“If you cannot dazzle them with brilliance
baffle them with bull!”
Well Hopewell Chinono is certain one individual
who has taken this as his mission in life. In his desperate effort to justify
and/or defend President Mnangagwa and his junta regime, Chinono has certain
thrown away the rule book on reason and logic to tell just to make a point.
Hopewell’s latest mission was to defend, with
bull as he clearly could not come up with any rational reason, why the
Americans must lift all the targeted sanction on the Zanu PF leaders and a
select number of companies for the country’s bad human rights record including
the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
“Dr Chipo Dendere needs to understand that
sanctions regardless of their intended targets and outcomes, they end up
affecting the vulnerable and weakest in our society. The law of unintended
consequences invariably ends up affecting the people suffering due to politics
of the elite,” wrote Chinono.
“As a political science lecturer, she would have
had 17 years of sanctions history to examine the impact they have had on the
poor and the effectiveness or lack therefore in bringing the political elite to
heel.”
Dr Dendere was one of the four witnesses who
appeared before the US Foreign Relations Committee, the body that will decide
whether or not to extend the sanctions or remove them. All four witnesses said
the sanction must remain in place.
Chinono gave some examples of people who have
had problems sending donated funds from the US to Zimbabwe because someone
along the line thought the transaction was affected by the sanctions. Examples
of the unintended victims suffering, no doubt.
“However, as I have always argued to many
proponents of these sanctions measures, the law of unintended consequences is
NO defence to demand for what is essentially a corrosive set of laws to punish
your own country.”
The law of unintended consequences is no
defence! The issue here is in fact more-clear cut than that!
As Chinono himself has said, the “vulnerable and
weakest in our society” are suffering from the “unintended consequences” of the
sanctions on the one hand and on the other hand they are also from the intended
consequences of the “politics of the elite” – vote rigging and corruption in
this case. The key issue here is therefore which one would they rather have.
To demand the lifting of the sanctions just
because of the suffering brought about by the intended consequences without
mention the suffering brought by the other side is therefore plain foolish.
Many Zimbabweans would know this is a very
familiar road because before independence the Smith regime had to deal with
even tougher UN sanctions against the regime. I cannot speak for Chinono but I
know most blacks welcomed the imposition of the sanctions as another way to
pressure the regime to end its racist oppression and exploitation of the black
majority.
So if the weak and politically powerless
accepted the economic hardships brought by the on UN sanctions for the sake of
the long-term political gains why should they not want to do the same for
political gains, as it happened!
Mugabe and his apologist have argued for years that
the West imposed the targeted sanctions on the regime because of its had seized
land from white farms to give to blacks. The sanctions were a proxy racist
measure, nothing to do with human rights and failing to hold free and fair
elections. The regime stole its own thunder in 2008!
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2008 elections by
cheating in the counting and then using wanton violence that not even the AU or
SADC would accept the elections as free and fair. Indeed, SADC went on to
impose its own “sanctions” on then President Mugabe and his party by forcing
them to sign the Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of
a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop repeat of the barbarism of the
last elections.
The Zimbabwe economy has all but completely
collapsed as a result of 38 years of Zanu PF misrule. The people could not
remove the regime from power because it rigged the elections!
President Mnangagwa has blame the sanctions for
the country’s economic mess, just as Mugabe before him has done. During the
five years of the GNU the Zimbabwe economy recovered to register a 12% growth
rate, the highest ever recorded since independence, and yet the sanctions were
still in place.
Mugabe has since admitted the country was
“swindled $15 billion in diamond revenue. No nation on earth can sustain much
less prospect given serious haemorrhaging of wealth, especial one with a mere
$10 billion GDP! Gross mismanagement and rampant corruption are cancers killing
Zimbabwe; not sanctions.
“The political elites will never miss a meal
because of these sanctions, it is our relatives struggling for survival who
will bear the brunt of these measures,” continued Chinono.
“These sanctions are a political tool and
statement which has never stopped Robert Mugabe from getting his multi million
dollar health treatment in Singapore or his goons receiving top class medical
assistance in China, India or South Africa.”
This does not make any sense; are we to believe
that the sanctions are therefore effective in making the unintended targets
poor and destroying the economy whilst making the ruling elite filthy rich?
From what? Seeing the poor get poorer?
The truth is the rich are getting filthy rich
from looting the nation’s wealth and as long as they have the carte blanche
power to rig elections the looting will continue. What Chinono has just given
is a case why the targeted sanctions should have been broader to include other
countries like Singapore, China, etc. and to include the ruling elite’s family
members!
“When our citizens are invited to give
testimonies by the American government on their country, they should put country
first and write their testimonies after carefully applying their minds to the
consequences of such submissions,” Hopewell advised.
“They should understand the relatedness of the
social and economic impact their testimonies will have on the ordinary women
and men who have NO control over the political actions of the ruling elite.”
But that is precisely why ¾ of our people and
languishing in abject poverty – they have no control over the filthy rich
ruling elite. Whilst the rich fly to Singapore as often as 12 times a year @ $3
million a trip for an eye check-up, live in a $4 billion mansion, splashes $5
million of his daughter’s wedding, etc. If Mugabe had not fallen out with his
cronies in the party the tyrant would still be in power today and certain of
another landslide victory precisely because he rigged elections and falsified
the people’s mandate!
President Mnangagwa is dragging his feet on
implementing the democratic reforms because he too believes he is entitled to
the same dictatorial powers to rig elections and stay in power.
“I think as a country and as a people we need
to redefine our terms of engagement regarding how we influence change and
demand a better deal from our government and president.
“We cannot rationally expect Emmerson Mnangagwa
to feel encouraged to implement the required progressive agenda if we are
asking for impediments to be thrown in his path,” concluded Chinono
The sheer stupidity of Chinono’s arguments is
breath taking.
The sanctions are being imposed to force
Mnangagwa to implement the democratic reforms to restore the individual
freedoms and basic rights of ZIMBABWEANS. Why is allowing the people to have a
meaningful say in the governance of the country an “impediment”? The sanction would have never been imposed if
Zanu PF had usurped the people’s democratic powers and rigged elections.
The right to free and fair elections is not
just an inalienable right, no to be negotiated or diluted in any way; it is
also the very basis of good and accountable government.
After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule and
the country is a real serious economic mess because Zanu PF rigged elections;
there nation cannot afford another rigged election. If President Mnangagwa does
not implement the reforms then there is no way the elections can ever be free,
fair and credible. The elections will be declared null and void and a new
administration will be appointed to implement the reforms!
21 comments:
@ Noble Ngara
You want to tell me you think demanding the implementation of the reforms so that there are free, fair and credible elections is an "impediment"? Your shallow perceptions on the real big issues of the day never seize to disappoint! How is it possible that anyone could be so shallow thick and slow.
@ Hakata
The 2008 elections were a watershed election in one regard, they settled the question of whether Zanu PF could ever lose an election in which the party had carte blanche powers to rig the vote. The answer was a categorical NO!
Zanu PF showed just how much it controlled ZEC; the regime ordered the commissioners to recount Tsvangirai's 73% vote in the March vote and, after six weeks of cooking up the figures, reduced it to 47%, enough to force the run-off. Joseph Stalin with his "the people who cast the votes decide nothing, the people who count the votes decide everything" would have been impressed.
During the run-off the regime turn-on the violence to maximum. Operation 'wakavhotera pasiripo' (you voted for the wrong person) was a lesson in wanton violence and barbarism. Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw complaining that "Zanu PF had declared war on the people!" He was right.
To get out of this political hole, SADC leaders recommended that Zimbabwe must implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF's carte blanche powers to rig elections. Zimbabwe's 2008 to 2013 GNU was tasked to implement the reforms. SADC leaders advised that the 2013 elections must be postponed to allow reforms to be implemented, they knew it was utterly pointless going into the elections without reforms!
"If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done," SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.
MDC leaders paid no heed to the warning and, as we now know, Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections.
There is absolutely nothing to be accomplished by contesting elections without doing something to stop Zanu PF's carte blanche powers to rig the vote first.
The only reason MDC leaders ignored SADC leaders' advice in 2013 was greed, as David Coltart has admitted in his recent book.
If we, the people of Zimbabwe, had been wide awake, which we should have been, then we should have seen to it that the democratic reforms were implemented during the GNU. It is unforgivable that even now, with the benefit of hindsight, most Zimbabweans still have no clue what the GNU was about! Agreeing to go into yet another election without reforms only goes to show we still have our heads buried in the sand; blundering from pillar to post, oblivious of what is going on.
It is a historic fact that the British played a key role in covering up Zanu PF's Gukurahundi mass murders in Matebeleland and Midlands. This was the single most important event that allowed Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to establish the de facto one-party dictatorship that has survived to this day.
The country's economic mess, the November 2017 coup, etc. have all helped to put pressure on this Mnangagwa Zanu PF regime to allow the nation to dismantle the dictatorship by finally implement the democratic reforms agreed by all parties including Zanu PF itself following the rigged elections of 2008.
President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections and yet he has done nothing to implement the reforms. Indeed, he has continued to pursue the same vote rigging practices of yesteryears such as bribing the traditional leaders, Chiefs, known for frog marching rural people to vote for Zanu PF. He has also appointed Zanu PF hardliners in very senior positions in the party and government who known to have shed innocent blood in establishing and retaining the one-party dictatorship.
There is no doubt that President Mnangagwa has no intention of implementing any reforms and therefore honouring his repeated promise to hold free, fair and credible elections.
The British government’s refusal to see President Mnangagwa and his regime for what it is – a corrupt and ruthless dictatorship that has no intention of ever giving up its tyrannical powers – is very disappointing. The British are helping Zanu PF to cover up its refusal to implement reforms and, ultimately, to rig the elections and get away with it.
The British blundered cosying up to Zanu PF during Gukurahundi and it was the ordinary people of Zimbabwe who have paid dearly for their foolishness. One is hoping that they are not going to make a foreign policy blunder of cosying up to Zanu PF again on the foolish assumption the regime will deliver free and fair elections. The British will really look fools if Zanu PF fails to honour its promise on elections and it turns out they had taken advice on this idiotic policy from a Zanu PF apologist like Hopewell Chinono!
@ Mai Chibwe
I agree 100% with everything you said but will expand on one point, for clarity.
“The one sure thing about the sanctions is that they provided the Mugabe and Mnangagwa regimes with an excuse for continuing to suppress and to do nothing about the economy, a move which served the purpose of the government. It also caused people of low or missing intelligence to rally round the government on the pretext that the fault for economic failure lies elsewhere,” you said.
You are absolutely right the sanctions have provided the Zanu PF regime with a ready-made “EXCUSE” for its economic failures and even for rigging elections. The important thing to note here is that this was an excuse, a smoke screen, which the more naïve and gullible out there mistook for a reason.
Indeed, both the economic meltdown and vote rigging were already taking place before the sanctions were imposed. Sanctions were imposed in 2002 two years after the regime had fallen out with IMF and WB and the failure of the last of the five-year economic structural adjustment programmes, for example.
Of course, to refuse to implement the democratic reform to allow free and fair elections on the grounds that the west must first lift sanctions is a feeble excuse. Why should the ordinary Zimbabweans be denied their fundament freedoms and rights because of something someone else has done?
This is no different from the foolishness of the Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein’s insistence that would not leave Kuwait unless Israel gave back all the occupied Arab land. Of course, it was a feeble excuse for invading Kuwait; why punish Kuwait for something the Israeli have done!
@ Dr Dendere
Sanctions were imposed on the Zanu PF regime for human rights violations including failing to hold free and fair elections. Why should the sanctions be lifted when the regime still refuse to implement the democratic reforms necessary for the holding of free and fair elections?
The regime has even used the sanctions as an excuse for refusing to hold free and fair election by labelling all those demanding free elections as agents of the West set on regime change.
Sanctions have provided the Zanu PF regime with a ready-made EXCUSE for its economic failures and even for rigging elections. The important thing to note here is that this is an excuse, a smoke screen; which the naïve and gullible have then confused for a reason.
Indeed, both the economic meltdown and vote rigging were already taking place before the sanctions were imposed. Sanctions were imposed in 2002 two years after the regime had fallen out with IMF and WB and the failure of the last of the five-year economic structural adjustment programmes, for example.
Of course, to refuse to implement the democratic reform to allow free and fair elections on the grounds that the west must first lift sanctions is a feeble excuse. Why should the ordinary Zimbabweans be denied their fundament freedoms and rights because of something someone else has done?
This is no different from the foolishness of the Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein’s insistence that would not leave Kuwait unless Israel gave back all the occupied Arab land. Of course, it was a feeble excuse for invading Kuwait; why punish Kuwait for something the Israeli have done!
@ Makoni
The people in Zimbabwe are not poor because of sanctions. It is not the sanctions that have made the poor poorer and the rich filthy rich. It is corruption that has done this!
The poor are poor because of decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption that have destroyed the country's economy. The people have known all along that Zanu Pf misrule was behind the nation's economic misfortune but were helpless to stop the destruction because the regime rigged the elections. The sanctions were imposed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and that is the reason the sanctions must stay if you want to help the oppressed and impoverished ordinary people in Zimbabwe.
To continue to mistake sanctions as the cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, even with the benefit of all the information before you, is proof of how shockingly naive, thick and slow some people are!
It is both shocking and disappointing that there should be anyone out there who is so naive, shallow and stupid to still argue that sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe's economic and political problems.
Zanu PF regime has found in sanctions a ready-made EXCUSE for its economic failures and even for justifing rigging elections, under the pretext that those seeking free and fair elections are puppets of the West who imposed the sanctions. The important thing to note here is that the sanctions were an excuse, a smoke screen; which the brainwashed naïve and gullible then mistook for a reason.
Indeed, both the economic meltdown and vote rigging were already taking place long before the sanctions were imposed. Sanctions were imposed in 2002 two years after the regime had already fallen out with IMF and WB and after the last of the five-year economic structural adjustment programmes, for example.
To refuse to implement the democratic reform to allow free and fair elections on the grounds that the west must first lift sanctions is a feeble excuse. Why should the ordinary Zimbabweans be denied their fundament freedoms and rights because of something someone else has done?
This is no different from the foolishness of the Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein’s, insisting he would not leave Kuwait unless Israel gave back all the occupied Arab land. Of course, it was a feeble excuse for invading Kuwait; why punish Kuwait for something the Israeli have done!
It is corruption, not sanctions, that is behind Zimbabwe's economic meltdown. It is corruption, not sanctions that has made the poor, poor just as it is corruption that has made the ruling elite filthy rich! As long as President Mnangagwa are allowed to rig elections the country will never stop corruption this is why the sanctions must remain in place - to refuse Zanu PF to implement reforms and honour its promise to hold free and fair elections!
@ Provost
Well if Hopewell's analysis was "intellectual" as you say then it must stand up to intellectual scrutiny - that is the acid test. By the same token you must subject Wilbert's contribution to the same intellectual acid test. You must tell us why you think Wilbert is wrong.
Sanctions and making sure we have free and fair elections these are very important issues of our day. We need to open up and have a healthy debate and make sure we deliver free, fair and credible elections this year, without failure.
"Hopewell this, Chinono that. Can't you have your own independent analysis instead of trying to ride on other people's intellectual input all the time?" you wrote.
That is not promoting the debate but seeking to kill it! This article and many like it expressing a different point of view would never see the light of day in the Herald, Chronicle and all the other Zanu PF controlled media.
We all know that the regime has been splashing millions of some of the looted wealth buying off journalist and so called independent publications. Thank God, there are still a few publications which have stood their ground and have continued to cherish the virtue of freedom of expression and honest and vigorous debate.
If you believe what Wilbert said was wrong then say what it is and why. To say no one should comment on what Chinono has said is just another feeble excuse to justify the foolish brainwashing and censorship Zanu PF and its apologist are practising in the public media. If Hopewell does not want his views subjected to the acid test to prove their intellectual validity then he should never air them, especially in independent media.
“Why is allowing the people to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country an “impediment” to Zanu PF?” Wilbert asked.
Why indeed? Hopewell Chinono or you must answer the question and stop giving feeble excuses!
@ Dr C Dendere
Hear, hear!
I would have argued that the targeted sanctions should have been expanded to include family members and pressure brought to bear to get other countries like Singapore to impose similar sanctions.
Former President Thambo Mbeki resisted pressure to have UN sanctions imposed on the Zanu PF regime on the grounds that what was happening in Zimbabwe was not threaten the security and stability of the country and the region. I would want him repeat that nonsense given the millions of Zimbabwean political and economic refugee milling around. The November 2017 coup could have easily turned bloody.
If the coming elections are not free, fair and credible, with not even one reform in place that is now a certainty, the international community will be making a grave mistake to let Zanu PF get out with another rigged election.
If there is no democratic change of government in Zimbabwe, then there will only two options: another coup or street protest. This time there will be destruction of property and innocent blood will be shed all because the international community did not have the guts to force President Mnangagwa to honour his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections!
@ Makoni
The Americans have no doubt receive "expert" advice telling them to lift the sanctions and they have ignored it. This is the typical tyrant mentality, if you can address the message attacked the messenger or anyone who dare holds an opposing point of view.
In a country where a staggering $15 billion in diamond revenue is being "swindled away" only a moron would still blame sanctions for the country's economic meltdown. You froth in the mouth about sanctions over which you have no control but have all these years said nothing about corruption which you can see from the posh cars and 15 bedroom mansions the filthy rich ruling elite live in!
It is fools like you that have made it easy for corrupt and ruthless tyrants like Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to ride roughshod over the nation all these years. You are the one who is irresponsible, all you want to do is silence everyone expect the ruling elite!
@ Muchati
Even if sanctions cause hardships there is no doubt that corrupt is a serious problem. The filthy rich ruling elite are rich from looting and not sanctions. As Zimbabweans we must focus on the issue over which we have control - corruption and mismanagement. We cannot end corruption and mismanagement without stopping Zanu PF rigging elections. If imposing sanctions helps highlight the problem of vote rigging then let us have the sanctions.
"Unojuta too much iwe....Zanupf has never stopped rigging elections because of Sanctions infact they felt justified...do you even understand what Sanctions does to the psychology of the ruling class and the nation as a whole." you said.
So, you admit the regime has been rigging elections. Let me educate you, the regime started rigging elections long before the sanctions were imposed. The EU has lifted sanctions against everyone except Mugabe and his wife but that will not stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections. So appeasement has not worked and it never works with these tyrants!
@ Guest
The first thing you have clearly failed to understand all these years is that it is not sanctions that are causing the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe. Look at it this way, is it the sanctions that are making the filthy rich, rich?
They have posh cars, businesses worth millions/billions, they have mansions worth million/billions, etc. Mugabe has been going to Singapore for an eye check up as many times as 12 in one year and each trip has costed $3 million. The $36 million has cause Zimbabwe's health service to collapse, starved of funding. The billions of dollars the ruling elite have siphoned from the economy has also crippled the economy.
Whatever Dr Dendere gets in the USA from the US government or donors is not what is causing cash shortages in Zimbabwe. President Mnangagwa has just said his government is aware of $3.1 billion being externalised. You know what, those people are responsible for the cash shortage than Dr Dendere. What is more, the $3.1 billion is the ears of the hippo; $3 to 4 billion is being swindled from Marange every month.
It short it is not the sanctions that is cause the economic meltdown but corruption and mismanagement. The nation has failed to end these economic problems because Zanu PF ruling elite are the one profiting from the mismanagement and wholesale looting and as long as they have the carte blanche powers to rig elections they will remain in power and the corruption will continue.
You should be demanding the implementation of the democratic reforms so there are free and fair elections. Zanu PF has brainwashed you into believing your problem is caused by sanction. You are barking up the wrong tree!
President Mnangagwa is fooling you into believing Zanu PF has change now that Mugabe has been booted out of office. He has promised free, fair and credible elections and yet he has done nothing to implement even one reforms. Without reforms he will rig the elections and all you will get is a new dictator instead of Mugabe. The looting and mismanagement will continue!
You concentrate on the task in hand, make sure Mnangagwa implement the reforms. If he does not then make sure the elections are declared null and void!
Forget what Linda Masarira is doing. You do not understand what she is up to and, trust me, it will not interfere with what you have to do. Let her be!
Achieving democratic change in Zimbabwe is going to be a tough fight as one has to convinced the thousands who have brainwashed they have no clue what is in their own interest, on the one hand. On the other, one has to fight the regime's well paid apologists.
Ever since my primary school days when I first learnt about the slave trade, I was struck to learn that it was blacks mostly who hunted their own kith and kin and sold them to the white slave traders for a piece of calico cloth and a fist full of beads. This streak of selling one's own mother for a price and even be proud one had a mother to sell is still a dominant gene in our people.
The minion Zanu PF apologists are working day and night doing Zanu PF's dirty bidding denying fellow Zimbabweans their freedoms and rights for pittance. They are as much victims of the country's economic mess and political paralysis but so what.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out on implementing the democratic reforms during the GNU. Tsvangirai got the $4 million mansion but was miserable there since he had no income. The rest of the MDC leaders are not rich.
Zanu PF members too have betrayed the revolution and the people; they have played their part in establishing and retaining the de facto one party dictatorship. The war veterans and many of the leaders included the big wigs like the late Nathan Shamuyarira are as poor as a church mouse. Mugabe has been selling the nation's jewels to the Chinese, Indians, Israelis, etc. anyone who would help him in power for a song.
The number of articulate people defending the position that Zanu PF should be allowed to get away with not implementing the reforms and holding free and fair elections is shocking!
No doubt it never occurred to those blacks who sold their kith and kin as slaves that they same fate awaited them tomorrow; if it did, they did not care. By the same token those Zanu PF apologists and goons do not care they too will pay the price for the continued misrule, corruption and tyranny. Zimbabwe has the great misfortune in having more than her fair share of sell-outs!
"We cannot rationally expect Emmerson Mnangagwa to feel encouraged to implement the required progressive agenda if we are asking for impediments to be thrown in his path," concluded Chinono.
I agree, how can asking that the people must be granted their democratic rights to free, fair and credible elections be considered an impediment, beggars belief. Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF colleagues have enjoyed absolute power for the last 38 years. To even suggest that the status quo should be allowed to continue only goes to show how this new dispensation is just a trick design to fool the naive and gullible into believing the regime has change when in reality nothing has changed.
It is very sad and tragic that with the benefit of hindsight and the nation tittering on the very edge of economic and social collapse the nation would still be discussing the need for meaningful political change. If it is not obvious to people like Chinono, one has to wonder what it will take to open their eyes!
@ Brad
Let us get something very clear hear there nothing democratic or acceptable about someone advocating the retaining of a political system that has denied millions of others their freedoms, human rights and human dignity.
People have been demanding the implementation of the democratic reforms which would restore the people's freedoms and rights including the right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Free and fair elections is the basis of good and competent government which we need to end the gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawless, the root causes of the economic meltdown and grinding poverty.
President Mnangagwa has dismissed those demanding reforms as barking dogs and now this up start nincompoop Chinono think he can add his two cents by calling reforms an "impediment"! No one, I repeat no one has the right to treat other human being as if their are subhuman and ride roughshod over their freedoms, rights and dreams. Do it and you will be cut down to size!
My mission is to make sure the democratic reforms are implemented and the elections are free, fair and credible. If President Mnangagwa fails to implement the reforms, which is almost a certainty now, then the elections must be declared null and void.
Mnangagwa can dismiss me and all those who too want to see Zimbabwe hold free and fair elections and finally escape out of the hell-hole Zanu PF, this party of corrupt and vote rigging thugs, have landed us into. But what he will not stop is the wheel of change. Mugabe thought he was invincible and where is he today. Mnangagwa and his Junta friends will go the same way.
Even Chinono could not deny that no investors would ever want to invest in a country with no free press, free elections, etc. What he failed to tell the Junta is that these things must come first.
Zimbabwe will implement the democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections; of that you can be 100% certain! No one is being fooled by this new dispensation nonsense. How can C Chiwenga, P Shiri and ED himself ever pass off as democrats when their hands are bright red from the innocent blood they have shed to be where they are.
You do not need to look a wolf in sheep clothing in the eye to know it's a wolf - you can tell from a distance from its restless shuffling, posture, etc., etc. Mnangagwa is a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thug; he should be in Chikurumbi prison, not State House!
@ Brad
I do not trust any of the idiots in the opposition. By failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU people like Chamisa, Biti, Coltart, Ncube proved beyond all reasonable that they are utterly useless. As for Zanu PF they have done that over and over again from the Gukurahundi murders to the total destruction of the Zimbabwe economy.
If you truly believe there has been "a major shift" for the better in Zanu PF then you are an apologist or are one of those who have been brainwashed. 38 years of propaganda and misinformations has left many of our people mentally crippled, they cannot think for themselves.
How can you say "there was a major shift from the politics that shaped Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF" when Mnangagwa has just honoured Mugabe's pledge to buy the Chiefs new trucks, down payment for them to frog march rural voters to vote for Zanu PF. Mnangagwa has just appointed Engelbert Rugeje, notorious for his ruthless thuggery in the 2008 and 2013 election, Zanu PF Political Commissar!
@ Sanction
You failed to grasp the core of the argument which is that sanctions cause hardships to the poor but they are NOT the only cause of the hardships as Zanu PF and its apologists would want us to believe.
In the middle of all this catastrophic economic meltdown some people have done exceptionally well. There are Zimbabweans who live in have business interests worth millions, mansions, own cars by the dozen, have lavish lifestyles, etc. It was not the targeted sanctions that have made them rich, we can rule that one out. I put the case to you that whatever has made the filthy rich few has also made the filthy poor majority. I am saying it is the poor who have, directly or indirectly, contributed to making the filthy rich, rich and it is the greed of the filthy rich who have made the poor, poor!
When Mugabe goes to Singapore as many as 12 times a year for eye check-up at the cost of $3 million a trip he is making the nation poorer in that it is money taken from public purse benefiting one individual at the expense of the commonwealth.
When VP Chiwenga spends millions of dollars building his mansion, buying 45 gold watches, etc. he is contributing to make the nation poorer in that he was locked up millions of dollars in buying assets that are a dead end in terms of generating wealth. When we investigate and find the money used was from the looting of diamonds, the matter takes an even more sinister twist.
We cannot deny that corruption is rampant in Zimbabwe. In 2016 Mugabe admitted that the nation was being "swindled of $15 billion in diamond revenue".
One of the many problems that have hampered Zimbabwe's economic development is the failure to meet the country's demand for electricity. If it had not been for the civil war the Smith regime would have built Batoka Gorge Dam. At today's prices it would cost $3 billion to built and equip Batoka Gorge Dam, with the looted $15 billion the country will have five more power generating stations equivalent to Kariba Dam. Think of how many industries would there be out there and how much wealth they would be generating.
The multiplier effect will have turned the $15 billion into $150 billion in five years. What do we have to show for today nothing other than mansions, gold watches, posh cars, etc. whose total value $0.15 billion, 1%!
I would venture to say we should be concerned about corruption and mismanagement and not sanctions in our fight to end the economic meltdown and poverty for the following reasons:
A) Corruption and mismanagement are the root causes of Zimbabwe's economic collapse
B) We have failed to deal with corruption and mismanagement because we have been stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime that rigged elections to stay in power.
C) Sanctions were imposed by the West over whose foreign policy we have very little influence over where as the failed to hold free, fair and credible elections is a failing by our own government which, in theory, should be accountable to us the people.
D) In fact, Zanu PF has spent a lot of time and money into brainwashing us the people into believing that the West is the source of all our problems. This is just nonsense, Zimbabwe's economic troubles date by to the 1980s and 1990s, Zanu PF committed its worst mass political murders in the 1980s, etc.
E) The sanctions were imposed to force Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections; if they were justified during Smith's time, as a short-time sacrifice for long term gain, they are justified now.
@ Rwendo
Exactly!
We are now in this pathetic situation where Zanu PF thugs even tell us that they will not restore our freedoms and rights unless the sanction imposed by the West are lifted. Why are we, ordinary Zimbabweans being punished by our own government for something a foreign government has done? Those Zimbabweans who defend Zanu PF on this are traitors to reason and the nation!
You do not beat up your wife and children because your neighbour's cattle keep breaking into your field and eating your crops. You confront the neighbour and not pick on the wife and kids just because they are weak and cannot fight back. The wife and the children would have to be dimwits to believe even for one moment that your picking on them can ever be justified!
@ Patricia Musakwa
"Chinono eloquently argued his case like the Harvard graduate he is saying that the law of unintended consequences is what he is worried about," you said.
"At no point did he say or insinuate that Zimbabwe's problems are caused by sanctions. He argued a case for those who end up bearing the brunt of these sanctions and he gave an example of the mental health group."
Hopewell Chinono is a "Harvard graduate" but that is neither here nor there because that is no guarantee that what he says is the truth and nothing but the truth. Judge what he said hear purely on its merit and not what institute he graduated from!
You are just a hopeless confused individual and it is not surprising you contradict yourself, saying one thing one minute and the exact opposite the next. If Hopewell was not talking about sanctions, then what was it then that caused the unintended consequential hardships at the mental health group, for example?
I have never denied that the sanctions would have unintended hardships on the poor but what I said is that it is totally misleading to pretend the country's problem of abject poverty was caused by sanctions alone. Corruption and mismanagement are the main causes of poverty and the these have persisted for 38 years because the nation is stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime that rigs elections.
Sanctions were imposed to force this Zanu PF regime to hold free, fair and credible elections and that is surely a good thing in that it will help the nation address the causes of poverty. The hardship the nation has to suffer because of the sanctions are nothing compared to the hardships the nation is suffering because we a stuck with a corrupt and incompetent regime.
You are going to tell me that I lied then quote what I said and say this is a lie and tell us the truth. To just say I lied without being specific is plain foolish!
Of course, Hopewell is free to hold his point of view but are you saying Zanu PF is also free to rig elections because that is what Hopewell is defending here!
We are talking about human beings here and not some bugs! In Zimbabwe, unemployment has soared to 90% meaning that there millions of innocent Zimbabweans who have had no formal job for 10 years or more. ¾ of our people are living on US$1.00 a day or less. In short, the situation on the ground is very serious and needs serious attention. It is infuriating that someone should trivialise other people's suffering by seeking to perpetuate this corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship on the basis of a foolish argument.
If you were one of the unemployed or one of the ¾ living on US$1.00 a day you would not be amusing that someone should want to prolong your suffering by even one day. You would call whoever it is stupid and worse.
Hopewell Chinono has arguing the other day that Zanu PF was going to grand the diaspora vote but has abandoned the project because the USA imposed the sanctions. He took it upon himself to defend Zanu PF's position. Whether the sanctions are justified or not becomes irrelevant, the real meat here is why should ordinary Zimbabweans be the ones being punished for someone else has done? It is either we know what inalienable right mean or we do not!
The right to free, fair and credible elections is an inalienable right which Zanu PF has denied the people of Zimbabwe for 38 years now and it is nonsense that the regime has ever had the right to do this much less to continue doing so!
Patricia, if Hopewell was such an expect at the law of unintended consequences then he should also consider the consequences of lifting the sanctions. The sanctions were imposed because of Zanu PF's bad human rights record including failing to hold free, fair and credible elections. Would lifting the sanctions, especially when there is every sign the regime is not going to implement even one democratic reform, not only encourage the regime to rig the elections?
You are quick to reprimand someone for calling Zanu PF apologists stupid and yet you have never said boo to the regime for all the corruption, vote rigging, murders, coups, etc. "Manomano omuroyi kuvhunduka dzinyu akasungirira nyoka muchiuno!" (The pretentious hypocrisy of the witch, scared of the lizard when she has a snake round her waist!).
Of course, Chinono is being stupid; he is going to town defending Zanu PF's continued denial of their basic human freedoms and rights. These are inalienable rights, what right does Zanu PF to deny us these rights?
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