reverse to enrich the impoverished blacks!”

The knee jerk response from the white was to deny that white racism and apartheid ever existed. This was a gift to Mugabe and his propagandists; they have gained a lot of mileage from this.

A second sector of whites attributed their economic wealth purely to “hard work”. Of course people like Mugabe would attribute their success to the political system that allowed them because of the colour of their skin to have a leg-up from the day they are born at the expense of the blacks.

The truth of the matter is the whites’ economic prosperity can be attributed to both hard work and help from the racist system, a third sector acknowledge that much. Mugabe and Malema would argue that all they are advocating for is that the blacks should be given the leg-up too!

Sadly the time, energy and expense expended in the above has left most people exhausted to consider the really important point in this argument and thus allow demagogues like Mugabe to claim having made the home-run. The clinching argument here is that racist policies at best will benefit a few at the expense of the majority and at worst the overwhelming majority will be thrown into a life of abject poverty and despair whilst a marginal few squander the nation’s wealth away on trivia.

Where as white racist policies encourage hard work amongst the white beneficiaries of the system and thus the nation prospered economically. The greatest weaken of white racism was that the national wealth was not shared fairly. Mugabe’s black empowerment is thinly disguised corruption and looting and all those taking part know nothing about generating wealth only how to spend it! The Zimbabwe economy has declined under Mugabe, going into total melt down following the country wide seizure of white owned farms.

Mugabe was able to carryout his ruinous black racist policies not because he won the all important economic argument against them but because he won the side issue of race which is of no real consequence.

999

@Oppressed The question you should be asking is whether the nation as a whole thrived or suffered under any form of discrimination? The answer has to be no and so why is SA matching down that route again of black racism?

"Regime change" is an essential by product of free election - not some dirty phase!

2011-07-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

Professor Jonathan Moyo may be a “serial political turncoat” as Thelma Chikwanha said; still he is raising a very important question here. Is President Zuma aiding the West’s “regime change agenda” in Zimbabwe?

It is a simple enough question and one President Zuma’s Chief Adviser Lindiwe Zulu should answer. For her to dismiss Moyo as distraction just because he is not in Zanu PF’s negotiating team is a feeble attempt to avoid answering the question.

Mugabe recalled Moyo “from the (political) abyss to the Party” as Morrison Makuvastine rightly pointed out because he is a shrewd strategist. Who would have thought Mugabe would do such a thing after all Moyo had said and done; describing Mugabe as “unelectable he could lose to a donkey”, the Tsholotsho “coup” of 2004, etc. Mugabe had to put his huge ego aside and recall Moyo because if it was not for the Professor Mugabe would have certainly lost the 2000 and 2002 elections. The forthcoming elections are going to be the toughest ever and Mugabe will need all the shrewd strategists he can get.

“Mugabe made a mistake (in appointing Moyo)”, Makuvastine said. Well you could not be more wrong!

Mss Zulu is wrong in dismissing Moyo because, although he is not in Zanu PF’s negotiating team, what he says counts. Chimenasa and the rest of his team might just as well be taking direct instructions from Moyo particularly after the Zanu PF team was roundly criticised for giving in to security sector and other key reforms during the last GPA talks.

In Zanu PF we have a political party that now firmly believes that they have the right to use all means necessary including intimidation, rape and murder to ensure elections do not result in regime change. Sadly SADC, the South African facilitating team and much less MDC have all shied away from addressing this point head on.

Elections are not some meaningless ritual nations have to perform every so many years. Elections are the very heart of what distinguishes us humans from all the other creatures; our rights and freedoms. Every human being has a right to a meaningful say in the governance of his or her country is just as important as the right to life!

Indeed when hundreds of thousands of our people have been murdered for no other reason other than that they dared demand free and fair elections and a meaningful vote it goes to show that the denial of one right or freedom has always resulted in the denial of all the other rights and freedoms.

Elections are always a gladiatorial affairs between those in power and those challenging to take their place in which the electorate are the arbiters whose vote will decide the winner. Like every other contest, there must be rules governing the contact elections stating what all the participants can and can not do. The use of violence against the opposition and the electorate, for example, is unacceptable. Elections should be gladiatorial clash of ideas not Police batons hitting innocent and defenceless people as has become the norm in Zimbabwe. Of course it is right that there should be Police reforms to end this outrage.

Freedom of expression and free press gives the citizens to opportunity to question and criticise those exercising political power on their behalf. Elections gives the citizens the chance to replace, if they so wish, to replace those to hold public office. Yes one can call it “regime change” because that is what it is and there is nothing wrong with it.

Mugabe became Prime Minister and the Executive President of Zimbabwe in April 1980 and has remained in office to this day, over thirty years! In that time USA has had six presidents and Britain other democratic nations have had a similar change of leaders.

It is the democratic nations’ ability to hold meaningful competition and to change leaders that is behind their dynamism and prosperity. Zimbabwe like all nations is which tyrants have stifled debate and change has suffered from stagnation and rot.
Regime change is not a dirty phase as Mugabe, Moyo and the rest in Zanu PF would have us believe. It is the only way out of a political stagnation, years of corruption and economic melt down and the only way to restore the dignity and hope of the people of Zimbabwe. Using violence and other repressive means to frustrate the electorate’s democratic wishes is treason and serious crime against humanity. People like Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and now Lindiwe Zulu have repeatedly shied away from taking a bold and unequivocal stand against Mugabe’s lies and bullying tactics and thus failed the people of Zimbabwe!

A bastard is a bastard regardless of the missionary and University education he received.

2011-07-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

@Hilbert

I do not agree with your statement "democracy only works if the majority is educated".

There are more educated people in Zimbabwe or South Africa today than there were in 1774 America or in Greece during its Golden Age. Democracy thrived in the latter two countries and in SA the flame of democracy is being buffeted by gale force winds. In Zimbabwe, the flame was snuffed out the very day Mugabe and Zanu PF assumed office. Mugabe has seven University degrees not counting the numerous honorary degrees bestowed on him and yet he has turned out to be an ignoramus, devoid of any common sense, and heartless tyrant.

If we take Mugabe as our case study then it proves the exact opposite. He was a bastard before all the quality missionary education and the numerous University Degrees he obtained from some of the highly regarded institutions of learning. At the end of it all he was still a bastard. So capped or not a bastard is a bastard is a bastard!

33333

CCJP supported those fighting to end white racism and Mugabe, then, was leading that charge and so yes, CCJP supported Mugabe. Since independence Mugabe has changed to become a ruthless tyrant. CCJP have never changed, their compass needle has continued to point true North, and they have been critical of Mugabe's abuse of power. CCJP was one of the organisations to condemn and document Mugabe's murders in the mid 1980s, for example. Yes some Catholic Priests have had a shamefully cosy relationship with the dictator; still it would be hasty to say one should not trust the Roman Catholic because of that.

77777

Chaminuka

As a Zimbabwean myself I am getting sick and tired of hearing Zimbabweans castigating SADC and President Zuma for doing nothing to end the madness in Zimbabwe in one breath. And then in the next breath praise Tsvangirai and MDC to the rafters for doing nothing!

If the idiot, Tsvangirai, had not signed the GPA, against the deafening chorus of advice not to, we would not be in this mess. As if that not bad enough; for the first two years of the GNU Tsvangirai never tired of telling us all that the arrangement was “working”. Whenever things have become unbearable the idiot has turned to SADC to sort things out. Why? Because he and his MDC friends do not have the foggiest idea what to do; they had no plan “B” when they signed the GPA and they still have no plan “B” now that it is self evident the GPA has failed.

Even if President Zuma acted and somehow had Mugabe removed, that will not stop the madness because another dictator will emerge to take his place. Tsvangirai, like many other Zimbabweans, believes Zimbabwe will revert to rule of law, economic prosperity, etc. if remove Mugabe, Chihuri and three or four others were removed. He is naïve, of course. There is a lot more to the Zanu PF dictatorship than top leaders, besides the juggernaut has gathered so much momentum to be stopped at the drop of a hat by anyone.

The very best SADC can do for Zimbabwe is force Mugabe to give up power; they may even hand the presidency to Tsvangirai in a silver platter but, sadly, they is nothing they can do to stop some one else in Zanu PF seizing power from Tsvangirai. The latter is just too feeble and naïve; a fact Zimbabweans have been to proud to acknowledge and address!

Simpleton B-General Nyikayaramba shooting himself in a bide to stop regime change!

2011-06-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

This is a sick joke: Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba is telling us the Police, Army, CIO and other Security Agents are protection “our national security interests” by intimidating, raping and murdering our people. What other national interests could these be, more valuable than safe guarding the people’s basic human rights including the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life itself!

The Brigadier-General is restating the tyrants’ code: “Mighty is right!” and then offering a feeble excuse to justify it. He is justifying the brutalisation of a whole nation denying the people a meaningful vote to stop them voting for Tsvangirai because he is a puppet of the West."He takes instructions from foreigners who seek to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe,” the Brigadier-General says. We have all heard that one before.MDC was formed twelve years ago and ever since the innuendoes of Tsvangirai being a puppet have never stopped. Why has he not been brought before a court of law charged and convicted?

The late Edgar Tekere was accused of being a “counter revolutionary” and he and his supporters were haunted. The same happened to the late Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu supporters. Tens of thousands of his supporters were murdered to establish the de facto one-party Zanu PF dictatorship.

After thirty years of absolute power this Mugabe-Zanu PF dictatorship has proven once again that mighty is not right. Thirty years of corruption and looting has destroyed the national economy so that basic services like health and education have collapse throwing millions into abject poverty. That is not right!

The people are desperate for change. It is the people of Zimbabwe who want to effect regime change not some imaginary “foreigners”. After thirty years of this repressive rule the cup is full and over flowing. No amount of intimidation, rape and murder is going to stop regime change in Zimbabwe. Indeed that should have happened in 2008 was it not for Tsvangirai’s blundering.

After the sham 2008 presidential run-off most international community took a principled stand not to recognise Mugabe as the legitimately elected head of state. It was clear to Mugabe and some of his cronies that the game was up. None of them believed Tsvangirai would be that stupid to let them off the hook. And for what, the most one sided power sharing agreement ever!

Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba is reaffirming that the Zanu PF dictatorship will use the same brutal tactics to secure another Mugabe and Zanu PF victory in the next elections. The party decided to retain power at all cost years ago, the dye was cast then; it is too late to change now. The reality now is regime change is coming regardless; not even Tsvangirai would be that stupid as to Mugabe off the hook again!

Zanu PF MP, Edward Raradza told his listeners at a public rally, “Jesus beat people in the temple, so we are not the first ones to beat (people),” he said. When the devil starts (mis)quoting the scriptures for his purpose, he must be really desperate.
Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple because they were turning it into “a den of thieves”. What Raradza is suggesting is the money changers driving the worshippers out of the temple so they can turn it into a den of thieves for all time. Mugabe and his cronies may have turned Zimbabwe into a den of thieves and deny the people hope and dignity for thirty years but that is not to say it was right or that things must remain so.

MP Raradza, Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba and a few others are die-hard Mugabe supporters desperately trying to stop something as inevitable as day following night. We should be on our guard, desperate men do desperate things; we must keep a detailed record of their machinations. Smarter Zanu PF cronies know change is coming and they have started distancing themselves from the party’s brutal activities; it is the simpletons like Raradza and Nyikayaramba who will be ones left carrying the bag and the blame!

Dr King said blacks' freedom is “inextricably bound” to that of the white - so it is!

2011-06-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

There are many admirable and inspiring things in Dr Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Washington but one of those is his total grasp of urgency of a solution NOW. Not next generation, next year – NOW!

“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality,” said King.

“ … This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. …. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” Argued King in total contrast to many of Africa’s failed leaders who have argued that the fight for freedom, justice and human dignity is “not an event but a process” to justify their failure to deliver.

Dictators like Mugabe have turned from being champions of justice and freedom to the worst violators human rights and freedoms. They have tramped on these freedoms and rights because only the capitalists and their petty bourgeois friends are concerned and benefit from these rights. They are serving the masses whose concerns are putting food on their table and a roof over their heads. This is false choice these tyrants present because political and economic rights are not mutually exclusive. Indeed one can even say deny a person their political rights and everything else they have is yours to do as you please including their very life!

The other great thing about Dr King was his vision; he skilfully guided the blacks away from hating those who hurt them.

“The marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people,” advised Dr King, “for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

Tyrants like Mugabe have presented the evils whites racists inflicted on the blacks as not just as incurable and festering wounds but worse still that the whites are forever looking for every opportunity to inflict fresh wounds and therefore blacks must be on their guard at all times! Whatever he has done including the systematic denial of our people’s basic human rights and dignity it was for one principle purpose; to hit black at the whites and/or safe guard the independence and sovereignty of Zimbabwe. He has been quick to label his fellow black critics and opponents, white-man’s puppets, are thus has had no qualms them their human rights including the right to life!

Tyrants like Mugabe have hidden their continued human rights violation of millions of our people behind the smoke screen of fighting and hurting the whites. We should have never allowed Mugabe to deny whites their right to own property because that was the slippery slope that led to blacks being their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and ultimately to thousands losing their right to life.

Recently Mugabe has taken to blaming the whites for his failed economic policies and corrupt rule. The West has stopped the WB and IMF lending money to Zimbabwe, for example, as punishment for seizing land from the white farmers, he claims. He does not say that Zimbabwe is already up to her ears in debt to the two international institutions, amongst others; debts the country was failing to service. Mugabe is bitter the two would not give him the money regardless his failure to repay; no one would do that.

Dr King was right, the freedom of blacks is “inextricably bound” to the freedom of whites. Who have guessed that a black tyrant would drag the whole nation into the dark ages in the name of punishing the whites!