Swaziland Teachers demand democratic reform from King Swati: Mugabe placates Zimbabweans teachers with platitudes!

The Swaziland’s King Swati III did not meet the country’s Teachers Union Representatives. The king sent his adviser instead and the message from the union leaders was simple enough "We told him we want a transitional government and multiparty democracy," Muzi Mhlanga, the Union Leader reportedly told the adviser. The Swazi Unionists have reportedly called for public protests next week to press their demands for political reform. "The king is pleading that we cancel this thing (public protest). We told him (the adviser) it would be difficult because the decision has already been taken by our members," concluded Mhlanga. What a refreshing and stunning contrast to what happened in Zimbabwe! On Wednesday 6 April 2011 the Zimbabwe dictator, Robert Mugabe, granted the Progressive Teacher Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) a once in a life time audience – face to face with the tyrant. The meeting was to address the teachers’ demands for a living wage and the dictator, after expressing his usual concern and sympathy (shedding the usual crocodile tears) sent the teachers away with a promise of a minimum wage of US$251 – half what the teachers were asking for. The dictator did not say where the money would come from given that the national economic has shown no signs of recovery following the total economic melt down of 2002 to 2008. In the six year period the national economy shrunk by a staggering 84% fuelled by the world record inflation rate picking at over 5 000 000 000% and the total collapse of the agricultural sector following the looting of white owned farms by Mugabe and his loyalists. The scrapping of the Z$ in late 2008 brought down inflation to single digit percentage figures over night and a considerable measure of economic sanity. Unfortunately the farms have remained idle and the lawlessness has continued making it impossible for the much hoped for economic recovery to take place. Mugabe has his excuse why teachers, like the rest of the nation, were poor – West imposed sanctions! “Mr President, Sir; are you blaming the collapse of Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector on the West too?” one PTUZ should have asked. “Mr President, Sir; the country earning millions of dollars from the sell of Marange diamonds but none of the money is received by central government. Are you blaming the West for this too?” a second one should have followed up. Of course none of the PTUZ asked any obvious questions. They were there to ask for wage increase and they must have agonised forever to ever ask that. In 2008, just before the elections, Mugabe granted teachers and other public workers a 700% pay rise. Given the country’s hyper inflation at the time, the salary increase only served to fuel spike in flation. Many people have been asking whether Sub-Sahara Africa will stage public protest demanding democratic reform in any sustainable way as happened in North Africa and some Arab countries. In Swaziland, may be. If the performance of Mr Oswald Madziva and his PTUZ is anything to go by, Zimbabwe is not ready!

Mugabe using pre 1980 murders to boost his image: he has murdered 10 000s since!

The Mugabe controlled public media is giving the story of pre-independence mass murders widespread coverage and reminding the nation and the world at large of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s heroic role in Zimbabwe’s fight to end white colonial rule and independence. If the bodies being exhumed in Mount Darwin are those of victims of White Colonial repression – this regime’s failure to have professionals to do this task and establish conclusively who the victims are and when they were killed casts a shadow of doubt on the regime’s claim that they are indeed pre-independence and not post-independence – then the matter must be treated with the reverence it rightly deserve. What Mugabe must be told in no uncertain terms that his dismissal of post-independence political harassments, beatings, rapes and murders committed mainly by his own party supporters for his political gains as if the victims are not important is not acceptable. Indeed these post-independence political violence and murders are happening everyday right across the country. We must discuss the on-going violence with the urgency it rightly deserved and serve one more Zimbabwean from abuse and serve one more Zimbabwean life! After independence Zimbabwe should have had a Peace and Reconciliation Commission, similar to that headed by Archbishop Tutu in SA, with a brief to establish the truth and extend of the human rights violations by all the parties to the conflict. It was a great pity that the post-independence regime of Mugabe did not have the vision to set up such a Commission because it would have established precedence that all human rights violations will be thoroughly investigated and those responsible called to account. The skeletons being exhumed from Mount Darwin now should remind us all that the horrors of pre-independence era were never dealt with and closed properly and are now back to haunt us. Again, assuming these are victims of that period. Whatever happens now the post-independence human rights violations must be thoroughly investigated with a view not just to establish the truth but also to punish those responsible. The war of independence was to stop the white ill treating our people. Mugabe and Zanu PF can be forgiven for failing to deliver “gutsa ruzhinji” - mass economic prosperity. One can even forgive them for the sheer incompetency and mindless greed that have resulted in Zimbabwe’s total economic melt down with the tragic human suffering there for all to see. The one thing Zimbabweans must not forget nor forgive Mugabe and his cronies for is that after 1980 one Zimbabweans should have been treated the same way the whites had treated us. The Mugabe regime has denied Zimbabweans their basic human rights and freedoms; harassed, beaten, raped and terrorised millions and murdered tens of thousands. Mugabe is giving widespread coverage of the exhumation of the pre-independence human rights violations in the government controlled media for the sore purpose of reminding everyone of his and Zanu PF’s heroic role during that struggle. The irony is that all these victims died fighting for blacks to enjoy basic human rights including the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country and yet Mugabe has already murdered tens of thousands of Zimbabweans in the thirty years since independence to deny Zimbabweans these very rights! 77777 President Zuma has reportedly told Harare that the quite diplomacy is “dead”. At last the kid gloves are off and Mugabe will be treated like the ruthless tyrant he is. The "erratic and disaster-prone" insult did open President Zuma's eyes. Of course Zimbabwe would not have sunk this deep in the mud if President Zuma had been firm with Mugabe from the start. So yes, President Zuma has been erratic in his handling of Zimbabwe turning a very bad situation into a disaster. And so yes, Mugabe was right to call him “erratic and disaster-prone”. Even a totally discredited and irrational monster like Mugabe does speak the truth, insult or otherwise, on the odd occasion! SA remained resolute in enforcing the conditions of the Global Political Agreement whatever the difficulties; Minister Nkoana-Mashabane tells us! Well that is a new one. The GPA was signed two years ago and Mugabe has flouted the word and spirit of the agreement again and again in that period. The political violence and lawlessness, at the very heart of the GPA, have continued unabated and even stepped up a gear or two. Why has SA done nothing to stop Mugabe for two years? No, SA has decide to abandon quite diplomacy with Harare because Mugabe had the obesity to insult President Zuma, period. Please do not insult our intelligence with blatant lies of SA’s past resolute commitment to the GPA when we all know SA did not care a damn about the GPA or the suffering masses in Zimbabwe!

Mugabe calls President Zuma "erratic and disaster-prone": an eye-opener for Zuma!

Mugabe tries but fails to distance himself from spat of calling President Zuma “erratic and disaster-prone”. The same individual now writing to say the views expressed in the Sunday Mail were NOT those of Mugabe is the one who authorised the scathing Sunday Mail articles. Indeed it is quite possible he is the one who actually penned at least one of the articles. The Sunday Mail articles followed hot on the heels of Mugabe’s own statement to his party critical of SADC who had slapped him on the wrist over escalating political violence in Zimbabwe. "We are a sovereign country. Even our neighbours cannot dictate to us. We will resist that," said Mugabe. SADC leaders and President Zuma in particular have allowed Mugabe to rid rough shod over the people of Zimbabwe. They all completely ignored the cries of the people and the tragic the suffering the tyrant was causing. Now Mugabe is treating SADC leaders with his contemptuous arrogance. After all President Zuma has done to keep the Zimbabwe tyrant in power the last thing the SA leader expected was a insult for a thank you! As a Zimbabwean who has suffered all manner of abuse from the tyrant it is hard to sympathise with President Zuma! Indeed I really hope the insults will be the eye-opener to President Zuma and SADC so they now see Mugabe for the monster he is and to spur them to rein him in.

How cynical that tyrants like Mugabe hid behind sovereignty the one thing he robbed the nation of!

Liberty "Sovereignty refers to power to govern oneself," you say? By oneself- singular- you must be referring to individuals like Mugabe because that is exactly what has happened in Zimbabwe. For thirty years Mugabe has systematically denied ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country by undermining the country’s democratic institutions, rigging elections, terrorising the electorate and would be political opponents, etc. In 2008 the tyrant took the repression to a new frightening level by getting the politicised Police, Army, CIO and other State Security organs to play an active role in the political repression. In the past these organs had turned a blind eye to Zanu PF inspired political shenanigans. The Zimbabwe Republic Police, National Army, CIO, etc are now actively involved in the beating, raping and murder of Zanu PF political opponents! We have more than political violence in Zimbabwe; we institutionalised violence just as we had institutionalised racism before independence. To who are the people supposed to turn for help if those sworn to protect them are they ones abusing them? The right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country, the right to life, etc. these are universal rights. And when these rights are being denied, the whole world has a moral duty to demand that this should stop. How cynical that tyrants should defend their continued brutal repression by claiming whatever they are doing are internal matters in which outsiders have no right to intervene. To do so is an affront on the nation’s independence and sovereignty - the very things the tyrants robbed from the people and nation! 9999999 It is hard to take SADC serious. Zimbabwe does not need SADC to "assist" her to hold free and fair elections. Everyone knows what is required. The problem is free and fair elections will result in regime change and THAT is something Mugabe and Zanu PF simply will not tolerate. SADC, if it really wanted to assist, should come up with guidelines on how to make regime change palatable to Mugabe. 7788888 Cote d’Ivoire has paid a heavy price economically and in human suffering and lives for Laurent Gbagbo’s stubbornness and greed. Now that he has been finally cornered he must be punished like the rat that he is! Cote d’Ivoire and the whole world have to sent a clear message to tyrants and would be tyrants that they will be called to account for their greed and brutal abuse of power! 8888 Paul Whelan Tsvangirai was desperate to hold some position of power and authority in Zimbabwe, so desperate that he willingly betrayed the most basic human values of freedom, liberty, and human dignity including the respect of human lives for it. Mugabe knew that and that was why the dictator demanded so much for himself out of the GPA. As long as he offered Tsvangirai the position of Prime Minister – even all meaningful power and authority taken away – he knew Tsvangirai would accept it. There was really nothing that Tsvangirai could have possibly accomplished as PM given that he had no power or authority to do anything! Tsvangirai talked himself into signing the GPA not because there were no other options open for him. The most logical option for him was to refuse to go into any form of power sharing or coalition with someone who had been so ruthless and brutal in denying the people their basic right in having a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The whole international community had already said they would not recognise Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s legitimate head of state. Mugabe had to either accept electoral defeat or face fresh elections in which he would not dare use violence again. It was Mugabe not Tsvangirai who was on the hook. Even if one was to accept the far-fetched idea that Tsvangirai wanted to give Mugabe a “soft landing” by agreeing to a power sharing arrangement with the losing tyrant; but did he have to give the loser all his dictatorial powers too? After two years of pretending the GNU was working, poor Tsvangirai has finally acknowledged that it is not working. But instead of thinking out a way out he is turning to SADC under the pretence that it is the regional body’s sole responsibility to get Zimbabwe out of this mess. He is so devoid of ideas; he could not even say what he expected SADC to do! U S Ambassador Dell was absolutely right is describing Tsvangirai as a “flawed and indecisive character” in his report back to Washington. Of course, the Ambassador was right; only a flawed leader would sign such a blatantly flawed agreement. But more significantly Paul, Zimbabweans have to realise that if they are serious about ending the tragic situation in the country then they must find quality leaders to deal with the cunning tyrant, Mugabe. 777777 Chimbido It would be wrong to even suggest that Tsvangirai was under any form of pressure to sign the GPA. It is true that before and during the sham 2008 presidential run-off elections Mugabe and his thugs were on a war footing; harassing, terrorizing and beating MDC leaders and supporters including Tsvangirai himself. When the election results were declared on the 27 June 2008, Mugabe called off his dogs. For one thing Mugabe did not have the money to continue paying his thugs but more significantly after 27 June he was keen to present himself to the world as an honourable statesman. Tsvangirai signed the GPA out of sheer stupidity on his part!

Mugabe defies SADC accusing them of interfering!

"We are a sovereign state and as a sovereign state we don't accept any interference and even our neighbours should not tell us what to do," said Mugabe. That was the dictator’s response to SADC criticism of Zimbabwe’s GNU’s failure to implement the GPA. Mugabe has always defied SADC, there is nothing new in that. The problem here is that we have very naive leaders, especially PM Tsvangirai and his friends in MDC, who are naive enough to pin all their hopes on some day SADC reining in Mugabe. The same individuals have again and again denounced SADC as a toothless dog and very good reason too- SADC is toothless. Yet they again and again knock on SADC’s door for help. Tsvangirai was warned the GPA was unworkable but he signed it anywhere because he could not think of what else to do. Now events have proven beyond all doubt that the GPA was unworkable but once again Tsvangirai does not know what to do. He did not have a plan “B” two years ago and still has none today. All he can think of is wave the SADC guarantee of the GPA which he knew was not worth the paper it was written on. This is the politics of despair and helplessness; the politics of those who have run out of ideas. We all realise that Mugabe is at the very heart of all Zimbabwe’s problems and that nothing will be achieved as long as he remains in power. So removing Mugabe is the nation’s top priority. We must also accept that in the last ten years the nation had numerous opportunities to remove Mugabe but this did not happen because Tsvangirai and MDC failed to seize these opportunities. If we are ever going to remove Mugabe then we must select competent leaders to do it; Tsvangirai is not man enough for this task!

There would be no crisis in Zimbabwe if expressed free wish of the electorate was honoured!

"Elections in Zimbabwe will not resolve the crisis," said James Muzondidya, research manager for the Zimbabwe Institute, which is a political advocacy organisation. On the contrary, elections will resolve the political crisis in the country. In fact there would be no crisis if after the elections the loser had accepted the verdict of the electorate. So the crisis started with Mugabe refusing to accept that he lost the elections and using violence to force the electorate to vote for him. Of course that is not acceptable and should have been rejected outright. SADC and more so MDC accept this nonsense thus compounding the situation. The winner-takes-all electoral system has its strengths, notable result in a strong government capable of making tough decisions. What Zimbabwe needs to get out of this mess is a just that – a decisive government. This is the first time I have heard anyone liken the GPA to a “cease fire agreement”. It was clear even before the parties signed the agreement that this was a one sided arrangement in which Mugabe retained all his dictatorial powers and MDC had no real political power. Tsvangirai was warned of this but, of course, he would not listen. He mind was set on being PM and nothing was going to stop him; not even the growing evidence that he would be nothing more than a glorified office-boy! If the GPA was a cease fire agreement then it was one in which the one with the weapons was allowed to continue firing and his defenceless opponents were to stop firing weapons he never had in the first place. The trouble with organisations like the Zimbabwe Institute, if James’ views above are indeed those of the Institute, is that they are trying to come up with theories to accommodate Mugabe’s erroneous position. As far as the Zimbabwe tyrant is concerned free and fair national elections are acceptable provided they never ever result in REGIME CHANGE. Mention regime change and Mugabe goes nuts! And so he should; he does not want the world to know the whole truth of the corruption and looting that has been going on and then there is the even more serious matter of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans his regime murdered. Still he must go; it is intolerable that after thirty years of this brutal dictatorship the nation have to suffer another day more whilst he hides from his sinful past. Mr Mugabe, the purpose of free and fair elections is to grant the electorate the opportunity, if they so wish, to effect regime change. What people like James are trying to rationalise Mugabe’s refusal ending up with this nonsensical theory offering both free and fair elections and no regime change! Zimbabweans want and deserve free and fair elections and have a right to have regime change, if that is their wish, period! And they will!

Zimbabwe's GNU holds special cabinet meeting but, as usual, are tight-lipped on what was discussed!

There was a Special cabinet meeting on Thursday 24 March 2011 supposedly to discuss the increasing cases of politically motivated violence. A situation that has forced Tsvangirai to finally, finally admit the GNU is not working. But when journalists tried to find out what cabinet had discussed no one was willing to talk. Members from all the three parties to the GNU are “tight lipped” as usual.

When it comes to keeping the Zimbabwe public in the dark as to what those in positions of power and authority are doing this is the one thing all the parties in this GNU have observed without failure. Of course this is something Mugabe and Zanu PF have done ever since the tyrant first got into power in 1980. There is no evidence to show that the tyrant did any arm twisting of Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to get them to adopt the same political ethos of stonewall silence.

There are two issues at play here regarding this universal accepted position of Zimbabwe’s political leaders of keeping the public in the dark on everything which goes beyond the usual need to keep State secrets is:
1) The deep seated contempt with which the leaders treat the ordinary people. The leaders really believe that they not only know best but worse still that the public can not be trusted with even the most basic information. They will all tell you they subscribe to freedom of expression, free flow of information, free press, etc. Yes they believe that to be a basic human right for the rest of mankind it is just that they do not believe their own people are quite ready to enjoy that right.

In the GPA Tsvangirai complained about the torrent of abusive he and his party have been subjected to in the Mugabe and Zanu PF controlled public media. He demanded that the abuse should stop. He said nothing about ending government control of the public media and thus freeing it to carry out its true function of informing and educating the Zimbabwean public.

2) And then, of course, if the public do not know what the leaders are doing, they can never ever hold the later to account for anything!

Across the political divide Zimbabwe’s leaders really find the very idea of being held accountable by the public revolting. The few occasions the public have had to pronounce some form judgement over the leaders; the latter have loathed it. Indeed tyrants like Mugabe have taken the rejection by the electorate as a personal insult in which he felt justified to systematic denial of the people’s basic rights and freedoms including the right to life.

In many ways the all country’s social, political and economic problems revolts round this key issue of information: the public can not meaningful hold the nation’s leaders to account because they are ill informed and as long as they remain ill informed the leaders will do their best to maintain the status quo. For all their pretence to seeking democratic change in Zimbabwe Tsvangirai and MDC are as determined as Mugabe in remaining tight-lipped and keep the public ignorant!

There is one thing can say with complete confidence; this is not a chicken and egg situation – of course the politicians would want to create the illusion that it is – we know we have a right to know and thus must demand that there be free flow of information!

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Zimbabwe’s First Lady is reportedly trying to get her US$1 million from a Chinese businessman who conned her over truck import venture.

Where did she get the US$1 million in the first place? What does she know about the truck business anywhere? Not that any of the answers matter a great deal to the new rich in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. So she was conned but she will not lose sleep over it, it is after all chicken feed to her. There is plenty more money where that came from.

Now that this the looters are in power and control most of the nation's wealth it will be a up hill fight to get them to give up any of it!

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Tsvangirai was out visiting SADC Heads of State asking them to help although it is common knowledge that SADC is a toothless dog when it comes to good governance issues! So the Z C Coalition too has joined the Tsvangirai entourage of busy bodies. One would think at least one of the 350 organisations would be led by some one with some grey stuff between their ears! What a waste of space!