Zimbabwe is a nation ruled by fear and the use of political violence has been Mugabe and Zanu PF's weapon of choice.
MP Harrison Mudzuri said the threats simply encourage the MDC-T and their supporters to make sure that there is no repeat of the violence that gripped the country after the MDC defeated ZANU PF in 2008. Just how will continued Zanu PF threats encourage MDC supporters to make sure there is NO violence? There is violence already and getting worse. It was in February, hardly two months ago, that MP Mudziri told the world of the gruesome murder of a Zaka East MDC supporter by Zanu PF thugs. They first cut off the supporter’s hands and then slit his throat like a chicken!
MDC have parliamentary majority and as many Ministers in Cabinet as Zanu PF and, best of all, have the moral high ground to end the violence and lawlessness and force through the democratic reforms. And yet for three years they have done nothing but make stupid statements. Meanwhile Mugabe has continued to ruthless crash all hope and the very lives out of Zimbabweans!
3 comments:
There are reports of prisoners starving in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe asked the Red Cross to stop feeding them saying their help was no longer required.
Having failure in their duty to provide the bear necessities of life for the prisoners this government has the temerity to stop others who can. Mugabe has stopped the distribution food, medicine, etc. to the needy throughout Zimbabwe for two reasons. One, by allowing any NGO or donor to operate in Zimbabwe will be to acknowledge there are needy people in Zimbabwe and thus tacitly to that Mugabe’s rule has been a failure. Secondly and more significantly, allowing anyone else to help the needy would put to the sword the myth that only Mugabe and Zanu PF can alleviate in any way the suffering of Zimbabweans. It is for this reason that most NGO have been forced to operate through Zanu PF structure and thus politicise aid.
People like Minister Patrick Chinamasa must answer for their role in the totally unnecessary suffering and deaths of Zimbabweans in prison because they were denied food.
That is a new one; how can a weak and sleepy electorate stopped any leader from doing what they want? Mugabe has enjoyed absolute power precisely because the electorate was too feeble to stop him. And you now say the same electorate did somehow stop Tsvangirai achieve even the common sense things. Who was this "analyst" - Tsvangirai himself or one of his acolytes?
If the South African electorate was as switched-on as you say then why did they allow someone as incompetent and corrupt as Thembo Mbeki or Jacob Zuma ruin the country?
There are a few South Africans who are very vigilant, I will give you that. This, plus SA's democratic institutions - Mandela's legacy - is what has stopped Mbeki and Zuma from going overboard. SA’s failure to raise millions of its people out of poverty has given hot heads like Malema voice. And he used it to whip up the gullible masses into a frenzy. Instead of stepping up his development programmes President Zuma’s response was to give credence to Malema’s myopic utterances and to chip away the power of key democratic institutions like free press. Destroy SA’s democratic checks and balances and the country will slip beyond the point-of-no-return into the hell-hole of repression, corruption, poverty and madness.
For the first decade Zimbabweans would have sworn that we would not repeat the same mistakes other independent African countries had made. Well, whether we care to admit it or not; we made even bigger mistakes! SA may never reach the depths of depravity Zimbabwe has fallen; still the signs are that she too will fall.
Whilst Mugabe's headlines is the repeated call for fresh elections this year; his opponents', Tsvangirai and company, headlines is for elections to be delayed. As for the ordinary Zimbabweans, they are torn between the two.
The people are desperate to replace this GNU that has done little to address their basic economic and political needs of food and shelter and a life with dignity. They know they can only do that if there are fresh elections. On the other hand the people know nothing on the ground has changed since 2008 to make they believe the brutal political violence of 2008 will not be repeated.
If the people had to have their own headlines then it will be "Zimbabweans have given up hope!"
I think there is an urgent need to discuss why the nation's 2008 hope for democratic change have come to nothing and, more significantly, what can be done now to get the country out of this hell-hole. Sadly there seem to be neither the forum or the public interest for such meaningful debate.
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