“Pasi nezvimbwa sungata! Pasi nemhandu! Pamberi neZanu PF!” (Death to traitors! To death with enemies of the state! Forward with Zanu PF!) Canted President Emmerson Mnangagwa with the passion and relish of one who had missed saying these things for far too long! (Since President Mnangagwa’s inaugural speech in November last year, the party had banished the “To death” bit of the party’s slogan, at least in public, to promote its new image of democratic tolerance and promise to hold free, fair and credible elections.) So, what has happened to free Mnangagwa from this self-imposed censorship!
“Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere and other G40 members are meeting with Joice Mujuru in Cape Town, SA to plan how they can topple Zanu PF from power,” President Mnangagwa told his audience.
True enough there is a conference in Cape Town attended by Mai Mujuru, MDC-T leaders and all the other usual suspects in the opposition camp. Thanks to Zimeye.com who have streamed photographs of the conference attendees, the objectives of the meeting and other details. Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere or any of the known G40 members are certainly not in any of the photographs.
Indeed, even if G40 members should team up with Mai Mujuru and all the other 75 opposition parties that have sprouted grass after the first rains with a view to challenge President Mnangagwa and his coup cabal for the right to form the next government; that is NOT a crime. President Mnangagwa’s promise to hold free and fair elections this year is premised on three fundaments:
a) Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy; just because Zanu PF has successfully imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship does not make those who dare to oppose the regime criminals.
b) President Mnangagwa and his fellow 15 November 2017 coup plotters were aware of how much the people of Zimbabwe and the world at large were sick and tired of Robert Mugabe and were very pleased to see the tyrant finally remove from office – even if the removal was itself a treasonous act, a coup.
c) The November coup was illegal and no amount of finessing can ever change that political reality and therefore per se President Mnangagwa’s regime is illegitimate. President Mnangagwa is painfully aware of this political reality and hence his and his regime’s charm offensive to rebrand with all this talk of new dispensation of a party upholding the rule of law, restoring property rights and promising to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Before the November coup, Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, vote rigging and coup staging thugs; it was therefore naïve to expect the party after the coup to be radically different since those who staged the coup and thus took over control of the party are the same individuals who had masterminded and executed all the mischief and thuggery before the 15 November coup. However much they, themselves realized the need to embrace democratic change for the sake of economic recovery and for their own political legitimacy; when their hold on power was threatened they reverted to thuggery at the drop of a hat!
It is no secret that President Mnangagwa and his coup cabal now view G40 members as the greatest threat to their hold on power. People like Professor Jonathan Moyo know a lot of past, present and, no doubt, future dirty secrets on Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and other coup leaders. Knowledge is power.
President Mnangagwa and his regime have accused Professor Moyo and his G40 friends of corruption and misuse of power but there is no one in Zanu PF, including Mnangagwa himself, who is not guilty of the same crimes and worse in some cases. The real reason why the coup cabal are hunting G40 members down is political – they want the threat posed by G40 members eliminated completely and hence labelling them enemies of the state!
Having declared G40 members enemies of the State, Zanu PF is now extending the net to catch every other opposition party they do not want by claiming they are working in cahoots with G40. All those political parties who attended the conference in Cape Town, will now have an impossible task to prove they are not working with G40 directly or indirectly.
“Pasi nezvimbwa sungata! Pasi nemhandu!” Came the fatwa on G40, the opposition and, worst of, free, fair and verifiable elections!
President Mnangagwa and his regime have accused Professor Moyo and his G40 friends of corruption and misuse of power but there is no one in Zanu PF, including Mnangagwa himself, who is not guilty of the same crimes and worse in some cases. The real reason why the coup cabal are hunting G40 members down is political – they want the threat posed by G40 members eliminated completely and hence labelling them enemies of the state!
Having declared G40 members enemies of the State, Zanu PF is now extending the net to catch every other opposition party they do not want by claiming they are working in cahoots with G40. All those political parties who attended the conference in Cape Town, will now have an impossible task to prove they are not working with G40 directly or indirectly.
“Pasi nezvimbwa sungata! Pasi nemhandu!” Came the fatwa on G40, the opposition and, worst of, free, fair and verifiable elections!
19 comments:
The greatest weakness in our body politics - be it is Zanu PF or any of the 75 opposition parties - is the lack of quality leaders. Zanu PF has just had its long awaited change of leader and the party is blundering from pillar to post. Even if the party had go the 58 years old Grace Mugabe instead of the over 70 years old Mnangagwa the party and country would be worse off in my view.
The people of Zimbabwe have become obsessed about the fixed maximum term and the maximum age limit because they had failed to get rid of Mugabe by casting the vote. If Zanu PF was not rigging elections and thus imposing Mugabe on a tired and desperate nation, the people of Zimbabwe would have got rid of Mugabe decades ago and fixed term or maximum age limit would not be on the national agenda. The real tragedy is the nation has now switched its attention on these two side issues and forgotten the real big issue - stopping the vote rigging!
Restore the democratic right of the people to free, fair and credible elections and you will never have to worry about fixed terms or electing someone too old because if the voters view any one of these issues as important then they will not vote for the individual.
“The JSC wishes to advise the public and all stakeholders that the honourable Mrs Justice Rita Makarau requested to step down as acting secretary of the commission and to return to the Supreme Court bench.”
Let us just say, she will not be missed by the nation! Someday the nation will want to know what roll ZEC has played in Zimbabwe’s rigged elections and what she was paid for going along. Zimbabwe would not be in this mess, this deep and for all these years if people like Rita Makarau had not sold-out! We would have failed the common people, who have paid dearly for the country’s failure to hold free and fair elections, if we do not investigate the truth about rigged elections and punish those who profited from the blatant betrayal of the common people.
“Justice” Rita Makarau – where was the justice is turning a blind eye to the systematic denial of the ordinary Zimbabweans’ right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country!
Zec deputy chairperson Mr Emmanuel Magade yesterday said the electoral body was independent and impartial as required by the Constitution. “It’s not coming from Government, it is internal,” he said
“Government is not interfering with our processes at all. Anything and everything that has to do with the status of the workers is entirely between them and the board. Anybody who claims that it is coming from Government is telling a monumental lie, the lie of the century.”
How independent and impartial was ZEC when it was ordered to recount the March 2008 vote; after six weeks of recounting reduced Tsvangirai’s 73% to 47%, for example? It was for this reason that SADC leaders proposed the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms including reforms of ZEC. Without the reforms we will continue to have ZEC officials who will continue to promise to deliver free and fair elections when they know that is impossible!
Commissioner Magade you are paid and paid well for selling-out on the nation’s hope and dreams of free and fair elections; please do not insult us with all this nonsense of ZEC being “independent and impartial”! Please!
Governor John Mangudya said more work was required to grow the economy through opening up for business, increasing export production and intensifying foreign investment attraction.
No foreign investors are coming to Zimbabwe until they are convinced the country has finally shed off its pariah and lawless state status. Although the coup saved a very useful purpose of removing the dictator, Robert Mugabe, his removal by a military coup did not exactly help end the nation’s lawless thug image.
President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections and already everyone can see he has no intention of holding such elections. It is ironic that he and his coup cabinet are ploughing on heedlessly convinced they are fooling everyone. They are forgetting the foreign investors they are wooing are the savviest individuals there are in this world, they will not be so easily fooled.
If Zimbabwe fails to hold free, fair and verifiable elections then the nation can kiss goodbye to economic recovery; investors do not invest in nations whose state president are life-president or else step down at gun-point!
He said this year’s Command Agriculture Programme did not do well after being sabotaged by the G40 cabal following its resounding success the previous year.
Speaking in Guruve yesterday, Mnangagwa said, “following the resounding success of the Command Agriculture Programme, its detractors moved in and threw spanners in the works. They delayed in securing inputs, but from now onwards be rest assured that all inputs will be availed on time. I deliberately appointed Comrade Perrance Shiri as the Agriculture Minister because of his proven track record as a hands-on person,” he said.
1) Last month, President Mnangagwa insisted in an interview in Davos that Zimbabwe will produce enough to eat from now even if there was a drought. Less than a month later he is eating humble pie!
2) What has Perrance Shiri ever achieved other than the mass murders as commander of the Fifth Brigade, Gukurahundi!
3) What the nation wants is a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Will the nation have free, fair and credible elections so they can decide whether they want any more of this command agriculture nonsense!
Zanu PF has never ever held free, fair and verifiable elections in all its 38 years in power. The party has always labelled its political opponents puppets of foreign interests. President Mnangagwa told his audience in Guruve the Mujuru and G40 meeting in Cape Town was being sponsored by the Americans - proof, as far as he was concerned, Mai Mujuru and G40 members are sell-outs.
Yet when it comes to allowing foreigners interfere in Zimbabwe's political affairs Zanu PF itself is the worst offender. The party allowed companies such as Lonrho to bankroll its party activities in return for being awarded very lucrative deals. The party has sold Zimbabwe's resources for a song to the Chinese in return for all the assistance it has receive in the fight for independence and in imposing and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship after independence. Zanu PF has paid tens of millions of dollars to the Israeli company NIKUV to mastermind and execute its many vote rigging schemes.
If the opposition delegate who attended the Cape Town conference have committed any crimes; then the Zimbabwe government should charge them and bring them before a court of law. Vote rigging is a very serious crime against the nation.
The people of Zimbabwe are desperate for free, fair and verifiable elections. The nation is in this political and economic mess because for the last 38 years we have failed to hold free and fair elections. President Mnangagwa is just using the Cape Town meeting of the opposition to justify Zanu PF's refusal to implement the democratic reforms and thus rig this year's elections. President Mnangagwa is nothing more than the bad wolf accusing the lambs down stream of mudding the water he is drinking.
If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about getting out of the political and economic mess the nation is in then they must stand up now and demand the implementation of the reforms and condemn in the strongest terms these Zanu PF political bad-wolf machinations.
Garikayi, you clearly do not know Mnangagwa! He was involved in all the Zanu PF corrruption, vote rigging and violence including the mass murders in Gukurahundi. Since the November coup he has promised free, fair and verifiable elections; he clearly did not mean it and his Guruve speech makes this clear.
The people of Zimbabwe have suffered greatly under this tyrannical and corrupt Zanu PF regime and all the nation wants is free, fair and credible elections. Human being who value the freedom and rights of other can deliver free and fair elections - clearly Mnangagwa is not one such person. He does not have to be the Devil for the nation to condemn him.
It is more than sloganeering banter especially when this is backed by institutionalised harassment and worse of the opposition. Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered by Zanu PF to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship and it is therefore very naive, to say the least, to dismiss Pasi nemhandu as banter!
@ Ncube
Zimbabwe's democratic institutions such as the ZEC, Police, Public Media, etc. have all be compromised and corrupted by Zanu PF making them utterly useless for the set task of delivering free and fair elections. The 2008 election have become the watershed elections in that Zanu PF was able to do as it pleased in rigging the vote and thus proving the extend of the rot in system.
SADC leaders got Robert Mugabe to sign Global Political Agreement agreeing to the need to implement a raft of political reforms designed to strip away the autocratic controls and influences of tyrant in all the spheres of society. Sadly, not even one democratic reform was implemented during the GNU because Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, who were tasked to implement the reforms.
In 2013, SADC leaders advised MDC leaders not to take part in any elections without first implementing the reforms because Zanu PF will blatantly rig the vote. Sadly, MDC leaders, once again, paid no heed and, as expected, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections.
Although President Mnangagwa was promised free, fair and verifiable elections this year, this is just cheap talk because with no reforms implemented it is impossible to hold free and fair elections. Impossible!
Several Provincial Intelligence Officers were also put out to pasture.
Sources said CIO bosses this week issued a circular informing all state agents that those who have served for 20 years or more, except directors, should also retire.
The total number of intelligence officers to be retired could reach as high as 450.
The purges, which follow hot on the heels of similar action at the Zimbabwe Republic Police where former commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri was fired in December, has heightened tension and anxiety in the security sector.
Security officials told the Zimbabwe Independent that officers who were targeted are bitter over their unceremonious removal after serving the government for many years.
"Some of them had loyally served for more than 30 years yet they were removed unceremoniously. The bitterness, and this extends to those that are remaining in the organisation, is also because officers are not being fired for professional reasons and in many cases action was taken on the basis of rumours and outright lies," a senior security officer said. "Take the example of Ngulube, one of the reasons being given for his dismissal is that he helped Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere escape. They are also saying he was a G40 member.
It should be said that Zimbabwe's security sector was renowned for servicing the Zanu PF regime blindly and at the expense of the ordinary people. So, the nation will have no sympathy for any of these bootlickers. We have got rid of one lot of bootlickers and must aim at getting rid of the reminder - Chiwenga and his cahoots.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to travel to Botswana on a two-day state visit next week at the invitation of the neighbouring country's leader President Ian Khama to discuss matters of mutual interest.
President Mnangagwa can bulls**t all he wants about holding free, fair and credible elections but he must know is that he is not going to get away with it. Zimbabwe is due to hold elections in four to five months and yet his regime has not implemented even one democratic reform. Not one!
SADC leaders have put up with all manner of nonsense from Zimbabwe and their patience is running out. The November 2017 coup was a warning, the coup could have easily turned into a blood bath sucking the whole region; it will be foolish of SADC leaders to allow the mess in Zimbabwe to continue. If Zimbabwe fails to implement the democratic reforms then SADC leaders will have no choice but to declare the elections null and void.
@ Msipa
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) as we know it is in murky waters. The political movement that gave Robert Mugabe a run for his money over the last twenty years is now a former shadow of itself. The political movement has been consumed by its failure to deal with the issue of succession. Unlike Zanu PF, it has failed to regenerate itself in the face of a changing political culture.
MDC have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent when the failed to get even one democratic reform implemented during the GNU. The very fact that the party has continued to enjoy some following after that goes to show just how shallow and naive the some people are. MDC has moved from being the solution to the nation's teething political problem to a nothing, to a distraction and now it is as much the problem as Zanu PF itself. By contesting flawed and illegal elections MDC is giving the process credibility and thus helping Zanu PF's no regime change agenda.
"We then hope that the new authorities will organise inclusive, transparent and credible elections later this year. A peaceful electoral campaign and credible elections can set the country on track towards positive change. It is precisely for this reason that we have already started to assist the Zimbabwe Election Commission in establishing a credible electoral role through biometric voter registration. We are also supporting the local media with training on how to cover elections, and also inter-party dialogue and civic and voter education, and this support could be enhanced. I would also support the idea of an electoral observation mission by the European Union, provided that the required conditions are fulfilled and that we receive an invitation from the Government of the country," reads the EU statement.
"We see an entire people hoping for progress and for true democracy. The aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe are our own aspirations and we want to make sure that this opportunity is not wasted and that the mistakes of the past do not happen again. But if Zimbabweans embraces the path of change, they can count on the European Union to be with them every step of the way."
We, the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, know that holding free, fair and verifiable elections is our ticket out of the hell-hole we now find ourselves stuck in. We already know what the nation needs to do to ensure free and fair elections - implement the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) with SADC leaders. We know President Mnangagwa has paid lip-service to holding free and fair elections as he has failed to implement even one reform.
There is no doubt that Zimbabwe's election will NOT be free and fair and we call upon the EU to declare the process null and void as the only way to force the country to revisit the GPA and implement the reforms.
"General Sibanda told military personnel that a meeting between Mujuru and former president Mugabe had resulted in the formation of a new political party. He said soldiers should guard against those trying to persuade them by offering large sums of money to join the new outfit," a source familiar with the developments said.
This is the paranoia one has come to expect from the de facto one-party dictatorship mentality born out of fear and intolerance of opposing point of view. We must reject this foolish notion that everyone must support Zanu PF or they are a threat to the nation.
The military has put the former President Robert Mugabe and the leader of the National People's Party, Joice Mujuru under surveillance over the formation of a rival Zanu PF party, and the New Patriotic Front (NPF).
According to a private weekly newspaper, Zimbabwe Independent the move was revealed by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander Phillip Valerio Sibanda in Harare this week.
For the record, Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy and therefore per se, it is not illegal for G40 members or anyone else to form an opposition party!
No one seriously expected President Mnangagwa to implement any democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections. After the coup, the regime needed to be seen as a democratic regime and hence the reason it has been bending over backwards to impress everyone on its commitment to hold free and fair elections. But when it comes t holding on to political power the regime's resolve to retain power at all cost is unshakeable. Implementing even one reform would undermine the party's ability to hold on to power and this is why the party has not even bothered to go down that route.
Mnangagwa was hoping that sacrificing President Mugabe and all the G40 member was going to be enough to restore Zanu PF's popularity; the party can rig elections and get away with it. What he is now learning and learning fast is that the nation and the world are determined to have free and fair elections and nothing short of that will do!
@ Madhodhi
After having waited 37 years to become president, risked all to stage a coup - let us face it, if Mugabe had been a single step ahead of Ngwena, he would have killed the crocodile without another moment to waste - Mnangagwa is not going to risk losing power by holding free and fair elections. These Zanu PF thugs have never ever bothered about the niceties of freedom, human rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life. It is naive to think they will care about such thinks this late in their political life with so much loot to protect and so much dirty to keep under wraps!
With the nation is a real serious economic mess; unemployment at 90%, 3/4 of our people living on US$1.00 or less, etc.; the situation is truly intolerable. The pressure is on the nation to make sure the reforms are implemented regardless of all the political machination from Mnangagwa and his coup cabal.
There is nothing we can do this late to force Zanu PF to implement the reforms. Even if we could do something, it is too late for the reforms to make any difference on the ground. There is no chance of getting Zanu PF to postpone the elections, particularly when they know the MDC will never boycott the elections. Tsvangirai and company are after the few gravy train seats they know Zanu PF will give away and so they are quite happy to contest these elections regardless how flawed the process happens to be.
The only viable course of action here is to let the elections go ahead and point out all the flaws and illegalities to make sure the process is declared null and void.
Zanu PF is a party of thugs and there three things they have learned and learned well:
1) They will tell you want you want to hear be reasonable although they have no intention of keeping their word or being reasonable
2) They are obsessed about the law and rule of law and would want the law applied to the letter and spirit when it suits their purpose but will be looking to using every bolt-hole to escape from the law, if there is none they will dig one up.
3) They will never let you forget any wrong you did to them and any heroic act by them is a never ending swan-song. They will never admit to doing wrong, they are masters at finding scapegoat. And when the evidence is too much, they down play the wrong to the point of reducing a massacre to “a moment of madness” and will accuse anyone who dares bring up the matter again of living in the past!
President Mnangagwa and fellow coup cabal know that coup was treason and they would be haunting the new regime out of office if they had been the victim of the coup. They have got away with the coup and now they are doing their best to make sure they will get away with rigging this year’s elections. Anyone who believes the cabal has any intention of holding free, fair and credible elections is naïve.
Jonathan Moyo and the G40 are the real challengers to President Mnangagwa and his cabal and hence the reason why the cabal declared G40 members public enemy number one and has gone after them with the shot to kill policy. Any one, anyone at all, who is seen as a serious threat to the cabal will be accused of working with G40 making them fair game too!
“Pasi nemhandu!” (Death to traitor!) is a fatwa to G40 and all those who dare threaten Zanu PF’s strangle hold on power. In Zanu PF’s Zimbabwe, we have always had traitors and a hence the fatwa.
@ Mudhodhi
The regime has already deployed the war veterans and army personnel to start campaigning on its behalf. The hope is use as little violence as possible and then use other vote rigging methods to ensure a landslide victory. If that is not working then use the war veterans and security services personnel to step the violence!
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