@Vince
Your articles have become the compulsory “must read” for
all serious political thinkers and this article is no different. I, for one,
would like to thank you for you great contribution to the national discourse.
“Simply because Tsvangirai has failed in the past does not
make him an undesirable choice for the millions of Zimbabweans out there who
want to see the back of Mugabe,” you said.
“Of course we have academics world-wide who
have written Tsvangirai off, but we must always remember that these are
theoretical or academic analysts and most have not done any practical research
on the ground to measure the extent of Tsvangirai’s support or lack of it. So
we should not hurry to conclude that these analyses are correct, it would be
dangerous for us to do so.”
What is dangerous here is the failure to write
off Tsvangirai not just because he “has failed in the past” but, more
significantly, how he failed. Tsvangirai had the majority in parliament and in
cabinet; had the support of SADC Heads, the guarantors of the GPA, for the democratic
reforms agreed in the GPA which everyone agreed were necessary for free, fair
and credible elections would be implemented and he had five years to get these
reforms implemented. And yet not even one reform was ever implemented. Not one!
Tsvangirai was warned of the need to implement
the reforms repeatedly throughout the five years of the GNU but MDC paid no
heed.
There are no other rational reasons why
Tsvangirai failed to implement even one reform and then fail to pay heed to all
the advice given to him on this matter other than that he is corrupt and incompetent.
Mugabe laid a honey trap for the MDC
leaders and once they tasted the honey they forgot their promised of bring
democratic changes and refused to be reminded.
There is no doubt that Tsvangirai believed in
his heart of hearts that MDC would still win the elections even if Zanu PF tried
all their dirtiest tricks to rig. Tsvangirai literally challenged Mugabe to
rig, like the boxer who asks his opponent to hit him with his best shot! Last
year’s vote rigging was blatant in that no voters roll was ever produced, the
number of polling stations was increased from 2 000 to a staggering 9 000 just
two days before the elections, Mugabe bussed in voters, etc. Mugabe did hit
Tsvangirai with his best shot – a sledge hammer – knocking him stone cold.
Of course inviting Mugabe to rig the elections
showed just how breathtakingly incompetent Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are!
What should be remembered is the fact that the
only way Zimbabweans are ever going to see the back of Mugabe is be
implementing all the reforms first and then holding free, fair and credible elections.
If Tsvangirai because he is corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent failed to
get even one reform implemented during the GNU, when he had all the trump
cards, it is naïve to think that he will do so now when it is Mugabe and Zanu
PF who have the trump cards.
“No credible opposition has emerged to occupy
the vacuum left by the disappointment of millions in the last elections and by
Tsvangirai’s uninspiring behaviour on issues of accountability and fidelity,”
you argue. “Questions on his “suitability” still remain, but the masses hardly
use the same criteria as we do when it comes to electing their leaders.”
Yes millions of Zimbabweans were disappointed
with MDC’s poor showing in last year’s elections but how many of them were
disappointed with MDC’s failure to implement the reforms? Even now, with the
benefit of hindsight and a year for the reality to sink in very few Zimbabweans
appreciate the critical importance of the reforms and the seriousness of MDC’s
failure to get even one reform implemented.
I agree, “the masses hardly use the same criteria
as we do when it comes to electing their leaders”. In this case the criteria
the masses use has failed to make them see Tsvangirai for the corrupt and breathtakingly
incompetent leader he is. This is not a matter of just some “academics
world-wide” saying so it is so, this is the political reality.
Of course if Zimbabweans want a corrupt and breathtakingly
incompetent leader, even one who has
just proven to be just that beyond all reasonable doubt, it is their democratic
right. Just as it was their democratic right to have elected Mugabe, a tyrant
before that. The people must know that they is a dear price to be paid for
election a corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent Tsvangirai again; it is almost
certain that he will NOT deliver any meaningful change.
“After all political power is about numbers
and not theory,” Mr Musewe tells us. That is not true in Zimbabwe because
Tsvangirai has had the numbers but has never had the political power!
18 comments:
@ John West
Have free, fair and credible elections and you will have set the nation on a recovery path not that the country will never any mistake, they will do that, what matters here is that this time the nation will LEARN from the mistakes and not be stuck as is the case at present!
@ Burning Spear
The trouble with people like you is that you have never understood what the reforms were about and how they should have been implemented but are quick to judge. When Tsvangirai said the Copac constitution would bring free, fair and credible elections you believed him and voted yes in the 16 March 2013 referendum. We now know the elections were not free and fair and instead of asking for an explanation you have already accept Tsvangirai's feeble excuses.
The first step in the implementation of the reforms was for parliament to draft and pass the proposed reforms. Tsvangirai had the majority in parliament so MDC was assured of the proposals being passed. There was nothing for parliament to pass because MDC failed to come up with even one proposal.
A functional democracy demands that the ruled must hold the rulers to account that is only possible when the ruled take the trouble to understand the issues on the national agenda so they can ask the rulers the pertinent questions. The Zimbabwe electorate is composed of voters who are so gullible and naive they will follow blindly like sheep a breathtakingly incompetent leader. Even when there is a mountain of evidence of just how incompetent the leader is, still they will disregard the evidence and follow him!
Zimbabwe has no chance of ever getting out of this political and economic mess; not as long as the majority of the voters are content to spend all their lives with their heads buried in people like Tsvangirai's backsides and cannot think much less listen to reason!
"MDC was a junior partner in the GNU" my a***! Did you ever ask Tsvangirai why he accepted being a junior partner knowing he would not delivery the democratic changes the nation was dying for? Of course not, you never thought to ask and we both know why!
@ Burning Spear
Am I! Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections because MDC failed to implement not even one reform necessary to stop him rigging the elections; that is the truth and the reality existing today.
MDC did not believe Mugabe would win the elections even if he tried to rig when they were proven wrong they have been at sixes and sevens are to what to say; some are saying Mugabe did not rig the vote others are saying he did. There is confusion in the MDC camp, that is clear.
The one thing I know for sure is none of the MDC leaders will ever get Zanu PF to implement the reforms now, they are simply too breathtakingly incompetent to do that!
@Burning Spear
Are you calling me elitist because I dare point out the truth; that the masses followed blindly a breathtakingly incompetent leader like Tsvangirai and that if they had allowed themselves to stop and think they would have realised their mistake? Well if that is so then I will wear the ”Elitist” badge with honour.
The one feature that distinguishes mankind from all other animals is our ability to think. The people of Zimbabwe are no different from anyone else out there, they will think things out for themselves if allowed to do so. They have the great misfortune of having a regime like Zanu PF in power that has invested so much in time, money and other resources in brainwashing the population. MDC has not been a help since they failed to implement the necessary media reforms necessary for a free media and freedom of expression. MDC too has its own half-wits spin doctors telling people lies about Tsvangirai so they will not see him for the breathtakingly incompetent leader he is!
What would you call yourself, telling the masses the lie that they are doing fine and the cleverest voters on earth. Actually to be fair to you, you have failed to see the MDC fcuk and hence the reason why you too are still solidly behind Tsvangirai. You really need to get your head out of Tsvangirai’s a***. The Human brain needs oxygen to function properly your brain is half-dead after all the years of being starved of oxygen!
How is it possible that so many Zimbabweans went through all the primary school, secondary, high school and many even have university education and yet they have come out as thick as a brick? Elitism is often associated with formal education and having common sense; we have a lot of Zimbabweans with university degrees many with PhDs (some earned after three months’ work) but very few have the common sense.
Zimbabwe would be a peaceful, free and prosperous country today if it had two or three in cabinet with common sense, for example, instead of a President alone with seven University degrees and more PhD and Degrees galore from the rest of his bloated cabinet but not even one amongst them with and common sense. The country is in this mess because of the years of pursuing policies that defy common sense!
@ Nyongolo
Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Douglas Monzora and many others in the MDC are professionals and they did not get an reforms implemented. What has one's academic qualifications to do with anything?
You do not need a University Degree to know that the ZRP is not doing its duty of keeping law and order properly when Zanu PF thugs beat up people for no other reason than that they were wearing a MDC T-shirt and no one is arrested. My aunt in the rural areas who can hardly write know that is not right. When she voted for MDC it was on the understanding that Tsvangirai understood this problem and MDC would end this ZRP behaviour.
you can witter all you want about Tsvangirai being selfless, etc. the fact of the matter is he did not implement the democratic reforms that would have ended ZRP abusing their power and, most important of all, stopped Mugabe rigging the elections! The very fact that you cannot comprehend this simple fact say volumes about just how thick you are but worst of all it shows the country has no chance of ever getting out of this mess – not with such a thick electorate!
@ The seer
If God is in control then why do we have this mess?
Zimbabwe's political and economic problems are man-made and therefore with in the powers of us to solve . God does not do what man can do for himself. You are offering a heavenly solution to hide your real intention of fleecing the poor just like others like Makandiwa have been doing.
If one wants to get rich quick in Zimbabwe then go into politics or be a pastor!
We need to start thinking and stop behaving like a herd of wildebeests, hard wired to follow the animal in front without ever understanding or asking where it is going. Tsvangirai has blundered big time if we cannot ever see that then we really are refusing to think!
We are in this shit because we switched off in 1980 confident Mugabe will lead us to the promised land. In 2008 we switched off again as soon as we elected Tsvangirai confident he would deliver the democratic changes he promised. We are not getting out of this mess until we put on our thinking caps on! Following a failed leader like Tsvangirai is telling the whole world that we are not yet ready to get out of this mess and so we will stay a stew for another generation!
“Donette, I do not hate all white people, but I despise the British for what they have done to my country!” Mugabe said.
You article has failed to distinguish what the British did before independence, which we all can relate to and for which the war was fought to end these injustices. The truth is most of the injustices have continued after 1980 and it was Mugabe and Zanu PF who have perpetrated them although the tyrant has never tired of blaming the British.
Zimbabweans are yet to have a free, fair and credible elections after 35 years of independence; the British have absolutely nothing to do with this!
A Zanu PF candidate has won the Chitungwiza council by-election trouncing the MDC-T candidate 993 to 91.
In August 2014, following a string of similar trouncing, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party would no longer take part in any by-election in the country due its skewed electoral systems.
So it had taken MDC until August 2014 to finally realise that Zimbabwe's electoral system is "skewed"? Everybody else had seen this a long time ago; the democratic reforms agreed during the GPA in 2008 were meant to address this very problem. MDC had five years during the GNU to implement the reforms and failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
Now Tsvangirai tells the nation MDC will not take part in future elections unless the electoral system is reforms; he does not say how it is going to be reformed because he does not have a clue how it can be reformed now!
Zimbabwe's best chance to end this Zanu PF dictatorship was during the GNU and the chance was wasted because of MDC's breath-taking incompetence. Now the nation is paying dearly for the folly of electing MDC. Anyone who follows MDC after this only shows that they are incapable of learning from the past mistake!
@ Mavusana2
Even if they have finally learned the lesson and will not take part in future elections that will not help the nation which is now stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship. The point these idiotic stooges should have im-plemented the reforms when they had the chance to do so during the GNU.
How many times did motor-mouth Mwonzora assure the nation the rubbish Copac constitution would de-liver free and fair elections? He raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in allowance as co-chair of Co-pac and that was all he really cared about!
I am disappointed with any Zimbabwean who still supports MDC; what else does Tsvangirai, Biti, etc. have to do to convince these people that MDC leaders are idiots.
Yes we all make mistakes; many would kick themselves to be fooled by an idiot but when someone is fooled by the same idiot again and again and never even notices it then one has to question the sanity of the victim.
Zimbabwe is in this mess because we the people, the electorate, are easily fooled, foolish enough to follow blindly an idiot like Tsvangirai. Of course it is worrying that the electorate has learnt nothing and still follows MDC blindly; worrying because it means we are stuck in this mess!
@ Rude Chikala
Just because MDC was stupid enough not to implement the democratic reforms necessary to ensure elec-tions are free, fair and credible that does not mean the people of Zimbabwe have given up the fight to have a meaningful vote much less they do not see all the vote rigging by Zanu PF.
The people are more determined now than ever to have free, fair and credible elections and they will have that right and all the other rights too.
The economic meltdown is biting and Chinamasa has already admitted the present chaotic way the regime is running the nation is "unsustainable" and the regime is looking for a political solution. The regime would have wanted a GNU mark-2 with MDC where it is sure to retain all the political power as before. That is not going to happen because MDC have lost all political credibility.
The only way out with any political credibility is for Zanu PF to step down and allow all the reforms to be implemented. Implement the reforms and the people will have their free, fair and credible elections! Of course, I do not have to tell you what will happen to Zanu PF in those elections, everyone knows!
@ Drudge report
I agree Mwonzora is a charlatan first and foremost for having failed to implement the reforms during the GNU years which would have stop the vote rigging by Zanu PF.
Now that the MDC idiots have allowed the horse to bolt out they are showing the world why they are truly the village idiots by closing the gate so we cannot even get the horse back in! Everyone knows that Mwonzora himself will be back in Nyanga to try to win back his parliamentary seat if there was a by-election there! What is the point of talking endlessly about boycotting elections when everyone knows you are content with the little crumbs Zanu PF gives you!
The only good thing here is that Zanu PF has a new and more determined and savvy adversary than the breathtakingly incompetent and easily bamboozled MDC – the economy. The economic meltdown has its python coils round the regime and it is squeezing hard; 62% of Zimbabweans are poor and 16% or 2 million are now living in abject poverty. Let us see how Mugabe and Zanu PF can rig those numbers the same way the party has been rigging electoral numbers!
@ Makate
No elections should NOT be skewed and to take part in a election knowing it is skewed, you had the chance to ensure it was free and fair but failed to do something about it, is the height of stupidity! MDC are sitting at the very epoch of political stupidity! What is the point of calling for a boycott that will achieve nothing because the other opposition parties will not respect?
What the electorate should be asking themselves what foolishness made them elect and blindly follow such an incompetent party like MDC all these years! At the end of the day it is us the electorate who pay the heaviest price for MDC leaders' folly. 2 million Zimbabweans are now living in abject poverty and meanwhile Tsvangirai has his Highlands mansion and even motor-mouth built himself a "hotel" size house with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received as Copac co-chairman! After betraying the people, MDC leaders are now asking the impoverished people to pay for their upkeep in membership fees and the people are paying- there is simply no end to some people’s foolishness!
@ Stewart Murewa
What makes you think the people of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya have never aspired for freedom, liberty, free and fair elections, etc. just like anyone else? How long do you think Zanu PF can continue to deny the people of Zimbabwe their basic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections under the falsehood that the people do not want these things it is western propaganda that the do.
No amount of brutal repression and vote rigging will stop people from aspiring for freedom, liberty and human dignity. Regimes only manage to stop regime change by resorting to brutal repression and vote rigging but that has never extinguished the human spirit and its fight to be free. Never!
No amount of Zanu PF propaganda can convince the people of Zimbabwe the nation is prosperous when millions of them are out of work, there is no running water and all they can see is rot and decay. They can see how the ruling elite have grown fat and a flouting their lives of unparalleled luxuries by throwing $ 1 million birthdays and $5 million weddings.
The people of Zimbabwe are desperate for regime change because they know that is the only way to end the corruption and oppression that has reduced their lives into grinding poverty and despair. They want regime change and do not need the west to tell them they do or you to tell them otherwise. Years of abuse and the worsening economic reality in Zimbabwe is telling them all they need to know.
The Arab spring that swept away the Egyptian and Libya dictators has reached Zimbabwe and this Zanu PF dictatorship is being swept away, the writing is already on the wall!
Grace is a naive woman who have lived in her own make-believe world in which she can grab all the land and wealth she wanted, throw a $5 million wedding for her daughter, be awarded a PhD after three months, etc., etc. Now she has her eyes on political power she thinks by branding all those opposed to Zanu PF continued rule retrogressive and getting the party’s supporters to say “down” with such people will propel her to political power.
Madam, the real adversary Mugabe has been screaming day and night to put down is the economic melt-down. The mega-deals with China and Russia have had no effect; companies have continued to close forc-ing more workers on to the Everest Mountain high pile of unemployed. 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty already and the numbers are increasing with each passing day. As long as Zanu PF remains in power the economic meltdown will get worse.
The economic meltdown is hitting the nation hard and unless something is down to achieve economic re-covery Mugabe and Zanu PF’s hold on political power has never been more tenuous.
Forget Tsvangirai and MDC; unless Grace can shout “Down with economic meltdown!” and the economy improves then her hold on political power is not as secure as she thinks!
@ Nick Mangwana
“It is sad when those very articulate and intelligible people use their eloquence to speak and write negatively about their own country,” you say.
No my friend the real tragedy is when people like you complete ignore the tragic waste of the nation’s resources and riches and the human suffering and needless deaths all around you – the bigger pic-ture – and focus on small and insignificant part just to prove your point.
“All those 16 Universities opened in the past 34 years count for nothing? That extraordinary literacy rate, the best in Africa, was that a small achievement?” You say, for example.
But what good is it for a nation to have all those graduates only for them to walk the streets selling air time cards? Suring there is something drastically wrong in a country with so many well educated people, “the best in Africa” you say that unemployment should soar to the nauseating heights of 90% plus and the nation is not even at war!
Two weeks ago a UNICEF report said 62% of the people in Zimbabwe are poor and 16% or 2 million live in abject poverty. Zimbabwe is one of the richest countries in the world so why should so many be forced to live in grinding poverty and despair?
Forget the Zanu PF lies of the sanctions “imposed by the evil West” being the cause of the country’s economic collapse because those on the sanctions list have grown incredibly rich not poor. The only logical explanation is that the country is rotten to core with corruption which has allowed the few with political power and connections to get filthy rich at the expense of the millions condemn to poverty and despair.
Mugabe has vehemently denied there is corruption allowing this cancer to grow and spread. He could never stop the corruption because he has himself benefited from it as can be seen from him having a $1 million birthday party, $ 5 million wedding, lives in palatial Blue Roof mansion, etc.
The people themselves would have dealt an electoral blow to end the corruption were it not for the brutal political repression in which Zanu PF has systematically denied the people their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life itself for selfish political gain.
Zanu PF is in terminal decline and regime change is now as certain as the sun rising tomorrow. Mu-gabe and his party thugs will have to explain the blood of over 30 000 they murdered these last 34 years. I do not believe the regime’s opening of 16 University (some awarding phony PhDs) will cut the ice as justification for the murders!
For justice to be truly served then people like you, Nick, the cheerleaders and propagandists, who have egged the tyrant along all these years have to be thoroughly investigated. It is hard to believe you are that stupid not to see the glaring injustice and suffering of millions of others; the tyrant must paying you well for your blind loyalty. Zimbabwe have more than its fair share on man like you who have sold their own mothers for the piece of calico cloth and were proud they had a mother to sell. Someone has to take away the calico cloth and throw you in jail for selling out!
“You can also use your good diction to sell your country and its virtues; talking good about your country is not propaganda,” you say. You are guilty of praising Mugabe and Zanu PF to the heavens as if the regime was the embodiment of virtue and good governance and not the a corrupt and murderous regime we know!
“Whites have never liked us. They will not even offer you tea with sugar if you visit their homes, so let’s not be fooled when they come here with aid. It’s meant to hoodwink us. Personally, I think Western aid stinks,” Grace Mugabe said at a rally in Chinhoyi.
If you can afford to throw a $ 5 million wedding for your daughter and can pay $ 3 million to go to Singapore for an eye check-up you do not need donors and can even afford to insult them. But if you are the ordinary Zimbabwe who knows that 98% of the drugs and medicine in the country has been paid for by donors you would be very thankful to the donors. The Mugabes must think Zimbabweans are really stupid not to notice the glaring difference between their own lives and those of the filthy rich ruling elite! Everyone in all the cities and towns in Zimbabwe has experience the problem of having no running water for lasting for weeks, months and even years for some parts and yet the regime splashes $5 million on Mugabe's daughter's wedding. The glaring difference between the rich and poor has become too big to ignore.
Grace is right there are just too many "cowards" in Zanu PF who are have allowed the madness to go on all those years and said nothing. One is remembered of the late Nathan Shamuyarira who called on Margaret Don-go to witness his miserable existence. It was Ms Dongo who told the world how Zanu PF had cynically painted Shamuyarira's house the day he died to hide the decades of neglect, rot and decay.
All these years Shamuyarira and all the other party grandees have been too cowardly to tell Mugabe that the Zanu PF dictatorship had failed to deliver mass prosperity and was riding roughshod over the people's dreams and hope of freedom, liberty and human dignity. They should have told him a long time ago that he must go because he is a corrupt and murderous tyrant! And whether Grace can see it or not Mugabe and Zanu PF are going!
“I think that he (Robert Mugabe) is the only gift from God that Zimbabwe has. He is the biggest gift that we have,” Grace Mugabe said to applause from the church leaders.
“His wisdom is great. I am talking of a person I know, he is a blessed person with a vision that is why I managed to (build this orphanage).”
Wisdom, what wisdom? The country is in ruins, millions are out of work, 300 000 children or 80% are out of school, 16% or 2 million are living in abject poverty, 30 000 have been murdered for selfish political gain, etc. When is the wisdom in driving the nation into the depths of despair and murdering innocent people?
It is a great tragedy that Mugabe has corrupted so many of our institutions, the Police, the Media, the Judiciary, the Universities and now even our Churches. Gone are the days when Church leaders would denounce tyrants for the suffering they were bringing to the poorest and weakest in society. In Zimbabwe the church leaders are pandering to the dictates of the tyrant and even publicly haggle over the price for their support.
In their requests to the First Lady, the pastors said they wanted to be considered for farms and be given stands to prepare for their retirement from the ministry.
“I am now the women’s league leader and my task is to grow the membership of the party,” responded Grace.
“I therefore have a small request that I want you to do for me, go and buy Zanu PF membership cards. Is that not fair?” she said to applause. The Pastors and their wives applauded whilst the rest of the nation hang our collective heads in shame. When did we sink this low!
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