Mbeki cannot excuse GNU failure on opposing West "pernicious global diktat".

Former SA President Thabo Mbeki has used his latest article to justify why his administration had opposed the UN Security Council’s attempts to imposed UN sanction on Zimbabwe after the 2008 rigged elections. He said “Zimbabwe posed any threat to international peace and security” and he wanted the UN to leave the Zimbabwe crisis to the AU and SADC who were helping the country resolve its problems.

“To the contrary, by exercising their right to self-determination, in 2008, and with our facilitation, the democratically elected representatives of the people of Zimbabwe adopted the Global Political Agreement (GPA),” wrote President Mbeki.

Whilst one would readily accept the UN principle that regional bodies should be given the chance to solve member country’s problems; what is disappointing about the AU and SADC is they have a track record of failure. The Zimbabwe crisis has proven to be yet another AU and SADC failure. SADC promised to deliver free, fair and credible elections at the end of the GNU, that never happened and the country is in any even worse political and economic mess today than in 2008!

President Thabo Mbeki knew that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were NOT “the democratically elected representatives of the people of Zimbabwe”. The GNU proposed after some of the worst cases of vote rigging and wanton political violence in modern history; it is an insult to the victims of the barbarism to call the process a democratic one.

The only logical explanation why SADC proposed the formation of a GNU was to give Mugabe, who had been soundly defeated in the 2008 elections and had a reputation of rigging elections, a soft landing out of office. The GNU was tasked to implement a raft of GPA reforms designed to deliver free, fair and credible elections at the end of the GNU.

Having granted Mugabe the soft land, God knows he did not deserve that, one expected SADC to show some human compassion for the long suffering people of Zimbabwe by ensuring that Zimbabwe did indeed have free, fair and credible elections. Sadly they did no such thing.

On many occasions during the GNU, SADC leaders expressed their concerns for the lack of progress in the implementation of the GPA reforms and raised these with Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of his fellow MDC leaders who were tasked to implement the reforms. After two or three years of the GNU with still no single reform implemented, SADC leaders should have known by then that MDC leaders were incompetent, corrupt and that they had sold-out on implementing the reforms. SADC leaders should have taken steps to force MDC leaders to implement the reforms; instead they did nothing other than wash their hands clean of Zimbabwe.

SADC was the guarantor of the GPA and free, fair and credible elections; they could not therefore just abandon the ordinary Zimbabweans to the mercy of the corrupt and incompetent MDC. The argument that bringing pressure to bear on MDC leaders would have constituted interference in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs does not hold water given SADC was the guarantor and worse still they had engineered a soft landing for Mugabe!

“The accusation that we have betrayed the cause of human rights derived from the fact that, by asserting the rule of international law in the interest of ‘countries without global leverage', we opposed the pernicious global diktat of those who, in their interest, see themselves and act as the universal benevolent hegemon,” concluded Mbeki.

What simpletons like President Mbeki and his fellow African leaders have failed to understand is that when leaders like President Bush, PM Tony Blare and other Western leaders play this “pernicious global diktat”, as Mbeki called it; they always do so from a position of strength and they never shoot themselves in the foot. Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis has caused untold human suffering in our country and has, at the very least, held back the region’s economic development. So of course no thinking Zimbabwean will ever thank President Mbeki for keeping Zimbabwe in this mess all these years!

It is one thing for SADC or the AU to demand that the UN should allow them to deal Africa’s problems but quite another for them to fulfil that commitment and resolve the problems, particularly when they lack the political will and/or material resources to deal with them. The AU and SADC are there to save the people and not to prop up tyrants and despots!

As long as Africa continue to be ruled by tyrants like Mugabe, assured of AU protection and Russian and Chinese veto from UN censor, good governance, peace and prosperity will remain a distant dream for many Africans and the continent will never be taken seriously on the international political stage! 

Ncube wants coalition of "wart and all" opposition because "beautiful ones are yet to be born" - nonsense they are here.

“We have in place a government which long stopped pretending it is in power to serve the collective interests of its nationals but one which has no shame at all in exhibiting itself as a government for the personal welfare and interests of the individual leaders who make up the political leadership supposedly running the country,” wrote Professor Ncube.

“They are interested only in themselves and have become totally and unashamedly self-serving. The purpose of their government is deliberately to suppress and impoverish the people while they feast on the bones of a once great nation.”

Every word you have said there is very true. I would like to take you back to 2008 to 2013. You, Professor Ncube were in the GNU and you counted yourself part of the ruling elite and you too became “totally and unashamedly self-serving” and that was the only logical reason why MDC failed to implement ever one democratic reform in five years of the GNU!

MDC expected to win the 2013 elections regardless of “Zanu PF shenanigans”, Tsvangirai later confessed. Even after the rigged elections, some MDC leaders expected Mugabe to find them a role in the new regime; they asked Chief Secretary in the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, to speak to Mugabe on their behalf! It took a while before the truth finally sunk in that, contrary to impression Mugabe had created in the MDC leaders’ minds, they were NOT members of the country’s “totally and unashamedly self-serving” ruling elite that Ncube is denouncing now.

“The only concern of what passes for our ruling party leaders is where they will be the day Robert Mugabe goes. They live, sleep and wake up for one purpose and one purpose only, to fight factional wars on which cabal or clique will succeed Mugabe. Every institution of the state has been drawn into these factional wars. Not even the judiciary has been spared,” continued the Professor.

These Zanu PF leaders do not have to worry about how much the people are suffering or think because these politicians are not democratically accountable to the people. The regime, thanks to MDC’s failure to implement even one reform, can blatantly rig the elections denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. We now have the crazy situation where the political leaders have completely usurped the people’s power it is the tail wags the dog.

“My point is that attempts to build a coalition of democrats to defeat Zanu PF must exclude no one who professes to be a democrat. Our nation is in great peril. We owe it to ourselves to do all we can to save our country,” pleaded Ncube.

“Clearly, the beautiful ones are not yet born and we must make do with those already born with warts and all. We cannot save Zimbabwe unless we recognise the peril it is in. All those who profess to be our leaders with an interest in saving the nation from doom must come to the Table of Patriots at which all shall be equal.”

Musewe's 2nd GNU gives Mugabe veto and free elections to povo - usual time wasting double Dutch.

When I was a small boy my aunt told me a story of an Ingutsheni Mental Hospital patient who watered the garden with a leaking bucket. He would be drenched from the leaking water and up to his knees in mud but will carry on. Sometimes the bucket would be empty before he reached the patch; he would continue and empty whatever little water was left.

The story has remained with me and formed the basis of my understanding of mental illness. The garden needed watering, the patient had the physical strength to carry the bucket to water the garden but, sadly, lacked the mental intellect to realize that the task will not be accomplished using a leaking bucket!

If the truth be told, we are stuck in this economic and political mess because for the last 36 years we have so to appease Mugabe and allowed to establish a one-man dictatorship and hoped, when reason said there was no basis for such hope, the dictatorship will someday transform into the democratic government we wanted. We have been doing our bit of watering the garden with a leaking bucket and we have come off with a lot worse than being drenched with water and covered in mud!

In 1980 Zimbabwe had the potential to be a free, just, and economically prosperous nation; a far cry from what we have become. Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown with unemployment a nauseating 90%, most cities and towns have no clean running water, we have daily power cut lasting 18 hours, most hospitals have no drugs, etc. The root causes of the economic meltdown are gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and institutionalized lawlessness which have killed all economic activity and scared away all foreign investors and donors alike.

As if the economic meltdown was not bad enough, the country is facing political chaos because there is no rule of law; the only law that counts now is survival of the fittest.

The economic meltdown and political chaos are causing untold human suffering and deaths and are now threatening to undermine national cohesion; there is a distinct possibility of the street violence or worse.

So why did we not follow the path to freedom, peace, justice and economic prosperity and instead took the one that has landed us in economic ruins and political chaos? We, foolishly, allowed Mugabe to do as he pleased, he did, and he dragged us into this mess!

Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were the liberation war heroes and out of respect for their heroic sacrifice, fear of the AK47 rifle pointing at the them and sheer political naivety the Zimbabwean people have allowed Mugabe to do as he pleased. To gratify his insatiable greed for absolute power Mugabe stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition within his own party, Zanu PF, and, even more so, outside. He has destroyed the nation’s state institutions like the Police and Judiciary turning them into Zanu PF departments, there to serve him and his one-man dictatorship agenda.

Mugabe has creamed off the nation’s wealth to feed his and his cronies’ insatiable appetites for luxuries and extravagant lifestyle. There is no money to buy drugs, water pumps, etc. and yet Mugabe is pocketing $2 billion a year from the wholesale looting and plunder in Marange and Chiadzwa!

After 36 years pursuing this policy of appeasing Mugabe and his cronies at all coast, of carrying this leaky bucket of hope against reason; one expected that the penny has finally dropped and the nation now sees the sheer futility of pursuing this stupid policy for one day longer! Sadly that is not so, there are some people like Vince Musewe who still want us to appease Mugabe!

“In my opinion, ZANU (PF), especially its leaders, fear to lose power through free and fair elections. Understandably so, because that loss of power may result in personal criminal persecution, loss of income and status. This fear is the same which is causing succession battles as Mugabe holds onto power. It is clear that the more we demand for political reforms, the more resistance to change we are getting,” wrote Vince Musewe in his latest contribution to the national debate on the subject.

“Going to 2018 elections without any reforms is political suicide and therefore unthinkable. I would rather we postpone elections and  pursue an inclusive political settlement that addresses the fears of ZANU(PF), but ushers in a new era of inclusive democracy through comprehensive political reforms over an agreed timeframe.”  

The GPA that led to 2008 to 2013 GNU wanted meaningful democratic reforms to be implemented and did not seek to appease Mugabe on this point. By signing the agreement Mugabe agreed to the democratic reforms (the only reason why not even one reform was implemented was because MDC sold-out).  

Musewe’s proposed settlement is double Dutch, gibberish; to allay Mugabe’s fear of free and fair elections Musewe is granting the tyrant the power to veto all meaningful democratic reforms. So his promise of “new era of inclusive democracy” to the populous is based on hopeless supposition that Mugabe will never use the veto!

In short Musewe is not proposing anything new but just a variant to the present policy of appeasing Mugabe at all cost! Even now with the nation’s very survival hanging on the balance; some people still believe appeasing Mugabe and his cronies must still remain the nation’s primary concern.

It is not how to secure Mugabe and his cronies’ in power in perpetuate that is at issue here; it is the very survival of this nation that is at issue. It is a great national tragedy and shame that none of the GPA democratic reform were implemented during 2008 GNU. After 36 years of appeasing Mugabe and seeing the nation dragged deeper and deeper into this economic mess and political chaos there is no excuse for any sane Zimbabweans pursuing this foolish policy for one more day.

We must implement the democratic reforms and that is not negotiable. What Mugabe and his cronies must understand is they can step down peacefully and allow the reforms to be implemented or they will be force out of office. One way or the other the reforms will be implemented and this nation will have regime change!

"Small clique" rigged elections admits Mujuru and she saw nothing - not surprised!

In her first interview since the registering of her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party, Joice Mujuru fails to impress! She told the British Sunday Times that she did not see any rigging in the 2013 elections, much to the disappointment of everyone but especially the opposition.

"I never saw the rigging… I am sure it was a very small clique that was doing it," said Mujuru.  

When it comes to rigging the elections, I think Mai Mujuru is telling the truth; she saw nothing, heard nothing and said nothing.

We should not forget that Mugabe accused her and her husband of operation “Bhora musango” in 2008. The Mujurus instructed their supporters to vote for the Zanu PF parliamentary candidates but instead of voting for the presidential party candidate, Mugabe, they were instructed to vote for Tsvangirai. It is hardly surprising then that Mugabe and his Joint Operation Command, the real power house in Zimbabwe, would have kept Mujuru in the dark as to their 2013 vote rigging plans.

"I do hope it is a diplomatic response meant to evade liability because their key value to opposition politics is not to show that they were dull and everything happened around them," said Jacob Mafume of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

"They have to state categorically that they knew there was rigging; how it was done and, more importantly, that they know how to stop it. There is no value if they were also innocent beneficiaries because they will simply become victims now."

Diplomatic response, you wish!  As for being a victim of Mugabe vote rigging she does not have to wait for the next national elections, she has already had her baptism of fire.

In 2014 she thought she was set to win the VP post in the party’s upcoming elective; she had 8 out of the 10 provinces backing her. She was falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe (nonsense given that the electoral victory would have put her in pole position to be his successor). She did not see that one coming and, worse still, did not what to do to fight back.

ZPF is going to be just another opposition party whose supporters will be in for the usual harassment, beating or worse. At the end of the day they too will complain about the violence against its supporters and the vote rigging. Like MDC, ZPF too will have no clue, even after seeing Zanu PF bussing in its supporters to vote, etc. how Zanu PF rigged the elections!

There is a lot of stuff Mujuru did not know, even when she was VP; that fits in well with her character and reputation as corrupt and incompetent.  If she was to become president, God forbid, then she will either stop a lot of things happening because she cannot get a head round the issues involved or else sign off things many things when she does not a clue what it is she is doing.

If the opposition has been banking on Mai Mujuru and her ZPF colleagues knowing Zanu PF’s vote rigging secrets and spilling the beans and thus make it very difficult if not impossible for Zanu PF to rig the next elections now the opposition have heard it from the horse’s mouth – she and her friends know nothing of substance. The only sure way to stop Zanu PF using violence and rigging the next elections is by implementing the GPA reforms BEFORE the next elections.

The world is sick and tired of listening to opposition parties who take part in elections knowing there will be violence and vote rigging and then complain of the same afterwards. 

It is Biti, not Thabo Mbeki, who is lying; MDC sold-out on implementing reforms.

In a follow-up radio interview to President Thabo Mbeki letter “SA policy on Zimbabwe” with Redi Thlabi on 702 Cape Talk Tendai Biti said a lot of things, I would like to take him up one the one issue – Did MDC sell-out in failing to implement the GPA reforms, he was asked?

“President Mbeki should just shut up! He should not blame the victim.  ….. MDC fought for reforms but Zanu PF refused,” replied Biti. He was lying because there evidence proves the exact opposite, that MDC leaders sold-out!  

The process of implementing the reforms was that an MP will submit the proposed democratic reforms on the Police, say, to parliament. Parliament will then debate and refine the proposals and then pass the final proposals to President Mugabe for approval. Once the proposals are approved they will then be implemented and the law changed to suit.

Tendai Biti who is lying in saying Zanu PF blocked the reforms because MDC never submitted any substantive reforms in parliament. The two MDC factions had the majority of MPs in parliament and therefore would have had no problems in getting the proposals passed. There were no proposed reforms passed or rejected by parliament throughout the GNU because none were ever submitted.

There is no doubt that left to his own devices President Mugabe would have rejected all democratic reforms put before him but he was not left to his own devices, by signing the GPA he committed himself and his party Zanu PF to the democratic reforms. So if parliament submitted proposed reforms for his approval and he refused then MDC was expected to take the matter to SADC as the guarantor of the agreement for arbitration.

The truth of the matter is MDC never complained to SADC about Mugabe refusing to approve any proposed reforms; they complained about other things but not reforms; because Mugabe never refused to approve any reform proposals, none were ever submitted to him for approval.

By the same token, SDAC never failed to take Mugabe to task on refusing to approve proposed reforms because MDC never complained to SADC on that matter. Never! If anything it was SADC who complained to MDC for doing nothing about implementing the reforms.

It is a matter of historic fact that SADC leaders, amongst others, reminded MDC leaders on a number of occasions to implement the reforms and then warned them against taking part in the elections without implementing the reforms first and MDC paid no heed. Former GNU MDC Minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and Tendai Biti's own colleague in the break-away PDP has since confirmed that SADC leaders warned MDC. See http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2014/05/02/tsvangirai-power-hungry-nkomo/

SADC leaders said MDC leaders "were busy enjoying themselves and forgot why they were in the GNU!" in sheer frustration soon after the rigged July 2013 elections.

There is no doubt that MDC leaders were enjoying themselves in the GNU and forgot the important task of implementing the reforms. Tendai Bit joined the other MDC leaders in praising Mugabe calling him the “unflappable father of the nation” in an interview with The Sunday Mail in July 2012. Hardly the thing one would say about someone “refusing” democratic reforms.

MDC leaders were cocksure Mugabe had accepted them in the exclusive ruling elite club that there did not see the need to implement the democratic reforms designed to end this elitist system and force all those in public office to be democratically accountable to the people. They were members of this elitist group so why end the system.

Even after the rigged July 2013 elections which saw many MDC members lose their public office it is interesting to note how many MDC leaders still continued to hang on to the belief that they were still members of the country’s ruling elite and Mugabe would treat them accordingly as Dr Misheck Sibanda, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet has revealed.

"Some (MDC leaders after losing the elections) said, 'If we are needed, even if it's a Zanu-PF Government, talk to the President. Possibly we can come and serve because we want to serve.' (They said they wanted roles) in any capacity. You could tell that it was because of how they had been handled. To me, it was amusing," Dr Sibanda said.  See more at: http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-local-byo-82991.html#sthash.8hrRrzAq.dpuf

It is a great pity that the GNU failed to deliver on the single most important issue - free, fair and credible elections because MDC leaders sold-out. Zimbabwe would not be stuck in this political and economic hell-on-earth still if they had implemented the reforms.

Zimbabweans can blame SADC and God knows who else besides for many things but not for the GNU’s failure to delivery free, fair and credible elections; we must own up and take the blame for that one! Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, David Coltart and all the other MDC leaders in the GNU sold-out; they must apologize to the nation and resign, en mass, from public life. They should have done so a long time ago!

Whilst still on the subject of apologizing; Tendai Biti should apologize to former President Thabo Mbeki for accusing him of lying when it was he (Biti) who is lying and should shut up!  

Mbeki, as GPA guarantor, is 5% responsible for its failure to deliver free and fair elections in Zimbabwe

I totally agree with Former President Thabo Mbeki’s position to oppose the British proposal to invade Zimbabwe and forceful remove Mugabe from office.

“In the period preceding the 2002 Zimbabwe Elections, the UK and the US in particular were very keen to effect this regime change and failing which to impose various conditions to shorten the period of any Mugabe Presidency,” wrote former President Thabo Mbeki.

“Our then Minister of Intelligence, Lindiwe Sisulu, had to make a number of trips to London and Washington to engage the UK and US governments on their plans for Zimbabwe, with strict instructions from our Government to resist all plans to impose anything on the people of Zimbabwe, including by military means.” See Bulawayo 24, South Africa's policy towards Zimbabwe - A synopsis by Thabo Mbeki.

Zimbabwe chose the military solution to end white colonial rule and look what leaders that  armed struggle has thrown up; having won the liberation war they believed they alone know what is best for the nation and resisted all pressure for democratic accountability.  Zimbabwe is stuck in this economic mess because we cannot remove Mugabe and his cronies from power. They liberated the country but only to impose this corrupt and oppressive de facto one party dictatorship.

Beside one must never reach for the gun until all peaceful means of solving the problem have been exhausted. The 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) was one such peaceful solution which would have ended the dictatorial system of government in Zimbabwe; if only the raft of democratic reforms in the agreement had been implemented.

In his article above, President Mbeki put a lot of emphasis on SA’s commitment to let Zimbabweans decide their own destiny, a prima facie commendable stance; still, as guarantor of the GPA, SA must shoulder some blame for the fact that not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU and thus the GPA’s failure to deliver free, fair and credible elections in 2013 and beyond.

If I had to apportion blame why not even one reform was implemented during the GNU then Tsvangirai and his MDC friends must take 75% of the blame. There is no doubt that they sold-out; Mugabe offered them the gravy train lifestyles and they, in return, kicked the reforms into the tall grass.

MDC leaders were so easily fooled by Mugabe they were tripping over each other to sing Mugabe praises calling the tyrant the “unflappable father of the nation”, said Tendai Biti. Forgetting the brutality the tyrant had subjected MDC members and the nation at large as recently as 2008! MDC leaders were convinced the tyrant had accepted them in the exclusive ruling elite club and hence the reason why the kicked reforms into the tall grass; the dictatorship favoured the ruling elite and now that they were members they did not see the need to implement the reform.

Some of the MDC leaders were so convinced of their ruling elite status that even after Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2013 elections they still expected Mugabe to give them cushy jobs according to Dr Misheck Sibanda, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet’s report.

“Some (MDC leaders after losing the elections) said, ‘If we are needed, even if it’s a Zanu-PF Government, talk to the President. Possibly we can come and serve because we want to serve.’ (They said they wanted roles) in any capacity. You could tell that it was because of how they had been handled (bribed and bamboozled). To me, it was amusing.”

The people of Zimbabwe, especially the independent press and the intelligentsia, carry 20% of the blame of why the 2008 GPA failed to deliver democratic change. There is no excuse why the people had failed to understand what the reforms and thus appreciate they critical importance to creating a democratic Zimbabwe. It is the people’s democratic duty to understand important national issues and to ensure leaders deliver on these matters and hold them to account when they fail; Zimbabweans have been found wilfully wanting in this!  

SADC and South Africa, it played the leading role in the Zimbabwe crisis, must should the remaining 5% of why the 2008 GPA was a total failure.

President Mbeki admitted that as far back as 2001 SA was already concerned about Mugabe’s undemocratic tendencies and their negative effects on the country’s ability to deliver on its objectives of “improving the lives of the people of Zimbabwe, defending the independence of our countries and advancing Pan Africanist goals …. Zimbabwe should remain a democratic and peaceful country with a growing economy of shared wealth.”

The wanton violence and blatant vote rigging by Mugabe is the March and July 2008 elections showed the whole world just how far off the democratic path Mugabe had gone.

“What was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” boasted Mugabe as his party thugs, Police, CIO and Army terrorized the nation. What more proof did President Mbeki need that Mugabe did not care about democracy and good governance!

SA should have rejected Tsvangirai and Mugabe’s cosy scratch my back and I will scratch yours arrangement and exerted more pressure on the two to the implement the 2008 GPA democratic reforms for the good of Zimbabwe and the region.

“This approach (GPA) was informed by our unwavering determination to respect the right of the people of Zimbabwe to determine their future, firmly opposed to any foreign, including South African, intervention to impose solutions on the people of Zimbabwe,” President Mbeki says.

I do not buy the argument that bringing pressure to bear on the parties to the GNU to implement the reforms would count as interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara on behalf of their respect political parties committed themselves to the GPA reforms and President Mbeki on behalf of SADC the guarantor of the GPA had a duty to ensure they honoured that commitment.

Besides by ensuring the GPA reforms were implemented and Zimbabwe was put back on a democratic footing complete with guaranteed free, fair and credible elections President Mbeki would have fulfilled the promise that the people of Zimbabwe, as contrast to a few ruling elite in the dictatorship imposing their will on the nation, are the masters of their own destiny.

The main purpose of the 2008 GPA was to fix Zimbabwe’s broken political system so that the wanton violence and vote rigging of 2008 will not be repeated ever again. There was no violence in 2013 but still there were glaring voting irregularities such as the failure to release the voters roll, the vote rigging smoking gun.

Since the 2013 elections there have been reports of political violence; the signs are the next elections set for 2018 will be marred by the blatant vote rigging and the wanton violence, a repeat of the 2008 – the very thing the 2008 GPA had set out to stop happening again!

President Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob Zuma, as his successor, can never wash their hands clean of the responsibility that Zimbabwe’s 2008 GPA failed to deliver on its promise to deliver free, fair and credible elections.  How can they not be responsible; they were the principle guarantor of the agreement! If President Mbeki did not want to shoulder the responsibility as the guarantor of GPA then he should have said so from the beginning and passed the responsibility to AU or UN. 

Zanu PF infighting is not necessarily the light at the end of the tunnel, it could be a run-way train.

Many Zimbabweans are of the opinion that the dog-eat-dog fighting going on in Zanu PF is a good thing; it is true some of the militant war vets who have terrorized the people “got a taste of their own medicine” when they were teargased by the Riot Police on Wednesday.

“Only God through his way of doing things can do it and we are seeing it happening these days with the revolutionary party turning into a counter-revolutionary party, eating its own children. Remember when God caused confusion in the camp of those who wanted to fight the Israelites?” commented one, Maita.

People like Maita are pleased with the immediate, Zanu PF thugs tearing each other to pieces; on its own a great thing for all those who have suffered under the incompetent, corrupt and murderous regime and cannot see to the back of the regime. But we must not be naïve and gullible that we should only be concerned with what we can see and not consider what awaits us just round the corner!

We should be worried about the dog-eat-dog fighting going on in Zanu PF for two reasons:

1)    The infighting has weakened Zanu PF but there is no reason to believe that there will be no faction left standing when the fighting is done. Those hoping that there will be no Zanu PF faction left are day-dreaming; these guys have guns, not nuclear weapons to wipe each other out.

The next elections will not be free, fair and credible because no GPA reform were implemented during the GNU and, since the rigged July 2013, still nothing has been done to implement the reforms. Whichever Zanu PF faction that will still have the control of the state institution will have the clear advantage to rig the vote.

With no democratic reforms the challenge to the Zanu PF faction still in power will come from Zanu PF factions out of office, be it G40, Mnangagwa or Mujuru with or without help from the opposition. So whichever government emerges out of the elections, it will be wholly a Zanu PF or else dominated by former Zanu PF cadres. These Zanu PF in all but name will be as keen as mustard to re-establish themselves and consolidate their political power base along the same lines as the present Zanu PF dictatorship.

So, because we do not have a democratic electoral system in place to stop vote rigging, the best we can expect from the present infighting in Zanu PF is a change of the present dictator for another; the dictatorial system itself will remain untouched.  

It is naïve for the goats to think that they are safe just because the hyenas are fighting!

2)    Some people have argued that the ordinary people must stay out of the Zanu PF infighting but that is easier said than done. For a start whilst these Zanu PF thugs have been fighting each other they have completely neglected their government duties. The nation is facing a serious drought, for example, it is the ordinary people who will pay with their very lives for the regime’s failure to source food.

If the factional wars heat up the ordinary people will be lampooned and forced to take sides; we all know the Zanu PF thug mentality “Those not with us are against us!” There are reports that the G40 faction has instructed weapons to be removed from Masvingo province, for example, with the worsen drought it will not be surprising to hear that all food relief in the province has been stopped too!

If the factional wars were to escalate even further to physical violence and, worse still, gun fights; there will be many, many graves of innocent Zimbabweans!

“Only God through his way of doing things can do it and we are seeing it happening these days with the revolutionary party turning into a counter-revolutionary party, eating its own children.” said Maita.

What people like Maita think is the light at the end of a tunnel is in fact the headlamp of a run-away train or worse, they are look down the barrel of a gun!

Blind faith is looking down the barrel of a gun to see the flash and expect to tell the tale!

By the time this El Nino drought blows over (another nine months still to go) and there is a clear winner in Zanu PF’s factional wars (that could be another year given G40 is too weak to deliver the knock-out punch and yet remains untouchable as long as Mugabe is still alive) Zimbabwe will be in economic ruins, political chaos, hundreds of thousands dead and facing a grim and hopeless future. It will be entirely our fault because we are so myopic we refused to see nothing beyond the tip of nose.

God gave us the chance to get out of the tunnel safely during the GNU, only we had to do then was to implement the GPA reforms; we wasted that chance.

Zimbabwe’s political and economic mess is man-made and therefore within our power to solve it. Those evoking the help of the Almighty are doing so out of sheer laziness; God does not do for mankind what mankind can do for himself!

Zanu PF blaming growing demand for change on diaspora is a divide and rule dirty trick.

There are many Zanu PF operatives, apologists and propagandist on this site and many other similar sites who are trying to drive a wedge between Zimbabweans in the country and those in the diaspora. This is nothing but a tried and tested Zanu PF divide and rule dirty trick.

The first step is to brainwash people into believing that Zimbabweans who have left the country are deserter and they cannot be trust. These deserters, almost to the last man, woman and child, are now Western puppets controlled. It is these “Uncle Toms” who are criticizing Zanu PF and calling for regime change.

(They never mention that most of these people are economic and/or political refugees.)

We are to believe that Mugabe, the magnanimous Zanu PF first secretary and president of Zimbabwe, has extended his hand to welcome back into the country these prodigal sons and daughters. He has flatly refused to give them the vote because he does not trust them!

(Some homecoming given the country’s economic and political situation is even worse and more chaotic respectively than ever.)

The second step is to portray the Zimbabweans who have remained in the country as the patriotic ones who love Mugabe to bits as shown by the 61% electoral victory in July 2013 elections.

 (It was the 2008 elections which brought out the truth of how much Zimbabweans hate Mugabe. The people voted in droves for Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s main challenger, in the March vote. He withheld the results for five weeks and he finally released them Tsvangirai’s lead had been dwindled to 47%, not enough to avoid a run-off. In the run-off Mugabe set-out to punish the voters for having rejected him in the earlier vote.

(Mugabe claimed electoral victory in the July 2008 elections but no one, not even SADC and AU who are known for giving their approval to dodgy elections, accept the result. They all condemned the election; the sheer brutality shown by Mugabe and his supporters made it impossible for anyone not do anything else. Mugabe was forced to sign an agreement listing a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the next elections will be free, fair and credible and not a repeat of the 2008 run-off elections. It fell on Tsvangirai and his MDC party, the other partners in the GNU, to implement the reforms.

(Sadly, MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU because the leadership was incompetent and corrupt. With no reforms, Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections. He could not use violence, not with the world watching him, and relied of a very sophisticated vote rigging scheme; it was not cheap and it left a serious financial hole in the national finances from which the nation has never recovered.

(By rigging the July 2013 elections Mugabe demonstrated once again his contempt of the rule of the law and that he cannot be trusted. He has failed to get anyone, not even his “all weather” Chinese friend, to bankroll his $27 billion ZimAsset economic recovery plan. By the end of 2013 it was clear ZimAsset was dead in the water and the regime’s promise to create 2.2 million new jobs died with the plan. The economic meltdown has since moved up a gear and today it is in overdrive.)

The regime’s apologists have blamed the country’s poor economic performance of “the illegal sanctions imposed by evil British and their Western allies”. The regime has been at a total loss as what to say about its failure to deliver on its promise to create 2.2 million new jobs. It could not blame the sanctions since it made the promise with the sanction already in place.

Still, in the face of all the increasing economic hardships the regime maintains that Zimbabweans in the country are not complaining; they are “very resilient”. 

(The truth that the people are denied the opportunity to show their disapproval of whatever the regime is doing by holding public demonstrations, for example. The right to hold public demonstration is in the new constitution but it is too weak and feeble to be enforced as local women’s group, WOZA, has since discovered. 

(Zanu PF is not the first one to deny the people a voice and then put its own propaganda words into their mouths, Ian Smith did that. It was common for the white Rhodesians to deny blacks the opportunity to speak for themselves and yet insist that "Our blacks are very happy, it is those under the communist influence who are inciting discontent!" History is repeating itself.

 

(Of course the Zimbabweans in the country are the ones demanding change because they are the ones who have no jobs, no clean running water, have 18 out of 24 hours power cuts, who were denied the vote in the blatantly rigged elections, etc. They are the ones on the coal face, not those in the diaspora, and to argue that they do not mind all this suffering and misery is nonsense.

 

(As the country sinks deeper and deeper into this political and economic hell Mugabe dragged us into the regime will hear  more and more Zimbabweans inside the country demanding meaningful democratic change. So far the regime has been in denial of the economic meltdown and of those inside Zimbabwe crying for the regime to address the economic problems causing the meltdown. 

(The present economic situation is not socially and politically sustainable the regime will be forced to admit that the economic meltdown is real and the voices of those demanding change is not coming from London or New York but from Harare, Bulawayo, and all the other cities, towns, growth points and village right across the length and breadth of Zimbabwe!)

Whilst the many Zimbabweans in the diaspora will continue demand for meaningful change back home it is those still in the country who will cry the loudest because it is the one wearing the shoe how knows just how much is pitch!   

Is Musewe playing Speedy Gonzales or Slowpoke Rodriguez with his weekly HOPE.

“ZANU (PF) has failed to unlock the potential of our country. The key reason for this is the lack of an inclusive national socio economic vision, chronic leadership failure, patronage, greed, corruption, lack of accountability, and their inability to manage and implement consistent economic policies and developmental projects,” wrote Vince Musewe in his latest article.

No thinking Zimbabwean would ever dispute that; God knows we have gone over this a million times a day this last year alone!  The billion dollar question is; what the hell are we going to do about it?

“We all know that where there is no vision, any nation will fail and Zimbabwe is classic example of this. We will change that,” continued Vince.

“PDP's economic blue print HOPE (Holistic Program for Economic Transformation) acknowledges these facts and has identified 13 economic drivers that are key to creating a vibrant and viable economy which is inclusive and allows all Zimbabweans, regardless of race, gender or political affiliation, to pursue their ambition unhindered by the government. Economic freedom is therefore key.” He continued along the same vein and promised the readers detailed analysis of the 13 economic drivers will follow in the next 13 weeks!

Wait a minute! Vince has himself admitted above that Zimbabwe has failed to realize its real economic potential because of “the lack of an inclusive national socio economic vision, chronic leadership failure, patronage, greed, etc., etc. and, (most important of all in my view) lack of (democratic) accountability”.

Nowhere has Vince said Zimbabwe’s chronic economic failures were due to the opposition parties failing to come up with viable economic blue prints. Indeed ever since MDC was launched in 1999, they have come up with one economic blue print after another without failure. None of their programmes have ever seen the light of day, so their true value what never put to the taste; because Zanu PF has never relinquished political power to MDC or anyone else, hence the reason why lack of democratic accountability is the most important issue here.

So why is PDP wasting the nation’s time with 13 weeks of detailed analysis of its economic blue print when, without political reforms and thus democratic accountability, the blue print will never see the light of day just as happened to all the other opposition programmes for the last 36 years?

Vince Musewe is comparable to the mouse who suggested tying a bell on cat so that all the mice will be warned of the cat. Great idea, agreed the other. The idea fell flat on its face, when no one volunteered to tie the bell. It was just inconceivable for one creep up to the cat without waking it when one is carrying a bell designed to ring even louder the more stealth step one makes!

We really should not be wasting time, 36 years after independence, talking about Vince’s bell solution because we already know the solution.

Mugabe and Zanu PF have continued in their corrupt ways implementing economic policies that defy common sense because they are not accountable to the people. The solution is clear enough; change the country’s political system so that Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies are democratically accountable to the people. SADC in 2008 produced a list of democratic reforms the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai were tasked to implement.

SADC’s list of GPA democratic reforms did not ask MDC to produce an economic blue print because they knew the nation could deal with this in good time but only after the political transformation has taken place.

MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU, as we know. We are back to where we were in 2008; if we want economic transformation we must first implemented the 2008 GPA democratic reforms! Instead of concentrating on implementing the reforms we are being distracted by Vince Musewe who still wants the nation to concentrate of economic blue prints.

So we have explained to Speedy Gonzales that if the bell is to save its purpose of warning the mice of the cat, then the bell must be so sensitive it must ring even at the twitch of a muscle. It would be impossible for any mouse to creep on the cat and install such a bell. It is therefore tedious to have to listen to Speedy Gonzales wittering on about the colour of the bell, its ringing tone, the double reef knot to tie the string, etc.

Is Vince Musewe’s wittering on and on about this HOPE economic blue print a calculated political distraction?

A friend of mine was telling me the other day of how Mugabe has undermined all Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions and very façade of life by deploying his spies and double agents everywhere. Didymus Mutasa, when he was the Minister in the President’s Office to whom the CIO reported, confirmed how extensive and intrusive Mugabe’s CIO network is. “We know everything about everyone!” boasted Mutasa!

I have not made up my mind whether Vince Musewe is a Zanu PF double agent planted to ensure the opposition do nothing about implementing the important GPA reforms, just as the regime’s double agents successfully stopped any reforms being implemented during the GNU. During the GNU MDC wasted five years messing around drafting the weak and feeble new constitution and kicked the reforms into the tall grass. This time the opposition is wasting its time producing a perfect economic blue print and implementing wishy-washy electoral law reforms.

On the other hand, it is possible that Vince Musewe has genuinely failed to understand that there is nothing that ever be accomplished on the economic front until there is real democratic reform on the political front. Or is Speedy Gonzales none other than his exact opposite, Slowpoke Rodriguez!

 

Is Vince Musewe with his weekly HOPE updates, playing Speedy Gonzales or Slowpoke Rodriguez!

Msipa cannot defend the status quo on "war credentials" when, at issue, is the very survival of this nation.

India, like so many other nations that had to free themselves from colonial domination and exploitation, had the choice of waging an armed struggle or continue with peaceful protest. They chose the latter course; a very wise choice for it was their guarantee of a democratic and free India!


"What kind of leaders will the armed struggle throws up?" asked Jawaharlal Nehru, the man who would go on to be the first Prime Minister of independent India. "Will they be the kind of leaders whom we would want to rule India?"


Zimbabwe's black nationalists, man like Cephas Msipa, Joshua Nkomo, Robert Mugabe and all the other Zanu PF and PF Zapu leaders decided in their infinite wisdom to wage the war; the ordinary people of Zimbabwe were never consulted on this they were cajoled with an AK47 rifle to support the struggle. We know what kind of leaders the armed struggle throw up alright; incompetent, corrupt and murderous tyrants who firmly believe that regardless of the mountain of evidence of their failed leadership, the tragic human suffering and the over 30 000 dead in politically motivated violence alone they alone still know-best.

Even the few leaders one would consider to be the moderate ones from the basket of what our liberation struggle threw up, people like Cephas Msipa; even they are still firmly of the mentality that they are extra, extra especial by virtue of having “history in the armed struggle”.

The choice to wage an armed struggle has thrown up leaders who not only believed they had a divine right to rule the country when the country attain its independence but over the years this divine right has been upgraded to the point today where keeping Zanu PF leaders in power so they can continue to enjoy their lavish lifestyles is now more important than ending the dehumanizing suffering and untold deaths the regime’s corrupt and tyrannical rule has brought on the nation.

What comrade Cephas Msipa and all the other nitwit and hooligans in Zanu PF have failed to understand is that it is the survival of this nation that is at issue here because no nation can ever survive this level of criminal waste of human and material resources to gratify the insatiable appetites for power and wealth of the few ruling elite. Mugabe and the rest of his Zanu PF cabal have ruined this nation and they must go regardless of their liberation war credential. We want a leaders who will rebuild this nation not drag it even deeper into economic despair.

For the last 36 years this nation has been forced by the ruling elite to put the selfish interest of the few above the common interests of us all. Today the nation is being asked to sacrifice human misery and human lives so the ruling elite can continue to enjoy their lavish lifestyles. We reject this nonsense in the strongest of terms!

The dog-eat-dog fighting going on in Zanu PF is a party affair of no real interest to the ordinary Zimbabwean, it’s a side show; when the dog fight is over Zanu PF will still have to accept real democratic reforms because the present political and economic situation where millions are forced to live in abject poverty is simply not sustainable.

We demand the full implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms followed by free, fair and credible elections; this is the only way out of this hell Mugabe and Zanu PF have dragged us into. The nation has been very patient on democratic reforms but their patience is running out! Delaying the democratic reforms on the grounds that Zanu PF is the party of the liberation war worked in the past but this regurgitated nonsense simply does not cut the ice now! The reforms will be implemented and Zimbabwe will get out of this hell, one way or the other.

The way we would prefer is an orderly one where Zanu PF accepts political reform and the appointment of an independent body to implement the reforms and then hold the free and fair elections. If Zanu PF does not accept this orderly route then the nation will be left with no alternative but to have street protests or worse; Zanu PF leaders will be held responsible for all the destruction and mayhem that will ensue! 

Mugabe, the grand master of intrigue, has fooled all the people all the time for 36 years has finally lost his touch!

Mugabe has returned his top-dog position as Zanu PF leader for over 40 years and he has kept Zanu PF, by hook and by crook, in power for all the 36 years since independence because he is the grand master of subtlety and cloak-and-dagga political intrigue. He has had an amazingly long and successful inning; still there are signs that after years of weaving a complex and intricate spider’s web he is a spider caught in its own web!

In 2014 Mugabe, through his wife (he has always had others do his dirty work for him), turned on the then VP Joice Mujuru accusing her of being lazy, incompetent, corrupt, of factionalism and plotting to assassinate him. Mujuru is lazy, incompetent and corrupt; he knew all this back in 2004 when he promoted her to be VP. Indeed he was always surrounded himself with the most corrupt and incompetent men and women he could get because they posed the least threat to his ambition to remain top-dog for live.

As for factionalism and assassination charges, that was pure political nonsense to fool the politically naïve and gullible. Zanu PF was going to hold an elective congress in December 2014 and Mai Mujuru, who was vying for the VP position, had garnered the support of 8 out of 10 provinces; her main challenger for the post, Emmerson Mnangagwa, had the remaining 2 provinces. Mugabe; who had always managed to deny the party members a meaningful say in the running of the party by denying them the chance to elect party leaders, he had always appointed them instead; feared an elected Mujuru would dilute his own powers and so decided to stop the elections going ahead.  Accusing her of factionalism was nonsense because there is nothing wrong with one seeking the support of others in upcoming elections.

 As for the plot to assassinate Mugabe; each time the tyrant felt his hold on power was under real threat, the opponent was accused of plotting to stage a coup or assassination. The treason charges were then used to justify the ruthless crashing of opponent. Once the threat is neutralized the treason charges would be frizzle out; the same has happened with the Mujuru case.

But as soon as the task of “baby dumping”, as Mugabe’s wife called the purge of  Mujuru et al; Mugabe went after Mnangagwa, he was now the new threat to his scheme to remain life president and pass on the presidency to his wife, Grace. Mnangagwa, just like Mujuru in 2014, was too accused of factionalism.

Last Wednesday President Mugabe condemned factionalism when he addressed a group of Zanu PF Women’s League members and repeated the same message during the politburo meeting. The ruthless purge of Mai Mujuru and her supporters in 2014 was supposed to cure the party of factionalism, so where has the new faction come from again?

“In 2014 we went around denouncing factionalism but what we did not know was that we were empowering the other (Mnangagwa faction). So, we are saying to the other faction; stop it!” Grace told her audience at her latest “Meet the People” rally; answering the question of the genesis of the new faction.

“Do not take us for fools. They will not take over from Mugabe. I will rather put him in a wheelbarrow to work because we have realised that those we thought were being groomed as leaders are sell-outs. We no longer have confidence in them,” Grace charged.

Mnangagwa and his supporters constituted the new threat to Mugabe’s plan to remain in office until death and then hand over power to his wife Grace. So Mugabe called off  the factional war on Wednesday and two days later his wife declares war on the “sell-outs”; proof there is no intention of ending the war but intensifying it instead.

In short, Mugabe’s call for an end of the factional wars tearing Zanu PF is just variation of his political giving with one hand and making a big song and dance about it whilst stealing even more with the other hand; waving the olive branch in one hand with the concealed assassin’s dagga in the other.

“Mugabe anorova imbwa akaviga mupini!” as one would say in Shona.

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time," said Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s greatest leaders. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, Mugabe has fooled all the people for a good long “some of the time”, 36 years to be exact, and now he has ran out of time; he cannot fool anyone any more.  

The G40 faction Mugabe created to wrestle power from Mnangagwa has failed to impress.

The G40 faction has no credible leader; Grace Mugabe lost credibility soon after she bust on the political stage in 2014 when she started making her wild allegation against Joice Mujuru. The nation knows that she is after power and her shrill “sell-outs” cries are fooling no one..

“People nicknamed me Mazowe crush, you think I’m stupid, I do not know what Mazowe crush means?” admitted Grace on Friday.

”Amai vanoda kutererwa; mukasateerera amai vanotswinya!” she continued, chiding the crowd for not paying attention to her wittering. (Mother wants you to listen; if you do not listen she will sulk!) The restless crowd continued to ignore her.

The people have been attending these rallies for the free hand outs at the end of the day. Grace distributed 531 tonnes of maize, 100 tonnes of rice, Tractors, Internet equipment etc., etc. at the end of the rally.

If Zimbabwe’s next elections are free, fair and credible; which is looking increasingly unlikely given the incompetent opposition failed to get any GPA reforms implemented during the GNU and are doing the same again post the 2013 rigged elections; none of the Zanu PF factions, including Mujuru’s People First Movement, would win them.

Elections with no reforms will give the Zanu PF faction in power a clear advantage; still by purging the Mujuru faction, rigging the elections will not be easy. If the G40 was to purge the Mangagwa faction too, it is doubtful if the faction will be able to pull this off alone!

Zanu PF’s dog-eat-dog factional fighting now pitting the Mnangagwa faction against Grace’s G40 faction is going to continue with the latter doing all the barking but too weak to deliver the killer bite. Mugabe cannot call-off his Chihuahua G40 pack now; it is too late for a tactical withdrawal. As long as Mugabe is alive the Mnangagwa faction cannot fight back G40 faction. So Zanu PF is imploding and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop it, not even the grand master of political intrigue, Robert Gabriel Mugabe himself!