Friday, 28 November 2014

Mbeki will not apologise to Tsvangirai over Khampepe report - not that the upstart deserved one!

Former SA President Thembo Mbeki gives a plausible explanation why he did not want the Khampepe report made public and why he will not apologise for not making the report public. The MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been calling for the apology certainly does not deserve the apology!

President Mbeki explained that the two SA judges were asked to look at the legal framework in Zimbabwe’s election process and not on the contact of the 2002 elections. There were other bodies like South African Parliamentary Observer Mission (SAPOM), constituted and deployed by Parliament without any intervention by the South African government and an essentially civil society 50-member South African Observer Mission (SAOM) from SA alone tasked to observe the elections. They all gave favourable reports contrary to the Khampepe report. The later had also exceeded their brief in an area others had more direct involvement than them.

The SA government had based its position to accept the elections as free and fair on the basis of the reports from all other observer groups rather than Khampepe report.  

The SA government had resisted realising the Khampepe report because it was never meant for public consumption from the start.

On the basis of the reasons above, the former President said he would not apologise.

“We owe and will make no apology to anybody whatsoever both about resisting the publication of the Khampepe report and respecting the determinations made by the SAPOM, the SAOM and the other African observer missions about the 2002 Zimbabwe presidential elections,” he said.

Ever since the release of the Khampepe report after a court ruling compelling the SA government to do so, Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has demanded an apology from SADC and SA, accusing them undermining democracy in Zimbabwe by failing to realise the report.

"When the genocide in Rwanda was taking place, the majority of African leaders remained silent about it. Likewise, when violence flared up in Zimbabwe with innocent civilians being butchered in broad daylight, Sadc countries turned a blind eye,” charged Tsvangirai.

"To an extent, the spirited efforts to hide this report shows that South Africa has wittingly or unwittingly aided the subversion of democratic processes in Zimbabwe, wantonly violating official Sadc guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections, which they helped to create."

In the face of all the other Election Observers from SA , SADC and AU giving their thumbs up to the 2002 elections it was not unreasonable for President Thembo Mbeki and SADC to go with the finding of the other bodies. It is therefore unreasonable of MDC to ask him to apologise for having made what is a rational decision.

Would making the Khampepe report public back in 2002 have made any difference to Zimbabwe’s politics? It is hard to see how since the main political player, MDC, was well aware of Zanu PF’s political culture of intimidation, rape, vote rigging and even murders. Sure Tsvangirai did not need a report by SA judges to tell him Zanu PF rigged elections.

It is preposterous that Tsvangirai of all people should be the one accusing SADC Heads of State of “wittingly or unwittingly aided the subversion of democratic processes in Zimbabwe” when they are the ones who reminded him again and again to implement the democratic reforms throughout the GNU years and he ignored them. If MDC had implemented the reforms then Mugabe would not have rigged the 2013 elections.

SADC Heads of State said of Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders that they were “enjoying themselves whilst in government and forgetting why they were there”; out of sheer frustration at MDC’s failure to implement even one democratic reform.

It is Tsvangirai who should be apologising to SADC and, most important of all, to the people Zimbabwe for failing to implement even one democratic reform and thus allowed Mugabe to rig the elections and landing the nation in this mess!


It is bad enough that neither Tsvangirai nor any of his MDC colleagues has ever apologised to the people of Zimbabwe for wasting the best chance this nation has ever had in 34 years to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. It is an insult to the nation that Tsvangirai should seek to blame SADC for his and MDC’s breath-taking incompetence.     

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

To be forewarned is to be forearmed: Mugabe has ruthlessly crashed Mujuru, a cde-in-arms, he will do a lot worse to povo!

Nothing could illustrate more graphically just how hopeless, powerless and helpless the ordinary person is in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe than the political machinations that have resulted in the political downfall of VP Mujuru and her supporters. One minute she is sizing her bum on the throne and the next minute, quick as a flash, she is being dragged by her bum in the gutter! What happened?

VP Mujuru was accused of many things, her principle accuser by Grace Mugabe, and let me say here and now that none of those charges made any sense in the context of Zanu PF. I will go through some of those:
·         She was accused of being lazy: she is VP to a psych phonic tyrant and control freak who has never allowed anyone else chair a cabinet meeting all the many times he is out of the country. Like everyone else in his regime, the poor woman was not allowed to say, do or even touch anything!

·         She was accused of being incompetent: Mugabe wanted her as his deputy precisely because she was not a full-shilling. Was not that the same reason he appointed Simon Muzenda, before her? She has been VP for a decade now and this had not come up until now? Nonsense!

·         She was accused of being corrupt: of course she is corrupt and has been involved in corrupt activities for donkey years. He late husband was a billionaire in his own right and so is she; they did not make their fortune in one or two deals or over the last year but instead had their fingers in many pies, not just trading in illicit diamonds, over the last decades. She and her husband are not the only Zanu PF leaders who are corrupt.

Grace Mugabe has just hosted a $ 5 million wedding for their daughter Bona; Grace owes, by her own admission, the biggest dairy farm in the country; Mugabes live in a palatial mansion worth $ 20 million at least; etc. She does not expect the nation to believe that she made all her fortune from investing her former typist wages wisely.

What is heart-breaking about the ruling elite becoming multimillionaire and billionaires is that it is happening at a time total economic meltdown sending unemployment to soaring heights of 90% plus causing tragic human suffering. 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans are already living in abject poverty and the situation is getting worse with each day nothing is done to end this criminal waste of the nation’s resources through rampant corruption.

·         Mai Mujuru is accused of wanting to be president: well what she is being accused of to be more precise is keeping her current post as VP which would have made her favourite to take over when Mugabe goes. Mnangagwa has been doing his uttermost to muscle in and so too has Grace herself. “Why can I not be president?” she asked in deadly earnest.

This was the cardinal sinner, Mai Mujuru was charged of, swiftly tried in a kangaroo court, found guilty and now, just as swiftly, is being punished. It is the way the whole process has been handled that sends a chill down every thinking Zimbabwean’s spine.

·         When Mugabe accused Mujuru and others of plotting to kill him; that in Zanu PF dirty politics was a Fattah on all the plotters. Mugabe has once again elevated canvasing for political support into plotting to murder, just to stir up the murderous passions of Zanu PF thugs.

Hyenas roll in game dung to mask their scent for better hunting. When the hyena clan want to evict one member they pretend the target is game looking like a hyena to fool them and, of course, they will not be easily fooled. Mugabe has just soaked his political challengers in goat blood and the Zanu PF clan is baying for their blood.

There are a number of things that are worryingly wrong with the way Mai Mujuru and her faction supporters have been dealt with and chief amount them are:

1.    If a position is an elective position, how is one supposed to garner for support if no one is allowed to have followers?
2.    On what basis did Mugabe decide to call Mai Mujuru faction divisive and therefore not acceptable and not do the same with the Mnangagwa faction.
3.       Whatever Mujuru and her supporters had done they were surely entitled to be brought before a properly constituted disciplinary hearing and due process followed giving them a chance to defend themselves of the charges.
4.       The way one faction has carried out a campaign of intimidation to force elected officials belonging to Mujuru factions out of office smacks of the same tactics of intimidation and lawlessness that has become a hallmark of Zimbabwe’s elections.
5.    The way the politburo has been bullied into changing the party’s constitution to facilitate a desire electoral outcome for Mugabe is too symptomatic of what has happened repeatedly in national elections.

Mai Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa and many, many others are Zanu PF grandees of the party and not just ordinary card carrying members. If they are being treated so contemptuous without any consideration for their freedoms and basic human rights it is little wonder the ordinary Zimbabwean with even more contemptuous.

If Mugabe can rig his own party’s election and cheat his own former comrades in arms there is no question of him not doing even worse to the ordinary Zimbabweans whom he has always treated as subjects, not citizens worthy of the freedoms and human rights other people the world over take for granted.

The ruthlessness with which Mugabe and Mnangagwa have dealt with Mai Mujuru and others shows that they will stop at nothing to get power. If any ordinary Zimbabwean should dare stand in the way he or she will be mercilessly crashed into the dust.

The 34 years of mismanagement and corruption has resulted in total economic meltdown sending unemployment into nauseating heights of 90% plus, 16% or 2 million are already living in abject poverty. The situation it set to get even worse as long as Zanu PF remains in power. Mnangagwa and his faction, who are now set to take over from Mugabe will be more determined than ever to hang on to power at all cost. Mnangagwa will have the crown superglued to his head in a “Until death do us part!” oath.

So the scene is set with the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans in a desperate, desperate bid for political change to alleviate their tragic economic suffering on the one hand. On the other hand a newly crowned ruling elite desperate to maintain the status quo. The Zanu PF regime emerging from the on-going dog-eat-dog fight will be weaker numerically than the old Zanu PF but it will make-up for than in sheer ruthlessness.


In the clash of the titans, the ordinary defenceless Zimbabweans against Zanu PF it must be remembered it a murderous tyrannical regime we are dealing with! Mugabe and Mnangagwa took off the velvet glove hiding the iron fist to crash Mujuru, Gumbo and others; they will now using the fists to silence the populous groaning from the ill effects of the economic meltdown! To be forewarned is to be forearmed!

Monday, 24 November 2014

MDC using Khampepe report as scapegoat just as Zanu PF have used sanctions

The trouble with people with little or nothing to offer is that they easily get carried away; MDC – T is getting carried away with the Khampepe report just as Zanu PF got carried away with the sanction. What we must not allow these narrow minded people to think they are carrying us away with them!

The Zimbabwe economy was already in serious trouble after the two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes of 1990 to 1995 and 1995 to 2000 failed to produce any meaningful economic recovery. The violent seizure of white owned farms by Mugabe and his cronies that started in 2000 was more like the avalanche that buried the camel. The farm seizures destroyed the agricultural sector, the engine of the Zimbabwe economy, sending the economy into a spiral free fall from which it has never recovered.

The Western countries imposed target sanctions on Mugabe and a few in his inner circle in protest at his regime’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2002 when the economy was already in free fall. Mugabe took the sanctions as God-sent, the regime and its propaganda machine swung into action and for the last 12 have blamed all, and I mean ALL, Zimbabwe’s economic problems on “the illegal sanctions imposed by the British imperialists and the western allies”.

Ever since last year’s rigged election MDC-T led by Tsvangirai, MDC led by Ncube and the break-away MDC-Renewal have all been at sixes and sevens as to what to say about the elections. Tendai Biti is on record denouncing the elections as fraudulent only to revise his statement to say Zanu PF won because they had a better campaign. Everyone knows that Mugabe rigged the elections, what has made it so difficult for MDC leaders to come out and admit it is that they will also have to admit that they failed to implement the reforms necessary to stop Mugabe rigging the vote!

The last release of Khampepe report has been as God-sent scapegoat as sanctions were for Zanu PF.

The Khampepe report concluded that the 2002 Zimbabwe elections were not free and fair. Successive SA governments have refused to make the report public until know. MDC – T led by none other than Tsvangirai himself – no doubt with one eye for another Usan Bolt dash to the Netherland Embassy at the first sign of trouble – have seized on this delay and now blame it for the rigged 2013 elections as if to say if MDC had known Mugabe rigged elections they would have implemented all the reforms. Nonsense!

All the Election Observers to Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections released their reports within days after the presidential run-off elections and their findings were unanimous – the election were not free, fair and credible. Mugabe and Zanu PF accepted that and it was the basis for the GPA to which Tsvangirai as leader of one MDC faction and Arthur Mutambara as the leader of the other faction are the other two parties in the agreement. The GNU was tasked, above all else, to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the next elections would be free, fair and credible.

So the GPA shows MDC leaders knew, if they did not know already, that Mugabe and Zanu PF will rig the elections again just as they had done in 2008. After 2008, the Khampepe report, would not have added anything new that the world did not know already.

Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the 2013 elections because MDC leaders failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in all their five years in the GNU. Mugabe granted MDC leaders a seat on the gravy train and they promptly forgot about the reforms.

“MDC vadzidza kudya vanyerere!” as one Mugabe crony cynically remarked at the time. (MDC have learnt to enjoy the gravy train good life and not rock the boat!) Ever since Tsvangirai got his $ 4 million Highlands mansion to which he has now superglued himself like a binnacle to a rock he never said or did anything to upset Mugabe for the rest of the GNU. Talking about implementing the reforms would have send Mugabe into volcanic rage!

Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends believed that even without one reform implemented they would still win the elections and so they confident went ahead disregarding SADC’s advice not to. Within hours of voting starting, MDC leaders and supporters were running around like headless chickens; the vote rigging was massive and blatant. In failing to implement the reforms MDC leaders showed that they are breathtakingly incompetent!

MDC leaders owe the people Zimbabwe and our SADC friends an apology for failing to implement the democratic reforms which allowed Mugabe to rig the 2013 elections landing the nation into this mess.

“SADC turned a blind eye when innocent civilians were being butchered in broad daylight and is therefore to blame for the current economic meltdown in Zimbabwe - the result of an illegitimate regime derived from yet another stolen election in 2013, with the full complicity of SADC, and with South Africa as the chief sponsor of the "free and fair" verdict,” said MDC-T UK and Ireland press statement. They are just following Tsvangirai and MDC-T SA in this.

No amount of propaganda by Mugabe has changed the fact that the Zimbabwe’s economy is in a mess because of mismanagement and corruption and not sanctions. Indeed by burying its head in the sand the regime has allowed these cancerous problems to grow and spread and today they are as big as tennis balls and are killing the economy.

Similarly, no amount of scapegoating by MDC will change the fact that their breath-taking incompetence has costed Zimbabwe the best chance in a generation to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Indeed these MDC leaders and their supporters’ continued barking up the wrong tree if not just annoying it is costing the nation support. The world would like to help Zimbabwe end this Zanu PF dictatorship but first the nation has to demonstrate that it is serious; how can anyone think we are serious if we endorse stupid statements from Tsvangirai blaming others for his own incompetence!  

Friday, 21 November 2014

All Mugabe's powers are gone with the demise of Mujuru faction to counter balance Mnangagwa faction.

The Mujuru faction is finished so what next? That is the billion dollar question that will engage the nation now.
Mugabe's political strength up to now was bases on his ability to play one faction of Zanu PF against the other(s) in which he, with no faction of his own, was then seen as the compromise candidate capable of uniting the warring factions. Sitting on the fence in calm weather is one thing but do so in the tabulate times, arising from his advanced age and ill health and thus the real possibility that he may drop dead any minute, is another matter.
You will never see a monkey sitting on a fence with gale force winds blowing.
Full marks to Mugabe he did pick the winning Mnangagwa faction when push came to shove but he is not naïve not to know that within the new political set up he is now weak and powerless. He and his wife have been trying to bolster their own positions in the new political reality by Mugabe almost desperate attempt to rehabilitate the likes of Didymus Mutasa from the discredited Mujuru factions so Mugabe can have other power base still left in the central committee and politburo to counter the Mnangagwa block.
It is widely believed that it is Grace Mugabe who is pushing had for Edna Madzongwe to be appointed VP to replace Mujuru ahead of Oppah Muchinguri just to take some sting out of the Mnangagwa-Jonathan Moyo-Oppah Muchinguri (3M) axis of power that has now emerged.
Most members from the former PF Zapu grouping have sided with the Mujuru faction but except for one or two like Jabulani Sibanda most have been careful to take no sides. The likes of Simon Khaya Moyo have been careful to follow where Robert Mugabe led them with as much passion as a turkey in a Christmas Dinner planning committee. The ascendency of the 3M axis has made Professor Moyo the most powerful political leader from the Matebeleland region eclipsing Simon Khaya Moyo. The only thing the two share in common is the ambition to be VP and the surname!
The best solution for the nation would for Mugabe to announce he will step down and hand over power to Mnangagwa in say two months, at the most. Mnangagwa will there emerge out of the party congress as the elected new party leader with Muchinguri and Professor J Moyo as his two VPs. It would be good for the party to have some people with some brains for once after all the decades of deadwood VPs!
Mnangagwa will allow Grace to take up a seat in parliament or senate and appoint her into some ministerial positions. He will let the Mugabes keep all their looted including the Blue Roof Palace and whilst Mugabe is still alive his wife will have some space and time to bed in consolidate her position.
The solution Mugabe would want and is stubborn enough to try to impose is for him to still remain leader of the party and government with Edna Madzongwe and Simon Khaya Moyo as his two VPs. The prospect of another year or more of the 3M axis playing second fiddle to yet another Mujuru type brainless busy-body in the form of Edna Madzongwe must be as appealing to them as a dish of dog vomit!
The two biggest problems with Mugabe remaining in power are that it still does not answer the big central problem of succession uncertainty, the root cause of this political crisis in the first place. The centre of political power has definitely shifted in favour of the 3M axis and for Mugabe to shut all three out of the presidium is sheer madness. The 3M will be scrutinising every move Mugabe makes for fear he is up to some last minute dirty trick to shoulder them out of power.

A lot has happened in Zanu PF in these last few months and the party and the nation it has ruled with an iron fist all these decades are yearning for some certainty, end all this uncertainty of a corrupt and tyrannical dotting old man hanging on to power. The nation has reached the point where many people now feel the nation will never move on until Mugabe is dead and buried; they are literally praying for his death!
There is a time for everything, there is a time to stand and fight and a time to turn and run; a wise man knows what is called for! If Mugabe plays hard ball now, when he is weak and feeble, then the 3M may well decide enough is enough; instead of pitching the normal cricket ball they may well fire a cannon ball!

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

The root of Zimbabwe's lawlessness is that Zanu PF is an illegitimate government!

The Zimbabwe Social Democrats condemn the fragrant disregard of the law and all human decency as shown by Grace Mugabe in secretly recording VP Mujuru in her own home and bedroom. This is happening because there is no rule of law governed by an illegitimate regime.

There is no doubt that last year’s elections were rigged and it is now nearly two years since the day this regime was legally obliged to release the voters roll, the smoking gun to the rigged elections, but still it has not done so. There is conclusive evidence to show Mugabe and Zanu PF rigged the 2002 and 2008 elections.

In a report that the SA government has refuse to realise for the last six year but which the Mail and Guardian has final forced the President Zuma’s regime to handover. High Court Judges Dikgang Moseneke and Sisi Khampepe concluded that Zimbabwe’s 2002 elections were NOT free and fair.

All the foreign election observers of Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections condemn the wanton violence Mugabe and Zanu PF visited upon the people of Zimbabwe and all agreed that the elections were not free and fair.

Last year’s elections were marred by the blatant vote rigging in the form of bussed in voters, the deliberate posting of voters names in different constituency than the voters expected and the refusal by the regime to realise the voters rolls so the world could not uncover the truth, etc. The AU observer mission dwelt on the elections being free of violence as if that was the only requirement for free, fair and credible elections and thus concluded the elections were “reasonably” free. Countries like USA and others condemned the elections and refused to accept the results as a true reflection of the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe.

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats are determined to see a full judiciary inquiry is set up as soon as possible to investigate the truth behind Zimbabwe’s rigged 2013 elections.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s seemingly intractable political and economic problems is the nation’s failure to produce a legitimate government with the electoral mandate to address the nation’s chronic problems like mismanagement and corruption. A legitimate government that can command international respect and donors and would-be investors can trust to uphold the rule of law.

Zimbabwe has been a rogue state shunned and despised by all because it has become a lawless nation ruled by the whims of a dictator and tyrant. We must restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe and the legitimacy of those who govern it; there is nothing that can ever be accomplished until this is done.  

Rigging elections is treason and all those found guilty of committing this heinous crime must and will be punished. This is the message that must be sent out across the land loud and clear from those in the palatial Blue Roof to those in the pole and mud huts in Zimbabwe’s rural backwaters!

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s lawlessness is the illegitimacy of this Zanu PF regime. The only way to restore the rule of law is by restoring the legitimacy of the government which is only done by holding free, fair and credible elections!

Saturday, 15 November 2014

Sympathy for Mujuru is the Zimbabwe syndrome of victims of tyranny pining for the tyrants!

The out pouring of sympathy by ordinary Zimbabweans for what Mugabe and Mnangagwa are doing to VP Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo and many others in her faction is totally misplaced in that it fails see her and her supporters as an integral party of the Zanu PF dictatorship that has landed us, the ordinary people, into this hell-hole. We are the victims of the dictatorship who have suffered broken careers, broken limbs, broken lives and many paid the ultimate price of lost lives. Over 30 000 have been murdered by the regime for selfish political gain.

The harassment of Zanu PF provincial chairmen out of office, the firing of Jabulani Sibanda out of the party, suspension of Rugare Gumbo from the party for five years and the coup de grace to be delivered to VP Mujuru at the party congress to all these erstwhile Zanu PF members in nothing but a mosquito bite compared to broken limb or lost we, the ordinary Zimbabweans have suffered. Indeed Mai Mujuru and others are getting a taste of their own medicine and we are the innocent victims.

It is nonsensical and demeaning that we should be moved to tears over Gumbo and Mujuru’s mosquito bites when they have been totally indifferent and irreverent to us whose limbs and lives they broke.

VP Mujuru, for example, was not elected VP to “WAU!” the cabinet meetings with her looks (not that she is so much to look at) but to serve the people and nation from the corruption and oppression that have become the hallmarks of this Zanu PF dictatorship. If anything she has led the corruption from the front!

So those feeling sorry for her political demise are sorry that she not be able to continue with her corruption and looting. The same people have had very little sympathy for the 2 million Zimbabweans now living in abject poverty or the 30 000 the regime has murdered. I have heard of the Stockholm syndrome but this takes the biscuit!

“Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them,” according to Wikipedia.

This is something worse than Stockholm syndrome; this is the Zimbabwe syndrome in which the victim of corruption and ruthless oppression pine for the tyrant to remain in power so he/she can inflict even more pain and misery on them.

When Mugabe squandered $5 million on his daughter’s wedding many Zimbabweans were speechless with owe and pride. The country has had no clean running water in all the cities and towns right across the land for decade; but what of it. They were beaming with pride that the tyrant’s daughter was having a wedding befitting that of a Hollywood Superstar at the nation’s expense – a nation that could not afford something as basic as clean running water to millions of its people!

No doubt the day Mugabe dies the nation will go into deep morning lasting a month, at least; just like the Russians did when the tyrant Stalin died.

At the heart of the Zimbabwe syndrome is the people’s sub-zero low self-esteem. Deep down many Zimbabweans have never ever believed that they too would enjoy freedom, liberty, peace and all the human rights the nation was fight for in the war of independence. The people aspired for freedom, etc. and hoped for the best which a totally different matter. They never believed that Mugabe and his fellow nationalists would deliver freedom, liberty, mass prosperity and all the rest and so when indeed they did fail the people were disappointed but not surprised.

Deep down the people expected the liberation war heroes and heroines to betray them and they have never really protested about the betrayal because, deep down, they have never viewed themselves as worthy recipients of the freedom, liberty and all those things the nation had aspired for before independence.
Unless and until the people of Zimbabwe start seeing themselves as full members of the human race, not mere voiceless and helpless subjects of a tyrannical regime, and worthy of all the rights in UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights this nation will never ever get out of this hell-hole.

Mai Mujuru is not worthy our national sympathy, after all she is suffering are minor inconveniences at the hands of the Zanu PF monster she helped create. The real victims here are us whose limbs and lives the monster has broken for the last 34 years. All the nation’s tears and sorrow must be saved for the ordinary Zimbabweans at the coal face of the Zanu PF corruption and brutal repression and none for those who, until now, were part and parcel of the tyranny. 

Thursday, 13 November 2014

Goodbye and good riddance to Gumbo and his contrived concern for povo!

The net is closing in on the Mujuru faction of Zanu PF; they are losing ground to the Mnangagwa faction fast. Rugare Gumbo, in a panic over lost ground, is trying to recast the factional war as a threat to the whole nation.

"We don't understand where this is coming from. All this shows that there is no discipline in the party. It's unZanu-PF-like. Zanu-PF does not behave that way," Gumbo said. "The party has been infiltrated and compromised as true Zanu-PF supporters don't behave that way. It's unheard of."

Zanu PF has always been a party of thugs united by their common desire to loot regardless of the consequences of their corruption and looting. Well one of these consequences was that someday there will be little left to loot and that day is upon us! Party members are fighting like wild cats amongst themselves over the little wealth left.

That Rugare Gumba should project this Zanu PF factional warfare as a national one is to be expected given the party’s warped mentality in which selfish Zanu PF party interests have been placed way above national interests. The regime has never had any qualms about riding roughshod over the people’s basic human rights including rigging elections and even murder in pursuit of its ‘no regime change’ mantra. To Zanu PF what was in the party’s interest must necessarily be in the nation’s interest as the party was the nation. And so the reverse is also true that what threatens the party threatens the nation.

Mr Gumbo the demise of you and your fellow Mujuru faction supporters pose no threat to the nation per se; it is great for the nation be getting rid of corrupt and oppressive tyrants, even if it be only one half – still it is a good start. Getting rid of the Zanu PF dictatorship, be it one half or the whole thing, poses a serious threat to the nation but only because state institutions have been corrupted to serve the party and not the nation.

Mugabe has corrupted the country’s security institutions, the Judiciary, etc. so it is hardly surprising that the country is easily become ungovernable as the Zanu PF party factional fighting spills over into these state organs too. There are elements in the Police, for example, with very strong allegiances to the Mujuru faction of the party, they know that the demise of politicians in the faction will sooner or later end their own demise.

It is intolerable that we have a corrupt and highly partisan Army, Police, etc. but to have members in these institution fighting each other is a fearful thing particularly since they all have access to guns and many of them have twitchy fingers!

One can only hope that the rank and file in the Army, Police, etc. will finally realise that the days of Zanu PF dictatorial rule are over and so are the days of partisan Army, Police, etc. Their allegiances from now on are, to the rule of law, to the people and to the country, Zimbabwe; and should have never been to Mugabe and to the party, Zanu PF.

Still, what people like Rugare Gumbo must understand is that Zanu PF was doomed to fail because no nation can ever sustain the party’s looting and wasteful culture. The dog-eat-dog taking place in Zanu PF is of the party’s own making; the people have played no part in it.

Still the people are grateful to see an end to the corrupt, murders and tyrannical repression that the Zanu PF dictatorship has come to represented. The regime dragged us into this political and economic hell-hole and there was no getting out of the hole as long as the regime remains in power. And so the nation is pleased to see the regime crumble and go.

Rugabe Gumbo’s threats of the defeat of the Mujuru faction having catastrophic consequences for the nation will not stop Mugabe and Mnangagwa finish off the faction; the people have no say in that. As far as the nation is concerned the job is only half done; after the Zanu PF the party congress the nation will have to get rid of the last half of the dictatorship.


As for now, good bye and good riddance to you Mister Rugabe Gumbo; save us from all your belated speeches of contrived concern for the long suffering povo! 

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

VP Mujuru is like a foul mouthed old woman cursing non-stop but come the storm she is clutching the Bible

Zimbabwe is a nation ruled by fear. It was fear that had VP Mujuru reaching for her Bible over the weekend and talk of peace. She has been an active member of the Salvation Army but this weekend she was quoting from the Bible extensively with seriousness, urgency and earnest few had never seen in her. Some people are capable of that dipolar behaviour.
In my village there was this old lady, vaMujeke, who could curse and swear in the foulest language I have ever heard in my whole life. She would remonstrate her displeasure by flashing her naked behind in the direction or face of whoever had annoyed her. She was the Sheila Mutsenhu, the Zanu PF activist who stripped down to her bra and knickers before the US Ambassador to protest the sanctions, of her time. It did not take much to get her running full throttle and forming at the mouth cursing and swearing and once in full flow she would go on for hours. The one thing that stopped her dead in full flow was lightening.
There was nothing like the clap of lightening to shut up vaMujeke and send her scouring for somewhere to hide. On one occasion she happened to be wearing a red head scarf, a bad colour that ‘attracted’ lightening; she whip it off her head and hid it in the nearest place she could find which happened to be a clay-pot. The home owner was not amused to find a dirty head scarf in their culture milk. She was also known to put out the fire with whatever she found handy. I went to bed hungry one night when she happened to seek shelter in our home.

As the storm progress one could hear her mumbling something, the closer and louder the lightening clap the louder her mumbled. It was something religious; you could hear Jesus and God in the mumbling. At her home, it is said she would clutching the Bible. 

Fear has turned VP Mujuru to the holy book with vaMujeke’s zeal! She talked of fear and nothing else.

Mujuru said the Church was there to help people live peacefully together and to mould God-fearing citizens.

She also said that people should generally not be afraid of the living, but of the All Mighty God, who saw everything that took place under the sun.

“Ndozvatauyira pano kuti tidzorwe munzira dzedu dzisinakururama, tidzorwe mukuita kwedu, mumatauriro, mafambiro nemagariro edu, pavepo nerugare munyika yedu yakafirwa, yakasunungurwa nevapenyu nevakaenda, tibatsire vatungamiriri vedu kuti runyararo rwuripo rwuve runyararo rwechokwadi (We are here for this Church gathering to be guided by God and the Church so that we behave ourselves, speak well and live well, so that there will be peace in the country that many people sacrificed their lives for),” said Mujuru.

 “We cannot respect a God we have not seen when we cannot respect each other. We were created in his own image. It delights the Lord to see his people living in peace.”

Peace what peace, madam?

For 34 years since independence the one thing Zimbabwe has yarned for but was denied is peace, justice and human dignity. This corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship has left millions economically destitute and has terrorized the people denying them a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life itself. The regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent people in its 34 years in power. VP Mujuru as a senior member of the regime has done nothing to end the corruption and oppression. Indeed she is a chief instigator and beneficiary of some of the corruption and looting that has been going on.

Last November she went one step further than the Zanu PF modus operandi of pretending there was no corruption and no political oppression and that the country’s economic problems were all caused by the “illegitimate sanctions imposed by the evil West”. She publicly denied the stories of rampant corruption in parastatals like PSMAS and denounced those who had uncovered the stories as agents of regime change. To a long suffering Zimbabwean public, the victims of the rampant corruption, she might just as well have spit in our faces and flashed her naked behind, vaMujeke style.

The on-going factional fighting in Zanu PF of the last few months has seen VP Mujuru being hunted down like an animal by her former Zanu PF colleagues in the fight for power. The storm has been gathering pace and she is frightened out of her wits and she is now feverishly turning to the Bible and praying for peace.


I would like to believe that God is not so easily fooled by cynical people like vaMujeke or VP Mujuru who treat his key commandment to “treat others as we would want them to treat you” with the uttermost contempt but only to become super religious when the lightning storm  approach.

Monday, 10 November 2014

Mugabe has corrupted the war vets turning them into custodians of tyranny!

I was struck by two stories this weekend involving two former liberation struggle individuals who have been corrupted to serve this Zanu PF dictatorship at the expense of the nation.

The first story was about some war vets who have pledged to support the war vet thug Jabulani Sibanda who is under pressure to resign from the chairman position because he did not support Grace Mugabe’s bid for power. He had the chic of dismissing it as a “bedroom coup”; which it is but that is beside the point. The point being that Sibanda has been going around the country intimidating and harassing people to support and vote for Mugabe and Zanu PF, riding roughshod over their basic rights including the right to a free and meaningful vote.

The war vets backing Sibanda claimed 'fought for a Zimbabwe that recognises freedom of expression’. They clearly do not have a clue what they are talking about! Sibanda and the those war vets accompanied him have been systematically denying the populous their freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life particular during the 2008 elections.

The war vets backing Sibanda even threaten a second Entumbane (the fighting pitting Zanu PF former freedom fighters against PF Zapu former freedom fighters soon after independence resulting in many being killed) if Sibanda was force out of office.

If these guys are going to have another Entumbane then they must know that they will be fighting for Zanu PF dictatorship or to settle their own selfish scores and not for freedom or human rights for the ordinary Zimbabweans!
In the second story, the nation learnt that the Zimbabwe Ex-Political Prisoner Detainees and Restrictees Association (ZEPPDRA) members ‘converged in Harare to deliberate on several issues affecting them’. No doubt they must have deliberated at lengths on the abject poverty that is affecting the whole nation. 72% of Zimbabweans are now considered poor because they live on less than $1.25 a day. 16% or 2 million are way below that, they live in abject poverty.
Even Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira and Enos Nkala have not been spared the economic hardships; they lived the last years of their lives in abject poverty and died paupers. No doubt many of the ZEPRDRA members have been caught in the dragnet; many of them will poor and some will already be living in abject poverty.
ZEPPDRA Chairman, Victor Kuretu said his executive is in support of the move taken by the revolutionary party ahead of its national elective congress of elevating Dr Mugabe to lead the Women's League. How sad!
Here was the ex-detainees’ chance to say something profound about how the country has completely lost direction; how a few in power have betrayed the values of freedom, liberty, justice and human rights and human dignity for selfish political gain. These are values they were imprisoned to secure for all Zimbabweans and not just the few in power. These are the values that underpin good governance and the nation is in this political and economic nightmare precisely because the ruling elect have denied the people freedom, liberty, etc.!
Corruption is now so rampant it is soaking up all the nation’s wealth forcing millions into poverty and despair. It is clear that Zanu PF does not know what to do.
As ex- liberation struggle war vets and prison detainees and as fellow victims of the worsen economic meltdown, the war vets and ZEPRDRA should have added their voice to the growing chorus calling on Mugabe and Zanu PF to step down and allow for fresh free, fair and credible elections. For this is the only way out of this mess.
Instead the war vets back Sibanda, a ruthless thug propping up this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The ZEPPDRA endorse Grace Mugabe as chairperson of the Zanu PF women’s league. It boggles the mind how that is going to help the nation get out of this mess!
Has Mugabe infiltrated and corrupt all the organisations representing all those involved in the struggle for independence so that they are all controlled by stooges who never understood freedom, liberty and any of the other values the war of independence was fought for? It is little wonder that the nation is in a real mess; the custodians of freedom have now become the custodians of tyranny! 

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Mzembi paints a rosy Zimbabwe in 2018 knowing it is the nose-ring Zanu PF will use to win the elections!

Minister Walter Mzembi is in UK to promote tourism in Zimbabwe. In an interview on the BBC Hardtalk programme the Minister talked of not just repairing and reconstructing Zimbabwe’s collapsed infrastructure back to its pre-independence state but to do more. He talked of increased power generation to meet the nation’s energy requirements, most of the nation’s roads will be dual carriage way, build a new boom tourist town in Victoria Falls complete with casinos and Disney theme park, etc., etc. All these projects will be completed and fully operational by 2018.

“You make it sound so rosy, with everything fixed in a short space of time,” remarked Stephen Sackur. “I wonder whether you and the Zimbabwe government live is an alternative parallel word!”

Stephen Sackur, the BBC interviewer, reminded the Minister of the economic reality that Zimbabwe has failed to attract any meaningful foreign direct investment for decades because of its objectionable indigenisation laws and lawlessness, could not borrow any money for IMF or any other institute because it already a $10 billion debt it was failing to service, etc.

Stephen Sackur’s remarks had no effect on the Minister who continued in his artistic endeavour to paint a glorious bright future for all Zimbabweans! Of course there is no chance of any of the projects coming to fruition to have any meaningful impact of the lives of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe let alone restore their standard of living to what it was in 1980.

Yes the Minister and the Zanu PF government live in their own world; like all politicians the world over they too have to promise the electorate a better life but unlike everyone else, they do not have to deliver any of their promises and hence can afford to make the most outlandish promises they can. The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown unemployment is Mount Everest high and millions are already living in abject poverty so it is important that the regime conjure a glorious bright future to count balance the crashing depths of misery and despair the nation has sunk into.

Zimbabweans have been conditioned to believe that the greater the suffering and misery today the brighter their tomorrow will be. Mugabe has told them, their tomorrow is always just behind the horizon. One thing is clear to all, except for the few ruling elite, their todays have been decidedly worse than their yesterdays and yesteryears.

Of course there is a limit to what the placebo of hope can do even with a naïve and gullible electorate – the Zimbabwe electorate is one of the most naïve and gullible in the world. Mugabe and Zanu PF have managed to stay in power for over 34 years regardless of the regime’s proven track record of never delivering on their promises; the regime promised mass prosperity but has delivered mass poverty and worse; because the regime is not accountable to the people. Indeed, if anything it is the people who are accountable to the regime.

Mugabe and Zanu PF have made it clear that they will not tolerate any regime change. They have instituted a political system to safe guard their ‘no regime change’ mantra; they lead the electorate by the nose like a bull and a savage yank on the nose-ring has had the electorate on its knees dazed from the excruciating pain.

As long as Mugabe and Zanu PF can resist all attempt to have the democratic reforms, necessary for free, fair and credible elections, implemented then the party is assured of electoral victory in the next elections. The party will still have the nose-ring on the electorate and another savage yank will have the nation on its knees, bleeding and dazed.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have implemented the democratic reforms when they had the parliamentary majority, SADC backing and five-years of the GNU’s life to do so. Zanu PF now holds all the trump cards; forcing the tyrannical regime to accept implementing any reforms now is going to be a Herculean task.

The Zimbabwean electorate will have to first of all take their understanding of democratic change beyond the present superficial level of rally slogan of repeated chanting “Change! Change!” without knowing what exactly they wanted changed. Understanding the required changes for free, fair and credible elections is not rocket science although one has to put some effort.

The people of Zimbabwe expect that Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to arrest all those who disturb the peace, for example, because that is what the citizens the world over expect the Police to do. Yet in Zimbabwe Zanu PF thugs have been allowed to intimidate, beat, rape and even murder people for no other reason than that they dared to belong to another political party other than Zanu PF. The democratic reform required here is to ensure ZRP is independent to carry out of its duty to maintain peace and rule of law without the partisan bias.

At present it is the State President alone who has the say in the appointment and firing of Police Officers making the ZRP beholden to him/her, his/her whim and political party. Parliament must have the power hold senior Police Officers to account for the performance of their duties and block the appointment of those considered unsuitable and get those not up to scratch removed from office.

If the Zimbabwe electorate had understood the importance of the reforms then they would not have elected a bunch of individuals who are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent to carry out this important task, in the first place. Second, the electorate would have forced MDC, corrupt and incompetent as they are, to implement the reforms.

The Zimbabwean people must now understand the democratic reforms and force Mugabe and Zanu PF to implement the reforms. If they fail to do so then the nose-ring will stay and they can be sure Zanu PF will savagely yank it repeated just to remind the voters who is the boss. In between the elections Zanu PF Ministers like Mzembi will talk of the extravagantly glorious and bright future just over the horizon; the placebo of grinding poverty and dashed hopes and dreams – a Mugabe speciality!