"We want to assure
all Zimbabweans that as the remaining genuine democrats in the MDC, we are
committed to advancing a democratic transition," MDC Team said in a statement announcing the break away from the Tsvangirai led faction. Well
that is a mouthful full of sound and fury but, as usual, signifying nothing!
Whilst these MDC Team
people were together with Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara, Welshman Ncube in the
original MDC and then when the party splintered into factions those people's,
whoever they are (but we can guess the ringleaders), commitment to
"advancing a democratic transition" in Zimbabwe evaporated like the
morning mist under the African sun. Bring about democratic change was not one
of the core values and promises by the MDC to the people of Zimbabwe it was the
principle value and principle promise.
MDC reiterated its
promise to bring democratic change in Zimbabwe by agreeing that the GNU would
implement a raft of democratic reforms. Implementing democratic reforms was
what Zanu PF and the MDC factions signed up to in the GPA and SADC signed into
as the guarantee.
The MDC factions, as the
principle drivers on the reforms, had the majority in parliament, in the
cabinet and had the backing of SADC and
the whole international community. The GNU had allocated eighteen months to
complete the tasks set in the GPA in the end it took the maximum five years.
They certainly had everything and more they needed to complete all the tasks.
At the end of the five
years not even one democratic reform had been implemented. Not one!
MDC Team who are now
telling us of their passionate desire for the return to "MDC's founding
core values" and, more
specifically, "to advancing a democratic transition in the country"
were part of the MDC team that failed to get even one reform implemented. Not a
sausage! Where was their burning passion for change throughout the five years
of the GNU.
They stood with
Tsvangirai and others campaigning for the nation to approve the Copac
constitution in March 2013 promising it would bring free and fair elections.
Some of us said it was a weak and feeble constitution that would not bring free
and fair elections and they led from the front in ridiculing us.
Mugabe went on to
blatantly rig the elections, "the July 31 grand electoral theft by Zanu
PF" MDC Team called it but this was only possible because not one of the
democratic reforms had been implemented and the new constitution was indeed
weak and feeble.
Throughout the five year
life of the GNU the MDC Team, like Tsvangirai and the rest, completely forgot
about MDC's core value and principle promise to the people of Zimbabwe - to
bring about democratic change. As soon as they got on the gravy train the
promise evaporated. Now those of them lucky enough to still be in parliament or
senate have since found that Mugabe has changed many things on the gravy train;
all MDC MPs and Senators are in the mbombera coach and it has been decoupled and left
of some deserted siding.
15 comments:
@ Chandunga
The constitution is weak and feeble it does grant the Police, for example, the independence and freedom to carry out their duties of enforcing the rule of law without fear or favour. Mugabe and Mugabe alone has the power to hire and fire the Police which is why the nation is stuck with Au-gustine Chihuri; everyone knows he is a corrupt and pro-Mugabe to the extent of making policing a joke.
On voting day we all saw the youths who were bussed in to vote and it was clear they had never been in the constituency because they could not name one street in the area when after where they lived. Surely the Police should have investigated this. Chihuri is a member of the Joint Operations Command who had planned the vote rigging and supervised its execution; if any of his Police Officers had dare investigate they would have been fired!
@ Rasta pasta
Nonsense, Mafume has not said profound here that “COULD change” the course of Zimbabwe history. He has said the usual rhetoric nonsense of promising the people what we all agree the nation needs - democratic change - but clearly with no intention of ever delivering the change.
Throughout the gravy train years in the GNU people like Biti and Mango-ma were even in cabinet and MDC had majority in parliament; they had the best chance ever to implement the democratic reforms and bring about the democratic changes we have all been waiting for all these years. At the end of the five years of the GNU not even one reform had been implemented. They all forgot about the reforms because they were on the gravy train.
Since the July 2013 rigged elections, the likes of Biti who have retained their MP seats have since found that whilst in theory they were back on the gravy train it life was not going to be as cosy and before. Mugabe has forced all MDC MPs and Senators into the mbombera coach of the train had it taken to some long disused siding like Lalapanzi and left it there.
The only reason people like Biti and Mangoma have now remembered their "core values" and are once again promising the nation the democratic changes is because know that is the only way they will ever get out of Lalapanzi and back on the first class coach of the gravy train. The minute they are back on the first class gravy train coach they will forget about the democratic changes just as readily as they did throughout the GNU years that is given.
The only question that matters here is whether Zimbabweans have learnt from the past and are smart enough not to be taken for fools the second time by the same tricksters using the same trick? It is clear that some people are wiser but there are clearly others who are still as naïve and gullible as ever. They are little children; one can play same trick on them until the cows come home and they will fall for it every time. Some people never ever learn! Never ever!
It is a joke that Zuma should protest against Grace Mugabe being denied the visa to travel to Brussels and yet he said nothing against Mugabe when he blatantly rigged the Zimbabwe elections denying millions of Zimbabweans their basic right to free and fair elections.
President Jacob Zuma is in trouble with stories of rampant corruption within ANC including the President himself and then there is the reality of the flagging SA economy and millions still living in abject poverty. To stay in power President Zuma may have to bend if not outright break a few democratic rules. Of course, it would be hypocritical of SA to condemn Zimbabwe for the same crimes it is about to commit itself!
Some Zanu PF members are unhappy that Mugabe boycotted the EU summit.
"Look, 36 African heads of state and government are attending the sum-mit. About 50 of the 54 African states are also attending. Zimbabwe is standing alone as the sole country invited, but not represented. Is this not evidence that we are not focused, that we are focusing on trivial issues instead of dealing with the issues affecting our people?" a Zanu PF politburo member said, according to a Mail and Guardian report.
"It's such a shame. At the end of it all, the first lady's name has been dragged in the mud, our country has been soiled, and we have missed a good opportunity to market ourselves to potential investors. We claim to be pan-African, so it means we also lost out on the opportunity to shape Africa's relationship with the West."
Even if Mugabe had taken this visa slight on the cheek and attended the summit, the EU was not going to reward him with a signed fill-in-the-sum-you-want cheque. These Zanu PF leaders are grumbling because the know the regime is in deep trouble with the $27 billion ZimAsset begging bowl remaining empty, not even the Chinese could be bothered to drop even a single Yuan into the bowl to give Mugabe something to rattle!
@ rasta pasta
I do apologize, I forgot that you are one of those who can not read anything longer than one paragraph - you cannot even spell paragraph for Pete sake. Years of mental inactivity have left you brain-dead. You have read enough for the whole week; now go back to sleep! There we are!
@ Mwonzora
“This is work of cheap liquor-loving malcontents who are trying to justify the money they are fleecing from poor Elton Mangoma who believes he is getting legal advice,” Mwonzora said.
When it comes to fleecing Mwonzora certainly knows a lot about that. He is the man who has built his mansion described by Job Sikhala as "a hotel" from money fleeced the nation in the constitution writing process.
Mwonzora was the MDC co-chairman in the parliamentary body tasked to draft the Copac constitution during the GNU. Mwonzora carried the new constitution as if he was Leonardo De Vinci carrying his master-piece, the Mona Lisa. The Copac constitution has turned out to be rubbish and the US$100 million spend in producing it a total waste of money.
The nation should serious look into forcing those who ripped off the nation like Mwonzora to explain where they got their fortunes with a view of recovering some of the money. People like "motor-mouth" Mwonzora should be forced to end their lives drinking cheap beer for betraying the nation.
Mugabe would not have rigged the 2013 elections if the new constitution had not been so weak and feeble!
@ Daily News
This renewal team keeps blubbering about returning to MDC's core values and promise of bring democratic change in Zimbabwe. What they have not said is why the MDC failed to do so throughout the five years of the GNU. People like Biti and Mangoma were the chief MDC negotiators of the GPA which listed the democratic reforms that were supposed to be implemented. And yet not even one reform was ever implemented.
Even since the rigged elections Mugabe has kicked MDC leaders out of the gravy train and it is this reality that has forced these MDC politicians to reclaim the original agenda of democratic change in the hope the voters will not remember that they betrayed the nation last time over the same issue!
@ Wensil
There is certainly no shortage of political parties in Zimbabwe, there were no fewer than 28 parties in last year's elections. They were all "surprised" that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections; they all failed to see the connection between the reforms and free and fair elections, hence the surprise!
If Zimbabwe has to get out of this political and economic mess then it is going to take some leaders with some brains between their ears and not the current crop whose only concern is to join the gravy train and enrich themselves! I believe Zimbabwe has some such quality leaders and it is the electorate who are stopping the good leaders from emerging.
A naïve and gullible electorate will never elect competent leaders. How can they do anything else, when they a programmed to respond to non-sense and not reason and sense!
@ 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!
Why did this group call themselves MDC Renewal is what I would like to know? They are renewing what exactly? Tsvangirai or the political party called MDC-T? The person Tsvangirai is, as they themselves have already acknowledged, is a failed leader with no democratic credential and those serious comings are as much a part of him as the spots on a leopard. As for the party itself he has attached himself to it like barnacles to a whale that is why the party is called MDC-T the T standing for TSVANGIRAI!
Political parties in Zimbabwe are a personal property of the founding leader and a core number of individual around him. When Zanu PF signed the unity accords with PF Zapu Mugabe was named as the first secretary of the party to underline that the party belonged to him and he was the party.
For once I have to agree with Tsvangirai these rebels should just have clean break away and form their own party. All this dithering is not doing them any favors at all. They must have known their call for leadership renewal, if rejected, would mean they will have to walk out. Sadly, by hook or by crook, the call has been rejected and now their knees have turned to jelly, they cannot even stand-up right!
The rebels said they were reclaiming the party's "core values" which Tsvangirai had forgotten. These core values cannot be worth much if standing tall for something one believes in is not amongst them especially for a party that has never stood for anything of note ever since it was launched in 1999!
@ Tanonoka
Tanonoka, you are now the conscience of the nation; like one of those prophets, telling the people the unpleasant home truths they did not want to hear.
Whilst I agree with you that new constitution "is a ZANU-PF constitution but one for whose adoption the MDC vigorously campaigned for." However I do not agree that anyone "rammed it down our throats"!
The people have a chance to reject it in the 16 March 2013 referendum. The pasted it with a 95% majority (it was not even necessary for Mugabe to rig the result because it was self-evident the people were going to vote yes.
The people vote yes to past the constitution because they believed Tsvangirai's that it would deliver free, fair and credible elections. Of course, it did not; it was too weak and feeble to do that. What mattered at the time was that the people believed what Tsvangirai and MDC said. Of course the people were naïve and gullible to do so.
Tsvangirai has proven to be one of the most incompetent leaders of our time and his failure to get even one reform implemented and then accept this weak and feeble constitution really showed just how breathtakingly
incompetent he and his fellow MDC leaders are. But the fact that there are
still Zimbabweans out there who still follow him, even with the benefit of
hindsight of his blundering failures, shows just how naïve and gullible they are.
Throughout the debate on the new constitution no one has presented an coherent argument why a nation already burdened by a bloated
government – MPs, Senators, deputy ministers, minister, provincial
governors, two deputy PMs, a PM, two Vice Presidents and a President -; a
bloated civil service – department of this, department of that, army of teachers (government is failing to pay their wages and can afford little else), army of CIOs, army of Police, army of Judges (cases drag on for 10 years or more), we have more soldiers than Smith had during the civil war, etc.
We have numerous of parastatals all being run into the ground by political appointees; bloated local government where growth points have been upgrade to town so they can have executive mayors!
All these busy bodies want posh houses, posh cars and very generous salaries and allowance all paid by taxpayer and/or ratepayers. The new devolved body would want new offices, cars, everything!
Instead of reducing the tax and rates burden which have pushed millions of ordinary people into abject poverty these self-seeking individual calling for devolution want to grind the masses into the dust by creating yet another layer of utterly useless and very expensive bureaucracy and buffoons!
I agree with you, Tano, devolution is nonsense!
@ Matsimba
Devolution does not mean doing away with central government; it will still be there. If there is corruption and pillaging - and I agree that it is there - devolution will do nothing to stop it!
If you cannot stop corruption in central government and local government - you have to admit that we have failed to stop it - what makes you think you will stop the region authority being cor-rupt?
You take of national cake being shared - the government is BROKE there is no national cake to be share. When was the last time you went to Mpilo Hospital? If I had $50 million to spend for the people of Bulawayo and the surrounding area; I would spend it on restoring Mpilo Hospital to its former glory and not waste it of building posh offices and another fleet of new cars for the MDC idiots who had five years to implement the democratic reforms and failed to get even one reform implemented. If they had implemented the reforms Mugabe would not have rigged the elections and the country would not be in this mess.
The new constitution also says education is a right; why has Nkomo not sued Mugabe over that? All he cares about is how to get back on the gravy train and he sees devolution as his only ticket! What has he and his MDC friends ever achieved in the five years in the GNU - nothing!
@ Jobolinko
You should open your eyes and your mind next time you go outside those areas in Zimbabwe you think have neglected by Mugabe because you will see the same potholed road overflowing with sewage as you have seen where you are now; hundreds of thousands of kiya kiya sellers milling up and down the roads as you will see in Bulawayo, Masvingo, Mutare, etc. So you this some regions have 85% unemployment rates whilst Mashonaland has 8% or something?
@ All eyes
Do you know the truth? Why then are you saying a lot of nonsense instead of the truth?
It is single track minded people like you who are holding the nation back. Mugabe knew that if he allowed devolution in the new constitution people like you would not see any of the serious shortcoming in that constitution and of course he was right. You failed to see that the constitution was to weak to deliver free and fair elections.
In the end you got devolution but without free and fair elections what good has it been to you?
The country is facing economic melt-down and you still wittering about devolution?
If any country had a free media, free and fair elections and a regime as corrupt and incompetent as this Zanu PF dictatorship then they would have got rid of the regime a long time ago. You have been brainwashed by Zanu PF propaganda into believing its nonsense about holding elections as long as they do not result in regime change. Regime change is the very essence of free and fair elections; why are you bending over backwards to say that would not happen.
Mugabe is not naïve to believe your nonsense that he should allow a free media, etc. because it will never result in regime change!
Since the signing of the unity accords between Zanu PF and PF Zapu the Zanu PF government has had Shonas and Ndebeles so why are you talking of the regime as if it was composed of the Shonas only? There have been as many corrupt, stupid, you name Shonas and there are Ndebeles but to read you posts one would think one tribe can do nothing wrong whilst the other can do nothing right.
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