@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!
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Monday, 27 September 2010
SOLUTION TO MUGABE'S LAND GRAB: PAY NO FARMING SUBSIDIES INSTEAD THE OWNERS MUST NOW PAY LAND TAX!
@ Fungayi
"I am quacking in my boots about Scotland Yard. Ke ke ke-e-e-eh! Seka zvako mwana waDzvinyangoma." Well your arrogance is matched only by that of Mugabe himself. Even I can make an intelligent guess of your real name; if it is not George Shire then Shire would know who you are.
You have seen Tsvangirai and we all know just how incompetent he has turned out to be. You will be very mistaken to assume the next leader of Zimbabwe will be just as incompetent.
So 3 000 to 4 000 is the official Zanu PF figure of those murdered during Gukurahundi? Well, we are making progress here; for years the party denied anyone was ever killed. Of course I condemn the killing of the tourists but I hope you are not trying to justify the murder of 4 000 (probably the right number for those whose bodies were dumped in Antelope Mine Shifts alone) innocent and defenceless civilians as revenge for the murdered tourists!
I take is Zanu PF accepts that 500 were murdered during the presidential run-off in 2008. There was not a single tourist or anyone else killed before then; so the record stands that these were ruthless murders to deny the voters a free vote!
So a Zimbabwe Minister forecasted a “higher” economic growth for Zimbabwe. But these are all relative terms; higher, higher than what? Zimbabwe has registered the highest shrinking economy in the world year on year from 2000 to 2008. Why that happened we all know but will not go into it now. So if the agricultural sector was back into full production again, mining and all the other sectors the same and aid from the international community was flowing again and all these were being used for the good of the nation not a select few; there is no reason why Zimbabwe’s economic growth should not be 25% plus! And not the misery 8% the Minister and you are so excited about!
Last year the US government poured US$20 million and SA R50 million in direct aid to Zimbabwe’s farming sector. Still the “remote control” farmers failed to produce enough just to feed the nation. Before Zimbabwean farmers produced enough to feed the nation and earned the nation billions in exports and they had no direct or indirect subsidies! Next seasons food production will fall if the country’s new farmers are not paid millions again in subsidies! The fact of the matter is Zimbabwe is being held to ransom by Mugabe and his cronies. This is the worst case of double dipping: these greedy individuals cashed in when they looted the farms and they now cash in again by being paid cash to work the land. No nation in its right senses can allow such nonsense.
Mugabe has said again and again that there will be “no going back” on the land redistribution. Well so be it. Well land is a very valuable national resource comparable to a bundle of cash. With money in the bank, one is expected to pay tax on the interested earned if not on the principle sum too. There will be tax on land owned in future! Yes you can keep all the five farms plus, who cares if some of the farms are registered in the name of family, old relatives or cats and dogs keep them and you can grow weeds and nothing else; AS LONG AS YOU PAY ALL THE LAND TAX!
A simple solution: no more farming subsidies to these farm owners, they must pay land tax – that will sort out the real men from the boys. Are you were laughing, and for how much longer!
@ Fungayi
“Those who are in SA are there exactly due to SANCTIONS!” you say.
Zimbabwe’s economic melt down was not caused by sanctions but by decades of economic mismanagement and rampant corruption. The Zimbabweans who were able to leave the country have left, the exodus continues, to escape the economic hardships and political repression. Of course there are hypocrites like you Fungayi, who continue to sing the praises of the brutal dictatorship but have sent their children to be educated outside Zimbabwe, mainly in the West, and in your case to live there too. How many know Mugabe loyalists now live in the West, Fungayi?
A few weeks ago the British Government deported a woman after turning down her asylum application because she had taken part in a farm invasion when she was back in Zimbabwe. How ironic that she, small fish, was deported when hundred if not thousands of the, big fish who own the farms, are allowed to stay.
You Fungayi – of course that is not your real name – you have a farm back in Zimbabwe. You did not kick out the white farmer and his workers yourself but had some small fish do the dirty work for you. Did you have burnout the black workers’ huts or even have one or two killed? People like you have benefited from the dictatorship and the sanctions should net you too!
“Busi Ngubeni I do not need to get paid to state the truth about my country,” you claim. You have been paid in other ways. As for the truth; you have been painting Mugabe as a democratically elected and caring leader. What nonsense; a ruthless murderer a caring democrat!?
You have to be real naïve if you think Scotland Yard do not know who you are.
@Dora Makute
Dictators thrive on the stupidity of people like you.
Mugabe took the white owned farms cause massive disruption to the country’s economy and causing the economic melt down which has resulted in mass unemployment and suffering. Mugabe insists the farms were redistribution to “landless black peasants”. Peasants my a***#! Since when did peasant own four or more farms each extending hundreds acres! Mugabe and his cronies are looting the nation’s key resources all in the name of punishing the white and you buy it. You hatred of whites is so intense it has blinded you completely.
What about the outrageous human rights violations? Mugabe has denied ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country; he murdered over 20 000 in the mid 1980s to establish the de facto one-party dictatorship and in the three months in April to June 2008 murdered over 500 to force people to vote for him. What has that to do with the West “destabilising” Zimbabwe?
Of course you could be defending Mugabe because you are one of the cronies who have received a share of the loot. But even then, you must have relatives who have been caught up in this madness and must know by now that this dictatorship is doomed! When that happens; the dictator and all his cronies will face justice and they will not only lose their loot but many will lose their heads too! Dora, what will you lose?
"I am quacking in my boots about Scotland Yard. Ke ke ke-e-e-eh! Seka zvako mwana waDzvinyangoma." Well your arrogance is matched only by that of Mugabe himself. Even I can make an intelligent guess of your real name; if it is not George Shire then Shire would know who you are.
You have seen Tsvangirai and we all know just how incompetent he has turned out to be. You will be very mistaken to assume the next leader of Zimbabwe will be just as incompetent.
So 3 000 to 4 000 is the official Zanu PF figure of those murdered during Gukurahundi? Well, we are making progress here; for years the party denied anyone was ever killed. Of course I condemn the killing of the tourists but I hope you are not trying to justify the murder of 4 000 (probably the right number for those whose bodies were dumped in Antelope Mine Shifts alone) innocent and defenceless civilians as revenge for the murdered tourists!
I take is Zanu PF accepts that 500 were murdered during the presidential run-off in 2008. There was not a single tourist or anyone else killed before then; so the record stands that these were ruthless murders to deny the voters a free vote!
So a Zimbabwe Minister forecasted a “higher” economic growth for Zimbabwe. But these are all relative terms; higher, higher than what? Zimbabwe has registered the highest shrinking economy in the world year on year from 2000 to 2008. Why that happened we all know but will not go into it now. So if the agricultural sector was back into full production again, mining and all the other sectors the same and aid from the international community was flowing again and all these were being used for the good of the nation not a select few; there is no reason why Zimbabwe’s economic growth should not be 25% plus! And not the misery 8% the Minister and you are so excited about!
Last year the US government poured US$20 million and SA R50 million in direct aid to Zimbabwe’s farming sector. Still the “remote control” farmers failed to produce enough just to feed the nation. Before Zimbabwean farmers produced enough to feed the nation and earned the nation billions in exports and they had no direct or indirect subsidies! Next seasons food production will fall if the country’s new farmers are not paid millions again in subsidies! The fact of the matter is Zimbabwe is being held to ransom by Mugabe and his cronies. This is the worst case of double dipping: these greedy individuals cashed in when they looted the farms and they now cash in again by being paid cash to work the land. No nation in its right senses can allow such nonsense.
Mugabe has said again and again that there will be “no going back” on the land redistribution. Well so be it. Well land is a very valuable national resource comparable to a bundle of cash. With money in the bank, one is expected to pay tax on the interested earned if not on the principle sum too. There will be tax on land owned in future! Yes you can keep all the five farms plus, who cares if some of the farms are registered in the name of family, old relatives or cats and dogs keep them and you can grow weeds and nothing else; AS LONG AS YOU PAY ALL THE LAND TAX!
A simple solution: no more farming subsidies to these farm owners, they must pay land tax – that will sort out the real men from the boys. Are you were laughing, and for how much longer!
@ Fungayi
“Those who are in SA are there exactly due to SANCTIONS!” you say.
Zimbabwe’s economic melt down was not caused by sanctions but by decades of economic mismanagement and rampant corruption. The Zimbabweans who were able to leave the country have left, the exodus continues, to escape the economic hardships and political repression. Of course there are hypocrites like you Fungayi, who continue to sing the praises of the brutal dictatorship but have sent their children to be educated outside Zimbabwe, mainly in the West, and in your case to live there too. How many know Mugabe loyalists now live in the West, Fungayi?
A few weeks ago the British Government deported a woman after turning down her asylum application because she had taken part in a farm invasion when she was back in Zimbabwe. How ironic that she, small fish, was deported when hundred if not thousands of the, big fish who own the farms, are allowed to stay.
You Fungayi – of course that is not your real name – you have a farm back in Zimbabwe. You did not kick out the white farmer and his workers yourself but had some small fish do the dirty work for you. Did you have burnout the black workers’ huts or even have one or two killed? People like you have benefited from the dictatorship and the sanctions should net you too!
“Busi Ngubeni I do not need to get paid to state the truth about my country,” you claim. You have been paid in other ways. As for the truth; you have been painting Mugabe as a democratically elected and caring leader. What nonsense; a ruthless murderer a caring democrat!?
You have to be real naïve if you think Scotland Yard do not know who you are.
@Dora Makute
Dictators thrive on the stupidity of people like you.
Mugabe took the white owned farms cause massive disruption to the country’s economy and causing the economic melt down which has resulted in mass unemployment and suffering. Mugabe insists the farms were redistribution to “landless black peasants”. Peasants my a***#! Since when did peasant own four or more farms each extending hundreds acres! Mugabe and his cronies are looting the nation’s key resources all in the name of punishing the white and you buy it. You hatred of whites is so intense it has blinded you completely.
What about the outrageous human rights violations? Mugabe has denied ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country; he murdered over 20 000 in the mid 1980s to establish the de facto one-party dictatorship and in the three months in April to June 2008 murdered over 500 to force people to vote for him. What has that to do with the West “destabilising” Zimbabwe?
Of course you could be defending Mugabe because you are one of the cronies who have received a share of the loot. But even then, you must have relatives who have been caught up in this madness and must know by now that this dictatorship is doomed! When that happens; the dictator and all his cronies will face justice and they will not only lose their loot but many will lose their heads too! Dora, what will you lose?
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
MUGABE BLAME WESTERN SANCTION FOR ZIMBABWE'S ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: BUT SAYS NOTHING ABOUT POLITICAL MURDERS!
In an address to the UN General Assembly Mugabe blames "illegal and debilitating" sanctions for widespread poverty in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's life expectancy – the best qualitative and quantitative litmus test on human life - has plunged from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2005. The root cause of this plunge is years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by the Mugabe regime. The economic collapse started soon after independence and from 2000 to 2008 it took an alarming nose dive following the violent farm invasions which saw agricultural sector collapse.
Mugabe has become a master at finding scapegoats for his failures. He can blame the targeted sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down all he likes; we all know that is not true.
It is clear that UN Millennium Development Goals are NOT going to be met because the UN sought to address the economic needs without addressing the underlying political problems head on. German Chancellor Angela Merkel put her finger on the political issue when she said, “support for good governance is as important as aid itself."
Zimbabweans have been stuck with corrupt and repressive regime that has thrown them into abject poverty and denied them human dignity and hope. In the 2008 election over 500 Zimbabweans were murdered and over 20 000 in the mid 1980s to create Zimbabwe’s de facto one-party state. Zimbabweans have never had a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Is Robert Mugabe going to blame Western for the Zimbabwe’s failure to delivery the basic and fundamental rights as pronounced in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights including the right to life!?
The Western sanctions were an attempt to force Mugabe to stop the serious human rights violations. The sanctions must be tightened, so far they have had a minimum effect on the regime. None of the MDG will ever be achieved as long as mismanagement and corruption remain rampant and the only way to end these is by having good governance.
Zimbabwe's life expectancy – the best qualitative and quantitative litmus test on human life - has plunged from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2005. The root cause of this plunge is years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by the Mugabe regime. The economic collapse started soon after independence and from 2000 to 2008 it took an alarming nose dive following the violent farm invasions which saw agricultural sector collapse.
Mugabe has become a master at finding scapegoats for his failures. He can blame the targeted sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic melt down all he likes; we all know that is not true.
It is clear that UN Millennium Development Goals are NOT going to be met because the UN sought to address the economic needs without addressing the underlying political problems head on. German Chancellor Angela Merkel put her finger on the political issue when she said, “support for good governance is as important as aid itself."
Zimbabweans have been stuck with corrupt and repressive regime that has thrown them into abject poverty and denied them human dignity and hope. In the 2008 election over 500 Zimbabweans were murdered and over 20 000 in the mid 1980s to create Zimbabwe’s de facto one-party state. Zimbabweans have never had a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Is Robert Mugabe going to blame Western for the Zimbabwe’s failure to delivery the basic and fundamental rights as pronounced in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights including the right to life!?
The Western sanctions were an attempt to force Mugabe to stop the serious human rights violations. The sanctions must be tightened, so far they have had a minimum effect on the regime. None of the MDG will ever be achieved as long as mismanagement and corruption remain rampant and the only way to end these is by having good governance.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
TSVANGIRAYI AGREES TO REFRESH ELECTIONS AND YET HAS DONE NOTHING TO END VIOLENCE!
"When I last saw President Robert Mugabe he said the prevailing peace was ideal for us to go for an election, and this time we agreed that whoever loses should make way for the winner," said Tsvangirai.
Prevail peace; what prevailing peace? During the on-going new constitution outreach exercise, Zanu PF has demonstrated again that when the country makes any political move that threatens the party’s strangle hold on power it WILL step up the violence and intimidation. The party did not want the people to freely express their views on what the new constitution should be and it instituted “Operation Chimumumu – Say Nothing”. Once again the party has openly used the Police, CIO, the Army and other State Security Agency to carry out its dirty work.
Tsvangirai and MDC have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to ensure there will be no repeat of the political violence that happened in 2008. On the other hand Mugabe had the politicising of the country’s security agencies formally endorsed by the Zanu PF Congress in 2009 and has since been deploying them as if this is normal and perfectly acceptable.
Tsvangirai should have got Mugabe to agree on ending political violence and concrete guarantees that the next elections will be free and fair. Agreeing that the two will accept the results regardless of what happened throughout the race is down right stupid. This is yet another blunder by Tsvangirai and MDC!
@George Split
There are over 3 million Zimbabweans now working in SA including medical professionals amongst many others. When Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and the few who can afford it need medical help they go to SA or anywhere outside the country. You claim that Zimbabwe’s clinics and hospitals are better staffed and equipment is just that – a claim not backed by facts.
I will accept that SA’s health service is not as healthy as it was in the past; but we are not running a beauty context here.
@ Sterling Ferguson
Mugabe has been very clever in giving the loot to people like Fungayi and then pushing them to do his dirty work. Many of them are fighting for their own lives in defending the dictatorship - many of them, like Mugabe himself, face the losing not only the loot but the noose if the dictatorship collapse. That is way the targeted sanctions must be extended beyond just the 200 in the inner circle.
Prevail peace; what prevailing peace? During the on-going new constitution outreach exercise, Zanu PF has demonstrated again that when the country makes any political move that threatens the party’s strangle hold on power it WILL step up the violence and intimidation. The party did not want the people to freely express their views on what the new constitution should be and it instituted “Operation Chimumumu – Say Nothing”. Once again the party has openly used the Police, CIO, the Army and other State Security Agency to carry out its dirty work.
Tsvangirai and MDC have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to ensure there will be no repeat of the political violence that happened in 2008. On the other hand Mugabe had the politicising of the country’s security agencies formally endorsed by the Zanu PF Congress in 2009 and has since been deploying them as if this is normal and perfectly acceptable.
Tsvangirai should have got Mugabe to agree on ending political violence and concrete guarantees that the next elections will be free and fair. Agreeing that the two will accept the results regardless of what happened throughout the race is down right stupid. This is yet another blunder by Tsvangirai and MDC!
@George Split
There are over 3 million Zimbabweans now working in SA including medical professionals amongst many others. When Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and the few who can afford it need medical help they go to SA or anywhere outside the country. You claim that Zimbabwe’s clinics and hospitals are better staffed and equipment is just that – a claim not backed by facts.
I will accept that SA’s health service is not as healthy as it was in the past; but we are not running a beauty context here.
@ Sterling Ferguson
Mugabe has been very clever in giving the loot to people like Fungayi and then pushing them to do his dirty work. Many of them are fighting for their own lives in defending the dictatorship - many of them, like Mugabe himself, face the losing not only the loot but the noose if the dictatorship collapse. That is way the targeted sanctions must be extended beyond just the 200 in the inner circle.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
"SEEK THE POLITICAL KINGDOM AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW SAID KWAME NKRUMAH: SADLY THAT NEVER CAME!
“Can Africans make it collectively and individually without enslaving others, without exploiting others? Without enslaving some of their population, like China did, like India is doing?” Kole Omotoso, an author and academic argues!
Here we go again, another African academic talking nonsense. Europe developed by exploiting Africa and since Africa can not exploit Europe or any other nations: Africa has to turn on itself.
“It is also important to remember that those who wage war against oppressors of one type or another insist on first destroying and then, from destruction, building up again. A question that is never asked is whether the new South Africa can be built without destroying the old South Africa,” Omotoso writes. That is music to President Zuma and all the dictator and tyrants across Africa. They are doing Africa a big favour destroying everything and dragging the continent into the dark ages.
What Omotoso conveniently forget is that the “old South Africa”, the racist apartheid SA died and was buried the day President Nelson Mandela took office. What Zuma is destroying now is the solid foundations for a free and democratic SA that were laid by Mandela.
Africans did not seek independence because it was “better for Africans to rule themselves badly than for them to be ruled well by foreigners”. That is nonsense; I do not care whether Kwame Nkrumah ever said that; it is still nonsense. You have just said yourself that Europe developed by exploiting Africa – how does that constitute being “ruled well by foreigners”?
Kwame Nkrumah “counselled the oppressed to seek first the political kingdom, after which all other things would be added unto them” you write. What you should have then said is that Nkrumah failed to deliver on the very first promise as did all the other African leaders who have followed. The political kingdom of one-man-one vote, the right to a life with dignity and the right to life itself never came. And there lays the heart of Africa’s post independence road to self destruction and back to the dark ages.
I have to reject your central argument that we have to destroy or enslave someone else first in order to prosper. There are many other countries that have done very well thank you without ever having to exploit others; notably the Scandinavian countries and in more recent times the four-tigers nations for the far east.
Kole Omotoso, you should visit Zimbabwe. You will meet Professor Jonathan Moyo, Professor Arthur Mutambara, Professor John Makumbe and Robert Gabriel Mugabe – reportedly with no less than seven University Degrees and countless honorary one - amongst many others Zimbabwean intellectuals who talk nonsense endless. As we say in Shona, muromo wavo haumharwe nenhudzi – they talk all the time that not even the most determined housefly can ever lands on their lips! You will be in wonderful company.
@ Chimbido Warvet in the UK on September 11, 2010, 8:16 pm
You say President Obama “has enough of his own domestic problems to be concerned about Zimbabwe and quite frankly it is none of his business”. I am not asking him to in the marines or anything like that. All I am asking is that he should stop patronising Africa. Your problem is in understanding the meaning of that word, patronise – please look it up!
@ Mariko Jones
“President Obama has been working closely with PM Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. The fact that the later have proved to be a waste of time is hardly the West and President Obama's fault!” My point exactly; I find that to be patronising and counter productive.
The United States of America’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe rubbished the GPA between MDC and Zanu PF as full of holes “one could drive a truck through”. He was not alone in that many others in Zimbabwe and outside said the same thing. So why did President Obama not only work with Tsvangirai but when the later visited him in the White House he praised him to the rafters! This was no different from the treatment gave Mugabe until ten years ago.
The Western nations were tripping over each other in showering Mugabe with praise and honours. The British even had him knighted. This continued to happen even after the Gukurahundi mass murders that help Mugabe establish a de facto one-party state. And, of course, Mugabe has never held free and fair elections. “There are all ruthless tyrants totally incapable of self government, old boy!” The white racists conferring the honours in State House and White Hall must have answered. “You must not judge these savages with the same yard stick you judge Western leaders; use a two inch stick instead!”
I had expected President Obama to come up with “Yes Africa, can have good and competent government!” to paraphrase his “Yes we can!” slogan. It is clear he did not think so. He must have known that GPA was a waste of time and that Tsvangirai was foolish to even believe such a ill thought out agreement would work. President Obama worked with Tsvangirai because he too must have believed Tsvangirai was the “best” Zimbabwe had to offer.
By giving people like Mugabe and now Tsvangirai their unqualified support the West has undermined the few inside and outside Zimbabwe who were seeking meaningful change. There are a few within MDC with a bit of grey stuff between their ears and a clear message from the West that they would not support the stupid GPA would have strengthened the hand of the thinking few in MDC.
The West expected post independent Africa to fail and, in many ways, they paid good money to ensure that happened. A change of American policy towards Africa will cost America nothing but will give Africa hope. With a Blackman in White House, it was the best chance ever for Africa. After two years of the same patronising white supremacist approach every thinking African has good reason to be disappointed and shout it from the hill top too!
999999
Workers of an American AIDS Clinic arrested in Zimbabwe for running a clinic without a health licence.
Was it really necessary to arrest and imprison the Aid Workers? Surely the Police could have told them to close the Clinic until they have the required licence and qualified staff to run the clinic. In a Police State like Zimbabwe, it was clearly necessary.
The regime has presided over the closure of schools and hospitals throughout the country because there were no public funds to pay for these basic services. The country continued buy Mercedes Benz and other luxuries for the ruling elite; but that is a different matter. The little service there is today, is largely funded by donors. The regime continued to hurry and harass the donors and the Zimbabwe public at large just to remind everyone that they are the boss to be feared and worshiped!
@Dread Dread6
What is this? You are defending the Americans or you doing so because I have been critical of American policy?
You talk nonsense as usual that even those you like to defend - Mugabe and his cronies, Fungayi etc - they must dread having you on their corner. In Shona tradition, you will be asked to go and skin the goat - enda endo viya mbudzi. You talk such nonsense no one wants to hear from!
99999
Zimbabwe’s black empowerment law is being tested in the fight for the control of the Meikles Kingdom group pitting blacks against whites.
Zimbabwe has a massive problem of unemployment largely because of Mugabe’s failed black empowerment policy that saw 90% of the country’s productive farms taken over by the country’s ruling elite. 80% of our people are out of work forcing many to join the informal sector – kukiya kiya!
If anyone has money to spare and the ruling elite clearly have - no one else will have the money to buy the 51% shares all white owned businesses are being force to sell – why are they not using the money to start up parallel businesses and thus create jobs for our people. Buying shares in an existing company will only create one or two jobs – the new black owner would want an MD position created for him complete with two or three cushy jobs for his mistress and relatives.
The Zimbabwe economy will never recover as long as Mugabe and his cronies continue to occupy the farms. The same people want to extend their rich into mining and all private businesses by forcing existing and new businesses to go into joint operation. Mugabe and his cronies are holding the nation to ransom. What the country needs is a strong and decisive leadership that rein Mugabe and his thugs and put an end to this madness. Tsvangirai has turned out to be too feeble mentally and political; his policy of appeasement has only encouraged the gang of thieves to be even more arrogant!
This is a race that is going nowhere. No nation can possibly thrive economically in the face of such rampant corruption and criminal waste of human and material resources.
888888
Duduzane Zuma, President Jacob Zuma’s son, promises to give away to the poor 70% of the shares of a dodgy business deal after COSATU threatened strike action against SA’s increasing corrupt Black Economic Empowerment drive that has largely benefited the rich. The Trade Union movement had named the deal involving Duduzane as one such dodgy deal.
To paraphrase the great Economist, Adam Smith, “It is not through the generosity of the corrupt that the nation’s poor will be saved from a life of abject poverty but through the prudent management of the country’s human and material resources and avoiding the waste of corruption.”
If SA is serious about stamping out corruption then there must be a high powered investigation into this deal to establish how this was allowed to happen. R 9 billion is a lot of money, of which Dudu own R1 billion, only to give it away!
55555
@Sterling
Well, it is hard to believe that the dictator is supposed to be on a travel ban to America! What I find hard to believe is that ever since the targeted sanctions were first imposed in 2001 the State Department has failed to find ways to fine tune them so that they would hurt Mugabe and his cronies. Mugabe has imposed his own real tough “sanctions” against the ordinary people in Zimbabwe which have resulted in the economic collapse and increased political repression. And sometimes, as happened with the arrest of American citizens, foreigners are caught up in the net.
Here we go again, another African academic talking nonsense. Europe developed by exploiting Africa and since Africa can not exploit Europe or any other nations: Africa has to turn on itself.
“It is also important to remember that those who wage war against oppressors of one type or another insist on first destroying and then, from destruction, building up again. A question that is never asked is whether the new South Africa can be built without destroying the old South Africa,” Omotoso writes. That is music to President Zuma and all the dictator and tyrants across Africa. They are doing Africa a big favour destroying everything and dragging the continent into the dark ages.
What Omotoso conveniently forget is that the “old South Africa”, the racist apartheid SA died and was buried the day President Nelson Mandela took office. What Zuma is destroying now is the solid foundations for a free and democratic SA that were laid by Mandela.
Africans did not seek independence because it was “better for Africans to rule themselves badly than for them to be ruled well by foreigners”. That is nonsense; I do not care whether Kwame Nkrumah ever said that; it is still nonsense. You have just said yourself that Europe developed by exploiting Africa – how does that constitute being “ruled well by foreigners”?
Kwame Nkrumah “counselled the oppressed to seek first the political kingdom, after which all other things would be added unto them” you write. What you should have then said is that Nkrumah failed to deliver on the very first promise as did all the other African leaders who have followed. The political kingdom of one-man-one vote, the right to a life with dignity and the right to life itself never came. And there lays the heart of Africa’s post independence road to self destruction and back to the dark ages.
I have to reject your central argument that we have to destroy or enslave someone else first in order to prosper. There are many other countries that have done very well thank you without ever having to exploit others; notably the Scandinavian countries and in more recent times the four-tigers nations for the far east.
Kole Omotoso, you should visit Zimbabwe. You will meet Professor Jonathan Moyo, Professor Arthur Mutambara, Professor John Makumbe and Robert Gabriel Mugabe – reportedly with no less than seven University Degrees and countless honorary one - amongst many others Zimbabwean intellectuals who talk nonsense endless. As we say in Shona, muromo wavo haumharwe nenhudzi – they talk all the time that not even the most determined housefly can ever lands on their lips! You will be in wonderful company.
@ Chimbido Warvet in the UK on September 11, 2010, 8:16 pm
You say President Obama “has enough of his own domestic problems to be concerned about Zimbabwe and quite frankly it is none of his business”. I am not asking him to in the marines or anything like that. All I am asking is that he should stop patronising Africa. Your problem is in understanding the meaning of that word, patronise – please look it up!
@ Mariko Jones
“President Obama has been working closely with PM Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. The fact that the later have proved to be a waste of time is hardly the West and President Obama's fault!” My point exactly; I find that to be patronising and counter productive.
The United States of America’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe rubbished the GPA between MDC and Zanu PF as full of holes “one could drive a truck through”. He was not alone in that many others in Zimbabwe and outside said the same thing. So why did President Obama not only work with Tsvangirai but when the later visited him in the White House he praised him to the rafters! This was no different from the treatment gave Mugabe until ten years ago.
The Western nations were tripping over each other in showering Mugabe with praise and honours. The British even had him knighted. This continued to happen even after the Gukurahundi mass murders that help Mugabe establish a de facto one-party state. And, of course, Mugabe has never held free and fair elections. “There are all ruthless tyrants totally incapable of self government, old boy!” The white racists conferring the honours in State House and White Hall must have answered. “You must not judge these savages with the same yard stick you judge Western leaders; use a two inch stick instead!”
I had expected President Obama to come up with “Yes Africa, can have good and competent government!” to paraphrase his “Yes we can!” slogan. It is clear he did not think so. He must have known that GPA was a waste of time and that Tsvangirai was foolish to even believe such a ill thought out agreement would work. President Obama worked with Tsvangirai because he too must have believed Tsvangirai was the “best” Zimbabwe had to offer.
By giving people like Mugabe and now Tsvangirai their unqualified support the West has undermined the few inside and outside Zimbabwe who were seeking meaningful change. There are a few within MDC with a bit of grey stuff between their ears and a clear message from the West that they would not support the stupid GPA would have strengthened the hand of the thinking few in MDC.
The West expected post independent Africa to fail and, in many ways, they paid good money to ensure that happened. A change of American policy towards Africa will cost America nothing but will give Africa hope. With a Blackman in White House, it was the best chance ever for Africa. After two years of the same patronising white supremacist approach every thinking African has good reason to be disappointed and shout it from the hill top too!
999999
Workers of an American AIDS Clinic arrested in Zimbabwe for running a clinic without a health licence.
Was it really necessary to arrest and imprison the Aid Workers? Surely the Police could have told them to close the Clinic until they have the required licence and qualified staff to run the clinic. In a Police State like Zimbabwe, it was clearly necessary.
The regime has presided over the closure of schools and hospitals throughout the country because there were no public funds to pay for these basic services. The country continued buy Mercedes Benz and other luxuries for the ruling elite; but that is a different matter. The little service there is today, is largely funded by donors. The regime continued to hurry and harass the donors and the Zimbabwe public at large just to remind everyone that they are the boss to be feared and worshiped!
@Dread Dread6
What is this? You are defending the Americans or you doing so because I have been critical of American policy?
You talk nonsense as usual that even those you like to defend - Mugabe and his cronies, Fungayi etc - they must dread having you on their corner. In Shona tradition, you will be asked to go and skin the goat - enda endo viya mbudzi. You talk such nonsense no one wants to hear from!
99999
Zimbabwe’s black empowerment law is being tested in the fight for the control of the Meikles Kingdom group pitting blacks against whites.
Zimbabwe has a massive problem of unemployment largely because of Mugabe’s failed black empowerment policy that saw 90% of the country’s productive farms taken over by the country’s ruling elite. 80% of our people are out of work forcing many to join the informal sector – kukiya kiya!
If anyone has money to spare and the ruling elite clearly have - no one else will have the money to buy the 51% shares all white owned businesses are being force to sell – why are they not using the money to start up parallel businesses and thus create jobs for our people. Buying shares in an existing company will only create one or two jobs – the new black owner would want an MD position created for him complete with two or three cushy jobs for his mistress and relatives.
The Zimbabwe economy will never recover as long as Mugabe and his cronies continue to occupy the farms. The same people want to extend their rich into mining and all private businesses by forcing existing and new businesses to go into joint operation. Mugabe and his cronies are holding the nation to ransom. What the country needs is a strong and decisive leadership that rein Mugabe and his thugs and put an end to this madness. Tsvangirai has turned out to be too feeble mentally and political; his policy of appeasement has only encouraged the gang of thieves to be even more arrogant!
This is a race that is going nowhere. No nation can possibly thrive economically in the face of such rampant corruption and criminal waste of human and material resources.
888888
Duduzane Zuma, President Jacob Zuma’s son, promises to give away to the poor 70% of the shares of a dodgy business deal after COSATU threatened strike action against SA’s increasing corrupt Black Economic Empowerment drive that has largely benefited the rich. The Trade Union movement had named the deal involving Duduzane as one such dodgy deal.
To paraphrase the great Economist, Adam Smith, “It is not through the generosity of the corrupt that the nation’s poor will be saved from a life of abject poverty but through the prudent management of the country’s human and material resources and avoiding the waste of corruption.”
If SA is serious about stamping out corruption then there must be a high powered investigation into this deal to establish how this was allowed to happen. R 9 billion is a lot of money, of which Dudu own R1 billion, only to give it away!
55555
@Sterling
Well, it is hard to believe that the dictator is supposed to be on a travel ban to America! What I find hard to believe is that ever since the targeted sanctions were first imposed in 2001 the State Department has failed to find ways to fine tune them so that they would hurt Mugabe and his cronies. Mugabe has imposed his own real tough “sanctions” against the ordinary people in Zimbabwe which have resulted in the economic collapse and increased political repression. And sometimes, as happened with the arrest of American citizens, foreigners are caught up in the net.
Thursday, 9 September 2010
AFRICA WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF - IF OBAMA DID NOT HAVE BLACK BLOOD IN HIS VEINS!
“If my people want me to go, I go,” says Mugabe. The ruthless dictator does not even acknowledge that he is using brute force to stay in power.
What I find really disappointing is the way the West has failed to flex their economic muscle and really turn the screw on the regime. The targeted sanctions have hardly affected the regime. Indeed Mugabe has used the sanction as the excuse for the country’s economic melt down and to justify further political repression. The sanctions can and should have been fine tuned so that they had some effect on the dictator and his cronies. For ten years now there has been no effort to focus the sanctions.
By letting the token sanctions drag on for ten years the West is actually punishing the ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives the regime has turned into a hell-on-earth. I am particularly disappointed with President Barack Obama.
All Africa wanted from President Obama is to be treat us as humans worthy of all the human rights and dignity the rest of the world enjoy and take for granted. For some one with even one drop of black blood in their veins; that would not have been too much to ask!
So far the West has, at best, patronised Africa. For example, it is normal for the West to cheer and applaud an African election in which there was vote rigging and violent even when hundreds of innocent people were murdered. Of course the same Westerners would be up in arms if there was so much as a whiff of cheating in their own country. The yard stick the West use to measuring Africa’s democratic credentials and the worthy of an African’s life is but a few inches long!
Mugabe has become even more repressive than he was in 2001 when the targeted sanctions were imposed by President Bush. Instead of the West turning the screw on the regime to reflect this; they have done nothing. President Obama’s Administration is even considering softening the sanction! The dictator turned the whole nation up side down in 2008; destroying property, beating, raping and over 500 Zimbabweans were murdered and no one has ever been arrested for all this. This was all done to force people to vote for him. What else does Mugabe have to do, how many more murders to finally convince the Americans that he is a tyrant?
For all the sweet nothings President Obama has done for Africa: Africa would have been better off if he did not have a single drop of black blood in his veins!
What I find really disappointing is the way the West has failed to flex their economic muscle and really turn the screw on the regime. The targeted sanctions have hardly affected the regime. Indeed Mugabe has used the sanction as the excuse for the country’s economic melt down and to justify further political repression. The sanctions can and should have been fine tuned so that they had some effect on the dictator and his cronies. For ten years now there has been no effort to focus the sanctions.
By letting the token sanctions drag on for ten years the West is actually punishing the ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives the regime has turned into a hell-on-earth. I am particularly disappointed with President Barack Obama.
All Africa wanted from President Obama is to be treat us as humans worthy of all the human rights and dignity the rest of the world enjoy and take for granted. For some one with even one drop of black blood in their veins; that would not have been too much to ask!
So far the West has, at best, patronised Africa. For example, it is normal for the West to cheer and applaud an African election in which there was vote rigging and violent even when hundreds of innocent people were murdered. Of course the same Westerners would be up in arms if there was so much as a whiff of cheating in their own country. The yard stick the West use to measuring Africa’s democratic credentials and the worthy of an African’s life is but a few inches long!
Mugabe has become even more repressive than he was in 2001 when the targeted sanctions were imposed by President Bush. Instead of the West turning the screw on the regime to reflect this; they have done nothing. President Obama’s Administration is even considering softening the sanction! The dictator turned the whole nation up side down in 2008; destroying property, beating, raping and over 500 Zimbabweans were murdered and no one has ever been arrested for all this. This was all done to force people to vote for him. What else does Mugabe have to do, how many more murders to finally convince the Americans that he is a tyrant?
For all the sweet nothings President Obama has done for Africa: Africa would have been better off if he did not have a single drop of black blood in his veins!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
MILLIONS OF ZIMBABWEANS IN SA FACE A VIOLENT FUTURE IF SA ENDS IMMIGRATION CONCESSIONS!
The SA government says it will end the visa and work-permit concessions granted to Zimbabweans a year ago that has allowed Zimbabwe to enter the country more freely to escape the economic meltdown and political repression in Zimbabwe. Many Zimbabweans could find themselves being deported to face the uncertain future if SA goes ahead with this.
@Dora Makute
“Is it not a fact that the economy is bouncing back, is it not on record that agriculture is taking shape again,” you say, Dora. At least you admit that the economy had collapsed for it to be “bouncing back” and the agricultural sector had been destroyed for it to be “taking shape again”! Now let us put some meat of the skeleton.
The Zimbabwe economy had collapsed to the extend that schools and hospitals had closed for lack of funds; inflation and unemployment had soared to nauseating heights of 500 billion % and 90% respectively and most telling of all life expectancy had dropped from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2005.
The only “bouncing back” that has taken place was the scrapping of the Z$ ending the run away inflation and thus allow some business activity to return. But the much hoped for economic recovery has not happened because the mismanagement and corruption at the heart of the economic melt down have remained. The International community have flatly refused to give any financial aid to what every see as a black- hole,
The collapse of the agricultural sector following the widespread seizure of farms by Mugabe and his cronies was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The seizures have continued to this day, sinking the economy even deeper into the abyss.
For years now Zimbabwe’s new “farmers” have received millions of dollars in direct and indirect subsidies to get them to produce anything. USAID gave US$ 20 million last year and SA gave a similar amount. A situation that has only encouraged the big wigs in Zanu PF to seize as many as five of six farms each! After such a massive injection of funds the country produced more than the last season and people like you Dora are free to take this as proof that Mugabe’s land seizures is working.
The reality is that a) agricultural production fell far short of past national record even with all the heavy subsidies b) the subsidies are not sustainable c) Mugabe and his cronies will never ever be as productive as the white farmers nor millions of blacks denied the opportunity to be farmers simply because they are not ruthless enough to be members of the ruling and yet never give up this key national resource d) Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is totally dependent on the recover of the agricultural sector more than anything else.
On the political front Zimbabweans are routinely beaten up in the Zanu PF instigated “Operation Chimumumu (say nothing)” to stop them expressing their opinion during the ongoing constitutional outreach exercises. And if they report to the Police, it is the victims of the violence who are arrested! Things will really heat up during the forthcoming referendum and then fresh elections - a foretaste of what await all deported Zimbabweans. Dora, your claim that Zimbabwe is “awash” with peace is clearly nonsense!
@Dora Makute
“Is it not a fact that the economy is bouncing back, is it not on record that agriculture is taking shape again,” you say, Dora. At least you admit that the economy had collapsed for it to be “bouncing back” and the agricultural sector had been destroyed for it to be “taking shape again”! Now let us put some meat of the skeleton.
The Zimbabwe economy had collapsed to the extend that schools and hospitals had closed for lack of funds; inflation and unemployment had soared to nauseating heights of 500 billion % and 90% respectively and most telling of all life expectancy had dropped from 65 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2005.
The only “bouncing back” that has taken place was the scrapping of the Z$ ending the run away inflation and thus allow some business activity to return. But the much hoped for economic recovery has not happened because the mismanagement and corruption at the heart of the economic melt down have remained. The International community have flatly refused to give any financial aid to what every see as a black- hole,
The collapse of the agricultural sector following the widespread seizure of farms by Mugabe and his cronies was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The seizures have continued to this day, sinking the economy even deeper into the abyss.
For years now Zimbabwe’s new “farmers” have received millions of dollars in direct and indirect subsidies to get them to produce anything. USAID gave US$ 20 million last year and SA gave a similar amount. A situation that has only encouraged the big wigs in Zanu PF to seize as many as five of six farms each! After such a massive injection of funds the country produced more than the last season and people like you Dora are free to take this as proof that Mugabe’s land seizures is working.
The reality is that a) agricultural production fell far short of past national record even with all the heavy subsidies b) the subsidies are not sustainable c) Mugabe and his cronies will never ever be as productive as the white farmers nor millions of blacks denied the opportunity to be farmers simply because they are not ruthless enough to be members of the ruling and yet never give up this key national resource d) Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is totally dependent on the recover of the agricultural sector more than anything else.
On the political front Zimbabweans are routinely beaten up in the Zanu PF instigated “Operation Chimumumu (say nothing)” to stop them expressing their opinion during the ongoing constitutional outreach exercises. And if they report to the Police, it is the victims of the violence who are arrested! Things will really heat up during the forthcoming referendum and then fresh elections - a foretaste of what await all deported Zimbabweans. Dora, your claim that Zimbabwe is “awash” with peace is clearly nonsense!
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
NADINE GORDIMER FIGHTS ZUMA'S INSIDIOUS ATTACK ON PRESS FREEDOM!
SA Nobel Prize laureate and lifelong fighter for freedom, Nadine Gordimer, to petition against President Zuma’s “insidious attack on” press freedom; Guardian reports.
The “danger of the (ANC) government painting her as a wealthy white writer out of touch with the new political realities in South Africa,” is real.
During the dark years of apartheid the same ANC leaders who will castigate Nadine Gordimer today considered her a fellow traveller then in the fight for justice and freedom. Whilst they never believed in justice and freedom but only saw it as a useful vehicle to get them political power. Now that the black nationalists are in power they see justice and freedom as a serious threat to their exercise and enjoyment of power. And they have shown they will be ruthless in silencing any who opposed their desire for power.
Nadine Gordimer on the other hand believed passionately in the cause of a just and free SA. ANC leaders will want to discredit her and silence her too. That has clearly not work, and thank God!
One of the traps post independent Africa had to avoid was not to become complacence. After the nightmare years of the armed struggle and rioting to end white colonial rule it was tempting to sit back and leave everything to the new black leaders to deliver the “promised land” of freedom, peace, justice, human dignity and prosperity. Many African countries fell head-log into the trap.
As soon as they got into power the black leaders wanted absolute power for themselves and they became preoccupied with that forgetting their promise of building a free and democratic nation. All these who thought the fight for a free and democratic nation ended with independence were naïve and all those nations who did have paid dearly for it.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely; we all know that. The ruled must be vigilant at all times to ensure those in power do not become corrupt. It is impossible to see how society without freedom of expression and a free vote can rein in those in power. President Zuma’s media reforms are seeking to muzzle the press and end freedom of expression, nothing else.
The “danger of the (ANC) government painting her as a wealthy white writer out of touch with the new political realities in South Africa,” is real.
During the dark years of apartheid the same ANC leaders who will castigate Nadine Gordimer today considered her a fellow traveller then in the fight for justice and freedom. Whilst they never believed in justice and freedom but only saw it as a useful vehicle to get them political power. Now that the black nationalists are in power they see justice and freedom as a serious threat to their exercise and enjoyment of power. And they have shown they will be ruthless in silencing any who opposed their desire for power.
Nadine Gordimer on the other hand believed passionately in the cause of a just and free SA. ANC leaders will want to discredit her and silence her too. That has clearly not work, and thank God!
One of the traps post independent Africa had to avoid was not to become complacence. After the nightmare years of the armed struggle and rioting to end white colonial rule it was tempting to sit back and leave everything to the new black leaders to deliver the “promised land” of freedom, peace, justice, human dignity and prosperity. Many African countries fell head-log into the trap.
As soon as they got into power the black leaders wanted absolute power for themselves and they became preoccupied with that forgetting their promise of building a free and democratic nation. All these who thought the fight for a free and democratic nation ended with independence were naïve and all those nations who did have paid dearly for it.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely; we all know that. The ruled must be vigilant at all times to ensure those in power do not become corrupt. It is impossible to see how society without freedom of expression and a free vote can rein in those in power. President Zuma’s media reforms are seeking to muzzle the press and end freedom of expression, nothing else.
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