“The prison service plans to recruit 11,000 new officers,
adding to the government’s bloated 230,000-strong workforce which it is already
struggling to pay,” reported the New Zimbabwe in dismay. However, this
is to be expected; the regime knows the country’s economic meltdown is making
the people desperate and restless and instead of doing something to end the
economic nightmare the regime is gearing itself to step up the brutal
repression.
The Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a world record 84% in the six
year period 2002 to 2008 sending unemployment to the nauseating height of 85%
plus and forcing millions of people into abject poverty. There was so semblance
of economic normality during the GNU; the Z$ was scrapped ending the 500
billion inflation rate and shops filled with goods (imported mostly as local
company never came back). Unemployment remained stubbornly high.
The GNU was totally dysfunctional and that is why it failed
to achieve much, the nation was pinning its hope on the elections to produce a
competent and democratic government. Sadly that was not to be as Mugabe rigged
the elections with the tacit concurrence of MDC who had failed to implement the
necessary democratic reforms for free and fair elections.
Since the rigged elections and Mugabe and his cronies assumed
political power once again it was clear the regime was intent on starting off
from where it left at the beginning of the GNU; all hope of return to rule of
law and economic recovery were dashed!
Donors and foreign investors took fright and have kept their
distance depriving the country of the much needed foreign cash injection to
kick start the economy. Even the few companies who had managed to hold on throughout
the GNU hoping for better times have given up in despair. Near 100 companies
have closed in Harare alone in the last ten months sending 8 000 workers to swell
the 90% plus out of work.
Zimbabwe has become a nation of vendors. The number of people
who can eek a living in the informal sector, kiya kiya, is dependent on those in
formal employment, their customers. Kiya kiya people do not sell to follow
vendors! And worse still kiya kiya people do not pay business rates or tax
which is why government and local authority have no money to maintain basic
services.
Mugabe has failed to raise a single dollar for his $27
billion ZimAsset economic recovery programme; not even his traditional ally the
Chinese would contribute a Yuan. The only way out is for Mugabe to admit he has
failed to govern and give up power; sadly that is the one thing Mugabe will
never ever do, it is not in the DNA of a tyrant like Mugabe to do that.
Everyone can see the edge of the abyss. The air is full of screaming
of those are desperate to hold on, the groaning of the wounded and dying and
the stench of death and yet for ten months since the July 2013 Mugabe has remained
as resolute as ever to hold on to power and drive the nation over the edge!
On Monday 2 June 2013 that the Pope was stating the obvious
when he many Zimbabweans “have reached their human limit, and do not know where
to turn”; such is the hopelessness of the Zimbabwe political and economic
situation.
24 comments:
@ Chimbwido
"Anything the European and American leaders do, will always be in the interest of their own people, that is fundamental," you said. That makes sense!
What you have failed to understand is that the same cannot be said of corrupt and murderous tyrant like Mugabe and you his acolytes; whose interest are you serving by selling Zimbabwe's resources to the Chinese and Israelis for a song? Who interest is the regime serving by denying the people their basic and fundamental rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life.
The regime has murdering over 30 000 innocent Zimbabwe to stay in power so it can loot and sell the nation's treasure! How stupid is that!
Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth situation because it has had the great misfortune of having sired the likes of Mugabe and you, Chimbwido; the nation would have been better off if you lot had never been born!
@ Chimbwido
“The guys running the European Union you hope to convince by this shallow narrative are highly skilled, learned and educated than you.” Yesterday you were calling the EU colonial imperialist for imposing “illegal” sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle; today you are saying something else.
By the way, I do understand why some EU countries have given up hope of any meaningful change in Zimbabwe after decades of self-denial on their part only for MDC to fail to deliver even one meaningful change. My argument with the EU is that the whole nation should not be punished because of Tsvangirai and Biti’s breath-taking incompetence.
@ Stephen
So the prisoners are being punished because the West imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle. It is clear that there is still enough money to buy the luxuries for the chefs and to pay for $1 million birthday parties and $10 million weddings but there is no money to feed prisoners and buy medicines to treat children!
By the way the Mugare regime has no money to repair water pipes so that key institutions like Chikurumbi Prison can finally have running water after ten years without running water but it has money to recruit 11 000 more prison Officers. Having failed to address the nation’s most basic needs the regime is fearful the people will be crying louder from their increased suffering and it is gearing itself to use even more brutal force to silence them.
@ Stephen
So the prisoners are being punished because the West imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle. It is clear that there is still enough money to buy the luxuries for the chefs and to pay for $1 million birthday parties and $10 million weddings but there is no money to feed prisoners and buy medicines to treat children!
By the way the Mugare regime has no money to repair water pipes so that key institutions like Chikurumbi Prison can finally have running water after ten years without running water but it has money to recruit 11 000 more prison Officers. Having failed to address the nation’s most basic needs the regime is fearful the people will be crying louder from their increased suffering and it is gearing itself to use even more brutal force to silence them.
Gweru city council is the latest to admit it is failing to raise enough money to pay its workers let alone pay for anything else.
This is crisis management at its worst! Since the Council is struggling to pay its wage bill it must also be struggling to pay its bill to materials necessary to keep essential services like water and collecting waste going. So the Mayor is his infinite wisdom has decided to place priority on pay-ing staff with money collected from rate-payers who are expected to continue paying for re-duced or none existent services!
Even if the people of Gweru had bucks and bucks all full of gold and diamonds, which they do not, they are just as poor as everybody else in Zimbabwe, how long does the Mayor think the ratepayers can pay for nothing in return?
Mayor Kombayi is struggling to raise enough money to pay wages just as Mugabe is struggling too to pay wages and, like one of those toy cars pushing against an immovable object, they want to soldier. The toy car battery will soon be flat and Kombayi and Mugabe will never admit they have no solution to offer but will want to remain in power and destroy Gweru and Zimbabwe respectively!
@ Madevu
Yes Mugabe stole the 2013 elections because by failing to implement the reforms Tsvangirai made it easy for the tyrant to rig! You problem is that you have completely failed to see what the reforms were about and now, like the blundering fool that you are, are advocating yet another armed struggle! The last one delivered Mugabe and Zanu PF what makes you think the next one would produce a better government?
Tsvangirai wasted many chances to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but the tyrant has overreached himself when he thought he could rig the elections too. The economic meltdown is forcing Mugabe to admit he has failed and it is up to us the people to make sure that he steps down. But we will not get him to do if people like you continue to blunder along and fail to seize the opportunity because you have, as usual, your eyes shut and minds are impermeable to the light of reason.
The “popular uprising” you are advocating will only result in the destruction of property and the deaths of many people because that is exactly what Mugabe would want to see happen, he has degrees in violence, remember! When the fighting is over nothing would have been gained be-cause it was only the solution the brain-dead would consider! And since when have the brain-dead come up with anything good?
@ Tinomunamataishe
You have got it my friend spot on!
Unless the next elections are free and fair, and there is every indication that they will not be, it really is pointless taking part.
The only way to ensure the next elections are free and fair is to go back to the reforms and im-plement them. I think people like Tsvangirai, Chamisa, Mwonzora, Gutu, etc. do not have the foggiest idea what these reforms are about; they are just too thick. People like Biti, Mangoma, Coltart and a few others know the reforms are the key to free and fair elections. They have shied away from saying so because:
1) they know they will be asked why then they failed to implement the reforms during the GNU years. They too had their snouts in the trough and completely forgot about the reforms. But to admit that would be political suicide and they have chosen to sweep this under the carpet hoping no one will pick this up or walk into the political sunset without admitting a thing.
2) they have not thought of how they will get the reforms implemented now. During the GNU everything was in MDC's favour to implement the reforms and now everything in Zanu PF's favour to ensure no reforms are going to be implemented. So these MDC leaders would look real stupid to admit the reforms are necessary but that it is near impossible to get that done now.
The answer is in fact staring us in the face; Mugabe has learnt that he cannot rig economic re-covery the same way he rig the elections. The economic recovery is dependent on him restoring confidence in the donor and foreign investors, the only one with the cash to finance the economic recovery, that their aid and loans will not be wasted in mismanagement and corruption and that their investments will be the Zanu PF looters. Mugabe and his regime have failed to restore that confidence because their past record of contemptuous disregard of the law and the suffering of others.
The only way to restore donor and investor confidence in Zimbabwe as a country safe to do business in is for Mugabe to step down to allow an interim administration to implement all the democratic reforms and then hold free and fair elections. The new elected government will have the mandate of the people of Zimbabwe and the support and confidence of the international community!
The trick is to pressure Mugabe to step down and not allow ourselves to be distracted by the nonsense coming from the various MDC factions!
@ Stingray
Well if Save had implemented the reforms, God knows he had all the time to do so, then you and the rest of the populous would have said good bye to political violence and the economic hardships. So are you are remaining "steadfastly behind Save" because you failed to see that Save betrayed you or is it that you are craving for more political and economic misery.
Nhamo inenharo!
You started by saying you wanted democratic change and Tsvangirai has failed to deliver any change and now you want to retain him regardless! No wonder the country is in a mess; what else when there are so many brain-dead people, who do not even know what is in their own interest!
@ Hlaba
And what are those pressing issues in Zimbabwe? We are all tired of Mugabe but we, unlike you, also accept that Tsvangirai has failed to remove the tyrant because he is breathtakingly incompetent. Your pea size brain cannot deal with more than one thing and, typical of simpletons like you, you cannot accept that there others with a superior brain than you who can deal with more that one issue.
It is not enough to get Mugabe out we must have someone smart enough to do it – Tsvangirai is simply too incompetent. What else does he have to do for you to finally see him for the blunder-ing idiot he is?
@ vovonde
What democratic changes did Tsvangirai deliver in all his years as leader? He was asked to im-plement a raft of democratic reforms in the GPA but failed to get even one reform implemented. It seems you yourself do not anything about democratic changes other than as a empty slogan. Chinja! Chinja! Change what? You do not have the foggiest idea what changes the nation needs do you?
We want a new political dispensation and an end to the Zanu PF and MDC politics of meaning-less slogans. "MDC, a party of excellence!" when the party could not even implement common sense reforms!
What is really astonishing here is that anyone should still fail to see Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for the incompetent leaders they are even with all the mountain of evidence of their failures! You are used to follow leaders like sheep and so you still follow blindly even those who have proven to be breathtakingly incompetent. Astonishing!
@ Patel
Mugabe is a mere mortal and all the political and economic problems he has created are all man-made and therefore within the powers of other mortals to put right. Zimbabweans should not be seeking divine intervention as an excuse for doing nothing. Most Zimbabweans accepted that idiot Makandiwa's "prophecy" that the Zimbabwean economic will recover and reward the idiot by buying his "blessed" apples for $5 each. There is nothing wrong with being religious but not to the point of switching off and be exploited by good-for-nothing idiots with their pie in the sky solutions!
I accept that Elton Mangoma is not a lawyer but an accountant. The point I made that the two should have understood the importance of the reforms and therefore implement them is still val-id.
You argument that "MDC had little leeway to change anything" shows you have failed to under-stand that the party had the majority in parliament and in cabinet but never made use of them.
MDC never produced any meaningful proposed democratic reforms in parliament much less for Mugabe to sign. How can you say Mugabe rejected an reforms when none were ever presented to him!
MDC were warning not to take part in the elections without the reform but they ignored the warning and thus giving the whole electoral process credibility. No my friend it was Tsvangiri, Biti, Mangoma, Ncube and the rest of the MDC leaders' breath-taking incompetence that landed us in this mess.
I accept that Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant but I also accept that Tsvangirai is simply too incompetent to remove Mugabe from power. Are the two ideas too much for your pea-size brain to handle?
You are just one of those MDC supporters who have followed the like of Tsvangirai like sheep to the slaughter. Your failure, even now with all the facts before you, to accept that MDC made a serious blunder is a mystery. Yet it also explains why the nation is in such a mess; with voters like you who are so shallow thick and slow what chance did the nation have doing anything else.
Worse still, what chance do we have of ever getting out of this mess given that no amount of reasoning seem to penetrate that fatty tissue between your ears! It took 20 years for some peo-ple to accept Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant and after 15 years you still cannot ac-cept Tsvangirai is a failure?
Dear Lord You made all creatures great and small, wise and wonderful but did You have to give Zimbabwe more than her fair share of idiots!?
@ Fox
I can see that I will have to explain everything to you in the simplest language i can - you are that shallow, thick and slow!
When I said it took 20 years for Zimbabweans to accept that Mugabe was a corrupt and murder-ous tyrant I meant for the majority of the people and having accepted that to make a determined effort to remove him from office.
Yes it required democratic reforms to remove Gono, Tomane, Chihuri, etc. to remove them from office for precisely that reason it was left to Mugabe and Mugabe alone to appoint and dismiss these individuals. Parliament should have a say in these matters; parliament should block the appointment of someone who is not suitable or have them dismissed if they fail to carry out their assigned duties.
@ Dube
I understand that Mugabe is a corrupt and ruthless dictator but I also understand that dictator or not he is still a mortal like you and me and not a god! What a mere mortal has built another mortal can take asunder! That is my point; Zimbabweans had many chances to end the Mugabe dictatorship throughout the GNU but failed to do so because of the breath-taking incompetence of Tsvangirai.
It was the “superficial, at best” understanding of what the democratic reforms were about by both Tsvangirai and the people that made them fail to get the reforms im-plemented and costed the nation the chance to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship.
There will be other chances in the future to end the Mugabe dictatorship but these chances too will go begging if the nation still has someone incompetent like Tsvangirai leading them! Once again your continued support of a failed leader like Tsvangirai only proves your superficial understanding of what the nation has to do to end the dictatorship and bring about meaningful democratic change.
@ Isu Zvedu
Mangoma and Biti did not implement the reforms because they were busy enjoying the trappings of power that Mugabe had laid out for them the same as Tsvangirai and the rest. I think they all realised they should have implemented the reform late in 2012 or there about but it was too late.
All these stories of one faction accusing the other of being in Mugabe's pocket is nonsense; they all had their snouts in the trough after Mugabe got what he wanted he has discarded them all like used toilet paper. Where is Ncube or Mutambara?
The most important lesson here for the nation to learn is to seat up and pay attention and really get to understand what is required to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Only when the electorate understand this will they be able to elect leaders capable of delivering those changes.
The only reason many Zimbabweans still think Tsvangirai or Biti are good leaders is because they still do not have the foggiest idea what happened throughout the GNU years! It is broad day but they refuse to open their eyes content to live in darkness. Tingere zvedu murima sezvibvoro zviri munyena!
People get the government and oppositions they deserve we certain deserve the Zanu PF dictatorship and the breathtakingly incompetent MDC – “the party of excellence,” Chamisa would say. Over the weekend MDC was cheated again in the Chegutu council bye-election; what is so excellent in allowing someone to blatant cheat you again and again!
@ maipisi
Zimbabweans have been craving for a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The only mistake the nation made was to pick someone as corrupt and in-competent as Tsvangirai to champion the reforms; Mugabe bamboozled the idiot with easy!
It is all Mugabe rhetorical nonsense that by rigging last year's elections he was pun-ishing the British. “The British did not know what hit them!” the tyrant claimed!
The need to end the Zanu PF dictatorship is as pressing today as ever! This time Mugabe will not have another corrupt and incompetent idiot to deal with, that is one thing the tyrant can be sure of!
@ Nzou
Nzou, I agree with you 100% on everything except three things:
1) the bit about any of the MDC leaders be it Tsvangirai or renewal faction being in Zanu PF's pocket. Why would Mugabe waste money paying them now that the tyrant got what he wanted. MDC is now is self-distracting mode as one blames the other for being corrupt although they all had their snouts in the trough!
2) Biti and Mangoma are just as corrupt and incompetent as Tsvangirai and the rest; they have only come out now becomes after the July 2013 elections Mugabe throw them off the gravy train. They are talking of returning to the MDC founding values because they smart enough to know that is their ticket back on the gravy train.
3) The renewal team is making a mountain out of mole hill of Mangoma's beating. Mugabe has murdered over 30 000 innocent - forgot the millions the tyrant had beaten and raped - and yet Biti overlooked all that in singing the tyrant's praise as "unflappable father of the nation"! Tsvangirai has Mangoma roughed up and Biti call him a "fascist!" If Biti thought anyone would be fooled and not see the glaring disparity in this comparison then he is the one who is really naive!
@ Maita
I do know how the reforms would have been implemented and so too do you, if you paid attention and applied yourself!
Only Mugabe has the power to appoint and dismiss the Police Commissioner, for example; that is wrong and unacceptable in a healthy democracy because the Police beholden to him. MDC controlled parliament should have passed a reform giving parliament the power to assess the suitability of proposed Police Commissioner and to reject the candidate if he or she is found wanting and power to have them removed in future if parliament so decide. This is what happens in all democracies; it is not rocket science!
@ Straight shooter
There are only two reasons why MDC leaders did not get even one reform imple-mented:
1) they all had their snouts in the trough to think of anything else. You say they were not united, my friend they had "UNITY OF PURPOSE" right there when it came to enjoying the trappings of power. Mugabe saw to it that they were well looked after especially Tsvangirai; he got the mansion and that he was glob-trotting, hobnobbing with world leaders, frolicking in Cruise Ship pools with women of ill repute; anything to make them forgot about the democratic reforms! It worked; not even one reform was implemented after five years in the GNU! NOT ONE!
2) MDC leaders were breathtakingly incompetent because only real stupid men and women would have failed to see that reforms were the key to bringing lasting change in Zimbabwe and that their only days on the gravy train were totally dependent of these reforms. To crown it all, SADC and others warned them of the dangers of going into the elections without the reforms. But Tsvangirai, Biti, Mangoma, Ncube, etc. being first class nincompoops that they are; they ignored the warnings!
Challenged Wednesday over his continued occupation of the US$4 million property in the capital’s leafy Highlands area, a bewildered Tsvangirai told Studio 7 of the Voice of America (VOA): “I don’t see the anxiety over the issue.
“What is so controversial about the former prime minister occupying a (government) house?”
The USA President is in White House whilst he or she is president; the day they seize to be president they leave the house to the new president. Zimbabwe is a poor country and we cannot be building new houses for government officials every five years, particular when the ex-officials achieved fcuk-off when they were in office like Tsvangirai!
Tsvangirai forgot about implementing any of the democratic reforms when Mugabe gave him the mansion; he accepted it as a bribe from the tyrant but what Tsvangirai forgot was that it was not Mugabe who was paying for it but the people. Tsvangirai betrayed the people and he should not expect the people to reward him by allowing him to keep the mansion!
He can go back to Mugabe and ask for another bribe assuming the tyrant has anything that is truly his and not stolen from the people!
@ David Moyes
If you really understood what these incompetent MDC leaders have done here and the high price the nation is going to pay as a result then you too would be angry. If you do indeed understand all that then you will not be angry only because you do not care. Well some of us understand and we also do care about the human tragedy in Zimbabwe!
I make no apology for calling Tsvangirai and Biti and the rest breathtakingly incompetent be-cause that is exactly what they are! What would you call them oh wise-one?
@ Tsuro
"The simple truth is Mugabe is old fox who will never relinquish power through democratic means…" you say.
The nation has just gone through five years of the GNU in which the MDC was given a raft of democratic reforms to implement and they did not. If Tsvangirai, Biti and the rest believed these would achieve nothing then why did they not say so instead of waste the nation, SADC and everyone's time and money?
As for you have not even understood what the reforms were about but are quick to judge that they would have failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship!
I can form my own party and be one out of the 28 parties that contested 2013 elections. How would the electorate distinguish the good from the bad and the bad from the ugly when, as I have already said, they have only a superficial understanding of the issues at best? Think Tsuro, THINK!
@ Roving Ambassador
Forget the grand coalition and these MDC factions; all the individuals in these outfit are aspiring for is to get back on the gravy train by hook or by crook. They have all accepted that Zanu PF will rule and all they are after is the few seats on the gravy train Zanu PF will allow them to hold. I think we should and must aim higher than this, much, much higher.
We must settle for nothing short of a Zimbabwe were every Zimbabwean has all their democratic rights and freedoms restore and guaranteed. We must have all the democratic reforms implemented and then hold Zimbabwe's long denied truly free, fair and credible elections. Only a democratic government will have a real chance of starting the difficult task of rebuilding the nation's ruined economy and restore the people's confidence and self-respect!
@ Abbu
Tsvangirai’s popularity is no different from Mugabe’s popularity in that they are both founded on myth and ignorance. Tsvangirai never deliver any democratic change no more than Mugabe deliver freedom and liberty but both have relied on keeping the people ignorant of the truth whilst keeping up the myth that they did just that!
Before independence everyone had a clear idea what blacks were fighting for: to end the exploitation by whites which gave the whites the lion’s share of the country’s riches and to end the discrimination of blacks which left them third class citizens in the land of their forefathers. We wanted justice, freedom and human rights and a life with dignity.
Long before the nation attained her independence even the simple people in the rural area were painfully aware that whilst the nation was engaged in a fight to the death to end white colonial domination it was only to have the whites replaced by new masters.
Professor Jonathan Moyo has said a lot of hogwash nonsense as Mugabe’s chief of propaganda but one of the few home-truths he said was that the 1980 elections were not about electing a new government and, for the blacks, casting a free vote for the first time as one would expect. It was instead about ending the civil war. The people were under no illusion that if Zanu PF and PF Zapu did not “win” the civil war would continue; there was no free vote in that!
As soon as Mugabe got into power he worked tireless to undermine the country’s democratic institutions and the people’s basic freedoms and rights to consolidate his strangle hold on power. If anyone doubted Mugabe and Zanu PF’s willingness to ride roughshod of the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life for the sake of power then the Gukurahundi murders wiped out all the doubt.
For decades Mugabe and his propaganda gurus have fed the nation on a steady diet of gruel designed to make them forget about a just share of the nation’s wealth – they are poorer now than before independence- and forget about freedom and justice – they never enjoyed any of these. They have been brainwashed to believe independence was about getting the white man out of power and they are to celebrate that and nothing else matters.
What tyrants like Mugabe forget is that even the simple people in the ru-ral backwaters know deep inside that they have been short changed. They may not be able to articulate in a coherent narrative but still they know!
There were two areas in which Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the one hand and Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs on the other agreed and cooperated 100%; in allocating themselves generous salaries and allowances and in keeping the ordinary people ignorant of what they, the ruling elite were up to.
When Mugabe rigged the elections last year, many Zimbabweans were left scratching their heads; they knew something went wrong although they could not say what.
Scratching their heads is a good sign, it should there are think and therefore receptive to hear what went wrong.
Explain to them that Tsvangirai had lied to them that the Copac constitu-tion they are voted for in March 2013 would deliver free, fair and credible elections. That is easy for them to follow because they all remember MDC leaders assuring them of that before the referendum.
Explain to the people also how Tsvangirai had got distracted by the trap-ping of power and ended up betraying them just as Mugabe has done by failing to implement even one reform; they will understand that too, they are not stupid. They have all heard of Tsvangirai’s $4 million mansion, his glob-trotting and frolicking with women of ill repute. Do you really think they would still want him even as “honorary president”? No chance!
Tsvangirai’s popularity is based on ignorance and myth; shine the light of knowledge and truth, enlighten the people; and you perceived popularity will disappear like the July morning mist under the African sun.
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