Mugabe threaten UN with AU walkout over veto demands - another contrived skunk fight with a hidden agenda.

“Chidembo kana choda kuramba mukadzi chinoshereketa!” (When the skunk (bad husband) wants to desert the wife, it will do anything and everything to provoke a fight, beat her up and then divorce her for “starting” the fight!)

When President Mugabe warned UN Secretary – General, Ban Ki-Moon that Africa will, en mass, walk out of the UN if the continent’s demands for two permanent Security Council seats are not met; this was just him, the skunk, itching for a fight.

There is no stopping a skunk, with a hidden agenda, itching for a fight.

“We are supposed to be free and independent Mr Ban Ki Moon; supposed to be free— the 54 countries (of Africa). We come to the United Nations for the ceremonial (General Assembly); every year, September, we are there,” said Mugabe at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is there to hand over the AU Chairmanship to Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno.

“We pay lots of money, go there and attend the General Assembly and make speeches, go back home: year in year out.

“But the bosses in the Security Council say you shall never have the powers that we have as permanent members … Reform the Security Council!” thundered Mugabe to thunderous applause from the gathered African leaders.

Mugabe, out of your own mouth cometh thy judgement!

Mugabe is fighting for Africa to have the same power to veto UN Security Council resolutions that the five permanent members have. This is rich coming from the man who has systematically denied the Zimbabwean people the freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful free vote and even the right to life! In any case giving one or two of Africa’s tyrants the veto would not help advance the post independent Africa’ call for democratic change.

If these African leaders were not suffering from collective amnesia then they would remember that it was the AU itself which resolved that Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections, Mugabe’s claimed were free and fair, were not. The AU would only grant Mugabe political legitimacy after he agreed to implement wide raging democratic reforms and to form a GNU. Sadly none of the reforms were implemented so Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections.  

Mugabe is facing an ever tougher election in 2018 than in 2008 because the national economic is now in total meltdown and Zanu PF popularity is rock bottom. To remain in power Mugabe will have no choice but to once again rig the elections; something the West, the UN and the Zimbabwean people themselves are set to object to with renewed vigour.

Last week VP Mnangagwa confirmed the Zanu PF regime will renew its banning UNPD, although it is the one paying for Zimbabwe’s new biometric voting system, and all the Western nations’ election monitors from observing the country’s next elections. The fight with the UN over reforms is a contrived in that when the regime is criticized for rigging the elections it will counter and accuse the West is punishing it because Mugabe’s repeated demands for UN reforms.

Mugabe played the same dirty trick of picking a contrived fight when he accused the British of reneging on their promise to fund Zimbabwe’s land redistribution programme. So when he was accuse of rigging the 2000 and 2002 elections he countered claiming the elections were free and fair and accused the British and their Western allies of punishing him for seizing white owned farms.

When the AU and SADC both refused to endorse Mugabe’s claim that the 2008 elections too were free and fair, Mugabe had no counter accusation then. If the AU sided with the West in condemning Mugabe’s vote rigging in 2018 he will accuse the African leaders in turn of hypocrisy; many have turned a blind eye to vote rigging in Africa with a number guilt of committing the same crime themselves – to as extensively but enough and that is all Mugabe needs. The few leaders with a clean bill of electoral health, Mugabe will accuse them of being puppets of the Wests taking orders to play hardball with him even though his megaphone diplomacy has accomplished nothing.

In 2003 Mugabe took Zimbabwe out of the British Commonwealth when it was clear the country was going to be kicked over its failure to hold free and fair elections. If push comes to shove he will walk out of the UN and AU too rather than hold free and fair elections and lose.

If the truth be told; Africa does not need the two permanent seats complete with veto powers. Africa has had its share of dictators, despots and tyrants. There is the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who ruled Libya for 42 years (he did not bother with the niceties of elections); Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, was schooled in vote rigging, he ruled Egypt with an iron fist for 30 years; President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan has been indicted by ICC for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur; we know Mugabe and his checked track record; etc. The thought of any of these tyrants wielding a veto is very worrying indeed for Africa and the world at large!

Africa’s democratic institutions, where they still exist, are very weak to deal with serious institutionalized crimes like genocide, crime against humanity, etc. The presence of rogue states like China and Russia wielding the UN Security Council veto has allowed many African tyrants to get away with murder as long as they had Chinese and/or Russian support. Africa needs a strong UN and adding the number of rogue states with a veto will make the UN even weaker than it is!

How ironic that Mugabe should be using demands for an African UN veto as a smoke screen to hide his more sinister plan to continue denying millions of Zimbabweans the right to free, fair and credible vote. But then it is to be expected given his skunk mentality!

“Ichokwadi! Chidembo kana choda kuramba mukadzi chinoshereketa!”  (Yeah up! There is no stopping a skunk itching for a fight to hide its more sinister agenda!

Musewe, democracy is the "contentious issue" we must debate by being "selective" you killing the debate.

“It is at times futile to have press debates on contentious issues because these debates never really end as we tend to be selective on what catches our attention based on our mental biases and dispositions and may therefore completely miss what we are saying to each other,” said Vince Musewe.

It is in fact the “contentious issues” that we MUST debate and no one should ever be “selective” as to what they say because that will indeed make the debate a futile waste of time.

Vince you have the knack for contradicting yourself: you have just said you “tend to be selective” on what you say in the quote above. In the next paragraph you tell us “My objective here is really to make sure my readers have the correct information”.

Anyone can say they want a democratic Zimbabwe that is the easy bit; how to end the ruthless dictatorship and create a healthy democracy is the contentious bit. The devil is in giving detailed and correct information, in acknowledging and working within the confines of historic facts because to do anything else kills honest debate and, worst of all, damages the prospect of ever achieving the set goal of a democratic Zimbabwe.  

There are three contentious issues here:

a)      What reforms do we need to end the Zanu dictatorship and have a democracy?

There are 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) democratic reforms which everyone agreed were necessary for free, fair and credible and elections. Sadly, at the end of the five years of GNU, not even one reform had been implemented.

Since this is an honest no-holds barred discussion, it must be stated not even one reform was implemented because MDC leaders proved to be breathtakingly incompetence and corrupt. They were warned by SADC leaders, among many others, to implement the reforms and later not to take part in the elections with no reforms but paid no heed. These are historic facts. For someone of Mr Musewe’s intellect to then dismiss a deliberate and calculated act of corruption, the $ 4 million mansion paid bribe there, as a “mistake” is to blatantly break the rules of honest debate!

Having failed to implement the GPA reforms during the GNU MDC leaders are now demanding that the Zanu PF regime must implement electoral law reforms, NERA. This is a time wasting exercise by the opposition designed to give the electorate the impression the opposition is still fighting for free and fair elections when they are not.

Legal experts have already dismissed NERA as “inadequate and incomplete”. Not one of those backing NERA has ever dared to claim publicly the reforms will deliver free and fair elections. In fact it is for this reason MDC leaders have picked on NERA and not GPA reforms, they know Zanu PF will implement the former because they have nothing to lose as contrast to the latter reforms in which Zanu PF will be forced to hold free and fair elections with the real prospect of regime change.

So only the GPA reforms will dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and deliver democratic change including free and fair elections guaranteed. NERA reforms never deliver a democratic Zimbabwe, never ever; they are a smoke screen to hide the opposition’s cowardly decision to once again kick GPA reforms, the game-changer, into the tall grass.

 I challenge Mr Musewe or anyone else who dares to deny that adopting the biometric system alone, which NERA demands, without reforming ZEC, demanded by the GPA, will not stop Zanu PF rigging the vote!

b)     If Mugabe refuses to implement the GPA reforms by 2018, what then?

It was you, Vince, who posed the above question. I totally agree that implementing the GPA reforms, forget for a moment how this can be achieved, will deliver free and fair elections. Mugabe and Zanu PF will never win such elections, not with their track record of corruption, incompetence and murderous oppression. So it would be “political suicide”, as you rightly said for Mugabe to implement the GPA reforms.

The question is in fact inappropriate; it should be What if Mugabe refuses any democratic change necessary for free and fair elections and the nation’s chance to end this corrupt and oppressive system of government that has crashed the hopes, dreams and the very humanity of millions of Zimbabweans? Because, ultimately this is what implementing the reforms is about.

My answer to the appropriate question is let us not put words in his mouth, let him refuse!

Your answer is that we accept implementing the reforms will be political suicide for Mugabe and therefore we accept the status quo. Why then are you pretending to be fighting for democratic change when you are in reality fighting to maintain the dictatorship?

Your plan B does not seek to end the dictatorship but to accept it as a political reality you cannot change. After 36 years you have not only failed to see that it is not working but worse still, that it is now your plan A.

As to the question of how are we going to get Mugabe to implement the GPA reforms; this is not the impossible task of the mouse tying the bell round the cat’s neck, as you try to portray it.

Mugabe signed the GPA in 2008 committing himself and his party to the full implementation of the reforms. We can criticize SADC leaders over many things but the one area no one can fault them, especial SA’s President Jacob Zuma and his representative, Lindiwe Zulu, is their commitment to making sure Mugabe will not refuse to implement the reforms.

It was MDC’s fault, not Mugabe’s, that not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. SADC did their best to get Tsvangirai, Biti, Ncube and all the other MDC leaders to implement the reforms but was ignored.

So strictly speaking, it was Tsvangirai and his MDC friends “refused to implement the GPA reforms”. It therefore beggars belief that anyone would considered Tsvangirai et al, the breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent individuals who “refused” to implement even one GPA reform in five years, as suitable leaders to be trust implement the same reforms. Worse still, they refused when Mugabe’s hands were tied by the GPA what hope is there they will do so now when the GPA has expired and Mugabe is free to refuse?

As we have already seen above, Tsvangirai and his friends have indeed decided to forget demanding the GPA reform in favour of the wishy-washy NERA; proof, if any was still required, that these breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent individuals are not to be trusted.

Mugabe is under enormous pressure to accept change from the country’s worsening economic meltdown and from the infighting tearing his party apart. A united public demanding GPA reforms as the only way out could still force him to accept the reality that change is necessary.

Even if Mugabe soldiered on to 2018 without implementing the reforms our position should remain that we will not take part in any fraudulent elections designed to deny the people their right to free and fair elections and hope of a better future.

There will be some opposition members who will take part in the elections even with no GPA reforms implemented because they know Mugabe will allow the opposition to “win” a few seats. They will be going for the scraps. These opposition members will be exposed for the two-faced traitors they are that they should grant fraudulent electoral processes some measure of legitimacy for the sake of scraps!

c)      If there is to be a grand opposition coalition, what kind of animal should it be?

All Zimbabwe’s political parties have one thing in common; most of their leaders are corrupt and incompetent. The problem is with the de facto one-party dictatorship Mugabe has imposed of the nation which has stifled public debate and democratic competition. Mugabe has made politics such a dirty game that only thugs, the brain-dead, opportunists, etc. play and little wonder the corrupt and incompetent emerge as their leaders.

By implementing the GPA reforms we will dismantle the dictatorship to allow free flow of information, debate and democratic competition. Joice Mujuru will not last long on the political stage under the full glare of a USA type free media, for example, not with her record of 34 years of corruption, corruption and corruption.

Implement the reforms and let the democratic process separate the good, the bad and the ugly!

The only grand coalition, if there ever to be one, must be united front demanding free, fair and credible elections because this is the one issue that should unite us all who want a democratic Zimbabwe and see the nation finally emerge out of the darkness of corruption and murderous tyranny.

Implementing the 2008 GPA democratic reforms and delivering free, fair and credible elections is the Big Issue of our time, has been for the last 36 years; for Pete’s sake let us stop giving excuses and get the job done! People like Vince Musewe have not offered anything of substance other than that we should all accept the Zanu PF dictatorship is here to stay. It will stay only because we let it; even when we have the golden opportunity to end it, as happened during the GNU, it was us the people who refused to end it! 

Musewe dumps Tsvangirai for Biti but still against reforms - the honey bird with the twitchy tail.

Comrade Vince Musewe has jumped ship; he has left the Tsvangirai and Mujuru led coalition project he had tried hard to promote, he has now joined People Democratic Party, led by Tendai Biti.

“What needs to be done is to move away from the mere analysis of the situation to the application…” said Musewe after his announced move.

“There is lack of general appreciation of what needs to be done.”

“We need to think before we act, having looked at the country’s 42 (political) parties, there is nothing so far in place as better (good) as PDP,” he said.

After all the months trying in vain to sell the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai and Mujuru as quality leaders, he has clearly not yet learned that he cannot make a silk purse from a sower’s ear because Tendai Biti is just as corrupt and incompetent. When he jumped into bed with Tsvangirai he had clearly forgotten his on advice “to think before we act”.

However, it is Musewe’s arrogance, Mister-know-it-all attitude, on the economy and how to end the political crisis that should worry us all. Above he said the nation must move away from the mere analysis (on the contrary, Mugabe has stifled all meaningful debate ignorance and fear rule supreme, there is more quality debate in independent media than in parliament; we need to implement the GPA reforms so there free media and freedom of expression and really open up public discussion on everything) and go into the application stage. 

Yet in the next breath he readily and rightly admits “there is lack of general appreciation of what needs to be done”! There is no one more dangerous than a Mister-know-it-all who is himself confused!

If there is lack of appreciation of what one is doing then, surely, one must stop and analysed thoroughly from all possible angles and not plough on heedlessly. One of the contributory factor to Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess in 36 years of blundering from pillar to post because no one has dared to stop and carry out a proper evaluation of the problem.

The indigenisation law, for example, was passed with no meaningful debate and not even the Zanu PF cronies who were supposed to benefit from by buying the 51% shares have not benefited because would be foreign investors have shied away from the country. Zimbabwe has lost billions of dollars of FDI every year and millions of jobs. Yet this obnoxious law still remains on the statute because Mugabe, Mister-know-it-all, with no regard to what everyone else or the facts on the ground will not repeal the law.

If there are free and fair elections we will finally rid ourselves of Mugabe and Zanu PF; the last thing we want is get rid of one Mister-know-it-all only to replace him with another!

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal have messed up the nation’s economy; many of them, like Grace Mugabe, have no clue what is required to fix the economy and the few who know lack the political will and resolve to get the job done. Still anyone who thinks the terrible and dangerous state of Zimbabwe’s economy has dampened Mugabe and his Zanu PF colleagues’ appetite to remain in power in any way could not be more wrong.

If anything the country’s worsening economic meltdown has sharpened their hunger to stay in power at all cost hence the dog-eat-dog factional war. They all know that the losers will be forced to join the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans now living in abject poverty. Come the national elections, Zanu PF will be throwing the kitchen sink, anything and everything at the opposition to make sure they win and stay in power.

“There is too much political consideration and too much patriotism which is not yielding anything,” was Musewe’s dismissive response to those calling for the implementation of the GPA democratic reforms BEFORE the next elections to ensure Zanu PF does not have the freedom to rig the elections as happened in the past.

We are not dealing with some mickey-mouse Al Capone vote rigging operation with a few corrupt Police Officers, Judges, etc.; we are dealing with the Mafia Godfather figure in State House and every State Institution headed by a senior member of the clan.

Millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are now living in abject poverty, government is failing to pay civil servant salaries let alone everything else like drugs, etc. And yet the Mafia gang itself is richer than ever from the billions of dollars looted from Marange and other national resources and assets. Zanu PF has the money to bankroll a very elaborate and costly vote rigging scheme.

The opposition parties have been shut out of the state institutions and they have no cash or resource to match Zanu PF’s. This why no one should contesting any elections until the reforms are implemented; to do so will be a betray of the people who are being denied a free and meaning vote, an exercise in futility and a mockery of democratic elections!

In 2013 Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, including Tendai Bite, ignored all advice not to take part in the elections with no reform because they will still win regardless of all Zanu PF vote rigging “shenanigans”. We must not make the same mistake they did! Yet this is exactly what Vince Musewe wants us to do!

The honey bird will lead you to a bee hive but not always; some for whatever devilish reasons will lead you straight into a pride a lions! Experienced hunters will tell you, never follow a honey bird with a twitchy tail. Vince Musewe wants us to go into the next elections with no GPA reforms implemented for whatever devilish reasons, he is the honey bird with the twitchy tail, ignore him!

   

Free, fair and credible election is not just a democratic right but it is the basic for good and accountable government and our key to ending the economic meltdown. We must demand the GPA reforms BEFORE the next election and keep our eyes firm on that ball! 

Caveat populo! (Let the people beware!) with no reform it is HEAD Mugabe wins TAIL MDC lose!

The story goes that a man bought a horse on the mistaken belief that the animal was a strong animal with many productive years ahead of it. It was a strong beast alright but did not have many productive years left; he assumed the animal was six years old when in fact it twelve years old.

The wise King, before whom the case had been brought to settle the bitter dispute, asked the man how he had worked out the horse’s age.

“The horse is a strongly built animal with bulging muscles so I guessed it was six years old. A week after taking delivery of the animal I noticed its molars were no more than stump where a great tree had once proudly stood!”

“Excellent! Excellent!” commented the wise King. “You had the opportunity to inspect the horse before you paid for it but chose to judge the animal on the basis of his size and bulging muscles alone. It was your fault!”

“Caveat emptor!” Latin for “Let the buyer beware!” The buyer buys “as is” complete with all the defects; it is for the buyer to examine, judge and test the good and satisfy himself or herself of its suitability for the purpose or need.

If no GPA reforms are implemented BEFORE the next elections, as happened in the 2013 elections, then Mugabe will once again rig the elections. “Caveat populo!” (Let the people beware!)

Zimbabwean elections are infamous for the horse trading after each election. The opposition always complain that the elections were rigged and Zanu PF, with the feigned angelic innocence of the devil’s imp, countered claimed that the elections were free, fair and credible. If people take part in the next election with no implemented reforms it is their fault; they must not complain after the elections that they were rigged because they knew up front Mugabe would rig the elections.

In the 2013 elections SADC leaders, amongst many others, literally begged Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to take part in the election without implementing the GPA reforms; MDC ignored the warning. They took part in the elections with their tails raised high like a warthog, bristling with enthusiasm and confidence the party will have land slide electoral victory.

 Warthog tail up, bristling with enthusiasm and appetite for life.

“We in the MDC were wrong in participating in that (2013 general) election,” admitted the deflated Morgan Tsvangirai after Mugabe blatantly rigged the vote to register landslide victory for himself and Zanu PF. “On the assumption and belief that the sheer numbers of Zimbabweans would overwhelm whatever shenanigans Zanu PF had planned to subvert the will of the people.”

Tsvangirai, MDC and the nation at large were warned, without implementing the reforms first, Mugabe would rig the elections. The warning was valid before the 2013 elections it is still valid today.

Instead of implementing the GPA reforms Tsvangirai and his party have come up alternative electoral law reforms, listed in the party’s National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA); wishy-washy reforms which will never deliver free and fair election even if Zanu PF was to implement them. A few days ago; after two and half years since the rigged July 2013 of time wasting on NERA, MDC-T has now admitted implementing NERA alone will not deliver free and fair elections.

“Whilst the MDC welcomes any moves to ensure and guarantee the holding of a free and fair plebiscite in 2018,” wrote MDC-T spokesman, Obert Gutu. He was welcoming the Zanu PF government’s announcement that the country will have the biometric voting system ready for the next elections (one NERA demand).

“Once the impartiality and independence of ZEC is placed in doubt, Zimbabwe can never hold free and fair elections that can pass the test of legitimacy,” he continued, getting to the meat of the problem.” It is a notorious fact that since the year 2000, all elections that have been held in this country have been hugely disputed.”

ZEC’s impartially and independence will only be restore by implementing the GPA reforms. The same is true with all the other institutions like the Police, Judiciary, etc.

“Zimbabwe can simply not afford the luxury of holding another disputed election in 2018.Without holding a free and fair election that is credible, it is virtually impossible to extricate Zimbabwe from the prevailing political turmoil and socio-economic collapse,” concluded Gutu.

Here are the two explicit national demands (it would have been too much to expect MDC-T to be explicit even in the light of their “later day enlightenment) to Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal:

a)      They must accept they have failed to govern the country and accept the full implementation of all the GPA reforms followed by the holding of free, fair and credible elections. This is the only way the country is going to end the worsening economic meltdown that is dragging the nation dangerous close to the precipice.

b)      Mugabe and Zanu PF must accept the appointment of an independent body to implement the GPA reforms; it is naïve to think Mugabe can be trusted to fully and judiciously implement the reform.

To pile on the pressure on Mugabe to accept the above demands the people of Zimbabwe, the opposition parties in all their myriad variations and povo wherever they are, must now pledge that they will never again take part in an elections in Zimbabwe until the GPA reforms are fully implemented.

Mugabe has a war chest full of cash from the wholesale looting and plundering of the nation’s resources by this regime’s ruling elite. He got $2 billion from the looting in Marange in 2012 alone, according to Partnership Africa, a Canadian NGO monitoring the illicit trade of diamonds. With all this money he has bankrolled very elaborate vote rigging schemes; for the 2013 he has paid NIKUV, the Israeli company notorious for corrupting voters roll, a princely sum of $10 million for its services! Over and above this Mugabe commandeers all the state resource we wants top up on what he has already.  

MDC-T and all the other opposition parties have very little money; indeed most of them are stone-broke! The only reason some opposition parties have continued to take part in such elections is for scraps Mugabe throws at them; to give the electoral process some semblance of a democratic contest Mugabe has allowed the opposition to “win” a few seats.

What the people must do is chastise the opposition politicians continue to grant the Zanu PF regime some measure of legitimacy for the sake of the scraps; this nation cannot afford to continue turning a blind eye on those who run with the hare and hunt with the hounds especial when the very stability and survival of the nation is at stake!

The people of Zimbabwe have waited for 36 year now for free, fair and credible elections. Whilst they waited, this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship has dragged the whole nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth. Enough is enough; there is absolutely no excuse why the people should have to wait even one more election before they can finally enjoy their God given right to a free and meaningful vote.

Zimbabwe’s next election WILL be free, fair and credible; we WILL implement all the democratic reforms BEFORE the said election to be absolutely sure it is indeed free and fair. Any other fraudulent elections with Mugabe free to rigs such election will not count.

We have had a very good look over of the Zanu PF horse, we are not fooled with the dyed coat or the puffed up muscles pumped full of Botox; the horse is half-dead already and we do not want it!

Caveat populo! If you vote in the present system, your vote will be counted as a vote for Zanu PF whether you voted for Zanu PF or not and the party has ways of multiplying to increase the Zanu PF votes whilst dividing to reduce the opposition’s votes. If push comes to shove, Zanu PF will not hesitate to use violence to secure election victory. The only way to end this system is by insisting on implementing the GPA reforms Mugabe agreed to in 2008 but were never implemented during the GNU! 

"Deal with urgent NOW!" advises neophyte philosopher MP Cross - forgot advice for 5 GNU years!

The trouble with being neophyte philosophers is that people do not take them seriously even when they have said something sensible because of the yawning chasm between what they say and what they do. Our MDC MP for Bulawayo South, Eddie Cross, is one such greenhorn philosopher who words and actions are poles apart!

“If you are in government or business, then you need to maintain a sense of proportion – what is important? What is really urgent, so urgent that it has to be dealt with NOW!” advised MP Cross in his latest article.

“It is so easy to be diverted by things that are not really in any sense important or deal breaking. However sometimes things creep up on us which turn out to be anything but trivial and which have the potential to change a whole lot of things and which, if not attended to will cause damage.”

Has it ever occurred to MP Cross that implementing the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA during the GNU were both important and urgent, “so urgent that it (implementing the reforms) has (had) to be dealt with NOW (immediately)”? Then why the dickens did MDC fail to implement the reforms? We would not be in this mess with Mugabe and Zanu PF back in power and ruining all our lives!

Yes sometimes things do “creep up on us which turn out to be anything but trivial” but that would be a feeble excuse for MDC’s failure to implement any reforms because:

a)      SADC and many others reminded MDC leaders, including (no doubt) MP Cross himself, throughout the GNU to implement the reforms but MDC paid no heed.

b)      MDC had five years to implement the reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one! With so time in the hands to carry out this important and urgent task, which they had initially said they would do in a year and half, it is nonsense to talk of time creeping up on them.

Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, MP Cross and many of his follow MDC leaders continue to treat their failure to implement the reforms during the GNU as if it is a trivial matter. If the reforms were implemented then Zimbabweans would have had their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections denied to them for all these years finally restored.

Mugabe and Zanu PF would NOT have blatantly rigged the election and being unelectable, because of their track record of corruption, incompetence and murderous oppression, Zanu PF would not have won free and fair elections. In short Mugabe and Zanu PF would not be in power ruining the economic and destroying all our lives and dreams.

Implementing the GPA reforms is the single most important and urgent issue of our time because with no reform there is no hope of this nation hoping free, fair and credible elections – the pre-requisite for breaking the no-regime-change mantra Mugabe imposed on the nation and replacing it with a good and democratic regime. Only a good and democratic regime will have the vision and political will to implement the tough economic reforms required for economic recovery.

By failing to get even one reform implemented MP Cross and his fellow MDC leaders have proven beyond doubt that they are breathtakingly incompetent and corrupt. These are very serious charges so serious that in healthy and functioning democratic nations any leader found to be incompetent and/or would apologize and resign for good from ever holding public office.

MP Eddie Cross, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leader have never apologized and have been doing their best to ingratiate themselves to the people so they are elected back into parliament, other than the few like MP Cross most MDC leaders lost the parliamentary or senatorial seats in the rigged July 2013 elections. If we aspire for a healthy and functioning democratic Zimbabwe then we must make sure MDC leaders who betrayed the nation during the GNU ride into the sunset of their public life! Never ever to return! 

Free elections are "political suicide" for Mugabe vs rigged elections are political, social and economic suicide for the nation

I agree with Patrick Guramatunhu, Mugabe has a nuclear arsenal with which to fight off Mai Mujuru and her PF if they should ever become a real serious political threat to the tyrant (Bulawayo 24 opinion). Mugabe has a warehouse full of detailed stories of acts of indiscretion, corruption and even murder on each one of Mai Mujuru and her PF friends; he will relish the chance to use the stink bombs to create chaos and confusion in the PF camp. 

Mugabe has out lived all of his political challengers; even with the country in a mess and old age catching up with him, he is still a formidable adversary because he has a secret weapon – he fights dirty. Whilst everyone else is constrained by such rules as no hitting below the belt; he go for the family jewels at the first chance he get be it with his head, fist, elbow, knee, foot, anything. His glove has a lump of steel for padding, he only has to land one blow anywhere and the opponent will feel the punch; land one on the head and its lights out!

What Mugabe will not want to do is give the game away that MDC’s demand for electoral law reforms will not deliver free and fair election or that PF will not stop him dead on his tracks from rigging the next elections. Throughout the five years of the GNU he worked hard to make sure Tsvangirai and his MDC friends never doubted for even a minute they would win the elections even with not even one GPA reform implemented. Mugabe would want to string MDC, PF and the whole nation along once again.

The regime has already started trial runs of the biometric system in which voters will be identified using their unique finger print and iris. The regime is already using this as proof if its acknowledgement that the old electoral system did not work well and the regime’s willingness to reform.

The biometric systems is called for in the new constitution and MDC will, no doubt, make a big song and dance about  this; they would give this as proof they are forcing Zanu PF “kicking and screaming” to reform, proof  NERA is working. All nonsense of course because MDC know that with no ZEC reforms, Zanu PF can rig the next elections just as easily as they did the July 2013 elections.

NIKUV, the Israeli company Mugabe hired to tamper with the voters roll in 2013, deliberately posted suspected opposition supporters details in the constituencies other than where they expected. So nearly one million voters (Mugabe’s winning margin was one million votes) failed to vote because their names were not in the constituent voters roll. NIKUV was paid a princely $10 million for doing this. No doubt they will do the same again with the biometric data for another princely fee!  

Many Zimbabweans are becoming increasingly uneasy with Tsvangirai and his reputation for making promises he cannot deliver. Many people were slowly coming round to the realization that MDC will never ever deliver free and fair elections; by now many of them would have been demanding the implementation of the GPA reforms as the only way to end this Zanu PF dictatorship. So the appearance PF on the political stage has been a blessing for Mugabe; instead of people demanding the GPA reforms they now believe Mai Mujuru will remove Mugabe from power even with no reforms implemented.

It is in Mugabe’s interest to encourage the belief that Mai Mujuru and PF are giving him sleepless nights and he is on the ropes. He does not want to implement the GPA reforms and he will do anything to ensure Mai Mujuru, PF and the public are not spooked into realizing the folly of going into yet another election with not even one GPA reform implemented.

If he manages to hang on, given the pressure he is under from the worsening economic meltdown and his own party imploding, without being forced to implement any GPA reforms then he has a fighting chance of winning the next elections.

If I was a betting man my money would be on Mugabe winning the next elections as long as no GPA reforms have been implemented regardless whom his political opponent happens to be, be it Tsvangirai, Mujuru or a grand coalition of the two with the plethora of all the other wannabe opposition parties. Mugabe will bamboozle Tsvangirai.

It is true that embedded Mai Mujuru sympathizers will make difficult for Zanu PF to rig the next elections but Mugabe will overwhelm PF with information; giving their incompetence, it will take PF forever to separate the good, the bad and the ugly. Meanwhile he will pick off the PF leaders one by one, bombarding them with the stink bombs from their dirty.  

The only sure way Zimbabwe can ever get out of the political and economic mess Mugabe has landed the nation is by implementing the GPA reforms followed by fresh free and fair elections. Vince Musewe is right it would “political suicide” for Mugabe because he will never win free and fair elections. Mugabe and his propaganda machine are working flat out to amplify the voices of those supporting Tsvangirai’s NERA and/or promoting Mai Mujuru as a real serious contender to defeat Mugabe in the next elections; they have to drown out the voices of reason warning of the folly of holding yet another election without implementing the GPA reforms.

Yes accepting free and fair elections would be “political suicide” for Mugabe but then another rigged election will be social, political and economic suicide for this nation. It is better that he  suffers the democratic consequences of regime change, he brought it on upon by imposing this de facto one-party dictatorship to gratify his insatiable greed for power and wealth; than the nation, the victims of his 36 am counting years of misrule, should continue to suffer and die in dumb anguish for even another day longer!

If Dzamara's death can spur us to realize that everybody's business is not nobody's then he did not die in vain

Everybody’s business is never done since no one person is everybody and we each expect everybody else and not us to carry out the task(s). Nowhere is this more true that in politics; everybody is expected to how the political leaders to account but in Zimbabwe very few people ever do this.

In the early 1990s the Zanu PF regime adopted the IMF and WB sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP) which marked the end of the regime’s free spending, at least on the masses. The regime started to implement savage cuts in such areas as health and educations triggering the yearly student demonstrations of the time. It was during this time that I met a mother who had a son at UZ and objected strongly to these UZ student demos.

She accepted the two main points behind the student demos; one, that cutting education funding would reduce the quality of education and the make it inaccessible to the poorer families. Two, that the regime was cutting education funding and other soft-targets areas but doing nothing to end the waste is the bloated cabinet and army, for example. The crux of her objections to student demos was simple as well as it was selfish she did not wanted the demos disrupting her son’s studies.

“Peter will be the first University graduate in the family,” she argued with finality.

No one could deny that the demos were disrupting the students’ studies and, yes a number were always expelled for taking part in the demos. But, if the common good of a quality education for all was to be defended against a corrupt and indifferent regime that does not care, society must accept there would be risks and that someone has to stand up and be counted.

If our commitment to the common good is to be tampered with selfish consideration then this is everybody’s business that will never be done. If the truth be told, every year there is bound to be some students who will be “the first University graduates in the family”.

It was clear that Peter was “not interested in student politics” as he called it. He had at one of the few very high fee paying Colleges, which where the haunt of white students. The students played rugby and cricket and not football and Peter had toured Europe playing rugby in his last two senior years.

He spoke with a pronounced British accent; speaking through his nose than mouth hence the reason people like him were called the “Nose brigade!” He paid dearly for his complete lack of interest in what was going on at the University.

One day, wearing his trade mark NYC base-ball cap with earphone plugged in his ears, he blundered into the Riot Police. Instead of turning back and find another route he had ploughed on confident the Riot Police would see he was a cut above the other students. After all he was a Minister’s son!

The only thing the Riot Police noticed with great interest was that Peter was defenceless, those cowardly Riot Police are like the cowardly hyena whose attack instinct is roused the more defenceless the victim happen to be. The Riot Police were all over Peter like army ants attaching a scorpion.

Fearing for his life, Peter forgot his “nosing” and cried out for help in Shona with a distinctly “strong rural African accent”, according to the students who heard him and rescued him.

Sadly the student lost the battle to stop Zanu PF cutting education funding and compromised the quality of education. Today Zimbabwe produces 50 000 plus University graduates every year, Mugabe caps them all himself as he is the Chancellor of all Universities in the country, 20 or so. The quality is so poor some graduates have honours degrees but do not know what a verb is. No wonder Zanu PF Chefs have been sending their children to SA, UK, USA, Far East, etc. for their University studies, they know the degree awarded locally is not worth the paper it is written on.

The nation has paid its heaviest price for failing to stop the Zanu PF gravy train; 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has taken its toll as today the economy lies in ruins, millions are out of work, basic services like health have all but collapsed, etc. To make matters worse, the country is facing a serious drought, unlike in the past, its silos are starting on empty.

The international community which has stepped in to help feed the nation, has its work cut out with the raging war in Syria, Yemen and other hotspots. Besides with stories of how Mugabe is pocketing $2 billion a years from all the looting and plunder going on in Marange and Chiadzwa; donors are loathed to help a country so rich and yet so wasteful.

Before donors will step in to help they want to see Zimbabweans to take the business of stopping Zanu PF corruption and waste with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. Instead of expecting others to step on the plate and fight to end Zanu PF corruption, vote rigging, etc. Zimbabweans should be asking themselves what they can do help in the fight.

Individuals like Itai Dzamara did not wait for other to tell Mugabe he has failed and must go. He wrote the protest letter and delivered it to Mugabe. Only a handful of friends who stood by him but that did not deter them. Few people even bother to give him and his friend a word of encouragement even with their identity hidden in the ether of the internet.

On 9 March 2016, it will be a full year since Itai Dzamara was kidnapped by the Zanu PF regime to silence him. Itai was saying things that we should all have been saying but did not have the guts to speak. There will be many gatherings to remember Itai and what he stood for it is high time Zimbabweans from all walks of life stood, as Itai did, and demand an end to this criminal waste of human and material resource by this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe regime.

Join the Dzamara commemoration to protest the regime’s failure to have drugs in our hospitals now when you still have the energy to do so because when you are sick and dying for lack of the medicine, it will be too late.

If by his death, Itai Dzamara has spurred Zimbabweans to realize that public affairs and good governance are everybody’s business and we constitute everybody and must make our contribution with all our heart, soul and sinew then his death would not have been in vain!

"State of our Union is strong," said President Obama - lack of same quality is what makes Zimbabwe weak.

“Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there,” admitted President Barack Obama in his 7th and last State Of The Union Statement.

“We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.”

In three short sentences President Obama summed up what has made America great! And, without saying so, what has held back Zimbabwe.

Whenever America has had any problem; and it has had many problems throughout its history from the fight for independence, the fight to end slavery, the 1930 economic depression, Second World War, etc.; it has not denied the problem but rather acknowledged it and confronted it head-on! In contrast Zimbabwe has sort to deny the problem and what better example of this than the economy.

Other than the first few years after independence, the Zimbabwe economy has been in steady decline for the last 36 years. The root causes of the decline were mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness as exemplified by the violent seizure of the white owned farms to give them to mainly Zanu PF loyalists and the shameless attempt to extend this thievery into private sector with of the indigenisation law in 2008. Instead of addressing these causes the Mugabe regime has even denied the very existences of these problems and blames the economic problems on sanctions, drought and many such feeble excuses and scapegoats.

The denials have only given the problems the time and cover to grow and spread. So after three and half decades of doing nothing to end mismanagement, corruption, etc. these problems have spread to every sector of the economy and overwhelming us all. Today the Zimbabwe economy is in such a mess many companies have closed down, unemployment has soared into the stratosphere of 90% plus, the nation is failing to supply basic needs like clean running water, millions are living in abject poverty.

The Americans were able to send a man on the moon and have chalked a lot more other achievements since and will continued to do so in future because they have the “can do” attitude.

Short changing Zimbabweans has been easy because the great majority of them view themselves as helpless victims who cannot do anything to defend what is rightfully theirs and nowhere is this more graphically illustrated than in politics.

Zimbabwe has been independent now for 36 years, has the benefit of centuries of world history and yet the nation is still failing to define what it needs done for free, fair and credible elections. The need for a Police force who will enforce the rule of law without fear or favour, for example, is not rocket science and yet Zimbabweans have failed to demand this during the GNU when the political leaders were called upon to implement democratic reforms.

Zimbabweans know the Zimbabwe of criminal economic waste of resources and brutal political oppression and vote rigging is not the Zimbabwe they want. They would have voted Mugabe out of office a long time ago but have failed to do so because the tyrant was able to rig elections time and again, the nation has been stuck with the regime for 36 years now. There were many opportunities for the nation to end Mugabe’s dictatorship, the best chance being during the GNU, but none of these chances were seized and made to count because Zimbabweans lacked the “can do” attitude.

“I believe in change because I believe in you, the American people,” concluded President Obama. “And that’s why I stand here, as confident as I have ever been, that the state of our Union is strong!”

Zimbabwe is in serious trouble and unless we, the people, seize this opportunity and embrace change, discard our helpless victim mentality and be masters of our own destiny, this country will continue to sink into poverty and hopeless despair.

Biti the epicentre of Zimbabwe's demise DOES NOT "lie with Zanu PF alone", you played your part!

Tendai Biti you can say it a thousand times, a million times even, but the facts and truth will not change. The epicentre of Zimbabwe’s devaluation DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT, “lie in Zanu PF and Zanu PF alone”, as you say.

“The epicentre of Zimbabwe's devaluation lies in Zanu-PF and Zanu-PF alone.  Zimbabwe was hijacked by a rogue dominant party formation that failed to live up to the challenges and obligations of a modern party that puts delivery and development at the centre of its philosophy,” you said.

“On the contrary, Zanu-PF has remained a centralised, militarised and a captured organisation whose sole motive for existence has been power and power retention alone.”

Whilst is it true that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal have become totally engrossed in the fight to establish and retain absolute political power at any and all cost; they have rigged past elections even to the extending of “declaring war” on the people as happened in 2008. Still the nation has had a number of chances to end this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, with the best of those chances being during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

Following the barbarism of the 2008 elections even SADC and AU could not endorse Mugabe’s claim of election victory as a true reflection of the free democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe. President Mugabe was forced to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) which listed a raft of reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and usher free, fair and credible election and thus end the Zanu PF hegemony.

MDC was tasked to implement the GPA reforms and after five years of the GNU failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!

The reason why MDC failed to get even one reform implemented had nothing to do with Zanu PF having “remained a centralised, militarised and a captured organisation” or any other bull Biti can dream up. MDC failed to implement even one reform because the leadership is breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. Mugabe bribed them, just as easily as he has done with his own Zanu PF cabal, with the gravy train lifestyles and for Tsvangirai the $ 4 million Highlands mansion as the cherry on top. MDC leaders accepted the bribes and kick the reforms into the tall grass.

SADC Heads of State who had tried hard to get MDC to implement the reforms during the GNU but were ignored complained of MDC leaders “enjoying themselves whilst in the GNU and forgetting why they were there” in sheer frustration.

“Chawawana batisisa midzimu hapikaviri!” goes the Shona adage. (Make the most of every chance you get, it is a gift from your ancestors and they may not give you a second gift!) The reforms were supposed to be implemented in 18 months, MDC have 60 months, 60 BLOODY MONTHS, FIVE YEARS, and still they failed to get even one reform implemented. Just how much longer did they want the ancestor to give them!

“In 2016, for the people of Zimbabwe, it is time to end history, this history and bring an end to Zanu-PF's hegemony. We as the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and others are determined to work for the creation of the necessary key reforms and a grand coalition, which is a precondition to the Zanu-PF demise. This is possible,” Tendai Biti concluded.

Tendai Biti is now tells us that he and his PDP “determined to work for the creation of the necessary key reforms and a grand coalition.” Why do we need to reinvent the wheel, we already know that implementing the GPA reforms will deliver free, fair and credible elections? We do not want the wishy-washy electoral law reforms which will accomplish nothing. Implement the bloody reforms and stop giving excuses!

Yes it is possible to end the Zanu PF dictatorship but that change will never ever happen as long as we, the people, fail to accept the fact and basic truth that our opposition leaders are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. How can some like Tendai Biti deliver any change when they are in denial that we are still stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship because they are corrupt, incompetent and they sold out!

Mugabe and Zanu PF are in denial that they are corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging tyrants; the country’s economic and political mess speaks volumes of their failure and yet they still refuse to accept they have failed. Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest in the opposition are corrupt and incompetent and the many wasted chances to end this Zanu PF dictatorship testify to this.

The way out of this political and economic mess is not going to come from Mugabe and Zanu PF or MDC, they are the two sides of the same coin. The solution has been staring us in the face all along - implement the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA. We do not need Zanu PF or MDC to do this, we have been brainwashed into believing that we cannot accomplish anything of substance without the leadership of politicians. All nonsense, of course!

Implement all the GPA reforms and we will restore the people’s power to hold leaders to account because in free, fair and credible elections the people can have regime change if they so wish. Of course corrupt and incompetent politicians from both sides of the political divide are scared stiff of giving the voters the free vote and that is why they are all determined that none of the GPA reforms should ever see the light of day.