"I totally agree, we sold out during 2008 GNU" MDC A leader confessed - sold out after and do so again in 2023 P Guramatunhu

 "I totally agree that we missed an opportunity during GNU when we controlled the levers of power that we should maybe have exerted more pressure on Zanu-PF to have all these things reformed," said Prince Dubeko Sibanda, MDC Alliance MP for Binga North. 

Yes it was an MDC leader admitting the party sold-out during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Had to check that twice!  

Well, well! It has been a real tough slog just to get MDC leaders to admit they sold-out on reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Admitted having some of the most naive and gullible party supporters in the world has helped MDC leaders get away with selling out!

"I think there is a need to change strategy for influencing electoral reforms. As long as the push for reforms is coming from the opposition political parties, there is bound to be resistance," said one participant.

It was not for lack of strategy that MDC leaders failed to implement even one meaning reform in 5 years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They sold-out! 

“Chinja! Guqula! Change!” the MDC supporters have chanted endlessly for the last 20 years. Ask them what are changes you are asking for and it is lights out! They have no clue. 

Even to this day with all the benefits of hindsight, MDC supporters have no clue what the 2008 to 2013 GNU was about. It is therefore little wonder that when MDC leaders sold-out by failing to get even one meaningful reform implemented in 5 years it was all water off a duck’s back. How can they feel betrayed when they have no clue what the reforms are, how they were supposed to be implemented, etc., etc.

To be fair to the MDC supporters, most of the MDC leaders themselves have no clue what these reforms are much less for they are to be implemented. 

“MP Sibanda said as MDC Alliance they would continue lobbying for reforms through Parliament, local authorities, international community as well as civic society,” said the Newsday report. 

Here we go again! As long as Zanu PF continues to enjoy its carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections to secure the presidency and 2/3 majority no amount of lobbying will force the party to implement any reforms. Especially when the party knows that the opposition is only paying lip services to calls for reforms. 

The MDC A and the rest in opposition camp participated in the July 2018 elections knowing fully well that not even one reform they had been calling for had been implemented. They knew that with no reforms, Zanu PF would rig the elections. And most significant of all, MDC A leaders et al KNEW that by participating in the flawed and illegal elections they would be giving the process “credibility”!

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” wrote MDC A Senator, David Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

So MDC leaders sold-out of reforms for the sake of the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF was giving away as bait. It should be noted that by participating MDC leaders gave the flawed election process credibility and, by extension, the election results some modicum of legitimacy. 

The world has dismissed with contempt Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends’ singling out the July 2018 presidential race as flawed and Mnangagwa as illegitimate; whilst accepting the parliamentary and local election process as valid and legitimate. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, for example, rending it impossible to trace and verified anything. This applied to all the three races.   

As soon as it was clear that the November 2017 military coup had succeeded and Ambassador Chris Mutsvanga, speaking on behave of Mnangagwa, had assured MDC leaders they will be included in a new GNU; MDC leaders endorsed the coup. Morgan Tsvangirai died a “disappointed man”, according Chamisa, because Mnangagwa did not honour his GNU promise.

Chamisa had participated in the July 2018 elections confident MDC A would be rewarded with a new GNU this time. He has proved to recognise Mnangagwa as the legitimate president if the vote rigging Zanu PF regime conceded a few cabinet post to MDC leaders. 

MDC leaders do not care that Zimbabwe continues to suffer the consequences of failing to hold free, fair and credible elections. They have all but given up hope of ever getting the reforms implemented. All they are fighting for is a share of the gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait for participating in rigged elections. 

Mark my words, MDC A are going to participate in the 2023 elections even if not even one reform has been implemented for the same reason they participated in the July 2018 elections - greed!

“I totally agree, we sold-out on reforms during the 2008 GNU!” Of course, you did and that is not all. MDC leaders sold out in the 2013 and 2018 elections and are set to do so again in 2023!

ANC envoy "steeped in bona fide pan-Africanist spirit" find no crisis in Zimbabwe, only "challenges" - dumbfounded

 I did not expect much to come out of the Zanu PF and ANC high powered meeting still I never imagined the meeting would be such a total waste of time. Zanu PF leaders are over the moon, the meeting was a great success!

“The Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union Patriotic Front is indebted to the steeped bona fide pan-Africanist spirit which facilitated the convening of the inter-party dialogue with our sister revolutionary party the African National Congress (ANC),” wrote Dr Obert Mpofu, Zanu-PF secretary for Administration, who also chaired the meeting.

“This opportune turn to dialogue is a response to the generously misrepresented Zimbabwean crisis following the Zimbabwean Lives Matter social media trend which has become the cyber rallying point to project our country in terms of a deep-seated socio-economic and political crisis. This heightens the urgency to expose the concealed architecture of the dedicated attacks on ZANU-PF through a misnamed national crisis.”

Of course, Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential crisis with its economy in total meltdown and 34% of our people now living in abject poverty. The health and economic challenges brought on by the corona virus pandemic have only turned the tragic situation in the country into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion. 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. To end the crisis, Zimbabwe must end the curse of rigged elections.

What the ANC envoys should have done therefore was to look the Zanu PF leaders straight in the eyes and told them Zanu PF  rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate and, for the sake of saving the nation from more suffering and deaths, the party must step down. 

Of course, this was yet another wasted opportunity to deal decisively with Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections. 

President Ramaphosa and his ANC leaders are being foolishly in cheering Zanu PF along as the party drags the Zimbabwe deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth. Zimbabwe’s descend into hell has cause heart breaking suffering and deaths to the people of Zimbabwe but some of that suffering has split over into the rest of Southern Africa region. 

There is no doubt there has been a lot of celebration in Zanu PF circles at the ease with which Zanu PF bamboozled the ANC envoys into believe there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, only “challenges”, whatever that is supposed to mean. 

Common sense would dictate a responsible neighbour would stand on the side of justice and tick off the drunkard for abusing his wife and children. The last thing the neighbour should do is pontificate about folly of sparing the rod and spoiling the child! “Bona fide pan-Africanist spirit!” Dr Mpofu calls it, smiling from ear to ear!

ANC envoy leave after meeting Zanu PF and no one else - rightly so too, what is there new to say N Garikai

 The ANC envoy has flown back to SA after meeting the Zanu PF leaders. They did not meet any other party leaders although they had said otherwise.

“ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has announced that they will return to meet the opposition MDC Alliance, ZAPU and Transform Zimbabwe among other stakeholders who requested to meet with them,” reported Zimeye.

Frankly, as regards these SA envoys meetings, some people have made a mountain out of a mole hill! What is new that Zanu PF, MDC A, etc. can tell the envoy on the Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis that is not on the public domain already? 

Even if there is something new that MDC A or any of the other stakeholders would want to tell our SA friends, they can still go ahead and say it. Let us have all the facts on the table so we have a well informed public debate on a matter of great national importance. No more of this “for your ears only” nonsense!

The South Africans knows already that Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A are gunning for a power sharing arrangement with Zanu PF where Chamisa and a few others will get cabinet posts, for example. Chamisa insists that this time, unlike during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, his party will implement “comprehensive democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free, fair and credible”. 

Whilst the South Africans have Chamisa’s attention they would do well to ask why MDC failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 GNU? It would only be a rhetorical question because we all know the answer to that - MDC leaders sold-out big time.

Robert Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office; ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowance, endless overseas trips, etc., etc.; all rained down on Chamisa and company like confetti at a wedding. In return, the MDC leaders threw all the reforms out of the window! 

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat in disgust at MDC leaders’ failure to implement even one reform in five years. 

One would really have to be naive to believe MDC A will not sell-out again and implement “comprehensive reforms” this time, particularly when Zanu PF will have its 2/3 MP majority plus many other tramp cards beside. 

To end Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis, one has to first acknowledge that Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections were rigged; to pretend otherwise is a waste of time. If you accept the elections were rigged, it follows that the country had no legitimate government post the July 2018 elections and therefore needs a transitional government to transition from the current illegitimacy back to legitimacy.

The primary task of the transitional government will be to implement the democratic reforms necessary to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible, producing a legitimate government and not a repeat of the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections. 

Zanu PF and MDC cannot play a role in the transition government; definitely not. They were in the 2008 GNU that failed to implement even one of the democratic reform. They are plenty of other Zimbabweans, with the help from SADC and the UN, who can be entrusted this important task of implement the reforms.

The only reason President Ramaphosa would request a meeting with Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will be to warn them that SA be endorsing the position that Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible, that Zanu PF is illegitimate and must step down. That is bomb shell and it would only be kind to warn Mnangagwa before dropping it! As for the rest, Chamisa, etc.; President Ramaphosa does not need to meet every man and his dog!

"As we move forward, let's transform our work ethics" argue Chiwenga - until end vote rigging culture, going nowhere P Guramatunhu

 "As we move forward and face the future with courage, the expectation of government is that the work ethics and work culture within the Ministry of Health and Child Care undergo deep transformation," said VP Chiwenga.

"We expect all grievances to be solved amicably through discussions without endangering patients' lives; never again shall patients' lives be used like pawns in a game of chess."

Nurses have been on strike for over three months.

Doctors joined the strike last month, citing lack of government commitment to address the health professionals' grievances.

“Kusaziva kufa zvokwadi!” (Ignorance is a curse worse than death!) 

VP Chiwenga if anyone is playing Russian roulette with the lives of the people of Zimbabwe then that person is you, Chiwenga, and not the nurses and doctors. 

How many times have these nurses and doctors said the wage they are being paid is not enough to cover their transport cost to work and back home, buy food and pay for their accommodation? A quick calculation shows that their monthly wage does not even cover their transport cost let alone everything else. 

As much as these health workers care about the welfare of the patients they cannot be expected to walk for hours to work on an empty stomach, do a full day’s work on an empty stomach. Walk back home on an empty stomach and go to bed on an empty stomach. Get up the following day and do the same again! 

There are reports that government has just awarded the nurses and doctors a wage increase. Let us assume that the increase will pay for all their basic needs. With the annual inflation rate running at 800% and monthly rate at 35%; whatever wage increase government offered it must be increased by 35% end of every month! 

Did you, VP Chiwenga, agree to the automatic monthly wage increase to cover for inflation? If you did not then the reality is the health care workers will be 35% worse off financially next month than he/she is this month. The US$ is a more stable currency than the Z$ and hence the reason the nurses and doctors have said they should be paid in US$ and not Z$. 

It is not the health care workers who are responsible for Zimbabwe’s soaring cost of living and soaring inflation; this is government’s responsibility. To deny the workers a living wage is to punish the workers for government’s own failures. 

How ironic that VP Chiwenga was addressing the press wearing the face mask and face shield and odd occasion he has visited an hospital or clinic he was wearing the full “space suit” PPE. And yet the nurses and doctors, the frontline workers working with the corona virus patients, do not even have the most basic PPE! 

Workers is government offices and Zanu PF offices have been tested for corona virus and yet many of the health care workers up and done the country have not been tested. 

Zimbabwe’s confirmed corona virus cases and deaths are very low but only because the country has not been testing as aggressively as it should. Zimbabwe has only done 20% of the covid-19 tests per capita of what SA has done. So of everyone covid-19 positive patient put into isolation four were left undetected and have been spreading the virus. 

Zimbabwe’s economic is in total meltdown because of 40 years of the criminal waste of the country’s material and human resources through gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness by this Zanu PF dictatorship. The party’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the corona virus pandemic is going to cost the nation hundreds of thousands of lives! 

The nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu Pf dictatorship for 40 years and counting because the party rigged elections. 

 

“The expectation of government is that the work ethics and work culture within the Ministry of Health and Child Care undergo deep transformation!” What the nation is dying for, literals and figuratively, is a deep transformation of the country’s rotten political system to end Zanu PF’s vote rigging culture! 

"Ramaphosa will not end Zimbabwe crisis as stakeholders are at cross purpose" - worst of all, they lack vision W Mukor

 It has been a hard slog just to reach a consensus that Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic and political crisis. There is a mountain of evidence to prove the crisis but even that has not helped since we live in a country where denials and falsehoods are common currency on par with truth and facts. 

The Zimbabwe economy has been in total meltdown as evidenced by the unemployment rate that has soared to dizzying height of 90%. According to a 2019 World Bank report, 34% of the people in Zimbabwe were living in “extreme poverty”. Meaning they could not afford one decent meal a day much less the other basic necessities such as education for the children, health care, etc. 

The corona virus outbreak has made the health and economic situation in Zimbabwe much worse as the country did not have the economic resources to deal with the pandemic and its health care service had all but collapsed before the outbreak. The number of Zimbabweans living in extreme poverty has soared way above the 34% and the corona virus is taking a heavy toll.

Zimbabwe’s corona virus cases and deaths are very low compared to SA for example but this is because the Zanu PF regime has done 20% per capita test to those of SA. The regime is in denial of the worsening economic crisis and the ordinary people, who enduring the economic hardships, are getting restless and demanding change. 

Zanu PF’s response to the people’s demand for change is to ramp up the political oppression and hence cometh the political crisis.

It has been a slog just to reach the consensus that Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic and political crisis, Mnangagwa and his cronies have not concede the point and never will, but we must move on.The next challenge is to explore what is the root cause of the crisis and then what must be done to end it.

“At the risk of being the bearer of bad news, the ANC delegation that arrives in Harare today will not achieve any meaningful outcome. This is because what is widely described as a crisis, means different things to the stakeholders. The conversation starts at cross purposes.” Said Dr Godfrey Gandawa, Former Deputy minister of Higher Education and Professor Jonathan Moyo’s deputy, starting us off on the quest.

As far as Dr Gandawa is concerned three stakeholders who are at cross purpose:

“The MDC believes that the crisis is a bilateral dispute between itself and Zanu PF, which can only be resolved by Zanu PF surrendering power to the legitimate winner of the 2018 election. Over the past two years, this has found expression as the ‘crisis of legitimacy’.

“Meanwhile, the so-called G40 believes that the crisis arises from the 2017 coup which ushered in the Mnangagwa regime. The 2017 coup is viewed as the genesis of military interference and state capture. To fix Zimbabwe, the coup must be cured. 

“Unfortunately, the South African government does not accept any of these arguments. It recognises Mnangagwa as the legitimate president elected in 2018 and affirmed by the Constitutional Court decision rejecting the challenge to his victory. That matter is settled.”

The fundamental flaw with Dr Gandawa’s contribution is that he should have started by establishing what the REAL cause of the crisis is before considering what the various stakeholders say.

The country is in economic ruins because of 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness  that has made Zimbabwe a pariah state. It is near impossible to do business in a pariah state. 

If Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democratic country the people would have removed the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime from office years ago. Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party state and Zanu PF has rigged elections all these last 4 decades. 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

The solution to end the crisis is self evident: implement the democratic reforms to stop the curse of rigged elections. The only reason why the reforms have not been implemented is the lack of vision and/or political will. 

Beside the three stakeholders name by Dr Gandawa above, there are two more Mnangagwa and his Lacoste Zanu PF faction in government and the ordinary Zimbabweans, the voiceless majority. The following is the position of the five composite groups as regards the true root cause of the crisis and the implementation of the democratic reforms to end the crisis:

1. Zanu PF created the de facto one-party dictatorship by instigating the Gukurahundi massacre and has shed more innocent blood to retain the dictatorship. The dictatorship has given the party carte blanche dictatorial powers including the power to rig elections. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have rigged elections for the last 40 years including the July 2018 elections. Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office. The only way to get the reforms implemented and thus end the crisis is for Zanu PF to step down to allow the reforms to be implemented.

1. Nelson Chamisa’s choice to reduced the Zimbabwe crisis into a Mnangagwa legitimacy crisis is both flawed and dishonest and must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves. The primary task of 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms everyone agreed, if implemented, would have ended the curse of rigged elections. The task to implement the reforms then fell to the MDC leaders and they failed to get even one reform implemented. Zanu PF rigged the 2013 and the 2018 elections precisely because Chamisa and company sold-out by failing to implement the reforms. In condemning the July 2018 presidential result only as flawed and illegal, Chamisa is cherry picking. Chamisa’s proposed solution is for Zanu PF to agree to a power sharing arrangement where Chamisa and a few other MDC A leaders will be assigned cabinet positions. A parliament with 2/3 Zanu PF majority will never ever implement the reforms taking away the party’s dictatorial power including the power to rig elections.

1. It is not surprising that the Zanu PF G40 faction members should consider the November 2017 military coup as the sum total of the Zimbabwe crisis. Until the coup, they were one with the Lacoste faction that seized power. And if they were to return back into power they would fight to retain the same dictatorial powers they had before the coup. Some of the G40 leaders, like Professor Jonathan Moyo, Dr Gandawa’s former boss, have aligned themselves with Nelson Chamisa’s MDC A and will argue for military reforms and nothing more. What we want is the raft of democratic reforms to end the dictatorial powers to be implemented.

1. Dr Gandawa is right, President Ramaphosa, SA, SADC and AU have all endorsed Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections as acceptable and Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime as the legitimate. This is the exact opposite of the position SADC and the AU took following the 2008 elections; they condemned the elections and so were able to arm twist Mugabe to agree to the raft of the democratic reforms in 2008 Global Political Agreement. It is hard to see how President Ramaphosa can force Mnangagwa to implement any meaningful democratic reforms if the July 2018 elections are accepted as free and fair; much less get Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime to step down! 

1. The ordinary Zimbabweans are the most important stakeholders in this whole Zimbabwe crisis debate and yet Dr Gandawa did not even mention them. The explanation is obvious - the de facto one-party dictatorship has usurped the ordinary people’s freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life itself. The only solution worth the spit to Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis must restore the people’s freedoms, human rights and dignity. What Zimbabwe needs is men and women with the vision and the political will to get Zanu PF to step down so the country can implement the democratic reforms to restore the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free, fair and credible elections. The worst thing President Ramaphosa and his envoys can do is impose a Zanu PF led GNU to save the selfish interest of the ruling elite at the expense of the long suffering Zimbabwean populous! 

"Can't risk abuse taxpayers' money" funding corruption, EU tells Zimbabwe - chicken have come home to roost W Mukori

 The European Union (EU) will not reinstate direct budgetary support to Zimbabwe because of the country’s opaque public financial management systems.

This was revealed by EU in Zimbabwe Ambassador Timo Olkkonen, in an interview with TimesLIVE.

“We can’t risk abuse of EU taxpayers’ money,” he said

The people of Zimbabwe have known of Zimbabwe’s curse of bad governance for the last 40 years and counting and they have done absolutely nothing of consequence to end this curse.  And so for the last 4 decades the country has sunk deeper and deeper into economic ruins as gross mismanagement and rampant corruption spread like cancer. The chicken have finally come home to roost and in their millions like red billed quelea! 

The corona virus pandemic is the greatest health and economic challenge of this generation, no nation has been spared. Zimbabwe has been hit particularly hard given the country’s economy was in a serious mess and its health care service had all but completely collapsed before the pandemic. 

Having a corrupt and incompetent government is a curse during normal times but a double curse at times like this when hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk because of the virus and so too are the livelihoods of millions for decade or more to come. 

The EU’s decision to stop throwing good money into the blackhole because of the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption is understandable, especially in these corona virus times when everyone is counting the pennies. The decision will only drag Zimbabwe even deeper into economic meltdown, poverty and corona virus health crisis. 

The need for the people of Zimbabwe to finally bite the bullet and deal with the curse of rigged elections and bad governance is now the only issue on the national agenda, it is impossible to ignore. 

The price of continuing to bury our collective head in the sand and hope the corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship will transform itself into a competent and democratic regime has gone up. Before now it was lost treasure and human suffering; now it all that plus lost human lives!

"Ramaphosa must promote honest critique of Zanu PF's democratic deficits" - sadly, too compromised to do so with straight face N Garikai

 “What can South Africa do to assist in resolving Zimbabwe‘s problems?” Piers Pigou of International Crisis Group was asked. 

“The shift to a more public critique is an important stepping stone to promoting a more honest engagement around the issues in play,” he answered.

“This discussion should be extended and shared with other Sadc and AU member States, in terms of government to government.

“South Africa's governing party should also promote a more open discussion around governance and democratic deficits amongst liberation movements as it relates to Zimbabwe.”

What “democratic deficits” can President Cyril Ramaphosa raise now when he has already publicly endorse Zimbabwe’s rigged July 2018 elections as democratic and Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime as legitimate?

The nearest SA, SADC and AU have ever come to forcing Zanu PF to address the party’s yawning democratic deficit was when they forced Mugabe and the party to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Zanu PF agreed to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms taking away the party’s carte blanche dictatorial powers including the power to rig elections. 

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, Zanu PF’s partners in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, were tasked to implement the reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. To be fair, SADC leaders had nagged MDC leaders throughout the GNU to implement the reforms but were ignored. 

SADC leaders made one last minute determined attempt to get the reforms implemented and asked the 2013 Zimbabwean elections to be postponed until the reforms were implemented.   

“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist Violet Gonda.

“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

Once again, Tsvangirai et al ignored the SADC leaders’ candid pleas and participated in the elections. And, as expected, Zanu PF blatantly rigged those elections.

SADC leaders had tried to get the reforms implemented and it was none other than Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders, the victims of the rigged elections, who had frustrated their efforts! The regional leaders had accepted Zanu PF as Zimbabwe’s legitimate government following the 2013 election, regardless of the blatant rigging, in disgust at the MDC leaders’ breath taking incompetence and betrayal. 

In 2014 the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC-T made a party congress resolution not to participate in future elections until democratic reforms stopping Zanu PF rigging elections were implemented. “No reform! No Elections!” 

The other MDC factions and a host of other opposition parties endorsed the MDC-T “No reform! No elections!” call. They were all paying lip-service to reforms because they all participated in the 2018 elections with not even one reform implemented for the same reason they had participated in 2013 - greed. 

Whilst the rest of the SADC leaders had once again accepted Zanu PF as the legitimate government, regardless of the blatant voting irregularities and illegalities, because Zimbabwe’s opposition had giving the process credibility by participating. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa went one step further and publicly endorse the elections as having “gone well”! 

If Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not sold-out and implemented the raft of democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, as agreed; Zimbabwe will not be in this mess today. The way forward is to revisit the 2008 GPA and implement the raft of reforms. 

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies cannot be trusted to implement the reforms and so there is no choice but to demand that the party steps down. The party rigged the 2018 elections, it really has no mandate to govern; never had. 

Given President Ramaphosa, SA, SADC and AU have already endorsed Zanu PF as the legitimate government in Zimbabwe; it would be shrewd for President Ramaphosa to ask UN to tell Mnangagwa the bad news. That Zanu PF is illegitimate and, for the sake of ending the crisis in Zimbabwe and tragic human suffering it has brought, the party must step down.  

“If Zanu fails to solve the current crisis, what consequences will this have on the country?” Piers Pigou was asked.

“Zimbabwe will continue its path to impoverishment, in which a select connected few will do handsomely,” he replied.

“The State will continue to lose its capacities and competencies and will remain riven by corruption and patronage, as institutions hollow out and the majority eke a liking out on the margins.

“This trajectory could continue for many years! It will inevitably generate growing hostility from the alienated mass, especially amongst younger people. This is a potentially explosive cocktail.”

A trajectory that has lasted 40 years already and must be brought to an end a.s.a.p. Zanu PF must step down to allow the appointment of a body that will implement the reforms and finally end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance.