“Britain is looking forward to working closely
with Zimbabwe’s new administration led by President Mnangagwa in various areas,
including opening a new page where investments beneficial to both countries can
be made,” reported Zimeye.
“British Minister of State for Africa Harriet Baldwin said
this after meeting Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister
Lieutenant-General Sibusiso Moyo (Retired) in Harare yesterday. She is
scheduled to meet the President today.”
The single most important issue in Zimbabwe
today is that the country must hold free, fair and credible elections. The
country is in this economic mess with unemployment soaring to nauseating
heights of 90% and 3/4 of our people living on US$ 1.00 or less a day. The poor
are living cheek and jowl with the filthy rich ruling minority whose mansions,
wealth and extravagant lifestyles are a crying injustice against man and God
Almighty Himself!
For nearly four decades now, the nation has been stuck with this corrupt and incompetent regime unable to remove it because it rigged elections, used violence including mass murder and stage coups to remain in office against the democratic will of the people.
The internal factional fighting within the ruling party, Zanu PF, resulted in the removal of the one tyrant, Robert Mugabe, but only to have him replaced with another tyrant, Mnangagwa. President Mnangagwa has promised free and fair elections but has not implemented even one democratic reforms agreed with SADC leaders during the GNU, the last time the regime was censored by the regional group for failing to hold free and fair elections.
For nearly four decades now, the nation has been stuck with this corrupt and incompetent regime unable to remove it because it rigged elections, used violence including mass murder and stage coups to remain in office against the democratic will of the people.
The internal factional fighting within the ruling party, Zanu PF, resulted in the removal of the one tyrant, Robert Mugabe, but only to have him replaced with another tyrant, Mnangagwa. President Mnangagwa has promised free and fair elections but has not implemented even one democratic reforms agreed with SADC leaders during the GNU, the last time the regime was censored by the regional group for failing to hold free and fair elections.
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is totally
dependant on the country holding free and fair election and thus get rid of
this corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF regime. The British
government must not re-engage this Zanu PF, not until the regime has delivered
on its promise to hold free and fair elections.
“Now, following Zimbabwe’s apparent change of
leadership last year, many in the international community are eager to invest
(in Zimbabwe). The United States and other long-time supporters of Zimbabwe’s
democratic forces should not, however, fall for a poorly veiled charade of a
military junta,” wrote Todd Moss, a former USA deputy assistant secretary of
state for African Affairs, in Zimeye.
“The rush to assist a country as it emerges
from the clutches of a brutal dictator is understandable, even praiseworthy. In
such situations, the United States and its allies should support the forces of
freedom and economic opportunity. This was the response in many places across
Africa, including Ethiopia after the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam, Liberia
following the ouster of Charles Taylor, and most recently in Gambia. These
were true historical transitions. Zimbabwe’s is not.
“In November 2017, Mugabe was placed under
house arrest and ultimately ousted by his own army. Thousands of
people flooded the streets, alongside tanks and uniformed soldiers, to
celebrate. But this was no popular uprising restoring democracy; rather, it was
a well-orchestrated coup designed to maintain the status quo. In Zimbabwe,
sadly, the dictator may be gone, but the dictatorship remains.”
There have been many cases, far too many as far
as I am concerned, when successive British governments have found themselves on
the wrong side of history as far as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned. The
British government of the day should have acted more decisively to rein the
rebel white minority regime of Ian Smith; it did not. The British government
had its military advisors on the ground; they turned a blind eye to Robert
Mugabe’s Gukurahundi massacre, “moment of madness”, as the tyrant has since
admitted. The British government will hang its head in shame if it restored
normal relations with the Zanu PF thugs in Harare and at the very time the
regime is going into overdrive on its vote rigging activities!
7 comments:
Three years ago, the EU lifted all the targeted sanctions against all Zanu PF thugs except Mugabe and his wife. It was no secret that it was the Belgians who had lobbied hard and long for that. All they wanted was the sanctions lifted so they could join China, Israel, India, Lebanon and other countries in the free for all looting of Zimbabwe's diamonds.
The sanctions were imposed because the Zanu PF government had failed to hold free and fair elections amongst many other human rights violations. The Belgians wanted the sanctions lifted even thou there was no evidence the Mugabe regime had not changed. Belgium's heartless indifference to the suffering and deaths of black Africans is one of the darkest stain in human history; what they did in DRC during their colonial rule is a shame of shames. They lost DRC as a colony but they had not lost their insatiable greed for Africa's wealth and their indifference to whatever misery their exploitation brings to the black Africans.
After all the lobbying and getting the sanctions successfully lifted the Zanu PF thugs announced the country will be auctioning the country's diamond haul in Dubai; a middle finger to the Belgians who were cocksure they were getting the business as their well-earned reward.
Ever since the British people voted to leave the EU this Theresa May government has been flirting with the Zanu PF thugs from all factions, hedging its bet to make sure whichever side wins it will have a head start in re-engaging the new regime. Ever since the November coup, you are right, the British have gone into overdrive in their zeal to normalise relationship and trade with the Mnangagwa regime.
If someone was to table a UN resolution to condemn Zimbabwe's November coup, there is no doubt that the British would out do the usual suspects in spiking the resolution long before it reached the Security Council. If it did, the British will veto, just as they vetoed the UN resolution condemning Ian Smith's UDI all these years ago.
If PM Theresa May continue with her overdrive zeal, regardless of all the warning signs that Zanu PF is still a party of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs, and Mnangagwa rigs the coming elections; PM May will look just as foolish and inapt as when she called a snap election and lost!
Whilst one condemns the attack on Mai Mujuru and her supporters one has also to remember that she was in Zanu PF for 34 years, she saw the same violence and murder being visited on the opposition and she never raised a finger to stop it! Mai Mujuru is a thug in her own right and what goes round comes round! She is a victim of the thuggery today just as she was cheering and directing the thuggery yesterday!
"Great to meet President @edmnangagwa and hear about plans for economic and political reform and free and fair elections in 2018," tweeted minister Harriett Baldwin following the meeting.
The British can pretend Mnangagwa and his coup cabinet have changed the truth is they are the same corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs of Mugabe days. The British are clearly desperate to find new trading partners following the country's vote to leave the EU. Their shameless flirting with these Zanu PF thugs is shameful, to say the least!
Three years ago, the EU lifted all the targeted sanctions against all Zanu PF thugs except Mugabe and his wife. It was no secret that it was the Belgians who had lobbied hard and long for that. All they wanted was the sanctions lifted so they could join China, Israel, India, Lebanon and other countries in the free for all looting of Zimbabwe's diamonds.
The sanctions were imposed because the Zanu PF government had failed to hold free and fair elections amongst many other human rights violations. The Belgians wanted the sanctions lifted even thou there was no evidence the Mugabe regime had not changed. Belgium's heartless indifference to the suffering and deaths of black Africans is one of the darkest stain in human history; what they did in DRC during their colonial rule is a shame of shames. They lost DRC as a colony but they had not lost their insatiable greed for Africa's wealth and their indifference to whatever misery their exploitation brings to the black Africans.
After all the lobbying and getting the sanctions successfully lifted the Zanu PF thugs announced the country will be auctioning the country's diamond haul in Dubai; a middle finger to the Belgians who were cocksure they were getting the business as their well-earned reward.
Ever since the British people voted to leave the EU this Theresa May government has been flirting with the Zanu PF thugs from all factions, hedging its bet to make sure whichever side wins it will have a head start in re-engaging the new regime. Ever since the November coup, you are right, the British have gone into overdrive in their zeal to normalise relationship and trade with the Mnangagwa regime.
If someone was to table a UN resolution to condemn Zimbabwe's November coup, there is no doubt that the British would out do the usual suspects in spiking the resolution long before it reached the Security Council. If it did, the British will veto, just as they vetoed the UN resolution condemning Ian Smith's UDI all these years ago.
If PM Theresa May continue with her overdrive zeal, regardless of all the warning signs that Zanu PF is still a party of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs, and Mnangagwa rigs the coming elections; PM May will look just as foolish and inapt as when she called a snap election and lost!
There is nothing "great" about meeting corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs? This is a one-night stand where someone will be nursing a black eye. What will be the twitter message then!
"I brought a message (from Prime Minister May) that the UK Government welcomes the messages we heard from the new President in terms of his programme for economic and political reforms and we are very pleased to hear that the plans are to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe later this year," said Minister Baldwin.
Just for the record, the Zanu PF government has never ever failed to promise the nation free and fair elections and, even the 2008 elections which not even SADC or AU election observers could not accept as free and fair, the regime insisted they were free, fair and credible. Zanu PF leaders have refused point blank to implement any reforms SADC leaders had managed to get Mugabe to agree to at the beginning of the GNU in 2008.
What most thinking Zimbabweans who are keen to see the country hold free and fair elections find disappointing here is that the British are insisting on focusing what the regime is saying "very pleased to hear the plans to hold free and fair elections", whilst completely ignored the facts on the ground. How can there be free and fair elections with not even one democratic reforms implemented!
@ Mechavio
"Wilbert, the sanctions were imposed as a way to stop the Land Reform programme, or to quickly reverse it in the event of and MDC election win soon after Land Reform. If you factor in human rights violation, that should start with colonialist settler farmers violation our collective as well as our individual human rights to our land so systematically denied us by those colonialist white settler farmers who lined up late 1999/early 2000 donating money to Tsvangirai in Banket. Clearly they were buying Tsvangirai and his MDC to stall our land repossession. We will not listen to any hogwash human rights which do not recognise our collective and individual human rights to our land," you say.
First things first; are you denying that after independence the successive Mugabe regimes have denied ordinary Zimbabweans their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself? The Gukurahundi massacre was Mugabe's attempt to wipe out Zanu PF's main political challenger, PF Zapu. The tyrant did not get his wish but got the next best thing; he forced PF Zapu to joint his party to form a de facto one party dictatorship which he has since maintained ruthlessly.
20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were murdered by Mugabe during Gukurahundi and a further 10 000 have been murder since then.
Zanu PF has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections since 1980. The country is in this economic mess because for nearly 40 years now, it was stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime.
Mugabe and his corrupt and murderous thugs have denied the regime has usurped the people's democratic right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. In the 2008 elections the vote rigging and wanton violence were so blatant that not even SADC and the AU election observers would endorse the process as a free, fair and credible process. Mugabe was forced to sign the Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the barbarism of the 2008 elections will never be repeated again. He was forced to form a GNU, for a tyrant who had worked all his life to impose a one-man dictatorship, that was a bitter pill to swallow but swallow it he did.
Sadly, at the end of the GNU it was clear that not even one reforms was implemented and SADC leaders to Mugabe and the opposition MDC that the 2013 election must be postponed to allow the reforms to be implemented. Mugabe refused and even threatened to leave SADC if the regional leaders insisted.
We are NOT going to have free, fair and credible elections this year because not even one democratic reforms SADC leaders had demanded in 2008 has been implemented.
Zanu PF started denying the people of Zimbabwe their basic freedoms and rights long before the farm invasions of 2000 and before the West imposed the sanction in 2002. Zanu PF has refused to implement the democratic reforms for its own selfish purpose of imposing the de facto one-party state and retaining it at all cost. The regime and its apologist have used the sanctions, the farm invasion and many other side and sometimes totally irrelevant issues to draw attention away from its refusal to implement the reforms.
Are you telling me that Zimbabweans are not going to have free, fair and credible elections until the sanctions and land reform issues are resolved to your satisfaction? If so then the right to a free vote is no longer and inalienable right tied as it is to the West lifting sanctions, etc.! That is the nonsensical position idiots like you are proposing and defending! That is the reality corrupt and tyrannical regimes like Zanu PF are imposed on the nation; a reality which men and women of good sense and good will are challenging.
@ Mbofana
No one on earth can be 100% certain of winning a free, fair and credible elections because a week in politics can be a long time, a lot can happen to change a 100% support to anything right up to zero! Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have never wanted the uncertainty of winning elections which is inherent with free, fair and credible elections and that is why the party wanted to impose a one-party state from the word go. Mugabe got his wish when he forced PF Zapu to join Zanu PF in the 1987 unity accord; he imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship then.
In a de facto one-party state Zanu PF set out to undermine all the state institutions designed for a multiparty political system so that on paper they are still democratic institutions but in practice they work to imposed Zanu PF's no regime change mantra.
Since the November coup Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters have since met and agreed on how the spoils of power were going to be shared: Mnangagwa President for 5 to 10 years, Chiwenga VP will takeover from Mnangagwa, Sibusiso Moyo Minister of Foreign Affairs, Perrance Shiri Minister of Agriculture, Chris Mutsvangwa Minister of Information (later change to President Special Advisor), etc., etc. Do you really believe these guys will brook their carefully laid out plans; operation restore legacy, as they called the plans; being totally disrupted in the name of free and fair election?
Even if the coup plotters can be 100% of victory in this year's elections; they know that they cannot be 100% of victory again in 2023 which is what the legacy demands. The only sure way Zanu PF can be certain of electoral victory is for the party to make sure it does not implement any reforms and give away its carte blanche powers to rig elections. Zanu PF will never ever implement the reforms and hence will never ever hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe! Never ever!
The British government officials, for example, are either naïve to believe Mnangagwa's promise of free and fair elections or they are focusing on what they can get from Zimbabwe in turns of resources and trade.
Zimbabwe is in a serious political and economic mess and the only way out is for the country to implement the democratic reforms. This year's elections are first and foremost about getting all the democratic reforms implemented and, signs are, not even one reform is going to be implemented. Taking part in the elections without reforms is a futile exercise which will change nothing except give the status quo some semblance of democratic credibility.
Now that it is clear no reforms are going to be implemented and the elections are NOT going to be free, fair and credible; the focus is on making sure the elections are declared null and void.
Britain and the European Union are reportedly divided over “the funding and support” to be given to Zimbabwe’s new administration led by Emmerson Mnangagwa.
According to the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, the British government was on an “aggressive drive” to bail out its former colony as “quickly as possible” but the EU had adopted a “wait and see” approach.
PM Theresa May will empty up with even more egg on her face, than what she had after last year’s early election gamble to increase her majority backfired, if she accelerate her re-engagement with Zanu PF and the regime fails to hold free and fair elections. Mnangagwa has not implemented even one reform, it is impossible to have free and fair elections when one cannot produce something as basic as a verifiable voters’ roll!
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