Mugabe celebrate $4 b Kariba Dam project Chinese loan, it was a unsigned decoy!

 

“The China Export and Import Bank has withheld funds for the Kariba South Hydro Power expansion until the government clears its previous loan obligations,” reported Bulawayo 24 Staff Reporter.

“The decision is likely to delay completion of the mega electricity project expected to generate an additional 300 megawatts.”

 

When Mugabe announced the $4 billion project finance deal following his begging mission to China in August 2014, he gave the story as positive a spin as he could. This was the first bit of money into his ZimAsset begging bowl and he wanted celebrate after over a year of being mocked by the empty bowl. Now the truth of that $4 billion from the Chinese is coming out.

 

First of all what Mugabe had been looking for out of the $27 billion ZimAsset plan was hard cash in the form of budgetary support. The Chinese had told Mugabe to his face that they would never consider it because he “was a bad debtor”.

 

Second the Chinese made sure it was understood the $4 billion project finance was subject to satisfactory feasibility studies and now it turns out that was not the only condition; Zimbabwe has to clear all its outstanding debts too!

 

Pay all its outstanding debts with China! Pay with what; spit! Here is a regime that is failing to pay its civil servants; every month Finance Minister Chinamasa has to borrow money, shift money from one account to another, read the political wind careful to decide which group of civil servants are least likely to strike if he fails to pay them, etc. The only civil servant whose expenses have been paid on time are Mugabe’s expenses, he is the only who seems to think the country is enjoying an economic boom instead of the economic meltdown.

 

The Chinese must have known that $4 billion would never be drawn out because Zimbabwe will never repay its outstanding debt.

 

A month after celebrating the Chinese $4 billion projects deal Mugabe announce a Platinum Mining deal with Russia worth $3 to 4 billion. The Russian economy has not been doing well ever since and so the start of that project is in doubt.

 

If Mugabe thought the signing of Chinese and Russian deals would open the flood gates of other nations wanting in on the act; he was wrong. No one has done so. A number of Europeans, notably the British, the French and Germanys have all sent high powered trade delegations and they all expressed interest in investing in Zimbabwe but – the all too familiar word in Zimbabwe – not until the country’s parasitic indigenisation law has been scrapped and there is rule of law.

 

So Mugabe had made a big song and dance over the only two cheques he had managed to get for his ZimAsset economic recovery plan and now it turns out that the Chinese cheque was not even signed – otherwise Zimbabwe would be servicing that loan when it was clear it will never draw on it. The Russian cheque is possibly post-dated and unsigned too! In short Mugabe really has nothing in the ZimAsset begging bowl!

 

In the economy, Mugabe has met the toughest advisory of his 35 years in office. Mugabe was able to cheat or bamboozle the likes of Tsvangirai and Mrs Mujuru with relative ease. He was sure he would rig economic recovery with his ZimAsset plan by throwing the $27 billion at the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and thus achieve the recovery without having to deal with these cancers. It is clear that, other than the two “for display purposes only” cheques Mugabe has failed to get any funding for his ZimAsset plan. ZimAsset plan is dead in the waste. The economic meltdown is squeezing harder than ever!

 

Mugabe has failed to rigged economic recovery and now he must allow the implementation of the democratic reforms, a necessary prerequisite to electing the competent government that will carry out the required economic reforms to end the economic meltdown. 

In July 2014 Mugabe called and then cancelled talks on the economy he will call for the talks again!

 

In July 2014 the then Zanu PF spokesman, Rugare Gumbo, told the country that Mugabe was ready to listen to what others had to say in finding a way out of the economic mess the country was in.

“The economic transformation we want to achieve requires the voice of everyone, including the opposition and civic society,” said Gumbo. Something was up alright!

When you see a frog hoping around in the midday heat, you can be sure something is after his life!

It was a complete shock and surprise the when a few weeks later the party dismissed the whole idea as if it was all a bad joke.

“Zanu PF did not make the call in jest,” explained my friend Mark at the time. “They had thought long and hard about it and meant every word they said. They had envisaged the stakeholders meeting producing a national body to take over responsibility of running the nation’s economy with Zanu PF calling all the shorts and ready to take over as and when it pleased.

“They were confident they would get the MDC and the usual crowd of other Zimbabwean stakeholders to play along. Zanu PF would grant Morgan Tsvangirai and a few other MDC leaders positions high in responsibility and authority but with all the political power taken away as happened during the last GNU.

“President Mugabe soon realised that no one in SADC much less in the move savvy international community was going to be fooled by this charade of political reform. Tsvangirai has lost all political credibility; SADC leaders saw him as nothing more than Mugabe’s poodle.

“If Mugabe was ever going to get the financial assistance Zimbabwe needed so desperately to kick start the economy then he had to accept a lot more serious political reforms than the window dressing reforms he was offering. Mugabe was not prepared to do that and hence the offer for talks was withdrawn as a bad joke!”

I did not believe Mark back then but I do now.

After the rigged July 2013 elections Mugabe’s celebration of the landslide victory was a subdued low key affair and none of the usual gorilla silverback chest drumming of bygone years. Many people expected Mugabe to take cars, the $4 million Highlands mansion from Tsvangirai, etc. He did no such thing as if he realised he had overplayed his hand by denying MDC some shred of political credibility throughout the GNU years.

The SADC rebuff of his July 2014 offer of a new political arrangement with the totally discredited Tsvangirai forced Mugabe to do something he has never ever done in his whole political career – prop up the credibility of his political challenger!

The barrage of criticism of MDC’s failure to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU and the more recent blunder of MDC-T’s recall of former MDC-Renewal MPs have left MDC-T, especially Morgan Tsvangirai, battered and blooded. In a recent interview on Nehanda Radio Mukanya Thomas Mapfumo said it in no uncertain terms that Tsvangirai is sell-out; that floored the latter forcing him to take the full count.

The criticism has angered Tsvangirai supporters but what many people may not know it that the criticism of Tsvangirai has left Mugabe and strategists in Shake-Shake House foaming at the mouth with anger.

It is bad enough that Tsvangirai has lost credibility outside Zimbabwe but for him to lose credibility inside Zimbabwe too would mean a political awakening of the otherwise docile povo. A wide awake electorate is the one thing Mugabe cannot afford and will not tolerate!  

Zanu PF strategists have adopted a two pronged strategy to counter the expose of Tsvangirai and his MDC friends as sell-outs who betrayed the people throughout the GNU years. CIO agents on the internet were instructed to:

1. Discrediting all those saying that Tsvangirai is sold-out by denouncing the critics as the sell-outs deserted the country. “Come back home, if you have anything to say,” the agents have argued again and again; as if to say only those still in Zimbabwe have something valid to say and the minute one left the country the mind goes completely blank!
2. Admit Tsvangirai sold-out but so what; it is a none-event of little or no consequence. Of course it is major event with far reaching consequences to the present generation and many more to come. If the sell-out was a none-event then so too the political and economic hell we are caught up in with all it mindless and institutionalized political violence. And the economic meltdown that has forced millions into a life of abject poverty and despair; forced millions to leave the country, etc.; all these are all none events too.
   Implementing the reforms was our ticket out of this political and economic hell. By selling out Tsvangirai, not only costed us the chance to get out of this hell in July 2013 but cost us many other future chances as long as remains a leading voice in the opposition camp, which is why Mugabe is now doing his best to prop Tsvangirai.

Since July 2014 when Rugare Gumbo made the initial admission that Zanu PF was willing to talk with other stakeholders to find the way out of the economic mess, the national economy has got progressively worse and not better. It is set to get worse and worse as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF remains in power. There is no other way out of this economic mess other than Mugabe and Zanu PF calling for dialogue with credible stakeholder and opposition leaders and not with discredited sell-out leaders.

The cancellation of July 2014 all stakeholders meeting to map out the way out of the political and economic hell Zimbabwe finds itself  in has been a good thing in that more people now know that Tsvangirai and MDC leaders are sell-outs and are therefore not to be trusted with the task of implementing the democratic reforms. Mugabe’s attempts to prop up Tsvangirai and MDC as the credible voice of the people has failed to fool SADC and the international community and more and more Zimbabweans are waking up to the reality that MDC leaders are sell-out!  

Those denying Tsvangirai sold-out would want Judas Iscariot declared a saint!

Richard Morgan Tsvangirai has been rightly criticized with people like music legend, Thomas Mapfumo, rightly calling him a “sell-out” for his failure to implement even one democratic reform throughout the five years of the GNU. A number of people have jumped to Tsvangirai’s defence but; as expected with those defending the indefensible; they have only helped to showed just how shallow minded they are. Stephen Jakes is one example of our confused and shallow minded Tsvangirai defender. 

 

“But a social commentator said Tsvangirai must be honoured for showing the world that Mugabe can be defeated as he did so in 2008 when he defeated him though with votes which did not qualify him to assume the helm,” wrote Stephen Jakes in his Bulawayo 24 Opinion piece “Tsvangirai the only leader who has defeated Mugabe since independence”.

 

The commentator completely missed the point; no one criticized or disputed Tsvangirai’s past electoral record.  It is our commentator who is bringing this up out of the blue. Why? To confuse and muddy the waters and silence the critics!

 

The country is in a political and economic mess, millions of our people are living in total abject poverty and millions other have been force to leave the country to escape the economic chaos and brutal political oppression. Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered with millions beaten and/or raped to establish and maintain this Zanu PF dictatorship. But each time one brings about the economic and political mess Mugabe and Zanu PF are quick to remind us all he is a liberation hero and that Zanu PF is the party of liberation.

 

We are in this mess because for 35 years the nation has been denied the opportunity to address the problems behind the mess because Mugabe’s heroic record got in the way. Mugabe has brought up his heroic past not just to confuse and muddy the waters and silence his critics but to justify his use of brute force to achieve this singular goal.

 

The people of Zimbabwe are today, and have been doing so for the last 20 years at least, demanding democratic change because they reject the false argument that since Mugabe was a liberation war hero he cannot be anything else but a great national hero. He has changed; they know and can see with their own eyes that he has changed. To exclusively dwell on heroic pre-independence record and totally disregard the post-independence reality is to delude oneself.

 

Indeed most of the people who want Tsvangirai’s dismal GNU record airbrushed out of the nation’s collective memory are the same people who for decades want Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs’ corruption and tyranny swept under the carpet. It would have been foolish to have listened to them back then as it is to listen to them today.

 

Zimbabweans must never allow the historic fact that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out and betrayed the nation during the GNU be swept under the carpet. They did not fail to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU not because they forgot (SADC leaders amongst many others reminded them umpteen times) or did not have time (they had five years, for Pete’s sake). They did not implement even one reform because Mugabe bribed them with all-your-heart-desired gravy train lifestyles and a $4 million Highlands mansion bonus for Tsvangirai. No they knowingly sold-out and pocketed the bribes!

 

In the same way Mugabe has bribed Zanu PF leaders with the same all-your-heart-desired gravy train lifestyle in return for them helping him build the Zanu PF dictatorship. Whatever freedoms and rights Mugabe had promised before independence, making a big song and dance about it, it was a cheque he and his ruling elite have since cashed whilst for millions of us we have yet to get one penny. We refuse to join in their endless big song and dance to celebrate a dream that has long since turned into nightmare!

 

“Taruvinga Fuwani said people must stop attacking Tsvangirai as he still has a large following who believe in his principles,” continued Stephen.

 

Does that “large following” know that Tsvangirai sold-out? They clearly do not know; and it is imperative that every Zimbabwean in every city, town, growth point and village knows that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are sell-out. The truth must not be swept under the carpet but broadcast from the every hilltop! They are the voters, they have a right to know the men and women they trusted to deliver democratic change sold them for thirty pieces of silver.

“Peter Khumalo said those who think they can do better than Tsvangirai; the political field is open for them …. they must stop complaining about the MDC-T leader,” Stephen argued.

To follow this ignoramus Peter Khumalo’s logic to its conclusion, if we the public are displeased at being sold-out then we should get ourselves elected so that we can sell-out, pocket the bribe and no questioned asked. The argument would suit Zanu PF even better; they are the liberation party and therefore they have the divine right to rule.

 

Of course what Khumalo is saying nonsense since it runs against the very essence of those holding public service being there to service public good and not selfish individual interests.

 

I know that millions of Zimbabweans are keen to see democratic change in Zimbabwe so they can end this economic and political nightmare and per se they would have never voted for Tsvangirai if they had known he would never deliver any democratic change and that he is a sell-out.

 

"No-one in Zimbabwe who can compete with Mugabe's thugs, Joshua Nkomo himself surrendered, Edgar Tekere surrendered, Dumiso Dabengwa is left with a wish to defeat Mugabe, but Tsvangirai is taking Mugabe to task each and every day," said our amateur philosopher Fuwani.

 

Like all amateur with no clue what they are talking about Fuwani managed to contradict himself in the same sentence. First he claims that no one can compete with Mugabe’s thugs and then says Tsvangirai is taking Mugabe to task every day! The same Tsvangirai who failed to implement even one reform in five years was taking Mugabe head-on and winning every time!

 

With such a sorry crop of wanabe political scientists, philosophers and political sell-outs it is little wonder the nation is in this political and economic mess!

 

During the GNU Tsvangirai’s task was not to take-on Mugabe’s thugs, it was to implement the democratic reforms. He did not get even one reform implemented not because some Zanu PF thug hit him with a brick on the head. Mugabe paid him a bribe to kick all the reforms into the tall grass and Tsvangirai took the bribe and kicked the reforms into the tall grass.

 

Because not even one reform was implemented, Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections. We are stuck today with the same Zanu PF dictatorship because Tsvangirai and MDC sold-out. We cannot consider Tsvangirai a hero just because he defeated Mugabe in the 2008 elections and disregard his failure to delivery any of the primary tasks because he sold-out. Those who are saying we should are being as pedantic  and nonsensical as asking that Judas Iscariot be declared a saint because he was one of the Twelve Disciples regardless of the fact that he is the mother of all the sell-outs!

Mugabe admits to Zuma Zim economy is in a "dismal state" and yet does nothing to stop the collapse!

The Zimbabwe government was warned against making deals paid off by mineral resources not yet mined because the seller is bound to be short changed. There is no doubt the Chinese knew this and are exploiting this. Zimbabwe has indeed become a debt slave nation to China. 

 

It is imperative that we review all our economic dealings with countries like China, we welcome true friendship born out of mutual respect and fair play and not this master and slave relationship! 

 

China is cock-sure which ever government takes over from Mugabe it will be just as corrupt, incompetent and gullible as Mugabe so it will be business as usual. We need to show the Chinese that we are not all corrupt, incompetent and gullible!

MDC-T reforms will never deliver democratic change and people must stop following these "cash - brigade"!

We must address this problem with the urgency and scientific objective realism the matter demands. There is no objective realism in our continued denial that we had the best chance ever to end the Zanuphobia during the GNU; all MDC had to do was implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the GPA. After five years of the GNU, not even one reform was implemented.

 

Many people are still in denial that MDC leaders sold-out to Mugabe; MDC leaders kicked the reforms into the tall grass in return for the gravy train all-your-heart-desired good life. Tsvangirai got the $4 million Highlands mansion as a bonus!

 

When notable Zimbabweans like Thomas Mapfumo accuse Tsvangirai and other MDC leaders of selling –out and joining the “cash brigade”; the usual suspects of blind and mindless political supporters were up in arms defending Tsvangirai’s honour. And yet none of these MDC supporters have ever come up with a rational explanation why MDC failed to get even one reform implemented.

 

What the rest of the rational Zimbabwean populous has to now realize and confront head-on is this significant mass of our people who would still unwittingly follow sell-out leaders like Tsvangirai. Man is a creature of reason but these zealous MDC supporters have given up thinking for themselves and would follow blindly leaders who have already sold them and the nation’s cause for ending the Zanu PF dictatorship.

 

Anyone who thinks that the latest MDC-T “No reform no elections” offer will add up to anything is not being realistic and objective. MDC- T’s eight elections reforms demands will not deliver the democratic reforms which are the key to ending this deeply entrenched Zanu PF dictatorship for various reasons including the following:

 

1. The GPA called for a raft of democratic reforms including ZEC, security sector and judiciary services to restore the independence of these public institutions. Mugabe power to appoint party loyalists in the Police, CIO and judiciary has compromised these bodies so much they might just as well be departments of the Zanu PF dictatorship. It is the Police and Courts’ failure to deal with Zanu PF’s thuggery that is behind Zimbabwe’s culture of politically motive violence. MDC-T’s current reforms leaves out security sector, judiciary and many other areas.
    
2. Where MDC-T has called for reforms these are superficial and therefore will achieve nothing. MDC-T has demanded that no serving or ex-security sector people should be appointed in ZES, for example; this will be no guarantee the ZEC will not have highly partisan personal since Mugabe can still appoint Zanu PF hardliners from other sections of society. Besides it is not just the individuals who have made ZEC ineffective to commission has lacked the political independence too.
    
3. The fact that MDC-T is expecting the Zanu PF regime to ever meaningfully implement any let alone all the democratic reforms smacks of dangerous political naivety. Of course this is one task Zanu PF will never ever carryout which is way it fell to MDC to implement the reforms during the GNU. Now that excellent opportunity to implement the reforms during the GNU has been carelessly squandered we need to pressure Zanu PF to accept the formation of a new national body that will have the power and authority to formulate and implement all the democratic reforms.
    
4. Germany has offered to takeover Zimbabwe’s $10 billion national debt and thus freeing the country from this heavy financial burden whilst the nation carries out the economic restructuring after the three and half decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Germany’s offer is on condition that Zimbabwe carries out the necessary political and economic reforms. No one in their right mind would count MDC-T’s electoral reforms as the serious political reforms called for here!
    

Zimbabwe’s political and economic problems are not insurmountable, far from it. Yes, decades of Zanu PF misrule has turned this country from the breadbasket of the region into a food aid-dependent nation. Zimbabwe can reclaim is breadbasket badge back because the land is still there and we still have good rains and the same hard working people too.

 

On the political front there have been many opportunities to end the corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship with the best chance coming during the GNU. The crippling economic meltdown will force the tyrannical to accept the need for change because the economic situation is not economically or politically sustainable. When the next chance for real change comes this time we must not waste it by following dreamers and sell-outs!

 

We need to take this failed political system by the scuff of the neck and put things right but first we need to put our thinking caps on! We are in this political and economic mess because for the last 35 years we said and done things without thinking. 

Those denying Tsvangirai sold-out are as pedantic as to ask Judas Iscariot should be a Saint!

Richard Morgan Tsvangirai has been rightly criticized with people like music legend, Thomas Mapfumo, rightly calling him a “sell-out” for his failure to implement even one democratic reform throughout the five years of the GNU. A number of people have jumped to Tsvangirai’s defence but; as expected with those defending the indefensible; they have only helped to showed just how shallow minded they are. Stephen Jakes is one example of our confused and shallow minded Tsvangirai defender.  

 

“But a social commentator said Tsvangirai must be honoured for showing the world that Mugabe can be defeated as he did so in 2008 when he defeated him though with votes which did not qualify him to assume the helm,” wrote Stephen Jakes in his Bulawayo 24 Opinion piece “Tsvangirai the only leader who has defeated Mugabe since independence”.

 

The commentator completely missed the point; no one criticized or disputed Tsvangirai’s past electoral record.  It is our commentator who is bringing this up out of the blue. Why? To confuse and muddy the waters and silence the critics!

 

The country is in a political and economic mess, millions of our people are living in total abject poverty and millions other have been force to leave the country to escape the economic chaos and brutal political oppression. Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered with millions beaten and/or raped to establish and maintain this Zanu PF dictatorship. But each time one brings about the economic and political mess Mugabe and Zanu PF are quick to remind us all he is a liberation hero and that Zanu PF is the party of liberation.

 

We are in this mess because for 35 years the nation has been denied the opportunity to address the problems behind the mess because Mugabe’s heroic record got in the way. Mugabe has brought up his heroic past not just to confuse and muddy the waters and silence his critics but to justify his use of brute force to achieve this singular goal.

 

The people of Zimbabwe are today, and have been doing so for the last 20 years at least, demanding democratic change because they reject the false argument that since Mugabe was a liberation war hero he cannot be anything else but a great national hero. He has changed; they know and can see with their own eyes that he has changed. To exclusively dwell on heroic pre-independence record and totally disregard the post-independence reality is to delude oneself.

 

Indeed most of the people who want Tsvangirai’s dismal GNU record airbrushed out of the nation’s collective memory are the same people who for decades want Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs’ corruption and tyranny swept under the carpet. It would have been foolish to have listened to them back then as it is to listen to them today.

 

Zimbabweans must never allow the historic fact that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out and betrayed the nation during the GNU be swept under the carpet. They did not fail to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU not because they forgot (SADC leaders amongst many others reminded them umpteen times) or did not have time (they had five years, for Pete’s sake). They did not implement even one reform because Mugabe bribed them with all-your-heart-desired gravy train lifestyles and a $4 million Highlands mansion bonus for Tsvangirai. No they knowingly sold-out and pocketed the bribes!

 

In the same way Mugabe has bribed Zanu PF leaders with the same all-your-heart-desired gravy train lifestyle in return for them helping him build the Zanu PF dictatorship. Whatever freedoms and rights Mugabe had promised before independence, making a big song and dance about it, it was a cheque he and his ruling elite have since cashed whilst for millions of us we have yet to get one penny. We refuse to join in their endless big song and dance to celebrate a dream that has long since turned into nightmare!

 

“Taruvinga Fuwani said people must stop attacking Tsvangirai as he still has a large following who believe in his principles,” continued Stephen.

 

Does that “large following” know that Tsvangirai sold-out? They clearly do not know; and it is imperative that every Zimbabwean in every city, town, growth point and village knows that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are sell-out. The truth must not be swept under the carpet but broadcast from the every hilltop! They are the voters, they have a right to know the men and women they trusted to deliver democratic change sold them for thirty pieces of silver.

“Peter Khumalo said those who think they can do better than Tsvangirai; the political field is open for them …. they must stop complaining about the MDC-T leader,” Stephen argued.

To follow this ignoramus Peter Khumalo’s logic to its conclusion, if we the public are displeased at being sold-out then we should get ourselves elected so that we can sell-out, pocket the bribe and no questioned asked. The argument would suit Zanu PF even better; they are the liberation party and therefore they have the divine right to rule.

 

Of course what Khumalo is saying nonsense since it runs against the very essence of those holding public service being there to service public good and not selfish individual interests.

 

I know that millions of Zimbabweans are keen to see democratic change in Zimbabwe so they can end this economic and political nightmare and per se they would have never voted for Tsvangirai if they had known he would never deliver any democratic change and that he is a sell-out.

 

"No-one in Zimbabwe who can compete with Mugabe's thugs, Joshua Nkomo himself surrendered, Edgar Tekere surrendered, Dumiso Dabengwa is left with a wish to defeat Mugabe, but Tsvangirai is taking Mugabe to task each and every day," said our amateur philosopher Fuwani.

 

Like all amateur with no clue what they are talking about Fuwani managed to contradict himself in the same sentence. First he claims that no one can compete with Mugabe’s thugs and then says Tsvangirai is taking Mugabe to task every day! The same Tsvangirai who failed to implement even one reform in five years was taking Mugabe head-on and winning every time!

 

With such a sorry crop of wanabe political scientists, philosophers and political sell-outs it is little wonder the nation is in this political and economic mess!

 

During the GNU Tsvangirai’s task was not to take-on Mugabe’s thugs, it was to implement the democratic reforms. He did not get even one reform implemented not because some Zanu PF thug hit him with a brick on the head. Mugabe paid him a bribe to kick all the reforms into the tall grass and Tsvangirai took the bribe and kicked the reforms into the tall grass.

 

Because not even one reform was implemented, Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections. We are stuck today with the same Zanu PF dictatorship because Tsvangirai and MDC sold-out. We cannot consider Tsvangirai a hero just because he defeated Mugabe in the 2008 elections and disregard his failure to delivery any of the primary tasks because he sold-out. Those who are saying we should are being as pedantic  and nonsensical as asking that Judas Iscariot be declared a saint because he was one of the Twelve Disciples regardless of the fact that he is the mother of all the sell-outs!

Mangoma should spare us the pieties of condemn Mugabe misrule since MDC allowed the tyrant back in power!

In a statement Tuesday, the opposition MDC Renewal group said it “holds the government of Zimbabwe responsible for the economic meltdown that has caused our people to look for greener pastures elsewhere.”

“The Renewal Team is disturbed by the despicable acts of carnage that is being orchestrated against foreigners in South Africa,” said the group’s treasurer Elton Mangoma.

 

This is the first time Comrade Mangoma has spoken out since the recall of all the 21 MDC – Renewal MPs and Senators. Just for the record, that was just a malicious act on the part of MDC – T much more so since the later had already made a congress resolution not to contest any by-elections. To therefore recall the 21 seats only to give the 14 contested seats to Zanu PF without even trying to win them back did not make any sense.

 

Whatever differences MDC-T and MDC –Renewal there are between the two factions surely those can never ever be so great to justify one side siding with Zanu PF to the extent of reducing the opposition footprint in parliament and increasing that of Zanu PF. Until the next elections, for bad or worse, Zimbabweans are stuck with the MDC MPs and Senators to voice their concerns; mediocre and incompetent as they all are but there it is! To therefore deliberately weaken this opposition voice further by donating 14 seats to Zanu PF is MDC –T throw hot chilli in not just their former colleagues’ eyes but in the eyes of the Zimbabwe people too!

 

Comrade Tsvangirai is it not bad enough that you betrayed the whole nation by failing to implement even one democratic reform and thus allowed Zanu PF to rig the July 2013 elections and get back into power? But not content with that you now give Zanu PF another 14 seats as an early Christmas gift!

 

Now that MDC – Renewal has stopped feeling sorry for yourselves over recalled 21 members it is clear you condemn Zanu PF for the country’s economic meltdown, etc. just to remain relevant. It was MDC’s failure to implement the democratic reforms; everyone had agreed in the Global Political Agreement were necessary for free, fair and credible elections; that allowed Zanu PF to rig the elections and thus stay in power. It is hard to believe you are being sincere in the condemnation of Zanu PF.

 

Zimbabweans are being bombarded by MDC (Ncube), MDC –T, your MDC –Renewal Simba Makoni and his Mavambo, Dumiso Dabengwa and his Zapu and now this new kid-on-the-block Zanu PF People First all pontificating to care about the people’s economic suffering and all claiming to have the solutions to end the economic meltdown. What is disappointing you all is that you were all in power five years and decades for the likes of Didymus Mutasa and the other People First guys and you all achieved nothing.

 

If you serious expect the people of Zimbabwe to believe you will, this time, keep your promises and deliver the democratic reforms and not betray them as you did last time during the GNU then you must start by being honest with them and finally tell them why MDC failed to implement even one reform during the GNU.

 

Last week Mr Morgan Tsvangirai categorically denied that SADC did not warn MDC against taking part in the rigged July 2013 elections without the reforms. Your fellow MDC –Renewal member, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, said the exact opposite. They cannot both be right; can you tell us which one of them is telling the truth and who is lying.

 

Thomas Mapfumo said Morgan Tsvangirai sold-out in failing to implement the reforms to join the “cash-brigade”. 

 

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because the country’s political leaders have betrayed the people left, right and centre. An avalanche of platitudes from the same political “weevils” and “cash-brigade” is not going to help us get out of the mess but will drag us even deeper into the hell-hole. If you are not going to tell us the truth about the GNU Mr Mangoma then spare us pieties!

MDC - T finally state their elections reform demands - wishy-washy and will never deliver free elections!

Many people on this site and others have said MDC-T (the same is true of the other two MDC factions) should not be trusted to handle the implementation of the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and democratic elections because they will mess things up. One has only to read Mr Gutu’s comments to MDC-T really do not have a clue what is demanded here and if the nation was to listen to them then we will never have free elections.

 

Take MDC-T’s two demands on ZEC for example:

 

-    “The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), should undertake a biometric national voter registration exercise that will give rise to the creation of a clean and accurate voters’ roll. The voters’ roll that was inherited from the Registrar - General’s office by ZEC is littered with gross irregularities that include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of thousands of names of deceased people;”

 

Having a biometric based voters roll alone will not eliminate all the many problems the voters roll can be abused in rigging the vote. Yes the number of registered voters last time was 6 million, in impossible figure given the country’s population was just over 12 million. No one knows for certain how the regime came up with this figure because the voters roll was never released. Even if all the extra voters were “deceased” the regime can still make up the number by entering the same voter a multiple times.

 

The Zanu PF then used the higher than expected registered voters to its advantage by allowing its supporters to use voter registration slip as proof of identity and then cast multiple votes. It is not hard to see why they cannot do the same again next time with a biometric voters roll.

-    “The secretariat of ZEC is largely composed of military and State security agents. This secretariat has to be completely dismantled in order to come up with a professional and unbiased secretariat that is capable of conducting a free and fair election at any given moment in time;”

 

Zanu PF’s response on this will be to appoint party loyalists but with no military and State security background.

 

Will this be enough to guarantee that ZEC will from hence forth deliver free and fair elections? Hell no!

 

If we are to have confidence with a  ZEC that will deliver free and fair elections then there will have to be far reaching democratic reforms of the commission to ensure its independence and impartiality. For example parliament should vet the suitability of commissioners and have the power to question ZEC’s performance without reference to the executive branch.

 

Zanu PF has always failed to provide ZEC with adequate resources to carry out its statutory duties properly; many would say this was done deliberately.

 

There are other State Institutions like the Police and the other security organs that would require democratic reforms to stop them interfering adversely in the elections as they have done in the past. Indeed all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA must be implemented as originally agreed.

 

With an overwhelming Zanu PF majority in the current parliament it is clear the party cannot be trusted to implement all the democratic reforms properly; this is why it was important that the task was done during the GNU. The only way out now is for a new body to be set up to carry out this important task. Since both Zanu PF and MDC failed to implement any reforms during the GNU it is self-evidence neither parties can be allowed to play a leading role much less have the power to veto anything.

 

It is important that the reforms are done properly next time and not waste time and money tinkering with a few reforms here and there and then cry foul again!

 

Zanu PF will happily tinker with the reforms MDC-T are demanding because the party will still have a lot of opportunities to rig the elections again if they so wish. The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their basic and fundamental right to a meaningful free and democratic vote for the last 35 years; we must make sure that they will finally, finally exercise this right next time!

By - election pressure forcing political funabmulist Mugabe to perform with no safety net!

Zanu PF People First fronted by former Zanu PF bigwigs, Joice Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa, has reportedly sponsored candidates to contest in the forthcoming 10 June 2015 parliamentary by-elections as independent candidates. Mugabe will be under great pressure to make sure none of them win to ensure this new kid-on-the-block, People First, does not even get a look in.

 

Ordinarily Mugabe would not have had anything to worry about whether his party lost all the by-elections because his party still has more than the two-third majority he needs. His problem here is that out of the 160 Zanu PF MPs 100 or so of them are believed to be from the Mujuru camp.  Mugabe has had to trade carefully since he purged Mujuru and 16 others of her supporters from cabinet; he did not want to spook the MPs and force them to take Mujuru’s side.

 

After the ruthless cull of VP Mujuru and her supporters from cabinet last year, the winning Mnangagwa faction was itching to press their advantage and wanted all the senior Mujuru supporters, including the 100 or so MPs, fired from the party. Mugabe has had to ask them to be patient.

 

So far only Didymus Mutasa and his nephew Mliswa are the only two former Zanu PF MPs who have been fired from the party triggering a parliamentary recall of their seat. Former VP Mujuru lost her MP seat under the pretext that she should have given it up when she was appointed VP after the rigged 2013 elections just as VP Mnangagwa was giving up his with his appointment to replace her. She would have been forced to give up her seat anyway because she too has since been fired from the party.

 

The recall of the 14 MDC-renewal MPs and the two fired Zanu PF MPs has presented Mugabe with the golden opportunity to start bolstering his own position in parliament by making sure all these seats are won by members loyal to his faction. The fact that the Mujuru faction has candidates contesting for these by-elections seats must have Mugabe really worried now.

 

Zanu PF People First with their potentially rebellious 100 or so MPs have posed a real political threat to his hold on power. He has been forced to trade carefully since the December 2014 purge of Mujuru and others, for someone whose trademark has been to ride rough-shod over everyone without a care in the world, to now have to retrain himself again – after the GNU imposed restrains – is what is making him stumble and fall!

 

Mugabe knows that if these People First sponsored candidates were to perform very well in the 10 June 2015 by-elections then he will need the wheelchair from there on because his own legs will just too feeble to carry him.

 

A win of the Zanu People First members who, up to now, have been running scarred, will have them singing “Nothing is going to stop us now! We are on the move! Move it! Move it!”

 

So Mugabe is under great pressure to stop the People First lot before they ever start but that is easier said than done.

 

It is one thing telling the Headmen and Chiefs to frog match the villagers to the polling stations when one is sure these local leaders are party loyalists through and through. Now that there are clearly two Zanu PF factions, who is to know how many of these corrupt leaders have decided their future lies with the Mujuru faction?

 

There are other dirty tricks Mugabe could deploy to secure a victory for his faction but there is the see the Margret Dongo factor to be considered.

 

In the 1995 Harare South parliamentary elections Mrs Dongo lost the initial vote to a Zanu PF candidate. She successfully challenged the result on the grounds that the vote had been rigged; as a former Zanu PF MP and CIO she had inside information on how the vote had been rigged complete with sworn affidavits from those who had been collared to play a part in the vote rigging.

 

Mrs Dongo went on to win the re-run of the Harare South seat earning for herself the licence to call Mugabe a vote rigging tyrant. It has been the next best thing to James Bond’s licence to kill and she has used it at every opportunity!

 

The factional dog-eat-dog in Zanu PF today has divided the party down the middle; there are staunch Mujuru loyalists is every State Institution down to village level, she will have a lot more inside informers than Mrs Dongo ever had. She will only need one or two of them to spill the beans on how the by-elections were rigged and Mugabe would have open a flood that is sure to sweep him into the political abyss.

 

How President Mugabe has managed to stay in power for 35 years, given that he has been a total disaster and a curse to the nation, is a great mystery. Yes he has had the great fortune of having some of the most corrupt and incompetent individual in his own party, Zanu PF, and the opposition parties as his challengers; still his was a remarkable achievement.

 

However of all his many terms in office this term 2013 to 2018 will be Mugabe’s toughest. Yes he is very cunning political fox but for him to walk the political tightrope with no balancing stick and safety net (cheating his former Zanu PF colleagues with lot of vote-rigging experienced will not be easy) and with raging hurricane weather (the worsening economic meltdown) whipping his rope like a skipping rope, is asking for too much.

 

It will be remarkable if Mugabe stays on the tightrope for the rest of the year much less to the end of 2018 and then win a new term. He would truly be a remarkable political funambulist indeed; I will remark on it myself!

Manheru cum Mugabe spokesman accuse xenophobia victims of "soil" Zim and run away

In the most bizarre explanation, even by Zanu PF’s sick standard of blaming the victims of the regime’s own failures and tyrannical repression; Nathaniel Manheru cum Mugabe spokesman, George Charamba, blames victims of xenophobia attacks.

 

“We have, as Zimbabweans, this nasty habit of soiling our beds and then stealing into someone else's bedroom, to borrow warmth, salubrious airs and sleep which the owner has laboured to prepare and conjure," wrote Manheru.

“Once in there, we not only foul the new airs through our un-wiped hands; we also excoriate the bedroom we have deserted, we have soiled, as if it was never home. As if it will never be home again. The late Achebe put it so well. Asked if he will ever consider leaving Nigeria for a better world elsewhere, he answered: Nigeria is where God in his infinity wisdom planted me. I will never leave it for someone else's better home, a home which he has taken the trouble to scour clean. Of course, after a crippling traffic accident, Achebe found himself in US, but for medical reasons. He died bound to a wheelchair, that great Nigerian.”

The millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora left the country because they soiled their home; that is a complete distortion of the truth and reality. Zimbabweans, who could leave, have left the country in droves because they have found themselves assailed by a regime that has systematically denied them a future, their basic freedoms and rights including the right to regime change and even the right to life itself.

Over 30 000 Zimbabweans have been murdered by the regime for selfish political gain. And in the last week the violence has flared up again with all the ugliness of the 2008 presidential run-off.

Yes it is true that MDC-T is participating in the 10 June 2015 by-elections "by stealth".

 

"But there is another level of absurdity,” commented Manheru, “with the nomination over and the stage set for a campaign for the said by-elections; Tsvangirai goes on a campaign trail, ostensibly to explain to his constituencies why MDC-T is "boycotting" the by-elections, fundamentally to participate in those by-elections by stealth!"

 

MDC-T has chalked a number of rallies in the coming weeks in the run-up to the by-elections; which for a party boycotting the elections it is rather naughty, still it is not a crime. Zanu PF has reacted to the rallies by viciously attacking the MDC-T supporters who attached the Glen View rally.

 

 

Glen View; here is a sickening sight of yet another innocent victim of Zanu PF mindless violence! ( from Zimeye)

 

The MDC-T’s “No Reform No Elections” rallies are to explain the party's eight reform demands but sadly even if Zanu PF implemented all the demands the country will still not have free and fair elections. The reforms MDC-T is calling for are so wishy-washy Zanu PF will have a thousand and one other ways to render then ineffective.  MDC-T is demanding that no serving or former security service personal should be appointed in ZEC, for example. That is no guarantee that ZEC will be competent and none-partisan since Zanu PF will still have thousands of other hard-line party loyalists to pick from!

 

 But to underline just how wilfully inadequate the MDC-T reforms list is; there is nothing in the list to put an end to the country’s culture of wanton political violence! Nothing!

Three and half decades of Zanu PF incompetent and corrupt rule have destroyed the country’s once upon a time vibrant economy. Today the country is facing a crippling economic meltdown; only the few ruling elite have grown filthy rich whilst millions have been forced to live in abject poverty without hope.

 

No Manheru millions of Zimbabweans have left the country not because they soiled the country but because Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs soiled the country and the stench is overwhelming. The xenophobia attacks in SA means those Zimbabweans who had escaped to that country are now being forced to go back to the skunk stench in Zimbabwe.

 

Unemployment in Zimbabwe is a nauseating 90%, 16% or 2 million are living in abject poverty, etc. And, as if the economic hardships are not enough, the returnees are once again confronted with the toy-toying Zanu PF thugs and murderers. So home-is-home there is no-place-like-home welcome this is turning out to be for those running away from SA xenophobia attacks!