In Zimbabwe the ordinary people, especially in
rural areas with no access to internet, outside radio and newspapers, are starved
of useful and quality information. The regime has stifled all meaningful, open
and honest debate on any subject remotely considered political. Instead povo
are overwhelmed with propaganda with zero intellectual content designed to
brainwash them into zombies; who will do as they are told, no questioned asked.
The election season is upon us and the volume of
propaganda is steadily increasing although be it the propagandist are finding it
increasing difficult to seal Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime as a competent and
loved regime in the face of the political and economic realities on the ground
in Zimbabwe. That is not to say the regime has given up and as long as they are
paid the propagandists will continue to chain out the misinformation regardless
how nonsensical it happens to be.
In the book "Why Mugabe Won. The 2013
Elections in Zimbabwe and their Aftermath" Stephen Chan and Julia
Gallagher, argue the tyrant has been winning elections because “tangible
deliveries to the electorate and has loyal supporters who stick to the values
of the revolutionary party”.
“Tangible deliveries”! What tangible deliveries?
Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa, according to an AfrAsia Bank report. Its
finding is supported by the facts on the ground, poverty is everywhere in
Zimbabwe; there is no denying it. So, one has to ask again what tangible deliveries
and these two wittering about?
In its 2013 election manifesto Zanu PF promised 2.2
million new jobs in five years. So far the regime has failed to create any new
jobs, unless Chan and Gallagher believed Minister Patrick Zhuwao, Mugabe’s
nephew, who wanted those selling airtime card and roasted maize on the streets
as new jobs!
Of course, this is cheap propaganda information,
biased and misleading, used to promote a political cause – that Mugabe is
popular and won the 2013 elections fair and square. The truth is totally
different, we all know that Mugabe blatantly rigged the 2013 elections.
The closest the people of Zimbabwe ever came to having
a free, fair and credible elections was probably the March 2008 vote. In that
vote, Tsvangirai won 73% of the vote, by Mugabe’s own admission. Since the
regime had ZEC in its pocket the results were withheld for six weeks whilst the
regime “cooked” up the figures to produce a more acceptable 47% votes for Tsvangirai.
Every time, without failure, towards elections the
nation is bombarded by all these research results showing just how loved and
popular Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are and yet every election without failure
the regime blatantly rigs the elections.
"Its (MDC) supporters felt that the party's
once strong networks and unifying spirit — forged in the difficult days of
opposition — had melted away as elites had begun to taste the pleasures of
office," they wrote.
"They appeared to have pulled the ladders up after themselves, leaving their grassroots without moral or material support. This left activists unable or disinclined to attempt to woo voters who had begun to question the party's abilities, either to perform in government, or to represent their interests.”
This is all very true but the same if not worse can
be said about Mugabe and Zanu PF cronies. Right now, the tyrant under fire from
with the rogue war veterans, who done the most of regime’s dirty work of
imposing its no-regime-change mantra, they are accusing Mugabe enjoying the
spoils of power of dumping them. Many of them, like millions of Zimbabweans,
are languishing in abject poverty!
Given a free vote, millions of Zimbabweans will still
vote for the opposition regardless of their pathetic record of corruption and
incompetence if only to get rid of the corrupt, tyrannical and vote rigging
Zanu PF!
If Stephen Chan and Julia Gallagher really did a
thorough research before writing their book then why did they fail to ask any
Zanu PF official why the party has stubbornly refused to implement the
democratic reforms necessary to ensure free, fair and credible elections?
Propaganda is a very serious and obnoxious crime in
that it does not only seek to misinform the victim but, worse still, brainwash him/her
and thus deprive them the power to think and reason for themselves. Zimbabwe’s
opposition politicians are not the cleverest kids on the block and it is
therefore not surprising that they have shown worse signs of being totally brainwashed
than the average rural peasant in Zimbabwe’s back waters with no internet and
other enlightenment to counter the propaganda.
After the 2013 elections Tendai Biti said the 2013
elections were rigged. He later changed his statement and said Zanu PF had won
because it connected better with the electorate than MDC had done. He has done
worse; failing to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU
being one of the worst things Biti and his MDC friends have done.
Indeed, if there was anyone in Zimbabwe’s
opposition camp with even a few still firing brain cells then they would see Stephen
Chan’s Zanu PF propaganda book for what it is, a smokescreen behind which to
hid the regime’s planned vote rigging scheme. For as long as the world can be
made to believe Mugabe is popular any vote rigging that takes place is that
much easier to dismiss as soar grapes. Therefore, folly of contesting a flawed
election is glaringly obvious - to anyone with still a few firing brain cells.
9 comments:
“The economy is facing difficulties,” said IMF official.
“A severe drought and slow reform momentum have led to high expenditure levels since late 2015, despite subdued revenues. With a difficult external environment limiting access to foreign inflows, the ensuing large fiscal imbalances are being financed by domestic borrowing.
If the IMF and many others beside have warned this Zanu PF government about its high spending once they have warned it a thousand times. The only way forward is for the country to have a truly democratic government accountable to the people who are at the coal face of its failures and successes. This Zanu PF regime can afford to ignore advice from everyone just as it can ignore the people’s crying for an end to their suffering – they have no meaningful vote.
This is a nonsense argument we keep hearing from these opposition people. The people of Zimbabwe have accepted that Zanu PF is corrupt and incompetent and so MP Cross is not telling us anything new with all his articles talking about how incompetent and corrupt Zanu PF is.
The people have risked life and limp to elect MDC leaders so they can implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. MP Cross and company had five years during the GNU to get this done, they failed to get even one reform implemented. Why?
Eddie Cross must tell us why MDC has failed to implement any reforms during the GNU and then since the rigged July 2013 elections? Now MDC leaders are talking of contesting next year's elections still with not even one reform in place! WHY?
Answering the questions on reforms will help us get rid of Zanu PF than all this talk about the wrong things Zanu PF is doing. As long as we do not do something to get Zanu PF out they will remain in power and missing up all our lives!
Gutu you are just a hypocrite, you had the chance to implement the democratic reforms which would have stopped Zanu PF rigging elections and all this looting. Why did MDC fail to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU?
If you lot had not contested the 2013 elections even when you could see for yourselves that the elections would be rigged Zanu PF would have been forced to implement the reforms.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
You are talking of Zanu PF being a mafia party and yet you are busy preparing to contest next year’s elections for the same reason you contested 2013 elections – greed. As long as Zanu PF throws at you these few gravy train seats you are going to continue contesting the elections and pay lip service to implementing the reforms.
“The people of Zimbabwe deserve to be governed by a responsible, honest and law abiding political party and of course, Zanu PF doesn’t fit into this bill. The time for change is now! The people of Zimbabwe have suffered enough,” you say.
Yeah right! Name one democratic change MDC has brought to the nation in all its years in politics?
If the people of Zimbabwe are ever going to have free and fair elections then they must stop these opposition opportunists contesting flawed elections and thus starve Zanu PF the legitimacy they are giving the regime by participating. The opportunists are contesting for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away and they do not care the high price the nation is paying for those seats!
The opposition should have united in demanding the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. Uniting to contest a flawed election was itself a flawed decision that was doomed to fail.
Zanu PF is not going to lose an election over which it has a license to rig the vote. And so by agreeing to contest such an election the opposition has per se agreed to let Zanu PF ride roughshod over the people's wishes for free and fair elections. Zanu PF has learned since the 2008 elections that for it to avoid facing the problem of legitimacy ever again, it must allow the opposition win a few gravy train seats. It is these seats that the opposition are fighting over.
What is now clear as day is that stopping the opposition opportunists who contest these flawed elections is the most effective way to force Zanu PF to accept democratic reforms, as David Coltart noted in his book.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
As long as the opposition contest the flawed elections Zanu PF will continue to derive its legitimacy from their participation. Stop the opposition contesting the flawed elections and you starve Zanu PF of the political oxygen it needs to survive.
“For the 2018 elections which are not very far, Zimbabwe needs nothing but an effective and genuine coalition guided by a shared vision, driven by common values, inspired by national aspirations and anchored on our proud and courageous history,” you say.
All these high sounding values and objectives go straight out of the window when you agree to contest a flawed election for selfish person gain at the expense of the national interest of implementing the reforms and securing free, fair and credible elections for not just 2018 but for posterity!
ZBC will not be independent of Zanu PF control and this is just one more thing to confirm the reality some people continue to pretend not to see that Zimbabwe’s elections next year will NOT be free, fair and credible. Those contesting the flawed elections are doing so knowing Zanu PF will rig the vote they are contesting because they also know the regime will be throwing away some seats, the bait to entice the opposition to participate.
If we are serious about ever forcing Zanu PF to implement the reforms then we must confront the opportunist opposition politicians and tell them in no uncertain terms that we know they are contesting the flawed elections for selfish reasons. We know that they are selling out just as MDC leaders sold out during the GNU by failing to implement even one reform. We demand an end to this culture of selling out!
Are we going to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF by contesting elections in which Zanu PF has the license to rig the vote? Have we not tried that one before, in 2013, and failed?
It is just madness contesting elections we know are going to be rigged. The only reason these opposition politicians are tripping over each other to contest regardless of the certainty Zanu PF will rig the vote is that they are after the few seat they know Zanu PF gives away.
It was not President Mugabe or anyone in Zanu PF who stopped the implementation of the reforms during the GNU, they were powerless to do so even if they wanted to. It was Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who chose to kick reforms into the tall grass because Mugabe bribed them to do with the gravy train lifestyles, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc.
Mugabe needs political legitimacy and has since learned that the opposition will contest the elections regardless how flawed the process happens to be as long as he allows them to win a few seats. So the best way to force Mugabe to accept reforms is to deny him political legitimacy and to do that we must stop the opposition opportunists selling-out by contesting in flawed elections.
We must look these opposition opportunists straight in the eye and tell them in no uncertain terms “We know what you are up to, you are running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, you are a selling out. Stop it!”
In preparation for the 2013 elections President Mugabe must have spend millions of dollars paying PR firms in UK and USA to spruce out his soiled reputation, millions of dollars more on dodgy opinion poll companies to falsify the facts and portray as prince charming, we know he paid Nikuv $10 million to corrupt the voters roll, etc. All the world’s scum bags are flocking to Zimbabwe, like migrating storks at the start of the rainy season, for all the easy money.
I wonder how much Stephen Chan and this woman, Julia Gallagher were paid for this crap.
What I would like to see happen is that when we finally have a democratic government in Zimbabwe the country establishes a body to do a thorough inquiry into the truth behind some of these “research”, “opinion polls”, “voters roll that are never realised”, etc. with the view of establishing the truth and holding the criminals behind these malicious acts to account.
Ultimately it is the ordinary Zimbabwean who have paid for all these malicious lies in being the source of the high fees and then the ones who pay the consequences of Mugabe’s continued rule. No, we must find all these demonic criminals who have profited from the misery of our people. We must dig them out wherever they go and force them to face justice!
Yes, Yamamoto, with a people with a little self-belief and vision, Zimbabwe could have a $100 billion economy right now instead of a misery $4 billion and having the singular honour of being the poorest people on earth!
Considering Mai Mujuru and her late husband alone are known to have tried to sell $15 billion in stolen diamonds alone in just three separate lots. How much else in diamonds and other minerals have they looted and plundered? The two were not the only ones looting and plundering the nation’s wealth of that we can be sure.
President Mugabe pocketed a cool $2 billion from looted diamond wealth in 2012 alone according to Africa Partnership Canada, any NGO specializing in diamond industry.
"We can still shape a better future. If Zimbabwe's economy had decent stewards with a modicum of vision, Zimbabwe's economy would have been the third largest economy in Africa or better, because it had a good head start. It could easily have been the Singapore or South Korea of Africa," Yamatomo said.
I do not see us ever getting out of the economic and political mess we are in right now. We have individual who are aspiring to be the nation’s leaders and yet they do not even know what constitute a free and fair election much less how the country is to implement the democratic reforms to end the present de facto one-party dictatorship.
When President Mugabe admitted over a year ago the $15 billions in diamond revenue had been swindled, the news was water off a duck’s back, no one even cared. It is not surprising that over a year later no one ever been arrested and not one dollar recovered. The looting has continued. No one is bothered!
Indeed, we could have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship by July 2013 at the latest if the MDC leaders had not sold-out to Mugabe. He entrapped them with the trapping of high office, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. and MDC kicked reforms into the tall grass. The tyrant entrapped his Zanu PF cronies in much the same way and they have all been “vakadzi vaMugabe” (Mugabe’s subservient concubines) as Margaret Dongo aptly put it.
The very fact that we have an $ 4 billion economy when we should have a $100 billion one is not surprising when you consider the utterly use men and women leading the nation! The people themselves have elected these individuals to lead and they are quite content with the scum.
In the long run, people get the government they deserve. After 37 years since independence, we certain deserve these corrupt and murderous Zanu PF thugs complete with the complimentary “buy one get ten free” corrupt and incompetent opposition!
We have sunk so low, from a potential $100 billion economy to $4 billion, it is quite possible we have gone beyond the point of no return!
@ Steve
SADC leaders proposed implementing a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and stop the vote rigging. The proposal is still on the table and it will work.
What makes MDC a "useless party" is that they failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so. Worse still the party is now trying to drag the nation into yet another flawed election process under the false pretext they have twigged the process with their voter mobilisation, coalition building, new BVR kits, etc., etc.; enough to achieve the miracle of allowing Zanu PF rigging the vote but see them lose the election!
It sounds like the only plan you are offering is one involving shedding more innocent blood. Did the nation not shed enough blood during the war of independence? Over 30 000 have been murdered in Zanu PF’s 37 years in power. What did all that blood thirst sacrifice accomplish?
Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems are not unique nor are the solutions. All we need is good governance and that we will get if we implement the reforms. We do not need to reinvent the wheel, it is there already; the challenge is whether we have the common sense to see its usefulness and benefit from using it or we continue with the back-breaking ways of doing things.
It is no accident that we are in this mess my brother, it is because we are stupid not to see solutions even when they are spelt out to us in human blood!
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