If you are one of the 90% plus who
are unemployed, one of the millions angry that $15 billion in diamond revenue
was swindled and no one was ever arrested or one dollar recovered, one of the
millions fed up with the all too frequent water and power cuts, the collapsing
health and education services, etc., etc.; then this is for you.
The only peaceful way to end Zimbabwe’s
current economic meltdown, to end the rampant corruption, to revive the
economy, to create the much need employment opportunities, etc., etc.; is by
making sure the next elections are free, fair and credible. If you want
economic transformation, then you must first secure political transformation.
There is no catch or riddle here;
there is a linkage between economic prosperity and good governance, you cannot
have the former without the latter. If you started with economic prosperity, it
will not last long if you have bad governance as we, in Zimbabwe, can now
testify.
Before independence
in 1980 and for a while thereafter Zimbabweans were rightly proud that the
nation produced enough food to feed all its people with enough left over for
export. We were the bread basket of the region. In 2000, Mugabe seized the
farms and gave them to his cronies. The agricultural production collapse and
the nation economy soon followed. Ever since, millions of our people have relied
on imported food aid – the government was too poor to pay for the imported
food, medicine, etc.
We live in the age where
some nations have harnessed technology and innovation to turn deserts into the
Garden of Eden. Zimbabwe has everything it needs to reclaim its cherish bread
basket of the region accolade; we lost the accolade because we had bad
governance. We are starving in a country which is for all intent and purpose
the biblical Garden of Eden – a graphic testimonial to the sheer incompetence
of Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime!
When Zimbabwe attained
her independence in 1980, life expectancy was 68 years by 2004 it had dropped
to 34 years. The only reason why this has happened is, again, bad governance.
Mugabe and his
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime have ruled Zimbabwe ever since the
country attained her independence in 1980 not because the people failed to see
the regime was incompetent and corrupt; they did. The people could not remove
the regime from office because Mugabe rigged the vote. Unless the people demand
the implementation of the democratic reforms designed to stop Mugabe rigging elections;
then be rest assured, he will rig the 2018 elections as he has rigged all the
other past elections.
Most Zimbabweans out
there have no clue what these democratic reforms are; if they did then they
would have forced MDC leaders to implemented all the reforms during the GNU
when the country had it golden opportunity to do so. The reforms themselves are
simple and logical, anyone with some common sense will have no trouble
understanding them if the individual applied him/herself to the task.
As stated above,
Zimbabwe’s serious economic meltdown – high unemployment, corruption, etc.,
etc. – is a consequence of decades of bad governance the only way to break this
vicious cycle is by ending the vote rigging and electing good, competent and
democratically accountable government.
If Zanu PF rigs the
next elections then you, one of the 90% out of work, etc., etc. will only have
yourself to blame for your economic misery and frustration and human suffering
and unnecessary loss of human lives because we have all played our part,
wittingly or otherwise, in allowing Mugabe to establish and retain this de
facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship.
“Seek ye first the political kingdom
and all things will be added to it,” said Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of
independent Ghana. He was right!
In Zimbabwe, we are
stuck in this economic mess caused by decades of gross mismanagement and
rampant corruption precisely because in 1980 and ever since we fail to secure
our political freedoms and rights including the right to a meaning vote and the
right to life itself. Until we secure our right to free, fair and credible
elections we are not going to get out of the economic mess.
Ultimately, people get
the government they deserve; after 36 years, we cannot deny that we deserve
this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of
corrupt and incompetent opposition parties.
4 comments:
@L
Tsvangirai sold-out and got himself a $4 million Highlands mansion and has a chance to be elected back into office. He will never ever ruin his chance of being elected by coming "clean" and telling the people he sold-out and will do so again.
“Those unproductive people situated near water bodies will be removed and replace by those people who are willing to utilise the land,” said VP Mnangagwa.
Zanu PF should have never disrupted the country’s agricultural production by taken away productive farms and given them to party thugs who failed to use them. It is taken nearly 20 years for the regime to get to its senses in stark contrast with MDC whose position is to let the useless Zanu PF thugs keep the farms whilst the nation starves!
President Kwame Nkrumah was one of Africa's bright stars, at least when he first got into power. He clearly understood the importance of political power and the importance of democratic accountability in the search for good governance.
In Zimbabwe, like in many other third world countries, most people gave up their political power by giving up their right to free and fair elections soon after independence. They thought nothing Zanu PF's one-party state overtures as long as the tyrant delivered the economic prosperity. He did not deliver the economic prosperity and they had no power to remove him from power.
"Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else will be added to it!" should be one of those themes taught in all our schools and everyone must live by and cherish for life!
“Aside from the president spending close to $6 million by the time he returns to the Zimbabwe, according to Thursday reports, he also failed to sign off on December salaries of his administration’s employees before he left,” reported The Zimbabwean.
Whilst the nation’s fortune has sunk like a stone, President Mugabe and the lucky few have grown filthy rich!
Those who think there is a chance of Zanu PF losing the next elections are naïve; the tyrant is loaded. Whilst all the opposition parties will be hard pushed to raise $10 million for the election, Mugabe will have $10 billion or more to spend.
There is really no point in contesting the 2018 elections without implementing any meaningful democratic reforms! Zanu PF is deeply entrenched and the stakes are simply too high for the regime to give up power now. It is now tedious to complain that the elections were rigged after the elections when we have known that would happen all along!
Post a Comment