Mugabe addressed the war
vets and the top brass in the Police, Army and CIO to assure them that the
dog-eat-dog purge in the party was necessarily to destroy those who threatened
to destroy the party.
“Unprecedented jostling
has been going on,” the 90-year-old leader told war veterans, warning, “that’s
what destroys organisations,” as the party met to elect its leaders.
It is great to be a
dictator! He is the one whose jostling for power knows no bounds. He does not
play by any rules as he keeps changing the rules to suit himself. He has
repeatedly used brute force to stay in power.
VP Mujuru has done
nothing wrong; she has played by the rules and amassed popular support for her
bid to remain VP. When Mugabe realised that he could not get the same support
for his preferred candidate he changed the rules accusing her of leading a
faction.
Throughout all these
years, Mugabe has been lucky to have naïve and gullible party members who believed
everything he said. To make VP Mujuru guilty of amassing popular party support
is nonsensical, only naïve and gullible people would not see it as an insult to
their intelligence.
When the dust of the
on-going dog-eat-dog purge finally settle down; many Zanu PF members will find
that they have been just down-graded economically if not politically too.
Indeed Zanu PF membership card will count for nothing in the face of the
worsening economic meltdown gripping the nation. 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans are
now living in abject poverty and, unless something is done quickly to stop the
meltdown, the number is going up at an alarming rate and amongst them will be
the Zanu PF card holding members.
These Zanu PF members
have yet to learn that independence was about good governance freedom, liberty
and managing the nation’s resources for the good of us all. What has gone wrong
here is that all these noble and national objectives have been discarded in
favour of one single objective - to keeping Zanu PF in power at all costs.
Until now it was about keep Zanu PF, the party and the select few ruling elite,
in power at all cost. But since this dog-eat-dog purge, this has been revised
to keeping Mugabe in power at all costs.
It is the jostling to
keep Zanu PF and now Mugabe in power that has and is destroying the nation.
This nation has a simple
choice to wake up to the grim reality that it is Zanu PF and Mugabe’s
insatiable hunger for power that is destroying the national economy and with it
the nation itself.
Mugabe has
systematically denied millions of Zimbabweans their basic human rights
including the right to a fair share of the nation’s economic wealth and riches,
the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself just for his
selfish political gain. He does not care about the suffering masses, povo; he
never did.
When the going got tough
and his hold on power was threatened, Mugabe readily sacrificed even his fellow
comrades-in-arms. Yes VP Mujuru and others are corrupt but who in all honest
can say Mugabe and all the others in the Mnangagwa faction are not corrupt.
Mugabe has shown that he will sacrifice his fellow comrades-in-arms if it suits
his ambition to consolidate his hold on power. He does not care about Mujuru ,
Gumbo or any of the others; he never did.
If Mugabe does not care
about senior party grandees like Mujuru, Gumbo and the rest it is naïve for the
lesser mortals in the party to think he cares about them.
“We know the
infiltrations that has been going on. They were saying, ‘We will work with the
(opposition) MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), Britain and America.’ That
simplistic thinking. You can’t trust the white man,” Mugabe told his audiences.
He has blamed the West for all the nation’s problems so blaming them for the
purge in his own party is nothing new.
Mugabe and the party
have maintained that it is “the illegal sanctions imposed by the evil British
and imperialists West”, that have caused the economic problems. The reality on
the ground shows that those targeted by the sanctions, Mugabe and his cronies,
have in fact grown filthy rich whilst those not on the sanctions list; us, the
masses; have grown desperately poor.
16 comments:
Mugabe is notorious for changing the rules or disregarding them to stay in power. VP Mujuru had amassed a lot of supporters behind her and Mugabe saw that as a threat to his power and so he accused her of forming and leading a faction. He could not accuse her of being popular so he came up with new nonsense name - factionalism!
Mugabe's greatest challenge to his hold on power was not VP Mujuru but the country's economy. The economic meltdown is so serious it has pushed unemployment to 90% plus and 16% or 2 million people are already living in abject poverty. In the economy Mugabe has more than a match because it is not going to be easily intimidated or cheated like VP Mujuru or opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai!
The nation is looking for the way out of this economic mess, if all this congress does is denounce Mujuru then the nation will have every reason to be angry. The nation is facing the worst economic crisis ever and the party in government calls its congress to discuss make-believe stories that have no relevance to the nation. S****t!
Mugabe tells Zanu PF congress that those guilty of corruption will be punished.
Mugabe is right all those guilty of corruption and enriching themselves must be punished regardless the position they have held in government. He has said this before but never followed this up and the few cases he did the small fish were caught and punished whilst the big fish got away. This time this will be done properly; no one is above the law means just that - NO ONE!
Mugabe was sweating profusely on stage at the Zanu PF congress.
He is sweating over Mujuru, wait until after the congress when he will once again come face to face with the economic meltdown. He was able to cheat and bamboozle Mujuru just as he cheat-ed and bamboozled Tsvangirai before her. The years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have, like chicken only they are more like red-billed quelea in their number, come home to roost.
In a day or so Mugabe will replace Mujuru with a candidate of his own choosing - no one else in the party or country will have a say. With the economic meltdown the economy will only get worse as long as he and Zanu PF remain in office. He has two options to resign or be forced out; he is hoping to hang on to power until 2018 elections but that is not going to happen.
Zanu PF is broke according to the party’s financial report presented at the party’s congress; $11 million in the red!
No doubt the nation has paid for many party expenses otherwise the party would be even deeper in the red. After the dust has settled many ministries will find that that the little money they got had been diverted to party for this congress. The national economy will remain the greatest challenge Mugabe has ever faced in his entire political career.
When Morgan Tsvangirai threatened his hold on power he was able to "cook" the election result to turn the MDC leader's 73% victory into a 47% and thus force the run-off. He needed five weeks after the votes were cast to do the cooking but he did it.
When Joice Mujuru garnered more party support than himself Mugabe accused her of leading a faction (all her supporters seized to be Zanu PF members entitled to elect who they believed was best suited to lead the party but became criminals guilty of fuelling division in the party). He changed the party's constitution to take away congress's power to elect the three most senior positions in the party below that of first secretary.
He now has those powers and he will appoint whoever he pleases in the top three positions. He already has the power to appoint whoever he pleases in the politburo, in cabinet, all senior civil servant positions, security chiefs, etc. His powers are absolute in every sense of the word.
Well, almost absolute; he does not have any such powers of the economy. No doubt he will an-nounce that his government will go full steam ahead with the implementation of it economic re-covery plan, ZimAsset. Everyone knows the regime has failed to get anywhere near the $27 bil-lion required to fund the plan.
Mugabe is a dictator and he will dictate that there will be economic recovery but knowing fully well that the economic meltdown will continue and get even worse. If wishes were horses then tyrants will ride - the economy is the one horse Mugabe would wish to ride but instead it is the one riding him!
Any thinking Zimbabwean should be pleased to see Zanu PF in this dog-eat-dog fight because it is a necessary first-step in the self-destruct process of the party. We need to dismantle this Zanu PF dictatorship and it is best to do so when the party is weak and feeble.
Zanu PF is like a boil in the backside, the nation was not able sit-up or do anything all these year; now the swelling is at its greatest and it is throbbing and ready to bust. Of course we must do everything let the boil bust and squeeze it hard to ensure all the crap is forced out!
It is natural to fear change but to fear the demise of the Zanu PF dictatorship is to fear the life giving rains to mark the end of the long drought!
When former US President Lyndon B Johnson was asked why he did not fire a member of his administration with whom it was know that he did not get along he said “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
Mugabe would have done better to take President Johnson's advice and keep Regare Gumbo in the Zanu PF tent because ever since he suspended him and then kicked him out of the Zanu PF tent Gumbo has done little other than piss into the tent.
The factional fighting going on in Zanu PF will leave Mugabe weak and the economic meltdown the country is going through right now will deliver the coup de grace on the tyrant! Mugabe is not going remain in power until 2018, mark my words!
I agree, Mujuru and her followers have failed to mount any meaningful challenge but that is more a reflection of just how incompetent they are than proof of Mugabe's mastery. If Mugabe was really clever then he would have never allowed the nation’s once strong and vibrant economy get into such a mess. Never ever! The economy is facing a serious meltdown because of the decades of mismanagement and corruptions and the chicken, in their millions like red-billed quelea, have come home to roost.
Even if the Mujuru faction had been better organised and stopped Mugabe cheating them of the leadership of the party, indeed even if the party had not pushed this self-destruct button and avoided this factional dog-eat-dog fight; the coup de grace blow on Zanu PF was still coming from the economic meltdown.
16% or 2 million Zimbabweans are already living in abject poverty and the situation is set to get worse as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF remain in power. This is simply politically, economically and socially unsustainable; Mugabe and Zanu PF will have to step down or be forced out of office. The economic meltdown will have its scalp. The irony is it was Mugabe and Zanu PF, by failing to deal with the mismanagement and corruption, who created the economic meltdown; they have become the victim of their own incompetence!
A Central Committee report observed that the law "violates the declaration of rights in the Constitution, particularly section 16 wherein it is alleging that the minister, by designating entities and primary state institution, is compulsorily acquiring private property".
This is in tandem with the concerns of the observers who have always argued that the indigenisation law infringes on the rights of the investors. The law has been blamed for contributing towards the economic meltdown.
The Zanu PF report also highlighted that "by designating entities, the minister has imposed partners on foreign investors thereby infringing their right to freedom of association."
Recommendations to government are that "the law requires further and constant reform to suit the policy needs and imperatives of the indigenisation programme."
"These imperatives arise in the first instance from the deficiencies in the current law and secondly from the directives of the manifesto on indigenisation and empowerment."
The report also highlighted critical areas which call for reform and these include: "legis-lating to recognition of resource value in indigenisation of mining businesses, general amendments to strengthen compliance enforcement mechanism, harmonisation of in-vestment legislation so that the ministry can propose new instruments to achieve har-mony between attracting foreign investment on the one hand, and indigenisation on the other.
The indigenisation law was enacted in 2007 and so since one can only imagine the harm it has done to the nation. Last year Zimbabwe received as little as 4% of foreign direct investment as Mozambique received. This law is unworkable and will do more harm than good to Zimbabwe and it should be scrapped form the statute as a matter of course.
The only problem is that no one will trust this Zanu PF regime to honour the scrapping it because the regime is notorious for disregarding even its own laws and treaties. So instead of just demanding of this Zanu PF regime to scrap this law we have to also demand that it steps aside so that preparations can be made to free, fair and credible elections.
For years service chiefs together with everyone who supports the Zanu PF dictatorship rejected calls for democratic reforms designed to end the partisan bias Mugabe had im-posed on the security sectors and other state institutions. But since the factional purge started everyone who owed their position to political loyalties has been uneasy because many will use such times to settle personal dislikes.
It is enough to be suspected to be a Mujuru supporter to lose one's job and more.
People like Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Public Prosecutor Johanese Tomana are known to be Mujuru loyalists; they know that their position in the country has suddenly become very difficult. Even if they kept their old jobs they know their power will be reduced and they will be watched from now on. Even if they are not watched the know the regime is unscrupulous to do these things; they had been doing these things against the opposition, today they are considered the opposition and it would be naive to think the regime will not play the same dirty tricks on them.
If there was ever a time when Zimbabwe is ready for democratic reforms; it is now. No one in their right mind would ever want to live in fear of having to fear for one's livelihood or worse each time there is a change of guard at the palace!
@ Isu zvedu
If MDC failed to implement not even one reform when the two factions had the majority in parlia-ment, the backing of SADC as the guarantors of the GNU and five years to do so it is naive to think they will do so now when Zanu PF has all the trump cards!
If none of the MDC leaders appreciated the importance of the democratic reforms during the GNU years; what has happened since then to make them change - other than their desire to get back on the gravy train!?
Zimbabwe is introducing coins on equivalent value to the US$ amount.
The economics of the bond coins is that they are being introduced to buttress the multiple currency system through the provision of change especially for the US$ notes which have a smallest denomi-nation in circulation in Zimbabwe of US$1.
The Reserve Bank is therefore addressing the divisibility and store of value qualities of mon-ey through this initiative which has already received significant support from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, business organisations and
financial institutions
This is a slippery slope. Everyone knows Mugabe is desperate for money and has been strug-gling to get enough to pay civil servant wages let alone anything else. The temptation for him to bridge the ever increasing gap between collected revenue and expenditure by printing more money is simply irresistible for him.
All the measures taken to ensure the coins keep their value will soon be discarded just as the regime has discarded the law, its promise to the nation, etc.
@ Drudge
Zimbabwe will only get out of this political and economic hell-hole by holding free, fair and credi-ble elections which will produce a competent government that will address the nation's many teething problems. What Mugabe is doing here is what he has been doing all these year - kick the can down the road.
We are using other nations' currency because we were not disciplined enough to manage our own currency. Mugabe is taking us down that path again by stealth.
Have a competent and disciplined government!
@ Vince
Zimbabwe will never get out of this political and economic hell-hole as long as the nation is held hostage by this Zanu PF regime.
We all know Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections and therefore have no political mandate to govern the nation. We must now demand fresh free, fair and credible elections and not waste time seeking yet another GNU in which Zanu PF will play its usual disruptive role.
@ Kufandada
Tell the nation that Tsvangirai and Biti wasted the chance to bring about democratic change and that if they want real change then they must stop electing incompetent idiots like Tsvangirai and murderous tyrant like Mugabe. That is a real challenge given that we have a nation who will rather follow blindly like sheep than stop and think for one minute! This is not something I would expect those with the mentality of sheep to appreciate much less to do - thinking is not their forte!
For years, Gumbo served as Zanu-PF's information and publicity secretary, defending the presi-dent and party against allegations of repression, human rights abuses and election rigging.
Now, cast into the political wilderness, he speaks more freely.
"The way things are happening, it's hard not to conclude that there is an amount of dictatorship, there is an amount of tyranny, there is an amount of authoritarianism," he said in Harare.
"If you're going to appoint your vice-president, that smacks of authoritarianism in this age when people should be elected. To me, it doesn't make sense."
Gumbo claimed that he, vice-president Joice Mujuru, and other senior figures are being purged because they objected to Mugabe's plan to name himself president for life and Grace - dubbed "DisGrace" and "First Shopper" by critics - as his deputy instead of holding internal elections.
"Mugabe said he wants to rule for ever," Gumbo said. "We said no, it's not right, it's not demo-cratic. It's not right that you hold a congress with unelected people. For some of us, that's unac-ceptable."
Grace Mugabe has publicly denounced Mujuru, seen as a relative moderate, while the state-controlled Herald newspaper has launched fierce attacks on Mujuru's character.
Mugabe has accused the vice-president of plotting to assassinate him and even asking witch doctors to cast a magic spell using water insects named Mugabe and Mujuru.
Gumbo, 74, responded: "The rubbish they're talking about, trying to assassinate him … To talk about a coup is unbelievable."
So after decades of turning a blind eye to Mugabe’s lawlessness and tyrannical tendencies Gumbo and his friends finally had the courage to stand-up to the tyrant when he threatened their own selfish ambitions to hold the top jobs!
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