There is a lot more to President Jacob Zuma’s boycott
of the EU – Africa summit than meets the eye and every freedom loving South
African must now seat up and pay attention before it is too late!
“I think that time must pass wherein we are looked as
subjects,” President Zuma told SABC. “We are told who must come, who must not
come. We have not attempted to decide when we meet Europe; who must come and
who must not come. It is wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness.”
The European Union, United States of America,
Australia, Canada and many other Western countries did not impose the targeted
sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies out of the blue; the imposed the sanctions
to show their displeasure at the tyrannical regime’s repeated failure to hold
free and fair elections and thus deny the ordinary Zimbabweans a meaningful say
in the governance of the country.
Of all the leaders in this world President Zuma knows
only too well how Mugabe has repeatedly rigged the elections. He and Thambo
Mbeki, before him, have seen the reported on how Mugabe rigged the 2002
elections. Indeed he is the one who has stubbornly refused to release the
report even when the Court said he should.
Of all the leaders on earth President Zuma should know
the suffering and despair millions of Zimbabweans have endured as a consequence
of Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess. SA has seen more Zimbabwean political
and economic refugees than any other country in the world.
Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant; this is a
myth but a daily reality for the people of Zimbabwe. 34 years of gross
mismanagement, rampant corruption and brutal political repression have reduce
Zimbabwe into one of the poorest in the region. Zimbabwe’s continued economic
and political mess is the single biggest threat to economic growth and stability
in the SADC region.
It is inconceivable that someone like President Zuma
has failed to see Mugabe for the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is. That is
simply impossible. President Zuma is refusing to see Mugabe for the tyrannical
dictator he is because he is himself becoming one!
Only last week President Zuma was heavily criticized
for spending $20 million of unauthorised public funds improving his rural
mansion. He refused to own up and his ruling ANC party all rallied behind him. The
motive of the other ANC leaders in supporting him is as clear as day; they too
can now indulge themselves in all manner of corrupt activities confident Zuma
will turn a blind eye to it all.
Two decades after the end of apartheid millions of
black South Africans still live in abject poverty. Stories of rampant
corruption amongst the governing ANC leaders will only pour petrol to the fire
and fury of the restless masses. Worse still, the passing away of the iconic ANC
leader Nelson Mandela; has meant more than the death of the leader but of the
democratic ideals he fought for all his life.
The late President Mandela’s contempt of Robert Mugabe
for the tyrant’s greed and betrayal of freedom and liberty is a matter of
public record. President Zuma knew well enough where Madimba stood with Mugabe.
In a way that President Zuma was careful not to follow Mugabe’s footsteps, at
least not whilst Madimba lived.
Madimba is dead and President Zuma’s own political popularity
and that of ANC are sinking like a stone one does not to be University graduate
in Political Science to know what President Zuma is thinking. He is definitely
planning to bend if not outright break the democratic rules to stay in power!
If you are going to commit the same offence it makes
sense side with those who have themselves committed the same crime,
particularly when the criminal is a cunning fox like Mugabe would only be to
glad to expose you as a hypocrite otherwise. One does not want to cosy up with
the judges of the crime either.
President Zuma has an excuse should the West ever be
critical of his contact in the future; “They are punishing SA for refusing to
have Europe dictate to Africa!” An answer straight from Comrade Robert Mugabe’s
red book: “The West imposed the sanction on Zimbabwe because we took away the
land from the white farmers!”
When President Zuma failed to failed to impose his
authority Mugabe throughout the GNU although, as SADC head in the crisis he had
the political and economic clout and the moral authority and obligation to do;
alarm bells should have started to ringing the whole SADC region but loudest in
SA itself. Tyrants and dictators are like bad a storm; they do not suddenly
appear. The storm is announced by the
gathering winds and the darkening sky. And so too are tyrants; corruption and
lawlessness are their forerunners!
During the dark years of apartheid President Zuma,
like all the other African leaders, strongly supported the imposition of
sanctions against the white racist and oppressive regime. Today even lesser
sanctions are imposed of a corrupt and tyrannical regime and you calmly accuse those
doing something positive to end this tragic affair of being disrespectful of
Africa. Their stance is “wrong and causes this unnecessary unpleasantness”! You
are clearly not on the side of the long suffering masses of Africa; that much
is clear!
18 comments:
@ Tanonoka Hwande
You are right Mugabe loved travelling, he was spending more time out of the country then in Zimbabwe; it was therefore more appropriate to ask when he would be visiting Zimba-bwe. Well his Vasco da Gama days are over; even if all the travel bans against him and his wife were lifted he will not be going anywhere - the country is broke!
34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have taken their heavy toll.
Mugabe was sure his Chinese buds would contribute billions of dollars to his $27 billion ZimAsset begging bowl; they did not even pay 1.00 Yuan (=US $ 0.16). Without massive out-side financial assistance the Zimbabwe economy has only one trajectory accelerated nose dive.
The fact that President Zuma has decided to join Mugabe I boycotting the EU - Africa sum-mit is something Harare will be celebrating about for a day or two. The feel-good factor Bona's $5 million wedding did not last three days! The reminders of the dangerous econom-ic melt-down are everywhere for it to be forgotten for long.
The ease with which Mugabe bamboozled Tsvangirai and MDC was pretty impressive; most people have never thought of Tsvangirai as a mediocre leader but few thought he could be that stupid and so the attributed everything to Mugabe's cunningness. It is only now with Mugabe "floored" by the economy - how anyone with any common sense could have made such a dog's breakfast of the economy defies logic - that people realise that Mugabe is but a moron. He was just lucky to have a particularly stupid opponent in Morgan Tsvangirai!
The catch-phrase "It is the economy stupid!" has acquired a completely new meaning and twist. Stop counting; Mugabe is not getting up from this!
Zvirikupi! Chidya matovo azodzipwa nedovo remhuru!
@ Pan African
Why "arrest EU leaders and bankers that protect corrupt African leaders accounts" and not just arrest the corrupt leaders? Is it because as a "Pan African" you do not accept a fellow African can do no wrong?
After 34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption you still Zanu PF needs more time; after all "a nation is never built in one day"? You blind refusal to see the reality before you is breath taking. How can anyone be this stupid, is what I can not explain!
@ Pan African
Ask yourself what was it that made it so easy to enslave blacks? It is the same reason that is holding back Africa today and you are a prime example of that! The refusal to think! All you ever give are excuses for Africans doing the wrong things. I want to get out of this mess and to an excuse to stay put!
If you cannot think of a way out then shut the f*** up!
When Cuthbert Dube pays himself $500 000 a month whilst PSMAS members cannot even get the most basic service; that is corruption. When Mugabe squanders $5 million of public money on his daughter's wedding whilst 100 children are dying of preventable diseases that too is rampant corruption.
To hide all this corruption for fear talking about it will brainwash "African kids into believing Europeans a good people" is the "thinking" of a moron! 100 kids are dying everyday of preventable diseases; there is no question of brainwashing them!
You are brain-dead; years spent with your head stuck in Mugabe's backside have taken their toll. Why don't you go back and study your pan Africanism with your head stuck - you know where! There we are!
@ D Mavhinga
The first GNU failed to deliver free and fair elections although it had everything in its favour to do so. The second GNU will have everything against it to deliver free and fair elections. The only reason Tsvangirai is calling for another GNU is because he sees it as his ticket back on the gravy train.
Mutambara is being sued for $87 000 for furniture he received during the GNU days. He claims government should pay the bill and not him.
Mutambara must have received at least $100 000 worth of household furniture, he was known for flying to South Africa first class almost every weekend, add to this his Deputy Prime Minister car(s) and other allowances - one can see why Zimbabwean politicians are gravy train joy riders!
Mutambara is sore that the taxpayers have not settled the outstanding bill for his house's furniture.
He is aware that government is broke so broke it cannot buy vaccines for children, for example. And so, 100 children are dying every day from preventable diseases as a result and he clearly does not car. He is also aware that Tsvangirai got his $4 million mansion and that last month; Mugabe splashed $5 million on his daughter's wedding alone. Mutambara feels that he too is entitled to a share of the gravy train comforts granted to him during the GNU days.
Mutambara played a key role in making sure that the GNU did not implement even one democratic reform and thus threaten Mugabe's iron grip on power. It is plausible that Tsvangirai did not have a clue what the democratic reforms stated in the GPA were all about but the same cannot be said of the former Robotics Professor, Mutambara; the lawyer, Tendai Biti; the law Professor, Welshman Ncube; etc. They all knew what the reforms were all about.
They also knew that the very privileged life they enjoyed since the formation of the GNU was a bribe from Mugabe for them not to implement the reforms and rock the tyrant’s dictatorial boat! Not even one reform was ever implemented in the five years of the GNU. Not even one reform!
If MDC had implemented the democratic reforms, Mugabe would have never rigged the elections and the nation would have got rid of the tyranny of Mugabe, at least. If only! If only!
Mutambara expects the people of Zimbabwe, whom he so heartlessly betrayed by allowing the Mugabe tyranny to remain in power, to pay this furniture bill; to thank him for selling their hopes and dreams! How naïve is that!
@ Grabmore
Mugabe and his cronies have never gone jail – not until now. There is yet time for many of them to face justice. The wheels of justice turn slowly but they do turn! The Zanu PF dictatorship is on its last legs and without it to protect them, Mugabe and his cronies will have to face justice and the truth will come out! Watch this space!
“I have told those critics who say I have failed to prosecute people with criminal evidence to bring it forward, but none has done so," said Tomana. For someone who is supposed to be government's chief lawyer he is really stupid.
So he expect the critic to bring the evidence to him so he can seat is judgment of his own case and be the accused, the investigator, judge and executioner because that is exactly what the critics are saying. Mugabe and Zanu PF are not just the tyrant and his ruling party they have the police, the judiciary and the prison service all in their pockets.
Tomana is not just a member of Zanu PF, he is an integral party of the dictatorship itself.
But after 34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption the regime has eaten itself out of a house. The mismanagement and corruption have destroyed the national economy denying Mugabe the wealth with which he had held the party together and without which the party and country cannot stand.
Once Zanu PF collapses the country will have to reconstitute a new system of government in which the Police, Judges, etc. are there to perform their public duties without fear or favour. It is to them that the tasks of investigating how people like you, Tomana, have performed. It is to them that you will be called upon to answer and you will be wearing one hat only - that of the accused!
You will have to explain why not even one of all those who blatantly rigged the 2013 elections was ever arrested and brought to court; your Court, Tomana?
Braam Hanekom, the director of a South African refugee group. PASSOP, said Zimbabweans should not panic over the recent SA government call for Zimbabweans working in that country to renew their work permits. What has made Zimbabweans panic is that they have to go back to Zimbabwe to renew their permits. They have no guarantee they will get the renewal, how long that would take, whether they will have their job back, etc., etc. There are just too many unknowns and the insistence on reapply in Zimbabwe all seems to be a sure way of getting Zimbabweans out of SA!
It is all very well for Braam Hanekom to tell Zimbabweans not to panic but even he must see that the situation is not looking good.
The South Africa economy is not doing well and the ruling ANC party has failed to take millions of South Africans out of poverty and despair. And stories of rampant corruption with the ruling party itself only make the bad situation even worse. Failed African governments are notorious for looking for scapegoats; look what Mugabe and Zanu PF have been doing to whites.
Zimbabweans have already been suffering unofficial abuse from the public this is bound to get a lot worse when all the official institutions are hunting them too. What exactly will PASSOP do then?
Mugabe would not have rigged the elections if only Tsvangirai and MDC had implemented the GPA agreed democratic reforms. We, the electorate, were fast asleep and failed to stop Tsvangirai wasting time globetrotting and chasing women of ill repute ignoring the task on hand. Now the nation has paying a heavy price for its folly of having trusted a blundering incompetent like Tsvangirai to deliver free and fair elections!
In February, Zimbabwe’s foreign missions were saddled with a $13 million debt. Treasury did not disburse money to the foreign missions from the 2013 National Budget!
Well that is not surprising because in 2013 Mugabe was spending money as if there was no tomorrow on one thing and one thing only - making sure that he wins the elections. And since he knew he could not win free and fair elections he had to rig the elections. Rigging elections is a very, very expensive business.
He did it but it has turned out to be a hollow victory because the reckless spending has left the nation broke. 34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption had sucked all the blood right down to the marrow out of the national economy. The reckless spending was the sludge hammer blow that knocked the stuffing out of the economy- lights out.
Mugabe was hoping his Chinese friends would contribute something towards the $27 billion ZimAsset - 7 times the $ 4 billion national annual budget - the massive blood, fluid, marrow, everything injection. The Chinese have since said they will not pay even one Yuan = 16 US cents into Mugabe's ZimAsset begging bowl!
The Zimbabwe economy is not getting up and as long as Mugabe remains in power no one is going to lift a finger to Zimbabwe. It is the economy stupid that is going to force Mugabe out of power; he was able to rig the elections but can never rig economic recovery!
@ Chimbwido
Do you really believe anyone out there with eyes to see and have read about China or Russia would agree with your nonsense that the ordinary Chinese and Russians are better off than their counterparts in the West? Even hypocrites like Mugabe and his wife have been flocking to the West to buy their posh cars, dresses, etc. Indeed it is exactly for that reason that Grace went into a rage when she learnt she was refused a visa to do her shopping in Brussels. The tyrant, Mugabe, had to throw another tantrum is support of her or he was going to be in the dog-house!
Yes China and Russia gave us the weapons to fight against white colonialists but God knows we have paid dearly for those arms. The bloody Chinese have milked Zimbabwe these last 34 years and they are still doing so to this day. Who else but the Chinese are leading in the looting of our diamonds, wildlife and other resources?
We have suffered under this oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship for 34 years now; where else do you think we got the system other than the Chinese and Russians!
By the way it is nonsense that we had no choice but fight to end white colonial rule. Other countries like India achieved their independence without having to fight. The Indians choice to use none violence for one good reason - "What kind of leaders will an armed struggle throw up?" Gandhi asked. "Will those leaders want to listen to the ordinary man, woman and child?"
Well we in Zimbabwe know only too well the answers to both those questions. Mugabe and his friends who fought in the war trained the guns on the ordinary Zimbabweans even before the British had left the country!
The tyrant and his cronies have ridden rough shod over the ordinary people's dreams and hopes; destroying the national economy in their insatiable greed for power and wealth and murdering over 30 000 in three decades!
You have escaped the chaos in Zimbabwe and sort refuge in the West and not China or Russia. What a hypocrite, you condemn the West with your words but do the opposite when it came to action. The people of Zimbabwe are not fooled by your forked tongue.
Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections, as he has done so many times in the past, but he is not going to get away with it. Not this time.
The economy is in a serious mess and no one is going to help sort it out. Not even the Chinese offered any help; they did not pay even 1.00 Yuan = US $0.16 into Mugabe's US$ 27 billion ZimAsset begging bowl.
Mugabe rigged the elections but now finds he cannot rig economic recovery. The economic melt-down is going to be the death of Mugabe and Zanu PF.
Chidya matovo akazodzipwa nedovo remhuru!
@ Grabmore
Is DEPUTY Foreign Affairs minister Christopher Mutsvangwa suggesting that Grace should have just boarded the plane and thus avoid the risk of her being refused the visa? Or is he saying she should have been told she was not going and get Charamba to cook up some excuse why she was not going? None course of action would have worked.
I am not a diplomat but common sense would suggest Zimbabwe would have submitted the list of people who were going to attend the summit. It is naïve to think that Grace could then be smuggled into Brussels without anyone noticing. It would have been an even bigger disaster if she was not allowed in and sent back home in disgrace!
As for telling Grace she was not going; who was going to tell her that? Mutsvangwa, because no one else, not even Mugabe, would dare! Why else do you think she married a fossil like Mugabe if it was not for all expense paid and shop-until-you drop trips like this!?
When Mugabe started to gloat over the AU boycotting the EU - Africa summit if he was not invited the EU must have decided to beat him at his own game. The EU extended the invitation to him and even allowed time to gloat over that. Even if Zimbabwe had asked if Grace was going to be allowed to travel; the EU would have deliberately lied just to string Zimbabwe along.
If Zimbabwe had wanted to play it safe and leave Grace out of the entourage the EU would have gone public and announced Grace was not allowed to enter the EU. No one would have believed Grace did not want to go after that.
Mugabe has always wanted to be seen as the cunning fox and has got away with it countless times in the past. Lately he is the one who has ended u with egg on his face. It clear that Deputy Minister Mutsvangwa does not know what he is taking about here; Mugabe blundered into a trap that he himself had set for the EU, the EU was only too glad to see Mugabe suffer!
@ Mukaro
What you have said makes sense if you were talking about some one sensible. Mugabe is not a reasonable some one! He saw the chance to humiliate the EU by getting the AU to agree the African leaders should boycott the summit if he is not invited. The AU agreed to this, as usual.
The EU curved in but only to allow Mugabe to get close and open up. And he did just that. The EU delivered the left hook and it was lights out! You can stop counting, Mugabe is not going to get up!
@ Mukaro
You apply for a visa and the reply comes back saying visa denied; what is there to "negotiate" about? Besides Mugabe had been doing his own "negotiating" and talking the AU into threatening to boycott the summit if he was no invited. The is the way Mugabe "negotiate" by kicking the opponent in the balls!
Sadly for the tyrant he did not count on the whole thing being a boomerang. It can straight back at him and hit him in the nuts! Listen carefully and you can hear the EU laughing, they are all laughing at Mugabe.
Mugabe, the cunning fox, caught in the trap he had set out for others to fall into.
Mugabe, chidya matovo, nhasi a dzipwa nedovo remhuru!
@ Muneyi
The EU has imposed a travel ban on Mugabe and his wife; that may have been negotiated behind closed door but it is now a matter of public record. Whether the visa was granted or not that was going to come out in the public domain regardless.
Just because there is corruption in Zimbabwe people should not think official everywhere else are just as corrupt. Negotiate behind closed doors with a few uncut Marange diamonds; that is what you are thinking!
@ gunz
The West imposed targeted sanctions on Mugabe, his wife and his cronies not be-cause they "detecting those who should and should not" go to EU, USA or to any other Western country. The sanctions were imposed because the West was dis-pleased with Mugabe's failure to hold free and fair elections and other serious human rights violations.
He splashed $5 million on his daughter’s wedding but has no money to save 100 children below the age of five are dying every day of preventable disease! Last year Mugabe once again blatantly rigged the elections.
Idiots like you have never even acknowledged that Mugabe is a corrupt and murder-ous tyrant. He has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans over the last three decades for his selfish political gain. You are content eating the crumbs falling off the tyrant's table and refuse to see the tragic human misery all round you.
Well the millions of Zimbabweans at the coal face of this tragic tale see Mugabe for the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is. And enough is enough!
Mugabe must not be allowed to get away with his contempt of the suffering of others and the denial of their basic rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life itself!
Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections; he is therefore illegitimate and he must therefore
go! And, mark my words, he IS GOING!
Mnangagwa plays down the Mutsvangwa Mumbengegwi rift over the Grace visa de-bacle.
The dog eat dog fight is Zanu PF will only get worse as the economic melt-down gets worse and worse. It is the looting that has kept Zanu PF united but now with nothing left for Mugabe to bribe his greedy and waste cronies, they will be at each other's throats fighting over the few scraps left!
@ Alien
The economic melt down is the one thing Mugabe is not going to deny or hide or rig. And with no money to bribe all those running the dictatorship that has kept him in power he reign of terror is not going to last!
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