"What we would want to get to people is our voice and command that there should be no violence, but that does not mean that everybody will listen to us,” said the Zanu PF dictator, Robert Mugabe. Well there goes a man who speaks with a forked tongue; saying one thing but meaning the exact opposite!
So Mugabe is commanding his supporters to stop using violence to achieve their political objective at the joint press conference of the GNU partners. And, of course being the cunning fox he is, he has an excuse for the all the brutal human rights violations including the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabwe over the three decades of his rule; not everybody was listening to his none violence overture! That begs the question: what have you ever done to those who would not listen?
Did you ever have anyone of those who raped over 400 documented rapes, over 500 political murders, etc in the three months period of May to June 2008 alone arrested? Of course not, how could that happen when the Police Officers themselves are the ones spearheading these crimes. The very few who have been arrested have had the cases quashed by a partisan judiciary. And on the very rare occasion when the courts have tried to restore some resemblance of sanity by passing a token sentence to some of the political thugs; it was none other than Mugabe himself who immediately stepped in to grant the presidential pardon! Why, oh why; did you do it?
Zimbabwe has a culture of brutal political violence because those involve in this heinous crime KNOW they are above the law as long as they can show it all helped Mugabe and Zanu PF stay in power.
Mr Mugabe, you strangle hold on political power is totally dependent on violence; it has always done. You will lose next year’s election if there was to be free and fair elections with no violence. You have put aside a whole war-chest of cash from the sell of Marange diamonds to put the party thugs who will be deployed to beat, rape and murder all those dare exercise their democratic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe. Only last week at your party conference you were talking of Zanu PF, like a train, “crashing” those who stand in your way to another electoral victory.
What I find really amazing is the Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara were clearly “honoured” to be at the joint press conference and listened attentively to the fork-tongue viper speaking!
"Yes, there are incidences of violence and we have witnessed it and we are committed as leaders to ensure that the next election is certainly not characterised by a culture of violence," was Tsvangirai’s response. "That demon must be ostracised, it is a demon that no-one wants."
We can now look forward to an election free of intimidation, violence and murder; the great Morgan Tsvangirai has spoken. The demon has been “ostracised”! It is a blessing to be naïve and stupid; how else can anyone say such nonsense with a straight face!
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Tsvangirai demand referendum before elections - yet another nonsensical demand!
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai insists Zimbabwe should have a referendum on the new constitution before fresh elections.
Mugabe has disrupted the constitution drafting process by silencing the ordinary Zimbabweans and making sure only those supporting his views are heard. So the new constitution is certainly NOT going to be the democratic constitution the nation had hope. So what is the point of continuing with this constitution making process?
What Tsvangirai should have done is take the necessary steps to ensure Mugabe can not use violence or anything else to disrupt the constitution making process. He did not; it was full steam ahead headed by his egotistic and headstrong MP Douglas Monzora.
For Tsvangirai to now insist that the process must continue and conclude with the referendum is typical of this flawed and indecisive the MDC leader. To what end and purpose; one wonders? Tsvangirai, by right, should be herding goats in the rural areas; the nation is now paying a heavy price for thrusting him into a leadership position way above his mental ability!
Mugabe has disrupted the constitution drafting process by silencing the ordinary Zimbabweans and making sure only those supporting his views are heard. So the new constitution is certainly NOT going to be the democratic constitution the nation had hope. So what is the point of continuing with this constitution making process?
What Tsvangirai should have done is take the necessary steps to ensure Mugabe can not use violence or anything else to disrupt the constitution making process. He did not; it was full steam ahead headed by his egotistic and headstrong MP Douglas Monzora.
For Tsvangirai to now insist that the process must continue and conclude with the referendum is typical of this flawed and indecisive the MDC leader. To what end and purpose; one wonders? Tsvangirai, by right, should be herding goats in the rural areas; the nation is now paying a heavy price for thrusting him into a leadership position way above his mental ability!
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Mugabe's conudrum: he will lose free elections but will be shunned if he used violence again!
The Wikileaks reports have been God sent for Mugabe and his cronies. The dictatorship can now crow from the rooftop that it was right; the USA and the West have been seeking regime change in. This was all cheap Zanu PF propaganda founded on the falsehood that the people of Zimbabwe themselves did NOT want regime change. The March 2008 elections proved once and for all that this was nothing but a lie because Zimbabweans voted in droves for MDC.
It should be remember that the Zimbabwe electorate voted for Tsvangirai, a man of the same US Ambassador righted described as “a flawed and indecisive”. This underlined just how desperate Zimbabweans were to end Mugabe’s rule.
For five weeks after the voting Mugabe refused to release the results. He was “cooking” the results so the defeat would not be so humiliating but not even he could change the fact that the people had rejected him! For the June 2008 presidential run-off he literally declared war against the people; he subject the whole nation to three months of intimidation, terror, rape wanton destruction of property and hundreds were murdered; to force the electorate to vote for him.
Mugabe had created the myth that it was West’s targeted sanctions that had caused Zimbabwe’s economic melt down. The myth disappeared like a mist in the morning sun when the evidence of the wide spread looting started to emerge. The dictator and his cronies not own a staggering 40% of the former commercial farms but worse still most of the farms are now idle. Ignatius Chombo’s estate shows that farms constitute but a small part of his wealth; he owns mines, commercial businesses, houses and flats in most major towns in Zimbabwe and some in SA, etc. And like the farms, the mines, etc would all be under utilised or completely neglected. That is the thing about looters they claim everything for themselves only to waste away like the prodigal son or simple hoard it to stop anyone else making productive use of it.
Of course the siphoning of billions of dollars out of the economic to spend on luxuries and disruption of production from the farms, mines, etc was bound to have an adverse effect on the country’s economy hence the economic melt down. The evidence of the looting and its contribution to the economic collapse is overwhelming even Mugabe’s most ardent propagandists have stopped paddling the sanctions myth.
Similarly the June 2008 election has put to rest the nonsense that it is the West and not the people of Zimbabwe who want regime change.
Mugabe can crow all day about the smoking gun evidence of West’s regime change Zimbabwe agenda. He knows no one in the West has a vote and the people who have the vote have rejected him and will do so again in a free vote. Mugabe’s real headache now; even with a totally discredited MDC, Mugabe knows the Zimbabwe electorate are more determined now than ever to end his repressive and corrupt rule. So he will have to resort the same level wholesale violence as in June 2008 or worse. If he has another sham election the international community will shun him and, this time, even the idiotic Tsvangirai would not dare help him off the hook again this time! And there lies Mugabe’s conundrum!
It should be remember that the Zimbabwe electorate voted for Tsvangirai, a man of the same US Ambassador righted described as “a flawed and indecisive”. This underlined just how desperate Zimbabweans were to end Mugabe’s rule.
For five weeks after the voting Mugabe refused to release the results. He was “cooking” the results so the defeat would not be so humiliating but not even he could change the fact that the people had rejected him! For the June 2008 presidential run-off he literally declared war against the people; he subject the whole nation to three months of intimidation, terror, rape wanton destruction of property and hundreds were murdered; to force the electorate to vote for him.
Mugabe had created the myth that it was West’s targeted sanctions that had caused Zimbabwe’s economic melt down. The myth disappeared like a mist in the morning sun when the evidence of the wide spread looting started to emerge. The dictator and his cronies not own a staggering 40% of the former commercial farms but worse still most of the farms are now idle. Ignatius Chombo’s estate shows that farms constitute but a small part of his wealth; he owns mines, commercial businesses, houses and flats in most major towns in Zimbabwe and some in SA, etc. And like the farms, the mines, etc would all be under utilised or completely neglected. That is the thing about looters they claim everything for themselves only to waste away like the prodigal son or simple hoard it to stop anyone else making productive use of it.
Of course the siphoning of billions of dollars out of the economic to spend on luxuries and disruption of production from the farms, mines, etc was bound to have an adverse effect on the country’s economy hence the economic melt down. The evidence of the looting and its contribution to the economic collapse is overwhelming even Mugabe’s most ardent propagandists have stopped paddling the sanctions myth.
Similarly the June 2008 election has put to rest the nonsense that it is the West and not the people of Zimbabwe who want regime change.
Mugabe can crow all day about the smoking gun evidence of West’s regime change Zimbabwe agenda. He knows no one in the West has a vote and the people who have the vote have rejected him and will do so again in a free vote. Mugabe’s real headache now; even with a totally discredited MDC, Mugabe knows the Zimbabwe electorate are more determined now than ever to end his repressive and corrupt rule. So he will have to resort the same level wholesale violence as in June 2008 or worse. If he has another sham election the international community will shun him and, this time, even the idiotic Tsvangirai would not dare help him off the hook again this time! And there lies Mugabe’s conundrum!
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai "a flawed and indecisive figure" and got an indecisive GNU they deserved!
@ Sterling Ferguson
I agree with everything you have said expect two things; a) I do not agree Mugabe is clever. He is devilishly cunning yes but clever; no.
b) “The only way one can deal with Mugabe is to become just like him brutal and ruthless like him,” you say. That is not even the last thing I would consider. Like I said before; to be like Mugabe you have to be a heartless brute. You, or some other heartless brute, will finally get rid of Mugabe; then what? You will no doubt want to enjoy the same absolute power that Mugabe enjoyed. You will not care about the tragic suffering your tyrannical rule will be causing just as Mugabe has done – you are a heartless brute, remember.
Mugabe’s reign of terror is drawing to a close; the last thing we want is to encourage another dictator to step in his shoes.
After the sham June 2008 presidential run-off elections Mugabe had hang himself. The whole international community would not accept him as the legitimate Head of State of Zimbabwe. Not after such an outrageous electoral process! Not even the see-nothing, hear-nothing and say-nothing SADC Election Monitoring Team could ignore the wholesale brutal human violations and blatant disregard of the law by Mugabe and his thugs. It was the idiot, Tsvangirai, who got Mugabe off the hook by agreeing to the stupid GNU.
It was stupid of Mugabe to have destroyed the Zimbabwe economy with all the corruption and looting and to have murdered so many innocent lives. Yes he may have succeeded in his sadistic intention of retaining power at all cost and he and his cronies have certainly lived in unparalleled luxuries. But it is all coming to a tragic end in that they will lose their loot and for many of them there is the hangman’s noose at the end of it all. What is so clever about that!?
As Mugabe’s dictatorship draws to its close the regime has made one blunder after another; the sham June 2008 election was just one such blunder. What Zimbabwe needs is a clever leader smart enough to let the dictator hang himself.
I will admit that I do NOT see any clever leader in Zimbabwe’s political horizon. Ambassador Dell castigated Tsvangirai a “flawed and indecisive figure” back in 2007. And yet even with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans still refuse to see Tsvangirai for the idiot he is. Even intellectuals, notably Professor John Makumbe ever tire of singing Tsvangirai’s praises. It is not just Tsvangirai who is not open to advice and has questionable judgement; his fellow MDC members who elected him and the people of Zimbabwe who voted for him are not any better. If people are content being led by idiots then there is no pressure for change.
People get the government they deserve; that is certainly true. Zimbabwe has had 30 years of a ruthless tyrant and in the last two years the tyrant had an idiot for a side kick. We, Zimbabweans, love rubbish leaders! Or as one would say in Shona, “kana tazvika pasarudzo, tinongo kuvirira zvose mavhu namarara!”
@Zodwa Sibanda
The need to remove millions of black peasants living in overcrowded rural areas where they had been herded to by the white settlers was obvious. The need to end white rule was equally obvious – how else would black address this pressing need to resettle the landless peasants, end black oppression and exploitation etc. All these things were obvious to everyone; even the goat-herder, Tsvangirai, understood that.
Mugabe was cunning enough to make a big song and dance about how he would bring national independence, black majority rule, freedom, liberty, peace, economic prosperity to all, etc., etc. when all he really cared about is entrench himself and his friends into power. He made a big song and dance about redistributing land to the landless and you admit it is only Mugabe and his cronies who have benefited. Worse still Mugabe’s looting of farms has caused such an economic upheaval the economy has shrunk by a record 84% in six year from 2002 to 2008 causing heart breaking suffering to the whole nation.
90% of Zimbabweans saw the need for land reform but only 9% (composed of Mugabe and his cronies who did the looting and yes, MDC, but that is to be expected from a party headed by “flawed and indecisive figure” to quote Ambassador Dell) would approve what Mugabe has done. The need to resettle landless peasants is even more urgent now that the Zimbabwe economy has collapsed and unemployment is a nauseating 90%.
Mugabe is cunning, devilishly so, but not clever and you, Zodwa, has yet to learn to distinguish the two.
“I still believe that Tsvangirai would be a good transitional President for Zimbabwe,” you say. Well why is he a pathetic Prime Minister of Zimbabwe with neither the power nor authority of even a deputy Minister? You answer that and you will see that Ambassador Dell was only saying the truth about Tsvangirai.
Zimbabweans are paying dearly for Tsvangirai blundering and it is about time the truth about this idiot is told. You clearly do not want to hear the truth said about Tsvangirai; we are talking about the truth and the destiny of Zimbabwe is dependent on that, your myopic partisan wishes are of no consequence.
I agree with everything you have said expect two things; a) I do not agree Mugabe is clever. He is devilishly cunning yes but clever; no.
b) “The only way one can deal with Mugabe is to become just like him brutal and ruthless like him,” you say. That is not even the last thing I would consider. Like I said before; to be like Mugabe you have to be a heartless brute. You, or some other heartless brute, will finally get rid of Mugabe; then what? You will no doubt want to enjoy the same absolute power that Mugabe enjoyed. You will not care about the tragic suffering your tyrannical rule will be causing just as Mugabe has done – you are a heartless brute, remember.
Mugabe’s reign of terror is drawing to a close; the last thing we want is to encourage another dictator to step in his shoes.
After the sham June 2008 presidential run-off elections Mugabe had hang himself. The whole international community would not accept him as the legitimate Head of State of Zimbabwe. Not after such an outrageous electoral process! Not even the see-nothing, hear-nothing and say-nothing SADC Election Monitoring Team could ignore the wholesale brutal human violations and blatant disregard of the law by Mugabe and his thugs. It was the idiot, Tsvangirai, who got Mugabe off the hook by agreeing to the stupid GNU.
It was stupid of Mugabe to have destroyed the Zimbabwe economy with all the corruption and looting and to have murdered so many innocent lives. Yes he may have succeeded in his sadistic intention of retaining power at all cost and he and his cronies have certainly lived in unparalleled luxuries. But it is all coming to a tragic end in that they will lose their loot and for many of them there is the hangman’s noose at the end of it all. What is so clever about that!?
As Mugabe’s dictatorship draws to its close the regime has made one blunder after another; the sham June 2008 election was just one such blunder. What Zimbabwe needs is a clever leader smart enough to let the dictator hang himself.
I will admit that I do NOT see any clever leader in Zimbabwe’s political horizon. Ambassador Dell castigated Tsvangirai a “flawed and indecisive figure” back in 2007. And yet even with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans still refuse to see Tsvangirai for the idiot he is. Even intellectuals, notably Professor John Makumbe ever tire of singing Tsvangirai’s praises. It is not just Tsvangirai who is not open to advice and has questionable judgement; his fellow MDC members who elected him and the people of Zimbabwe who voted for him are not any better. If people are content being led by idiots then there is no pressure for change.
People get the government they deserve; that is certainly true. Zimbabwe has had 30 years of a ruthless tyrant and in the last two years the tyrant had an idiot for a side kick. We, Zimbabweans, love rubbish leaders! Or as one would say in Shona, “kana tazvika pasarudzo, tinongo kuvirira zvose mavhu namarara!”
@Zodwa Sibanda
The need to remove millions of black peasants living in overcrowded rural areas where they had been herded to by the white settlers was obvious. The need to end white rule was equally obvious – how else would black address this pressing need to resettle the landless peasants, end black oppression and exploitation etc. All these things were obvious to everyone; even the goat-herder, Tsvangirai, understood that.
Mugabe was cunning enough to make a big song and dance about how he would bring national independence, black majority rule, freedom, liberty, peace, economic prosperity to all, etc., etc. when all he really cared about is entrench himself and his friends into power. He made a big song and dance about redistributing land to the landless and you admit it is only Mugabe and his cronies who have benefited. Worse still Mugabe’s looting of farms has caused such an economic upheaval the economy has shrunk by a record 84% in six year from 2002 to 2008 causing heart breaking suffering to the whole nation.
90% of Zimbabweans saw the need for land reform but only 9% (composed of Mugabe and his cronies who did the looting and yes, MDC, but that is to be expected from a party headed by “flawed and indecisive figure” to quote Ambassador Dell) would approve what Mugabe has done. The need to resettle landless peasants is even more urgent now that the Zimbabwe economy has collapsed and unemployment is a nauseating 90%.
Mugabe is cunning, devilishly so, but not clever and you, Zodwa, has yet to learn to distinguish the two.
“I still believe that Tsvangirai would be a good transitional President for Zimbabwe,” you say. Well why is he a pathetic Prime Minister of Zimbabwe with neither the power nor authority of even a deputy Minister? You answer that and you will see that Ambassador Dell was only saying the truth about Tsvangirai.
Zimbabweans are paying dearly for Tsvangirai blundering and it is about time the truth about this idiot is told. You clearly do not want to hear the truth said about Tsvangirai; we are talking about the truth and the destiny of Zimbabwe is dependent on that, your myopic partisan wishes are of no consequence.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
USA Ambassador Dell called Tsvangirai a flawed and indecisive figure!
A Wikileak report said Former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe (--up to 2007), Mr Chris Dell, thought Morgan Tsvangirai "a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him". Well he was being honest. Some of us have called Tsvangirai a stupid idiot who should be herding goats and that is the brutal truth!
Tsvangirai’s stupidity has costed Zimbabwe dear!
Mr Dell described Mugabe as "more clever and more ruthless" than any of his political rivals. Mugabe is ruthless brutal; only a heartless man would cause so much misery, suffering and death to so many. Mugabe is not clever; what is so clever presiding over the worst economic performance in the world. He has seized the farms only to have the whole country turn into a wasteland.
What Zimbabwe has witnessed under Mugabe seen if a criminal waster of material resources and human talents and lives. Destroying is ease, anyone can destroy; creating something good and inspirational there is the real challenge! Dell is right though in that he called Mugabe clever compared to his political rivals. It does not take much to be cleverer than someone who should really be herding goats!
Tsvangirai’s stupidity has costed Zimbabwe dear!
Mr Dell described Mugabe as "more clever and more ruthless" than any of his political rivals. Mugabe is ruthless brutal; only a heartless man would cause so much misery, suffering and death to so many. Mugabe is not clever; what is so clever presiding over the worst economic performance in the world. He has seized the farms only to have the whole country turn into a wasteland.
What Zimbabwe has witnessed under Mugabe seen if a criminal waster of material resources and human talents and lives. Destroying is ease, anyone can destroy; creating something good and inspirational there is the real challenge! Dell is right though in that he called Mugabe clever compared to his political rivals. It does not take much to be cleverer than someone who should really be herding goats!
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Zimbabweans must seek to end Mugabe's dictatorial rule first then and only then can they have free elections!
On Friday 26 November SA President Zuma met Zimbabwe’s partners to the dysfunctional GNU. He said the partners who have stopped meeting will now do so although he would not disclose more details of meeting.
The central wish and hope of the Zimbabweans is for free and fair elections.
I really do not think anyone would dispute that what Zimbabwe needs to get out of the present mess is free and fair election. Indeed if the country had had free and fair elections; we would NOT be in this mess. The point we should therefore be looking at is why Zimbabwe has repeatedly failed to hold free and fair elections? And the answer to that is it has been left to one man, Robert Mugabe, whether or not the people had a free vote. And so far he said no.
The GNU has not worked because, again, it was at Mugabe's mercy. President Zuma and SADC have failed to bring about any meaningful change in Zimbabwe because they were all at Mugabe's mercy.
"I think Bob gets his kicks by running circles around his opponents," said Alan Foster above. Alan, you have hit the nail on the head there!
It was absolutely stupid of SADC and even more so of Tsvangirai and MDC to agree to a GPA that gave Mugabe all his dictatorial powers. Nelson Chamisa’s comment that "the issues of violence, the involvement of the military in elections and the monitoring and observing of elections" are key points; is the kind of nauseating nonsense we have learn to expect from MDC. MDC betrayed the people by selling their basic and fundamental rights and freedoms including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country for a chance to hold to be Prime Minister, Ministers, etc. Positions with no meaningful power or authority of course - what else, in a dictatorship.
During the meeting Zuma did not discuss ending Mugabe's dictatorial powers – that we can all be sure of. Whatever else they discussed is real of no consequence to the central issue of free elections!
The central wish and hope of the Zimbabweans is for free and fair elections.
I really do not think anyone would dispute that what Zimbabwe needs to get out of the present mess is free and fair election. Indeed if the country had had free and fair elections; we would NOT be in this mess. The point we should therefore be looking at is why Zimbabwe has repeatedly failed to hold free and fair elections? And the answer to that is it has been left to one man, Robert Mugabe, whether or not the people had a free vote. And so far he said no.
The GNU has not worked because, again, it was at Mugabe's mercy. President Zuma and SADC have failed to bring about any meaningful change in Zimbabwe because they were all at Mugabe's mercy.
"I think Bob gets his kicks by running circles around his opponents," said Alan Foster above. Alan, you have hit the nail on the head there!
It was absolutely stupid of SADC and even more so of Tsvangirai and MDC to agree to a GPA that gave Mugabe all his dictatorial powers. Nelson Chamisa’s comment that "the issues of violence, the involvement of the military in elections and the monitoring and observing of elections" are key points; is the kind of nauseating nonsense we have learn to expect from MDC. MDC betrayed the people by selling their basic and fundamental rights and freedoms including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country for a chance to hold to be Prime Minister, Ministers, etc. Positions with no meaningful power or authority of course - what else, in a dictatorship.
During the meeting Zuma did not discuss ending Mugabe's dictatorial powers – that we can all be sure of. Whatever else they discussed is real of no consequence to the central issue of free elections!
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Forget the election wish list; they will not be fear and fair!
Of course everyone in his or her right mind would want to have a truly democratic constitution, a free media, the threat of all the political violence and murder removed, etc before the next election. But let face it, this is a wish list; the reality on the ground is something else. Mugabe wants the next elections held next year and none of these things are in place. It is the reality and not the wish list we must deal with.
It was always Mugabe and Zanu PF’s wish long before independence in 1980 to turn Zimbabwe into a one-party-one-man state. His wish has largely become true; Zimbabwe is a de facto one-man dictatorship. It is real naïve, to say the very least, of Tsvangirai and his MDC party to think that Mugabe would just roll over; give up his dictatorial powers in favour of a democratic constitution, end his Zanu PF monopoly of the media. And for what? So that after a free and fair election he can be kicked out of State House, have all he and his cronies have looted over the years taken away from them and, worse still, face the hangman’s noose for the serious human violations? What makes this wishful think particularly nonsensical is that it was Tsvangirai and MDC who granted Mugabe all his dictatorial powers to dictate what he wants in the GPA.
As long as Mugabe retains all the political power; a new democratic constitution, free media, etc. will all remain a pipe dream.
Mugabe considered the formation of the GNU a low point in his political career and the “stupidity” of the other two principles in the marriage has become intolerable, as far as he is concerned. So he has decreed, in his autocratic I-do-not-care-what-one-else’s-thinks way, the GNU must now be killed off. He wants elections by mid next year, period!
We can all debate all we like on whether the nation would prefer to have the elections now or delay them until we have a new democratic constitution, free media, etc. That is not going to change anything; the elections will be held next year because that is what Mugabe wants.
Tsvangirai should have never agreed to a GNU and let Mugabe off the hook following the sham run-off of June 2008. Mugabe has used the post June 2008 to reorganise his party, discredit MDC and the windfall from the Marange diamonds will enable him to bankroll the party thugs. This is the best time for Mugabe to hold fresh elections.
MDC has done absolutely nothing to ensure the political violence that marred the 2008 elections is not repeated ever again. So, yes of course, violence is on the cards. Minister Makoni, MDC’s co-minister of Home Affairs, says there could be “a blood bath” next year. She admitted MDC has done nothing to stop this.
Given MDC’s pathetic past performance, the people of Zimbabwe should now make it clear that they will NOT be voting for MDC next year. They voted for Tsvangirai and MDC in droves in 2008 risking the murderous wrath of Mugabe and Zanu PF only for Tsvangirai to squander that mandate. Millions of our people were punished and over five hundred were murdered for defying the dictator and voting freely.
The 2008 election was a historic moment in Zimbabwe’s history one seized upon would have ended Mugabe’s rule, restored the rule of law and reason in the land. Tsvangirai failed to raise to the occasion, his incompetence in the whole matter has been breath taking. This nation must not risk one more Zimbabwean life voting for Tsvangirai.
Mugabe’s second wish to bring “mass prosperity” – “gutsa ruzhinji” – has been a total failure. Three decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and looting have resulted in the total collapse of the national economy throwing millions of our people into abject poverty and despair. The whole nation dreads the very prospect of yet another five years of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s criminal waste of human and material resources; the nation’s sense of desperation for change is understandable. Still the nation would be ill advised risking one more Zimbabwean life by voting MDC, such is Tsvangirai’s incompetence!
It was always Mugabe and Zanu PF’s wish long before independence in 1980 to turn Zimbabwe into a one-party-one-man state. His wish has largely become true; Zimbabwe is a de facto one-man dictatorship. It is real naïve, to say the very least, of Tsvangirai and his MDC party to think that Mugabe would just roll over; give up his dictatorial powers in favour of a democratic constitution, end his Zanu PF monopoly of the media. And for what? So that after a free and fair election he can be kicked out of State House, have all he and his cronies have looted over the years taken away from them and, worse still, face the hangman’s noose for the serious human violations? What makes this wishful think particularly nonsensical is that it was Tsvangirai and MDC who granted Mugabe all his dictatorial powers to dictate what he wants in the GPA.
As long as Mugabe retains all the political power; a new democratic constitution, free media, etc. will all remain a pipe dream.
Mugabe considered the formation of the GNU a low point in his political career and the “stupidity” of the other two principles in the marriage has become intolerable, as far as he is concerned. So he has decreed, in his autocratic I-do-not-care-what-one-else’s-thinks way, the GNU must now be killed off. He wants elections by mid next year, period!
We can all debate all we like on whether the nation would prefer to have the elections now or delay them until we have a new democratic constitution, free media, etc. That is not going to change anything; the elections will be held next year because that is what Mugabe wants.
Tsvangirai should have never agreed to a GNU and let Mugabe off the hook following the sham run-off of June 2008. Mugabe has used the post June 2008 to reorganise his party, discredit MDC and the windfall from the Marange diamonds will enable him to bankroll the party thugs. This is the best time for Mugabe to hold fresh elections.
MDC has done absolutely nothing to ensure the political violence that marred the 2008 elections is not repeated ever again. So, yes of course, violence is on the cards. Minister Makoni, MDC’s co-minister of Home Affairs, says there could be “a blood bath” next year. She admitted MDC has done nothing to stop this.
Given MDC’s pathetic past performance, the people of Zimbabwe should now make it clear that they will NOT be voting for MDC next year. They voted for Tsvangirai and MDC in droves in 2008 risking the murderous wrath of Mugabe and Zanu PF only for Tsvangirai to squander that mandate. Millions of our people were punished and over five hundred were murdered for defying the dictator and voting freely.
The 2008 election was a historic moment in Zimbabwe’s history one seized upon would have ended Mugabe’s rule, restored the rule of law and reason in the land. Tsvangirai failed to raise to the occasion, his incompetence in the whole matter has been breath taking. This nation must not risk one more Zimbabwean life voting for Tsvangirai.
Mugabe’s second wish to bring “mass prosperity” – “gutsa ruzhinji” – has been a total failure. Three decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and looting have resulted in the total collapse of the national economy throwing millions of our people into abject poverty and despair. The whole nation dreads the very prospect of yet another five years of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s criminal waste of human and material resources; the nation’s sense of desperation for change is understandable. Still the nation would be ill advised risking one more Zimbabwean life by voting MDC, such is Tsvangirai’s incompetence!
Friday, 19 November 2010
What goes round comes round: Freedom Fighters are now themselves the victims of Zanu PF coercion!
There have been reports of retired Police Officers and War Veterans being appointed to beef up the ZRP with zealous Zanu PF party loyalist in preparation for next year’s general elections. A few weeks ago 300 to 500 Zimbabwe National Army soldiers reportedly matched through Masvingo with placards demanding that Mugabe must rule “forever”! Forever?!
The overwhelming majority of those in the Police and Army, still serving, retired or whatever are paupers living in total abject poverty. Their future like that of the millions of other Zimbabweans is grime. They, again like the millions of other Zimbabweans, know the whole nation’s future will only get worse with Mugabe and Zanu PF in power. The dramatic collapse of the Zimbabwe’s economic and its tragic human consequences are well documented and felt by millions.
The Zimbabwe economy shrunk by 84% is the sex period from 2002 to 2008; a world record. The looting by Mugabe and his cronies has been extravagant as it has been thoroughly criminal. They have been looting to satisfy their insatiable greed for wealth and luxuries; many of them have so much accumulated so much wealth it would take them more than the nine-cat-lives to squander it all. They have taken away resources like land and mines just to have see them lie idle just to stop anyone else make productive use, magpie style. In the last few years the looting has taken a more sinister slash and burn turn. Nothing would be more disappointing for Mugabe and his cronies than to see Zimbabwe rise from the ashes of the regime’s years of ruinous rule to flourish and prosper. And so the regime not been content is destroying the walls of country’s economic and social infrastructure brick by brick but has been hammering at their very foundations.
On the political front the regime is known for its heartless brutality. It has murdered tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans in its single minded drive to retain political power at all cost. It has even stopped foreign donors helping the country’s poor and vulnerable just to underline the fact that everyone was at the regime’s mercy. Freedom, liberty, justice, human rights and even sanctity human life all mean nothing to Mugabe and his cronies all they care about is power and the wealth and prestige it brings.
Except for Mugabe and the select few who have benefited from the looting and/or have played a part in the murderous past of the regime (a past they will commit even more heinous murders to ensure it remains hidden) no Zimbabwean would want Mugabe and Zanu PF to rule for another day longer let alone forever! Not freely!
Zimbabwe is a country that has been ruled by fear; the people feared the dire consequences that would follow if they elected anyone else other than Mugabe and Zanu PF to rule. Reason and common sense dictated that Mugabe was nothing but a thug who would bring nothing but misery to the nation and time has proved this right. But when one is looking up the business end of an AK4 rifle; one has no time for reason or common sense.
It was the Freedom Fighters who had their guns trained on the people in 1980 to ensure a Mugabe and Zanu PF victory. After independence Zanu PF had relied on its moronically overzealous members of the party’s women and youth wings and later the War Veterans to continue the intimidation, harassment and terrorising of the electorate. The country’s dramatic economic collapse has left millions living in abject poverty including the Zanu PF zealots forcing them to abandon the party in droves. Mugabe and Zanu PF’s strangle hold on power is totally dependent on the party not just maintaining this culture of fear but stepping up a gear. Deserted by the women and youths the party is turning to the Police, Army, CIO and other state functionaries to do its dirty work. But since the overwhelming majority of the low rank Police Officers, etc. have not benefited from the looting and they have faced the same economic hardships as the rest of us, they too want to see meaningful political change in the country. And so the majority of the soldiers matching in Masvingo recently and those deployed in rural areas to reorganise Zanu PF, etc.; they are all being coerced to do these things.
What goes round comes round! It was the Freedom Fighters who coerced the nation to accept Mugabe and Zanu PF denying the electorate a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It was the lack of democratic accountability that allowed Mugabe to establish the repressive dictatorship and to loot and destroy the national economy. The dictator has now turned the guns on the same Freedom Fighters, who have since learnt the error of supporting a tyrant, to once again prop up his rule.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime is doom; the people have since realised that they should have feared the dire consequences of years of tyrannical rule more than anything the tyrant could inflict on them fighting to end his rule. The only thing that has stopped the people in their drive for meaningful political change is that they have been let down terribly by Tsvangirai and MDC when they had viewed them as the alternative to Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The second reason Mugabe’s rule is doomed is that he now has to coerce his thugs to coerce the electorate, in the past they had done so freely. None of the thugs trust him and for good reason too; he has used them to do his dirty work in the past only to discard without a second thought as soon as the work is done.
To the Freedom Fighters coerced by Mugabe to join him in his last all out attempt to hang on to power; be careful that you do not end up with the blood of innocent Zimbabweans on your hands. The fight to end colonial rule and oppression was a just war and there are many took part in it for purely altruistic reasons. Unfortunately amongst the true heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle were the mercenaries and scum who saw this as an opportunity for them to enrich themselves. It will please Mugabe and his fellow thugs greatly to see the thousands of the nation’s true heroes fingered them!
This is the sunset period of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s rule and like the Nazi the regime has become reckless in its looting and repression. This is the most dangerous phase of their rule.
The overwhelming majority of those in the Police and Army, still serving, retired or whatever are paupers living in total abject poverty. Their future like that of the millions of other Zimbabweans is grime. They, again like the millions of other Zimbabweans, know the whole nation’s future will only get worse with Mugabe and Zanu PF in power. The dramatic collapse of the Zimbabwe’s economic and its tragic human consequences are well documented and felt by millions.
The Zimbabwe economy shrunk by 84% is the sex period from 2002 to 2008; a world record. The looting by Mugabe and his cronies has been extravagant as it has been thoroughly criminal. They have been looting to satisfy their insatiable greed for wealth and luxuries; many of them have so much accumulated so much wealth it would take them more than the nine-cat-lives to squander it all. They have taken away resources like land and mines just to have see them lie idle just to stop anyone else make productive use, magpie style. In the last few years the looting has taken a more sinister slash and burn turn. Nothing would be more disappointing for Mugabe and his cronies than to see Zimbabwe rise from the ashes of the regime’s years of ruinous rule to flourish and prosper. And so the regime not been content is destroying the walls of country’s economic and social infrastructure brick by brick but has been hammering at their very foundations.
On the political front the regime is known for its heartless brutality. It has murdered tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans in its single minded drive to retain political power at all cost. It has even stopped foreign donors helping the country’s poor and vulnerable just to underline the fact that everyone was at the regime’s mercy. Freedom, liberty, justice, human rights and even sanctity human life all mean nothing to Mugabe and his cronies all they care about is power and the wealth and prestige it brings.
Except for Mugabe and the select few who have benefited from the looting and/or have played a part in the murderous past of the regime (a past they will commit even more heinous murders to ensure it remains hidden) no Zimbabwean would want Mugabe and Zanu PF to rule for another day longer let alone forever! Not freely!
Zimbabwe is a country that has been ruled by fear; the people feared the dire consequences that would follow if they elected anyone else other than Mugabe and Zanu PF to rule. Reason and common sense dictated that Mugabe was nothing but a thug who would bring nothing but misery to the nation and time has proved this right. But when one is looking up the business end of an AK4 rifle; one has no time for reason or common sense.
It was the Freedom Fighters who had their guns trained on the people in 1980 to ensure a Mugabe and Zanu PF victory. After independence Zanu PF had relied on its moronically overzealous members of the party’s women and youth wings and later the War Veterans to continue the intimidation, harassment and terrorising of the electorate. The country’s dramatic economic collapse has left millions living in abject poverty including the Zanu PF zealots forcing them to abandon the party in droves. Mugabe and Zanu PF’s strangle hold on power is totally dependent on the party not just maintaining this culture of fear but stepping up a gear. Deserted by the women and youths the party is turning to the Police, Army, CIO and other state functionaries to do its dirty work. But since the overwhelming majority of the low rank Police Officers, etc. have not benefited from the looting and they have faced the same economic hardships as the rest of us, they too want to see meaningful political change in the country. And so the majority of the soldiers matching in Masvingo recently and those deployed in rural areas to reorganise Zanu PF, etc.; they are all being coerced to do these things.
What goes round comes round! It was the Freedom Fighters who coerced the nation to accept Mugabe and Zanu PF denying the electorate a meaningful say in the governance of the country. It was the lack of democratic accountability that allowed Mugabe to establish the repressive dictatorship and to loot and destroy the national economy. The dictator has now turned the guns on the same Freedom Fighters, who have since learnt the error of supporting a tyrant, to once again prop up his rule.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime is doom; the people have since realised that they should have feared the dire consequences of years of tyrannical rule more than anything the tyrant could inflict on them fighting to end his rule. The only thing that has stopped the people in their drive for meaningful political change is that they have been let down terribly by Tsvangirai and MDC when they had viewed them as the alternative to Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The second reason Mugabe’s rule is doomed is that he now has to coerce his thugs to coerce the electorate, in the past they had done so freely. None of the thugs trust him and for good reason too; he has used them to do his dirty work in the past only to discard without a second thought as soon as the work is done.
To the Freedom Fighters coerced by Mugabe to join him in his last all out attempt to hang on to power; be careful that you do not end up with the blood of innocent Zimbabweans on your hands. The fight to end colonial rule and oppression was a just war and there are many took part in it for purely altruistic reasons. Unfortunately amongst the true heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle were the mercenaries and scum who saw this as an opportunity for them to enrich themselves. It will please Mugabe and his fellow thugs greatly to see the thousands of the nation’s true heroes fingered them!
This is the sunset period of Mugabe and Zanu PF’s rule and like the Nazi the regime has become reckless in its looting and repression. This is the most dangerous phase of their rule.
Monday, 8 November 2010
CHOMBO'S AMASSED WEALTH - EVIDENCE OF MUGABE REGIME'S LOOTING: THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE ECONOMIC MELT DOWN!
“Hapana chinoshunguridze murimi sokuona churu chenhoko dzamakozho mudura. Anoziva kuti nzara yavaka imba yezvitinha zvakatsva pamurasha wake!” There is nothing more heartbreaking to a peasant farmer than to discover an anthill size heap of rat droppings in his granary. Zimbabwean and the whole world have a peep into the stupendous wealth accumulated by Minister Ignatius Chombo, one of Mugabe’s filthy rich ruling elite, and everyone is astounded. Little wonder Zimbabwe has had the most spectacular national economic melt down in human history!
Minister Chombo and his estranged wife, Marian, are going through a divorce and she is asking for $ 2 000 monthly allowance plus a share of the couple’s assets. She has submitted the list of the assets and these included: 15 vehicles including three Mercedes Benz, 75 properties including commercial farms, businesses, stands, houses and flats all over Zimbabwe and some in South Africa; all in all valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, at least.
This is the wealth of the Chombos alone. If we start the Zanu PF role-call starting with Mugabe himself the true picture of the rot will start to emerge. Mugabe and his wife Grace each own at least five farms each including the infamous Gushungo Dairy Farm and the multimillion dollar mansion. All the Zanu PF big wigs including ministers, Police and Army commanders and businessmen like Philip Chiyagwa are all know to own farms and vast fortunes. The full details of what each and everyone of them own is a closely guarded secrete – which is the reason why the regime has been ruthless to the point of committing mass murder to retain political power and thus stop the full truth coming out.
The effect of Chombo’s amassed wealth on the nation goes beyond the immediate value of the individual vehicle or property. Like the rats in a granary; the peasant did not only lose the grain eaten by the rats but also loses all the grain contaminated with the rat’s urine and dropping! When there is such rampant looting and individuals are awash with money as was the case here; there is criminal waste of resources.
The waste is two fold. Most of the loot is always spent careless self indulgencies. It is not uncommon for the looters to “blow” $250 000 over a long weekend. Minister Chombo, like Mugabe, had a son studying in America; they are known for driving the latest models of the most expensive cars and to throw lavish parties at the drop of a hat.
At the peak of the regime’s looting in 2005 to 2008 when Gideon Gono was printing money as if there was no tomorrow, stealing millions from Reserve Bank accounts and borrowing right, left and centre; Zanu PF ruling elite had so much money they were fighting to spend it and did not care how or on what. So 75% plus of what Chombo and his fellow Zanu PF looted will never be accounted for; there is nothing tangle.
The second level of waste is what the looters have done with their loot. It is a well known fact that Mugabe and his cronies have turned productive commercial farms into wastelands over night. Mrs Chombo has two new combine harvesters and tractors on her list of the assets to be shared; it will be no surprise to find the harvesters were bought using soft loans from Gono. The loan was never paid back and the harvesters themselves have never been used for nothing other than to roost chickens.
Mugabe and his cronies have been wasting billions of dollars of the nation’s wealth on luxuries and other pleasurable things and commandeering the nation’s important assets only to seat on them like magpies!
Soon as independence the Mugabe regime undermined the country’s economic prospects through economic mismanagement – the regime really believed it could spend its way into mass economic prosperity – gutsa ruzhinji – with its socialist policies. By the 1990s the regime’s ruling elite were looking increasingly at who to enrich themselves and corruption was allowed to grow dragging the national economy into the gutters.
It was the economic mismanagement that caused the economy to start to falter. It was the faltering economy that encouraged corruption as those in power sort to bolster their economic position. Corruption was even more wasteful of resources than mismanagement and thus forcing a faltering economy on it knees. With the economy collapsing and thus the ruling party turned to violence to retain power and starting looting at a grand scale to cover themselves for the difficult economic days. But again they only made a bad situation even worse; it was the looting has pushed the economy over the edge into total melt down.
The Zimbabwe economy has shrunk by 85% from 2002 to 2008; the period when looting was at its worst. The consequences of the economic melt down have been tragic human sufferings and deaths; unemployment has soared to the nauseating heights of 80% plus, basic services like education and health have collapsed and life expectancy has dropped from 65 years in 1980 to 30 years in 2008.
Of course, Mugabe and his cronies have tried to blame the economic melt down on the West’s imposed sanctions targeting him and 200 or so others. Stories like this, and there are many, many more stories of unparallel greed and waste to follow, tell a different story.
It is understandable why Mrs Chombo is fighting hard to ensure she keeps as much of the family wealth as she can; she has no doubt developed an expense life style over the years and would like to continue to enjoy it. However it is not so much her husband she has to fight to keep the loot, it is the rightful owners of the loot – the Zimbabwean people. It will be irresponsible to let the very people who caused such suffering keep their loot particularly when all they will do is seat all this wealth and hold back the economic recovery.
The Chombo’s looted wealth as with all other looted wealth must be given back to the people of Zimbabwe. There must be a thorough investigation to determine how anyone managed to accumulate all this wealth, particularly at the time when the country was going through a really devastating economic situation. Those who contributed to the economic melt down must be punished.
Minister Chombo and his estranged wife, Marian, are going through a divorce and she is asking for $ 2 000 monthly allowance plus a share of the couple’s assets. She has submitted the list of the assets and these included: 15 vehicles including three Mercedes Benz, 75 properties including commercial farms, businesses, stands, houses and flats all over Zimbabwe and some in South Africa; all in all valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, at least.
This is the wealth of the Chombos alone. If we start the Zanu PF role-call starting with Mugabe himself the true picture of the rot will start to emerge. Mugabe and his wife Grace each own at least five farms each including the infamous Gushungo Dairy Farm and the multimillion dollar mansion. All the Zanu PF big wigs including ministers, Police and Army commanders and businessmen like Philip Chiyagwa are all know to own farms and vast fortunes. The full details of what each and everyone of them own is a closely guarded secrete – which is the reason why the regime has been ruthless to the point of committing mass murder to retain political power and thus stop the full truth coming out.
The effect of Chombo’s amassed wealth on the nation goes beyond the immediate value of the individual vehicle or property. Like the rats in a granary; the peasant did not only lose the grain eaten by the rats but also loses all the grain contaminated with the rat’s urine and dropping! When there is such rampant looting and individuals are awash with money as was the case here; there is criminal waste of resources.
The waste is two fold. Most of the loot is always spent careless self indulgencies. It is not uncommon for the looters to “blow” $250 000 over a long weekend. Minister Chombo, like Mugabe, had a son studying in America; they are known for driving the latest models of the most expensive cars and to throw lavish parties at the drop of a hat.
At the peak of the regime’s looting in 2005 to 2008 when Gideon Gono was printing money as if there was no tomorrow, stealing millions from Reserve Bank accounts and borrowing right, left and centre; Zanu PF ruling elite had so much money they were fighting to spend it and did not care how or on what. So 75% plus of what Chombo and his fellow Zanu PF looted will never be accounted for; there is nothing tangle.
The second level of waste is what the looters have done with their loot. It is a well known fact that Mugabe and his cronies have turned productive commercial farms into wastelands over night. Mrs Chombo has two new combine harvesters and tractors on her list of the assets to be shared; it will be no surprise to find the harvesters were bought using soft loans from Gono. The loan was never paid back and the harvesters themselves have never been used for nothing other than to roost chickens.
Mugabe and his cronies have been wasting billions of dollars of the nation’s wealth on luxuries and other pleasurable things and commandeering the nation’s important assets only to seat on them like magpies!
Soon as independence the Mugabe regime undermined the country’s economic prospects through economic mismanagement – the regime really believed it could spend its way into mass economic prosperity – gutsa ruzhinji – with its socialist policies. By the 1990s the regime’s ruling elite were looking increasingly at who to enrich themselves and corruption was allowed to grow dragging the national economy into the gutters.
It was the economic mismanagement that caused the economy to start to falter. It was the faltering economy that encouraged corruption as those in power sort to bolster their economic position. Corruption was even more wasteful of resources than mismanagement and thus forcing a faltering economy on it knees. With the economy collapsing and thus the ruling party turned to violence to retain power and starting looting at a grand scale to cover themselves for the difficult economic days. But again they only made a bad situation even worse; it was the looting has pushed the economy over the edge into total melt down.
The Zimbabwe economy has shrunk by 85% from 2002 to 2008; the period when looting was at its worst. The consequences of the economic melt down have been tragic human sufferings and deaths; unemployment has soared to the nauseating heights of 80% plus, basic services like education and health have collapsed and life expectancy has dropped from 65 years in 1980 to 30 years in 2008.
Of course, Mugabe and his cronies have tried to blame the economic melt down on the West’s imposed sanctions targeting him and 200 or so others. Stories like this, and there are many, many more stories of unparallel greed and waste to follow, tell a different story.
It is understandable why Mrs Chombo is fighting hard to ensure she keeps as much of the family wealth as she can; she has no doubt developed an expense life style over the years and would like to continue to enjoy it. However it is not so much her husband she has to fight to keep the loot, it is the rightful owners of the loot – the Zimbabwean people. It will be irresponsible to let the very people who caused such suffering keep their loot particularly when all they will do is seat all this wealth and hold back the economic recovery.
The Chombo’s looted wealth as with all other looted wealth must be given back to the people of Zimbabwe. There must be a thorough investigation to determine how anyone managed to accumulate all this wealth, particularly at the time when the country was going through a really devastating economic situation. Those who contributed to the economic melt down must be punished.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
ZIMBABWE AN ALLEGORY OF A COUNTRY RULED BY VULTURES!
@ Jean Wright
I like your imagery of vultures. There is something uncouth and down right hellish about vultures but if they had a voice they would probably protested at being compared to Mugabe and his murderous thugs.
“We feed on rotten meat and if we see someone suffering we land, not to help, but to help ourselves,” the vultures would cry out. “Our table manners leave a lot to be desired; we like to bury our heads deep in our food - just as well we have no feathers on our neck. We are the world’s dirtiest undertakers. ‘No job is too gruesome and no morsel too smelly for a vulture!’ that is the vulture's creed!”
“But to be compare to that ruthless and mindless dictator, Mugabe; is an insult not even a vulture can stomach! We vulture will fight over a rotten carcass but will never gourge out another vulture's eye muchless murder him. Look what Mugabe and his gang are doing; they completely destroyed the nation’s economy forcing millions into a life of abject poverty. These people are suffering and dying for lack of clean water to drink and an asprin tablet in this day and age. The regime has murdered tens of thousands of innocent people in its quest to stay in power so Mugabe can continue to loot and murder. Least we forget, Mugabe and his thugs are doing these things to fellow black Zimbabweans - their own people, their own kith and kin!”
Yes, not even vultures would do what Mugabe and his thugs have been doing.
I believe Mugabe and his thugs know what they have been doing is despicable and they will have to answer for it; hence their cast iron resolve to stay in power at all cost. The country’s economy is in a total mess and yet the regime continues to loot. There are very few white owned farms left so the looters have turned on each other; there are stories of Grace Mugabe kicking a Zanu PF Judge off a farm to give it to her son Russell! With each passing day one thing is becoming clear – this house of cards is set to collapse and the regime is set to fall.
Whilst Mugabe is hoping that he can hang on for a bit longer and death finds him still in office. Each one of his top brass thugs is hoping the same. As for the rank and file officers and the thousands roped in into propping up the dictatorship for little reward they are having second thoughts about doing the party’s dirty bidding. They know when the whole edifice crashes they will be the one with blood on their hands and Mugabe and his lot will swear they never saw them in their life!
Zimbabwe has become an allegory what would happen to country ruled by uncouth vultures! The next chapter is what happens to the vultures when they were finally dethroned. Trust me it will be a lesson to discourage any would be dictator to think twice! Watch this space!
I like your imagery of vultures. There is something uncouth and down right hellish about vultures but if they had a voice they would probably protested at being compared to Mugabe and his murderous thugs.
“We feed on rotten meat and if we see someone suffering we land, not to help, but to help ourselves,” the vultures would cry out. “Our table manners leave a lot to be desired; we like to bury our heads deep in our food - just as well we have no feathers on our neck. We are the world’s dirtiest undertakers. ‘No job is too gruesome and no morsel too smelly for a vulture!’ that is the vulture's creed!”
“But to be compare to that ruthless and mindless dictator, Mugabe; is an insult not even a vulture can stomach! We vulture will fight over a rotten carcass but will never gourge out another vulture's eye muchless murder him. Look what Mugabe and his gang are doing; they completely destroyed the nation’s economy forcing millions into a life of abject poverty. These people are suffering and dying for lack of clean water to drink and an asprin tablet in this day and age. The regime has murdered tens of thousands of innocent people in its quest to stay in power so Mugabe can continue to loot and murder. Least we forget, Mugabe and his thugs are doing these things to fellow black Zimbabweans - their own people, their own kith and kin!”
Yes, not even vultures would do what Mugabe and his thugs have been doing.
I believe Mugabe and his thugs know what they have been doing is despicable and they will have to answer for it; hence their cast iron resolve to stay in power at all cost. The country’s economy is in a total mess and yet the regime continues to loot. There are very few white owned farms left so the looters have turned on each other; there are stories of Grace Mugabe kicking a Zanu PF Judge off a farm to give it to her son Russell! With each passing day one thing is becoming clear – this house of cards is set to collapse and the regime is set to fall.
Whilst Mugabe is hoping that he can hang on for a bit longer and death finds him still in office. Each one of his top brass thugs is hoping the same. As for the rank and file officers and the thousands roped in into propping up the dictatorship for little reward they are having second thoughts about doing the party’s dirty bidding. They know when the whole edifice crashes they will be the one with blood on their hands and Mugabe and his lot will swear they never saw them in their life!
Zimbabwe has become an allegory what would happen to country ruled by uncouth vultures! The next chapter is what happens to the vultures when they were finally dethroned. Trust me it will be a lesson to discourage any would be dictator to think twice! Watch this space!
Monday, 1 November 2010
TSVANGIRAI HAVE EGG ON HIS FACE OVER "CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS" AMBASSADORS APPOINTMENTS!
The UN and the EU have both dismissed Tsvangirai’s request for them to reject the Zimbabwean Ambassadors to these bodies on the grounds that Mugabe appointed them without consulting him, as PM. It was a stupid request and it would have been really stupid of the UN and EU to even consider it!
Tsvangirai had hoped to cause a “constitutional crisis” with this move; he is the one with egg on his face!
@Themba Khumalo and Peter Win
Tsvangirai has made many blunders in the past, very costly blunders at that! Yes Khumalo you are right to ask; “Is this man FIT to run a country?”
Peter Win you too are right to comment, “There might be doubt as to whether Tsvangirai is fit to be a P.M. - but there's certainly no doubt that Mad Bob should have been kicked out of the country a long time ago!”
As a Zimbabwean (and I believe this is an issue every Zimbabwean out there must now serious consider) I have to ask myself whether Tsvangirai is fit to kick Mugabe out of office. There have been countless opportunities for him to do so in the past notably after the sham 2008 elections when the dictator was on the hook. It was blundering Tsvangirai who got him off the hook.
Much as I would like to see all Mugabe and his cronies looted from the nation given back to the people and the dictator and all his henchmen in the dock for the murder of tens of the thousands of innocent Zimbabweans; I know none of these things will ever happen as long as blundering idiots like Tsvangirai are tasked to carry out this task. Mugabe is a canning fox; too canning for a slow thinking toad like Tsvangirai!
Tsvangirai had hoped to cause a “constitutional crisis” with this move; he is the one with egg on his face!
@Themba Khumalo and Peter Win
Tsvangirai has made many blunders in the past, very costly blunders at that! Yes Khumalo you are right to ask; “Is this man FIT to run a country?”
Peter Win you too are right to comment, “There might be doubt as to whether Tsvangirai is fit to be a P.M. - but there's certainly no doubt that Mad Bob should have been kicked out of the country a long time ago!”
As a Zimbabwean (and I believe this is an issue every Zimbabwean out there must now serious consider) I have to ask myself whether Tsvangirai is fit to kick Mugabe out of office. There have been countless opportunities for him to do so in the past notably after the sham 2008 elections when the dictator was on the hook. It was blundering Tsvangirai who got him off the hook.
Much as I would like to see all Mugabe and his cronies looted from the nation given back to the people and the dictator and all his henchmen in the dock for the murder of tens of the thousands of innocent Zimbabweans; I know none of these things will ever happen as long as blundering idiots like Tsvangirai are tasked to carry out this task. Mugabe is a canning fox; too canning for a slow thinking toad like Tsvangirai!
Thursday, 21 October 2010
MUGABE IS MAKING IT THE LAND IS MORE VALUABLE THAN THE PEOPLE - NYIKA VANHU!
@ Fungayi and Dora
“A struggle that was waged to primarily wrestle land from a minority that looted the resource in a genocidal and punishable way,” Dora argued. “In the process of its finalisation you are created a proxy to resist same in deliberate manner to maintain the status quo.”
“Mariko Jones land was at the very top (of liberation war demands). You must have heard the Son of the Soil (Mwana wevhu!) slogan,” wrote Fungayi.
So that is your take on Mugabe’s usual excuse for unleashing his political thugs to beat, rape and murder innocent people; he is protecting the nation’s “independence and sovereignty” he claims.
This is all nonsense gentlemen and we all know it. The land was a very important and critical resource that the repressive white regime had commandeered and denied the blacks equal access just as they were doing with other resources like minerals and other national wealth. The struggle for independence was to restore natural justice in the distribution of land and all the country’s wealth. These rights are covered in the right to own property, the right to seek employment and be paid a just wage, etc. often referred as the basic economic rights.
The right to be recognised as a person before the law, freedom of expression, the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country and the right to life and some of the political rights.
Repressive regimes have often sought to hide their continued denial of political rights to their people in the guess that they are interested in delivering the economic rights. “Human rights do not put food on your table,” they would argue. In the case of this Mugabe dictatorship, having finally failed to post independence promise “gutsa ruzhinji” – mass prosperity, the regime has discarded all other economic rights to just this one – land.
First we must dismiss this nonsense that the people have a choice of economic rights or political rights. The citizen is entitled to all economic and all political rights and is nothing to suggest that these rights are mutually exclusive and therefore can not be enjoyed at one and the same time.
The extent all the citizens (not just a select few) enjoyment their economic and political rights and freedoms is the true measure of the independence and sovereignty a nation.
Oppressive regimes deny their people freedom of expression they do not want the public to know how incompetent and corrupt the rulers are. On the land issue, for example, Mugabe has been lying that it is the landless peasants who have benefited from the white farm invasion when it is he and his cronies who have taken over most of the farms. Mugabe, his wife and a few other Zanu PF big wigs have as many as five farms each! They then deny the electorate the free vote so they can not be booted out of power.
Mugabe’s autocratic rule is a flash back of my childhood. The image of my big brother towering over me slapping and punching me hissing “Be quite!” I wanted to scream my head off from the physical pain but even more so from the injustice of it all. He would be punishing me for not having done ALL the chores even when I had done more than my fair share of the work. My father would be disappointed to see that the dishes were not washed or the school uniform was not washed but he would never beat any one for that. He was really angry that my brother was beating me for not doing his share of the chores.
“Here,” my father said to brother once. “Here is some money. Go and find yourself a prostitute and father a child with her. Then you can beat up your own child!”
Zimbabwe finds itself in this nightmare situation today because it has a ruthless bully for a father figure with all the Stately power and authority of the Police, CIO and Army to abuse to achieve his singular goal of retaining political power at all cost.
Tsvangirai and MDC have not turned out to be any better than Mugabe in terms of sympathising with the suffering ordinary person. At a time when Zim Alloys, Zim Glass and Kariba Batteries, three big factories in Gweru, closed throwing hundreds of workers to join the 80% unemployed. In the same week that an MDC supporter is murdered in cold blood during an outreach meeting in a throw back of the political violence of 2008. Tsvangirai said nothing on these issues. Instead he sort to cause a “constitutional crisis” over Mugabe’s failure to appoint Roy Bennett and other MDC Officials into power.
Still no amount of propaganda can change the fact that the people’s right own land, right to be heard and share ideas, the right to be treated with dignity and, above all, their right to life was at the very heart of our struggle for freedom and independence. Sadly that goal of granting our people all these basic human rights is yet to be achieved. Mugabe’s notion of putting independence and the land before the people is as ridiculous as a father expending his energy rescuing toy but did not lift a finger to save the life of the child.
Fungayi, when it comes to governance all those in public will be well advised to remember that “Nyika vanhu!” – It is the people who give a country it worth. It is more poignant than “Mwana wevhu” – Son of the soil!
@Mariko Jones
We have the great misfortune, Mariko, of living in a country where those who a heroic war of independence, having won the war, they turned the guns on the very people they were supposed to be liberating to deprive them of liberty and human dignity. It is very difficult to urge much less do something staring up the business end of a gun.
“What was won by a gun can not be undone by a pen!” Was Robert Mugabe’s justification for waging war against defenceless civilians in 2008 in which the whole nation was subjected to three months of hell in an orgy of intimidation, rape, beatings and over 500 were murdered. In the past the Police, CIO and the Army had turned a blind eye to Zanu PF orchestrated violence and lawlessness; this time they spear headed the violence and carried out most of the kidnappings and murders in unmarked state vehicles. All this social upheaval was for one purpose and one purpose only; so Mugabe and Zanu PF can retain power.
In the three decades in power, Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have destroyed the country’s economy initially through mismanagement, then corruption and in the last ten years in the worst kind of institutionalised looting in human history. At the peak of the looting inflation soared to 500 billion %, unemployment climbed to nauseating levels of 95%, schools and hospitals closed, there was no food and other good in shops, etc. Millions of our people now live in abject poverty.
Life expectancy, the ultimate litmus test, in Zimbabwe has dropped from 65 years when Mugabe came into power to 34 years or less today! The ordinary Zimbabweans is economically and politically worse off today than he/she were under white colonial repression; that is the sad and tragic indictment of Zimbabwe’s black majority rule to date. How did this happen?
It was clear from the outset that Mugabe and his Zanu PF may have been the leaders in the struggle to end white exploitation and repression but it was not out of the altruistic notion of restoring the freedom and human dignity of all. They saw it as a ticket for them to step into the white men’s shoe and become the new lords in the land with even more political power than the colonialists ever enjoyed. Many of those who should and could have stopped Mugabe from within Zanu PF itself and outside did opted to join him instead on the promise of a share of the spoils. As for the ordinary Zimbabweans, they simply resigned their future and that of posterity to whatever the mad and ruthless dictator decided. Fortunately there were a few Zimbabweans who had the courage and vision to stand up and say to this reign of madness.
Everyone can see the ruinous consequences of Mugabe’s rule and you, Mariko, are one of the few who have had the courage to condemn the Mugabe’s “outrageous trashing human dignity, hope and human life.” I agree, this must never be swept under the carpet.
Fungayi and Dora are some of those people who chose to aid and abet Mugabe in his madness in return for the thirty pieces of silver. Fungayi says he got a “plot of land” one of the looted former white owned farm. It is interesting to note that the situation in Zimbabwe is now so bad that not even the plot could entice him to live in Zimbabwe. The two have been busy painting a false picture the dictator and his regime but there is nothing that can ever hide the brutality of 2008 election violence or the genocide of Gukurahundi. These two are certainly guilty of instigating some of the serious human rights violations if not themselves shedding some of innocent blood. They must have the loot taken away and, if they have blood on their hands, they must hang together with Mugabe and all the other thugs!
“A struggle that was waged to primarily wrestle land from a minority that looted the resource in a genocidal and punishable way,” Dora argued. “In the process of its finalisation you are created a proxy to resist same in deliberate manner to maintain the status quo.”
“Mariko Jones land was at the very top (of liberation war demands). You must have heard the Son of the Soil (Mwana wevhu!) slogan,” wrote Fungayi.
So that is your take on Mugabe’s usual excuse for unleashing his political thugs to beat, rape and murder innocent people; he is protecting the nation’s “independence and sovereignty” he claims.
This is all nonsense gentlemen and we all know it. The land was a very important and critical resource that the repressive white regime had commandeered and denied the blacks equal access just as they were doing with other resources like minerals and other national wealth. The struggle for independence was to restore natural justice in the distribution of land and all the country’s wealth. These rights are covered in the right to own property, the right to seek employment and be paid a just wage, etc. often referred as the basic economic rights.
The right to be recognised as a person before the law, freedom of expression, the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country and the right to life and some of the political rights.
Repressive regimes have often sought to hide their continued denial of political rights to their people in the guess that they are interested in delivering the economic rights. “Human rights do not put food on your table,” they would argue. In the case of this Mugabe dictatorship, having finally failed to post independence promise “gutsa ruzhinji” – mass prosperity, the regime has discarded all other economic rights to just this one – land.
First we must dismiss this nonsense that the people have a choice of economic rights or political rights. The citizen is entitled to all economic and all political rights and is nothing to suggest that these rights are mutually exclusive and therefore can not be enjoyed at one and the same time.
The extent all the citizens (not just a select few) enjoyment their economic and political rights and freedoms is the true measure of the independence and sovereignty a nation.
Oppressive regimes deny their people freedom of expression they do not want the public to know how incompetent and corrupt the rulers are. On the land issue, for example, Mugabe has been lying that it is the landless peasants who have benefited from the white farm invasion when it is he and his cronies who have taken over most of the farms. Mugabe, his wife and a few other Zanu PF big wigs have as many as five farms each! They then deny the electorate the free vote so they can not be booted out of power.
Mugabe’s autocratic rule is a flash back of my childhood. The image of my big brother towering over me slapping and punching me hissing “Be quite!” I wanted to scream my head off from the physical pain but even more so from the injustice of it all. He would be punishing me for not having done ALL the chores even when I had done more than my fair share of the work. My father would be disappointed to see that the dishes were not washed or the school uniform was not washed but he would never beat any one for that. He was really angry that my brother was beating me for not doing his share of the chores.
“Here,” my father said to brother once. “Here is some money. Go and find yourself a prostitute and father a child with her. Then you can beat up your own child!”
Zimbabwe finds itself in this nightmare situation today because it has a ruthless bully for a father figure with all the Stately power and authority of the Police, CIO and Army to abuse to achieve his singular goal of retaining political power at all cost.
Tsvangirai and MDC have not turned out to be any better than Mugabe in terms of sympathising with the suffering ordinary person. At a time when Zim Alloys, Zim Glass and Kariba Batteries, three big factories in Gweru, closed throwing hundreds of workers to join the 80% unemployed. In the same week that an MDC supporter is murdered in cold blood during an outreach meeting in a throw back of the political violence of 2008. Tsvangirai said nothing on these issues. Instead he sort to cause a “constitutional crisis” over Mugabe’s failure to appoint Roy Bennett and other MDC Officials into power.
Still no amount of propaganda can change the fact that the people’s right own land, right to be heard and share ideas, the right to be treated with dignity and, above all, their right to life was at the very heart of our struggle for freedom and independence. Sadly that goal of granting our people all these basic human rights is yet to be achieved. Mugabe’s notion of putting independence and the land before the people is as ridiculous as a father expending his energy rescuing toy but did not lift a finger to save the life of the child.
Fungayi, when it comes to governance all those in public will be well advised to remember that “Nyika vanhu!” – It is the people who give a country it worth. It is more poignant than “Mwana wevhu” – Son of the soil!
@Mariko Jones
We have the great misfortune, Mariko, of living in a country where those who a heroic war of independence, having won the war, they turned the guns on the very people they were supposed to be liberating to deprive them of liberty and human dignity. It is very difficult to urge much less do something staring up the business end of a gun.
“What was won by a gun can not be undone by a pen!” Was Robert Mugabe’s justification for waging war against defenceless civilians in 2008 in which the whole nation was subjected to three months of hell in an orgy of intimidation, rape, beatings and over 500 were murdered. In the past the Police, CIO and the Army had turned a blind eye to Zanu PF orchestrated violence and lawlessness; this time they spear headed the violence and carried out most of the kidnappings and murders in unmarked state vehicles. All this social upheaval was for one purpose and one purpose only; so Mugabe and Zanu PF can retain power.
In the three decades in power, Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have destroyed the country’s economy initially through mismanagement, then corruption and in the last ten years in the worst kind of institutionalised looting in human history. At the peak of the looting inflation soared to 500 billion %, unemployment climbed to nauseating levels of 95%, schools and hospitals closed, there was no food and other good in shops, etc. Millions of our people now live in abject poverty.
Life expectancy, the ultimate litmus test, in Zimbabwe has dropped from 65 years when Mugabe came into power to 34 years or less today! The ordinary Zimbabweans is economically and politically worse off today than he/she were under white colonial repression; that is the sad and tragic indictment of Zimbabwe’s black majority rule to date. How did this happen?
It was clear from the outset that Mugabe and his Zanu PF may have been the leaders in the struggle to end white exploitation and repression but it was not out of the altruistic notion of restoring the freedom and human dignity of all. They saw it as a ticket for them to step into the white men’s shoe and become the new lords in the land with even more political power than the colonialists ever enjoyed. Many of those who should and could have stopped Mugabe from within Zanu PF itself and outside did opted to join him instead on the promise of a share of the spoils. As for the ordinary Zimbabweans, they simply resigned their future and that of posterity to whatever the mad and ruthless dictator decided. Fortunately there were a few Zimbabweans who had the courage and vision to stand up and say to this reign of madness.
Everyone can see the ruinous consequences of Mugabe’s rule and you, Mariko, are one of the few who have had the courage to condemn the Mugabe’s “outrageous trashing human dignity, hope and human life.” I agree, this must never be swept under the carpet.
Fungayi and Dora are some of those people who chose to aid and abet Mugabe in his madness in return for the thirty pieces of silver. Fungayi says he got a “plot of land” one of the looted former white owned farm. It is interesting to note that the situation in Zimbabwe is now so bad that not even the plot could entice him to live in Zimbabwe. The two have been busy painting a false picture the dictator and his regime but there is nothing that can ever hide the brutality of 2008 election violence or the genocide of Gukurahundi. These two are certainly guilty of instigating some of the serious human rights violations if not themselves shedding some of innocent blood. They must have the loot taken away and, if they have blood on their hands, they must hang together with Mugabe and all the other thugs!
Friday, 15 October 2010
MUGABE DECIDES GNU TO END NEXT YEARS: NO CHANCE OF FREE ELECTIONS - WE HAVE NOT EARNED THEM
For once the dictator is talking sense. The GNU has been a total waste of time the only person to have gained from it is Mugabe himself. It allowed him to get out of a really sticky situation after the sham June 2008 elections when his legitimacy was on the line. The GNU restore his legitimacy complete with all his dictatorial powers – he has spent the last two years flexing them by kicking Tsvangirai, a dictator’s crude way of showing his gratitude for helping off the hook (the idiot deserved it). Mugabe has used the time to regroup and get his party back behind him. The windfall from the sell of Marange diamonds was a great blessing; his war chest is now full.
To a man like Mugabe used to exercising absolute power the very idea of the GNU was anathema, an abomination he has been dying to end. All Tsvangirai had was the fancy job title of Prime Minister and the car and no real power; still the dictator has been itching to see the back of this up start.
What are the chances the elections next year will be free and fair and produce a result reflecting the true democratic will of Zimbabweans? The chances of that are, frankly, remote. Mugabe has roped in the Police, CIO and Army to spearhead the violence and intimidation of the electorate to ensure a Zanu PF electoral victory. The State Security organs will be held in reserve – Mugabe has to be careful he does not find himself in the situation of June 2008 if he can help it and this time he can. Mugabe will use the Zanu PF militia and the Warvet to do most of the dirty work and he has the money to pay them.
The only reason why I agree elections next year are a good thing is the GNU is getting nowhere. I keep saying it because it is true: the nation would have been better off if the GNU had never existed. At the very least, MDC should have used the GNU to campaign for an end to political violence – they did no such thing. An election on Mugabe’s terms is what this nation signed up for when the GNU was formed. Well the dictator dictates that election will be next year; let get on with it. People like Tsvangirai should stop morning and moralizing about the need for a new constitution or ending political violence when he the one who has done nothing about all these things.
@ Ndodana Sithole
“All right thinking Zimbabweans and the world expect a free and fair election first.”
That goes without saying, what we really want to hear from you and Tsvangirai is how we are going to achieve that.
You can go and write "GIVE US A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION AND YOU ARE HISTORY' and whatever else you want on the wall of State House if you dare. Mugabe does not care! You lot cheered and applauded Tsvangirai when he signed the one-sided GPA and whilst he sat on his backside doing nothing there last two years. To you Tsvangirai could do no wrong. You should now reflect on the trouble this blundering idiot has landed the nation into and stop annoying us with stupid calls!
@ Ndodana
“Give people a free and fair election not excuses and stories” And who, may I ask, do you expect to “GIVE” the people free and fair elections.
Mugabe has spent all his life cheating, rigging elections, intimidating and terrorising and has murdered tens of thousands of Zimbabweans for one purpose and one purpose only – to gain and retain power. You do not serious expect him to just give it away do you; all served in a silver platter with cheese and mustard! No doubt that is what Tsvangirai has been waiting for. How naïve!
It is true, you have no mentioned Tsvangirai today but you have been one of those who have defended his performance (or rather blundering) in the past, if I remember correctly
@Ndodana
So who is going to write WE DEMAND FREE AND FAIR ELECTION on the walls in State House? Only then can we be sure of Mugabe saw and read the writing on the wall. Mugabe has seven University degrees, beside the one in violence he keeps boosting about, so he can read. This a better challenge than fabled mouse tying the bell round the cat’s neck faced; for one thing there will a lots and lots of CIO cats on the prowl!
But on a serious note Ndodana you can not deny that Tsvangirai made a blunder in signing the GPA and thus let Mugabe off the hook and by failing to address the issue of violence made a bad situation worse.
Tsvangirai has become the fabled Yanda who prayed every night to win the lottery but never did.
“Lord, why did you not answer my prayers?” asked Yanda.
“How could I,” answered the Lord, “you never in your whole life bought a lottery ticket!”
Tsvangirai should have realised the once-in-a-life-time chance the rejection of Mugabe following the sham June 2008 elections presented. If he had not wasted the chance by signing the GPA, Mugabe would have been forced to acknowledge defeat or else face certain humiliation in fresh free and fair elections. Mugabe would have been out of all our lives and Zimbabwe would have spent the last two years carrying out the real challenge of rebuilding the nation instead of bickering over trivia.
The least Tsvangirai and MDC have done, after the initial blunder of reinstating Mugabe is State House, was to ensure the political violence of 2008 would be a thing of the past by demanding that all those involved in past violence must be arrested and punished. What Minister Sekai Holland has been doing in take part in a pointless reconciliation process is dress the Zanu PF wolf, behind the political violence, in a sheep’s skin. Indeed the wolf has continued to carry on with its mischievous acts. The Zanu PF thugs have disrupted several outreach meeting to discuss the new constitution making the whole process a waste of time.
Like it or not Tsvangirai and MDC have been making decisions on behalf of all Zimbabweans and by failing to condemn their failures and blunders it is assumed we approved. Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friend have been a total let down. Many Zimbabweans have failed to see this as they have continued praise everything MDC has done.
Zimbabweans are not going to get sympathy from anyone should next year’s elections be anything other than free and fair. We saw the violence coming a mile away and we have done nothing about it! If we want free and fair elections then we must work for it and not just wish for it like Yanda.
@ aluta continua on October 15, 2010, 12:07 am
Let me make sure I get you right, are you saying I and millions of fellow Zimbabweans who are in the same boat – i.e. have all been denied the basic human rights like freedom of expression, free vote and for some the right to life itself and continue to be denied these rights – do not deserve these rights because we have “disregard the right of our country against sanctions”?
Aluta, Mugabe has always controlled the media, the country has never held free and fair elections and in the mid 1980s over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered. There were no targeted sanctions against the regime then when all these things happened. We can go back to the days before independence; how many innocent Zimbabweans were murdered in cold blood by Zanu PF because “Mazivanhu aMuzorewa” – They are Muzorewa supporters? The true stories of the armed struggles are coming out and the murderous streak in Zanu PF runs deep, deeper than many of us ever imagined!
Mugabe and his murderous thugs have never cared about freedom, justice, love, beauty all those things true heroes risk their lives and die for. All they ever wanted was power, absolute power and once they got it, they have shown they would deny the whole nation the every essence of freedom and humanity, the basic human rights including the right to life.
No Aluta, I do deserve – so too does the millions of other Zimbabweans – all the basic human rights, freedoms and human dignity that entails for one single reason: because I am a member of the human race. These are my birth right and not some gift that can be given, withheld or denied at the whim of some tyrant.
The West imposed sanctions are just a convenient excuse this regime has found to justify its continued repression. No doubt the regime had other excuses in the past and will find new ones tomorrow. Zimbabweans should fight for our human rights our birth rights and not allow ourselves to be distracted by the regime’s nonsensical excuses.
888
What does Mbeki know about good leaders? He was never one of them and old age has had no effect on him. Yes old age does sharpen one’s wit; but, hell, only if you had the wit in the first place. Mbeki has never had any wit, none.
To a man like Mugabe used to exercising absolute power the very idea of the GNU was anathema, an abomination he has been dying to end. All Tsvangirai had was the fancy job title of Prime Minister and the car and no real power; still the dictator has been itching to see the back of this up start.
What are the chances the elections next year will be free and fair and produce a result reflecting the true democratic will of Zimbabweans? The chances of that are, frankly, remote. Mugabe has roped in the Police, CIO and Army to spearhead the violence and intimidation of the electorate to ensure a Zanu PF electoral victory. The State Security organs will be held in reserve – Mugabe has to be careful he does not find himself in the situation of June 2008 if he can help it and this time he can. Mugabe will use the Zanu PF militia and the Warvet to do most of the dirty work and he has the money to pay them.
The only reason why I agree elections next year are a good thing is the GNU is getting nowhere. I keep saying it because it is true: the nation would have been better off if the GNU had never existed. At the very least, MDC should have used the GNU to campaign for an end to political violence – they did no such thing. An election on Mugabe’s terms is what this nation signed up for when the GNU was formed. Well the dictator dictates that election will be next year; let get on with it. People like Tsvangirai should stop morning and moralizing about the need for a new constitution or ending political violence when he the one who has done nothing about all these things.
@ Ndodana Sithole
“All right thinking Zimbabweans and the world expect a free and fair election first.”
That goes without saying, what we really want to hear from you and Tsvangirai is how we are going to achieve that.
You can go and write "GIVE US A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION AND YOU ARE HISTORY' and whatever else you want on the wall of State House if you dare. Mugabe does not care! You lot cheered and applauded Tsvangirai when he signed the one-sided GPA and whilst he sat on his backside doing nothing there last two years. To you Tsvangirai could do no wrong. You should now reflect on the trouble this blundering idiot has landed the nation into and stop annoying us with stupid calls!
@ Ndodana
“Give people a free and fair election not excuses and stories” And who, may I ask, do you expect to “GIVE” the people free and fair elections.
Mugabe has spent all his life cheating, rigging elections, intimidating and terrorising and has murdered tens of thousands of Zimbabweans for one purpose and one purpose only – to gain and retain power. You do not serious expect him to just give it away do you; all served in a silver platter with cheese and mustard! No doubt that is what Tsvangirai has been waiting for. How naïve!
It is true, you have no mentioned Tsvangirai today but you have been one of those who have defended his performance (or rather blundering) in the past, if I remember correctly
@Ndodana
So who is going to write WE DEMAND FREE AND FAIR ELECTION on the walls in State House? Only then can we be sure of Mugabe saw and read the writing on the wall. Mugabe has seven University degrees, beside the one in violence he keeps boosting about, so he can read. This a better challenge than fabled mouse tying the bell round the cat’s neck faced; for one thing there will a lots and lots of CIO cats on the prowl!
But on a serious note Ndodana you can not deny that Tsvangirai made a blunder in signing the GPA and thus let Mugabe off the hook and by failing to address the issue of violence made a bad situation worse.
Tsvangirai has become the fabled Yanda who prayed every night to win the lottery but never did.
“Lord, why did you not answer my prayers?” asked Yanda.
“How could I,” answered the Lord, “you never in your whole life bought a lottery ticket!”
Tsvangirai should have realised the once-in-a-life-time chance the rejection of Mugabe following the sham June 2008 elections presented. If he had not wasted the chance by signing the GPA, Mugabe would have been forced to acknowledge defeat or else face certain humiliation in fresh free and fair elections. Mugabe would have been out of all our lives and Zimbabwe would have spent the last two years carrying out the real challenge of rebuilding the nation instead of bickering over trivia.
The least Tsvangirai and MDC have done, after the initial blunder of reinstating Mugabe is State House, was to ensure the political violence of 2008 would be a thing of the past by demanding that all those involved in past violence must be arrested and punished. What Minister Sekai Holland has been doing in take part in a pointless reconciliation process is dress the Zanu PF wolf, behind the political violence, in a sheep’s skin. Indeed the wolf has continued to carry on with its mischievous acts. The Zanu PF thugs have disrupted several outreach meeting to discuss the new constitution making the whole process a waste of time.
Like it or not Tsvangirai and MDC have been making decisions on behalf of all Zimbabweans and by failing to condemn their failures and blunders it is assumed we approved. Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friend have been a total let down. Many Zimbabweans have failed to see this as they have continued praise everything MDC has done.
Zimbabweans are not going to get sympathy from anyone should next year’s elections be anything other than free and fair. We saw the violence coming a mile away and we have done nothing about it! If we want free and fair elections then we must work for it and not just wish for it like Yanda.
@ aluta continua on October 15, 2010, 12:07 am
Let me make sure I get you right, are you saying I and millions of fellow Zimbabweans who are in the same boat – i.e. have all been denied the basic human rights like freedom of expression, free vote and for some the right to life itself and continue to be denied these rights – do not deserve these rights because we have “disregard the right of our country against sanctions”?
Aluta, Mugabe has always controlled the media, the country has never held free and fair elections and in the mid 1980s over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered. There were no targeted sanctions against the regime then when all these things happened. We can go back to the days before independence; how many innocent Zimbabweans were murdered in cold blood by Zanu PF because “Mazivanhu aMuzorewa” – They are Muzorewa supporters? The true stories of the armed struggles are coming out and the murderous streak in Zanu PF runs deep, deeper than many of us ever imagined!
Mugabe and his murderous thugs have never cared about freedom, justice, love, beauty all those things true heroes risk their lives and die for. All they ever wanted was power, absolute power and once they got it, they have shown they would deny the whole nation the every essence of freedom and humanity, the basic human rights including the right to life.
No Aluta, I do deserve – so too does the millions of other Zimbabweans – all the basic human rights, freedoms and human dignity that entails for one single reason: because I am a member of the human race. These are my birth right and not some gift that can be given, withheld or denied at the whim of some tyrant.
The West imposed sanctions are just a convenient excuse this regime has found to justify its continued repression. No doubt the regime had other excuses in the past and will find new ones tomorrow. Zimbabweans should fight for our human rights our birth rights and not allow ourselves to be distracted by the regime’s nonsensical excuses.
888
What does Mbeki know about good leaders? He was never one of them and old age has had no effect on him. Yes old age does sharpen one’s wit; but, hell, only if you had the wit in the first place. Mbeki has never had any wit, none.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
SA has been elected for a two-year stint on UN Security Council: bad news for all those under dictatorship!
South Africa has been elected to the UN Security Council to serve for two years starting January 2011. That is bad news for Zimbabwe all other African country under dictatorship; SA is known for appeasing tyrants.
Adam Habib argues that South Africa should “give Mugabe assurances that giving away power will not necessarily mean a ticket to a war crimes trial in The Hague. As a trade, you and your generals don’t have to go to the ICC, but in exchange, you have to guarantee peace.” With all due respect that is NOT true. That was what South Africa had hoped to achieve originally with President Mbeki’s “quite diplomacy”, yes; but that is certainly NOT what South Africa has delivered in practice.
The only iron clad to assurance acceptable to Mugabe and his generals that they will never ever be sent to The Hague to face ICC is that they remain in power they remain in power or else there will be no peace in Zimbabwe. As if to underline that they meant business Mugabe and his military Junta, Joint Operations Command (JOC), deployed party thugs backed this time by armed Police, CIO and Soldiers to beat, rape and murder defenseless and innocent civilians. South Africa and the rest of SADC got the message alright and their pushed Tsvangirai to sign the 2008 GPA which was designed to do give Mugabe and his JOC all they asked for – a firm grip on the wheel of power complete with all Mugabe’s dictatorial powers.
Ever since President Thembo Mbeki’s days in office SA has pursued the policy of appeasement, especially with Mugabe. SA was afforded the chance to pursue this policy on the biggest international stage, the UN, when the country held the rotating UN Security Council seat. Again and again SA blocked the international community’s attempts to rein in Mugabe for Harare’s serious human rights violations. Mugabe and JOC will no doubt be toasting SA’s two-year stint on the Security Council; they can continue with their programs of serious human rights violations confident that SA will block all UN attempts to stop them.
South Africa’s appointment to the UN Security Council for the next two years is bad news for Africa given SA’s history of appeasing dictators. Appeasing dictators has never worked anywhere in the world. It is disappointing that Adam Habib presents SA’s policy on Zimbabwe to be anything other than what it is – appeasement.
@ Dread Dread6
You are so obtuse! "After deliberations these two agreed to merge into one powerful outfit ZANU-PF," you say. That was some deliberation alright, over 20 000 killed!
By the way, the unity accords between Zanu PF and PF Zapu did not in any way change the country's constitution, Zimbabwe still remained a multi-party state. Mugabe continued to unleash his thugs to beat rape and murder his political opponents. But of course you do not see it that way; to you its all part of the political "deliberation"! It is any wonder that Africa is struggling to emerge out of the dark ages, how can she with morons like you defending the indefensible!
Mugabe has completely destroyed the Zimbabwe economy throwing millions of our people into abject poverty and despair after years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and down right looting. He has justified the looting of especially white owned farms and business on the grounds that he is redressing past colonial injustice and black empower. The only blacks who have benefited are the ruling elite, who are now multi millionaires. It is the ordinary Zimbabweans who have paid dearly for it all as their jobs, schools, hospitals, basic services like water and electricity, etc. have all taken away from them.
The ordinary Zimbabweans have been fighting for the right to be heard that Mugabe’s policies are hurting them. The dictator has been ruthless in silencing them and denying them a free vote on the shaky grounds all those opposed to his rule must be in sympathy with the whites and the West. The white colonialist and the slave traders before them dehumanised blacks as less than human devoid of such human feeling of pain and love and therefore denying them all the basic human rights does not hurt them in any way. Being whipped is nothing; it is all water off the duck’s back. Things have not really changed; Mugabe has been denying millions of our people all the basic human rights including the right to life all on the grounds that any black opposed to his rule is less than human and therefore does not deserve any human rights! And of course, morons like you Dread Dread6 have been cheering him along!
@ Mariko Jones
Considering it was none other than Edson Zvobgo himself who changed Zimbabwe’s constitution to create the office of the executive presidency, I can not say I have any sympathy for him. Instead of being president Zvobgo ended his political life as one of those long serving Minister-of-nothing in the President’s office that Mugabe conjures up at the time. So poor Zvobgo found himself occupying some broom cupboard size office being asked to write reports on all manner of subjects; reports demanded from him but only to be thrown straight in the bin!
Zvobgo made it ease for the madman to run off into the mountain with the chieftain button. His real regret is that he never got the chance to run away with the button himself! Mugabe has bullied and treated everyone in Zanu PF with contempt. “Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!” - You are all Mugabe’s whores! - Margret Dongo once told the Zanu PF big wigs to their faces. She was stating the obvious.
Despite all Mugabe’s failures and shortcomings his positions as leader of Zanu PF has never been questioned because he has treated everyone including his own fellow Zanu PF politburo members are in their errant kindergarten kids. It is of course unthinkable for kindergarten kids to even think they can ever be the Headmaster as long as they are kids. Mugabe saw to it that none of them ever grow up and none of them ever did anything!
It must be really frustrating for anyone that after 30 years in power they can not point one single achievement they made after all those years. They stood by the dictator’s side thorough out the 30 years of sheer madness and did nothing to stop him! History will judge Zvobgo and his generation harshly for their greed and blind loyalty to a murderous dictator and so it should.
88888
Zimbabwean reports of Zanu PF replacing Zimbabwean diplomats all over the world with Zanu PF loyalists and their family and friends in a well orchestrated move to defeat the sanctions imposed on some Zanu PF officials.
There has never been the political will on the part of the West to make the sanctions really bite, this is just one example of the many loop holes Mugabe and his cronies have been using to burst the sanctions.
@ Alton Hadzisa
“Overwhelmed by intelligent arguments from Mugabe and Mutambara”! You must be talking of a different Mugabe and Mutambara not the dictator Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara most of us know. The dictator has stifled debate within the country and within his own party so there is no forum for any meaningful argument intelligent or otherwise. Each time Mutambara has opened his mouth, more often than not, he had his foot in his mouth. So how you got an intelligent argument from him is beyond me!
@Ndodana Sithole
“Morgan is the only man in zim who managed to tame Bob and his looters and bring the looting into international attention,” you say. Well, well is this not the blind hero worshiping that has landed us in this mess?
Before independence and for years after the nation held Mugabe with such reverence regard, he was infallible! Of course we were foolish to do so, what has his liberation war heroic performance to do with his performance after independence. As it turned out he was hopeless incompetent, corrupt and, worse still, a tyrant. Naturally Mugabe took full advantage of our foolishness and to this day has never tired of reminding us of his heroic sacrifices for which he has demanded unfettered access to public funds and absolute power. Are we so foolish as to accord Tsvangirai the same blind reverence?
Ever since Tsvangirai has emerged on the Zimbabwe political platform he has stumbled from one blundered to the next the biggest blunder being dragging the nation into this stupid GNU! We want to judge Tsvangirai on his present performance without being weighed down heroic past of being “the only man in Zimbabwe who managed to tame Bob and his looters” whatever that means. For someone who tamed Mugabe, Tsvangirai is behaving more like the dictator’s poodle!
@Fungayi
“Wilbert Mukori when you speak of Mugabe's dictatorship, can you tell us why MDC split in 2005? Can you tell us which party leader clandestinely amended his party's constitution so he would remain at the helm?”
Well now, I being an honest man, I will answer all your questions honestly.
Let me say from the outset that I am not an MDC supporter or member and therefore everything I say is purely as an interested observer and critic.
Why did MDC split up in 2005?
On paper it was because one faction wanted to contest the Senate elections whilst the other faction did not. It was a stupid issue to split over throwing the door open speculations that there were other underlying issues.
Which party leader clandestinely amended his party’s constitution so he would remain in power?
I do not know about amending the constitution but I do know Tsvangirai has been clumsily trying to extend his stay as MDC leader contrary to the MDC’s constitution.
Now, perhaps you will honor me by answering one question. What has the splitting of MDC or Tsvangirai’s fight to remain president of MDC to do with Mugabe being a ruthless and murderous dictator?
This is the rely sick thing about dictators and, you, Fungayi , their acolytes; you are always coming up with all manner of excuses and scapegoats to justify your looting and political repression. Sometimes the excuses are so far fetched it only shows just how desperate you really are. A few weeks ago Mugabe was insisting he will not implement any more democratic reforms until the sanctions are lifted. Why, Oh why should I and millions of fellow Zimbabweans out there continue to be denied our basic right to freedom of expression, for example, as if our rights are nothing more than some goods to be traded in and sold to the highest bidder!? No doubt the dictator half expected us all to pressure the West to lift the sanctions (some idiots like Tsvangirai did – but as I said, idiots!)
9999
After reading the first three paragraph it was enough to guess who wrote this nonsense - Dr John Makumbe, who else. Talking of the dictator showing his true colours in one breathe and then patting Tsvangirai in the back for staying in the GNU in the next. Having supported MDC's initial decision to the one-sided GPA the good Professor does not have the guts to admit he made a blunder and so has to pretend all this posturing by Tsvangirai is all part of the plan!
Professor would you agree that Tsvangirai was ill advised to sign the GPA because it got Mugabe off the hook following the sham 2008 run-off? I really find it hard to follow your double Ditch that Tsvangirai was forced to sign the GPA and now you want us to believe that he is forced to stay in the GNU and thus not labeled the spoiler. So the need to avoid being labeled “spoiler” by SADC has become so important that the destiny of the whole nation must be sacrificed for it.
It is really sad that there are Zimbabweans out there advocating this type of nonsense but worse still that there are leaders like Tsvangirai who takes it all on board and use it to chart the path the nation then follows. How tragic!
Adam Habib argues that South Africa should “give Mugabe assurances that giving away power will not necessarily mean a ticket to a war crimes trial in The Hague. As a trade, you and your generals don’t have to go to the ICC, but in exchange, you have to guarantee peace.” With all due respect that is NOT true. That was what South Africa had hoped to achieve originally with President Mbeki’s “quite diplomacy”, yes; but that is certainly NOT what South Africa has delivered in practice.
The only iron clad to assurance acceptable to Mugabe and his generals that they will never ever be sent to The Hague to face ICC is that they remain in power they remain in power or else there will be no peace in Zimbabwe. As if to underline that they meant business Mugabe and his military Junta, Joint Operations Command (JOC), deployed party thugs backed this time by armed Police, CIO and Soldiers to beat, rape and murder defenseless and innocent civilians. South Africa and the rest of SADC got the message alright and their pushed Tsvangirai to sign the 2008 GPA which was designed to do give Mugabe and his JOC all they asked for – a firm grip on the wheel of power complete with all Mugabe’s dictatorial powers.
Ever since President Thembo Mbeki’s days in office SA has pursued the policy of appeasement, especially with Mugabe. SA was afforded the chance to pursue this policy on the biggest international stage, the UN, when the country held the rotating UN Security Council seat. Again and again SA blocked the international community’s attempts to rein in Mugabe for Harare’s serious human rights violations. Mugabe and JOC will no doubt be toasting SA’s two-year stint on the Security Council; they can continue with their programs of serious human rights violations confident that SA will block all UN attempts to stop them.
South Africa’s appointment to the UN Security Council for the next two years is bad news for Africa given SA’s history of appeasing dictators. Appeasing dictators has never worked anywhere in the world. It is disappointing that Adam Habib presents SA’s policy on Zimbabwe to be anything other than what it is – appeasement.
@ Dread Dread6
You are so obtuse! "After deliberations these two agreed to merge into one powerful outfit ZANU-PF," you say. That was some deliberation alright, over 20 000 killed!
By the way, the unity accords between Zanu PF and PF Zapu did not in any way change the country's constitution, Zimbabwe still remained a multi-party state. Mugabe continued to unleash his thugs to beat rape and murder his political opponents. But of course you do not see it that way; to you its all part of the political "deliberation"! It is any wonder that Africa is struggling to emerge out of the dark ages, how can she with morons like you defending the indefensible!
Mugabe has completely destroyed the Zimbabwe economy throwing millions of our people into abject poverty and despair after years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and down right looting. He has justified the looting of especially white owned farms and business on the grounds that he is redressing past colonial injustice and black empower. The only blacks who have benefited are the ruling elite, who are now multi millionaires. It is the ordinary Zimbabweans who have paid dearly for it all as their jobs, schools, hospitals, basic services like water and electricity, etc. have all taken away from them.
The ordinary Zimbabweans have been fighting for the right to be heard that Mugabe’s policies are hurting them. The dictator has been ruthless in silencing them and denying them a free vote on the shaky grounds all those opposed to his rule must be in sympathy with the whites and the West. The white colonialist and the slave traders before them dehumanised blacks as less than human devoid of such human feeling of pain and love and therefore denying them all the basic human rights does not hurt them in any way. Being whipped is nothing; it is all water off the duck’s back. Things have not really changed; Mugabe has been denying millions of our people all the basic human rights including the right to life all on the grounds that any black opposed to his rule is less than human and therefore does not deserve any human rights! And of course, morons like you Dread Dread6 have been cheering him along!
@ Mariko Jones
Considering it was none other than Edson Zvobgo himself who changed Zimbabwe’s constitution to create the office of the executive presidency, I can not say I have any sympathy for him. Instead of being president Zvobgo ended his political life as one of those long serving Minister-of-nothing in the President’s office that Mugabe conjures up at the time. So poor Zvobgo found himself occupying some broom cupboard size office being asked to write reports on all manner of subjects; reports demanded from him but only to be thrown straight in the bin!
Zvobgo made it ease for the madman to run off into the mountain with the chieftain button. His real regret is that he never got the chance to run away with the button himself! Mugabe has bullied and treated everyone in Zanu PF with contempt. “Mose murivakadzi vaMugabe!” - You are all Mugabe’s whores! - Margret Dongo once told the Zanu PF big wigs to their faces. She was stating the obvious.
Despite all Mugabe’s failures and shortcomings his positions as leader of Zanu PF has never been questioned because he has treated everyone including his own fellow Zanu PF politburo members are in their errant kindergarten kids. It is of course unthinkable for kindergarten kids to even think they can ever be the Headmaster as long as they are kids. Mugabe saw to it that none of them ever grow up and none of them ever did anything!
It must be really frustrating for anyone that after 30 years in power they can not point one single achievement they made after all those years. They stood by the dictator’s side thorough out the 30 years of sheer madness and did nothing to stop him! History will judge Zvobgo and his generation harshly for their greed and blind loyalty to a murderous dictator and so it should.
88888
Zimbabwean reports of Zanu PF replacing Zimbabwean diplomats all over the world with Zanu PF loyalists and their family and friends in a well orchestrated move to defeat the sanctions imposed on some Zanu PF officials.
There has never been the political will on the part of the West to make the sanctions really bite, this is just one example of the many loop holes Mugabe and his cronies have been using to burst the sanctions.
@ Alton Hadzisa
“Overwhelmed by intelligent arguments from Mugabe and Mutambara”! You must be talking of a different Mugabe and Mutambara not the dictator Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara most of us know. The dictator has stifled debate within the country and within his own party so there is no forum for any meaningful argument intelligent or otherwise. Each time Mutambara has opened his mouth, more often than not, he had his foot in his mouth. So how you got an intelligent argument from him is beyond me!
@Ndodana Sithole
“Morgan is the only man in zim who managed to tame Bob and his looters and bring the looting into international attention,” you say. Well, well is this not the blind hero worshiping that has landed us in this mess?
Before independence and for years after the nation held Mugabe with such reverence regard, he was infallible! Of course we were foolish to do so, what has his liberation war heroic performance to do with his performance after independence. As it turned out he was hopeless incompetent, corrupt and, worse still, a tyrant. Naturally Mugabe took full advantage of our foolishness and to this day has never tired of reminding us of his heroic sacrifices for which he has demanded unfettered access to public funds and absolute power. Are we so foolish as to accord Tsvangirai the same blind reverence?
Ever since Tsvangirai has emerged on the Zimbabwe political platform he has stumbled from one blundered to the next the biggest blunder being dragging the nation into this stupid GNU! We want to judge Tsvangirai on his present performance without being weighed down heroic past of being “the only man in Zimbabwe who managed to tame Bob and his looters” whatever that means. For someone who tamed Mugabe, Tsvangirai is behaving more like the dictator’s poodle!
@Fungayi
“Wilbert Mukori when you speak of Mugabe's dictatorship, can you tell us why MDC split in 2005? Can you tell us which party leader clandestinely amended his party's constitution so he would remain at the helm?”
Well now, I being an honest man, I will answer all your questions honestly.
Let me say from the outset that I am not an MDC supporter or member and therefore everything I say is purely as an interested observer and critic.
Why did MDC split up in 2005?
On paper it was because one faction wanted to contest the Senate elections whilst the other faction did not. It was a stupid issue to split over throwing the door open speculations that there were other underlying issues.
Which party leader clandestinely amended his party’s constitution so he would remain in power?
I do not know about amending the constitution but I do know Tsvangirai has been clumsily trying to extend his stay as MDC leader contrary to the MDC’s constitution.
Now, perhaps you will honor me by answering one question. What has the splitting of MDC or Tsvangirai’s fight to remain president of MDC to do with Mugabe being a ruthless and murderous dictator?
This is the rely sick thing about dictators and, you, Fungayi , their acolytes; you are always coming up with all manner of excuses and scapegoats to justify your looting and political repression. Sometimes the excuses are so far fetched it only shows just how desperate you really are. A few weeks ago Mugabe was insisting he will not implement any more democratic reforms until the sanctions are lifted. Why, Oh why should I and millions of fellow Zimbabweans out there continue to be denied our basic right to freedom of expression, for example, as if our rights are nothing more than some goods to be traded in and sold to the highest bidder!? No doubt the dictator half expected us all to pressure the West to lift the sanctions (some idiots like Tsvangirai did – but as I said, idiots!)
9999
After reading the first three paragraph it was enough to guess who wrote this nonsense - Dr John Makumbe, who else. Talking of the dictator showing his true colours in one breathe and then patting Tsvangirai in the back for staying in the GNU in the next. Having supported MDC's initial decision to the one-sided GPA the good Professor does not have the guts to admit he made a blunder and so has to pretend all this posturing by Tsvangirai is all part of the plan!
Professor would you agree that Tsvangirai was ill advised to sign the GPA because it got Mugabe off the hook following the sham 2008 run-off? I really find it hard to follow your double Ditch that Tsvangirai was forced to sign the GPA and now you want us to believe that he is forced to stay in the GNU and thus not labeled the spoiler. So the need to avoid being labeled “spoiler” by SADC has become so important that the destiny of the whole nation must be sacrificed for it.
It is really sad that there are Zimbabweans out there advocating this type of nonsense but worse still that there are leaders like Tsvangirai who takes it all on board and use it to chart the path the nation then follows. How tragic!
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Mugabe and Tsvangirai are yet how to step down gracefully like US President George Washington did!
@Jean Wright
You comparison of Tsvangirai appeasing Mugabe to that of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeasing Adolf Hitler is spot on. Tsvangirai betrayed the nation by signing the GPA and yet he maintains it was “for the good of the country”. Chamberlain sold out the people of Czechoslovakia by signing an agreement giving away their land and claimed he had achieved “peace in our time.”
However you lost me with “there seems no obvious leadership choice for the MDC right now.” Where did that come from?
I would have agreed with you if you had said no obvious leadership choice for the quality leader the nation needs. But for someone to replace Tsvangirai, MDC have a bucketful of alternatives. Admit it, there can not be that many blundering fools in the whole wide world quite like Tsvangirai.
As to why MDC have blundered along with Tsvangirai for so long and will continue to do so for a long while yet? Tsvangirai may have publicly admitted that he has made mistakes (mind blowing blunders to you and me) but trust me; he has no intention of ever relinquishing power. And there lies our fundamental problem; it is for HIM to decide when to go, the rest of the MDC membership has no say in that.
Once leaders have been elected we view any form of competition within the organisation much less challenge for the top leadership position as highly destabilising at the very least if not an out right threat to the every existence of the organisation itself. It is tempting to dismiss it as a cultural thing but it is much more than that.
A good election system should ensure there is meaningful and structured competition so that the best candidate there is to be elected for each position. The system must have regular elections to renew and revitalise the organisation. And in between elections allow the incumbent leaders to follow through their set programme without the destruction of an election but, at the same time, without stifling the competition.
Having the best person for the job is the surest way of ensuring the organisations achieves its set goals and long team survival and that should outweigh the individual interest of being the office bearer and being in receipt of whatever perks go with the office. At a national level, the same argument can be extended to competing political parties and hence the necessity of multi-party democracy. You would think every member within an organisation and every organisation within a multiparty system would willingly subscribe to this elegant and democratic principle?
Zanu PF has always sorted to establish a one-party state in Zimbabwe ever since the party was formed and it has never any bones about that! The Lancaster House constitution imposed a multi-party constitution in Zimbabwe in 1980 still that did not stop Mugabe imposing a de facto one-party state. The one-party state mentality did not stop at stifling all meaningful competition from all other parties, it extended to within the party too turning it and the country into a one-man party/state.
Mugabe has been the Zanu PF leader ever his toppling of Ndabaningi Sithole in the 1970s. The late Joshua Nkomo was the undisputed leader of Zapu when it was first formed in the 1960s until its dissolution in 1987 when it was swallowed up by Zanu PF. There is nothing democratic about MDC when it comes to electing leaders, do not be fooled by the party’s name.
One of the most tense moments in American history, comparable to 9/11 or the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, was March 3 1797. Whereas 9/11 and Pearl Harbour are remembered for what happened March 3 1779 is remember for what could have happened. 3 March 1797 was the last day in office for America’s first President George Washington. Having tasted power, many feared he would refuse to step down and once again be just an ordinary citizen. If he had done so, certainly the whole history of this great nation would have been totally different. George Washington resumed the life of an ordinary citizen with grace setting a precedence that has contributed to America’s stability, dynamism and prosperity.
There is over 200 years of history separating George Washington from the likes of Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai and given the shallowness of the later two they would never reach the intellectual plateau on which Washington stood even if they were given another 200 years. Having tasted power Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the sort of leaders who have shown that they will do anything to retain it! As the late Edson Zvobgo said of Robert Mugabe “Takapa ushe benzi pano kuti repe vamwe rakabva ramanyira mugomo!” – “We gave the button of chieftain to a madman, instead of passing it on to the next he ran with it into the mountain!”
Of course we, the ordinary citizens/ members have been slow in condemning this madness of once president it is president for life!
You comparison of Tsvangirai appeasing Mugabe to that of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeasing Adolf Hitler is spot on. Tsvangirai betrayed the nation by signing the GPA and yet he maintains it was “for the good of the country”. Chamberlain sold out the people of Czechoslovakia by signing an agreement giving away their land and claimed he had achieved “peace in our time.”
However you lost me with “there seems no obvious leadership choice for the MDC right now.” Where did that come from?
I would have agreed with you if you had said no obvious leadership choice for the quality leader the nation needs. But for someone to replace Tsvangirai, MDC have a bucketful of alternatives. Admit it, there can not be that many blundering fools in the whole wide world quite like Tsvangirai.
As to why MDC have blundered along with Tsvangirai for so long and will continue to do so for a long while yet? Tsvangirai may have publicly admitted that he has made mistakes (mind blowing blunders to you and me) but trust me; he has no intention of ever relinquishing power. And there lies our fundamental problem; it is for HIM to decide when to go, the rest of the MDC membership has no say in that.
Once leaders have been elected we view any form of competition within the organisation much less challenge for the top leadership position as highly destabilising at the very least if not an out right threat to the every existence of the organisation itself. It is tempting to dismiss it as a cultural thing but it is much more than that.
A good election system should ensure there is meaningful and structured competition so that the best candidate there is to be elected for each position. The system must have regular elections to renew and revitalise the organisation. And in between elections allow the incumbent leaders to follow through their set programme without the destruction of an election but, at the same time, without stifling the competition.
Having the best person for the job is the surest way of ensuring the organisations achieves its set goals and long team survival and that should outweigh the individual interest of being the office bearer and being in receipt of whatever perks go with the office. At a national level, the same argument can be extended to competing political parties and hence the necessity of multi-party democracy. You would think every member within an organisation and every organisation within a multiparty system would willingly subscribe to this elegant and democratic principle?
Zanu PF has always sorted to establish a one-party state in Zimbabwe ever since the party was formed and it has never any bones about that! The Lancaster House constitution imposed a multi-party constitution in Zimbabwe in 1980 still that did not stop Mugabe imposing a de facto one-party state. The one-party state mentality did not stop at stifling all meaningful competition from all other parties, it extended to within the party too turning it and the country into a one-man party/state.
Mugabe has been the Zanu PF leader ever his toppling of Ndabaningi Sithole in the 1970s. The late Joshua Nkomo was the undisputed leader of Zapu when it was first formed in the 1960s until its dissolution in 1987 when it was swallowed up by Zanu PF. There is nothing democratic about MDC when it comes to electing leaders, do not be fooled by the party’s name.
One of the most tense moments in American history, comparable to 9/11 or the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, was March 3 1797. Whereas 9/11 and Pearl Harbour are remembered for what happened March 3 1779 is remember for what could have happened. 3 March 1797 was the last day in office for America’s first President George Washington. Having tasted power, many feared he would refuse to step down and once again be just an ordinary citizen. If he had done so, certainly the whole history of this great nation would have been totally different. George Washington resumed the life of an ordinary citizen with grace setting a precedence that has contributed to America’s stability, dynamism and prosperity.
There is over 200 years of history separating George Washington from the likes of Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai and given the shallowness of the later two they would never reach the intellectual plateau on which Washington stood even if they were given another 200 years. Having tasted power Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the sort of leaders who have shown that they will do anything to retain it! As the late Edson Zvobgo said of Robert Mugabe “Takapa ushe benzi pano kuti repe vamwe rakabva ramanyira mugomo!” – “We gave the button of chieftain to a madman, instead of passing it on to the next he ran with it into the mountain!”
Of course we, the ordinary citizens/ members have been slow in condemning this madness of once president it is president for life!
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
MUGABE'S PAST WILL BE OPENNED FOR ALL TO SEE: A GUIDED TOUR OF HIS LAVISH MANSION!
@ Fungayi and Mariko
Fungayi you clearly do not know much about the Caribbean for you to even think Rasta man would have time for the likes of Mugabe. There is freedom of expression, and I mean real freedom of expression in the Caribbean and there is nothing Rasta man loves more than cutting corrupt public officials to size!
If any leader does something he or she would not wish known let alone commit a serious crime in the Caribbean then the act will be splashed in every newspaper. Rasta man will immortalise the act by having a hit about it for the next Calypso Carnival Competition. If the hit has all the “Reggie Reggie sauce” the public love, he will be crown Carnival King and his hit will be played very loud everywhere and hundred times a day on all the radio stations!
The host of a popular Radio Station Live Chat Show called the house of a political leader whose name was mud and the Maid answered the phone:
Host “Can I talk to the Governor?”
Maid “He is asleep.”
Host “Girl, its 11.00 o’clock and you tell me he is still asleep.”
Maid “Yeh, he sleeps like a baby.”
Host “Girl, with all the shit of corruption and sex scandals; how come he sleeps like a baby?”
Maid “Yeh, he is up 8 or 10 times in the middle of the night crying and then goes back to sleep!”
No such luck in Zimbabwe. A leader not only has sex with his subordinate’s wife but goes on to sire two children with her behind his own wife’s back. When the wife dies the adulterer marriage the mistress and even the church, which hypocritically will not allow divorce, joins in the act and officiate at the wedding with the bride wearing a chastity veil!
If there was freedom of expression and a truly free press we will all know the full details of what Grace Mugabe paid for Gushungo Dairy Farm and all the other farms she owns. All the details of the looting that has turned Zimbabwe from a bread basket of the region into a food aid dependent country that the regime has hidden would all be out in the open.
The true story of Mugabe’s reign of terror with all the murderous details is yet to be written. Mariko, Mugabe’s Borrowdale mansion will be opened for guided tours. Visitors will be told how the dictator’s Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, siphoned US$ 1 million of donor’s money to buy the bed alone; money ear marked to buy children’s vaccines. The visitors will be told how many children died and how were crippled for life because they did not the necessary vaccination.
Fungayi, it is tempting for a cynic like you to justify the denial of freedom of expression and free media of the grounds that there is still corruption in those country where freedoms are enjoyed. There are some people who are always some people looking out for the easier way off the straight and narrow path and they do not care the misery and suffering their selfish act will cause. A freedom of expression and free media names and shames them and, where there is rule of law, punished if need be. Where there is no freedom of expression, free media, no law and order, etc. as is the case in Zimbabwe under Mugabe the dictator and his cronies have been allowed to run riot for three decades and look what they have done – destroyed the very soul of that nation!
Fungayi you clearly do not know much about the Caribbean for you to even think Rasta man would have time for the likes of Mugabe. There is freedom of expression, and I mean real freedom of expression in the Caribbean and there is nothing Rasta man loves more than cutting corrupt public officials to size!
If any leader does something he or she would not wish known let alone commit a serious crime in the Caribbean then the act will be splashed in every newspaper. Rasta man will immortalise the act by having a hit about it for the next Calypso Carnival Competition. If the hit has all the “Reggie Reggie sauce” the public love, he will be crown Carnival King and his hit will be played very loud everywhere and hundred times a day on all the radio stations!
The host of a popular Radio Station Live Chat Show called the house of a political leader whose name was mud and the Maid answered the phone:
Host “Can I talk to the Governor?”
Maid “He is asleep.”
Host “Girl, its 11.00 o’clock and you tell me he is still asleep.”
Maid “Yeh, he sleeps like a baby.”
Host “Girl, with all the shit of corruption and sex scandals; how come he sleeps like a baby?”
Maid “Yeh, he is up 8 or 10 times in the middle of the night crying and then goes back to sleep!”
No such luck in Zimbabwe. A leader not only has sex with his subordinate’s wife but goes on to sire two children with her behind his own wife’s back. When the wife dies the adulterer marriage the mistress and even the church, which hypocritically will not allow divorce, joins in the act and officiate at the wedding with the bride wearing a chastity veil!
If there was freedom of expression and a truly free press we will all know the full details of what Grace Mugabe paid for Gushungo Dairy Farm and all the other farms she owns. All the details of the looting that has turned Zimbabwe from a bread basket of the region into a food aid dependent country that the regime has hidden would all be out in the open.
The true story of Mugabe’s reign of terror with all the murderous details is yet to be written. Mariko, Mugabe’s Borrowdale mansion will be opened for guided tours. Visitors will be told how the dictator’s Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, siphoned US$ 1 million of donor’s money to buy the bed alone; money ear marked to buy children’s vaccines. The visitors will be told how many children died and how were crippled for life because they did not the necessary vaccination.
Fungayi, it is tempting for a cynic like you to justify the denial of freedom of expression and free media of the grounds that there is still corruption in those country where freedoms are enjoyed. There are some people who are always some people looking out for the easier way off the straight and narrow path and they do not care the misery and suffering their selfish act will cause. A freedom of expression and free media names and shames them and, where there is rule of law, punished if need be. Where there is no freedom of expression, free media, no law and order, etc. as is the case in Zimbabwe under Mugabe the dictator and his cronies have been allowed to run riot for three decades and look what they have done – destroyed the very soul of that nation!
Friday, 8 October 2010
TSVANGIRAI'S "CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS" SPEECH IS NOTHING BUT A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT!
In a fit of temper Tsvangirai declares Mugabe appointments “null and void”. He believes he created a “constitutional crisis” with that move. And he calls on SADC to supervise Zimbabwe’s planned constitutional referendum “to help protect the rights of Zimbabweans to express their views freely and without violence or intimidation”.
I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what exactly Tsvangirai is trying to do here; but I know I can scratch till I am as bold as a baby’s bum, I will never figure it out! What a stupid move!
Tsvangirai admitted he was wrong to have trusted Mugabe and enter into the power sharing agreement. He admitted Mugabe did not keep any of his promises. And he should have listened to those who had advised against this from the start. “Thank God, the idiot has finally seen the light!” you would be forgiven for thinking. “Two years of costly appeasement are finally over!”
“I will continue to work for the implementation of the GPA in its totality,” says Tsvangirai. The man is simply an insufferable idiot!
Last time Tsvangirai was angry with Mugabe, he “disengaged” from the GNU – MDC ministered stopped interacting with Zanu PF ministers – some stupid move that turned out to be. This time Tsvangirai decided to remain totally engaged whilst at the same time torpedo Mugabe himself by challenging the dictator’s authority.
By declaring all Mugabe’s recent appointments of ambassadors, judges, governors, etc. “null and void” Tsvangirai did NOT created a constitutional crisis as he so wishfully claims. All these individuals will remain in their posts and do their appointed tasks and there is absolutely NOTHING Tsvangirai can do about it.
“I invite SADC to deploy observers before the constitutional referendum to help protect the rights of Zimbabweans to express their views freely and without violence or intimidation,” says Tsvangirai. What a joke!
What makes Tsvangirai think there will be violence or intimidation during the constitutional referendum? Mugabe wanted to make sure the draft constitution to be presented to the nation in the referendum was to his liking and it is. The widespread violence during the outreach phase was to achieve just that and it did. Tsvangirai is closing the stable after the horse has already bolted. He should have refused to take part in the outreach program until all Zanu PF sponsored violence had stopped.
Everyone knows in this GNU Tsvangirai has neither the power nor the authority to do anything all power and authority rest with Mugabe himself. All Tsvangirai has is a fancy title of Prime Minister. There is nothing more pathetic than a mouse flexing its muscles and threatening to beat up a lion!
There will be no constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe. And not even the few SADC leaders who had supported Tsvangirai in the past would want to back Tsvangirai’s hare brain scheme this time. Tsvangirai’s one and half hour long speech is nothing but what William Shakespeare called a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
@La Quebecoise
"We should "agreeably" try to see if we can make some converge" you say? Well that is as one would expect in a civilised society. Mugabe and his cronies are not to be counted among that society!
There are some issues you and me or any civilised person out there would agree on with no if, but or maybe about it. Things like freedom of expression for example; you would go out of your way to defend my freedom of expression as readily as I would yours because we both understand that is the very foundation of civilised interaction. Mugabe and his lot would howl and scream if they are denied their freedom of expression or any other rights. But in excising their freedom of expression they not only shout at everyone else to shut the F** up but back up their demand by abusing their position of power and authority to punish you.
La Quebecoise, how do you talk agreeably with a bully trading on your toes with his heavy boot, all the while pretending there is absolutely nothing amiss?!
I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what exactly Tsvangirai is trying to do here; but I know I can scratch till I am as bold as a baby’s bum, I will never figure it out! What a stupid move!
Tsvangirai admitted he was wrong to have trusted Mugabe and enter into the power sharing agreement. He admitted Mugabe did not keep any of his promises. And he should have listened to those who had advised against this from the start. “Thank God, the idiot has finally seen the light!” you would be forgiven for thinking. “Two years of costly appeasement are finally over!”
“I will continue to work for the implementation of the GPA in its totality,” says Tsvangirai. The man is simply an insufferable idiot!
Last time Tsvangirai was angry with Mugabe, he “disengaged” from the GNU – MDC ministered stopped interacting with Zanu PF ministers – some stupid move that turned out to be. This time Tsvangirai decided to remain totally engaged whilst at the same time torpedo Mugabe himself by challenging the dictator’s authority.
By declaring all Mugabe’s recent appointments of ambassadors, judges, governors, etc. “null and void” Tsvangirai did NOT created a constitutional crisis as he so wishfully claims. All these individuals will remain in their posts and do their appointed tasks and there is absolutely NOTHING Tsvangirai can do about it.
“I invite SADC to deploy observers before the constitutional referendum to help protect the rights of Zimbabweans to express their views freely and without violence or intimidation,” says Tsvangirai. What a joke!
What makes Tsvangirai think there will be violence or intimidation during the constitutional referendum? Mugabe wanted to make sure the draft constitution to be presented to the nation in the referendum was to his liking and it is. The widespread violence during the outreach phase was to achieve just that and it did. Tsvangirai is closing the stable after the horse has already bolted. He should have refused to take part in the outreach program until all Zanu PF sponsored violence had stopped.
Everyone knows in this GNU Tsvangirai has neither the power nor the authority to do anything all power and authority rest with Mugabe himself. All Tsvangirai has is a fancy title of Prime Minister. There is nothing more pathetic than a mouse flexing its muscles and threatening to beat up a lion!
There will be no constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe. And not even the few SADC leaders who had supported Tsvangirai in the past would want to back Tsvangirai’s hare brain scheme this time. Tsvangirai’s one and half hour long speech is nothing but what William Shakespeare called a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
@La Quebecoise
"We should "agreeably" try to see if we can make some converge" you say? Well that is as one would expect in a civilised society. Mugabe and his cronies are not to be counted among that society!
There are some issues you and me or any civilised person out there would agree on with no if, but or maybe about it. Things like freedom of expression for example; you would go out of your way to defend my freedom of expression as readily as I would yours because we both understand that is the very foundation of civilised interaction. Mugabe and his lot would howl and scream if they are denied their freedom of expression or any other rights. But in excising their freedom of expression they not only shout at everyone else to shut the F** up but back up their demand by abusing their position of power and authority to punish you.
La Quebecoise, how do you talk agreeably with a bully trading on your toes with his heavy boot, all the while pretending there is absolutely nothing amiss?!
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Violence has robbed Zimbabwe politics of all credibility: participating gives it vestige of respectability!
@ Mariko
I agree; Zimbabwe is a Police State ruled by a ruthless dictator; still we have done a great job of shooting ourselves in the foot on many occasions at critical and decisive moments too. And every time we indulge ourselves in this midsummer madness Mugabe was quick to take full advantage of it, naturally.
I was listening to S W Radio Africa the other day, and someone claiming to represent "Zimbabweans in the Diaspora" was reporting back on some meeting attended by Copac co-chairman Mangwana and Monzora. The Diaspora rep was tasked to submit the views of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora on the new constitution by end of October and the rep was promised future representation in future Copac activities. Well the rep was chuffed to bits, I tell you!
There can be no doubt in anyone who has followed the whole process of drafting a new constitution for Zimbabwe that as long as Mugabe is free to use violence to coerce the electorate to get what HE wants the whole exercise would be a waste of time and resources. MDC ignore this and they steam ahead. Within a few weeks of the launch of the outreach programme Zanu PF launched its Operation Chimumumu.
How many outreach meetings were disrupted by Zanu PF supporters? Countless! How many people were physically attached before, during or after the outreach meetings? Again, countless! And of course the Police have done nothing to stop this lawlessness.
As to why this clown claiming to represent Zimbabweans in the Diaspora is taking part in a clearly fraudulent process; the same reason that Douglas Monzora, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC team agreed to the GNU giving Mugabe the legitimacy after the sham 2008 election: the same reason Mugabe’s own Zanu PF members have become an integral part of this dictatorship: for the love of power and a share of the spoils of powers.
Ever since Tsvangirai was made PM he has become one of the biggest defenders of Mugabe and the dictatorship. Mugabe would not get better ministers to promote Zanu PF’s interests than Monzora, Makoni and Holland are doing in their respective ministries. The trio, of all the MDC ministers, have had their brief loaded with pro-Zanu PF tasks. They have never questioned what they are doing, they have been completely overwhelmed by their ministerial position and have carried out their set tasks with gusto!
Copac was no doubt aware of the increasing criticism of their work. By granting audience to this clown claiming to represent Zimbabweans in the Diaspora Monzora and Mangwana knew they will buy Copac a lot of mileage. And they did; as I said, the clown was chuffed to bits! Ironically the S W Radio Africa interview of the clown happened the same week an MDC supporter was murdered at a Copac outreach meeting. The clown did not even mention this; he was sharing the platform with Ministers and that was all that mattered.
The drafting of the new constitution has been discredited by the reports of violence throughout the whole process. The forthcoming elections will not be credible for the same reason.
If we are really serious about getting out of this hell-hole then we must demand a credible electoral system and settle for nothing less. Mugabe and the Police are doing their bit to undermine the credibility of the political system but it is us who are giving the fraudulent system the vestige of respectability by participating in the process. We only fool ourselves and nobody else.
If Tsvangirai and Zimbabweans in general thinks the international community will sympathise with him/us if next year’s elections are again marred with violence as happened in 2008, then he/we are in for a big surprise! For the last three years we all known Mugabe and Zanu PF will use violence to win – he has not made any effort to conceal this – and yet have said nothing and done nothing about it. We can cry foul after the fact but no one who listen. Kurumwa nechekuchera as one would say in Shona!
I agree; Zimbabwe is a Police State ruled by a ruthless dictator; still we have done a great job of shooting ourselves in the foot on many occasions at critical and decisive moments too. And every time we indulge ourselves in this midsummer madness Mugabe was quick to take full advantage of it, naturally.
I was listening to S W Radio Africa the other day, and someone claiming to represent "Zimbabweans in the Diaspora" was reporting back on some meeting attended by Copac co-chairman Mangwana and Monzora. The Diaspora rep was tasked to submit the views of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora on the new constitution by end of October and the rep was promised future representation in future Copac activities. Well the rep was chuffed to bits, I tell you!
There can be no doubt in anyone who has followed the whole process of drafting a new constitution for Zimbabwe that as long as Mugabe is free to use violence to coerce the electorate to get what HE wants the whole exercise would be a waste of time and resources. MDC ignore this and they steam ahead. Within a few weeks of the launch of the outreach programme Zanu PF launched its Operation Chimumumu.
How many outreach meetings were disrupted by Zanu PF supporters? Countless! How many people were physically attached before, during or after the outreach meetings? Again, countless! And of course the Police have done nothing to stop this lawlessness.
As to why this clown claiming to represent Zimbabweans in the Diaspora is taking part in a clearly fraudulent process; the same reason that Douglas Monzora, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC team agreed to the GNU giving Mugabe the legitimacy after the sham 2008 election: the same reason Mugabe’s own Zanu PF members have become an integral part of this dictatorship: for the love of power and a share of the spoils of powers.
Ever since Tsvangirai was made PM he has become one of the biggest defenders of Mugabe and the dictatorship. Mugabe would not get better ministers to promote Zanu PF’s interests than Monzora, Makoni and Holland are doing in their respective ministries. The trio, of all the MDC ministers, have had their brief loaded with pro-Zanu PF tasks. They have never questioned what they are doing, they have been completely overwhelmed by their ministerial position and have carried out their set tasks with gusto!
Copac was no doubt aware of the increasing criticism of their work. By granting audience to this clown claiming to represent Zimbabweans in the Diaspora Monzora and Mangwana knew they will buy Copac a lot of mileage. And they did; as I said, the clown was chuffed to bits! Ironically the S W Radio Africa interview of the clown happened the same week an MDC supporter was murdered at a Copac outreach meeting. The clown did not even mention this; he was sharing the platform with Ministers and that was all that mattered.
The drafting of the new constitution has been discredited by the reports of violence throughout the whole process. The forthcoming elections will not be credible for the same reason.
If we are really serious about getting out of this hell-hole then we must demand a credible electoral system and settle for nothing less. Mugabe and the Police are doing their bit to undermine the credibility of the political system but it is us who are giving the fraudulent system the vestige of respectability by participating in the process. We only fool ourselves and nobody else.
If Tsvangirai and Zimbabweans in general thinks the international community will sympathise with him/us if next year’s elections are again marred with violence as happened in 2008, then he/we are in for a big surprise! For the last three years we all known Mugabe and Zanu PF will use violence to win – he has not made any effort to conceal this – and yet have said nothing and done nothing about it. We can cry foul after the fact but no one who listen. Kurumwa nechekuchera as one would say in Shona!
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
President Khama calls for lifting of sanction: Go ahead - they are ineffective anywhere!
President Ian Khama, of Botswana, joins the growing number of African leaders calling for West imposed targeted sanctions against Mugabe to be lifted. This would be a gesture of good will by the West as from Mugabe the most the President could expect is “see where we go from there”.
The targeted sanction where supposed to hurt Mugabe and about 200 others in his inner circle by restricting their travel to the West and disrupting their business activities. If the truth be told; the sanctions have failed on both accounts. Mugabe and his cronies have certainly travelled out of Zimbabwe to the far east where shopping is just as good and New York or London more often than most of the counterparties in the rest of Africa. As for business; Mugabe and his cronies are all multimillionaires in their own right all from looting. The sanctions did not stop Gideon Gono’s over worked money printing machine or the violent takeover of white owned farms and businesses – the two activities responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down, but netted billions for the dictator and his cronies.
The regime’s propaganda machines have gone into overdrive, blaming the sanctions for the country’s economic collapse.
The West said they imposed the sanctions in 2001 because of the regime’s failure to hold free and fair elections and human rights violations. The record, the regime had never held free and fair elections ever since it got into power in 1980. As for human rights violations, the regime committed its worst human rights violations with the genocide murders of mainly PF Zapu supporters in the mid 1980s. None of the Western countries condemned the regime let alone impose sanctions then?
The regime came up with its own explanation why the West imposed sanctions in 2001; because they object to regime’s land redistribution policy of taking land away from the white farmers and giving it to the landless peasants. In practise, the landless peasants have turned out to be the ruling elite with Mugabe, his wife and many in the inner circle owing five or more a thousand acres plus farms each.
The regime has stubbornly refused to implement democratic reforms that would end the regime’s human rights violations and, hopefully, delivered the free and fair elections in future. There are to be no reforms until the targeted sanctions are lifted. Why the basic human rights like freedom of expression and the right to life itself should ever be used as bargaining chips begs belief.
Sanctions against a regime have been known to work, apartheid South Africa being one example. Calls to West to focus their targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his inner have largely fallen on deaf ears. So the targeted sanctions against Mugabe have been, at best, an inconvenience to the dictator and his followers but a great scapegoat.
The question then is it worth while still maintaining these token sanctions? The answer has to be a no.
The farm invasions will stop, not because Mugabe and his cronies will have suffered a Saul on the road to Damascus moment. There are no white owned farms left in Zimbabwe. As for democratic reforms the regime will never give an inch; free and fair elections will result in regime change and that is something Mugabe and his cronies will never ever allow that to happen at all cost. They stand to lose all loot and, worse still, there are all the hidden skeletons the regime can ill afford to have brought out in the open.
So there is nothing to be gained from lifting the sanction except that the dictator will have to come up with a difference excuse for his continued repression. His excuse for Gukurahundi in the mid 1980s was love for absolute power and having tasted it for three decades the love burns stronger than ever. Lifting the sanctions will be seen by the regime as an acknowledgement by the West that the sanctions were responsible for all Zimbabwe’s economic problems and therefore it should be credited for having the sanctions lifted at last.
At the end of the day, lifting sanctions would be an act of appeasement and Mugabe like the ruthless dictator he is, will be expecting more appeasement; period!
@ Ndodana Sithole
“Failure of the people to asset their power over madness is scandalous.” You are right there Ndodana. It is really scandalous how we, Zimbabweans, have allowed Mugabe to rid rough shod over our basic rights, hopes and dreams! The latest scandal is the carry-on surrounding the writing of the new constitution.
By using violence through operation chimumumu (say nothing) Mugabe has effectively hijacked the whole process to ensure the new constitution is to his liking. He is set to do the same come the elections next year. When that happens, no doubt, many Zimbabweans will cry foul. And yet we have all known Mugabe will use violence to achieve his selfish goals. He brutalised the nation again and again in the past, the last time being during the 2008 sham presidential run off. If anyone ever doubted his future intention, the dictator has pointedly refused to disband the party militia and deployed them during the new constitution outreach meetings.
It is impossible to see how the nation can have any meaningful political activities be it drafting of new constitution or elections whilst Mugabe and Zanu PF are allowed to terrorise and murder the electorate to get what he wants. For three years we have pretended not to see this white elephant in the room. Tsvangirai and his ministers have all been there leading the mob from the front in this stupid madness.
If we want the world to believe we care about getting out of the hell-hole Mugabe has landed us in then we must first show that we are serious about facing our problems. So far we have not done that!
The targeted sanction where supposed to hurt Mugabe and about 200 others in his inner circle by restricting their travel to the West and disrupting their business activities. If the truth be told; the sanctions have failed on both accounts. Mugabe and his cronies have certainly travelled out of Zimbabwe to the far east where shopping is just as good and New York or London more often than most of the counterparties in the rest of Africa. As for business; Mugabe and his cronies are all multimillionaires in their own right all from looting. The sanctions did not stop Gideon Gono’s over worked money printing machine or the violent takeover of white owned farms and businesses – the two activities responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down, but netted billions for the dictator and his cronies.
The regime’s propaganda machines have gone into overdrive, blaming the sanctions for the country’s economic collapse.
The West said they imposed the sanctions in 2001 because of the regime’s failure to hold free and fair elections and human rights violations. The record, the regime had never held free and fair elections ever since it got into power in 1980. As for human rights violations, the regime committed its worst human rights violations with the genocide murders of mainly PF Zapu supporters in the mid 1980s. None of the Western countries condemned the regime let alone impose sanctions then?
The regime came up with its own explanation why the West imposed sanctions in 2001; because they object to regime’s land redistribution policy of taking land away from the white farmers and giving it to the landless peasants. In practise, the landless peasants have turned out to be the ruling elite with Mugabe, his wife and many in the inner circle owing five or more a thousand acres plus farms each.
The regime has stubbornly refused to implement democratic reforms that would end the regime’s human rights violations and, hopefully, delivered the free and fair elections in future. There are to be no reforms until the targeted sanctions are lifted. Why the basic human rights like freedom of expression and the right to life itself should ever be used as bargaining chips begs belief.
Sanctions against a regime have been known to work, apartheid South Africa being one example. Calls to West to focus their targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his inner have largely fallen on deaf ears. So the targeted sanctions against Mugabe have been, at best, an inconvenience to the dictator and his followers but a great scapegoat.
The question then is it worth while still maintaining these token sanctions? The answer has to be a no.
The farm invasions will stop, not because Mugabe and his cronies will have suffered a Saul on the road to Damascus moment. There are no white owned farms left in Zimbabwe. As for democratic reforms the regime will never give an inch; free and fair elections will result in regime change and that is something Mugabe and his cronies will never ever allow that to happen at all cost. They stand to lose all loot and, worse still, there are all the hidden skeletons the regime can ill afford to have brought out in the open.
So there is nothing to be gained from lifting the sanction except that the dictator will have to come up with a difference excuse for his continued repression. His excuse for Gukurahundi in the mid 1980s was love for absolute power and having tasted it for three decades the love burns stronger than ever. Lifting the sanctions will be seen by the regime as an acknowledgement by the West that the sanctions were responsible for all Zimbabwe’s economic problems and therefore it should be credited for having the sanctions lifted at last.
At the end of the day, lifting sanctions would be an act of appeasement and Mugabe like the ruthless dictator he is, will be expecting more appeasement; period!
@ Ndodana Sithole
“Failure of the people to asset their power over madness is scandalous.” You are right there Ndodana. It is really scandalous how we, Zimbabweans, have allowed Mugabe to rid rough shod over our basic rights, hopes and dreams! The latest scandal is the carry-on surrounding the writing of the new constitution.
By using violence through operation chimumumu (say nothing) Mugabe has effectively hijacked the whole process to ensure the new constitution is to his liking. He is set to do the same come the elections next year. When that happens, no doubt, many Zimbabweans will cry foul. And yet we have all known Mugabe will use violence to achieve his selfish goals. He brutalised the nation again and again in the past, the last time being during the 2008 sham presidential run off. If anyone ever doubted his future intention, the dictator has pointedly refused to disband the party militia and deployed them during the new constitution outreach meetings.
It is impossible to see how the nation can have any meaningful political activities be it drafting of new constitution or elections whilst Mugabe and Zanu PF are allowed to terrorise and murder the electorate to get what he wants. For three years we have pretended not to see this white elephant in the room. Tsvangirai and his ministers have all been there leading the mob from the front in this stupid madness.
If we want the world to believe we care about getting out of the hell-hole Mugabe has landed us in then we must first show that we are serious about facing our problems. So far we have not done that!
Monday, 4 October 2010
TSVANGIRAI TO REMAIN AS MDC PRESIDENT TO DELIVER REAL CHANGE - ALTHOUGH HE HAS FAILED MISERABLY IN 10 YEARS!
MDC constitution says a leader can remain in power for a maximum of two five year teams; so Tsvangirai’s two five years teams are up. Given his pathetic past performance he should have never lasted a year. But surprise, surprise the party now want him to remain beyond the two five year team!
The party has post pone the next congress where a new leader would have been elected until after next year’s planed national parliamentary and presidential elections. “MDC and President Tsvangirai are firmly focused on the party’s agenda for real change,” the party said.
It is not just Tsvangirai who does not want fresh leadership elections; most of those in positions of power now also do not want elections. MDC's performance has been really pathetic and the entire leadership is to blame for it. They know they will be really lucky just to hold on to their position let alone go up. As for Tsvangirai himself, he will never hold any position of power after this. It will be back to herding goats for him.
At the rate MDC is going there will be NO REAL CHANGE in Zimbabwe for a very long time. In other words Tsvangirai and friends are here to stay. Only in Africa is none performance a commendation! And there is a simple explanation why this is so; it is leaders who have all the power, the membership have none. In African politics it is the tail that wags the dog!
7777
“The Zanu PF hoodlums need to be told that their disruptive actions will never succeed in thwarting the will of the people of this country,” wrote Professor John Makumbe. This is the kind of wishful and wish-wash talk that landed us into all this mess.
Zanu PF hoodlums have again and again thwarted the will, the hopes and dreams of our people for three decades now and still some one pretends it has never happening and will never in the future!
Mugabe has always used violence to silence his political opponents and critics within the party Zanu PF and outside. “I have degrees in violence,” the dictator has often boosted, unashamedly. And there are countless examples where the dictator has been as good as his word.
Does Professor Makumbe remember the Gukurahundi killings in the mid 1980s? More recently, over 500 people were killed in the 2008 sham elections. Mugabe is still in power not because that is the democratic will of the people but because he used brute force to impose his will on the people. After the wanton violence of 2008 in which the Police, the Army, the CIO and other State Security Agents where actively involved, instead of covertly supporting Zanu PF thugs as in the past; it was clear nothing meaningful could ever be achieved in Zimbabwe until this elephant-in-the-room, political violence, was addressed.
“The truth of the matter is that Copac successfully held outreach meetings in something like three-quarters of this country, and the people’s views were successfully gathered and recorded,” claim Professor Makumbe.
Zanu PF launched its “Operation Chimumumu (Say Nothing)” aimed at forcing everyone other than the party’s own supporters to stay away from these outreach meeting or else say nothing if they attended. The party deployed its militia, Warvets, Soldiers, Police and CIOs; just as it did in 2008. And there have been many reports of these operatives harassing and intimidating the public before, during and after the meetings. Professor Makumbe himself acknowledge this and talked of the Zanu PF Copac chairman “fearing for his life” after the Zanu PF operative became unruly at one such meeting. An MDC supporter was murdered and many were seriously assaulted. As usual the Police stood by and did nothing. They only jumped into action when they heard there were two witnesses to the murder – they hunting for the witnesses. In lawless Zimbabwe witnesses do not get Police protection; they have even more to fear from the Police than from the criminals.
If the truth be said – and it must – Operation Chimumumu was great successful.
The so called people’s views gathered and recorded at these outreach meetings are no more a reflection of the democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe than the 2008 presidential run-off vote!
Next year, 2011, Zimbabwe is planning to hold parliamentary and presidential elections. The politicians are already in election mode and, right on cue, Zanu PF intimidation and violence is already on the increase. The result is a forgone conclusion, yet another Zanu PF “victory”. The electorate will be beaten, raped and brutalised to ensure that they vote for Zanu PF and the whole State machinery will be programme to accept nothing else.
“What we as a nation must hope for is that the forthcoming elections will result in the emergence of a government of the people’s choice,” wrote the Professor. What have you done to ensure the people will exercise their free choice this time? Nothing, absolutely nothing! It is this blind stupidity of closing one’s eyes to reality that has made even those most supportive of Zimbabwe despair!
Can some one please tell me; who is Professor Makumbe fooling by denying the elephant-in-room in Zimbabwe politics – violence?
The party has post pone the next congress where a new leader would have been elected until after next year’s planed national parliamentary and presidential elections. “MDC and President Tsvangirai are firmly focused on the party’s agenda for real change,” the party said.
It is not just Tsvangirai who does not want fresh leadership elections; most of those in positions of power now also do not want elections. MDC's performance has been really pathetic and the entire leadership is to blame for it. They know they will be really lucky just to hold on to their position let alone go up. As for Tsvangirai himself, he will never hold any position of power after this. It will be back to herding goats for him.
At the rate MDC is going there will be NO REAL CHANGE in Zimbabwe for a very long time. In other words Tsvangirai and friends are here to stay. Only in Africa is none performance a commendation! And there is a simple explanation why this is so; it is leaders who have all the power, the membership have none. In African politics it is the tail that wags the dog!
7777
“The Zanu PF hoodlums need to be told that their disruptive actions will never succeed in thwarting the will of the people of this country,” wrote Professor John Makumbe. This is the kind of wishful and wish-wash talk that landed us into all this mess.
Zanu PF hoodlums have again and again thwarted the will, the hopes and dreams of our people for three decades now and still some one pretends it has never happening and will never in the future!
Mugabe has always used violence to silence his political opponents and critics within the party Zanu PF and outside. “I have degrees in violence,” the dictator has often boosted, unashamedly. And there are countless examples where the dictator has been as good as his word.
Does Professor Makumbe remember the Gukurahundi killings in the mid 1980s? More recently, over 500 people were killed in the 2008 sham elections. Mugabe is still in power not because that is the democratic will of the people but because he used brute force to impose his will on the people. After the wanton violence of 2008 in which the Police, the Army, the CIO and other State Security Agents where actively involved, instead of covertly supporting Zanu PF thugs as in the past; it was clear nothing meaningful could ever be achieved in Zimbabwe until this elephant-in-the-room, political violence, was addressed.
“The truth of the matter is that Copac successfully held outreach meetings in something like three-quarters of this country, and the people’s views were successfully gathered and recorded,” claim Professor Makumbe.
Zanu PF launched its “Operation Chimumumu (Say Nothing)” aimed at forcing everyone other than the party’s own supporters to stay away from these outreach meeting or else say nothing if they attended. The party deployed its militia, Warvets, Soldiers, Police and CIOs; just as it did in 2008. And there have been many reports of these operatives harassing and intimidating the public before, during and after the meetings. Professor Makumbe himself acknowledge this and talked of the Zanu PF Copac chairman “fearing for his life” after the Zanu PF operative became unruly at one such meeting. An MDC supporter was murdered and many were seriously assaulted. As usual the Police stood by and did nothing. They only jumped into action when they heard there were two witnesses to the murder – they hunting for the witnesses. In lawless Zimbabwe witnesses do not get Police protection; they have even more to fear from the Police than from the criminals.
If the truth be said – and it must – Operation Chimumumu was great successful.
The so called people’s views gathered and recorded at these outreach meetings are no more a reflection of the democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe than the 2008 presidential run-off vote!
Next year, 2011, Zimbabwe is planning to hold parliamentary and presidential elections. The politicians are already in election mode and, right on cue, Zanu PF intimidation and violence is already on the increase. The result is a forgone conclusion, yet another Zanu PF “victory”. The electorate will be beaten, raped and brutalised to ensure that they vote for Zanu PF and the whole State machinery will be programme to accept nothing else.
“What we as a nation must hope for is that the forthcoming elections will result in the emergence of a government of the people’s choice,” wrote the Professor. What have you done to ensure the people will exercise their free choice this time? Nothing, absolutely nothing! It is this blind stupidity of closing one’s eyes to reality that has made even those most supportive of Zimbabwe despair!
Can some one please tell me; who is Professor Makumbe fooling by denying the elephant-in-room in Zimbabwe politics – violence?
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
ARMED STRUGGLE IS NOT THE ANSWER TO ZIMBABWE'S PROBLEM: NEED A MORE SUBTLE SOLUTION!
@Sterling Ferguson
I agree with you completely that Mugabe “has no intention of honouring any agreement that he made with the SADC,” much less with Tsvangirai. Nothing would please more Mugabe than have a SADC army and even more a Western army amassed against Zimbabwe. Mugabe has the gangster – what is a dictator other than a supersized gangster – mentality of dying under a blazing gun fire. Well it is better than being hanged; the only other fate is awaiting him if he lost power.
Sterling, you are also right; none of the SADC leaders have the stomach for a military confrontation with Mugabe. Some people have suggested that Zimbabweans should take up arms and fight for their freedom and dignity. I do not believe that a military solution is the answer here.
Mugabe has been digging his own grave for thirty years all that is to be done is bury the dictator and all he stands for. The world had a chance to do just that after Zimbabwe’s sham presidential run-off elections in June 2008. Most countries stated categorically that they will not accept Mugabe as the “legitimate” head of state; not after such outrageous and despicable display of abuse of power and disregard of the very sanctity of human dignity and life! Even the some of the tyrants and dictators kept their distance for fear of a national revolt if the people believed they too would stoop that low some day.
All SADC had to do was throw SADC’s own Election Monitoring Team’s damning report on the sham election back at Mugabe. Mugabe was finished, he was history.
Instead SADC came up with the power sharing idea which, as was clear before the GPA was even signed, was restoring Mugabe back in State House with all his dictatorial powers with Tsvangirai as his side kick. Tsvangirai was foolish enough to agree. “Give the fool a fancy title and he will agree to anything!” Mugabe must have said to himself and time has proved him right!
Tsvangirai and SADC have had many other chances since June 2008 to pressure Mugabe to change but again and again they wasted the chances.
When you have such hopelessly incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai and Jacob Zuma you must avoid an armed conflicted at all cost. A blundering political leader will cost millions of dollars in lost business and opportunities and blundering general will cost you hundreds of thousands of human lives and the cause you were fighting for! One more reason why a military solution is out of the question in this case!
@ Fungayi
What I am talking about is how Mugabe and his cronies have ridden rough shod of the ordinary Zimbabwean denying them their freedom of expression, the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and all the other basic human rights including the right to life itself. In the 1980s 20 000 (that is the CCJP figure) of our people were murdered by the country’s soldiers for no other reason than that they supported the main opposition party, PF Zapu. And since hundreds more have been murdered for the same reasons.
On the economic front the dictator has denied the people the right to basic needs like education, health, gainful employment because of the decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and looting. The white farm invasion were not carried out for the benefit of the landless peasants; that is now well established, the dictator and his ruling elite own most of the farms. The one man one farm song too has been forgotten because the dictator, his wife and many others own up to five farms each. So the new party line is that the farm invasions were to punish the whites and the increased farm production is clearly a bonus.
The farm invasions was the “stub to the heart” of the Zimbabwe economy sending unemployment into the stratosphere of 95% and for the first time ever the country did not produce enough to feed the people even after a good growing season. Before the looting farms the nation’s farmers produced enough to feed the nation with surplus for export contributing to the nations’ GDP and earning the nation valuable foreign currency. Now we have to spend millions to the looter turn farmer to get them to produce anything at all!
The farms were profitable before Mugabe looted them, that was what made them so attractive. The looters thought they will harvest bumper crops, fruits, etc year after year. That did not happen, of course, as anyone who has driven around Zimbabwe would testify. The beautiful and juicy fist-size apples from Inyanga before the looters moved in are now golf-size and just as hard and rotten to the core. “Munda hauzvirimi!” – the field does not till itself – as my late mother would say.
The only reason the looters are determined to hand on to the farms is for the subsidy money – $20 million from the US, R50 million from SA and God knows how many millions from the Zimbabwe government. Ease money!
“Tax will be paid when the farmers start making a profit as with any other business enterprise. No one just starts by paying tax.” You would say that Fungayi, wouldn’t you! “Even BHP when it was mining platinum they had a 5 year tax break, nothing new here.”
Oh yes there is something new here! One, the regime looted a profitable and key sector of the economy and turned it into a subsidy dependent one. Two, BHP had a five-year tax break; the looters have not only paid a single cent in tax but siphoned millions in direct and indirect subsidies. Three, the looters have already had tens years, not five, of subsidies. Four, last but more significantly, the looter will never ever get Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector back to its pre 2000 productive level – these are looter not farmers!
If Zimbabwe’s economic is ever to recover from the doldrums this regime of looters landed us in it will need to fire on all cylinders and the agricultural sector is one of these cylinders. At present the nation is spending millions in subsidies to these looters to get them to produce a fraction of what the farms produced before 2000. And you can that “progress”? No Fungayi, that is a cylinder misfiring!
Zimbabwe today, thirty years after independence, finds itself in a sorry situation in which life is a lot worse now than before independence, qualitatively – the ordinary person is treated like a second class citizen denied of all basic human rights and dignity, just as the white man treated him. And quantitatively, life expectancy has plummeted from 65 years to 34 years in thirty years. This is NOT what people fought and died for!
Just because Mugabe and others were the heroes of the war of independence that does NOT give them the right to ride rough shod over the people. This regime has looted the nation’s resources leaving nothing for the people. Zimbabwe is a wealthy country and yet millions now live in abject poverty and the future is gloomy. The regime has denied the people their basic right and has terrorised them into silence. That is not right and it can not be allowed to continue. THAT IS WHAT THIS DEBATE IS ALL ABOUT; ENDING A CORRUPT AND REPRESSIVE SYSTEM.
@ La Quebecoise
So Gideon Gono bought maize at X Rand/tonne from SA and sold it back to GMB at 2X Rand/tonne. Well Gono must be disappointed by that. During the “good times” when he was running the Z$ printing press, he bought foreign currency from the public at the official rate of Z$ X / US$1 and he and the ruling elite then sold the same foreign currency on the black market at Z$ 800X/ US$1 in 2004. By the time the Z$ was finally scrapped the difference between the official rate and black market rate had soared to six plus figures.
@ Dora Makute
The sanctions were imposed on Mugabe and his cronies for failing to hold free and fair elections. The dictator has never ever held free and fair elections since 1980 and has murdered tens of thousands of our people to establish this dictatorship. The West should have imposed the sanctions on the regime a long time ago.
Mugabe and his henchmen claim the sanctions were imposed because of the regime’s land redistribution policy. The regime may have a point there but that does not change the fact that it has repeatedly failed to hold free and fair elections. Even if the regime had given the land to landless peasants as it originally claimed holding free and fair elections would still be on the table.
As far as the dictator is concerned political repression is NOT an issue. His refusal to carryout any more political reforms as long as the sanctions are still in place is totally unacceptable; human rights including the right to life are not privileges for him or anyone else for that matter to grant and deny as he wished. It is an outrage to even suggest that and only shown the arrogance and contempt he has for the ordinary Zimbabwean. No thinking person would accept that!
You Dora have not just accepted this intolerable situation, you and a few others have taken it upon yourselves to defend Dictator’s position. There are two possible explanations for this; either you are part of the dictator’s ruling elite and have benefited from the repression and looting. Only an idiot would support a ruthless murder of thousands of innocent people; that is selling one’s own mother for any price. Or you are part of the ordinary majority who have suffered the tragic consequences of this repressive regime but are totally blinded by your hatred of the whites you have readily traded in your basic rights for dictator’s anti-white red herring. That is being plain stupid. I am neither stupid nor would I sell my own mother and if that makes me “boot lickers and askaris” – whatever that is supposed to mean – then so be it!
999999
SADC heads of State meeting in Namibia gave Mugabe a one-month ultimatum to implement all the outstanding issues between Zimbabwe’s power sharing parties. An ultimatum Mugabe made sure it was publicly known that he would ignore it within days of it being issued. President Jacob Zuma as thea fellow SADC head of State and SADC’s mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis must have felt the insult by Mugabe’s arrogance. So why was President Zuma taking it upon himself to ask EU to lift sanctions against Mugabe?
President Zuma must have really believed that EU would lift the sanctions otherwise he would not have asked.
I can understand Tsvangirai making a complete ass of himself by making the same request to have the sanctions lifted last year – after getting Mugabe off the hook following the sham elections by signing the GPA Tsvangirai, anything after that stupid act was nothing. I had expected President Zuma to a block ahead of Tsvangirai and some common sense at least.
"In case of positive developments in Zimbabwe we'd be ready to look at fresh measures," Van Rompuy, the president of the EU, to President Zuma. Well, that is the diplomatic language for “F** off!” Tsvangirai got exactly the same answer. The two clowns got the answer they rightly deserved!
@ Thuthukani Mkhize
We are talking whether or not the EU should lift the targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his repressive regime. You claim the EU is bankrupt and then in the next breath talk about the EU selling $400 million plane to Zimbabwe (as if that proves beyond doubt your initial statement), jump on to President Bush signing the sanctions act, talk about President Obama’s fundraiser, etc. What have any of these stories to do with the subject matter before us?
@ Fungayi
You do like to split hairs, you are paid to defend Mugabe and the dictatorship and you do not care about the millions of Zimbabweans who have suffered under this brutal tyrant; we understand. So it was MDC who talked of the one month ultimatum for implementing the outstanding matters. It would not be the first time that MDC raised an important point and it is “edited” out in the official communiqué. Still, these outstanding issues have been talked about for months now; anyone else would be sick and tied of going over the same ground and would taking it as a personal insult that Mugabe has stubbornly refused to resolve these issues. Anyone else, it seems than President Zuma!
Maybe that was why President Zuma was careful not to give Mugabe an ultimatum on these issue; he KNEW Mugabe would ignore it. So President Zuma can now hide behind his finger if he was asked why Mugabe has not implemented the outstanding issue: “He will, give him time!” What a cowardly things.
A few months ago Ziparo, the M & G cartoonist, depicted how SA’s democratic evolution has comparable to that of man from an ape like creature to homosapien Nelson Mandela and then back to an ape, Jacob Zuma. I thought the idea humorous then but now I have my doubts – there is something called “throw back” in evolutionary theory, you know!
I agree with you completely that Mugabe “has no intention of honouring any agreement that he made with the SADC,” much less with Tsvangirai. Nothing would please more Mugabe than have a SADC army and even more a Western army amassed against Zimbabwe. Mugabe has the gangster – what is a dictator other than a supersized gangster – mentality of dying under a blazing gun fire. Well it is better than being hanged; the only other fate is awaiting him if he lost power.
Sterling, you are also right; none of the SADC leaders have the stomach for a military confrontation with Mugabe. Some people have suggested that Zimbabweans should take up arms and fight for their freedom and dignity. I do not believe that a military solution is the answer here.
Mugabe has been digging his own grave for thirty years all that is to be done is bury the dictator and all he stands for. The world had a chance to do just that after Zimbabwe’s sham presidential run-off elections in June 2008. Most countries stated categorically that they will not accept Mugabe as the “legitimate” head of state; not after such outrageous and despicable display of abuse of power and disregard of the very sanctity of human dignity and life! Even the some of the tyrants and dictators kept their distance for fear of a national revolt if the people believed they too would stoop that low some day.
All SADC had to do was throw SADC’s own Election Monitoring Team’s damning report on the sham election back at Mugabe. Mugabe was finished, he was history.
Instead SADC came up with the power sharing idea which, as was clear before the GPA was even signed, was restoring Mugabe back in State House with all his dictatorial powers with Tsvangirai as his side kick. Tsvangirai was foolish enough to agree. “Give the fool a fancy title and he will agree to anything!” Mugabe must have said to himself and time has proved him right!
Tsvangirai and SADC have had many other chances since June 2008 to pressure Mugabe to change but again and again they wasted the chances.
When you have such hopelessly incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai and Jacob Zuma you must avoid an armed conflicted at all cost. A blundering political leader will cost millions of dollars in lost business and opportunities and blundering general will cost you hundreds of thousands of human lives and the cause you were fighting for! One more reason why a military solution is out of the question in this case!
@ Fungayi
What I am talking about is how Mugabe and his cronies have ridden rough shod of the ordinary Zimbabwean denying them their freedom of expression, the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and all the other basic human rights including the right to life itself. In the 1980s 20 000 (that is the CCJP figure) of our people were murdered by the country’s soldiers for no other reason than that they supported the main opposition party, PF Zapu. And since hundreds more have been murdered for the same reasons.
On the economic front the dictator has denied the people the right to basic needs like education, health, gainful employment because of the decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and looting. The white farm invasion were not carried out for the benefit of the landless peasants; that is now well established, the dictator and his ruling elite own most of the farms. The one man one farm song too has been forgotten because the dictator, his wife and many others own up to five farms each. So the new party line is that the farm invasions were to punish the whites and the increased farm production is clearly a bonus.
The farm invasions was the “stub to the heart” of the Zimbabwe economy sending unemployment into the stratosphere of 95% and for the first time ever the country did not produce enough to feed the people even after a good growing season. Before the looting farms the nation’s farmers produced enough to feed the nation with surplus for export contributing to the nations’ GDP and earning the nation valuable foreign currency. Now we have to spend millions to the looter turn farmer to get them to produce anything at all!
The farms were profitable before Mugabe looted them, that was what made them so attractive. The looters thought they will harvest bumper crops, fruits, etc year after year. That did not happen, of course, as anyone who has driven around Zimbabwe would testify. The beautiful and juicy fist-size apples from Inyanga before the looters moved in are now golf-size and just as hard and rotten to the core. “Munda hauzvirimi!” – the field does not till itself – as my late mother would say.
The only reason the looters are determined to hand on to the farms is for the subsidy money – $20 million from the US, R50 million from SA and God knows how many millions from the Zimbabwe government. Ease money!
“Tax will be paid when the farmers start making a profit as with any other business enterprise. No one just starts by paying tax.” You would say that Fungayi, wouldn’t you! “Even BHP when it was mining platinum they had a 5 year tax break, nothing new here.”
Oh yes there is something new here! One, the regime looted a profitable and key sector of the economy and turned it into a subsidy dependent one. Two, BHP had a five-year tax break; the looters have not only paid a single cent in tax but siphoned millions in direct and indirect subsidies. Three, the looters have already had tens years, not five, of subsidies. Four, last but more significantly, the looter will never ever get Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector back to its pre 2000 productive level – these are looter not farmers!
If Zimbabwe’s economic is ever to recover from the doldrums this regime of looters landed us in it will need to fire on all cylinders and the agricultural sector is one of these cylinders. At present the nation is spending millions in subsidies to these looters to get them to produce a fraction of what the farms produced before 2000. And you can that “progress”? No Fungayi, that is a cylinder misfiring!
Zimbabwe today, thirty years after independence, finds itself in a sorry situation in which life is a lot worse now than before independence, qualitatively – the ordinary person is treated like a second class citizen denied of all basic human rights and dignity, just as the white man treated him. And quantitatively, life expectancy has plummeted from 65 years to 34 years in thirty years. This is NOT what people fought and died for!
Just because Mugabe and others were the heroes of the war of independence that does NOT give them the right to ride rough shod over the people. This regime has looted the nation’s resources leaving nothing for the people. Zimbabwe is a wealthy country and yet millions now live in abject poverty and the future is gloomy. The regime has denied the people their basic right and has terrorised them into silence. That is not right and it can not be allowed to continue. THAT IS WHAT THIS DEBATE IS ALL ABOUT; ENDING A CORRUPT AND REPRESSIVE SYSTEM.
@ La Quebecoise
So Gideon Gono bought maize at X Rand/tonne from SA and sold it back to GMB at 2X Rand/tonne. Well Gono must be disappointed by that. During the “good times” when he was running the Z$ printing press, he bought foreign currency from the public at the official rate of Z$ X / US$1 and he and the ruling elite then sold the same foreign currency on the black market at Z$ 800X/ US$1 in 2004. By the time the Z$ was finally scrapped the difference between the official rate and black market rate had soared to six plus figures.
@ Dora Makute
The sanctions were imposed on Mugabe and his cronies for failing to hold free and fair elections. The dictator has never ever held free and fair elections since 1980 and has murdered tens of thousands of our people to establish this dictatorship. The West should have imposed the sanctions on the regime a long time ago.
Mugabe and his henchmen claim the sanctions were imposed because of the regime’s land redistribution policy. The regime may have a point there but that does not change the fact that it has repeatedly failed to hold free and fair elections. Even if the regime had given the land to landless peasants as it originally claimed holding free and fair elections would still be on the table.
As far as the dictator is concerned political repression is NOT an issue. His refusal to carryout any more political reforms as long as the sanctions are still in place is totally unacceptable; human rights including the right to life are not privileges for him or anyone else for that matter to grant and deny as he wished. It is an outrage to even suggest that and only shown the arrogance and contempt he has for the ordinary Zimbabwean. No thinking person would accept that!
You Dora have not just accepted this intolerable situation, you and a few others have taken it upon yourselves to defend Dictator’s position. There are two possible explanations for this; either you are part of the dictator’s ruling elite and have benefited from the repression and looting. Only an idiot would support a ruthless murder of thousands of innocent people; that is selling one’s own mother for any price. Or you are part of the ordinary majority who have suffered the tragic consequences of this repressive regime but are totally blinded by your hatred of the whites you have readily traded in your basic rights for dictator’s anti-white red herring. That is being plain stupid. I am neither stupid nor would I sell my own mother and if that makes me “boot lickers and askaris” – whatever that is supposed to mean – then so be it!
999999
SADC heads of State meeting in Namibia gave Mugabe a one-month ultimatum to implement all the outstanding issues between Zimbabwe’s power sharing parties. An ultimatum Mugabe made sure it was publicly known that he would ignore it within days of it being issued. President Jacob Zuma as thea fellow SADC head of State and SADC’s mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis must have felt the insult by Mugabe’s arrogance. So why was President Zuma taking it upon himself to ask EU to lift sanctions against Mugabe?
President Zuma must have really believed that EU would lift the sanctions otherwise he would not have asked.
I can understand Tsvangirai making a complete ass of himself by making the same request to have the sanctions lifted last year – after getting Mugabe off the hook following the sham elections by signing the GPA Tsvangirai, anything after that stupid act was nothing. I had expected President Zuma to a block ahead of Tsvangirai and some common sense at least.
"In case of positive developments in Zimbabwe we'd be ready to look at fresh measures," Van Rompuy, the president of the EU, to President Zuma. Well, that is the diplomatic language for “F** off!” Tsvangirai got exactly the same answer. The two clowns got the answer they rightly deserved!
@ Thuthukani Mkhize
We are talking whether or not the EU should lift the targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his repressive regime. You claim the EU is bankrupt and then in the next breath talk about the EU selling $400 million plane to Zimbabwe (as if that proves beyond doubt your initial statement), jump on to President Bush signing the sanctions act, talk about President Obama’s fundraiser, etc. What have any of these stories to do with the subject matter before us?
@ Fungayi
You do like to split hairs, you are paid to defend Mugabe and the dictatorship and you do not care about the millions of Zimbabweans who have suffered under this brutal tyrant; we understand. So it was MDC who talked of the one month ultimatum for implementing the outstanding matters. It would not be the first time that MDC raised an important point and it is “edited” out in the official communiqué. Still, these outstanding issues have been talked about for months now; anyone else would be sick and tied of going over the same ground and would taking it as a personal insult that Mugabe has stubbornly refused to resolve these issues. Anyone else, it seems than President Zuma!
Maybe that was why President Zuma was careful not to give Mugabe an ultimatum on these issue; he KNEW Mugabe would ignore it. So President Zuma can now hide behind his finger if he was asked why Mugabe has not implemented the outstanding issue: “He will, give him time!” What a cowardly things.
A few months ago Ziparo, the M & G cartoonist, depicted how SA’s democratic evolution has comparable to that of man from an ape like creature to homosapien Nelson Mandela and then back to an ape, Jacob Zuma. I thought the idea humorous then but now I have my doubts – there is something called “throw back” in evolutionary theory, you know!
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