Tsvangirai in a third flip-flop position
on the rigged elections. After the July elections Tsvangirai filed a court
challenge of the “flawed” elections. A few weeks later, he withdrew his court
challenge on the grounds that the courts were no cooperating with MDC’s request
to ZEC to release the necessary documents including the voters roll.
The withdrawal of the court challenge
cleared the way for Mugabe to take his oath of office and form the next
government. Tsvangirai argued the nation to accept the new regime as the “political
reality”.
The right position was and has always
remained as that elections could not have been free and fair because none of
the democratic reforms had been implemented. Tsvangirai had five years to
implement the reforms and not even one reform had seen light of day. The only
possible explanation for no reforms was that Tsvangirai was breathtakingly
incompetent. Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the elections too making it
blatantly obvious that he was illegitimate.
Why Tsvangirai withdraw his court
challenge of the election result in the face of the blatant vote rigging is
again a measure of the MDC leader’s breath-taking incompetence. It was for the
courts and not MDC to ensure ZEC fulfilled its public obligations by releasing
the public documents including the voters roll.
In
a reversal of his last position to accept Mugabe Tsvangirai is now calling
Mugabe “illegitimate” and for fresh elections.
“We will be embarking on a global
advocacy campaign to the AU, SADC and the internal community on the need for
the reversal of the fraudulent result of 2013,” said Tsvangirai.
“The lesson from the July 31 poll is
that all reforms, including security sector and media reforms that were agreed
to under the GPA, are mandatory if we are to have an undisputed election,” he
admitted.
When he had the power, authority and
opportunity to get the reforms implemented he not only failed to do so but even
had the arrogance to ignore all those calling on him to do so. He “was too
comfortable and forgot the reason why he was in government,” SADC leaders said
of Tsvangirai.
The most important lesson SADC, the AU,
the international community and the people of Zimbabwe have hopefully learnt is
that Tsvangirai is breathtakingly incompetent and therefore not to be trust. It
is time to ignore him!
We, the West by rejecting the rigged
elections and those Zimbabweans who have refused to accept Mugabe rule as fait
accompli, known Mugabe rigged the elections and is therefore illegitimate. We can
push Mugabe to accept fresh elections and completely ignore Tsvangirai whose
confused involvement will only serve to muddy the waters.
57 comments:
If anyone, anyone at all, has committed "treason of the worst kind" as Mugabe is telling us; then why has no one been arrested and charged? Over the last 33 years how many Zimbabweans, especially those considered critical of Zanu PF, has the ZRP and the notorious CIO arrested on tramped up charges? Millions! Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered without even having the benefit of being charge in a Court of Law.
Are we then to believe that the same over zealous and murderous regime has evidence of treasonous crimes being committed and has done nothing to arrest those responsible! Mugabe has treated the people of Zimbabwe as if they are were brainless monkeys and he must now be convinced of it.
Rigging elections is treason of the worst kind because it undermines the only process to achieve peace and evolutional change. Those who close the door to evolutional change open the door to costly, in terms of resources and human suffering and lives, violent revolutionary change. No nation in its right mind can allow some hothead drag it into a revolution and that is why those who rig elections are committing treason of the worst kind.
Mugabe is refusing to release the voters roll because he knows it is the smoking gun which will show how he rigged the elections.
It is the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, not the West, who want regime change. By rigging the elections it is the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, not the West, you denied a meaningful say in the governance of the country. You have rigged elections in the past and got away with it; you are not getting away with it this time!
Mr Mugabe you have a simple choice admit you rigged the elections or release the voters roll! This issue is not going to be swept under the carpet, no chance!
@ Chimbwido
I know what stuff you WERE made of; a brute who would kick his victims "until the bled profusely". But that was during your Mbare days when Mugabe and Zanu PF terrorized the nation and you were one of the party's thugs. Mugabe and Zanu PF are spend forces now.
They have looted everything and now they are turning on each other like vultures. Mugabe's vote rigging extravagancy has left the country bankrupt and his foul mouth has left him with no friends. He was insulting the Chinese a week ago at the Zanu PF congress; not even the Chinese are going to bail him out of this mess.
How long do you think Mugabe can still remain is State House presiding over the economic collapse and his party members tiring each other to pieces? I do not care one bit about the dictatorship imploding and tiring the tyrant himself to pieces. I just do not want the thugs to drag the whole nation over the edge with them.
Zanu PF is finished and so too are you Chimbwido! Judging from your foul language; you too can finally see the writing on the wall! You are mine, I will hunt you down like the murderous thug you are and make sure you face justice.
@ Jukwa
We all know you have to sing Mugabe's praises for your dinner but describing Mugabe as "Magnanimous, the Virtuous, the Wise, the African Hero without a second", etc. is going too far! The man has just been telling Tsvangirai is this report to go top hell; what is magnanimous and virtuous in that?
Only last week the world buried Nelson Mandela before whom Mugabe was the devil incarnate in comparison. Be warned; being sarcastic is NOT something a paid CIO agent should ever try otherwise you will send to Chikurumbi where your rightly belong!
You CIO agents have been doing Mugabe's dirty work including the murder of the over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans, you are Zimbabwe's equivalent of Hitler's SS; you must be hunted down and face justice as soon as the Zanu PF dictatorship collapse.
There is a Chikurumbi cell with your name on it, Jukwa!
@ Tanatwsa
Mugabe knows he has failed and does not know what to do. He is like a snake that has been badly burnt in a fire, a fire of his own making in Mugabe's case, and is spitting venom but has nothing to bite!
What we are witnessing may not be the end but it is the beginning of the end. All tyrannical regime always collapse soon or later and when they do there is a lot of crying, gnashing of teeth and splashes of blood and it all starts with cursing and swearing and foul language!
Mugabe is in phase one; cursing and swearing!
@ Mavheti
You and Mugabe have been wittering about unity for years; what exactly do you want the people of Zimbabwe to be united on? The vote rigging, corrupt murderous tyrant? I say the people of Zimbabwe must be united in their demand that a vote rigging tyrant must not be allowed to rule and ruin the country.
I say the people must be united in the demand for the voters roll to be made public or else Mugabe to admit he rigged the elections. Enough is enough, we want our country back, not in another five years, NOW!
Harare Hospital says it has stopped admitting new patience because there is no more capacity.
The root cause of this problem is money. Mugabe soaked up all the money from the looted diamonds to the little money government departments got to finance his vote rigging extravagancy. Now the chickens have come home to roost; the government is broke!
@ Mavheti
You have a knack for contradicting yourself. You accuse me of being a "snake ... paid to bring chaos only"!
The snake who brought the chaos is the tyrant Mugabe who rigged the elections and thus created the illegitimacy. His reckless spending to pay for the vote rigging operations, etc. has left the nation broke.
Mugabe rigged the elections, he is the snake, and this time he is not going to get away with it!
@ Chimbwido
Did you read the report of how Harare hospital is sending patients back because there are no free beds. Harare is being overwhelmed because all the other hospitals out there are not taking any patients, they have no money to run any service because they are broke. Greece has financial problems, true, but there are nothing compared to Zimbabwe's problems!
You are still in denial but you will not be for much longer; Zimbabwe's financial collapse is total!
@ Jukwa
Little one? You a paid agent doing a tyrant's dirty work against his own people you call me a "little one"? You CIO idiots have no idea what harm you have visited upon the whole nation, do you? Well we really need to hunt you idiots down and punish as many of you as possible.
Those who will not live by the law must die by the law!
@ Mavheti
So you do not think the evidence already out there of Mugabe blatantly rigging the elections are enough. Mugabe's refusal to release the voters roll six months after the elections on the shaky grounds that the computer has broken down is further proof of his guilt?
That may not be enough proof of vote rigging for you, it is more than enough for me and many people out there.
The game is up for Mugabe, the tyrant has his head in the noose. He is going nowhere; the only way out is the sudden drop with the equally sudden stop! He knows it and so do you!
The vote rigging by Mugabe was blatant, that means it was reckless, obvious and self-evident. There is the failure to get any democratic reforms implemented that everyone had agreed were necessary for free and fair elections to start with. Then there failure to produce the voters roll, the increase of polling stations from 2000 to 9000 just two days before the voting, the 6 million registered voters in a nation 0f 12 million, the bussed voters, etc. It was these self-evident facts that led the Americans, Canadians, Australians, the EU and anyone who is anyone to conclude the election were not credible.
The only reason why not even one of the reforms were implemented after five years in the GNU and the party having the majority in parliament is because of the breath-taking incompetence of not just the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai but of the whole MDC party. The party is showing the same breath-taking incompetence here too.
MDC tells us the party has "impeccable information that most of the election material used on July 31st had been destroyed to cover up the grand theft Mugabe It is the same breath-taking." And so as far as MDC is concerned all the incriminating evidence of the vote rigging has been destroyed. Who cares what Mugabe and Zanu PF have done voters roll, etc.?
There was sufficient evidence already that Mugabe rigged the elections. His failure to produce the voters roll and all the other election materials changes nothing, indeed it is further evidence, to all the doubting Thomas that the tyrant rigged the elections and did not dare give up the voters roll, the smoking gun!
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are a confused and incompetent lot; each time they appear on the political scene, it is to muddy the waters. MDC have done enough damage to the nation, they should be treated with contempt they rightfully deserve! If it was not for their incompetence, the nation would not be in this mess.
@ Njango
Mugabe and many of his Zanu PF thugs have been a law on to themselves, they do not know what the rule of law means. We have to arrest, prosecute and punish many of these idiots for their criminal behaviour, especially those with blood on their hands, just to be sure the message of no one is above the law is driven home.
One of the key pillars of democracy are transparency and accountability. What Edward Snowden has shown beyond doubt is how those in positions of power have undermined these key tenets of democracy in the name of national security. Security was tramping transparency and accountability.
What Snowden has done; like it or not agree or disagree, that is now irrelevant; is restore the balance of power. Thanks to him transparency and accountability rule the day and democracy is the stronger for it!
There are certain workers one will feel sorry for but there are others one is tempted to say "It saves them right!". Here, one is forced to take the latter course.
ZBC has been an integral part of the Zanu PF dictatorship and it naïve to think the likes of Ruben Bahwe did not know what they were doing. ZBC workers have kept their jobs at the price of that institution brainwashing the whole nation. If the price of stopping the brainwashing of the whole nation is for those doing the dirty work losing their wages then it price the nation will gladly pay!
@ Chimbwido
Here we go age, back to cursing, swearing and hallucinating! Well it is a good thing that the dictatorship is on its last legs and with it gone yours and your kind voices will finally be silenced.
@ Vkhodyash
Who said anything about NSA shutting down tomorrow?
NSA cannot be compared with KGB, for example. Snowden has made NSA more like an intelligence agency serving the people and not those in positions of power and authority.
Since NSA is not going to close down, what are you suggesting then? That NSA should just assume the all the totalitarian powers of the KGB and be done with it! And you are the one talking of me being a retard; if you want to see who is men-tally retarded, look in the mirror!
@ Desire
Mugabe rigged the elections and he murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans; these are historic facts. One does not need to be a genius to see these things but only a sycophant would deny these things happened.
@ Stobbs
Why did MDC fail to get even one reform implemented then?
A few of the MDC leaders have already admitted they made some serious mistakes. Even now with the benefit of hindsight you still cannot see it. Do not worry; not every one of us has the ability to comprehend even the obvious. We all have eyes, we all see but it is not everyone who see and comprehend.
Let me tell you one thing though; just because you are mentally blind that does not mean the nation is doomed. Tsvangirai is breathtakingly incompetent and he is not going to have a say in where Zimbabwe is going from now on. Tsvangirai is finished, he is history!
@ Shumba
Well tell us Mr Genius the right way to go, we are lost. It is one thing telling me I am talking non-sense but do not say why or, better still, share your wisdom with us!
Any one, any one, can dismiss everything wise or stupid as nonsense, especially those who are mentally challenged, but only those with some functioning grey stuff between their ears can back their statements with facts. Tell me one thing, just one, wrong with what I said!
@ Desire
I am willing to engage anyone on a meaningful discussion but some one who denies that Mugabe is a tyrant who rigged the 2013 elections and murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans is NOT interested in a meaningful discussion. After 33 years of tyrannical rule, we need to move on and not be going over established historic facts.
What is important for the nation right now is getting this usurper out of state house a,s,a,p, so we can start the difficult task of getting the national economic back on track. As for Mugabe and his murderous thugs, they must face justice and, trust me, they will!
@ Chimbwido
I told you that the rigged elections are going to be on the national agenda directly it is on its own right; as seen by Mugabe remaining on the sanctions list and the visa issue. And indirectly with the international community refusing to pay a penny into Mugabe's $27 billion ZimAsset begging bowl. Not even the Chinese have paid a single Yuan.
The economic melt-down is real and it is going to be the tyrant Achilles' hell!
What Mugabe is doing by enacting new laws that are weak and feeble and employing Nikuv to import secretive materials in seven containers only confirms what people like me have said all along that the tyrant cannot be trusted to hold free and fair elections in 2018. Idiots like Tsvangirai who have been saying we should just accept the situation and prepare for the 2018 elections are, well, idiots!
Mugabe rigged the elections, he is illegitimate and nothing he can say or do will ever change that. How can the nation hope to hold free and fair elections if we accept some can rig elections and get away with it? He must step down or will be forced to step down sooner of latter!
@ Chimbwido
I told you that the rigged elections are going to be on the national agenda directly it is on its own right; as seen by Mugabe remaining on the sanctions list and the visa issue. And indirectly with the international community refusing to pay a penny into Mugabe's $27 billion ZimAsset begging bowl. Not even the Chinese have paid a single Yuan.
The economic melt-down is real and it is going to be the tyrant Achilles' hell!
What Mugabe is doing by enacting new laws that are weak and feeble and employing Nikuv to import secretive materials in seven containers only confirms what people like me have said all along that the tyrant cannot be trusted to hold free and fair elections in 2018. Idiots like Tsvangirai who have been saying we should just accept the situation and prepare for the 2018 elections are, well, idiots!
Mugabe rigged the elections, he is illegitimate and nothing he can say or do will ever change that. How can the nation hope to hold free and fair elections if we accept some can rig elections and get away with it? He must step down or will be forced to step down sooner of latter!
"I was disappointed that, as minister of Information, Shamuyarira would not encourage the “balance” he had displayed in 1958. But I have long forgiven him," said Bill Saidi.
"He was a politician, not a journalist. The two can be as different as black and white."
Saidi, we are talking here of the man who was the father, no more than Mugabe himself, of the system that has denied Zimbabwe their basic right to freedom of expression and a free press and all you have to say to that is that he "was a politician not a journalist"! What a feeble excuse. Coming from someone who should under-stand the importance of these basic right and freedom to a healthy and functioning democracy that is downright stupid!
Shamuyarira died a pauper and so will millions of our people because of the 34 years of misrule by Mugabe and Zanu PF. One can only hope that in the late after-noon of his life, hungry and cold, people like Shamuyarira finally realised they destruction the Zanu PF dictatorship had caused over the years. And had hours to regret their role in having created this monster!
Shamuyarira "a wise man"! Why is the wisdom in creating a monster that has destroyed the nation's hopes and dreams of peace and prosperity including his own hopes and dreams!
I is pleasing to note that the regime has finally admitted that the "mega-deals" with China and Russia will do nothing to end the economic meltdown affecting the country.
The solution is for Mugabe to step down to allow the implementation of all the democratic reforms and then the holding of fresh free, fair and credible elections. The government coming out of these elections will have the mandate to carry out the reforms necessary to end the corruption and will have confidence of the donors and investors alike.
Whatever other "solution" Mugabe is cooking up he must remember two things; one, another political fudge like the last GNU is a waste of time.
Two, the economic meltdown is affecting real people; 2 million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty already and that number is increasing every day. Get on with it!
Zanu PF Bulawayo province as endorse Mugabe for the position of party first secretary.
Here is a party that has dragged the nation into deep political and economic problems and it does not have the courage to acknowledge its failures much less do something to get out. The party is totally incapable of self-correction and renewal and therefore deserve to die. And it is dying!
The truth is we are led by a tyrant who thinks that he is special, very special. I tyrant who thinks he can have his cake and eat it too, he can continue with his patronage system award his party loyalists with jobs and contracts resulting in gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and an all-out looting spree in the last 15 years and still deliver mass prosperity – gutsa ruzhinji! A tyrant who thinks having failed to achieve prosperity by producing wealth he can borrow and spend his way into prosperity.
Of course Mugabe is not special but after decades of thinking that he is it is important that he is finally told in his face that he too has to pay back his debts. Mr Dominique Fanezzi, IMF is not the first to tell Mugabe in his face that he needs to pay back his debts, the Chinese too told him last month. They too gave Mugabe nothing.
Oh yes, Mugabe has behaved as if he was special and not subject to the same laws of thermodynamics and Adam Smith’s basic laws of economics for decades but the reality of the economic meltdown has taught him that he is not special. The decades of misrule have come home to roost; these are not chickens but red-bill quelea in their millions, it is impossible to ignore them.
As we say in Shona, “Shoko harivhikwi!” [The truth cannot be dodged!] Mugabe has ears, he has heard you!
@ Itai Mushekwe
“Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, himself nicknamed 'the crocodile' for his covertness and shrewdness in political gamesmanship, must not be overlooked nor be dismissed as a tilting at windmills by the Zanu PF heavyweight,” you said. You have got the wrong end of the stick!
You would agree that Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant who has led this country to economic ruin and has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans. How then has such a failed and disastrous leader managed to hang on to the top leadership position of his party for 34 years, especially if at least one of those aspiring to take over from him is supposedly a covert and shrewd politician?
No my friend our corrupt and murderous tyrant has had the great fortune of being surround by the most incompetent village idiots not only in the opposition but also within his own party Zanu PF. Mnangagwa has the murderous instinct of a crocodile, I will accept that. It has not yet dawned to Mnangagwa that the country is going through a serious economic meltdown let alone know what needs to be done here.
Mai Mujuru is mentally retarded and in all her years in office she has never said or done anything of note!
Zimbabwe needs a visionary leader who can lead the nation out of the hell Zanu PF has landed us not another bloody murderer in State House. President Mnangagwa will be a disaster for the country!
@ Black aristocrat
You are right about the collapse of roads and education but left out that Zanu PF itself is collapsing.
Mugabe has survived regime change these last 15 years only because of Tsvangirai's incompetence but the economic meltdown will not be so easily bribed and bamboozled! The economic meltdown will continue to get worse until this regime goes, there will be no GNU nonsense this time.
@ Fox
I have never said I know it all but I do know that MDC should have implemented the democratic reforms and the only two reasons they did not is because Mugabe bribed them to do nothing and that they are breathtakingly incompetent. Beside sipping whiskey from the comfort of London; I have also decided to make sure the Zimbabwe public know that MDC betrayed them and they would do so again because all they want is to get back on the gravy train.
What have you been doing; besides having your head in Tsvangirai's backside? No wonder you brain has become impermeable to reason or common sense; you need oxygen. I have taken it upon myself to kick idiots like you to force you to take a breath of fresh air. Keep taking of MDC nonsense and I will kick you; I doing this for free!
@ Chimsoro
Zanu PF is facing a political crisis and hence the reason the Mugabe is doing this. He knows that he has to win or lose it all. Mugabe has the initiative and he is not one to give it up.
He has amassed evidence about her corrupt activities which she will not deny because we all know she is corrupt and not clever enough to hide her tracks. Her only line of defence is that she is not the only one who is corrupt but any good lawyer will tell you that is no defence, not even an excuse especially when your accusers are the other corrupt parties!
Just before the elections last year she tried to flex her muscle to have the then Mines Minister Obert Mpofu and Kasukevere arrest on corruption. It was all quashed when it was revealed that they were being corrupt yes but it was all for Zanu PF's benefit and Mugabe knew about it. She will not be able to say the say about her own corruption activities!
When you are faced with someone as demonic as Mugabe then do not have anything to do with them. If you have no choice but to deal with such an imp make sure everything you do is by the book and have your lawyer check every contract before you sign it. Mai Mujuru has been very naïve and has been into this up to her eyes and only now these crocos are circling her snapping their snouts, they mean business!
@ Sandile Nale
Telling you;
1) that MDC should have implemented the reforms
2) that they did not because they are incompetent, breathtakingly so
3) that the consequence of their failure to implement the reforms was Mugabe rigging the elec-tions
4) that MDC are not going to change anything even if they got into power now because they are breathtakingly incompetent
5) that MDC are only interested in getting back on the gravy train.
Only a moron would not think that is "just blaming without direction"! You MDC morons are used to follow blindly like sheep and will not think for yourself.
Let me ask you a question for a change; do you know what the democratic reforms are? You answer me that and I will give you the directions you asked for.
@ Mudhara
Yes Tsvangirai won the elections but what did he do with that mandate? He failed to get even one reform implemented in all his five years in the GNU.
Mugabe too once upon a time boasted of a massive following but lost the followers. MDC had a mass following once upon a time but that too is now gone. People lost their trust in Mugabe be-cause he failed to deliver mass prosperity and turned out to be a corrupt and murderous tyrant. Tsvangirai has lost followers because he too failed to deliver democratic change and has turned out to be a corrupt, incompetent and a sell-out!
@ Mukanya
Patrick talked of Zanu PF oppression and MDC incompetence because there are part and parcel of the political narrative in post independent Zimbabwe. You think people should only talk of Mugabe's failures and sweep Tsvangirai's failures under the carpet. Patrick has done a great job of painting the complete picture.
You do not like it, well tough lucky. Patrick set out to paint the whole picture and he did just that he did not seek to please or displease you or anyone.
The nation's getting out of this economic and political mess depends on the people understanding what has gone on before and they need a full picture of what happened. It would have been irresponsible for Patrick to paint a false picture to please your misplaced ego!
@ Godfrey
No one has ever said Tsvangirai is "solely" responsible for the failure to implement reforms; the rest of the MDC leaders played their part and so did the Zimbabwe electorate by failing to push them during the GNU and to hold them to account since the rigged elections. What I refuse to accept is the argument that since he was not the only one responsible for the betrayal let us sweep it all under the carpet and give him another chance!
@ Farai Mbira
“Some pseudo-democrats have become filthy rich within five years – both in terms of spouses and money,” you said. Well, I can see you are not pulling any punches!
Yes the offer of ministerial cars and office, the opportunity to gallivant all over the world chasing women of ill repute, the $4 million Highlands mansions and posh houses in low density suburbs, etc. were too irresistible for our MDC friends. Still, but even they must now realize that the price the nation is going to pay for having this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship back in power is intolerable. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are no different from those blacks who sold their kith and kin to the white slave traders for a piece of calico cloth and a handful of beads!
If we are serious about ending this Zanu PF dictatorship and bringing about real democratic change in Zimbabwe then we have to start be cleaning the slate of these pseudo-democrats sell-outs. We love recycling things, especially our political leaders but to recycle sell-outs shows that we learnt nothing from all their past blunders and betrayals!
How can we claim to be seeking democratic change and yet fail to up hold the most fundamental tenets of democratic accountability to those claiming to espouse democracy? Charity begins at home; if we want to be seen as democrats then we must exercise democracy at home before we try it on others!
How can we be sure to avoid making the same mistake if we have not learned from the past!
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it will be introducing polling station-based voters roll during the coming three by-elections on a pilot basis before putting the system to full use in 2018.
Kazembe said although this system is open to abuse and exposes voters to attack in volatile environments, the commission will use the by-elections to test the process and see if it could provide the best poll results.
So if the “system is open to abuse and exposes voters to attach” then why use it?
This is just a deliberate and calculated move designed to create confusion and muddy the electoral waters – elections are much easier to rig when the whole process is confused and muddy!
@ Ken Yamamoto
Once again, another first class article from you, Ken.
You have spelt out Zimbabwe’s problems and the solutions
thereto, sadly very few Zimbabweans will get to read this and fewer still will understand what you have said and so the nation will continue “hoping for the best when reality shows otherwise”, as you have rightly said.
Few will read this because as a nation be done not love reading unless it is to collect certificates and degrees to hang on the walls in our offices and homes and for the sake of the “Dr” or “Professor” title. Some are now going to the extent of haranguing otherwise respectable institution into awarding them doctorates after three months! Everyone now calls them Dr and it is “off with you head” if you fail to do so!
Someone once said if you want to hide something from blacks
put it in a book; I do not know about the blacks everywhere else but that is certainly true of black Zimbabweans. Because we are not well read, what is obvious and common sense to you, Ken and the rest of the world out there is a great mystery to most Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwean prefer to make important decision on the basis of ignorance and hard nose hope for the best especially in political leaders who have already proven to be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and a brutal tyrant. We will love them and keep them in office even when they so old they are fast asleep most of the time.
Whilst you proudly quote what the Dakota Indians have said about dismount as the best strategy if one discovered they are riding a dead horse and you even called it “tribal wisdom passed from generation to generations. Zimbabweans will ask what Dakota Indians know about horses, dead or alive? You have listed 15 perfectly sound alternatives above; we have been trying all of them and few more besides! We are now into trying these in all different combinations and permutations; we making progress!
Yes, we are in this mess because we have been flogging a dead horse for 35 years but after trying that for so long we certainly have no intention of giving that up – we a nation of eternal optimists – the long dead horse may still get up. Have to go; I have a dead horse to flog!
“Dismount!” No chance; it is not in our Zimbabwean DNA to give up. Dismount; no that is what comes out of reading too many books- there is Zimbabwe tribal wisdom for you!
@ Coltart
“I responded saying - "fair enough" and then questioned whether if that was so, whether he shared responsibility for Gukurahundi and suggested that he perhaps "rejoined ZANU PF in 1999". Moyo went ballistic, angered by what he felt was my suggestion that he was complicit in Gukurahundi,” said Mr Coltart.
“I pointed out that I had not made that allegation but that if he was a loyal, card carrying member of ZANU PF during that time, and did not resign or speak out, then he would be complicit. It does raise the issue of our silence in the face of evil.”
Mr Coltart you raised a very important point, one Professor Moyo will be forced one of these fine days to answer. Of course Professor Moyo was complicit in the Gukurahundi if he was a Zanu PF member and more recently he was complicit in the tyrannical regime’s rigging of elections. Professor Moyo has himself boasted of his role in helping Zanu PF win elections since 2000; we have confirmation from close Mugabe allies like Dudymus Mutasa that the party has been rigging elections. So Professor Moyo must have played a critical strategic role in rigging the vote.
Before you go away, Mr Coltart; will you admit to being complicit in MDC’s betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe in the two MDC factions’ failure to implement even one reform during the GNU? After all you too were “a loyal, card carrying member of” MDC “during that time, and did not re-sign or speak out!”
For the last two years many people have asked you, Mr Coltart to apologize to the nation for sell-out during the GNU and then you and your fellow MDC traitors then resign on mass from public life for life. Although you have never gone “ballistic” like some people still your continued silence on this is itself an insult to the nation.
So I will ask you again; are you going to apologize and resign from public life for your role in the MDC sell-out during the GNU?
@ Factiviser
I condemn the Gukurahundi massacres with as much passion as anyone else out there but I also condemn those now using the Zanu PF madness as an excuse to throw the nation into yet an-other conflict. There is no such thing as a painless split of a nation just as there is no painless divorce!
@ Patrick
MDC leaders have lost all political credibility with the SADC leaders and the international com-munity at large when they failed to get any reforms implemented. Many Zimbabweans have been slow in seeing MDC leaders for the corrupt and incompetent leaders they are but that truth is beginning to sink in.
What is more, MDC leaders are themselves too realizing that they are losing public support and in the desperate effort to remain relevant some of them have already gone into overdrive but being incompetent in reverse gear!
MP James Maridadi, we would not be talking about a bloated Zanu PF cabinet if MDC had implemented the reforms necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Cut the Zanu PF cabinet now will not end the economic meltdown; we want the whole regime thrown out!
@Simon
The point Patrick has made which I agree with 100% is that MDC are complaining about minor issues just to get the people's votes when they have failed to deliver on the big issues. Mugabe can reduce the size of his cabinet but that will do nothing to end the economic meltdown.
We have wasted years talking about everything but the root cause of our problem, the elephant in the room, Mugabe and the whole regime. Get rid of the elephant and the problem of ticks, the dandruff, etc. will all go with the elephant.
MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years in the GNU because Mugabe had bribed them to do nothing regarding the reform; there is a mountain of evidence to prove it. Zimbabweans are renowned for closing their eyes to reality but to continue to do so two years after the rigged elections is trying the patience of a saint - some of us are not saints!
For you to still be wittering about “you know that MDC had very little influence” only goes to show just how breathtakingly stupid you are!
“Hoping for the best when reality shows otherwise is tantamount to riding a dead horse, and the best strategy when you are riding a dead horse is to dismount,” wrote Ken Yamamoto in a recent article on Zimbabweans’ intellectual weaknesses. He was talking about you Simon, you will continue to place your hopes in a leader like Tsvangirai even when he has already proven that he is corrupt and incompetent.
@ Simon
It is clear you have never understood what the GPA was about or what the reforms were required and yet like all idiots you still comment on matters in which you have no clue. You have spend all your life with your head stuck in one leader or another's backside. Why do you just crawl back into your usual position and stop wasted those capable of thinking's precious time!
@ Sellassie
What you should lament is the naive and gullible electorate who are so easily conned into elect-ing these selfish leaders. As long as we continue to have naive and gullible voters we will continue to have corrupt and incompetent village idiots in power.
After betraying the people during the GNU, the same village idiots are out making the same promises to deliver democratic changes, etc. and the naïve electorate are once again bowled over. They have never asked what happened last time and instead they are already queuing to vote for the same village idiots back into power.
If you are serious about change then change the voters because as long as we have naïve and gullible voters we will always have corrupt and incompetent leaders guaranteed!
“Of course, we are the biggest and most popular political party in Zimbabwe but then we have never wanted to adopt a Big Brother attitude,” Gutu said. “The MDC does not want to patronise anyone.
“That said, we suggest that the way forward is to hold a national convergence conference that is primarily driven by non-political actors. In that way, the MDC will enthusiastically participate.”
If Zimbabwe are serious about ending the country’s political and economic crisis then we what define the problem fully to have the holistic solution we want. Yes it is Mugabe and Zanu PF’s doing that we are in this mess but there is no reason whatsoever we should still be in this mess after the 2008 GPA. The agreement charted a simple and clear roadmap for Zimbabwe to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus get us out of the mess.
We are still in this mess today because Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to follow the roadmap given to them in the 2008 GPA, they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one.
The 2008 GPA roadmap is still the solution out of the mess; we do not need to reinvent the wheel but only to use it. We need to implement all the reforms.
Mugabe and Zanu PF were never expected to implement the reforms during the GNU for obvious reasons; they created the one-party dictator-ship to secure their grip on political power for selfish reasons since the reforms were to dismantle the dictatorship they would therefore do they best to stop the implementation of the reforms. Mugabe and Zanu PF were never considered part of the solution during the GNU they are not part of the solution going forward now.
Tsvangirai and MDC were entrusted with the task of implementing the GPA reforms in 2008 and the failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one! Clearly is would be foolish to entrust MDC leaders to implement the reforms again.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have never publicly acknowledge that they sold-out during the GNU in failing to implement the reforms just as much as Mugabe and Zanu PF have never publicly acknowledged that they too sold-out in creating this de facto one-party dictatorship. Their failure to acknowledge they sold-out does not change the fact and reality on the ground that they did indeed sell-out.
So the solution to Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess is the same as in 2008 – implement all the 2008 GPA reforms – with one new qualification this time make sure the sell-out politicians are excluded from the implementation process!
The real challenge is to get Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept that they have failed but the a combination of the worsening economic situation and a clear demonstration by the Zimbabwe populous that they want change will force the tyrant and his thugs to finally accept regime change.
As for Tsvangirai and the rest of MDC, they did not just lose parliamentary seats in the rigged July 2013 elections they also lost all political credibility and popular support. MDC leaders are desperate to be seen as major players on the Zimbabwe political stage, the best thing is to remind them that they are sell-outs and then ignore them!
@ Patrick
It is surprising how many Zimbabwean still expect the country's rulers to be competent so that we all live happily ever after just as in the fairy-tale stories. They believed Mugabe would delivery mass prosperity because he said so. They believed Tsvangirai would deliver free, fair and credible elections in 2013 again because he said so although all the signed said without the reforms the elections would be rigged.
Zimbabweans want a simple world of one plus one equals two. They are stubbornly refusing to learn the multiplications much less the complexities geometry and trigonometry. The tough reality is the world we now live in is a complex one and those who fail to adapt and learn are always going to be taken advantage of by other people be they outsiders or their own people.
If the nation is ever going to have competent leaders and good government then the electorate must be smart enough to know when someone is taking them for a ride! No one expect the voters to be rocket scientist but one does not have to be to understand basic economics.
VP has spent 287 days in the Rainbow Towers Hotel at a cost of $120 000 for bed and breakfast alone. He has rejected all the houses offered to him so far.
He is on the gravy train now and he is living it! No wonder these guys have been willing to harass beat and murder for the privilege. All these mansions accumulated over the years by these chefs must be recovered and given by to the people who have paid dearly for them!
It was foolish to purge Mai Mujuru out of the party for being more popular than her rivalry Mnangagwa but if Mugabe thinks he can repeat the same dirty trick with Mnangagwa too then he is really crazy because he would hand over a party to his wife full of people with scores to settle with her as soon as he is out of the way!
Zanu PF is unelectable and the party will be hard pushed to muster enough loyalists to rig the next elections as things stand without risking the lose of even more!
Zanu PF is imploding and there is no stopping this but Grace's continued purge of members is accelerating the process!
Outspoken MDC-T legislator Jessie Majome today called for immediate resignation of presidential spokesperson George Charamba for looting funds at PSMAS.
She said Charamba must also pay back the money which amounts to $228 278 which he received between 2009 and 2013.
At the time Charamba was a board member.
Majome said this in parliament this afternoon.
Majome also said Johannes Tomana who is Prosecutor-General must step down as he lacks the spine to tackle corruption cases.
Majome said with rampant corruption nobody will view Zimbabwe as a serious investment destination as long as PSMAS looting goes unpunished.
High profile cabinet ministers looted funds from the medical aid society but non have been arrested.
During the live session monitored by Bulawayo24.com Zanu PF MP Joseph Chinotimba said Psmas looters should be arrested
George has already said that if he is forced to resign then he will take down a number of others with him. This is a cabal; does Manjome and Chinotimba have the clout to take the cabal or is this them angling for some cheap publicity?
@ Mohamard
Do you believe in democracy and holding leaders to account? There is no country on earth where there is even some pretence of democracy where a leader who has already proven to be as corrupt and incompetent for 34 years as Mai Mujuru has done will not be forced to resign and never again hold public office. Here in Zimbabwe some people want her back as president and they still claim they want democratic change in the country! I say these people do not know what they are talking about.
It would be a serious dereliction of duty on the part of those who do know what democracy is and are desperate to see Zimbabwe end this nightmare to let the very vocal but ignorant have the final say on the matter.
"Tsvangison is like a father and feels for everyone regardless of their dark past," you said. Well Tsvangison would not condemn Mai Mujuru since he too has a dark past. He failed to implement even one reform during the GNU, remember, and Mugabe rewarded him with the $4 million Highlands Mansion. Tsvangison too is corrupt and incompetent!
@ Sunday Mail
ONLY a fool thinks sanctions are targeted Last week you published a story in which President Mnangagwa was saying the country's economic revival was unstoppable.
ED called on the United States to remove; "illegal, spiteful and completely unjustified sanctions on our country, which continue to violate basic human rights of our people".
There are so many ignorant people who are always saying that sanctions do not directly have an effect on the economy. People need to understand the purpose of the sanctions, which is basically to cripple the economy and drive citizens to rebel against the Government.
These sanctions are a human right abuse because they are targeting innocent citizens rather than the individuals they claim to be directed at. Despite all this, I am, however, glad that the President has been working hard to make sure every Zimbabwean has a better life.
Sanctions or not, we shall prevail.
Just like what the President said; "Zimbabwe is a train on the move. We cannot be derailed, we cannot be stopped. Let us march forward ever, backward never. Victory is certain, our prosperity is inevitable?'
This is just wishful thinking. With unemployment a nauseating 90%; basic services such as health care all but collapse; the country facing a shortage of cash, foreign currency, fuel, wheat, etc.; the list is endless.
When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe he promise many things but failed to deliver any of them. He promised to hold free, fair elections but went on to blatantly rigged the elections. He promised to end corruption but we all know the wholesale looting in Marange and other places has continued.
Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” has come to nothing because no investor likes to do business is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs.
The Zimbabwe train derailed decades ago, the country is in economic ruins and it is being held to ransom by murderous thugs! As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will never be any meaningful economic recovery.
Zanu PF will never allow any meaningful democratic reforms to be implemented leading to the holding of free and fair elections.
If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023; the regime will rig that year’s elections, guaranteed. The greatest challenge of this generation right now is to make sure Zanu PF steps down so a new administration can be appointed to implement the reforms. Zanu PF must be forced to step down before 2023 without failure!
Matemadanda invite Chamisa to join the anti-sanctions deno!
The number one cause of Zimbabwe's meltdown is corruption. The country lost $15 billion to corruption in the diamond industry in 2010 to 2014, according to former President Mugabe's own admission. When Mnangagwa took over power from Mugabe he vowed to end corruption but has failed to do so.
The wholesale looting of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa has continued. Zanu PF and its apologists like Matemadanda are stepping up their blame of the economic meltdown on sanctions to take the heat off off Mnangagwa's failure to end corruption. By rigging last year's elections, Zanu PF has also confirmed that Zimbabwe was ruled by not only corrupt thugs but vote rigging and lawless thugs. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there is no hope of meaningful economic recovery.
Blaming the party's failures on something else, the sanctions, is a common Zanu PF dirty tactic.
Zanu PF has no mandate to govern and therefore must be pressured to step down. If Zanu PF remains in power till the 2023 elections, the party will rig those elections and we will only have ourselves to blame!
Opposition MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa has told supporters in a Facebook live-streamed video that the party leadership was taking a cocktail of measures to solidify the party.
Among other things, he said that the party was targeting grassroots support and capacity building which the party intends to achieve through the Morgan Tsvangirai School of Thought (SOLID).
The optimistic Chamisa said that victory was certain considering that president Emmerson Mnangagwa has failed to deliver to the public.
MDC has undermined the nation’s drive to have free, fair and credible elections by, first, failing to implement even one meaningful in the party’s 20 years on the political stage. Second, the party was warned not to participate in elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop vote rigging but no one listened.
Mugabe bribed MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and they forgot about the reforms and the national goal of free and fair elections. MDC leaders have always offered all manner of excuses for participating in flawed and illegal elections.
“We have stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections,” Chamisa maintained before last year’s elections.
So Chamisa is preparing to take the nation into the 2023 elections still with not even one meaningful reform implemented under the pretext the party is “taking a cocktail of measures to solidify the party”.
At one time Grace, whose family seized more than 20 farms during Mugabe’s reign — including the one where the dairy is built — once described her late husband and herself as farmers, who have installed a state-of-the-art plant at Gushungo Estate.
She claimed it was the second-biggest dairy in Southern Africa, capable of milking 64 cows at a time. She said the Mugabe owned a herd of more than 2 000 cattle.
Like a haunted island, Alpha Omega — loosely translated to mean the beginning and the end — is now derelict.
It is now a monument to failure.
If a name is anything to go by, it is apparent that the business came to a screeching halt with the end of Mugabe’s 37-year-rule in 2017 when his longtime ally, Emmerson Mnangagwa, ousted him in a military coup.
The whole project was doomed to collapse as soon as the looted funds and direct and indirect subsidies dried up. The day Mugabe was booted out of power, the river of dirty money dried up and everything start to wilt and die.
The nation must follow up and track all the looted wealth before it is all squandered!
South African Government Working On Legislation To Limit Employment Of Foreigners As South Africans Continue To Brutally Attack Foreign Employed Truck Drivers
This is a nightmare we all know is never going away as long as we have Zimbabweans in that country. We need to sort out the mess in our own country and get our people back home a.s.a.p!
@ Godfrey
“The fact that opposition successfully plugs holes and wins some seats in some constituencies to deny Zanu the luxury of super majority which they desperately need (some believe Zanu gives away the seats and use them as bait - I don’t think so based on ZANUs desperate moves before during and after the elections). This is what buoys the opposition belief in winning if they apply the same diligent approach.”
Ever since the 2008 election debacle in which Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections only to be denied political legitimacy by both SADC and the AU and forced to eat humble pie of the 2008 to 2013 GNU; Zanu PF has since learned that the days of the de facto one party state are over.
Mugabe’s number one task after signing the 2008 Global Political Agreement was to bribe MDC leaders and make sure they do not implement as few meaningful democratic reforms as possible in the five years of the GNU. In the end, not even one token reform was implemented. We all know Mugabe held Tsvangirai and company in contempt but even he never expected the MDC leaders to be this corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent!
Ever since the GNU, Zanu PF allowed MDC/CCC to win a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate no matter how flawed the process got. Mnangagwa created POLAD for no other reason than to reward the opposition leaders who participated in the 2018 elections. You do not believe me, well here is what Coltart said on the matter.
“The (2013) electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
The few gravy train seats MDC/CCC have been winning are no different from the seat Muzorewa and Sithole won in Smith’s Zimbabwe-Rhodesia! How anyone can still consider these seats as proof of “opposition successfully plugging vote rigging loop holes”, even now with the benefit of hindsight, beggars belief.
Alas! there are millions of Zimbabweans out there who do believe it and, worst of all, will just as easily conned to participate in the 2028 elections. After 44 years of rigged elections in this day and age we still have millions of Zimbabweans who have no clue what constitute free, fair and credible elections. no wonder we are a failed state and, at this rate, are doomed to remain a failed state.
@ Godfrey
“I believe Opposition
Win’s deservedly the seats they get
Plugs some holes
Zanu aims to win seats in opposition strongholds and never gives them away
Zanu rigs but fail to do so in other areas.”
If Zanu PF had won 2/3 of the seats would you still say the opposition had successfully plugged the vote rigging loop holes?
Do you judge the elections on the basis of how many seats the opposition has won and thus the vote rigging loop holes opposition successful plugged or on the process itself being free, fair and credible?
Are you saying the elections in those areas the opposition won were free, fair and credible because the opposition successfully plugged all the vote rigging loop holes? And what are these loop holes they successfully plugged?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjbTGTTdN3E
Zanu PF and CCC in "unity talks!"
Zimbabwe is a failed state because we have failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. What we need is to implement the reforms and end this double curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
Unity talks! SADC and AU condemn 2023 election because the process was flawed and illegal and not because there was no unity between there was no unity.
Indeed, Zanu PF and CCC have connived in participating in these flawed elections and shared the spoils of power! If anything the talks are about giving Zanu PF some modicum of legitimacy in return for a seat on the gravy train for Chamisa and a select few CCC leaders whilst they all wait to participate in another flawed elections in 2028.
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