On judgement day, Mugabe had to explain "talents" wasted building Blue Roof, could not get away with blaming the "wicked British" W Mukori

 

Let me say from the on-set that white colonial exploitation of Africa has a lot to answer for why the continent is in the economic and political mess it is today. But this is not say the whites are solely to blame for Africa’s problems; we, the Africans, are to blame too.

“After century of slavery and colonial exploitation the developed nations had a head start over Africa,” you might argue.

You are right, the developed nations had more than a head start. But I am not interested in how many blocks ahead the developed nations were at this or that point in time. I am interested in what Africans have done with whatever we had at a given time.

I am not religious but I think Jesus’ parable of the talents is particularly ad rem to what I am driving at.

The parable of master who, before going away, entrusted his three servants with five, two and one talent, “each according to his ability” Matthew’s Gospel tells us. On his return the servant with five presented his master with the five talents plus five more. The one who got two presented the master with two plus two more he made. The Master thank each of the two servants for their hard work.    

 ^“He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 

²⁸ So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹ For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 25 24 – 30

Most African nations are failed states, Zimbabwe being a textbook example, because we have squandered our many God given talents in terms of material and human resources.

Indeed, Zimbabwe’s bounty of diamonds, gold, lithium and other natural resources have become a curse and not a blessing. Corruption has become rampant and the ruling elite who are the godfathers behind the looting are using the ill got wealth to bankroll their political activities. The Zanu PF Mafiosi has corrupted and controls all the state institutions, private sector is dominated by the regime’s cronies – cartels and Zanu PF has corrupted the country’s opposition rendering them utterly useless.

I have often wonder what the late Robert Mugabe would say on his judgement day. Zimbabwe had a sound economic infrastructure in 1980, when the country gained her independence. It had the potential to become the South Korea of Africa, according to Ken Yamamoto, a Japanese scholar. No doubt the dictator would give the usual toroid blaming the “wicked British and their western allies” for all Zimbabwe’s social, political and economic troubles.

“You had money to build the US$ 4 billion Blue Roof mansion, enough money to design, supply, install and commission Batoka Hydro Power Station. In 2012 alone you squandered US$ 24 million on 8 hospital visits to the Far East for an eye check-up when major hospitals like Pararenyatwa were running of painkillers and bandages,” the Lord will remind Mugabe.

“Your regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans in 37 years with you as the Zanu PF leaders to create and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship. You remained in power all these years because Zanu PF denied the people their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.”

If anyone deserves to be “cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”, it is Robert Mugabe and his fellow African leaders who have squandered their nation’s wealth but, like the wicked servant in the parable of talents, will never admit to their foolishness and greed.

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess and political paralysis (both the ruling party and the coterie of opposition parties have no clue what to do to get out of the hell-on-earth we are in) because both Zanu PF and opposition leaders have turned out to be corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. The late Morgan Tsvangirai must too be in hell for failing to implement even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, for example. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders and his friends with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, the generous salaries and allowances, the US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc.; and they throw the reforms out of the window!   

The one African leader I hold in great respect is the late President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, his socialist experiment was a disaster for Tanzania. Still, I admire him for admit his own failures and, unlike the likes of Mugabe, seek scapegoat to blame.

"People have gone to the moon, and we are still trying to reach the village, and the village is getting farther," remarked President Nyerere when he learned in 1969 that the Americans had successfully landed on the Moon!

The genesis of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is not so much in the misguided economic policies and the rampant corruption but in the country’s failed political system that has given corrupt and incompetent men and women absolute power and allowed them to stay in power for 43 years and counting. Nothing, absolutely nothing, of value will ever be accomplished until we cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.

It is shocking that we still do not have the common sense to know we cannot have free elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, even after 43 years of the Mafia Zanu PF rigged elections and in this day and age. Those who will not learn from the past are destined to repeat the same foolish mistakes over and over again and will pay dearly for their folly.  fail to hold free, fair and credible elections; we don’t even know what constitute free and fair elections.

Since the 1969 Moon landing the Americans and the rest of the world have explored Mars and the world beyond our own Solar System, they have split the atom into its components and have produce vaccines for illness such as the recent corona virus in record time. Meanwhile we in Africa lagged even further behind, the “village is even further away” as President Nyerere had aptly put it.

Admitting we are our own worst enemy, as Mwalimu did, is the first step in our effort to pull ourselves out of this mess of our own making. What to do next will have to wait for the next time! For now, we must learn the first step.

"West should have lifted sanctions after 2017 coup!" argue ANC. Nonsense Zimbabwe remained a pariah state. W Mukori

 One of the most obnoxious things appoint white racism is the how the whites denied the blacks a voice. “Our blacks are very happy it is the Russian and Chinese communists how are agitating for black majority rule because they want to colonise the country,” the whites would say.

The blacks were never given the opportunity to speak for themselves. Of course, they were not happy! Who can ever be happy when they are being treated as third class citizens, oppressed, exploited and denied the freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

In Rhodesia, blacks did not have a vote. Period!

Sadly, things did not change much in independence Zimbabwe. We remove the white oppressors only to get black oppressors. The ordinary Zimbabwean had the freedoms and rights in theory but not in practice. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies made it clear that if the party lost the 1980 elections, the bush war would continue. Of course, the people voted to end the war.

Some people have argued the threat was just campaigning stratagem born out of the mistrust of the British and the whites holding a free, fair and credible elections. The doubters were silence the victorious Zanu PF regime launched the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre whose sole purpose was to force PF Zapu to sign the Unity Accord and join Zanu PF. This cleared the way for the imposition of the de facto one party state.

Zanu PF has rigged elections ever since the country’s independence all in the name of unity, development and peace. All lies! The nation has never enjoyed peace, especially during elections when the regime has blatantly rigged the elections and used wanton violence to retain its iron grip on power. 43 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s once upon a time robust economy in ruins. 

Zanu PF has completely ignored the demands of the ordinary Zimbabweans for free, fair and credible elections not only as birth right but as the prerequisite for good governance, peace, justice and economic prosperity. The regime, just like the Smith white regime before it, has only heard the Americans and the British’s call for free elections. It has dismissed the calls as “regime change agenda”.

How it has never occurred to Zanu PF leaders that the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans want free, fair and credible elections and regime change, especially given the country’s economic ruins; beggars belief. Of course, Zanu PF leaders have elected to ignore the suffering and lamentation of the ordinary Zimbabweans. 

Alas! It is not only the Zanu PF regime that has turned a deaf ear to the cries of ordinary Zimbabweans for free and fair elections; the ANC regime in SA is now fighting in Zanu PF’s corner, fighting to end the West’s "regime change agenda”.

“The US and UK, Mbalula charged, have been changing goal posts every time an opportunity presents itself for the two global powerhouses to drop sanctions against Zimbabwe,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“Such an opportunity, he added, came to being when incumbent President Emerson Mnangagwa toppled Robert Mugabe through a bloodless coup.”

"President Mugabe was characterised as the main problem and was removed through a coup d'etat in Zimbabwe," Mbalula said.

"Mnangagwa came in and still the British and the Americans are looking the other way and not coming to the party.

"What the Americans and British want in Zimbabwe is regime change. We are now faced with Zimbabweans crossing to South Africa because in Zimbabwe there is no bread.”

This is utter nonsense:

1. the removal of Mugabe through a military coup underlined just how desperate the political system in Zimbabwe had become, Mugabe could not be remove through free, fair and credible elections, only a military coup. 

1. following the coup, Mnangagwa and his coup plotters promised to stamp out corruption and to hold free and fair elections. They corruption is rampant and they went on to blatantly rig the 2018 elections; confirming Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. The November 2017 military coup facilitated a musical chairs changes in Zanu PF otherwise nothing of substance changed. 

1. everyone know Zanu PF has repeatedly failed to hold free, fair and credible elections and that is the reason why Zimbabwe withdraw from the Commonwealth before it was booted out in 2003. The country’s application to be readmitted was refused because it failed to hold free elections in 2018.

1. SADC refused to endorse Zanu PF’s 2008 election victory because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence, it was so bad even they could not ignore it. It was none other than the regional body itself that forced Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement the raft of democratic reforms. SADC was the guarantor of the agreement and President Thabo Mbeki of SA signed on behalf of the regional body. 

1. SADC leaders know that not even one meaningful reform was implemented during the five years of the GNU nor since. Zanu PF emerged from the GNU with all its carte blanche powers to rig elections. Zanu PF rigged the 2013 and 2018 elections and is rigging the 2023 elections. 

1. the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political turmoil is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The ANC government knows this and why it is choosing to pretending to be blind, deaf and stupid and indifferent to the cries for free elections in Zimbabwe beggars belief. 

The ANC government has held free, fair and credible elections since the end of apartheid in 1994 and so they know that Zanu PF has been rigging elections. They also know that Zanu PF would have never lasted these last 43 years if the party held free and fair elections. 

So ANC know it would be the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe to have regime change in Zimbabwe. And by granting the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, ANC is frustrating the people of Zimbabwe’s democratic wish. 

Why? What has ANC to gain from propping up a corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF regime?

It is only by looking at the mess SA is in today, nearing 30 years of corrupt and mediocre ANC rule have reduced that country into a real mess. As we speak many South Africans are sitting in the dark, the sweeping power cuts have crippled the country, for example. The chaos in ESKOM is repeated in all the other sectors across the board. And, worst of all, the ANC government, which is responsible the economic mess, has no clue what to do to end this mess. 

History will show that the ANC government is hell bent on stopping regime change in Zimbabwe because it prefers the dunderhead Zanu PF government because its own failures in SA will be nothing compared to the mess in Zimbabwe.

The tragic irony is that the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe has accelerated SA’s economic collapse and as long as Zimbabwe remains a failed state, SA’s economic recovery will be that much harder. It is not in SA’s interest to keep dunderheads in power in Zimbabwe! 

Under performing ANC hell bent on stopping regime change in Zimbabwe; it's fiddler crab strategy! W Mukori

 

“South Africa has a Zimbabwe problem - and no one is willing to help it, said African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula as he called for an end to long-standing sanctions against the country,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“Mbalula said that the Americans and the British were refusing to let up because they wanted regime change.”

"We've got a problem here in Zimbabwe and it's brewing. And you think it's going to be the problem of the Americans; it's going to be our problem for the longest of time,” Mbulula told his SA audience.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, the reason why so many Zimbabweans are in SA and beyond as economic and/or political refuges is because Zimbabwe is a failed state. A pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, and ruthless thugs who have rigged elections to stack their stay in power. 43 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country in economic ruins.

Zanu PF has been blaming the 2001 sanctions imposed by the West for all Zimbabwe’s economic problems although the economic problems started long before the sanctions were imposed. For example, Zimbabwe adopted the 1990 to 1995 Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) to revive the country’s flagging economy. When that failed to deliver the desired changes, the had another five-year programme. Sadly, that too failed to revive the economy. This is well documented and it is therefore very disappointing that anyone, especially SA’s governing ANC leaders has chosen to believe Zanu PF sanctions propaganda.

Zanu PF has yet to hold free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe since the country’s independence in 1980; this is yet another well documented historic fact. The AU and SADC have always turned a blind eye to Zanu PF rigged elections granting the regime legitimacy. The only time the continental and the regional bodies refused to grant Zanu PF legitimacy was in 2008, the cheating  and wanton violence by Zanu PF were so outrageous and brutal that even they could not ignore it.

AU and SADC leaders refused to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy and forced the regime to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), agreeing to the need for Zimbabwe to implement the raft of democratic reforms to stop the rigging of elections and restore the rule of law. A GNU comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions was formed and tasked to implement the reforms. SADC, headed by SA and ANC veteran leader Lindiwe Zulu, was the guarantor of the GPA.

SADC leaders know that not even one token democratic reform was implemented during the GNU. In a last-minute desperate bid to have the reform implemented, regional body proposed that Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections should be postponed until reforms were implemented. “If you go into the elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.

As we know SADC leaders’ warning was ignored and Zanu PF rigging the 2013 elections and, in a shocking volte-face granted Zanu PF legitimacy knowing fully well the party had rigged the elections as they had rightly predicted only a few weeks earlier.

The opposition once again ignore the SADC leaders to boycott the 2018 elections until reforms were implemented. The regional leaders, in turn, granted vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy.

History is repeating itself; the opposition are participating in the 2023 elections without even a token democratic reform implemented. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections just as it rigged the 2013 and 2018 elections. The rigging is so blatant the elections are going ahead without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!  

The idea that SADC leaders will, once again, turn a blind eye to the blatantly rigged elections to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy is unthinkable!

Zimbabweans were hoping that of all the SADC countries SA; given her history of holding free elections, Minister Lindiwe Zulu’s first-hand knowledge of the failure to implement reforms during the GNU and the economic instability caused by the political crisis in Zimbabwe; would be as keen as mustard to end the madness of granting vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the economic meltdown forcing Zimbabwe to be economic and/or political refugees in SA and beyond will only get worse.

What is clear is that this ANC government is hell bent on granting vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy under the pretext the 2023 elections are free, fair and credible and thus the result is the true democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe. It is the West who are seeking regime change in Zimbabwe and not the people of Zimbabwe.

The ANC government has its own sinister reasons for ignoring the historic facts that Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and granting the regime political legitimacy will only deny the ordinary Zimbabweans a chance to end the dictatorship and perpetuate it instead.

SA is in an economic and political mess. Nearly 30 years of mediocre and/or down right corrupt and incompetent ANC rule has left the country's, once upon a time, robust economy and infrastructure in ruins. The nationwide load shedding because ESKOM cannot meet the nation its electrical power needs has driven home the point; SA is in serious trouble and, worst of all, the ANC government has no clue what to do. If it did, the party would have never allowed the country to sink this deep in the first place!

SA is going to the poll next year and ANC leaders know the party’s hold on power is tenuous, to say the least, given the sorry state of the economy. The party has hit panic button!  

If the 2023 Zimbabwe elections were to deliver regime change that would give the South Africans voters  the courage to do the same, especially if the change started to start deliver noticeable changes to Zimbabwe's battered economy! The 2008 to 2013 GNU delivered a 12% economic growth in 2009 compared to the negative 6% in 2008 under Zanu PF rule. This is clearly what ANC is determined not to let happen and hence the party's November 2022 congress resolution not to let regime change in Zimbabwe.

ANC leaders are adapting the fiddler crab strategy, it will tolerate crabs whose fiddler claw is smaller than its own for neighbours and will even gang up to evict the rest. If the fight to attract females its claw will look humongous compared with its neighbours! ANC leaders’ economic performance record is pathetic, but it is nothing compared to the disastrous chaos Zanu PF has brought to Zimbabwe.

As a Zimbabwean, I am not interested in ANC and Zanu PF’s rat race to the bottom. And it would be irresponsible to let these failed ANC leaders use Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans as their sacrificial guinea pigs in the same sinister way that President Putin of Russia is using Ukraine to bolster his flagging macho image! 

 

The people of Zimbabwe needs right now is an end to SADC granting vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy that is stopping the imposition of new GNU and implementing the democratic reforms to guarantee free and fair elections. It is for the people of Zimbabwe alone, in a free, fair and credible election, to decide who will govern Zimbabwe. If it is their democratic wish to have regime change then the MUST have regime change. It is very presumptuous, to put it mildly, for SA’s ANC leaders claim they have the power or authority to stop regime change in Zimbabwe by granting vote rigging Zanu PF political legitimacy.

Zanu PF launches "Zimbabwe is open for business: Mark 2!" Some one is making a killing from these dunderheads. N Garikai

 The Zanu PF spirit to revive the Zimbabwe economy is willing but the intellect is weak!

When then Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow conspirator staged the November 2017 military coup, “a military assisted transition” as they insisted in calling it, they all agreed on the need to revive the comatose Zimbabwe economy. How to do it was the million dollar question. 

Mnangagwa promised that the post putsch government will have “zero tolerance on corruption”, hold free, fair and credible elections, scrapped obnoxious laws such as the indigenous law and relaunched the country as a second republic - putting distance between his new administration and Mugabe’s pariah state. With that he announced to the world that “Zimbabwe was open for business!”

No one was fooled, certainly not the savvy and shrewd foreign investors the slick marketing was hoping to attract. They knew Mnangagwa would never stamp out corruption since it is his political power base and as for holding free elections that was a bridge too far. Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2018 elections and, to rub it in, Mnangagwa insists the elections were indeed free, fair and credible. 

The November 2017 military coup had remove the dictator Mugabe and a few of his close allies but only to have another dictator in his place. Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs; a failed and chaotic state that no one would want to do business with. No one!

It took a year or two for the reality that “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was dead in the water to sink in. But sink in it did. And the regime abandoned attempts to lure foreign investors and focus on getting Zimbabweans to rebuild the country’s crumbling economy. 

“Nyika inovakwa nevenevayo!” (Zimbabwe will be rebuilt by Zimbabweans!) was the new Zanu PF jingle for the last three years!

It was just another empty jingle completely at odds with the reality in the country. Millions of Zimbabweans have left the country in the last 20 years as economic and/or political refugees leaving the country with up to 80% skilled manpower shortage in key sectors such as engineering, health and education. The few skilled people left in the country are under utilised because the economy has all but collapsed. 

So there is precious little rebuilding going on in Zimbabwe because there are few skilled Zimbabweans in the country to do the work and the economic meltdown is so bad even the few left are under employed! 

And so the regime has flip flop back to attracting foreign investors! 

“Zimbabwean government officials and corporate leaders are gearing for a major capital markets conference in London, United Kingdom, during the last week of next month to mobilise private capital to finance domestic development,” reported Bulawayo 24.

The event, set for April 20-21, will be addressed by Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube and key players in the primary capital markets, corporate leaders, financial institutions and investment bank executives, and public accounting firm heads, as well as secondary market players such as fund managers and stockbrokers from Zimbabwe and overseas.

So we are back to “Zimbabwe is open for business.” And hoping the same foreign investors we failed to entice in 2017/2018 will not notice that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state governed by the same corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. It is nonsensical to ask if Zimbabwe is going to have yet another disputed 2023 elections. The election process is so flawed and illegal it is disputed already, long before the voting started.

The Zanu PF regime has denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, for example, in what is clearly a case of the regime cherry picking the electorate. Most of these people are in the diaspora as economic and/or political refugees and they blame Zanu PF for their plight. They are not likely to vote for the regime and hence the reason they are being denied the vote. 

By failing to hold free and fair elections to stop regime change and thus consolidating Zanu PF’s iron grip on power. But, more significantly, the party is, per se, yoking the nation to a corrupt and tyrannical regime. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Making Zimbabwe a pariah state, a failed state, and the economic mess and political paralysis are what one would expect in a pariah state. 

President Mnangagwa and his Junta cronies think they can trick investors into believing Zimbabwe is a healthy and function democracy so they can hang on to the pariah state and still enjoy the economic success and political stability of a democratic system of government. How naive! 

What President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have clearly failed to understand is what every good mother instills in her children from a young age; you cannot have your cake and eat it too! Zimbabwe is pariah state and as long as it remains a pariah state, there will be meaningful economic recovery. None! 

No doubt, President Mnangagwa has received repeated assurance that “Zimbabwe is open for business: mark 2!’’ will be a resounding success. Zanu PF is renowned for paying millions of dollars for PR and dubious services, some one is making a killing at Zimbabwean taxpayers’ expense! The price we pay for having dunderheads in State House! 

"Dunderhead" Chiwenga ask WHO to help stem nurse haemorrhage. Waste of time, treat disease not symptom. P Guramatunhu

 Zimbabwe’s VP and Minister of Health, Dr Constantino Chiwenga ask the World Health Organisation (WHO) to help stem the haemorrhage of Zimbabwe health care workers. 

"One of the problems we discussed is workforce. For the health system to be strong you need to have workforce in terms of number and in terms of quality but Zimbabwe is worried that many high income countries are taking its doctors and nurses and the country is now facing shortages locally," revealed WHO director-general Dr Ghebreyesus after his meeting with VP Chiwenga.

"He (VP Chiwenga) asked if WHO could really help to address this issue. Of course, there are two things we can do. One there is a code of conduct so those countries poaching health workers from low income countries should follow the code of conduct.

"The second strategic solution is to train more since the problem is supply and demand mismatch. There are models now we have been considering in WHO that can help, that is increasing the enrolment significantly so that it can address the shortages that we are facing, so it is a combination of short and long term.”

This is a waste of time! It is not just nurses and doctors who are leaving the country in droves; teachers, engineers, etc. are doing the same. And they are leaving for high income nations as well as low income nations just to escape the slave-wages offered in Zimbabwe! 

Zimbabwe is a failed state, a pariah state, whose economy has all but collapsed. The ruling elite and their cronies have sucked the life blood out of the economy to feed their insatiable appetite for wealth and luxuries, they have become filthy rich at the expense of the millions condemned to poverty and despair. Many of the people who can leave the country have left just to escape a life of abject poverty.

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown means there is very little revenue for the government to pay the bloated civil service, equally bloated Army, Police and CIO and so education, health and other social welfare services have been thrown overboard in fight to contain inflation. 

The nurses and teachers have been fighting for a living wage for donkey years with no progress. None! Their wages are so poor many cannot afford the transport to go to work everyday and so have resorted to work reduced days. 

It is nonsensical to mourn of brain drain when the government is failing to make full use of the reduced manpower still in the country because it will not pay them to work a full week. 

The haemorrhaging of skilled workers out of the country is the symptom and not the disease. The disease is the country’s economic meltdown which is forced the people to leave or suffer in damn anguish. And the economic meltdown is itself the consequence of four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness under this Mafiosi Zanu PF dictatorship. 

Ordinarily the nation would have remove the regime ages ago if the country was a healthy and functioning democracy. It is not! 

Zanu PF has rigged elections starting with the 1980 elections when it made it clear the bush war would continue if the party lost. The party is rigging these 2023 election and thus confirming the country’s status as a pariah state, a failed Mafiosi dictatorship. There is no hope of economic revival because no one would want to do business in a fail and chaotic state. 

Increasing the number of trained staff will not solve anything if the individuals will leave as soon as they complete their training. With nurses being paid US$100 p m way below the US$650 p m poverty datum line; who would want these starvation wages. 

Of course, it is a waste of time trying to stem the haemorrhage of skilled manpower, the symptom, out of Zimbabwe without first dealing with its root cause the failed state, the disease. Of all people WHO should know treating the symptom and not the disease is a waste of time, resources and, worst of all of human lives!

UN has turned a blind eye to Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free and fair elections all because China and Russia have always vetoed all attempts to censure Zanu PF human rights violations. It is to be expected given these two nations are themselves notorious for human rights violations including failure to hold free and fair elections, if they still bother. The UN and its subsidiary bodies including WHO are heavily compromised and ineffective to the point of treating symptoms and not the disease.  

What we in Zimbabwe is to tell our “dunderhead” VP and Minister of Health, Chiwenga, and his Zanu PF cronies that they cannot have the cake and eat it too. The country cannot have the full  compliment of skilled staff as long as the country remains a pariah state with no money to pay the workers a living wage. If Zimbabwe continues to pay peanuts it will have recruit monkeys!

We have paid dearly for having a corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF in 1980. What do we do now? N Garikai

 “It pays in the end to get the best in the beginning!” was Erick Davis’, a man’s wear shop in First Street, Harare, catchy advert. And true enough, their stuff was high quality and it lasted. 

When Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, the country had the potential to become the South Korea of Africa, according to the Japanese academic Ken Yamamoto. 43 years later, there is no deny the country has become just another failed African state. 

To realise the country’s full South Korea of Africa potential we needed a competent and visionary post independent government, the best in the beginning. What we got instead was a Zanu PF regime that had no clue what good governance was about nor cared about any of the niceties of justice and freedom. All Mugabe et al cared about is absolute power and the influence and wealth it brought to them and their cronies. 

“A year on from the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe remains perched between piecemeal reform and old ways that are as intractable as they are destructive. That’s because the country is ruled by a clique with a partial and conditional commitment to change—and a total, obdurate determination to retain and enjoy power,” wrote Stuart Duran in ASPI Strategist.

“The ‘new’ regime can be viewed from different angles, but the nub of it is this: there’s a recognition that the economic fiasco of the last 20 years was suboptimal, but Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow travellers will burn the house down if they feel it necessary. Make no mistake, their will to power is every bit as intense as Mugabe’s—as is their belief that they own the country’s choicest fruits by right of conquest.”

Mnangagwa and company have not burnt the country down but only because a nation, unlike a company, can never be declared bankrupt. The four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and Mafia style lawless, have left the country in economic ruins and a pariah and failed state failing to provide basic needs such as education and health care to its people. The contrast between Zimbabwe today and what it would have been if it’s South Korea of Africa potential have been achieved is breathtaking.

Could Zimbabwe’s rot and decay under the Zanu PF dictatorship have been avoided? 

Yes, of course! The nation had many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, the best of which being the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, MDC leaders who were entrusted the task of implemented the democratic reforms to end the dictatorship sold out and failed to implement even one reform. 

Worse still, since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC leaders have insisted in participating in flawed elections, so flawed getting 73% of the votes was not good enough to win power as the March 2008 election showed, only to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. The opposition have claim to have winning in rigged election strategies, feeble excuses to justify participating and hide the real reason they are participating - greed. 

Zimbabwe is set for fresh election in August, in less than six months. Can anything be done to salvage the situation?

We cannot get any meaningful democratic reforms to be implemented now, it is too late for that. We cannot stop the Zanu PF regime going ahead and hold the flawed elections. What we can and must do is:

1. pointedly refuse to participate in the election process. It is nonsensical to ignore all the evidence the election process is flawed, participate and then denounce the process when the results are out. Don’t participate and denounce the process now. 

1. point out the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll, failure to implement not even one EU reform recommendation since 2018, denial of 3m Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote or 37% of the potential electorate, the wanton election related violence by mainly Zanu PF operatives, etc. It is inconceivable that an election process with such serious flaws and illegalities can ever be judged free, fair and credible

1. no one should be in any doubt that the opposition are participating in these flawed and illegal elections out of greed. How can a discredited opposition give credibility to a flawed election process?

1. Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections but it cannot rig political legitimacy; the election process is flawed and illegal and the opposition participating in the elections have lost political credibility.

 As much as President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF friends would want to portray themselves as invincible in their tortoise political armour, they are not. They have their Achilles heel weakness. In 2008 the party blatantly rigged the elections are was shocked when both AU and SADC leaders refused to grant Zanu PF legitimacy. 

Ever since the 2008 GNU, Zanu PF has rigged elections but has always bend over backwards to ensure the opposition participated by letting them win a few gravy train seats. In the 2018 elections President Mnangagwa even created POLAD, a body to reward the losing presidential candidates who endorsed the process as having been free and fair and his political legitimacy.

Late last year President Mnangagwa announced very generous housing loans, US$ 500k, 350k and 40k for ministers, deputy minister and MP/senators. He knew the bribe, even Chamisa could not deny it is a bribe, will whet the appetites of politicians on both sides of the political divide. Chamisa and his CCC friends are hell bent on participating in these elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process get, Mnangagwa knows that and banking on it. 

What Mnangagwa does not know for certain is whether AU and SADC leaders will accept the participation of the opposition alone, regardless the flawed process and discredited CCC, as proof the 2023 Zimbabwe election is free and fair and grant Zanu PF legitimacy. The regime’s failure to arm-twist continental and regional leaders to get sanctions lifted and Zimbabwe readmitted into the Commonwealth has left the regime doubtful of its own powers of influence, especially when most people can see Zimbabwe’s present political system is unsustainable and therefore doomed.

We failed to get the best government in 1980, the challenge right now is putting an end to the Zanu PF dictatorship, clear the deck, so we can have a fresh start.  

We cannot stop Zanu PF rigging 2023 elections nor stop CCC participating in the flawed elections. What we can do and must do is stop Zanu PF getting political legitimacy!

Al Jazeera: Unveiling Zimbabwe's Dark Secrets documentary has Zanu PF sick as a parrot W Mukori

Starting tonight, 10 pm UK time, Al Jazeera will broadcast a four-part documentary titled Unveiling Zimbabwe's Dark Secrets: Al Jazeera Exposes Looting, Plunder and Money Laundering.

The Zanu PF regime knows what is coming and the damage limiting exercise has already started.

"Is there corruption in Zimbabwe? Yes. Is there smuggling of minerals and forex out of the country? Yes. Is there money laundering in Zimbabwe? Yes, including by non-governmental (organisations.) Is the government fully committed to getting rid of all the above ills? That is a fact," tweeted Nick Mangwana Information and Publicity ministry secretary.

It is one thing to admit there is corruption in Zimbabwe and then sweep the problem with the usual counter claim of we are not the only country it’s corrupt or we are dealing with the problem; when the details of the corruption are sketchy. The Al Jazeera documentary is putting the flesh to the bones and defining the level of corruption in graphic details; dismissing corrupt now is mission impossible. 

In 2019 Dr John Mangudya, RBZ Governor, revealed that Zimbabwe was losing US$1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers alone (forget the leaks in diamonds, lithium and all the other corruption and cartel activities). He admitted that Zimbabwe would not need to borrow money from outside to buy essentials such as covid 19 equipment then or to fund the country’s development. 

The smuggled US$1.2 billion constitute 30% and 12% of the nation’s US$4 billion budget and US$10 billion GDP respectively. What other nation was making comparable loses?

Zimbabwe is a failed state unable to provide basic services such as education and health care, clean running water and electricity, the country’s once upon a time robust economy has collapsed and 50% of our people are now living in abject poverty. This is not surprising given the burden on the economy of 43 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. 

Yes, corruption is a problem the world over but how many other countries out there are failed states? And is this the rat race to the bottom we want to join much less want to win!

"What is lamentable in this case is that the overriding purpose of the documentary is to interfere with the electoral process of a sovereign state. We cannot afford to have foreign news media attempting so grossly to interfere with the outcome of our election. Al Jazeera would not dare do the same thing in Japan, in Asia, in America or in Europe. Zimbabweans must choose their destiny with no interference from foreigners. Al Jazeera's interference is as brazen as it is nauseating," chipped in UK based Dr Maimba Mavaza, writing in the Zanu PF control Herald. 

How typical! 

The primary purpose of the documentary is to inform the people of Zimbabwe of the true nature of this ugly creature called corruption. The country’s public media’s express purpose has been to brainwash the people and keep them ignorant. The private media has largely been harassed and brow-beaten into silence. 

Democracy, a government of the people for the people and by the people, only works if the said people are informed and educated. A free and independent media is therefore essential. It is therefore regrettable that the people of Zimbabwe should have to rely on a foreign media house to inform and educate them! 

“Major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” stated the EU 2018 Election Observer Mission Final Report. 

“Further,The electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability.

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

The EU made 23 recommendation to ensure future elections are free, fair and credible. Not even one of these recommendations have seen the light of day. 

The Al Jazeera documentary has left President Mnangagwa and his cronies feeling as sick as a parrot for three main reason:

1. people had only seen the ears of the hippo or dark shadows in the dark and, for once, they see the creature in its full ugliness 

1. and, most important of all, who created and milk this monster; President Mnangagwa and his cronies cannot only deny benefiting but being the godfathers of corrupt.

1. it is clear why Zanu PF rigged 2018 and is rigging 2023 election, a regime this corrupt cannot afford the luxury of holding free, fair and credible elections. The electorate are simple people but they are not stupid, especially when they have the mountain of evidence of corruption before their own eye.