US Ambassador tell Mugabe economic collapse is due to tyrant's own incompetence not sanctions!

Mugabe did not mince his words when he address the UN General Assembly and once again blamed the “illegal sanctions” imposed on his regime by the “evil West” for all Zimbabwe’s economic problems. The US hit right back and told the tyrant, in no uncertain terms, that Zimbabwe’s economic woes are due to his incompetence!

 “Zimbabwe is a great country with potential to build its own good future. It has the capability and it has the primary drivers that are able to take the country to another level, but the problem lies in the policy and decision makers,” UNITED States ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bruce Wharton said.

The Ambassador is not telling us something many thinking Zimbabweans do not already know and have not said a thousand times already but when you live in a country where the only voices that are heard and count are those of Mugabe and his cronies, saying the same thing a thousand times again is all one can do. What else can one do when faced with the brick wall of totalitarian autocracy!

There is a new voice, a new kid on the block, the economic meltdown; Mugabe has turned a deaf ear to that voice but for how long?

The Zimbabwe economy is facing the most serious economic meltdown because of the rampant corruption - ignored for decades and thus allowed the time and cover to grow and spread and now the chickens in red-billed quelea numbers have come home to roost - and the lack of the much needed foreign investment. The economic meltdown will only get worse as long as this incompetent Zanu PF regime remains in power.

The economic meltdown has its python coils wrapped round the economy and it is squeezing tighter and tighter; companies have been closing down and the python has taken up the slack depriving the remaining ones the customers and suppliers – the oxygen – and thus forcing them to close in turn.

The economic meltdown is the one voice Mugabe will find impossible to ignore because it is hitting everyone including the hard core Zanu PF loyalists. Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira died a pauper; if poverty was lord of the manor is his home poverty is worshipped like a God by the rest!

A recent UNICEF report said 62% of Zimbabweans are poor and 16% or 2 million now live in abject poverty. Count hard core Zanu PF loyalists will be amongst them. The situation is getting worse and the count is going up!  

The only way out is for this Zanu PF regime to step down, allow ALL the democratic reforms that should have been implemented during the GNU to be implemented and the hold free, fair and credible elections. If this has been said once, it has been said thousands of times and will be repeated a million times again because it is the truth and is the only way out.

The Mugabe regime must step down now and not wait till 2018; the nation cannot afford another day of this economic meltdown induce slow death by strangulation.

“In the wake of 2013 elections, we remain concerned the democratic process is still subject to political pressure. But at the same time, we don’t want to wait five years for another election to sort of go through this process again,” said the Ambassador.

Indeed if the nation does not implement the reforms before the next elections be there in 2018 then the whole process will be a futile rerun of the 2013 rigged elections!

Of course Mugabe can afford to ignore the economic meltdown. When one has lived in the palatial comforts and luxuries for decades they develop a disconnect from reality, the “let them eat cake” Marie Antoinette disconnect. The 2 million and counting Zimbabweans living in abject poverty, on the coal face of the economic meltdown, will be reminded of their miserable existence every hour 24/7; hunger knows not day from night! They will be forced sooner or later to tell Mugabe what they are going through, force him to reconnect with reality and force him to go!  

MUGABE TO REINTRODUCE Z$ IN VAIN ATTEMPT TO AVOID REGIME CHANGE!

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa is proposing introducing a special Zimbabwe coin to compete with the basketful of other foreign currency in use in the country already. The regime is so desperate to avoid regime change it is even reintroducing tried and failed policies! This is reintroducing the Z$ by stealth and we will be back to the days of 500 billion per cent hyper-inflation in no time!

This is reintroducing the Z$ by stealth and it will not be long before we are back to the 500 billion per cent hyperinflation. Printing money to fill the ever growing chasm left by ballooning public expenditure in the face of fast shrinking revenue is a foolish policy that had disastrous consequences before and will have equally disastrous consequences now.

Mugabe is running out of options of what to do to end the economic meltdown gripping the nation. The only real way out of this mess is for him to step down and allow free elections – in short regime change. He cannot fathom regime change and hence the reintroduction of a tried and failed policy of printing money.

One meets their destiny by path they took to avoid it. Companies are closing down and 2 millions of our people are already living in abject poverty because of the serious economic problems such as corruption and the lack of direct foreign investment. Hyperinflation will of see goods disappear from the shops as happened before making life even harder for everyone.

Whilst the system of political patronage in which Mugabe rewarded those willing to ride roughshod  of the people’s freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a free vote and the right to life has delivered his primary objective of keeping him and Zanu PF in power for all these years. He must now admit the system has a down side; it is the root cause of mismanagement and corruption. The years of vehemently denying this have only helped these problems to multiple and spread. After 34 years the chickens have come home to roost in their red-billed quelea multitude!

The criminal wastefulness of human and material resources due to the decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are economically unsustainable. The economic meltdown gripping the nation today is a manifestation of this economic reality.

The only way to end the economic meltdown is by ending the mismanagement and corruption which in turn can only be ended by ending the political patronage system. There is no more effective way of ending political patronage than holding free, fair and credible elections.

Of course Mugabe and Zanu PF cannot be certain of winning free and fair elections which is why Mugabe had adopted the political patronage system in the first place. Indeed in the present setting Zanu PF is certain to lose in a free and fair election.

Ultimately Mugabe and Zanu PF will be forced to accept the political reality that avoiding regime change is politically unsustainable or be it by the circuitous route of being force to accept the economic reality that rampant corruption is economically unsustainable.

Mugabe is reintroducing the Z$ in a desperate attempt to avoid regime change not knowing this certain to fast forward the day of regime change.

The only way out of this economic and political hell Mugabe and Zanu PF have landed us is through the door marked “REGIME CHANGE”! There is no other way out! 

Chinamasa admit economic meltdown but has yet to admit Zanu P resigning is the only solution.

It was a matter of time before this Zanu PF regime finally acknowledged that the economic meltdown affecting Zimbabwe is real, is getting worse and, most significantly, that the regime does not know what to do to stop this runaway train. The regime went China hoping to get some hard cash for budgetary support and the Chinese told President Mugabe to his face that he was “a bad debtor”, according to Minister Chinamasa who was there with him.

Mugabe needed the budgetary to civil servant wages let alone pay for everything else. 

"I am embarrassed that our wage bill is some 76 percent of whatever revenue we receive. It's not good, it's not sustainable," Patrick Chinamasa told business leaders in Harare on Tuesday.

The very next week following his return from China empty-handed, Finance Minister Chinamasa announced to the impoverished and over taxed nation that taxes on fuel, mobile phones and everything else he could. Companies are closing and unemployment is a soaring 85% plus; the revenue base is shrinking fast increasing taxes therefore will not increase collected revenue.

Every rural boy knows that milking the cow three times a day will not increase the quantity of milk. The Zimbabwe cow is now being milked every hour on the hour!

After rigging the July 2013 elections President Mugabe was warned that unless he can rig the economic recovery too his hold on power will be tenuous! It is now over a year and the ZimAsset begging bowl has remained mockingly empty; a testimonial of his failure to rig the economic recovery.

The party has tried to pretend the mega-deals it signed with China and Russia will somehow make up for the empty ZimAsset begging bowl. The economic meltdown was not so easily fooled.

The solution to ending the economic meltdown is simple and straight forward: end the rampant corruption and restore the lost confidence of donors and investors alike in the country’s commitment to the rule of law. Since Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections this Zanu PF regime will never convince anyone it can be trusted to uphold and guarantee property rights, which is what the donors and investors want.

How can a regime that will contemptuously disregard the constitutional rights of millions of its own citizens to a meaningful free and fair vote be trusted to uphold the property rights of a foreigner? It should be noted here that the said regime has committed the treasonous act of rigging elections a number of times in the past just as it has violently seized the properties from foreigners and locals alike in the past.

The solution here is therefore first and foremost a political one; President Mugabe and Zanu PF must step down to allow the full implementation of the democratic reforms, that should have been implemented during the GNU, followed by the holding of fresh free, fair and credible elections. The government emerging from these elections will have the political mandate to do what is necessary to end corruptions and the confidence of donors and investors alike.    

“As to the solution... we have to create the necessary political climate, build consensus in order to tackle the issues. I can assure you that we are working on this issue," Chinamasa said without elaborating.

Just remember two things Minister; one, another political fudge like the last GNU is a waste of time. Two, the economic meltdown is affecting real people; 2 million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty already and that number is increasing every day. Get on with it!

Root cause of Zimbabwe's mess is Mugabe's dictatorial tendencies!

Former Minister of Education Sports and Culture, David Coltart said that it was thanks to President Mugabe that Bulawayo was hosting the African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games to the city. The games are set for 4 to 15 December 2014 and government has already set aside $14 million to pay for the games. What was really revealing here was the decision was made! 

"After arguing the case for Bulawayo, it was clear to me that I was losing the argument because an overwhelming majority were against it coming to Bulawayo, including certain heavyweights, and I assumed that it was a lost cause. I said as much and it was then that President Mugabe intervened for the first time saying that I needed to be bolder in advancing my argument and that he agreed it should be held in Bulawayo. The moment he disclosed his hand all the opposition coming from a few Zanu-PF heavyweights evaporated and a final decision was made to hold it in Bulawayo," said Coltart in his statement.

Putting aside the merits or demerits of the matter at issue here; it is disheartening to note the complete arbitrary way the decision to hold the games in Bulawayo was made. A decision costing $14 million is an important decision and therefore should not have been an arbitrary one. From Mr Coltart’s statement, Mugabe did not advance any arguments one way or the other, the moment he disclosed his hand all opposition “evaporated”.

A few weeks ago Rugare Gumbo, Zanu PF spokesman, gave us an insight into how Mugabe is regarded by his fellow Zanu PF leaders.

“Unoda kuti ndipikise zvarehwa nevakuru? Zvinenge zvataurwa nevakuru hazvipikiswe. (Do you want me to dispute a position taken by higher offices? What high offices say stands),” said Zanu PF party spokesman Rugare Gumbo.

He was responding to the question that had dogged Zimbabwe politics; why Mugabe had managed to parachute his wife, Grace, into the women league, central committee and politburo leadership positions in direct violation of Zanu PF’s party rule forbidding anyone taking up any leadership position unless they have held a provincial position for at least 15 years first. Grace has never held any party position until now.

In a health democracy there should be a health debate in cabinet and parliament so that all aspect of the matters affecting the nation are thoroughly reviewed from all possible angles. It is this lack of meaningful debate and discussion that explains why the country has pursued some really stupid policies.

There could not have been an serious debate in government before the regime let lose the then governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, into his money printing scheme, for example. A serious debate would have revealed that the scheme would fuel inflation and it would have been shelved long before inflation soared to the nauseating height of 500 billion per cent!

It is this “Zvinenge zvataurwa nevakuru hazvipikiswe” mentality that has turned Zanu PF into a de  facto one-party dictatorship and then into something a lot worse – a one-man dictatorship. When the truth of the country’s history of the last 34 years comes to be told it should not be surprising that key decisions like the plundering of the diamonds in Marange or the Gukurahundi massacres were all largely the dictate of a few individuals without any meaningful peer review. 

When Zimbabwe gained her independence on 18 April 1980 the nation was euphoric with excitement to see the end of the nightmare of the civil war that had turned the lives of all upside down causing so much suffering and the deaths of over 300 000. The euphoria was made a double dose because the event closed one door and opened another; the door into a bright tomorrow of freedom, liberty and economic prosperity for all.

In 1980 Zimbabweans were confidence the nation would avoid the pitfalls of greed, incompetence and love of power that many other African countries that had attained their independence before us had fallen into turning their dreams of building justice and prosperous nations into the  nightmare. And yet today Zimbabwe’s economy is in ruins; the economy shrunk a staggering 84% in the six-year period 2002 to 2008 alone and has never to recover. A recent UNICEF report said 2 million of our people are living in abject poverty.

Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people dream of freedom and liberty denying them basic rights like the right to a free vote and even the right to life. In 34 years the party has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans in cold blood to establish and maintain this de facto Zanu PF dictatorship. In a dictatorship it is the will of those in power that matter; the rule of law counts for nothing.

The rule of law is the only guarantee of freedom, liberty human rights and economic prosperity. Whilst there is rule of law nations have prospered; remove it and nations have suffered. Zimbabwe’s spectacular political and economic decline since independence can be attributed the disregard of the country’s democratic constitution by Zanu PF and Mugabe to put the party and the tyrant above the rule of law.

We need to restore the basic tenets of democratic accountability at all levels of public life: starting at the top, cabinet carry out its duty of thoroughly digest government policies in meaningful debates and hold the president to account, and stop the current practice of rubber stamping his wishes. MPs must use the special parliamentary powers, such as the power to call upon anyone to testify under oath, to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the search for what is in the best interests of the nation and it is their duty to hold the executive to account. It is the duty of the electorate to hold the executive and all public officials to account through free, fair and credible elections.

We must restore the notion that Zimbabwe will uphold rule of law at all times and to never again be ruled by the whim of a dictator.

Chiwenga's amassed wealth is undeserved and hence his blind loyalty to Mugabe!

It is when the marriage has gone sour, when the deceased’s estate is being shared out or some special occasion such as a wedding that Zimbabweans have been afford the very rare peek at the Zanu PF ruling elite’s amassed wealth and the extravagant luxuries of their life. We saw this with when Minister Ignatius Chombo was having divorcing his wife and when Mugabe invited the world into his opulent palatial $20 million Blue Roof mansion for his daughter, Bona Nyapudzai, wedding. This time it was Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantine Chiwenga’s turn to declare his loot!

“The couple owned Blue Chip Stamp Company (Pvt) Ltd which owned a property at 5 Rosary Close, Quinnington, Borrowdale measuring 5 701 square metres,” Bulawayo24 reported. 

“They also owned Lighthouse Investments (Pvt) Ltd which owned four industrial units in Willowvale, with each unit measuring 3 850 square metres and Liversay Investments (Pvt) Ltd which owns a property at 614 Prince Drive in Borrowdale Brook measuring 4 817 square metres.”

The report went on to list thirteen other properties in the form of companies, farms houses and an apartment in Malaysia.

The couple also owned motor vehicles, including a Prado, Jeep, Toyota land Cruiser V8, Mercedes Benz C180, Land Rover Defender and a Land Rover Discovery 4. 

There are three things that stand out like a sore finger in all the stories of Zimbabwe’s rich ruling elite:

1)      In a country where millions have absolutely nothing how is that a tiny few have come to own so much?

2)      Most of these filthy rich Zanu Pf loyalists cannot account for any of their amassed wealth through traceable tax returns; they got it through corruption and looting.

3)      The General’s divorced wife Jocelyn was awarded seven vehicles in the court settlement among them a jeep, Toyota Land cruiser V8, two Mercedes Benz, Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Discovery and a Toyota Hiace. She can only drive one car at a time but she had to have all seven cars in line with the Maggie pie hoarding mentality in this Zanu PF filthy rich class.

4)      These Zanu PF cronies seized productive farm from the white farmers only to fail to keep up the productivity; the same happened with all the other business ventures they bought or looted. Indeed the value of assets we see today is but a fraction of the billions of dollars lost in bad investments and in luxuries expensive holidays and pleasure of the flesh.

5)      People like General Chiwenga were well aware that their amassed wealth and their lifestyles of unparalleled luxuries was unearned, undeserved and, most significantly, unsustainable. It was only because Mugabe and Zanu PF were prepared to ride roughshod of the masses that made all these things possible, no other political party would give them that. It is no wonder then people like Chiwenga have pledged their loyalty to Mugabe and Zanu PF and the regime’s continued rule even when it was self-evident that this was contrary to the national interests and common good.

6)      On the economic front, the nation’s economic recovery is dependent of taking back the looted wealth hoarded by Mugabe and his cronies and putting them back into productive use, especially the farms.

7)      On the political front, like General Chiwenga can be allowed to serve in their positions if the so wished, but it is absolutely imperative that all the democratic reforms giving back institutions like the Army their independence and freedom to serve the nation as they are implemented.

The nation had its best chance to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU and, sadly, failed to do. Doing so now is not going to be easy but still not impossible. This is something we simply have to do because the alternative is accepting the status quo that has condemned millions to abject poverty and hopeless despair.  

Every generation has its challenge, the greatest challenge of our time is to get all the democratic reforms implemented followed by free, fair and credible elections. Nothing of any meaning and substance can ever be achieved until we have free elections.  

Mujuru condemnation of corruption is a cheap campaign gimmick!

Mai Mujuru speaks out against the serious corruption in Zimbabwe rich diamond industry that has brought unparalleled prosperity in foreign lands whilst Zimbabweans have nothing to show for it.

“Right now they are claiming that the Marange diamonds have been exhausted but no one here has any diamond rings or other jewels,” she told a church gathering. “No jobs were created locally in diamond polishing. All the diamonds were taken to India where they have built a town from Chiadzwa diamonds – it’s called Surat and yet Zimbabweans continue to struggle.”

This is not the first time Zimbabweans have heard that there is serious corruption in the country’s diamond industry. The late Zanu PF MP, Chindori-Chininga said exactly the same in parliamentary report in 2013. The report should have been followed up with a thorough investigation, sadly nothing was done.

Instead of now demanding that this matter should be thoroughly investigated all this corrupt and tyrannical regime can think of seeking to have the would matter swept under the carpet under the pretext that even Mai Mujuru’s raising of the matter risks damaging Zimbabwe’s relation with India.

“You can’t make that statement without facts because you’re throwing mud at a whole country,” said a government official.

“The claim that India started a town afresh with Zimbabwean diamonds is quite serious. It’s unbelievable. If that doesn’t trigger a diplomatic storm, nothing ever would. For a senior person to be making allegations of that nature, it’s very, very bad. It’s quite alarming. You can’t have a junior official even making that kind of allegation.”

In Zimbabwean diamonds have found their way into India illegally then it is the duty of the Zimbabwean authority to thoroughly investigate the matter and make sure those responsible are brought to book and the corruption stopped. We would expect the Indian government to assist in uncovering the criminals; to do anything else would definitely sour relationship with India. India would not tolerate any foreigners undermining its national interests by conniving in any criminal activities so why should Zimbabwe be expected to act any differently!

However it is Mai Mujuru’s motive in saying this that one has to question. Is she saying this out of concern to end this scourge of corruption or for selfish political gain? As already stated above, corruption and even murder have been rampant is Marange and Chiadzwa ever since the discovery of alluvial diamonds deposits in these areas; it is therefore unbelievable that someone in Mai Mujuru’s position did not know what was going on all these years. 

Is it possible that Mai Mujuru is spilling the beans of the Chiadzwa diamonds to win favours with the Zimbabwe electorate? When Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and committed all the other countless criminals against the nation; she did not see, hear or benefit from them. Or could it be that she said nothing all these years because she had lost her voice and she is speaking now because she has just recovered her voice?

Mai Mujuru is a liberation war heroine who, since independence, she systematically denied the people all the rights and freedoms for which so many lost their very lives to achieve. She is seeing the Zanu PF wrong doing now because she see it as her only way of winning back the nation’s trust and thus remain in power. She is an integral part of this corrupt and tyrannical regime; she will never ever deliver the justice and democratic system the nation has been dying for, literally.

Zimbabweans should be wary of corrupt and incompetent leaders whose respect of justice and human rights and dignity is like the moon that grows, waxes and completely disappears to leave you lost in the dark. This nation needs competent and principled leaders with the consistency and luminosity of the sun. 

Chinamasa to reveal China mega deal - Chinese acupuncture is not cure for corruption, cancer!

According to a report in New Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa has called the nation’s leaders of industry and all other interested parties to the Harare International Conference Centre to “to unpack the much-vaunted ‘mega deals’ that Zimbabwe signed with China two weeks ago”.

The Zimbabwe economy is sick from the cancer of corruption that has been allowed to grow and spread these last 34 years. What we want is to remove this cancer; whatever mega-deal the Chinese are offering is no more than Chinese acupuncture, a temporary pain relief. We want a cure not a pain relief!

Zimbabwe's economic recovery will not happen without putting an end to the criminal waste of human and material resources stemming from the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. For the last 34 years Mugabe has denied the very existence of these cancers allowing them to grow and spread and now they are the size of tennis ball and they are found in every facade of Zimbabwe economic life. 

Nothing of any meaning can ever be achieved without first removing these cancerous tumours killing the nation’s economy. Even if the Chinese give Mugabe all the $27 billion he asked for in his ZimAsset plan, every penny of it; it will not be enough to put the national economy on a firm recovery path, not as long as the haemorrhaging of wealth and resources from the mismanagement and corruption is allowed to continue.

Mugabe and Zanu PF will never end mismanagement and corruption because these are the very basis of the tyrant’s political power and strength; cutting off mismanagement and corruption is like cutting off the Biblical Samson’s hair, Mugabe and Zanu PF will be helpless. It is naïve to think Mugabe and Zanu PF will ever address these core economic problems and so as long as they remain in office Zimbabwe’s economy will never recover even if the whole economic body looked like a porcupine with acupuncture needles.

If Mugabe and Zanu PF do not have the political courage and fortitude to remove the cancerous tumours kill the national economy then the regime must step down and allow the nation to elect, in a free, fair and credible election, a new regime to do it!

Tsvangirai must not be rewarded with Highlands mansion, his price for betraying the nation

The story of how Morgan Tsvangirai got to own and keep the Highlands Mansion is an issue that Tsvangirai himself has failed to explain fully to the nation.

There are two issues here for him to explain: one can the nation afford such extravagant spending and two was this not a bribe?

Since 2008 Zimbabwe has rely on donors buying 98% of the nation’s medical needs and the health delivery service is in such a poor state that as many as 100 children are dying a day of presentable diseases, for example. And yet the same regime is squandering $4.5 million on a mansion for its Prime Minister and a $20 million on a mansion for the President (many people believe the Blue Roof mansion is worth as much as $5 billion)? There is no doubt the rest, Deputy PMs, VPs, Ministers, etc., each got their cut of loot in accordance with their position on the feeding trough!

There can be no doubt too that getting the mansion and all the other trappings of power played a part in Tsvangirai and MDC colleagues not implementing any of the necessary democratic reforms. “Vana Tsvangirai vadzika kudya vanyerere!” (Tsvangirai and his friends have learnt enjoy the benefit of power without making a fuss!) commented one Zanu PF crony at the time as to why MDC was not implementing the democratic reforms.

"Do you want me to go and live in the bush so that you see that I am suffering just like the people out there," Tsvangirai told the Daily News on Sunday at his Highlands home last week in reply to the public outcry why he was still in the mansion since he lost the July 2013 elections.

"If at all, Zanu-PF should know that they have created conditions which have made us all poor. So comparing who is poorer than the other I think it is unfair. Yes I am living in this property. It is still an outstanding issue and will be resolved when the time comes but I never chose myself to come and live here. Remember I was prime minister, so it is under those circumstances that I then came to live here?" 

Tsvangirai is right his Highlands mansion together with all the other loot MDC (and Zanu PF) leaders have accrued are outstanding issues that must be resolved. There is no doubt that Zimbabwe cannot afford to buy its leaders such expensive luxuries when millions are dying for the lack of the most basic necessities of life.

Mugabe has encouraged a very dangerous political culture where people go into public life not to serve but to enrich themselves first and foremost. It is little wonder that politics is now overcrowded with the riff-raff and villains. We need to do some serious spring cleaning if the nation is ever to get some public spirited leaders back into politics.

What is at issue here Mr Tsvangirai is not that anyone wants you to live in the bush but that you traded the whole nation’s best chance since independence to end the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship peaceful for the tyrant giving you the highlands mansion! You had a decent house in Stratehaven but your greed got the better of you. Your selfishness has condemned millions of our people to abject poverty and despair and hundreds of thousands of them will die unnecessarily. You have served the nation poorly as Prime Minister and it is only right that the nation should not reward you for your callous and cruel betrayal by allowing you to keep the bribe Mugabe paid you not to implement even one reform! 

Tsvangirai’s excuse for selling out the nation for the Highlands mansion or else live in the bush is no different those blacks who hunted down and sold their kith and kin to white slave traders for a piece of calico cloth claiming he needed the cloth to cover his nakedness! It was infinitely better that those blacks went naked if they could not find other ways to clothe themselves than for millions of slave to suffer and die instead. There is little we can do to reverse the rig elections and the consequences that have followed that tragic reality; still we can make sure that Tsvangirai never keeps the mansions. Why should he be rewarded for betraying millions of our people!

ZEC admission of 2013 election irregularities is not good enough it must declare the result null and void!

It is disappointing that Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) is still failing to take the seriously flawed July 2013 elections with the seriousness it deserves. In its latest report to parliament ZEC admits to being stampeded into the election but only dwells on the minor issues and is silent on the big issues.

"On the negative side, the new constitution imposed new duties and obligations on the commission that the commission had no time to pilot test or rehearse on before the actual poll," reads the report.  "The special vote for members of the disciplined forces and staff of the commission who were to be away from wards on voting day was one such new feature introduced by the Electoral Act that in hindsight should have been rehearsed before it was implemented. The commission would be the first to admit that the implementation of the special vote posed a number of logistical challenges that must be addressed and avoided at all costs in the future."

ZEC report is silent on the increase of polling station from 2 000 to 9 000 just two days before the elections; the failure by the Police to investigate the cases of bussed voters, we all saw on our TVs; the failure to produce voters roll, even now a year after the elections; etc. The voters roll is the smoking gun of this rigged vote!

The special vote and other issues the report dwelt on at length were problems but these were feathers and not the meat of the 2013 elections. If ZEC had addressed the big issues then the report would not have failed to conclude that the whole electoral process was NOT free, fair and credible.

Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown but for a year now has failed to address the economic problems behind it because of the political crisis caused by the blatant rigging of the July 2013 elections. It was ZEC’s responsibility to ensure the elections were free, fair and credible and, given that they were not, it was ZEC’s responsibility to say so. ZEC has ducked its responsibility one both accounts and this half-hearted admission that the July 2013 elections were not as they should have been is not good enough.

ZEC should stop fiddling around and declare the whole electoral process was not free, fair and credible and thus results of the 2013 elections are null and void!

ZEC, Zanu PF MPs, Zanu PF cabinet and President Mugabe himself should all stop fiddling and admit the 2013 elections were rigged, this regime is illegitimate, so that the nation can start the task of holding free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe is not going to address the economic meltdown without first resolving the issue legitimacy. This issue is not going away, sooner or later Zanu PF will be force to bite the bullet and deal with it!

Signed: Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Source: http://www.bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-53

Mugabe has ruled Zanu PF and country as crow on a high perch crapping on those below!

The factional fighting in Zanu PF is heating up and whilst the factional members are slogging it out in a vicious no-hold-barred and take-no-prisoners fight, they all take it in turn to shower Mugabe with praise as if to say he can do no wrong. If anything it is Mugabe himself who has drummed the hornet by parachuting his wife Grace to lead the women’s league in violation of the party rules. It is this Mugabe can do no wrong mentality that concerns me!

When a senior Zanu PF leader like Rugare Gumbo talk of “Anyone who misdirects their focus to dwell on petty, narrow and immature politics is not only showing disrespect to President Mugabe who is genuinely determined to improve the welfare of the people- but is on the wrong side of history and should be ashamed of himself or herself." It is clear why the country is in such a serious mess!

The country is facing a serious economic meltdown millions of our people have been thrown into a life of abject poverty and despair and here is someone who still believes Mugabe is doing fine. This not just anyone but one has had his hands on the levers of power and therefore could and should have done something to stop this regime dragging the nation into this mess. The sheer stupidity of leaders like Rugare Gumbo is breath-taking.

No wonder Mugabe has all these years ran circles round the Zanu PF leaders and treated them all with the uttermost contempt whenever he pleased. Mugabe is the first secretary of Zanu PF but not in the conventional sense of first amongst equals but more like the crow on the top perch crapping on all those below!

The truth is Zanu PF has failed to deliver mass prosperity and has delivered instead mass poverty. If someone as senior as Rugare Gumbo does not have the courage to tell Mugabe that simple reality then who will! It is clear Gumbo did not have the courage to speak the truth and the least he should have done then is to shut up. Instead he is showering Mugabe with praise whilst heaping all the blame on those around the tyrant as if it is unthinkable for Mugabe to be fallible!

It is pleased that Mugabe and the whole Zanu PF edifice are collapsing; the dictatorship is rotten to the core and it is now collapsing like a rotten watermelon. Zimbabwe needs a new political system in which those in leadership positions have the humility to accept that they are first and foremost fallible mortals and not demigods and therefore they are accountable to their follow leaders and the public at large affected by their decisions.

Mr Rugare Gumbo, Mugabe is corrupt, neurotic and murderous tyrant; he has fcuked up big time and so too have you. You have sat there all these 34 years dozing and said and done nothing to stop all this madness!