"Doctors are negotiating in bad faith" says Chiwenga - have you ever done anything otherwise N Garikai

”Following a series of meetings involving striking Health Workers and their employer, the Health Services Board, Government is gravely concerned that the situation in our country continues to deteriorate to the detriment of patients who need and deserve medical attention as a human right in line with our constitution," said VP Chiwenga.

The sheer hypocrisy of that statement has a stench worse than that of a skunk! 

It is no secret that Zimbabwe’s ruling elite have been going to SA, Singapore and some such places for all their health needs because the country’s health care services have all but collapsed a long time ago. 

VP Chiwenga, yes am I talking to you Sir! A few months ago you were in hospital; it was not a hospital in Zimbabwe. None of the junior doctors you are blaming now for ignoring the patients’ needs were on strike then. 

It is the 38 years of poor funding that caused the collapse of our health care service. And it is you Sir and your fellow Zanu PF leaders who are to blame for these years of neglect!

"Government is disturbed by the fact that in spite of many concessions it made to the striking doctors, and the broad agreement reached on all but two issues, the striking Health Personnel continue to withhold their labour and negotiate in bad faith even though they are designated as an essential service under the Labour Act, and even though Government has bent over backwards to accommodate them," he said. 

You are begrudging the striking junior doctors a living wage and yet you and your family live in unparalleled comfort and luxury. These doctors are being paid a misery $385 per month in a country where the poverty datum line is $650 per month! You, Sir live in your C&M palatial mansion, have a fleet of posh cars, many business interests, farms, have 45 gold watches, etc. And, lest we forget, each time you and your family needs health service you seek it outside Zimbabwe - at tax payers’ expense, no doubt! 

The government has already “fired” the striking doctors following a hurried Court Order that declared the strike unlawful. The whole legal process was so hurried, doctors did not even have an opportunity to have their legal representative. Not that it would have made any difference to the Court’s decision, of course. 

The reader will remember that this is the same Judiciary that judged the infamous 2017 military coup as “legal, constitutional and justified”! The coup was led by none other than VP Chiwenga and President Mnangagwa themselves. Zimbabwe is the only nation on earth where a military coup is constitutional! (No doubt if Mnangagwa was ever to catch anyone staging a coup on him, he/she will be lynched! Meanwhile he has reportedly doubled his security details following bomb threat on him last June!)

Following a Con-Court challenge of last July’s elections results, the same “wise” Judges rejected all the evidence submitted by plaintiff, Nelson Chamisa, and the chief defendant, ZEC. The evidence confirmed what EU and other election observers stated in their reports.

“Further, the electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission final report. 

“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

Signed affidavits from both Chamisa and ZEC confirmed there was no verified voters and that some of the V11 forms (summary of the vote count for each polling station) were missing, although these are legal requirements, for example. Hence substantiating the EU report that results could not be verified or traced. 

The  Con-Court decided to disregard the evidence before it reportedly because it was not supported by “primary source evidence in the sealed ballot boxes”! The judges ASSUMED primary source evidence would prove all the missing V11 forms would be in the sealed boxes although they did not demand that the boxes be opened and prove it. 

ZEC had three difference tallies of Mnangagwa’s winning votes. Even if the missing V11 were all accounted for - how this could produce three different results, no one dared to ask the bench. 

As for the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll; no doubt the Judges also assumed the roll in the seal boxes were all verified - by whom, again, no one dared to ask the “wise” Judges!

Doctors are “negotiate in bad faith!” Is government negotiating in good faith? Government maintains there will be economy recovery, price stability, etc. and therefore workers must accept the wages on offer as stable although all signs are that the economic meltdown is getting worse. 

Indeed, when has this Zanu PF regime ever done anything in “good faith” in all its 38 years in power? The root cause of the nation’s worsening economic meltdown is because the nation has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime that rigged elections to stay in power. 

VP Chiwenga, you and your fellow Zanu PF thugs rigged the July 2018 elections but what you cannot rig in the economic recovery! Zimbabwe’s health care collapsed a long time ago and it is not the striking doctors who did that - Zanu PF did!

The Zimbabwe economy will never register any meaningful  recovery, as long as the nation remains under this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Zanu PF is holding the nation to ransom!

"Doctors are negotiating in bad faith" says Chiwenga - have you ever done otherwise! N Garikai

 

"Doctors are negotiating in bad faith" says Chiwenga - have you ever done anything else

 Starts 3 January 2019 at 02:18 (GMT)

Mnangagwa is caught in a catch 22 but one more subtle than over GNU P Guramatunhu

“PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is in a catch-22 situation over whether to implement recommendations of the Motlanthe commission of inquiry into the August 1 post-election violence, which urged him to engage opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa to move the country forward,” reported Newsday.

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess of serious economic meltdown because it is in a political paralysis. Zanu PF has ruthlessly imposed itself on the nation as the only party to govern the country regardless of the party’s performance. 

Yes Mnangagwa is caught in a catch-22 situation but one a lot more subtle than having a dialogue with Chamisa. He rigged the elections to return his strangle hold on power for absolute power’s sake but also to make sure he and his fellow Zanu PF thugs are never held to account for all their past misdeed of looting, rigging elections, staging coups and mass murders. 

By rigging the elections Zanu PF was assured of the party’s iron grip on power but it also forfeited the people’s democratic mandate, making it an illegitimate regime.

And, more significantly, by rigging the elections Mnangagwa has also confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. As we already know from Mugabe’s years, no investor, foreign or local, likes to do business in a pariah state; it is too risky. The failure to attract investment is the root cause of the country’s worsening economic meltdown. 

Inviting Chamisa and his MDC Alliance into the present government will not change the fundamental character of the regime; it will still be an illegitimate regime in power on the back of rigged elections. 

Investors are a shrewd lot, they will not be easily fooled by such a cosmetic change of adding Chamisa and a few other MDC Alliance members to the cabinet; they will continue to shy away from investing in Zimbabwe. Chamisa has promised economic recovery if Mnangagwa agrees to a GNU; this is one promise he will never keep. 

So Mnangagwa was damned if he did not rig the elections and so he did rig the elections. And having rigged the elections, now he is damned for it, by virtue of the worsening economic meltdown. 

As for us, the ordinary Zimbabweans, we have a tough but clear cut choice. Either we reward Mnangagwa for rigging the recent elections by allowing to rule and paid the heavy price of the worsening economic meltdown and the near certainty of political instability. 

Or we finally stand up to the regime and demand that it steps down. This will allow the nation to finally implement the democratic reforms necessary to fully restore  our freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life itself. Zanu PF will resist this change.

We must remember that after 38 years of rigging elections and getting away with it Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta now believe their have the right to rig elections and rule Zimbabwe with or without the people’s democratic mandate. It is not in the nature of tyrannical regimes to give up their dictatorial powers.

If we want our right to a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe we must be prepared to fight for it. Anything in this life worth having is worth fighting for. It is not just our economic right to employment, to health care, etc. that is at stake here but our right to life itself and the very survival of the nation too!

Mnangagwa is in a catch 22 but one more subtle than over GNU with Chamisa

 

Mnangagwa is in a catch 22 but one more subtle than the GNU with Chamisa

 Starts 2 January 2019 at 01:53 (GMT)

Can a flawed election produce a legitimate winner - a squared circle MDC has failed comprehend N Garikai

 

MDC mass action to remove illegitimate ED only to be replaced by illegal Chamisa

 Starts 1 January 2019 at 15:12 (GMT)

MDC plan mass action to remove illegal ED - only to replace him with illegal Chamisa N Garikai

Can a flawed and illegal election process produce a legitimate and credible result? This is  political conundrum, the squared circle, Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance have failed to comprehend and thus make complete fools of themselves each time the open their mouth! 

The 2018 elections were flawed and illegal allowing Zanu PF to blatantly rig the vote. Three million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the opportunity to register and to vote in the July 2018 elections. 

During his UN General Assembly trip in September 2018, just two months after the vote, President Mnangagwa admitted that government will allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote next elections. He did not explain why they were denied the vote in 2018 given this issue was raised before the 2013 elections!

By failing to produce a verified voters’ roll and V11 forms (summary of the vote count) for all polling stations, both are legal requirements, it was impossible to verify who was on the voters’ roll, who voted and how many times, etc. and it was impossible to trace where the vote allotted to each candidate came from.  

"2019 is the year of rolling mass action against the illegal regime of Emmerson Mnangagwa." MDC Alliance Deputy Treasurer General Charlton Hwende said. "We voted for Nelson Chamisa and we must be prepared like the thousands of gallant Liberation struggle heroes to die defending our right to chose the President of our Choice.” 

“We”; who is we? We have just noted above that 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote which is more than the 2.6 million Chamisa claims voted for him. Even in his own Con-Court challenge of the result, Chamisa failed to produce all the V11 forms to account for the 2.6 million votes he is claiming. So no one can trace where the 2.6 million votes came from much less who these people are since there is no verified voters’ roll. 

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance friends had many golden opportunities, especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The party wasted them all for various reasons one of which was the belief they would win the elections regardless of Zanu PF’s vote rigging shenanigans. It has turned out they under estimated the vote rigging shenanigans. 

Even if MDC had won these flawed and illegal in 2013 and/or the 2018 elections, this would not have solved the nation’s problem of rigged elections as Zanu PF or indeed MDC leaders themselves would have used the carte blanche vote rigging powers soon or latter. The idea of implementing the democratic reforms was to ensure free, fair and credible elections and MDC’s position that it does not matter whether the elections are free and fair as long as they win is no different from Zanu PF’s own position. 

Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF junta fought the war of independence to remove the white colonial oppressors but only to take their place as the nation’s new oppressors. Nelson Chamisa want the nation to fight to remove the illegitimate Mnangagwa because he rigged the elections but only to take his place as the next illegitimate president. Surely, the people of Zimbabwe deserve better than this.

Yes Mnangagwa and his junta blatantly rigged the 30 July 2018 elections and therefore they do not have the democratic mandate of the people to govern. They must step down.

We are not going to force Zanu PF to step down only for MDC Alliance to take over, no. Chamisa and his MDC Alliance have no legal basis to govern since the last elections was so flawed and illegal it is nonsensical to declare anyone the winner, especially when all the contestants knew the process was flawed and illegal but participated regardless. Chamisa and his MDC Alliance must step aside. 

The people of Zimbabwe must be allowed the time and space to appoint an interim administration that will be tasked to implement all the democratic  reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections not just next time but for generations to come. All attempts by both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance members to hang on to power must be seen for what it is - holding the nation to ransom. This will not be tolerated!

"Economy of path to recovery" says Chiwenga - nonsense, not in a pariah state N Garikai

Zimbabwe is in serious, serious economic trouble. Unemployment has soared to dizzying height of 90% and has been 80% plus for the last 15 years already. There millions of Zimbabweans out there who have yet to get a steady well-paid job. I was out of work for 5 months and to say I was miserable and destitute at the end of that period is an understatement. My heart bleeds for all those millions of Zimbabweans who have been out of work for 15 years.

As many as 10 million Zimbabwean have been out of work for the last 15 years. This means 150 million man-years wasted. Is it any wonder Zimbabwe is now the poorest nation on the poorest continent on earth!

My blood boils at the heartless indifference of the men and women whose corrupt and tyrannical rule has landed this nation into this hell-on-earth.

“Our nation is going through a difficult patch. Our children need jobs. Government is doing its best to turnaround the fortunes of our nation. We are confident that our economy is on the path to recovery,” said acting President, VP C Chiwenga.

Zimbabwe’s descent into this hell-hole started soon after independence when Zanu PF rigged those first elections to impose itself on the nation. The economic decline has got progressively worse and worse as the gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness exemplified by the seizure of the white owned farms to give to Zanu PF crones got worse and worse. Although the people were aware of the adverse effect of Zanu PF misrule they have been helpless to stop it because the party rigged elections.

38 years of criminal waste of the nation’s material and human resources! And here is one of the Zanu PF ruling elite dismissing it as a “difficult patch”!

Worse still, VP Chiwenga maintains “government is doing its best to turnaround the fortunes of our nations.” This is utter nonsense.

In 2016 the then President Robert Mugabe admitted the nation was “swindled of $15 billion of diamond revenue”. No nation on earth can afford this kind of haemorrhage much less a country like Zimbabwe whose GDP is a mere $10 billion! Mugabe failed to arrest even one of the swindlers up to the time he was booted out of office in the November 2017 military coup.

President Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga, who took over power from Mugabe, promised to stamp out corruption. After over a year in power, they too have yet to arrest even one of the diamond swindlers and recover even one dollar.

The wholesale looting of diamonds and other resources is still going full steam ahead as government revenue has not improved and yet the mining has continued. How does government expect the economic to recover with all this criminal waste of resources still taking place?

“You die even for that which is yours. Our nation still continues to be punished for recovering that which rightfully belongs to it,” continued Chiwenga.

Zanu PF has blamed the targeted economic sanctions imposed by the west on some party leaders for the nation’s economic decline. The VP was no doubt referring to the USA’s refusal to lift the sanctions following the party’s failure to hold free, fair and credible 30 July 2018 elections. The regime is adding insult to injury.

The Americans went the extra mile to explain what Zanu PF needed to do this year to get the sanctions lifted. Make sure Zimbabweans in the diaspora were allowed to vote, the public media was accessible to all political contestants and not just Zanu PF, make sure the process was verifiable, transparent and traceable, etc., etc. Zanu PF blatantly ignored all these things and blatantly rigged the elections.

Many people had hoped the country had finally turned over a new leaf with the removal of Mugabe in last November’s coup. When this so called “new dispensation” promised to hold free, fair and credible elections; the people had dared to believe only to be let down, yet again.

Zanu PF feared the people would protest against yet another rigged elections and so gave the 1 st August order of “shoot to kill” order resulting in the death of six civilians. In the 38 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule the regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain its de facto one party dictatorship.  

“You die even for that which is yours” Yes, over 30 000 Zimbabweans have been murdered for the sole purpose of denying them their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life itself!

VP Chiwenga gave his insulting comments at the 2018/19 “National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service” organised by Faith of the Nation Campaign in Bulawayo. The theme of service was “It’s Time to Pray and Work for Unity, Peace and Prosperity.”

What a mockery; how can there ever be peace and prosperity in country in which those in power have licence to ride roughshod over the ordinary people, denying them their freedoms, rights, hopes and dreams; and with contemptuous disregard for the law, common justice, suffering and even deaths of others! There will never be peace and economic prosperity in Zimbabwe as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs!

After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule and with millions of ordinary Zimbabweans living in grinding poverty and hopelessness we must stand up as a nation and say “Enough is enough! Zanu PF rigged the recent elections and the party must step down!” It would be unforgivable if we should allow ourselves to be bamboozled by those who landed us in the mess and have a selfish in retaining the corrupt and tyrannical system into believe Zimbabwe has changed when we can see it has not changed one bit!