“Zimbabwe simply cannot afford to have a de jure or de facto
coup!” Senator David Coltart tells us.
True. But neither can Zimbabwe afford to have a de facto
one-party, Zanu PF, cum one-man Robert Mugabe dictatorship and yet that is
exactly what this country has had for the last 20 years if not 37 years!
Each time Senator Coltart, Morgan Tsvangirai, Eddie Cross,
Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti or any of the other MDC leaders start pontificating
about what has gone wrong in Zimbabwe and how worse things will get; my stomach
chains. Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement the raft of democratic
designed to dismantle the de facto dictatorship agreed in the 2008 Global
Political Agreement (GPA). The task of implementing these reforms fall to
Senator Coltart and his MDC colleagues and they had five years, FIVE YEARS, FIVE
BLOODY YEARS, to get the job done. They failed to get even one reform
implemented!
Whilst it can be said many of the MDC leaders such as
Tsvangirai himself had no clue during the GNU what the reforms were about much
less how they were going to be implemented; even now many still have no clue.
Still one cannot say the say about the likes of Senator Coltart and a few
others, they knew what the reforms were about. Yet even they failed to get even
one reform implemented because Mugabe bribed the entire MDC leadership with the
trappings of power; generous salaries and allowances, a former white-owned farm
and a $4 million mansion for Ncube and Tsvangirai respectively, etc. In return MDC
leaders kicked reforms into the prickly pear thicket!
“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU
they forgot why they were there,” remarked one SADC leader, who were the
guarantor of the GPA, in sheer exasperation!
If Coltart and friends had implemented the reforms then
Zimbabwe would have got rid of her de facto dictatorship and so the coup, whether
it is de jure or de facto is academic, would have never happened.
The people of Zimbabwe are celebrating the coup because they
believe it has ended the de facto dictatorship, at least, that is what many are
hoping and praying for. The coup is the lesser of the two evils removing the
greater evil, the dictatorship.
“For all the ambiguity in General Chiwenga's statement it
challenges President Mugabe either to turn his back on his wife and other
members of the G40 faction or to face the wrath of the military,” Coltart
argued. “In reality however it provides Mugabe with little choice - because the
thought of Mugabe turning his back on his wife at his age, and in his state of
dependence, is unthinkable.”
With such a shallow grasp of issues, it is easy to see why
Coltart and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform during the GNU!
Mugabe is a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrant whose megalomania had
reduced Zimbabwe into a banana republic causing untold human suffering and death.
He was not being asked to cut ties with his G40 friends or divorce his wife; he
was being asked to resign as president and end his tyrannical rule. Only a sick
man would consider that “unthinkable”!
What next for Mugabe? If he does not resign, impeach the
tyrant. Just get on with it!
What the people of Zimbabwe must understand is that the coup
got rid of the de facto one-man dictator, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. It has not
even touched the de facto one-party dictatorship; the Army, civil service,
judiciary, ZEC, everything that has made the Zanu PF such a ruthlessly oppressive,
looting, vote rigging and murderous regime.
When Major General Moyo total the nation and the world in
the small hours of Wednesday morning that he and his fellow coup plotters were “targeting
the criminals” around Mugabe everyone knew he meant the G40 members. But who
does not know that the Zanu PF dictatorship cabal was much bigger than the G40
element!
The de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship is very much
alive; remove the dictator, his wife and a few of her G40 friends has trimmed
the Zanu PF dictatorship making it leaner. But if anyone thinks it is died,
they could not be more wrong.
After 37 years of tyrannical rule we should have a clear
idea what we want to happen in Zimbabwe – the implementation of the raft of
democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA. We should also know that the coup
has not even asked for any reforms. The coup is about removing Mugabe to
replace him with Emerson Mnangagwa, that is not what we want.
It would be a great national tragedy if all the long
suffering people of Zimbabwe get out of this political upheaval is swapping one
dictator for another as happened in Egypt! The 2008 to 2013 GNU was a wasted
golden opportunity to end the de facto one-party dictatorship we must make sure
that the golden opportunity brought about by the 15 November 2017 coup to
implement the reforms is not wasted too!
Yes, of course, Zimbabwe did not want and cannot afford a
coup but, worst of all, we did not want and have paid dearly for having and
being stuck with dictatorship for 37 years. We, the people of Zimbabwe, must
make it clear the coup will have saved a useful purpose if it completely dismantle
the dictatorship. If all the coup manage to do is remove one dictator but only
to replace him with another then there is nothing to applauded those behind
this treasonous act!
5 comments:
This coup would not have been necessary if MDC had implemented the reforms when the party had the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU. Instead of implementing the reforms the MDC banded mongooses were tripping over each other is singing Mugabe praises.
"Mugabe is the unflappable fountain of wisdom, the faher of the nation," squealed Tendai Biti then. He was thankful for all the gravy train trappings and kicked all reforms into the prickery pear thicket! Today he calls the same man a dictator because he wants our vote to get back in the gravy train!
"No doubt that today will see the biggest voluntary physical out pour against President Robert Mugabe. History will be made & thousands will turn up.
"It did not have to end up this way. No one owns our people and NO ONE should ever want to own our people again," tweeted Biti.
Biti is hoping he will brought into yet another GNU, back on the gravy train, he is already salivating profusely like a hyena at the prospect, and that is all he and his MDC friend cares about!
@ Nerva
We said that in 1980 and look where we are!
The Zanu PF dictatorship is not touched and if you think removing Mugabe and a few around him will transform Zimbabwe's political culture then you are more naive than anyone could ever imagine! At least in 1980 there was some reason to be optimistic, after all many of us did not know what Mugabe and his friends were incompetent, corrupt and murderous thugs. We know Mnangagwa and friends are the ones redistributing the Marange diamond concessions. Other than Mugabe himself, everyone else in the shadowy Joint Operation Command is there and so the spying, vote rigging and other seedy activities by the Zanu PF dictatorship will resume as if the coup never happened.
Mugabe is gone but only to be replaced by Mnangagwa and we know his hands are red with the blood of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans he has shed as Mugabe’s right hand man! Mnangagwa is not a democrat and has no intention of implementing even one democratic reform.
All this public euphoria about Zimbabwe being independent is just foolishness. You have not changed anything and so what is there to celebrate? How anyone can be so shallow, thick and slow is what is shocking here. No wonder the country is in a real mess with such a naïve and gullible populous, what else!
Soldiers stopped people marching to State House.
There is nothing in the constitution stopping people holding a peaceful march! This should be a timely reminder to those who were celebrating "Zimbabwe's independence" that the country is still a dictatorship. And once Mnangagwa is in State House it will be business as usual as the dictatorship juggernaut gets back into gear!
The Police will stop all anti-Zanu PF demos and all those who defy the ban will be tear-gassed, baton charged and worse!
If MDC had implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU, Zimbabwe would not be in this mess! All Tsvangirai is hoping for is that he will get back on the gravy train. It has been great living in the $4 million mansion, his most cherished bribe prize from Mugabe for doing nothing about reforms, but it has been tough on zero income!
@ Nomazulu
If this coup is going to remove the dictator, Robert Mugabe, and dismantle his Zanu PF dictatorship – which is what many have been dying, literally, to see happen – then regardless of its the prima facie case of being treason, I for one would waive that. Indeed, I would even go one step further one call the coup plotters liberation heroes and heroines. Sadly, this coup is about removing one dictator, Robert Mugabe, and a few others around him; heap all the evils, lootings and murders on these individuals and throw them overboard.
The coup was just a counter move in the factional war that has been raging on for the last few years pitting Grace Mugabe, whom Robert Mugabe wanted to be his successor as president, and her G40 faction against Emerson Mnangagwa, who considered himself the right person to succeed Mugabe, and his Lacoste faction which included war veterans and securocrats, the coup plotters. When Mugabe fired Mnangagwa last week as VP, clearing the deck for appointing his wife into that position, it was a bold move. G40 was moving very swiftly and purging the party of all known Mnangagwa loyalists.
Lacoste had no choice but to make their own equal bold move or the game was over for them. The coup was their only desperate but effective last move. They made their move!
If Mugabe had got wind of the coup, needless to say he would have crashed it with his usual ruthlessness. He would be the one heaping all the evils, lootings and murders on Mnanganga and his Lacoste supporters and throwing them overboard.
Whichever Zanu PF faction won the factional war, it would have gone to great lengths to heap all the blame for the party’s failures and betrayals on the losers and present itself as the squeaky-clean faction. Only the politically naïve and gullible are viewing the removal of Mugabe and the demise of G40 faction as a new dawn! Mnangagwa is going to be the new dictator surround by the same corrupt and murderous thugs who imposed the dictator Mugabe all these years.
The Zanu PF dictatorship has lost the old dictator but got a new dictator with the same pedigree as Mugabe himself, after all Mnangagwa was the chief enforcer of Mugabe, the rest of the team, the structure, etc. remains the same. This is not a new dawn, those celebrating the removal of Mugabe as the dawn of democracy are in for a rude awakening!
The implosion of Zanu PF, including the firing of Mnangagwa and the coup, presented the nation a golden opportunity to push for democratic change. The people should have stood aloof and refuse to join in the Lacoste victory parade. They should be telling the coup plotters in no uncertain terms that the coup must dismantle the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship itself and not just be a factional act of removing one dictator to replace him with another. Sadly, the opportunity is slipping away because the myopic fools known for seeing what is not there, would not listen to reason.
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