Tsvangirai admits the MDC has not made much progress since joining Mugabe to form the GNU. He asked the people to be patient. “It is the MDC which is in government. We are not the government,” he said. Well, I do not think even Tsvangirai himself knew what that was supposed to mean.
“Confusion arises out of the fact that being in government does not necessarily mean that we are the government,” he explained. “It does not mean we have the liberty and unilateral decisions to make the changes we want.”
The people are angry with MDC not because the party did not have the liberty to make unilateral decision, no. The people expect MDC to negotiated and compromised on the party’s election manifesto; it is to be expected in a coalition. The people are angry with MDC because the negotiated and compromised on every point, including what people considered the core areas, and got nothing in return. Mugabe has been making unilateral decisions.
According to the GPA this GNU is supposed to be coalition MDC-T, Zanu PF and MDC-M. MDC-T should be the driving partner in the coalition because it has the largest number of MPs. Still GPA says all key decisions will be made by the three party leaders; Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara. In practice Mugabe has made all the key decisions without even bothering to consult the other two.
“Our goal of restoring fundamental freedoms and human rights is not yet achieved but we are moving in the right direction,” Tsvangirai told the MDC party faithful. The situation on the ground is the exact opposite; it has remained exactly as Mugabe set it up.
The country’s repressive media laws are still on the statute book and Zanu PF still have a strangle hold and monopoly over the public media. The Police and Zanu PF thugs still continue to intimidate and terrorise the people. They are still a law on to themselves. The lack of any meaningful progress in the deliver of democratic and human rights can be attributed to the fact that MDC did not have a plan of action.
Tsvangirai cited the stabilising of the economy and bringing down of the country’s rate of inflation as MDC,s greatest achievement. All the party did was end the price control and stopped the use of the Z$ as a trading currency. These were all common sense changes, but since there is real nothing else for Tsvangirai to crow about, he had to milk this for all its worth!
“The crisis we face is a crisis of identity, half donkey half horse it’s a mule,” Tsvangirai admitted in his on muddled way. Robert Mugabe knows of no such crisis of identity; he is the master in this GNU and he has the whip firmly in his right hand and has a beast of burden to do his donkey work.
Mugabe is lucky to still be in the driving seat when by right he should be answering some difficult questions about the many innocent Zimbabweans’ blood on his hands. He knows that! His greatest worry is that the animal – who cares whether it is a donkey, horse or mule, he beggar like him can not afford to be picky - delivers something and thus ease the country’s current economic melt down. Until that happens his position is not secure, the cloud of regime change hangs over him like Damocles Sword.
The only positive thing to come out of Tsvangirai is an admission that MDC has not done much. The admission is a significant departure from MDC’s usual claim of the party having achieved “incremental gains” invisible to everyone else except the blind party loyalists. The admission will hopefully force the party to have a plan with clear set goals and work the plan. It would have been great if Tsvangirai had announced the party’s goals for the next three months- but that would have been too much to expect!
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Saturday, 30 May 2009
MORE THUGS SUPPORT GONO: THE SUCKERS WHO WILL BE LEFT HOLDING THE TIGER BY THE TAIL!
Joseph Chinotimba, the notorious war veteran who has unashamedly claimed to be one of the leaders of the white farm invasions since 2000, is the latest one to come out in support of Gono. “As war veterans, we are saying those whites whom we had allowed to remain in the farms would leave with immediate effect - immediately!” Chinotimba warned the country’s remaining 300 out of the original 4000 commercial white farmers in 2000.
Morons like Chinotimba have been allowed by the dictatorship to disturb the peace with their threatening and abusive words and, worse still, to commit heinous crimes. The nation has to deal with these morons and not close our eyes and pretend they are not there.
Tsvangirai and MDC clearly had no clear plan to deal with morons like Chinotimba and restore the rule of law. MDC fought hard to get a foot hold in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Tsvangirai went on to appoint the most ineffective of MDC Ministers to head it. Giles Mutsekwa may just as well be a Zanu PF Minister; Mugabe must be very pleased with him!
Just as well it not MDC who will decide whether Gono and Tomana keep their jobs; the West will. Thugs like Chinotimba think it is the MDC or their favourite scapegoats, the white farmers. The West is not so easily intimidated and certainly not by the likes of you, Chinotimba.
The RBZ Governor, Gideon Gono had done a great job in raising the money required to finance a luxurious life style of the dictator Mugabe, the Zanu PF ruling elite and misfits and thugs like Chinotimba for many years. It is little wonder the whole cabal and all the creepy crawls are all out fighting for Gono to keep his job. What simpleton in the cabal are finding hard to understand is the show is over, Gono can not bankroll their extravagant life styles any more even if he returned his position as RBZ governor.
In the past Gono printed Z$, sold the nation jewels and silver, borrowed, stole and God knows what else beside. Whilst all these nefarious activities helped Gono to raise the cash to bankroll the dictatorship they also had the adverse effect of turning the Z$ into a worthless currency, fuel the country’s economic melt down, left the country up to its ears in debt, the RBZ was cleaned of all foreign currency and the whole world has lost confidence in Zimbabwe’s financial institution, etc. There is nothing Gono can do now to raise the necessary money to bankroll the dictatorship as in the past.
Zimbabwe’s only hope of an economic recovery is to get a massive foreign aid. The West holds the tramp card- they are the only source of the foreign aid and they will not pay a penny until they see significant political and economic reforms in Zimbabwe. At the RBZ the West would like Gono replaced, they do not want to see Gono’s voodoo-economics policies pursued.
On Thursday this week the Army’s top brass met with Robert Mugabe, the Commander-in-Chief, to demand better pay for those serving in the Armed Service. They want to be paid more than the US$ 100 a month paid to all other civil servants. No doubt the top brass themselves expect to be paid the top dollar, plus all the other allowances and luxuries as before. To press home their demands, they reportedly told Mugabe the soldiers are so angry that the senior officers now feared being “shot at while reviewing a parade”.
Ironically only days before, one of the Army top brass, Air Vice Marshall Heneri Muchena, speaking on behave of all the Security Chiefs had vowed that Gono would be forced out of office “Over our died bodies!” It is a well know historic fact that no army marches on an empty stomach. Already the same Over-our-died-bodies top brass is afraid of reviewing a pass-out parade of its own man!
The Commander-in-Chief should have told these morons that the days when Gono would pay them everything they asked for were long gone. The reality today is that they can have Gono as RBZ governor and this time they will soon lose the US$ 100 a month too. No doubt the Command-in-Chief said no such thing; he is not an honest man, he betrayed the ordinary and innocent people of Zimbabwe and will no hesitate to betray a bunch ruthless thugs. Yes the thugs had served him well and he paid them well and now he and the thugs have each to face the music alone.
Mugabe went back to his offices knowing fully well he can not hold the dictatorship together for very much longer. If he had anywhere to go, he would have cut and run long ago. Unfortunately for him, he has no where to go, even his old dictator friends do not want him by their side – Mugabe’s heartless brutality against his people made them look like angels in comparison but having Mugabe close would force the spotlight to fall on them too. “Mboko jena rinoparira perere nhema” as we would say in Shona.
Mugabe’s dictatorship is crumbling. The Service Chiefs and thugs like Joseph Chinotimba’s efforts to stop that happening are as futile as the proverbial frog putting out the forest fire with his piss. They will be the suckers left holding the angry tiger by the tail whilst the leading thugs like Mugabe are doing their best to cover their tracks and good their escape.
Morons like Chinotimba have been allowed by the dictatorship to disturb the peace with their threatening and abusive words and, worse still, to commit heinous crimes. The nation has to deal with these morons and not close our eyes and pretend they are not there.
Tsvangirai and MDC clearly had no clear plan to deal with morons like Chinotimba and restore the rule of law. MDC fought hard to get a foot hold in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Tsvangirai went on to appoint the most ineffective of MDC Ministers to head it. Giles Mutsekwa may just as well be a Zanu PF Minister; Mugabe must be very pleased with him!
Just as well it not MDC who will decide whether Gono and Tomana keep their jobs; the West will. Thugs like Chinotimba think it is the MDC or their favourite scapegoats, the white farmers. The West is not so easily intimidated and certainly not by the likes of you, Chinotimba.
The RBZ Governor, Gideon Gono had done a great job in raising the money required to finance a luxurious life style of the dictator Mugabe, the Zanu PF ruling elite and misfits and thugs like Chinotimba for many years. It is little wonder the whole cabal and all the creepy crawls are all out fighting for Gono to keep his job. What simpleton in the cabal are finding hard to understand is the show is over, Gono can not bankroll their extravagant life styles any more even if he returned his position as RBZ governor.
In the past Gono printed Z$, sold the nation jewels and silver, borrowed, stole and God knows what else beside. Whilst all these nefarious activities helped Gono to raise the cash to bankroll the dictatorship they also had the adverse effect of turning the Z$ into a worthless currency, fuel the country’s economic melt down, left the country up to its ears in debt, the RBZ was cleaned of all foreign currency and the whole world has lost confidence in Zimbabwe’s financial institution, etc. There is nothing Gono can do now to raise the necessary money to bankroll the dictatorship as in the past.
Zimbabwe’s only hope of an economic recovery is to get a massive foreign aid. The West holds the tramp card- they are the only source of the foreign aid and they will not pay a penny until they see significant political and economic reforms in Zimbabwe. At the RBZ the West would like Gono replaced, they do not want to see Gono’s voodoo-economics policies pursued.
On Thursday this week the Army’s top brass met with Robert Mugabe, the Commander-in-Chief, to demand better pay for those serving in the Armed Service. They want to be paid more than the US$ 100 a month paid to all other civil servants. No doubt the top brass themselves expect to be paid the top dollar, plus all the other allowances and luxuries as before. To press home their demands, they reportedly told Mugabe the soldiers are so angry that the senior officers now feared being “shot at while reviewing a parade”.
Ironically only days before, one of the Army top brass, Air Vice Marshall Heneri Muchena, speaking on behave of all the Security Chiefs had vowed that Gono would be forced out of office “Over our died bodies!” It is a well know historic fact that no army marches on an empty stomach. Already the same Over-our-died-bodies top brass is afraid of reviewing a pass-out parade of its own man!
The Commander-in-Chief should have told these morons that the days when Gono would pay them everything they asked for were long gone. The reality today is that they can have Gono as RBZ governor and this time they will soon lose the US$ 100 a month too. No doubt the Command-in-Chief said no such thing; he is not an honest man, he betrayed the ordinary and innocent people of Zimbabwe and will no hesitate to betray a bunch ruthless thugs. Yes the thugs had served him well and he paid them well and now he and the thugs have each to face the music alone.
Mugabe went back to his offices knowing fully well he can not hold the dictatorship together for very much longer. If he had anywhere to go, he would have cut and run long ago. Unfortunately for him, he has no where to go, even his old dictator friends do not want him by their side – Mugabe’s heartless brutality against his people made them look like angels in comparison but having Mugabe close would force the spotlight to fall on them too. “Mboko jena rinoparira perere nhema” as we would say in Shona.
Mugabe’s dictatorship is crumbling. The Service Chiefs and thugs like Joseph Chinotimba’s efforts to stop that happening are as futile as the proverbial frog putting out the forest fire with his piss. They will be the suckers left holding the angry tiger by the tail whilst the leading thugs like Mugabe are doing their best to cover their tracks and good their escape.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
ZIMBABWE SERVICE CHIEF PLEDGE THEIR SUPPORT OF GONO: ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE!
Zimbabwe's Service Chiefs come out in support of Gono, they do not want him to go.
Each of the Service Chiefs constitutes one of the key supporting pillars of the Mugabe dictatorship. Gono, Tomana, Munangagwa and a few others too constitution some of these key support pillars. Each one of them knows the removal of any of the pillars will result in the collapse of the whole corrupt and repressive Mugabe regime. It is to be expected that Service Chiefs will not want Gono to go.
And Zimbabwe being what it is - a heavily politicised country in which its key institutions like the Army, Police, etc are there to serve Zanu PF and its leader Mugabe above all else - it is not surprising that the Service Chiefs should publicly support Gono in such a robust way. “Over our dead bodies!” Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena threatened, speaking on behave of all the other Service Chiefs. Very strong language indeed, coming from a soldier!
“Please leave Gideon Gono alone so that he works on behalf of the people,” pleaded the Air Vice Marshal. He even credited Gono of leading an “imminent economic revolution”. Of all the feeble excuses for supporting Gono that sure takes the biscuit!
The Vice Marshal rattled on about the war of independence and that the fight to keep Gono was a continuation of this struggle. That is a sad reflection of the extend of mental rot within the dictatorship in circle; the noble cause of freedom, liberty and human dignity behind the war of independence have now been twisted and waved into a common thief and murder’s creed!
What happen last year during the presidential run-off was just another warning of what Mugabe and this cabal of ruthless killers were about – they would stop at nothing, nothing to hang on to power. It was foolish of Tsvangirai to think he could work with such thugs. After the sham June election Mugabe and the cabal were on the ropes and Tsvangirai saved them. Now the cabal is like a nest of wasps on a war footing, who knows what they will do next?
Today the cabal has the high ground, curse the stupidity of not taking them on when they were on the ropes. Still; this not the time to for Tsvangirai and the nation at large to have weak knees. The cabal should be told in no uncertain terms that they can not hold the nation to ransom. And that there will be a full investigation into the political activities of the country’s Service Chiefs – no nation can tolerate what some of them have been doing. The Service Chiefs must pledge their loyalty to the nation and serve the nation and no other master!
To all those supporting the Mugabe Dictatorship it is now a matter of "One for all and all for one!" The whole cabal will stand as one or fall as one. So be it; they will fall as one. The nation’s focus at present is Gono; he must go and go he will! The Service Chiefs; you are next. No price for guessing who will be next.
Each of the Service Chiefs constitutes one of the key supporting pillars of the Mugabe dictatorship. Gono, Tomana, Munangagwa and a few others too constitution some of these key support pillars. Each one of them knows the removal of any of the pillars will result in the collapse of the whole corrupt and repressive Mugabe regime. It is to be expected that Service Chiefs will not want Gono to go.
And Zimbabwe being what it is - a heavily politicised country in which its key institutions like the Army, Police, etc are there to serve Zanu PF and its leader Mugabe above all else - it is not surprising that the Service Chiefs should publicly support Gono in such a robust way. “Over our dead bodies!” Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena threatened, speaking on behave of all the other Service Chiefs. Very strong language indeed, coming from a soldier!
“Please leave Gideon Gono alone so that he works on behalf of the people,” pleaded the Air Vice Marshal. He even credited Gono of leading an “imminent economic revolution”. Of all the feeble excuses for supporting Gono that sure takes the biscuit!
The Vice Marshal rattled on about the war of independence and that the fight to keep Gono was a continuation of this struggle. That is a sad reflection of the extend of mental rot within the dictatorship in circle; the noble cause of freedom, liberty and human dignity behind the war of independence have now been twisted and waved into a common thief and murder’s creed!
What happen last year during the presidential run-off was just another warning of what Mugabe and this cabal of ruthless killers were about – they would stop at nothing, nothing to hang on to power. It was foolish of Tsvangirai to think he could work with such thugs. After the sham June election Mugabe and the cabal were on the ropes and Tsvangirai saved them. Now the cabal is like a nest of wasps on a war footing, who knows what they will do next?
Today the cabal has the high ground, curse the stupidity of not taking them on when they were on the ropes. Still; this not the time to for Tsvangirai and the nation at large to have weak knees. The cabal should be told in no uncertain terms that they can not hold the nation to ransom. And that there will be a full investigation into the political activities of the country’s Service Chiefs – no nation can tolerate what some of them have been doing. The Service Chiefs must pledge their loyalty to the nation and serve the nation and no other master!
To all those supporting the Mugabe Dictatorship it is now a matter of "One for all and all for one!" The whole cabal will stand as one or fall as one. So be it; they will fall as one. The nation’s focus at present is Gono; he must go and go he will! The Service Chiefs; you are next. No price for guessing who will be next.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
REGIME CHANGE IS COMING TO ZIMBABWE: MUGABE IS A TRAPPED RAT BEING STARVED TO DEATH!
There are many ways of killing a rat; trap it, poison it, starve it, etc. Similarly there are many ways of getting rid of a dictator like Mugabe and achieve the dragged regime change. Whilst Tsvangirai and MDC chose to cooperate with the dictator and give him and his cronies all they ask for - the equivalent of over feeding the rat in the hope that it will clock in the pounds and die of heart failure. Of course rats are smarter than that, when there is plenty of food rats multiple.
The West had a different method, the complete opposite of MDC, starve the dictator and his cronies of the luxurious they crave for. They slapped the targeted sanctions and shopping trips to America and Europe stopped. They freeze the assets of the individuals and companies propping up the regime. And they stopped foreign aid and assistant to the regime.
The regime responded by printing money fuelling the country’s hyper inflation. The regime has tried everything to raise foreign currencies; it has sold of all the nation’s jewels to the Chinese and whoever, it commandeered all the foreign currency in individual or company accounts it could lay its hands on, etc. It its desperate effort to raise the funds to buy the Mercedes Benz, Plasma TV, etc for the ruling elite the regime pushed the national economy completely off track sending it into total melt down.
It was the growing pressure from his cronies, starved of the luxuries, and the ordinary people, denied of the bear necessities of life, that forced Mugabe to accept MDC into the GNU. If was an ideal solution for the dictator; he will continue to be President and enjoy all his dictatorial powers and Tsvangirai will get the West to lift the targeted sanctions and get the foreign aid flowing again! Mugabe had avoided the dreaded regime change!
Tsvangirai and Biti tried to sell the GNU to the West but they were no takers. Unlike MDC the West was not easily fooled; they wanted real change not a whitewash. For Mugabe to retain people like Gideon Gono at the RBZ, Johannes Tomana as AG, JOC running a parallel administration, is totally acceptable.
Tsvangirai and MDC are now insisting that Gideon Gono and Tomana must go as a “matter of principle”! Principle! Since when did Tsvangirai have any principles? He does not even know the meaning of the word. This is the posturing of a puppy because it knows its mother is right behind! The real fight is between Mugabe and the West.
Mugabe knows that people like Gideon Gono, Johannes Tomana, JOC, are the bear are the critical pillars on which his dictatorship stands. The GNU has clawed away at the brick work and all there other structural work that filled the gap between the supporting pillars. Take away one, just one of these supporting pillars and the whole edifice will collapse. Mugabe knows that and so does the West. So who will blink first!
The situation favours the West; the rat chewed through everything including the grain bags and now the gnawing hunger pains are driving it mad! The West does not have to do anything else but wait and they have all the time in the world!
Mugabe’s cronies can fight over the remaining white farms and it is now a dog-eat-dog fight. But as for all the other luxuries they had become accustomed to there will be none. RBZ Governor Gideon Gono can remain in his office but what good is that to them if he can not buy them the luxury goods and give them the foreign currency to pay for their children studying outside Zimbabwe. The truth is there is no money in any RBZ account!
One of the greatest achievement of the GNU since its formation was to end price control – it was a stupid policy in the first place and it is ironic that the GNU should boost of a common sense position. It has allowed shop owners to fill shops with food and other goods. The people were now getting restless about lasting economic recovery so they can be employed and earn the money to but the food, pay the school fees, etc. The people’s patience will snap if Mugabe does anything now to threaten the economic recovery. There will be riots in all the urban centres of Zimbabwe if Mugabe was to do anything to cause the same food and goods shortages of last year!
There will be regime change in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has a simple choice either give in and replace Gideon Gono and Tomana and see the whole dictatorship collapse. Or keep all the support pillars of the dictatorship and hope increased repression will contain the hungry party cronies and the long suffering masses of Zimbabwe. Knowing Mugabe, he will chose to go down fighting – things could very well get really messy, many lives could be lost.
What Mugabe must know is that he has dragged this nation into this hell and he and his cronies have a lot to answer for. If he decides to takes this country into yet another blood bath he and all those close to him will have to account for every innocent blood shed. What this nation will not do is give in to his murderous blackmailing. It is a great pity that some section of Zimbabwean society have done so in the past and thus allowing his murderous rule to survive this far.
There will be regime change in Zimbabwe and about time too!
The West had a different method, the complete opposite of MDC, starve the dictator and his cronies of the luxurious they crave for. They slapped the targeted sanctions and shopping trips to America and Europe stopped. They freeze the assets of the individuals and companies propping up the regime. And they stopped foreign aid and assistant to the regime.
The regime responded by printing money fuelling the country’s hyper inflation. The regime has tried everything to raise foreign currencies; it has sold of all the nation’s jewels to the Chinese and whoever, it commandeered all the foreign currency in individual or company accounts it could lay its hands on, etc. It its desperate effort to raise the funds to buy the Mercedes Benz, Plasma TV, etc for the ruling elite the regime pushed the national economy completely off track sending it into total melt down.
It was the growing pressure from his cronies, starved of the luxuries, and the ordinary people, denied of the bear necessities of life, that forced Mugabe to accept MDC into the GNU. If was an ideal solution for the dictator; he will continue to be President and enjoy all his dictatorial powers and Tsvangirai will get the West to lift the targeted sanctions and get the foreign aid flowing again! Mugabe had avoided the dreaded regime change!
Tsvangirai and Biti tried to sell the GNU to the West but they were no takers. Unlike MDC the West was not easily fooled; they wanted real change not a whitewash. For Mugabe to retain people like Gideon Gono at the RBZ, Johannes Tomana as AG, JOC running a parallel administration, is totally acceptable.
Tsvangirai and MDC are now insisting that Gideon Gono and Tomana must go as a “matter of principle”! Principle! Since when did Tsvangirai have any principles? He does not even know the meaning of the word. This is the posturing of a puppy because it knows its mother is right behind! The real fight is between Mugabe and the West.
Mugabe knows that people like Gideon Gono, Johannes Tomana, JOC, are the bear are the critical pillars on which his dictatorship stands. The GNU has clawed away at the brick work and all there other structural work that filled the gap between the supporting pillars. Take away one, just one of these supporting pillars and the whole edifice will collapse. Mugabe knows that and so does the West. So who will blink first!
The situation favours the West; the rat chewed through everything including the grain bags and now the gnawing hunger pains are driving it mad! The West does not have to do anything else but wait and they have all the time in the world!
Mugabe’s cronies can fight over the remaining white farms and it is now a dog-eat-dog fight. But as for all the other luxuries they had become accustomed to there will be none. RBZ Governor Gideon Gono can remain in his office but what good is that to them if he can not buy them the luxury goods and give them the foreign currency to pay for their children studying outside Zimbabwe. The truth is there is no money in any RBZ account!
One of the greatest achievement of the GNU since its formation was to end price control – it was a stupid policy in the first place and it is ironic that the GNU should boost of a common sense position. It has allowed shop owners to fill shops with food and other goods. The people were now getting restless about lasting economic recovery so they can be employed and earn the money to but the food, pay the school fees, etc. The people’s patience will snap if Mugabe does anything now to threaten the economic recovery. There will be riots in all the urban centres of Zimbabwe if Mugabe was to do anything to cause the same food and goods shortages of last year!
There will be regime change in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has a simple choice either give in and replace Gideon Gono and Tomana and see the whole dictatorship collapse. Or keep all the support pillars of the dictatorship and hope increased repression will contain the hungry party cronies and the long suffering masses of Zimbabwe. Knowing Mugabe, he will chose to go down fighting – things could very well get really messy, many lives could be lost.
What Mugabe must know is that he has dragged this nation into this hell and he and his cronies have a lot to answer for. If he decides to takes this country into yet another blood bath he and all those close to him will have to account for every innocent blood shed. What this nation will not do is give in to his murderous blackmailing. It is a great pity that some section of Zimbabwean society have done so in the past and thus allowing his murderous rule to survive this far.
There will be regime change in Zimbabwe and about time too!
Monday, 25 May 2009
THE GREATEST THREAT AGIANST A DEMOCRATIC ZIMBABWE IS THE PEOPLE'S BLIND LOYALTY
It is now 100 days since the GNU was formed and yet the situation on the ground has not changed one bit. And yet some people have had nothing but praise for MDC and PM Tsvangirai and their get very angry with those who dare say otherwise.
In 1995 I wanted to visit a group of Homeless people who had been forcefully removed by Zanu PF from Churu Farm and damped near Lake Chivero. I was refused entry into the shanty camp by ill clad "Security Guards". The camp had no clean water, no toilets facilities and the people lived in structures made of sticks, plastic sheets and anything else the people could get. It was the rainy season and so the whole camp was one large mud bath. Life in the shanty camp was hell-on-earth.
The Mugabe regime deployed Security Guards to stop outsiders seeing this hell-on-earth!
Mugabe has been the visible figure head of the Zanu PF dictatorship, the visible ears of the juggernaut whilst the body of the beast itself, the Green Bombers, the ill-clad Security Guards at Lake Chivero, the busy-bodies of Zanu PF Women League, etc. have often remained hidden in the muddy waters. What was it that turned one would assume are otherwise ordinary and rational members of society into foot-soldiers of a ruthless dictator willing to do his dirty bidding including murder?
People like Mugabe have created a suffocating political environment in which the people are corralled into seeing everything in the monochrome black and white, them against us, instead of seeing all the colours of the rainbow and the bigger picture the nation behind the petty individual and party interests. To the Lake Chivero Security Guards stopping outsiders coming into the Shanty Camp was more than a job. They really believed protection Mugabe’s falsehood of a happy, free and prosperous Zimbabwe was in the national interest. They never considered the possibility that sweeping Mugabe’s excesses under the carpet was not helping the victims of the abuses and, worse still, was strengthening the hand of the dictatorship. To them, they owned Mugabe and the ruling party Zanu PF and their considered it their patriotic duty to defend Mugabe and the ruling party at all cost.
Mugabe made them believe that their best interests and that on the nation were best served by giving him and Zanu PF their blind loyalty.
It has taken thirty long years for some people to finally realise that Mugabe had taken them for fools; the people’s blind loyalty has allowed Mugabe to use them to inflict suffering and pain on their fellow Zimbabweans and, ultimately, to destroy the nation itself. As a nation we have paid dearly for allowing ourselves to be duped by Mugabe.
Sadly, it seems, some people still want to hold on to this myopic view of life. They now give Tsvangirai and MDC the same blind royalty they gave Mugabe and Zanu PF in the past. Tsvangirai has been an unmitigated disaster for Zimbabwe but these people refuse to even consider the growing body of evidence to show this. They even exaggerate the fact to create the “success” story.
It is hardly a great success story that there is now good in Zimbabwe’s shops since the GNU took charge. The truth is there was little the GNU actual did here serve to end the price controls introduced by the Mugabe regime. The real challenge for the GNU was in getting the country’s economy back on track. That demands strategic thinking; and sadly the GNU has fallen flat on its face on this. It the last three month the regime has discussed endless the outstanding matters of appointing RBZ governor, AG, etc. The regime was created an even more bloated administration than Mugabe ever did, at a time when the nation is broke and therefore be cutting back. Tsvangirai should have addressed the land issue head-on; this important resource can not be retained by those not able to put it into productive use. His timid approach has emboldened Mugabe supporters to seize even more farms!
Zimbabwe’s greatest enemy to building a free, happy and prosperous nation back in 1980 was not so much Mugabe and his inner circle of thugs; it was us the people. Our willingness to be duped into believing that Mugabe can not do no-wrong allowed him to build a ruthless dictatorship. This tendency for blind loyalty is today allowing Tsvangirai to commit one blunder after another confident that we the people will be loathed to ever question him.
For years Zimbabweans have been crying for democratic change and yet we are loathed to hold our leaders to account. We must boldly tell Tsvangirai the honey moon is over, the 100 days are up and the GNU has achieved very little. He must give a full account for all the blunders he and his fellow MDC leaders have committed!
In 1995 I wanted to visit a group of Homeless people who had been forcefully removed by Zanu PF from Churu Farm and damped near Lake Chivero. I was refused entry into the shanty camp by ill clad "Security Guards". The camp had no clean water, no toilets facilities and the people lived in structures made of sticks, plastic sheets and anything else the people could get. It was the rainy season and so the whole camp was one large mud bath. Life in the shanty camp was hell-on-earth.
The Mugabe regime deployed Security Guards to stop outsiders seeing this hell-on-earth!
Mugabe has been the visible figure head of the Zanu PF dictatorship, the visible ears of the juggernaut whilst the body of the beast itself, the Green Bombers, the ill-clad Security Guards at Lake Chivero, the busy-bodies of Zanu PF Women League, etc. have often remained hidden in the muddy waters. What was it that turned one would assume are otherwise ordinary and rational members of society into foot-soldiers of a ruthless dictator willing to do his dirty bidding including murder?
People like Mugabe have created a suffocating political environment in which the people are corralled into seeing everything in the monochrome black and white, them against us, instead of seeing all the colours of the rainbow and the bigger picture the nation behind the petty individual and party interests. To the Lake Chivero Security Guards stopping outsiders coming into the Shanty Camp was more than a job. They really believed protection Mugabe’s falsehood of a happy, free and prosperous Zimbabwe was in the national interest. They never considered the possibility that sweeping Mugabe’s excesses under the carpet was not helping the victims of the abuses and, worse still, was strengthening the hand of the dictatorship. To them, they owned Mugabe and the ruling party Zanu PF and their considered it their patriotic duty to defend Mugabe and the ruling party at all cost.
Mugabe made them believe that their best interests and that on the nation were best served by giving him and Zanu PF their blind loyalty.
It has taken thirty long years for some people to finally realise that Mugabe had taken them for fools; the people’s blind loyalty has allowed Mugabe to use them to inflict suffering and pain on their fellow Zimbabweans and, ultimately, to destroy the nation itself. As a nation we have paid dearly for allowing ourselves to be duped by Mugabe.
Sadly, it seems, some people still want to hold on to this myopic view of life. They now give Tsvangirai and MDC the same blind royalty they gave Mugabe and Zanu PF in the past. Tsvangirai has been an unmitigated disaster for Zimbabwe but these people refuse to even consider the growing body of evidence to show this. They even exaggerate the fact to create the “success” story.
It is hardly a great success story that there is now good in Zimbabwe’s shops since the GNU took charge. The truth is there was little the GNU actual did here serve to end the price controls introduced by the Mugabe regime. The real challenge for the GNU was in getting the country’s economy back on track. That demands strategic thinking; and sadly the GNU has fallen flat on its face on this. It the last three month the regime has discussed endless the outstanding matters of appointing RBZ governor, AG, etc. The regime was created an even more bloated administration than Mugabe ever did, at a time when the nation is broke and therefore be cutting back. Tsvangirai should have addressed the land issue head-on; this important resource can not be retained by those not able to put it into productive use. His timid approach has emboldened Mugabe supporters to seize even more farms!
Zimbabwe’s greatest enemy to building a free, happy and prosperous nation back in 1980 was not so much Mugabe and his inner circle of thugs; it was us the people. Our willingness to be duped into believing that Mugabe can not do no-wrong allowed him to build a ruthless dictatorship. This tendency for blind loyalty is today allowing Tsvangirai to commit one blunder after another confident that we the people will be loathed to ever question him.
For years Zimbabweans have been crying for democratic change and yet we are loathed to hold our leaders to account. We must boldly tell Tsvangirai the honey moon is over, the 100 days are up and the GNU has achieved very little. He must give a full account for all the blunders he and his fellow MDC leaders have committed!
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
ZIMBABWE IS STUCK WITH A DICTATOR MUGABE AND A FEEBLE ALTERNATIVE, TSVANGIRAI
There is no “right time” in any nation’s history when it is ok to have a feeble leader. As long a leader’s metal is never really tested then nation will never know the danger it was in and so it really is OK to have a feeble leader at such times. Having a feeble leader who is hen tested and found wanting can often have tragic consequences.
In the last few years of quite and peace Britain had a feeble leader, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain whose policy of appeasement of the Germany dictator, Adolf Hitler, proved to be disastrous for Britain and the world at large. By the time the British people realised the disastrous path PM Chamberlain was leading them and had him replace the damage had been done. The price paid to stop Hitler was millions of human lives and untold suffering and misery to those who lived through the bitterness of the Second World War.
Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune of having a ruthless dictator Robert Mugabe and for nearly thirty years he has ruined the country’s once prosperous and vibrant economy. Years of economic mismanagement and rampant corruption has sapped the very life out economy; with unemployment soaring to 95%, inflation over 5 billion %, etc. Life expectancy has dropped from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2006.
On the political front Mugabe has murdered hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans to achieved absolute dictatorial power. He has corrupted the country’s democratic institutions; the Police, Judiciary, Media, etc. turning them into puppets, there to save his selfish end and not the people. Last year is a act of desperation to hang on to power Mugabe mounted one of the most outrageous campaign of terror and murder in which half a million innocent Zimbabweans were harassed, beaten, raped and/or had their property destroyed. At least two hundred people were murdered in cold blood.
The people of Zimbabwe placed their hopes and trust in Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party to lead the nation out of the nightmare of Mugabe dictatorship. Suddenly that was not to be. Tsvangirai has turned out to be one of those feeble leaders, tested and found wanting.
The nation was looking for a visionary and firm leader to not only deal with the dictator Mugabe but also one who would dismantle the whole edifice of the dictatorship and replace it with a strong democratic system. Instead the nation got Tsvangirai a feeble man, with little intellectual talent and no common sense. And like all feeble minded leaders before him, he has sort to appease Mugabe with a blind stubbornness.
Ever since MDC became the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, the party has sort to appease Mugabe at every turn. After the sham presidential run-off election MDC entered into protracted power sharing negotiations with Mugabe in which they conceded to Mugabe’s demands without receiving much in return. In the end Mugabe got all his dictatorial powers.
It was clear the GNU would never achieve much; as it turned out three months after its formation the nation is stuck on basic and yet important issues like getting a Police Force that will carry out its primary task of up holding the rule of law. Instead the Police have continued to harass, to arrest and even murder innocent citizens just as they have done before the GNU. Many people had said from the on-set the GNU would not work but Tsvangirai, in his wisdom said it was “not perfect but workable”!
Now it has proved unworkable, as many people had said; Tsvangirai is asking SADC and AU to intervene. He does not know what exactly he wants SADC and the AU to say or do. Typical!
Tsvangirai can not be blamed for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down and the tragic human misery caused. Nor can anyone blame him for the heinous human rights violations visited on the people. Mugabe is responsible for all that. Tsvangirai has had numerous opportunities to stop the dictator dead in his tracks but again and again failed to do so. His policies of appeasement have only saved to extend Mugabe’s reign of terror.
It is tempting to compare Zimbabwe’s PM Tsvangirai to the British PM Chamberlain. The truth is the later was feeble but at least he had the common sense to allow better men play leading roles. Tsvangirai is a feeble leader with the stubbornness of a mule. The people of Zimbabwe have paid a heavy price for having such a failed leader at this critical stage in the country’s history. It took a lot of grit determination on the part of the people to get Tsvangirai where he is, it will not be easy to replace him. The nation is stuck with a dictator in power and the man tasked to rid the nation of the dictator, is nothing more than the dictator’s accolade.
In the last few years of quite and peace Britain had a feeble leader, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain whose policy of appeasement of the Germany dictator, Adolf Hitler, proved to be disastrous for Britain and the world at large. By the time the British people realised the disastrous path PM Chamberlain was leading them and had him replace the damage had been done. The price paid to stop Hitler was millions of human lives and untold suffering and misery to those who lived through the bitterness of the Second World War.
Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune of having a ruthless dictator Robert Mugabe and for nearly thirty years he has ruined the country’s once prosperous and vibrant economy. Years of economic mismanagement and rampant corruption has sapped the very life out economy; with unemployment soaring to 95%, inflation over 5 billion %, etc. Life expectancy has dropped from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2006.
On the political front Mugabe has murdered hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans to achieved absolute dictatorial power. He has corrupted the country’s democratic institutions; the Police, Judiciary, Media, etc. turning them into puppets, there to save his selfish end and not the people. Last year is a act of desperation to hang on to power Mugabe mounted one of the most outrageous campaign of terror and murder in which half a million innocent Zimbabweans were harassed, beaten, raped and/or had their property destroyed. At least two hundred people were murdered in cold blood.
The people of Zimbabwe placed their hopes and trust in Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party to lead the nation out of the nightmare of Mugabe dictatorship. Suddenly that was not to be. Tsvangirai has turned out to be one of those feeble leaders, tested and found wanting.
The nation was looking for a visionary and firm leader to not only deal with the dictator Mugabe but also one who would dismantle the whole edifice of the dictatorship and replace it with a strong democratic system. Instead the nation got Tsvangirai a feeble man, with little intellectual talent and no common sense. And like all feeble minded leaders before him, he has sort to appease Mugabe with a blind stubbornness.
Ever since MDC became the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, the party has sort to appease Mugabe at every turn. After the sham presidential run-off election MDC entered into protracted power sharing negotiations with Mugabe in which they conceded to Mugabe’s demands without receiving much in return. In the end Mugabe got all his dictatorial powers.
It was clear the GNU would never achieve much; as it turned out three months after its formation the nation is stuck on basic and yet important issues like getting a Police Force that will carry out its primary task of up holding the rule of law. Instead the Police have continued to harass, to arrest and even murder innocent citizens just as they have done before the GNU. Many people had said from the on-set the GNU would not work but Tsvangirai, in his wisdom said it was “not perfect but workable”!
Now it has proved unworkable, as many people had said; Tsvangirai is asking SADC and AU to intervene. He does not know what exactly he wants SADC and the AU to say or do. Typical!
Tsvangirai can not be blamed for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down and the tragic human misery caused. Nor can anyone blame him for the heinous human rights violations visited on the people. Mugabe is responsible for all that. Tsvangirai has had numerous opportunities to stop the dictator dead in his tracks but again and again failed to do so. His policies of appeasement have only saved to extend Mugabe’s reign of terror.
It is tempting to compare Zimbabwe’s PM Tsvangirai to the British PM Chamberlain. The truth is the later was feeble but at least he had the common sense to allow better men play leading roles. Tsvangirai is a feeble leader with the stubbornness of a mule. The people of Zimbabwe have paid a heavy price for having such a failed leader at this critical stage in the country’s history. It took a lot of grit determination on the part of the people to get Tsvangirai where he is, it will not be easy to replace him. The nation is stuck with a dictator in power and the man tasked to rid the nation of the dictator, is nothing more than the dictator’s accolade.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
IMF AND WB ARE AT IT AGAIN: THEIR DIRTY AND INSUFFERABLE HABIT OF PROPPING UP MUGABE!
Last month, the World Bank (WB) paid for Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU) team building exercise at Victoria Falls. The GNU was being berated for its bloated size, for issuing a new Mercedes Benz to each of the ministers, for its failure to implement democratic reforms and continued human rights violations. With such a pathetic and hopeless mob one would thing it wise to have the deadwood removed first before team-building! Today it is the WB’s sister organisation, IMF’s turn to pamper Mugabe.
When it comes to Africa the two Brentwood sisters either believe the continent can still achieve economic prosperity without the prerequisite economic prudence and the need for good governance and democratic accountability. Or else they believe such economic and political goals are too loft and totally unachievable for Africa. They have given up and therefore will work with whatever regime comes up even one as incompetent, corrupt and ruthlessly oppressive as Mugabe.
Zimbabwe was once a model African economy but has now fallen into bad times with a severe economic melt down and a political crisis. IMF and WB have played their part in Zimbabwe’s downfall. For twenty years, these two Brentwood Financial Institutions propped up Mugabe and bankroll his reckless spending at great cost to the Zimbabweans who ultimately will be expected to pay back the mountain of debt Mugabe accrued. The people paid an even bigger price as they were at the coal face of the human rights violations under the repressive regime – something the Brentwood sister institutions have yet to acknowledge ever happened in Zimbabwe.
It was IMF and WB who sponsored the first and second five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Reform Programme (ESARP) in 1990 and 1995 respectively. The programmes did not delivery the economic recovery it promised; all they did was to bankroll Mugabe’s wasteful ways and, more significantly, the confidence that he does not have to accept democratic reforms which are the true prerequisites for economic prosperity and political stability.
So what is this new IMF sponsored programme, Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility-Exogenous Shock Facility (PRGF-ESF)? Is this the beginning of a new ESARP at a time when Mugabe is stubbornly refusing to implement meaningful democratic reforms? Most of major financially players have stood firm in their demands for meaningful democratic reforms in Zimbabwe before they would restart any financial assistance to Zimbabwe. Is PRGF-ESF designed to undermine all these players’ efforts?
The ordinary Zimbabweans have paid a heavy price, many of them with their very lives, over the last three decades of this Mugabe dictatorship. The one thing the people want right now is a fresh start NOT yet another false start.
MDC made a stupid decision to join Mugabe in a power sharing deal in which Mugabe had all the dictatorial powers. The GNU has been in power for three months already and still there is no progress of many of the basic issues. And it is Mugabe who is the stumbling block. It seems IMF board is ignoring all these political realities or is it that these men and women simply do not care!
The IMF and WB have the money and Mugabe has all the political power; so the two define Zimbabwe’s destiny. The great majority of Zimbabweans have neither the money nor the political power, the dictatorship has supped them of both; they have no say. Zimbabwe’s poor and destitute will never hold the Brentwood sisters to account and of course neither can they hold Mugabe to account. So the poor are caught between the rock – a ruthless dictator with all the political power – and a hard place – WB and IMF with the deep pockets to bankroll the dictator sold on the idea that Africans have a tough skin and they actually “enjoy” all the suffering the dictator has brought upon them!
When it comes to Africa the two Brentwood sisters either believe the continent can still achieve economic prosperity without the prerequisite economic prudence and the need for good governance and democratic accountability. Or else they believe such economic and political goals are too loft and totally unachievable for Africa. They have given up and therefore will work with whatever regime comes up even one as incompetent, corrupt and ruthlessly oppressive as Mugabe.
Zimbabwe was once a model African economy but has now fallen into bad times with a severe economic melt down and a political crisis. IMF and WB have played their part in Zimbabwe’s downfall. For twenty years, these two Brentwood Financial Institutions propped up Mugabe and bankroll his reckless spending at great cost to the Zimbabweans who ultimately will be expected to pay back the mountain of debt Mugabe accrued. The people paid an even bigger price as they were at the coal face of the human rights violations under the repressive regime – something the Brentwood sister institutions have yet to acknowledge ever happened in Zimbabwe.
It was IMF and WB who sponsored the first and second five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Reform Programme (ESARP) in 1990 and 1995 respectively. The programmes did not delivery the economic recovery it promised; all they did was to bankroll Mugabe’s wasteful ways and, more significantly, the confidence that he does not have to accept democratic reforms which are the true prerequisites for economic prosperity and political stability.
So what is this new IMF sponsored programme, Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility-Exogenous Shock Facility (PRGF-ESF)? Is this the beginning of a new ESARP at a time when Mugabe is stubbornly refusing to implement meaningful democratic reforms? Most of major financially players have stood firm in their demands for meaningful democratic reforms in Zimbabwe before they would restart any financial assistance to Zimbabwe. Is PRGF-ESF designed to undermine all these players’ efforts?
The ordinary Zimbabweans have paid a heavy price, many of them with their very lives, over the last three decades of this Mugabe dictatorship. The one thing the people want right now is a fresh start NOT yet another false start.
MDC made a stupid decision to join Mugabe in a power sharing deal in which Mugabe had all the dictatorial powers. The GNU has been in power for three months already and still there is no progress of many of the basic issues. And it is Mugabe who is the stumbling block. It seems IMF board is ignoring all these political realities or is it that these men and women simply do not care!
The IMF and WB have the money and Mugabe has all the political power; so the two define Zimbabwe’s destiny. The great majority of Zimbabweans have neither the money nor the political power, the dictatorship has supped them of both; they have no say. Zimbabwe’s poor and destitute will never hold the Brentwood sisters to account and of course neither can they hold Mugabe to account. So the poor are caught between the rock – a ruthless dictator with all the political power – and a hard place – WB and IMF with the deep pockets to bankroll the dictator sold on the idea that Africans have a tough skin and they actually “enjoy” all the suffering the dictator has brought upon them!
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