“Sadly, our nation is presently very polarized
and this cannot be allowed to continue,” wrote Trevor Ncube, in Zimeye.
I agree with you there 100%.
“A people that solves political differences
through violence—that has so often resulted in the loss of life—is a sick
people.”
I would give you, Trevor, 50% for that. We must
not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking political violence is the
only political evil we have to deal with. Zanu PF has devised other subtler
ways of denying the people their political right to a meaningful say in the
governance of the country beside harassment, beating, rape and murder.
Zanu PF has corrupted key democratic
institutions like the Army, Police, ZEC, Public Media, etc. so that instead of
these institutions working in the public interest to deliver free, fair and
credible elections they are turning a blind eye to Zanu PF vote rigging activities
such as party youths casting multiple votes or Public Media denying opposition
any meaningful coverage. There is no violence involve and yet end result is the
same – Zanu PF remains in power regardless of the democratic wish of the people.
“And we are presently a sick people in desperate
need of visionary leadership and healing. This work has to begin in earnest,
and your ascent to our country’s highest office has paved the way,” you
continued.
I totally disagree with you there! The ascendance
of Emmerson Mnangagwa and his cabal of coup plotters following the November
2017 coup has not heralded a new beginning of “visionary leadership”. The coup
was the climax of an internal factional war in Zanu PF which resulted is the
evil party dividing like amebae. Which faction, Lacoste or G40, was worse evil
than the other is academic what is beyond dispute is that they are both evil.
Ever since the coup, Mnangagwa and his coup
government have been on a charm offense, trying to sell the coup as fight of
good vs evil and Lacoste, the good side, has prevailed. That is to be expected
but that does not make it true. The regime has been promising free, fair and
credible elections by day and by night it has continued with its plans to rig
the elections.
President Mnangagwa officiated at the handing
over of new twin cab trucks, total value $12 million, to the traditional Chiefs;
a blatant bribe to ensure they frog march the rural voters in their area to
attend Zanu PF rallies and then vote for the party.
It is President Mnangagwa himself who have
appointed retired Major General Engelbert Rugeje Zanu PF National Political
Commissar. Rugeje was responsible for some of the worst politically motivated
violence in 2008 and 2013 and, no doubt, Mnangagwa was impressed by the
barbarism of Rugeje and hence the appointment. Rugeje, to prove himself, has
already been telling Zimbabweans the violence of 2008 and 2013 will return is
they do not vote for Zanu PF in the coming elections.
So, whilst you talk of the Mnangagwa presidency
as having “paved the way for visionary leadership and healing”; he is busy making
sure the subtle vote rigging schemes, the no-violence plan A, are going full
steam ahead and laying the ground work for the violence, plan B; just to be
100% certain Zanu PF has another landslide victory.
“Mr President, I appeal to you to help bring
this nation together by granting Mr Tsvangirai a hero’s burial at the National
Heroes Acre. This single gesture while not a magic wand towards nation
building, healing and reconciliation, would certainly go a long way in
signalling your commitment to a new era in our national politics. It would also
be a strong signal that the national hero status is not a preserve of one
political party. It would be a strong signal that the Heroes Acre is a place
for all Zimbabweans befitting this status,” appeal Ncube.
Heroes Acre is full of men and women who have
done nothing worthy to be called “national heroes and heroines”. As you have
said it yourself Trevor, Zimbabwe is a “sick” nation politically and
economically, 38 years of Zanu PF misrule has left the nation in economic ruins
and its people desperately poor. How is it possible then that the country has generated
more national heroes in 4 decades that the British have generated in 40 decades
and yet the nation has suffered from gross mismanagement, rampant corruption
and murderous tyranny?
Where were all these heroes, who have descended
on the nation like a swarm of locusts, whilst the nation was being rob blind
and innocent people murdered? Over 30 000 innocent people murdered in 38 years to
establish and retain this de facto one-party dictatorship! Many of the so-called
heroes at Heroes Acre are responsible for the corruption, vote rigging and
murders, the scourge and cancers that have afflicted this nation since independence
to this day.
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come
to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil
that men do lives after them;
The good
is oft interrèd with their bones.
So, let it
be with Caesar.”
Marcus Antonius, in William Shakespeare’s Caesar.
If where one is interred bespeaks of one’s lifetime
achievements then in Zimbabwe’s twisted value system it is the evil that man do
that is interred with their bones and the imaginary good is trumpeted from the
hilltop. In the fullness of time, this nation will revisit the madness of the
last four decades and correct the historic record.
What the nation must focus on right now is to
ensure the democratic reforms are implemented leading to the holding free, fair
and credible elections; this is the cure, the only cure, of all Zimbabwe’s
political and economic ills. Whilst millions of people were very pleased to see
the back of Mugabe following the coup; as we can see with the coup government
dragging its feet on reforms, it was a pain-killer, at best. Millions will be
impressed if this coup government if Tsvangirai was declared a national hero,
another pain killer. Rather than implementing the reforms, the bitter cure, Mnangagwa
would rather take these painkillers!
President Mnangagwa should have implement the democratic
reforms by now, he has not. It is clear the coming elections are not going to
be free, fair and credible. Our focus now must turn on making sure these
elections are declared null and void. It will be tragic is we took our eyes off
that because the coup regime distracted us by declaring Tsvangirai a hero!
23 comments:
Now, these are elections that will take place in a country with an already poor record for holding deeply contested elections, and frequently very violent ones as we point out above. They also take place in a country where the military has intervened to re-arrange the government, and is ensconcing itself more and more deeply in the civilian structure of the country. The blunt question can be asked: how probable is it that this new political arrangement can organise a genuinely free and fair election? And, furthermore, how likely is that this arrangement will accept a loss at the polls, as Alex Magaisa pointed out recently?
Zanu PF, as a major player in the GNU, had the opportunity to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. They did no such thing. Even if one assumed the post-coup Zanu PF genuinely want to see the country holding free and fair elections; one has to question why the regime has done nothing to implement the reforms. Indeed, President Mnangagwa has done nothing to stop the vote rigging schemes Mugabe had in the pipe line. President Mnangagwa went ahead and bought the Chiefs new trucks, a bribe for them to play their usual role of intimidating the rural voters to vote for the party.
Even if all the reforms Dr Mandaza is asking for were implement, they will still be wilfully inadequate to guarantee free and fair elections. After 38 years of waiting for free, fair and credible elections, we must stand up and demand all the reforms and settle this matter once and once for all.
@Chikotikoti
Zimbabwe has failed to hold free and fair elections for the last 38 years and in the time the nation's economic fortune has been on a downward spiral. That is a historic fact that not even you can deny.
Do not get carried away my friend. What achievements has Morgan Tsvangirai accomplished. The people risked life and limb to elect his and his MDC friends into power on the promise they will bring about democratic change. Name one democratic change they have delivered in the 18 years in frontline politics?
I am not so much scared of ED "becoming highly popular" but of the economic consequence of him remaining in office. Zanu PF is a party of thugs and no business people, especially the savvy foreign investors will ever want to do business in a country ruled by thugs. The prospect of the country remaining stuck in this economic mess frightens the hell out of me.
Zimbabwe is stuck in this political paralysis - with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous ruling party that is imploding and yet with no alternative political party to take over because the opposition in corrupt and incompetent and in total disarray - and economic meltdown because it has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has undermined the country's democratic institution and usurped the people's right to a free and meaning vote.
In 2008, SADC leaders have helped define the democratic reforms Zimbabwe needed to implement to restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections. Zanu PF has done everything in its dictatorial powers to make sure none of the reforms are implemented.
Ever since the November 2017 coup President Mnangagwa has promised to hold free, fair and credible elections, a sly acknowledgement that past elections were not free and fair, and yet has stubbornly resisted demand for him to implement the democratic reforms.
If there is anything the nation does not want is another talk-shop on what we need to ensure elections are free and fair. Of all the people President Mnangagwa, as Zanu PF election director all these last 38 years, knows what the party has done to corrupt the system and the SADC reforms. This proposed meeting is just a time-wasting ploy!
"As part of building political consensus in the country ahead of the harmonised elections, I shall soon be inviting leaders of all political parties for a day long consultative meeting," said President Mnangagwa.
"Indeed, the ethic of overarching collaboration above fair and peaceful political contestation must be cultivated and entrenched into our national politics for all times."
Just implement the bloody reforms or get out of the way so the nation find someone else who will!
With the country's economy in such a mess that unemployment has soared to 90% and ¾ of the population is living on US$1.00 or less a day it is obvious the nation needs to restore free and fair election as a pre-requisite for good governance and economic recovery. The time for time-wasting gimmicks is over!
@ Robert
What we are seeing here is the political machinations of a political party that corrupted the state institution to create a de facto one-party state and has been playing hard ball to resist reforms, Mnangagwa has played his part in all this as a very senior party leader. Having promised free and fair elections in a trade-off to soften the treasonous November coup, he is offering these meeting as yet another trade-off to soften the reality that the elections are not going to be free and fair after all! Mnangagwa has no intention of implementing even one democratic reform.
Even if he offered to implement all the reform, what difference would it make now with only four months to polling day?
It is disappointing that people like Luke Tamborinyoka should be falsifying Zimbabwe's history. One of the many abuses this nation has suffered these last 38 years is the misinformation and brainwashing from Zanu PF. It is deeply disturbing that the nation is being subjected to the same abuse from MDC too.
“He (Tsvangirai) was to rescue the country from a debilitating crisis and poise the nation for stability, growth and development in a mere four years as premier of Zimbabwe. Driving a stability and growth agenda through the Government Work Programme, Tsvangirai showed his competence on the wheel of government during his four year stint in government,” wrote Luke Tamborinyoka (MDC’s answer to George Chiramba and Jonathan Moyo before his fall from grace).
The two key policies responsible for Zimbabwe’s post 2000 to 2008 era when the nation had posted a record 85% economic shrinkage were the scrapping of the Z$ and the price controls. MDC cannot claim credit for the former as it happened in November 2008, before the GNU which was formed in February 2009.
Even if one was to credit MDC’s Government Work Programme for the economic recovery; that was not the only task the GNU was set to do. The primary task of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections will be free, fair and credible and NOT repeat of the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of 2008. MDC failed to implement even one reform. Not one!
Zimbabwe is stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, a seemingly intractable situation, because the nation failed to implement the reforms when it had the golden chance to do so. Indeed MDC’s refusal to listen to reason not to contest in flawed election is what is delaying the implementation of reforms.
People respect the dead but they also respect the truth. Tsvangirai will be remembered in history as the opposition leader who wasted the golden opportunity during the GNU to rescue the country from the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship by failing to implement the reform.
Chaos broke out at One Command Barracks Saturday night, when the army was screamed at by MDC members. Military bosses wanted the body to lie in state for the night the way National Heroes are treated. But they have been ordered to release Morgan Tsvangirai’s body. “You refused to salute him when he was alive and now you want to do it afterwards!” one MDC member said.
Could not agree more with the MDC members! The trouble with these Zanu PF thugs is they want to pick and choose, everything must be on their terms. A coup is not a coup if they are the ones staging it. The opposition have only to speak to foreigners and they are labelled traitors! Zanu PF has haunted Morgan Tsvangirai and all the other opposition members, murdering over 30 000 in the last 38 years, for no reason other than they dare exercise their democratic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the nation.
The only way this nation is ever going to get out of this madness is for the nation to implement the democratic reforms.
Vice President Retired General Dr Constantino Chiwenga is expected to launch the livestock revitalisation programme in Insiza today.
The trouble with this command -regime is that no one is ever allowed to do a proper cost analysis and thus ascertain the truth of the cost -benefit analysis. It will not be surprising that the nation is spending more on these schemes than it is getting out!
“We do not want to ever again see another Zimbabwean who suffers in this country”, said Vice President Constantino Chiwenga Saturday afternoon.
The nation has heard those empty promises thousands of times. Indeed, Zanu PF has never given up talking of “gutsva ruzhinji” (mass prosperity) even when all pointed to mass poverty.
Mugabe was forced to resign and there is a generous addition of new faces in power to mix with many of the old faces but if anyone believed the propaganda that the regime has changed, they can see that this is not so. The same pervasive attitude that Zanu PF knows best that led the nation into this mess is still there. Now that people like Chiwenga and Shiri have tasted civilian power, they are not going to give it up in the interest of free, fair and credible elections.
VP Chiwenga the most important matter on the national agenda today, and has been for the last 20 years at least, is implementing the democratic reforms so that all Zimbabweans have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Zanu PF can pursue its command agriculture and all the other ZimAsset policies but what the regime must understand is the country must have free, fair and credible elections. This time the people of Zimbabwe will have a real chance to reject Zanu PF with its command agriculture and ZimAsset if they so wish.
Zanu PF has been promising free, fair and credible elections but has done very little to deliver on that front. It is no secret that the Army, Police and CIO have played their part in denying the people of Zimbabwe their right to a free and meaningful vote. The regime has resisted implementing the reforms and if it thinks it is going to get away with another rigged elections, it is in for a surprise.
With no meaningful democratic reforms the elections are going to be declared null and void!
“We do not want to ever again see another Zimbabwean denied his/her freedoms and human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections!” to paraphrase VP Chiwenga!
@ Siziba
38 years after our independence and over 2 500 years after the Greeks gave the world democracy we are still failing to hold free, fair and credible elections because we still have no idea what constitute free and fair elections. We have muddled along for 38 years and, all signs are, we will be blundering along from pillar to post for generations to come.
It is not so much that one has to be a rocket scientist to understand what constitute free and fair elections, most of the ideas are common sense. What is required is the willingness to ask why the 2013 elections were not free and fair after MDC had assured the nation that they were going to be free and fair. If the people were not so lazy, mentally, they would be asking what has been done to stop this year's elections be rigged too. These are common sense questions the Greeks would have asked themselves 2 500 years ago; the same question all the citizens of those nation with a working democracy would ask themselves if they faced a similar situation.
You are right, the coming elections are NOT going to be free, fair and credible but that will not stop the mindless mob out there from the ordinary citizens, blind-as-a-mole party supporters, the opportunistic opposition politicians after the few seats Zanu PF gives away as bait to the Zanu PF thugs who iron grip on power needs the foolishness of contesting flawed elections to give it credibility. Democracy requires a thinking electorate, a luxury Zimbabwe does not have!
A Zanu-PF chairman in Mazowe South have reportedly threatened villagers with violence if his party loses elections this year.
"It is alleged that Zanu PF youth Chairperson Ronald Mukadzonge threatened to unleash violence after elections in Mazowe South at Protea farm ward 16. Mukadzonge instructed villagers to register without fail.
"He was quoted saying that, "Kana tikakundwa tichakudzokerai" meaning that "if we lose we will be back for you". Among the victims in attendance were Farai Mutematsaka and Tinashe Siyachitema."
The 2008 elections were a watershed in that the whole world saw the full extend of Zanu PF's blatant vote rigging ability in terms of directing ZEC to spend six weeks recounting the vote changing Tsvangirai 73% to 47% to force the run-off and the unleashing the wanton violence to turn Mugabe's 27% defeat in March into a landslide 84% victory. SADC leaders got Mugabe to agree to implementing a raft of democratic reforms as the only way to stop the regime rigging future elections. Sadly, not even one reforms was implemented during the GUN.
SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai, and thus the Zimbabwean people too, not to contest the 2013 elections without implementing the reforms. MDC leaders did not listen, and the 2013 elections went ahead. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote and will do so again this year.
If anyone believes there can be free, fair and credible elections without implementing the reforms, then they are very naïve. The people of Zimbabwe have paid dearly for the 38 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship in terms of economic meltdown and the over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans murdered by the regime. This nation cannot afford another rigged elections another five more years of the corrupt and tyrannical reign. Zimbabweans cannot afford to be naïve!
Former President Zuma was corrupt, as everyone agreed, and the party, ANC, was able to deal with this by removing him from office. In Zimbabwe, the nation has known for decades that Mugabe was corrupt and murderous tyrant and so too were those around him. For the last 37 years the nation was stuck with Mugabe and when he was finally replaced it was only to see his equally corrupt and murderous cronies take over!
"My very warmest congratulations to President Cyril Ramaphosa. His excellence and persistence have now earned him the leadership of his people.
Zimbabwe sends its very best wishes to him and his administration. We look forward to strengthening more our ties. Congratulations!" said President Mnangagwa.
The two are poles apart as they have absolutely nothing in common. President Ramaphosa was elected by ANC members in a free, fair and credible elections. Who elected Emmerson Mnangagwa in the November coup?
Nelson Mandela's greatest legacy to the people of SA was to give them a healthy and functional democratic system. Within a few years of Zimbabwe's independence, Mugabe and his thugs had destroyed all the little democratic institutions there were in the country. As a party, Zanu PF, did not have any democratic values or traditions. Zanu PF thugs are deeply entrenched and so is the dictatorship; Zimbabweans are only now starting to learn; ending the dictatorship is going to be a serious challenge.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) urged unity, saying the country risks "sliding into a one-party state" as it heads towards elections with a weakened opposition.
One has to ask ZCC to name one democratic changes has MDC brought about since the party's emerging on the political stage in 1999. Just one change! Even when MDC were presented with a golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms that would have changed the course of the nation's history during the GNU, they failed to implement even one reform.
Zimbabwe has been a de facto one-party state for donkey years and therefore it is nonsensical to now take of the country risking sliding into a one-party state.
Indeed, by participating in flawed and illegal elections MDC has become the perfect smoke-screen to hide the de facto one-party dictatorship.
MDC leaders lost all political credibility after failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. MDC still continues to have followers but only because many Zimbabweans have no clue what the reforms are about and therefore how much MDC leaders have sold-out in failing to implement any. The chaotic in fighting in MDC is just further proof of how utterly useless and directionless the party is.
Former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, said Tsvangirai was a "flawed and indecisive character". It is no surprise that MDC has been a party of blundering fools and the sooner the people of Zimbabwe accepted this the sooner they can get on with the important task of searching for competent leaders.
@Trojan
What is so disappointing here is we know, without reforms, Zanu PF is going to rig the elections. We also know that the logical solution is to stop participating in these flawed and illegal elections; SADC leaders have advised us so, even if we could not figure this out for ourselves. Why we allow ourselves to be dragged by opportunistic opposition politicians, who are doing it out of greed, into these utterly meaningless elections beggars belief!
A healthy and functional democracy demands a thinking and vigilant electorate and not a naive and gullible electorate that will be led by the nose like a bull at the market. The Zimbabwe electorate is predominantly naive and gullible and hence the reason the nation is stuck in this mess.
@ Muzamhindo
This is all wishful think! You must first address the important question: Are the election are going to be free, fair and credible?
With not even one democratic reform in place, the answer has to be: NO, the elections are not going to be free and fair. SADC leaders have already advised Zimbabweans not to participate in elections without reforms because it is insane.
Zanu PF is already rigging these elections by making sure there is no verified voters' roll, by bribing Chiefs with new trucks, by making sure the party has unlimited funds to bankroll its voting rigging schemes from all the looting going on in Marange, by denying the opposition coverage by the public media, etc., etc.
After 38 years of being stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship with the country is a real economic mess, unemployment a nauseating 90% and ¾ of our people living on US$1.00 or less a day; Zimbabwe desperately needs meaningful political and economic change. Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged election and it is unforgivable to let this happen because we buried our heads in the sand by pretending vote rigging was not a problem.
There is no point in Chamisa or anyone in the opposition going to town about what they are going to do for Zimbabwe after winning this year's elections when they have failed to show how they are going to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Any political analysis that fails to deal with how to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections is a waste of time and space!
VG: (Violet Gonda) "But, do you only follow what Sadc or the AU say? I am asking because you're on the ground in Zimbabwe, you monitor events on the ground and even imposed sanctions. Also many believe that Western diplomats are so keen to embrace this transition in Zanu-PF that they are failing to actually say that the military came in and… (interrupted)"
PVD: (EU Ambassador Philippe Van Damme)… "I'm sorry to contradict you, we are not embracing anything. We are just present in this country and we are engaging with the authorities of this country.
"The authorities of this country have indeed changed and the circumstances. It's for Zimbabweans and the leaders in the region to decide how they label these events.
"But, we engage with a government which is in place, we agree on that and we will see to what extent they are indeed willing to implement the reforms they have been announcing and the direction of improvement of the situation for the people of this country and for the long-term development of this country and for democracy.
"That's what's our interest in this country is."
Zanu PF is a regime used to getting away with rigged elections and murder including mass murder and now military coup! Whilst many people in Zimbabwe and outside welcomed the coup as a meanings - removing the stubborn dictator Mugabe - to an end. What must never be overlooked here is the fact that the very people who had imposed Mugabe on the nation were the ones who removed the tyrant and seized power themselves. It will be naïve to overlook the sinister intentions of the Junta and hence Violet Gonda's questioning is relevant and appropriate.
The more reason when the Junta has promised free, fair and credible elections but has done nothing to show they are serious. Not even one reform has been implemented since the November coup. President Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters were Mugabe's key men when it came to rigging elections, they know, better than anyone else, that without reforms it will be impossible to hold free and fair elections.
Zanu PF has been allowed to get away with vote rigging, murders and now coups; they must be on their strike 10 when others are allowed only three! Just how many more strike-out are they are allowed to have!!! If President Mnangagwa fails to deliver free and fair elections, signs are that he will not, then the elections must be declared null and void by SADC, AU, EU, USA; everybody! If Zanu PF fails to deliver free and fair elections this year they must be booked out because Zimbabwe cannot afford the luxury of yet another rigged election. This is why the November coup must count as a missed strike.
"When we write the history of this country we cannot leave out the participation and role that the former prime minister played in the effort to entrench democratic values in this country," President Emmerson Mnangagwa said shortly after offering his condolences to Tsvangirai's family.
"He travelled a difficult journey and we should remember that."
What democratic values has Morgan Tsvangirai help entrench?
Both President Mnangagwa, the man before him Mugabe and the rest of the Zanu PF thugs own a great debt to Morgan Tsvangirai because if it was not for the MDC leader and his colleagues' breath-taking incompetence and corruptibility the Zanu PF reign of terror would have ended decades ago. MDC had many chances, the best coming during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, to implement democratic reforms that would have stopped Zanu PF rigging elections.
Tsvangirai has Zanu PF to entrench its dictatorial rule even when the party had its back to the wall. It is therefore no wonder that former President Mugabe allowed Tsvangirai to stay in the $4 million Highlands mansion after the GNU. President Mnangagwa has gone one step further and gave him the mansion plus a generous pension!
No doubt the Tsvangirais will be thanking President Mnangagwa for paying the MDC leader's hospital bill, he had the best medical help that most ordinary Zimbabweans will never ever have. Zimbabwe is now a divided nation of the very few filthy rich ruling elite and those co-opted to join them as a reward for selling-out or whatever against the filthy poor overwhelming majority.
When the history of Zimbabwe comes to be written the nation and the world will know what a corrupt and murderous regime Zanu PF has been and how MDC has helped the regime to stay in power by selling out. In 2013 MDC would have forced Zanu PF to implement the reforms if they had listened to SADC leaders not to contest the elections with no reforms. It is the same greed that is making MDC and the other opposition parties contest this year's flawed and illegal elections.
@ Bushe
"ED participated in the brutalisation of the Brave Morgan Tsvangirai. In 2008 ED was chairing JOC and together with Robert Mugabe they stole MT's Votes and installed their puppet President Robert Mugabe in Power whom they have now deposed from Power," you said.
You are 100% correct there! ED brutalised Tsvangirai and it work as the later sold-out on povo, who too had been brutalised by the regime risking life and limb, when it came to implementing the reforms during the GNU. ED and Mugabe have a lot to thank Tsvangirai for, Zanu PF would not be in power if MDC leaders had not sold-out!
In 1980, when the nation attained her independence, Zimbabwe had some of the best hospitals in Africa. People took their sick to the hospitals confident they will receive the best medical service available anywhere in the world except for the really specialised needs. If is very sad that our health service has all but collapsed, even big hospitals like Parerenyatwa and Mpilo cannot provide even the most basic services and often run out of even basic drugs as pain-killers.
It is ok for the filthy rich few; mainly the Zanu PF cronies, their families and the co-opted opposition leaders like Tsvangirai; they have been getting their medical needs outside Zimbabwe. Former President Mugabe used to go to Singapore as often as 12 time a year for an eye check-up @ US$3 million plus a trip.
Mnangagwa committed his government to cover all the expenses to do with Tsvangirai's funeral, including a R2 million hospital bill.
To the ¾ of the Zimbabweans now living on US$ 1.00 or less a day health services outside the country is completely out of the question. They have to make do with whatever the country's collapsed health services has to offer. Reports of hundreds if not thousands of new born babies dying every month for the want of something as basic as an incubator are very common.
What is obvious here is the two health systems; an out of the country one for the filthy rich and a collapse one for the filthy poor; is not just unsustainable - it is no secret that government is broke - but, worse still, it is foolish. Of course, it is nonsensical to suggest that if the $36 million wasted of Mugabe's trips in one year alone had been poured into equipping and staffing one hospital it would not have provided a comparable eye check-up service than that Mugabe receives in Singapore. Whilst Mugabe was not using the specialist services, how many other Zimbabweans would have found the service affordable.
Zimbabwe's present practice of sending the filthy rich outside the country for their health, education, etc. has helped accelerate the collapse of the country's own services by draining resources from the local institutions. It is one thing for the ruling elite to use some of their own legally earned wealth to pay for these expensive out of the country services it is totally unaccepted that the cash striped public finance should be the one paying those exorbitant bills especially when those benefiting from this extravagance are the people who destroyed the nation's own services with their decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption
Instead of implementing the reforms President Mnangagwa is holding a meeting at State House to discuss the elections. All the country's 84, so far, registered political parties are going to be invited. The regime has no intention of implementing even one meaningful democratic reform. The true purpose of the meeting is to waste time and message main opposition leader's ego - just being invited to the meeting alone will make many of these leaders gloriously happy!
Much as SADC leaders would want to declared Zimbabwe's flawed and illegal elections null and void the regional grouping faces two basic problems:
1) If there is no meaningful opposition to the flawed elections, what right does SADC leaders have to reject the elections if that is what the people of Zimbabwe want.
2) Even if SADC were to rule the elections null and void; who in Zimbabwe will they have left to implement the reforms. It will be a futile exercise to declare the elections null and void and then have the same Zanu PF and MDC politicians of the 2008 to 2013 GNU dominating the new administration tasked to implement the reforms!
If SADC is ever going to have the confidence to declare the flawed elections null and void then it must be convinced there will be some competent Zimbabweans it can work with. I for one would be hard pressed to name 10 competent Zimbabweans whom I would say understand what the reforms are about for a start!
According to NewsDay, Malema described as “nonsensical” the manner in which Tsvangirai was denied power by former president Robert Mugabe after winning elections in 2008. He said this would never be allowed to happen in South Africa.
I can well believe what happened in Zimbabwe in 2008 would never happen in SA for two reasons:
1) SA’s democratic institutions are strong and vibrant to allow such blatant vote rigging to happen let alone let those involved get away with it.
2) Even with Zimbabwe’s corrupted state institution, there was a window of opportunity to stop Zanu PF staging the coup in 2008; sadly, Tsvangirai was such a “flawed and indecisive character,” as former USA Ambassador Chris Dell once said of the man, to do anything about it.
History will also tell of another Morgan Tsvangirai who was given the get out of jail card not just for himself but the whole of Zimbabwe and he sold it to the tyrant Robert Mugabe for the trappings of office and the $4 million Highlands mansion. There is no doubt that if MDC had implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU Zimbabwe would have had free, fair and credible elections in 2013. The country would have had a democratically accountable government, at the very least, and on started off on its first step to political and economic recovery.
Morgan Tsvangirai was a corrupt and incompetent politician, that is a historic fact. Respecting the dead is one thing but must not include falsifying the historic facts
Morgan Tsvangirai was an incompetent and corrupt politician; there is no denying that he and his MDC friends failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and the $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai. The people of Zimbabwe have paid dearly for his betrayal, they would not be in this economic and political mess if he had implemented the reforms and the 2013 elections had been free, fair and credible!
For anyone who still consider Tsvangirai a hero it is either he/she does not know what constitute a hero or they are so desperate for one, anything goes!
@ Patrick
"If SADC is ever going to have the confidence to declare the flawed elections null and void then it must be convinced there will be some competent Zimbabweans it can work with. I for one would be hard pressed to name 10 competent Zimbabweans whom I would say understand what the reforms are about for a start!" you said.
If I must be honest then I too must admit I would be hard pressed to name 5 competent Zimbabweans SADC can count on to implement the democratic reforms! Your 10 plus my 5 will make 15; it is not exactly a great start but it is a start nonetheless. Having said that I would like to make two points:
1) We must accept the reality that the oppressive political system fostered on the nation by the Zanu PF one-party cum one-man dictatorship has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition forcing quality to disappear and scum to take centre stage. We must concentrate on ending the suffocating the political environment and replace it with a free and dynamic one; quality leaders will emerge. It is the healthy political environment that must come first and the quality leaders will follow.
2) I would much rather have 15 competent people who can think for themselves than 15 000 or 15 000 000 empty heads who hardly know their right hand from their left! The right to vote has been a useful tool for progress in some societies but not so in our society because unscrupulous tyrant like Mugabe have deliberately given the vote to whole chunks of voter into mindless sheep, through fear and/or ignorance. Elections are still a game of numbers but devoid of all meaningless and purpose.
The Zanu PF dictatorship has had 38 years to establish itself in government, civil service, in our cities and town right down to every growth points and every village. They are many who are benefiting from the system other fear change for no better reason than fear of the unknown. Uprooting the dictatorship is not going to be easy. However, the longer we allow the dictatorship to survive the harder it is going to be to uproot it!
Right now, declaring the coming elections null and void and then appointing an interim administration to implement the reforms is the only viable way out, finding the Zimbabweans to carry out the task, is a challenge but not a mountain that cannot be scaled!
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