31 July to be a solemn remembrance day of dangers of rigged elections

Today Mugabe and Zanu PF are celebrating marking the day, a year ago, they rigged the elections. This nation owes it to itself and posterity to thoroughly investigate how the elections were rigged and punished those responsible. In future the nation must mark 31^st July in remembrance of all the weakness in our society that allowed Zanu PF to rig the elections so that the curse of rigged elections is banished for all time.

National Constitutional Assembly spokesperson Madock Chivasa said July 31 reminded him of the day Zanu PF and the two MDCs put to the test a flawed constitution that ricocheted straight into the faces of the former coalition partners to Zanu PF.

On the surface, yes the two MDC factions were the apparent loser of the rigged elections. Indeed one can even say the likes of Dr Morgan Tsvangirai did not lose much really since he has managed to hold on to the $ 4 million mansion, his bribe price from Mugabe for MDC not implementing the reforms.  Dig below the surface and without doubt the greatest losers on that fateful day of 31^st July 2013 were the ordinary Zimbabweans. It is easy to blame MDC’s their great misfortune by the people have only themselves for being so naïve and gullible as to allow themselves to be so easily misled by someone as corrupt and incompetent as Tsvangirai in the first place!

The Zimbabweans played their role in approving the flawed Copac constitution by a whopping 95% in the March 2013 referendum, for example.

Zimbabweans prefer farming the plateau with its sandy soil which is easier to turnover with the hoe and the weeds do not grow vigorously to farming the valley with their rich and deep clay where the elephant grass grows. When it comes to the mental effort they definitely prefer to farm the desert where nothing grows!

Zimbabweans accepted the flawed Copac constitution on the strength of what Tsvangirai told them – that is was an “MDC child” guaranteed to deliver free and fair elections. The constitution was in fact “dictated by Mugabe” as MP Paul Mangwana, the Zanu PF co-chairperson on the parliamentary committee who wrote the document, boasted. Of course the new constitution failed to deliver free and fair elections as the events of the dreadful day of 31^st July 2013 confirmed.

The point is, with a little effort, there is no doubt that the Zimbabwean electorate would have realized that the Copac constitution was indeed flawed and demand a better constitution and thus saved the nation the consequences of another rigged elections. Just as there is price for farming the sandy soil – poor harvest – there is price for approving a flawed constitution – rigged elections and having the same corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF government.

"Yes, there are challenges. Of course there are. But today, we are assured of a more focused, partisan-free government that will do anything to make sure national interest triumphs ahead of partisan interests." Was what Zanu PF Deputy Director of Information, Psychology Maziwisa had to say about 31^st July 2013. It is to be expected from a party that has always put party interest above national interests.

Of course Zanu PF rigged the vote and has been careful to hide all the evidence including the voters roll. Nikuv was paid a princely sum of $13 million to corrupt the voters roll but did such a con-job the regime has refused to release the voters roll so the nation does not see how the vote was rigged.

Mugabe and Zanu PF can be assured of one thing – there will be a though investigation of how the 31^st July 2013 elections were rigged. All those involved in the vote rigging will be punished. The nation will commemorate 31^st July in remembrance of the dangers of absolute power in the hands of a corrupt and murderous dictatorship, the dangers of a corrupt and incompetent opposition and the dangers of a naïve and gullible electorate.

31^st July is to be called “Nikuv Day” or “Rigged Elections Day” in memory of the con-Jewish company that helped Mugabe rig the 31^st July 2013 elections and since in Zimbabwe Nikuv has become synonymous with cheating or rigging.

“Nikuv Day” or “Rigged Elections Day” will be a solemn and sober day of remembrance. The nation will not drink wine or beer and will not eat a hot meal in memory of the millions of Zimbabweans whose lives Mugabe and Zanu PF have made a totally misery from the day of the rigged 31^st July 2013 elections to the day the regime will finally be forced out of power following free, fair and credible elections. Above all the nation must remember to never again allow this curse of rigged elections happen!

Mashakada proposed council to solve economic crisis is a waste of time!

Former Economic Planning minister Tapiwa Mashakada has called for the establishment of an all-stakeholder National Economic Council (Nec) in order to arrest Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.

The trouble with people like Tapiwa Mashakada is that they lack common sense much less imagination expected of someone in a leadership position.

Zimbabwe's economic nightmare is not because Zanu PF did not know there was corruption and that it was destroying the nation's economy, for example. Of course Mugabe know there was corruption and has denied it because it was an integral part of his patronage system that helped keep him in power and he was himself the chief beneficiary. In recent years corruption has become so rampant it is sucking the very life out of parastatals like PSMAS, ZESA, City Council across the land in obscenely high salaries and allowances paid to the top managers and board members. Mugabe has done nothing to stop this looting because he is himself just as guilty of the looting.

Mugabe had a $1 million birthday party, a $ 5 million wedding for his daughter held in his $ 20 million Blue Roof mansion, spent $ 5 million on bronze statues of himself, etc. all spent in two months. He cannot tell any of his cronies to stop looting; they are catching up with him!

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is the lack of political will to do the right thing!

Tapiwa Mashakada should know what lack of political will means, as an MDC leader in the last GNU he too was involved in the party’s decision not to implement any democratic reforms. Of course all the MDC leaders knew the reforms were important, they were reminded of that a thousand times. They also knew that implemented the reforms would upset Mugabe, he had allowed the MDC leaders to enjoy the benefits of being in power and they did not want to be seen to be ungrateful.

“MDC vadzidza kudya vanyerere!” (MDC leaders have already learnt to enjoy life on the gravy train and not rock the boat!) was the pithy remark from one Zanu PF official six months into the GNU! True enough, MDC never mustered any political will to even get one democratic reform implemented.

Ever since the rigged July 2013 elections in which MDC was kicked off the gravy train people like Mashakada, Tsvangirai and all the other MDC leaders have been looking for an excuse to get back on the gravy train.

Mashakada said the council will “sit down and work out modalities of recovering the economy … and reversing the economic decline”, which he alleged, “cannot just be done by Zanu PF alone”.

What is required here is a council or interim administration with the political will to implement the democratic reforms and make sure there are free and fair elections. The government to emerge out of the free and fair elections will have the political will to address the problem of rampant corruption and all the other teething economic problems.

Mashakada’s proposed council is just another stupid idea from MDC and a waste of time! 

Corruption has been so rampant Mugabe must not keep the Blue Roof mansion or Tsvangirai the Highlands mansion!

“In April National Pharmaceutical Company Managing Director, Florah Sifeku, revealed that government last bought drugs in 2008 during the Zim dollar era. Sifeku said 98 % of the medicines in public health institutions were supplied by donors and only 2%, mostly ARVs, by the National Aids Council,” reported S W Radio Africa.

So the nation has no money to buy something as basic as medicine for millions of our people and for decades have had to depend on donor generosity and yet we have been splashing $1 million on Mugabe’s birthday, $ 5 million of his daughter’s wedding, $ 5 million of two bronze statutes of Mugabe himself, $ 3 million plus each for the eight times a year Mugabe has been going to Singapore for an eye check-up, to say nothing of the billions he and his wife have spent on all manner of luxuries including the $20 million Blue Roof mansion. This is just looking at Mugabe alone and not those behind him.

Mai Mujuru is believed to have a fortune of $3 billion. Then there is an army of the so called small fish, like Philip Chiyangwa, Minister Chombo and Minister Obert Mpofu whose individual amassed wealth is counted in hundreds of millions of dollars. Even the MDC leaders are in on the looting!

Former Prime Minister Dr Morgan Tsvangirai is refusing to leave the $4 million Highlands mansion he was given during the GNU years; he has attached himself to it like a barnacle to a rock. Other MDC leaders have publicly condemned the chaotic seizure of white owned farms but gladly accepted a looted farm as a bribe to stop them implementing the democratic reforms or otherwise rocking the gravy train.

When millions of lives are put at grave risk whilst the ruling elite are spending the nation’s wealth on luxuries this nation need to express it disapproval in a pronounced and tangible way. All looted wealth must be recovered from the ruling elite and their descendants and use to rebuild the nation’s shuttered economy and the lives of the millions forced to live in abject poverty and without hope all these years.

This nation must have a serious cleansing process where the obscene wealth looted from the poor is returned to the rightful owners, the masses.

After all he has done to this country, Mugabe or his family do not deserve to keep the Blue Roof mansion and all the other looted wealth. No more than Tsvangirai deserves to keep the Highlands mansion, his bribe price for not implementing the reforms that would have stopped Mugabe rigging the July 2013 elections!

Signed. Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/2014/07/25/public-hospitals-run-out-of-drugs/

UK MDC renewal in demo against Tsvangirai to ask stupid questions

Dr Richard Morgan Tsvangirai will be in UK and will present a paper at Chatham House, London tomorrow followed by some public rally and dinner in Birmingham. Some MDC members, backing the MDC renewal splinter group led by Tendai Biti, are planning to stage peaceful demonstration(s) against the MDC-T leader.

 “Members of the Zimbabwean community especially those who are MDC members have genuine questions that need answers from Tsvangirai,” said a spokesperson of those behind the demonstration(s).

“The members in the UK still remember the misappropriated funds, the corrupt handling of elections which led to the fielding of a controversial team in the 2013 national elections.” French Connection UK (fcuk) me! Are these really the burning questions of our time?!

Do any of these would-be demonstrators not know that the national elections were rigged? Between you and me and the brick wall, they do; it is just the full ramifications of the rigged elections have not sunk in yet. No, not really.

The demonstrators are bitter that MDC candidates, cheated in the MDC primary, should have been the ones blatantly cheated by Mugabe and Zanu PF in the 31st July 2013 national elections. They do not mind that Mugabe rigged the national elections denying the whole nation a meaningful vote but they are furious that a handful, 10% at most, of the MDC parliamentary candidates’ party-primary selections were contested.

The fact that most of those “controversial” MDC candidates plus many others beside went on to lose the elections, cheated, in what has become a monumental vote rigging scandal of our time have all been water off a duck’s back to the MDC demonstrators. It is the denial of the free vote of the supporter of the handful of cheated MDC candidates that matters and not the denial of the free vote on millions across the land!

Our MDC demonstrators are the quintessential group who would talk endless about the side issues without ever bring up the real big issue, the elephant in the room. The demonstrators are chaffed with themselves that they have had the courage to stage the demo at all; a monumental achievement for these MDC supporters schooled to follow leaders without ever asking a question.

Having mastered the courage to stage a demonstration against the former leader has left the demonstrators mentally drained they could not think of a single hard-hitting question in the face of all the big blunders Tsvangirai has made, the most obvious and serious one being why MDC failed to implement the reforms.

MDC had the majority in parliament and in cabinet and five years to implement the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. And yet not even one reform was implement and thus allowing Mugabe to blatantly rig the vote!

In failing to implement the reforms Tsvangirai proved beyond all doubt that he was corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent; get rid of him. How can anyone in their right mind still think, even now with the benefit of hindsight, such a man can still be trusted to lead the nation is itself a measure of just how shallow the person is.

Demonstrating about irregularities in MDC-T’s party primary elections is like fussing about the ticks on the elephant’s back. Kick the elephant out of the room and the ticks, flies and dandruff will go with it!

What is disappointing about these MDC renewal demonstrators is not only have they failed to pick the real big burning issue worthy of the public demo, the failure to implement the reforms; the MDC renewal is itself founded on a falsehood. On this issue and many others blunders MDC has made, the leaders in the renewal team are as much to blame as Tsvangirai and those around him.

Implement the reforms was not a one day or one week affair but covered a period of five years; so no one in MDC can honestly say they were no aware that no reforms were being implemented. They were all aware or should have been aware if they had been paying attention.

The decision to go ahead and take part in the elections with no reform was also a collective leadership decision as MP Samuel Sipape Nkom, one of the renewal team leaders, has admitted. “The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms,” he said.

So if those MDC supporters backing the renewal team are real serious about leadership “renewal” then they must they must not just kick the one elephant, Tsvangirai, but the whole herd of elephants; Biti, Mangoma, Ncube, Coltart, Eddie Cross, the lot! For they have all proved beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.

Frankly, all MDC supporters need a kick in the backside; if they had not followed Tsvangirai blindly like sheep over the years then the reforms would have been implemented. We would have had free and fair elections and not be in this mess!

Maybe I should stage a one-man demo against the MDC renewal demonstrators; of all the many burning questions to ask Tsvangirai why ask the stupid ones only? 

Chinamasa says scraping Z$ damaged the economy. Is he minister of nonsense!

Is Patrick Chinamasa the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Nonsense because to say the scrapping of the Z$ in 2008 damaged the economy is nonsense!

“The migration from hyperinflation to multi-currency did a lot of damage to our economy. It pitched our cost structure too high and unsustainable,” he told a parliamentary committee on finance.

Remember the nation was not facing a two or three percentage digit inflation rate but world record inflation of 500 billion%. Prices were changing so fast that if you picked a product from the shelf by the time you got to the till to pay for it the price would have doubled. Was it any wonder the shelves were empty, it was impossible to do any business for shop owner and customer alike.

Things were so bad that Bank imposed a limit to how much their customers could withdraw a day, which was not even enough to pay the bus fee back home! What a life!

Minister Chinamasa tells us the workers were over paid after the scrapping of the Z$, what a load of rubbish. Civil servants were paid an “allowance” of $200; even government was too embarrassed to call such pittance a wage or salary. Many civil servants still earn $400 or so today six years later, why government call that a wage is a complete mystery.

How the likes of Cuthbert Dube, the CEO of PSMAS, have come to earn $ 500 000 a month and some Ministers have become multi-millionaires, literally overnight, is something Minister Chinamasa should have left no stone unturned and had rooted out. In the end he failed to stem much less stop this criminal haemorrhaging of public funds by the top managers and board members whilst the institution is so starved of funds it cannot carry out even the most basic service it was created to provide and the lowly paid workers are not paid for months on end!  

We all know the Zimbabwe economy is in a dangerous nose dive because of the decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and an all-out looting spree of the last fifteen years. Donors and investors have shied away from Zimbabwe because they know the regime cannot be trusted to uphold the rule of law; they fear being the next victims of the looting brigade.

The country’s economy is in the ICU because this Zanu PF regime has denied there was no corruption, etc. allowing these cancers to grow and spread. We need these cancerous tumours removed now or the economic meltdown will continue and drag with it millions of our people into new depths of grinding abject poverty and despair.

Zimbabwe needs a Minister of Finance who will tackle the country’s economic problems and not one who spends the day daydream solutions to imaginary problems. Of all the feeble excuses given by this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime for the country’s economic woes blaming the scrapping of the Z$ in 2008 sure takes the biscuit.

“Multi-currency did a lot of damage to our economy”! Indeed! What are you; minister of nonsense?! 

Manheru at his nonsensical best - talk of Mugabe sunset as sun rising from the West!

In his latest article the Zanu PF Columnist, Nathaniel Manheru, dismissed the forthcoming address by Dr Morgan Tsvangirai at Chatham House, London on "The Future of Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe", as a none event. It is true, of course that, after the debacle of failing to implement even one reform, Tsvangirai is himself a spent force, an empty bullet casing, in Zimbabwe politics. But is a twist of fate, so too is Mugabe and Zanu PF.

It is hardly a year since the rigged July 2013 elections and already Mugabe and Zanu PF’s hold on political power is decidedly shaky. The regime political sun is setting and Manheru knows it; his piece was a pathetic attempt to put on a brave face of business as usual to bolster sagging Zanu PF moral. I say pathetic because he is talking of the Zanu PF sun rising from the west.  

“We worry less about the temporary structure (GNU) the elections ended, concern more about the substantive outcome and certainty it gave the country,” said Manheru. He was trying to underline why the July 2013 elections were a positive development.

It is very true, on 31 July 2013 Mugabe and Zanu PF were glad to see the end of the GNU and very pleased with their own handwork of rigging a crashing defeat of Tsvangirai and MDC. When Tsvangirai said he was going to challenge the election rests in court the tyrant was fearful that might led the regime being forced to produce the voters roll, the smoking gun in the vote rigging. So everyone in Chibuku house heaved a big sigh of relief – the building itself heaved - when Tsvangirai, with his characteristic blundering incompetence, withdraw the court challenge.

With the contrived 62% electoral mandate and more than two thirds parliamentary majority Mugabe and Zanu PF certainly expected to rule the country with the same arrogance of the past. The only things certain in this life are tax, death and that nothing else is certain. In rigging the elections to secure for himself strong electoral mandate Mugabe created for himself a credibility deficit which was to haunt him!

The chaos seizures of the white owned farms, the wanton violence and vote rigging which were now the hallmarks of Zimbabwe’s election culture all cemented Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs’ reputation of lawlessness thugs who could not be trusted to up hold the rule of law, to pay back borrowed money and to do anything right. And so none of the donors Mugabe was hoping would fund his ZimAsset recovery plan contributed even a dollar. The would-be investors too stayed away.

Mugabe was able to rig the Zimbabwe elections because he controlled the whole electoral process; he manufactured voters, votes, Polling Stations, etc. and so manufactured a Zanu PF victory. He could not conjure out of thin air donor funding or investors.

So the real and unwelcome certainty Mugabe was has had to accept these last 12 months is that he could not rig economic recovery!  The consequences of the continued economic meltdown was the poverty; government itself has struggled to pay civil servants in the face of falling revenue and the ordinary people have suffered the ill effects of having no running water and millions are living on less than a dollar a day.

“We are not tearful about the so-called "government of national unity": that cheap attempt at deodorizing an unrepresentative and unworkable coalition of three contesting parties,” continues Manheru. In reality the regime will be tearful with happiness if the GNU could return because it knows something worse is coming.

After a year of staring at that empty ZimAsset begging bowl and with poverty spreading like a raging forest fire Mugabe and Zanu PF have already acknowledged the need to hold nationwide talks on how to stop the economic meltdown and poverty. They are hoping for another GNU but deep down they know the international community will not accept another fudged Zanu PF regime in all but name as was the case with the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

The only real option on the table this time is implementing the democratic reforms and then holding free, fair and credible elections. There is spontaneous dropping of the jaw and wailing in Chibuku House and everywhere by Zanu PF loyalists at this because they all know the party will not win free elections. Free elections will be followed the dreaded regime change as sure as day follows night!

Manheru is putting on a brave face and rally the Zanu PF foot soldiers into believing the party won the 2013 elections and it is business as usual in much the same way Josef Goebbels tried to rally the Nazi foot soldiers with the Russians just outside Berlin city gates. He knew the Nazi regime’s bacon was fried; the Russians were not there for a cultural visit and they were taking no prisoners either!

Manheru knows Mugabe and Zanu PF’s reign of terror is over! The end is certain; what is at issue here now is whether Mugabe will end up being hunted down, cornered and killed as happened to his fellow dictator Gaddafi. Whatever happens, Zimbabweans cannot wait for that day when they will finally heave a large sigh of relief!

(To see the full Manheru article go to http://www.bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-50855.html) 

What does Mugabe but more significantly the nation want out of GNU 2?

“If you see a frog hopping in the midday heat as if his very life depends on each hop, you can be sure something is after him and his life is indeed on the line!” I wrote in my last piece.

In it I went on to show by accepting to have talks with every “including the opposition and civic society” as Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumba say, Mugabe was leaving the political security of absolute power he had secured by rigging the July 2013 elections to form another GNU he had shown nothing but contempt for. This was Mugabe hopping in the midday heat as if his very life depended on each hop because something was after him!

The danger threatening Mugabe was the reality that he had failed to rig economic recovery. The consequence of this failure was the empty ZimAsset begging bowl that remained mockingly empty, a year after the plan was launched. But worse still the failure to rig economic recovery had resulted in a dangerous economic nose dive and poverty has spread everywhere like a plague more virile and ruthless than ever. He has brought havoc amount the poor dragging them into greater depths of economic misery and despair. Poverty, that rogue, has no respect for chefs either!

Poverty has walking into the homes of Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira without even knocking. He has been living in abject poverty for years and he died a pauper. Zanu PF cynically painted his house the day he died to hide the years of neglect, rot and decay.

Poverty is spreading so fast and he is on first name friendly basis with everyone across the political divide in Zimbabwe; if he was a politician then even Mugabe’s motorcade will pull over to let him pass!

It was the mocking ZimAsset begging bowl and the fear of poverty’s growing power and influence that forced Mugabe to forgo his struggle hold on power and seek to share it in another GNU.

 The three interrelated questions to answer here are: What kind of power sharing would Mugabe want? What political solution would the nation want? And lastly, what kind of solution are we most likely to have?

When Rugare Gumbo announce Zanu PF’s willingness to talk he nailed the one condition that Mugabe wanted accepted and understood from the onset; drop all claims of Zanu PF rigging July 2013 elections. In other words Mugabe and Zanu PF must be accepted as legitimate and thus the government of the day.

Whatever political animal that will emerge from the proposed talks, Mugabe will want to have the final say in defining it and oversight of all it does.

By selecting his old partners in the GNU and, no doubt, only those in civic society who accept Zanu PF’s precondition will be allowed to take part in the talks; Mugabe is assured his hold on political power is secured. As for MDC leaders, most of them will only be too glad to get back on the gravy train. They will be some grandstanding and posturing but at the end of the day they will whatever role Mugabe assigns them.

The solution the nation would want is one that will end the economic meltdown and deport comrade poverty back wherever it was he comes from. GNU mark II will not address any of the fundamental economic weakness in Zimbabwe just as the first GNU of 2009 to 2013 failed to do because one cannot end corruption, for example, without dismantling the very foundations of Zanu PF’s political patronage system on which it depends.

The reason why Mugabe nailed the condition that Zanu PF is the legitimate government is because he did not want any of the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship implemented.

After the formation of the first GNU in 2009, the then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited most of the key Western countries’ capitals convinced they will bankroll Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. They were not convinced that Mugabe had changed contrary to Tsvangirai’s claims and so the sent the PM back empty handed.

There was evidence back then that Mugabe had not changed one bit; he was the same corrupt and murderous tyrant with no respect for the rule of law. Events that followed culminating in him rigging the 2013 elections showed just how naïve and incompetent Tsvangirai been to have been so easily bamboozled by Mugabe.

The international community’s position is simple enough, they will only engage with a legitimate government coming out of free and fair elections. None of the Western leaders will be fooled by the GNU mark II in which Mugabe has even more political power than before.

So the ideal solution would be for Mugabe to accept that he has failed to rig economic recovery and for him and Tsvangirai and their respect political parties to walk into the political sunset. The nation must then appoint an interim administration to implement all the political reforms and hold fresh free, fair and credible elections. The government to emerge will have the mandate of the people and legitimacy to govern and the support and goodwill of the international community.

It is not in the nature of tyrants to give up power even with a deadly adversary like poverty already running rings in one’s back yard. Mugabe will still pursue a meaningless power sharing arrangement with MDC in the hope of sharing the blame for the economic hardships and to buy time.

Zimbabwe has a lot of things, gold, diamonds and lots of other goodies beside but time is the one thing it does not have. The shortage of clean drinking water means the nation is sitting on a health time bomb. Poverty is causing untold human misery we are sitting on a ticking social time bomb. Anyone of these bombs or both could explode anytime. The consequences of such an outcome are catastrophic for us all!

Time is of the essence; only a democratically elected government can defuse these time bombs and it is important that such a government is elected a.s.a.p.

It should not be left to Mugabe to decide when Zimbabwe will finally have free and fair elections; he has kept the nation waiting for just that these last 34 years. He should not have a say in this time!

It should not be left to Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement the reforms, the prerequisite for free, fair and credible elections; they five years during the GNU but failed to get even one reform implemented. The only reason they failed was that they were easily bribed by Mugabe with the trappings of power and high office and that they are breathtakingly incompetent. It is folly for the nation to once again entrust such irresponsible individuals with the very survival of the nation!

Zimbabwe, each and every one of us wherever we are must step up and for once take full responsibility and demand that Mugabe and Tsvangirai step aside and allow others to take charge. Zimbabwe has a population of 12 million, it is bound to have the 20 or so competent to get the reforms implemented without having to rely Zanu PF who do not want any reforms implement or MDC who do not what reforms we are talking about.

In one of his great speeches former US President John F Kennedy said to the American people: “Do not ask what my country can do for me? Ask instead, what can I do for my country?” There will never be a better moment, with millions groaning in abject poverty and a devilish storm threatening, for Zimbabweans to do their best for their country before it is too late!

CCJP report dismiss Zimbabwe's 2013 elections as a fiasco underlining the need for fresh free elections!

The Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice (CCJP) has dismissed Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections as a fiasco in its lasted report on the elections.

Bishop Alex Muchabaiwa is now the CCJP chairperson in Zimbabwe and one of the authors of the report.

“It might not be far from the truth if we say some people voted in July 2013 elections to save their lives, limbs and property. They wanted to avoid a repeat of 2008”, stated the report. Bishop Alex Muchabaiwa is the chairperson of CCJP in Zimbabwe and one of the authors of the report.

Implementing the democratic reforms and holding free and fair elections was the key to ending Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis after the 2008 elections. The GPA made the same point and it was a great pity that after five years of the GNU not even one reform was implemented. 

It was a great national tragedy that the opportunity to end this corrupt and repressive Zanu PF government was lost as Mugabe went on to rig the elections. This Zapu PF regime is illegitimate and the sooner the country is allowed to have a legitimate government the sooner it can start the difficult tasks of rebuilding the nation’s badly damaged political institutions and national economy.

The democratic reforms must be implemented and free and fair elections held, there is no other way out!

Since the rigged 2013 elections the Zimbabwe economy has taken a dangerous nose dive causing increasing economic hardship on the people right across the board. Two weeks ago the Zanu PF spokesman, Rugare Gumbo said the party was willing to talk on how to end the economic crisis. It is important that the party should treat these talks with the seriousness and urgency the mater demands!

Conclusion

The Zimbabwe economy is so weak it is failing to supply even the most basic services like clean running water and unemployment has reached nauseating heights of 85% plus. We are sitting on ticking health and social time bombs. Mugabe and Zanu PF thought they could rig economic recovery and they have clearly failed to do so; indeed they have made the situation even worse.

Only a government coming out of free and fair elections have competence and national and international support to defuse these time bombs!  

 

Signed: Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/2014/07/16/new-ccjp-report-dismisses-2013-poll/

Mugabe must hold talks on the economy now and stop dithering

“It is a disheartening situation and nobody wants to work with a demoralised force. Our officers at times have to use waste paper to prepare crime records or even going beyond their limit to purchase bond paper,” Home Affairs permanent secretary Melusi Matshiya told parliament.

“They have at times also been forced to wear tattered uniforms and shoes as well as sharing police hats but they have remained disciplined.”

Well Police Commission Augustine Chihuri gave enough public testimonial of just how bad the situation is in the Police Service. He was could not afford a decent pair of shoes and squeezed his foot into the only pair he had. They were so tight fitting they cut all blood circulation. Instead of witness the pass out parade of new recruits they witnessed him passing out.

The Army too is having the financial squeeze; all soldiers are now being forced to go on leave for two weeks in a very month, just to save on the food bill!

34 years of Mugabe’s scientific socialism – read gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and all out looting spree – has not delivery mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” as he never tired of tell the nation. It has delivered mass poverty at a grand scale.

Zimbabwe’s economy was doomed to fail because no economic can survive much less thrive when there is so much criminal waste of human and material resources. Impossible!

Last week Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo announce that Mugabe was ready to hold talks on what should be done to rescue the national economy and end the tragic human suffering it has brought. The story of Police officers using waste paper to write legal documents should help focus the Zanu PF minds on the urgency and seriousness of the economic meltdown.

In a few weeks 250 000 Zimbabweans returnees whose work permits SA cannot extend will start arriving. There are at least four Zimbabweans who depended, directly or indirectly, on the remittance they have been sending back home. Time is fast running out for Zimbabwe to get the national economy on a firm recovery path and give our people hope in a tomorrow!

Conclusion

Mugabe and Zanu PF thought they could rig economic recovery just as they had rigged the 2013 elections; they have failed to do so. The economic meltdown is real and must now be addressed as a matter of urgency. This country is sitting on a ticking health time bond because there is no clean water and the health services has collapsed. We are sitting on a social time bomb because millions of our people are out of work and are living in abject poverty. These bombs can go off any day; Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies must know that will be held to account for the consequences!

 

Signed. Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-16764-Cops+use+waste+paper+for+dockets,+Perm+Sec/news.aspx

ZSD support MDC supporters demand to recall EU Ambassador but ask supporters to look in the mirror!

The ZSD support the Saturday 12 July 2014 demonstration by MDC-T supporters demanding the recall of the EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Aldo Dell'Ariccia following his blatant lies that there was no leadership crisis in Zimbabwe. However we would like the MDC supporters to take a hard look in the mirror too.

Whereas Ambassador Aldo Dell’Ariccia’s remarks have caused a destabilizing wave in a pond it is nothing compared to the tsunami that hit the nation because MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections!

MDC supporters have failed to understand that it was their party that betrayed the nation by failing to get the democratic reforms implemented. The party had the majority in the GNU parliament and in cabinet and had five years to implement the reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented.

“The Harare regime has not only failed to do even one of the above (progress on verification of the voter’s roll, liberalization of the media, and completing outstanding reforms, including those related to the security sectors), but also refused to implement constitutional amendments passed by Parliament, which would protect free and fair elections," Paul Kazingizi told New Zimbabwe.

The people of Zimbabwe wanted free and fair elections in 2013 and not in the distance future and therefore it is nonsense that MDC is calling for the verification of the voters roll after the election when they did not do so before the elections.

The new Copac constitution, “the brain child of MDC” Tsvangirai claimed at the time, was meant to deliver free and fair elections in 2013 and not dependent on the parliament that emerged after the elections to then implement amendments “which would protect free and fair elections”!   

If these MDC supporters were as awake then they should have demanded the recall of Tsvangirai and his team years ago for their breath-taking incompetent. Then Mugabe would not have rigged the 2013 elections landing the nation in all this mess!

Conclusion

As long as MDC supporters continue to see the speck in other people’s eyes but would not see the log in their own eyes then no one, especially the international community, will take them seriously!

 

Signed. Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-16703-MDC-T+UK+protests+against+EU+Hre+envoy/news.aspx