At the time of Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 life expectancy, the most telling of all life’s qualitative and quantitative barometer, was 65 years and by 2005 it had dropped to 34 years. Behind the statistics are the individual stories of despair of school children who had a total of 23 days of schooling in 2008. Of the sick and dying who have suffered and died without even the most basic medical help because the country’s health system has all but collapsed. All these things have happened because of years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by the country’s ruling elite. How did this happen in this day and age?
Mismanagement and even corruption are evils present in every society what turned these evil into all consuming juggernauts is Zimbabwe’s political system. A system that has allowed a select few to commandeer the nation’s resources for their selfish use even to the extend of schools and hospital closing for lack of funds whilst millions are spent of luxuries for the ruling elite. Whilst the overwhelming majority suffered in damn anguish helpless to stop this madness because the regime has the party’s thugs, Police, Army, CIO and other security trained on the populous to intimidate, rape and even murder them just to silence their protestations and call for change.
The need for change is obvious; no nation can afford to have such wholesale human rights violations and criminal waste of resources.
Mugabe and the ruling elite can not accept change for two reasons; the country’s economic melt down has made it imperative for them to hang on to their loot or else they too would join the millions who now live in abject poverty. Letting them keep the loot is not even an option for the nation: the economic recovery is totally dependent on all the nation’s resources being put back into productive use – something Mugabe and his cronies have failed to do. Besides, no one should be allowed to benefit from the looting that crippled the nation.
The second reason Mugabe and his cronies are resisting change is that their have too many skeletons in too many cupboards. During the 2008 presidential run-off Mugabe “declared war” on the Zimbabwe electorate, as Morgan Tsvangirai graphically put it. Hundreds of thousands were beaten up, raped and over 500 were murdered by Zanu PF party thugs, the Police or other State Security organs. In the mod 1980s the regime murdered 200 000 civilians. All these human violations were committed for one purpose and one purpose only – to ensure Mugabe and Zanu PF remained in power.
Of course one can not justify the continued suffering of 95% of the people just to keep the 5% or so in the swing much less to them from facing justice!
In 2008 the Zimbabwean populous made a concerted effort to bring about democratic change in the country by voting for Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party even at the risk of the beating, rape and murder by Mugabe’s terror machine. The political retribution did come but by then the Tsunami had swept Zimbabwe’s political landscape delivering a convincing thumbs down for Mugabe and his party Zanu PF. Sadly Tsvangirai failed to deliver of his promise of “real democratic change” although the electoral mandate he received allowed him to do just that.
The whole international community condemn the June 2008 presidential run-off as a sham and they would not recognise Mugabe as the legitimately elected president of Zimbabwe. The dictator was on the hook! It was Morgan Tsvangirai who got him off the hook by signing onto the power sharing agreement. He did not have to and many, many people advised him not to but he would not listen.
Tsvangirai went on to negotiate a one side agreement with Mugabe giving the later all his past dictatorial powers. Worse still, when it came to implementing the agreement the old crook would not even honour the few concessions he had allowed Tsvangirai.
The writing of a new constitution is the one thing Tsvangirai had stacked his whole political capital on but even here the ruthless dictator has allowed his party thugs to disrupt the whole exercise and to hijack it for his own selfish purpose.
If one can say Tsvangirai had a plan of how to bring about the democratic change the nation has been craving for then the sum total of that plan was to appease Mugabe and the Join Operation Command (JOC) – an assortment of senior Officers in the Police, Army, CIO and other State Security Organs plus a select few who have played the critical role of ensuring Mugabe, the ruling elite and Zanu PF thugs remained above the law.
Of course it was very naïve of Morgan Tsvangirai to think he could bring about any meaningful democratic change in the country and still have the dictator and JOC continue to behalf as before. It was more than naïve; it was down right stupid.
What the Zimbabwe population has to accept now – we are dragging our feet about it and time is right out – is that Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC, at least as it is presently constituted, will never bring about the democratic change we are after. From the out set people have been asking for MDC’s plan B if the power sharing should fail. Now that the power sharing has failed the demand for plan B have become hysterical. The truth is MDC has no plan B, never did. So please, please stop flogging a dead horse; it will never get up, much less take us where we want to go!
The power sharing agreement has allowed Mugabe to regroup and reorganise his party, Zanu PF. Mugabe has treated Tsvangirai with contempt. The dictator has in the past called Tsvangirai a “puppet of the West” in the last two years Mugabe has demonstrated the he too can pull the puppet’s strings! Of course a totally discredited Tsvangirai has worked to Mugabe’s political advantage.
There is talk of fresh election in 2011 and the Zimbabwe electorate have a choice between a ruthless dictator and a village idiot for president! The disillusionment with MDC is such that most Zimbabweans will probably not even bother to vote. On the other hand Mugabe has already started deploying his party thugs country wide and all the State Security Organs have pledged their continued biased and democratic support of Zanu PF. As things stand a Mugabe and Zanu PF electoral victory is a given. And the people that will only mean the mismanagement, corruption and the political repression will continue. It does not have to happen this way!
The Zimbabwe people can once again use their democratic vote to create the opportunity for real democratic change just as they did in 2008. But first they must acknowledge that in their desperation to end Mugabe’s dictatorial rule in 2008 they voted for a naïve and stupid leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. Whilst they continue wasting time flogging a dead donkey they have taken their eyes off the difficult task of fighting for real democratic change.
People, forget asking Tsvangirai for his plan B - he has none. Ask yourselves; what is our plan B? It is not too late to stop Mugabe cheating his way into retaining power again next year but that window of opportunity is fast closing.
5 comments:
Mugabe attacks the West at his sister’s funeral.
Here is a man who has been ruthless in ensuring that the ordinary people of Zimbabwe had no say in the governance of the country. Throughout his thirty years in power he seen to it that his party thugs were above the law to intimidate, beat, rape and even murder his political opponents and critics. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives have been lost to Mugabe's de facto one-party state. In the June 2008 elections he had over 500 murdered just to force the electorate to vote for him after they had dared rejecting him in March 2008 vote. So what nonsense is he talking about that it is the West who wants regime change in Zimbabwe?
“They (West) will not decide who is going to lead the people of Zimbabwe," the dictator said.
Mugabe has become so unpopular that he can no longer count on the unruly Zanu PF Youths and War Veterans to subdue a nation sick and tired of his autocratic rule and so the dictator has roped in the Police, Army and CIO to do his dirty work of intimidation, rape and murder. This is an abomination that can not be allowed, a bridge too far; the dictator and all those involved must answer for this!
@John Berry
No one would stay in a shack or be a vendor if they can have a house or a better paid job. Zimbabwe’s economy has been in free fall for decades and unemployment has soared to nauseating heights; at the time of Operation Murambatsvina it was 70% plus, peaked at 90% in 2008 and today it is estimated at 80%. How do expect all these people to live? Most of them are now working in the informal sector, mostly buying and selling, - kukiya kiya. They are barely making enough to buy food let alone to buy other basic essential like clothing, school fees, etc. No bank would give them a mortgage on the basis of their kiya kiya activities.
Let us put aside for one second the reason why Zimbabwe’s economic is in melt down. Let us agree that whatever the reason(s) the ordinary people have nothing to do with it. The question then is why are they then being punished by having the only dwelling structure they can afford demolished and their only meanings of earning a living denied?
The regime promised to build these people decent houses and today five years later it has not done so. The decent thing for the regime to have done would have been to build the houses first and the move the shack dwellers into the house.
The reason for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down is years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by the Mugabe regime. The millions of Zimbabweans now living in abject poverty is a living testimony of the regime’s failure. Operation Murambatsvina was a typical reaction of the regime whenever it if confronted with unpleasant reality – blame someone else, in this case the victims, or sweep the dirty under the carpet!
When was the last time you were in Zimbabwe? There vendors are everywhere even those living in the low density suburbs are into selling chickens, eggs anything to supplement their merger wages. There are more shacks in Zimbabwe today than before Operation Murambatsvina in 2005. So what are you on about “better place”?
@Dread Drea6 So you think a regime using the Police to intimidate and terrorise the civilian population is acceptable and sustainable? You and Mugabe are the ones who are dreaming - for the later he will wake up with a noose round his neck!
After 50 years and we still have Africans queuing to blame colonialism for Africa's problems. Is it any wonder we are have slip back into the dark ages - the colonial days were the golden age! With intellectuals like Dr Adekeye Adebajo it is a wonder we still have some Africans who can still spell their name!
The outcome of the on-going constitution making process is a foregone conclusion. It is in fact irresponsible for anyone to encourage the defenceless villagers to speak out against the Zanu PF position. They will be punished for it and for what?
Zanu PF has effectively taken over the constitution making process all because MDC failed to see this coming. Zanu PF used the same tactic - violence - to impose its will. It was yet another MDC blunder; they should have known nothing, absolutely nothing would be achieved until the issue of violence is resolved.
Zimbabwe is now preparing itself for fresh elections next year if the election is to produce the democratic change we are all craving for then the nation must address the two issues now:
1) Give the electorate reason to go and vote - MDC has been totally discredited and many voters will not bother to vote next year if the choice is between Zanu PF and MDC.
2) Mugabe will use violence to intimidate the electorate; what can be done to undermine his strategy?
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