“The out-going US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Harry K. Thomas Jr says President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government needs enough time to deal with political and socio-economic challenges affecting the country,” said a report in New Zimbabwe.
“Speaking to journalists in Harare on Thursday, the ambassador said he was happy with the positive stance that has been taken by the new leader to turn around the economy and work towards achieving a free and fair 2018 election.”
Ambassador Thomas was certainly telling President Mnangagwa and his Junta what they WANTED to hear and not what they NEEDED to hear.
What Ambassador Thomas should be telling President Mnangagwa and his Junta is that time is running out for the regime. The country is facing very serious and urgent political and economic challenges emanating from the country’s economic meltdown. With the country’s unemployment rates sitting at a nauseating 90%, with ¾ of the population living on US$1.00 or less a day, etc. it was pleasing to hear President Mnangagwa underline the importance of doing everything in his power to revive the country’s economy.
He promised in his inauguration speech to “hit the ground running!” Well after three months in office he is running out of steam!
His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call; has had no takers. The flood of foreign investors he had hoped for have not materialised. It is obvious why.
“He (Mnangagwa) has promised to make some electoral and economic reforms and has set some provisional dates for the elections according to the constitution, something that our government has applauded and hope to see happening,” said Ambassador Thomas.
But that is just it; President Mnangagwa has promised free and fair elections and yet has done nothing to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free elections. Indeed, he has continued to pursue the same vote rigging activities of the past such as bribing Chiefs with new vehicles; they have a history of frog marching villagers to vote for Zanu PF.
Everyone can see, particularly the hawk-eyed foreign investors, the Zanu PF regime has no intention of holding free and fair elections. The election observers will only confirm what the world already know, Zanu PF is a party of thugs who cannot be trusted to hold free and fair elections.
Investors do not do business in a country ruled by thugs! Period!
“Let us give Mnangagwa enough time to turn around the country’s economy and making sure that the elections are held peacefully in a fair and free environment,” Ambassador Thomas argued.
Time is the one thing President Mnangagwa does not have. If the elections are not free, fair and credible then President Mnangagwa and his Junta regime are in serious trouble. President Mnangagwa got away easily with last November’s military coup but that was only because the coup removed a greater evil in the form of Robert Mugabe. Failing to hold free and fair elections will only confirm what many had feared; the coup remove one dictator but only for him to be replace with another dictator and so the dictatorship itself is alive and thriving!
What the people of Zimbabwe need to hear is that President Mnangagwa’s Junta regime is the same corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship of the bad old Mugabe days; the regime’s stubborn refusal to implement reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship is all the proof the nation needs of this. If the people made the mistake of voting for the regime in the coming elections they regret this for the coming five years!
The single most important task for the nation for the last 20 years, at least, has been to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus ensure the country held free, fair and credible elections.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because for the last 38 years the nation was stuck with an incompetent and corrupt regime that rigged elections to stay in power!
If President Mnangagwa is not going to give up Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig elections, then he and his Junta regime must be removed from office a.s.a.p.!
If he fails to implement the reforms and restore the people’s freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections then the people will be fools to entrust their future in the hands of another Zanu PF dictator!
If President Mnangagwa was serious about holding free and fair elections he has had plenty of time to implement the democratic reforms. He has not even implemented one reforms! “Let us give Mnangagwa enough time!” As we gave Mugabe 37 years???!
32 comments:
One can understand why economic recovery cannot be accomplished overnight. It takes take to prepare the fields, plant the crop, for the crops to grow and mature and only then can one have plenty to eat. But one cannot say the same about restoring the people's individual freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections.
Can Ambassador Thomas explain to the millions of Zimbabweans out there, who have been denied their freedom of expression and free media, a key tenet of a free nation and of free, fair and credible elections, why President Mnangagwa has not restored their freedom of expression and end Zanu PF control of the media? The regime has had over 100 days in power, to say nothing of the 37 years they were part of the Mugabe regime, and yet nothing has happened. Perhaps Ambassador Thomas can tell these people how much longer they will have to wait and not just leave it an open ended "give him enough time"?
At the end of the American civil war, one of the big challenges the Americans faced was to rebuild the nation's economy ravished by the war. The other challenge was whether or not to retain the institution of slavery. President Abraham Lincoln moved swiftly to abolish slavery without even waiting to end the civil war first! There is no doubt the Southern States would have argued that slavery should not be abolished to give them time to revive their economy. They would have wanted the abolition of slavery to be a protracted process and not an event.
Of all people President Mnangagwa knows only too well that if he and his Junta friends are going to enjoy the absolute power they have enjoyed the last 37 years it is imperative for them to retain all the dictatorial powers that has enabled Zanu PF to rig elections and stay in power.
"Zanu PF ichatonga! Ogotonga! Imi muchigohukura! Nokuhukura!" (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for reforms) bark! And bark!) was the first thing Emmerson Mnangagwa told his Zanu PF hard liners straight after the November coup.
Ambassador Thomas, the November coup was not about restoring the freedoms and rights of the common people in Zimbabwe, it was about the change of guard, the removal of one dictator and replacing him with another! The parallel with the American civil war would be if the Southern States had won the civil war and extended slavery to all the States! Only a fool would have seen that as progress and argued for the reds to be "given enough time!" Enough time to extend slavery into Canada in the North and South America in the South?
President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections, "give him enough time" must not be used as the excuse for allowing him to drag his feet over democratic reforms and get away with another rigged election.
Free, fair and credible elections are not just an inalienable right same as freedom to a slave, but it is the very foundation of a free just and prosperous nation. Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because for the last 37 years the nation was stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging regime. We want the restoration of democratic and accountable government and not give the regime extended rule just because there was a change of guard in the regime!
"Give Mnangagwa enough time!" must be one of the most foolish thing to ever come out of a US Embassy anywhere in that great nation's history!
@ XXII
Holding free, fair and credible elections is an event and not a process. What is stopping ED scrapping AIPA, freeing the media from Zanu PF control, giving back ZEC and the Police their independence, etc.?
We have been denied our right to free and fair elections for the last 37 years already, it is foolish to allow this nonsense to continue even one day longer! If ED cannot implement the reforms to ensure free and fair elections then we must get other people who will get this important task done once and once for all!
@ Chimene
There is nothing with Zanu PF or anyone else ruling Zimbabwe as long as they have the people's mandate to do so in a free, fair and credible election. What is objectionable here is that Zanu PF has been rigging election short circuiting the people's right for a meaningful say.
President Mnangagwa has promised free and fair elections and yet has done nothing to make this possible. Implementing some of the democratic reforms would not have taken him a week and he has had three months already and still nothing has changed. Ambassador Thomas is talking nonsense asking the nation to give Mnangagwa "more time"!
Professor Jonathan Moyo must reveal the details of how Zanu PF has rigged elections in the past and why it is impossible to have free, fair and credible elections without implementing the democratic reforms first. This is the only way the nation can be certain of making sure ED does not get away with yet another rigged election.
If Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe and the rest of the G40 members are holding back on telling the truth about Zanu PF's vote rigging because they hope to get back into power then they could not be more wrong. If ED and the Junta rig these elections they will step up their activities to hunt down the G40 members and crash them into the dust. Wherever you are twitting from Professor Moyo, you can be certain that the crocodile will find you and devour you!
So, it is either you stop ED rigging the elections now whilst you still can or, as soon as the elections are safely in the bag, he will see to it that you are as silent as a grave!
According to the Bill, the US will fully embrace Zimbabwe if Mnangagwa's government implements a raft of measures which include setting up an independent electoral body; allowing Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to vote; this year's elections being both free and fair, and taking place without the involvement of the country's military.
In short, there is nothing new in this Bill that Zimbabweans have not been saying and SADC spelt out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement. The message to President Mnangagwa and his Junta from the Americans is the same as that SADC has been saying all along - implement the democratic reforms.
The regime has had ample time to implement all the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections including allowing the people in the diaspora to vote. The BVR started in September and three months latter Mnangagwa took over, he could have added the diaspora element is he so wished.
Besides, the regime could have delayed the election by another six months if it so wished - no one in their right mind would mind the elections being delayed than have yet another meaningless and flawed process.
If President Mnangagwa fail to deliver free, fair and credible elections it will not be because he did not know what he needed to do to ensure free elections or that he did not have the time to implement the reforms. It will be because he did not want to hold free and fair elections because he did not want to reform himself and the Junta out of office!
If President Mnangagwa fails to hold free and fair then he can be certain that the Americans will dismiss the process as null and void and we hope the rest of the international community, including SADC, will have the guts to do the same!
@ Sarah Mahoka
Nonsense Zimbabweans themselves have been calling for the democratic reforms, diaspora vote, etc. to be implemented BEFORE the elections and have been ignored.
"Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingohukura! Nokuhukura!" (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for diaspora vote, etc.) bark! And bark!) was the first thing Mnangagwa told his Zanu PF thugs soon after the November coup!
Zimbabweans have been denied their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote, first by Ian Smith, then by Mugabe and now Mnangagwa want to do the same! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
On the 2008 election loss to the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai Mugabe says, "No, he knew we would be better. Do you know why we lost 2008 (the first round)? Again, a disease amongst us: bhora musango. The likes of (General) Mujuru were fed up with me, they said I was preventing them from benefitting from companies, so they said 'let's get rid of Mugabe'. Our supporters were told 'ah, you don't have to vote for the president."
I believe Mugabe is telling the truth about bhora musango, however he has told only half the story. He has not said that ZEC were ordered to recount the vote to whittle down Tsvangirai's 73%, by Mugabe's own inadvertent admission, to 47% to force the run-off. There is no way bhora musango would have accounted for only 4% given Mugabe's 43% official vote count!
It was totally irresponsible on MDC's part to have done nothing to implement the democratic reforms necessary to stop this blatant vote rigging! It is insane to take part in an election process where the cheating is so blatant that a 73% is not good enough to win!
It is only because of MDC leaders' breath-taking incompetence and greed that the nation was conned into taking part in the 2013 elections with no reforms. The MDC idiots are at it again this year telling people the party has "stringent measures," according to Nelson Chamisa to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
Zimbabweans must refuse to take an part in this year's flawed elections and make sure they say so loudly because doing so only gives credibility to the process!
"Some developments occur after a person has been put in place. You know, even in our culture, when someone who's ordinary is made a chief, and once he gets into position ah ah, many people start quarrelling 'he's taking our cattle, he's taking our wives'. Then you begin to wonder: but this is the man who was very honest and whom the people chose to be their chief. So those things happen. People get the taste of power and the taste of power then destroys an individual. You think that you now have some glory that you never had before," said Mugabe.
He was talking about his successor, Mnangagwa but in truth he was talking about himself. Mugabe was a control freak who wanted absolute power and would stop at nothing, he rode roughshod over the people's freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections and even violated the sanctity of human life!
The need for Zimbabwe to implement the democratic reforms so we can have free and fair elections and a truly legitimate government is now a matter of serious urgency. We need the legitimate government to get us out of this hell-hole a.s.a.p. and to carry out the thorough investigations in the Zanu PF tyranny for historical purpose and for justice before those involved all hide in the grave!
These reforms are what Zimbabweans and SADC have been calling for all along. The right to a free and fair election is not a privilege Zanu PF can give to some and deny others. If Zanu PF fails to deliver on free and fair elections then the whole process must be declared null and void.
Every thinking Zimbabwean out there supports the US government position on this! Deliver free and fair elections or the sanctions stay, deliver free and fair elections or ship out!
I find Ambassador Thomas' position on this matter extremely patrolising, to say the least. He clearly does not believe we are worthy of free, fair and credible elections and hence the reason why Zanu PF should not bother with such niceties!
Ambassador Thomas has been in Zimbabwe long enough to know that President Mnangagwa and his Junta are no strangers to rigged elections, they are the very people who have been rigging elections for Mugabe all these years. They know exactly how they have been rigging elections and, if they really wanted to, know exactly what must be done to end the vote rigging.
So, yes it is right to ask what exactly does he have in mind when he is asking us to give Mnangagwa more time?
@XXII
Yeah right! We have been independent for the last 38 years and have yet to hold free and fair elections! How much longer are we supposed to wait?
If ED cannot hold free and fair elections then he and his Junta must ship out and allow others who will! Enough of this free and fair election is process nonsense!
There was consensus among the panellists that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s promise of free and fair elections is mere rhetoric as events obtaining on the ground do not create the environment for credible polls.
It is refreshing that there is a growing consensus that these elections are a waste of time. The price the nation pays for taking part in these flawed elections is not just getting Zanu PF back into power but we also forfeit the opportunity to get the all-important reforms implemented as David Coltart rightly admitted in his recent book.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
By continue to take part in these flawed and illegal elections we are shooting ourselves in the foot!
Those, like USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe Harry Thomas Jr, saying the USA must lift the sanction to give President Mnangagwa more time to prove himself are very naive, to say the least. We are talking about restoring the people's freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections. Are these people saying the Junta regime must be allowed to rig these elections again on the foolish grounds that the regime needs more time to dismantle the dictatorship and stop the vote rigging?
If the November coup was about creating a "new dispensation", as the coup plotters insist then they must define in words and action what this new era is. So, far the Junta has demonstrated in will and resolve to remove the dictator Mugabe. They coup plotters seized all state institution, place the tyrant under house arrest and told Mugabe in no uncertain terms that he must resign or they will have him impeached. The coup plotters lined up the Zanu PF MP ducks ready to start the impeachment and meanwhile war veterans like Chtis Mutsvangwa were busy as bees mobilising street protests, to pile up the pressure for Mugabe to resign.
President Mnangagwa has promised free, fair and credible elections, to underline his new dispensation message. And yet the Junta has done nothing on the ground to show it is serious about holding free and fair elections. Indeed, if anything the Junta is going ahead with the plans to rig the elections as if the coup never happened.
President Mnangagwa and his coup posse were swift and focused on the task of removing the dictator Mugabe and the G40 elements around him, they were equally swift and focused in appointing Mnangagwa and many of the coup leaders into high posts and they have been quick to sale the change as the removal of not just the dictator but the dictatorship itself.
One of the real obnoxious hallmark of the Zanu PF dictatorship was its carte blanche powers to rig elections. President Mnangagwa and his Junta have been very careful not to take away any of these powers, the regime has flatly refused to implement even one democratic reform.
President Mnangagwa is as much a dictator as Mugabe himself because he still has the same dictaorial powers to rig elections and a lot evil things beside that Mugabe had. The coup remove one dictator but only to replace him with another dictator who is moving swiftly and resolutely to retain all the dictorial power including the power to rig elections.
Mnangagwa is rigging this year's elections just as he and his fellow coup plotters have rigged elections during Mugabe's days.
If the coup has failed to mismantle the dictatorship by getting the democratic reforms implemented then it is nonsense talking of the "new dispensation" when all it did was replace one dictator with another. The dictatorship under a new dictator is NOT the new democratic dispensation we have been dying for these last 38 years! Those arguing that we should wait even longer are failing to appreciate that we should have got our freedoms and rights back in 1980!
President Mnangagwa and his junta had no problem staging the coup to force Mugabe out of office, the US sanctions were still in place and they played no part in stopping the coup. But now when it comes to restoring the people's freedoms and rights, we are being told the sanctions are a serious impediment although no one whoever explained how that is so!
@ Jon Chan
He is not new to rigging elections either and he is going full steam ahead on that score. He did not shy away from buying Chiefs the new trucks Mugabe had promised, he appointed Rugeje a ruthless and murderous thug of the 2008 and 2013 elections Zanu PF Political Commissar, all war veterans are out campaigning for Zanu PF just as they did in 2008 and 2013, etc., etc.
The Junta is selling people a very clever lie. The Junta want the people to believe that coup throw out the dictator, Mugabe, and by going after the "criminal elements around him" it has distroyed the dictatorship itself. The truth is the coup booted out Mugabe but only to replace him with Mnangagwa; which of the two is the less of the two evils is academic.
As for the criminal elements there were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs in the Lacoste faction, in the G40 faction and in the Mujuru faction as they were members in each faction. For anyone to even suggest, as the Junta has done since the coup, that Zanu PF has flushed out all the criminals is a falacy.
Zanu PF is still a party of ruthless thugs and they stubborn refusal to give up the dictatorial powers including the powers to rig elections proves this.
@ Dr Zamchiya.
“Even when he was the national organiser he advocated for scientific organising. His speech at the MDC Alliance rally held yesterday on the 24th of March 2018 empirically substantiates my proposition. For example, he promised a bullet train which will take 15 minutes to get to Harare, an airport to easy export of tomatoes from Mrehwa and spaghetti roads that criss-cross as in the western world,” you say.
You have just shown yourself to be just as naïve as Chamisa! Zimbabwe is THE poorest nation in Africa today because of corruption and mismanagement. One manifestation of mismanagement is this believe that “there is nothing we cannot do and we know best” especially in our leaders.
Zimbabwe’s railway, like many things we inherited from the whites in 1980, the top priority right now is to slowly and methodical rebuild it up again. Getting the system back to its operational lever of 1980 will take 20 years or more and after that the challenge will be extending the network to twice or three times its present size, that is another 20 years. Only then would the country be considering then need for high-speed trains!
Chamisa, like all shallow minded people like him, would impose the bullet train on the nation not because the nation needed it but because the project messaged his ego. Mugabe built his Mugabe High Way from Norton to his rural home in Zvimba. I drove down that road and all I ever saw one scotch-cart drawn by donkeys! And yet, how many other roads with far more traffic in one day that Mugabe High Way has in a year are nothing more than dirty tracks full of potholes!
Chamisa’s bullet trains would be designed to run at 200 km/hour only to be restricted to 70km/hour maximum along a select few section otherwise 50 km/hour because the a new track will be required otherwise. Of course, it would have made more economic sense to get two or three diesel heads with top speed of 70 km/hour for the price of one 200km/hour prestige bullet train particular when the true price of the prestige is to delay the country’s economic recovery, at best!
A defiant ZANU PF has reintroduced its notorious half hourly jingles on national radios and television.
The new jingles typical of the “Hondo Yeminda” jingles that patronized Zimbabweans ahead of the 2005 and the 2008 elections are played almost simultaneously on all ZBC radio stations every thirty minutes.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week declared that his government will only open the airwaves after the elections.
Why am I not surprised! The November coup was not about removing the dictator and ending the dictatorship as President Mnangagwa would want us all to believe with all his talk of a “new dispensation”.
The coup removed one dictator, Mugabe, but only to have him replaced with another dictator, Mnangagwa; given the two have worked hand in hand in the last 38 years in all the looting, vote rigging and murders that have taken place; it is academic which of the two is more evil!
The coup plotters have singled out the G40 members as “criminal elements around Mugabe”. Only the politically naïve and gullible would believe that only G40 members were corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs; Lacoste members were equally guilt of all these treasonous acts. Removing the G40 members has NOT transformed Zanu PF, it is still a party of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs because the Lacoste members who have remained are corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs!
If President Mnangagwa was serious about ending the Zanu PF dictatorship then why has he refused to implement the democratic reforms designed to end the party’s dictatorial powers????
Masvingo State Minister Josaya Dunira Hungwe was startled by the poor attendance at a rally he addressed at Jerera Growth Point at the weekend.
Hungwe accused party officials here of failing to mobilise villagers to attend the rally.
After being stunned by the poor attendance Hungwe later claimed the gathering was not a rally.
The one group of people that has never been fooled by President Mnangagwa and his Junta’s talk of holding free and fair elections is the foreign investors and they have shied away. The flood of new investors that ED was confident would follow his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call, has not materialised.
In the coming months the populous will soon realise the Junta will never deliver economic recover just as it will never deliver free and fair elections. We will be seeing an escalation of Zanu PF’s dirty vote rigging tactics. There will be no free, fair and credible elections this year!
Who was the idiot who was saying the Junta need more time? More time to do what; rigged the elections? They are doing it already!
@ Grace
Masvingo State Minister Josaya Dunira Hungwe was startled by the poor attendance at a rally he addressed at Jerera Growth Point at the weekend.
Hungwe accused party officials here of failing to mobilise villagers to attend the rally.
After being stunned by the poor attendance Hungwe later claimed the gathering was not a rally.
The one group of people that has never been fooled by President Mnangagwa and his Junta’s talk of holding free and fair elections is the foreign investors and they have shied away. The flood of new investors that ED was confident would follow his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call, has not materialised.
In the coming months the populous will soon realise the Junta will never deliver economic recover just as it will never deliver free and fair elections. We will be seeing an escalation of Zanu PF’s dirty vote rigging tactics. There will be no free, fair and credible elections this year!
Who was the idiot who was saying the Junta need more time? More time to do what; rigged the elections? They are doing it already!
Chamisa, you were a senior MDC member in the GNU and you lot sold-out, you failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. You are not fit to hold public office not even for one term. You can go ahead and become a pastor and good riddance!
Canada join in the call for free and fair elections.
RC: What it means to us is that we engage in dialogue with government and other members of Zimbabwean society to have a conversation on these issues and to reinforce our sense that if Zimbabwe is promising free, fair and transparent elections, there are certain norms that have to be respected. Those are just basic elements for the government itself. There are also basic elements of Sadc election guidelines and principles such as openness for all parties to the media. Those are elements that form part of a definition of free and fair elections, and government must take steps to respect its constitution and Sadc election principle obligations.
Mugabe and his wife Grace, seem to have angered President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF party after they reportedly "anointed" former minister of State for Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs Ambrose Mutinhiri as the leader of the new political project, National Patriotic Front (NPF)
The only reason President Mnangagwa is dead against anyone in G40, especially Mugabe and Jonathan Moyo, getting back into active politics is because he sees them as a serious threat to his rule. The two gentlemen know exactly how Zanu PF has been rigging elections all these years and tonnes of other dirty on Mnangagwa and many in his regime. It is bad enough to have political opponents but simply intolerable to have opponents with so much dirty on you they only have to leak just a few drops and it will kill you dead politically.
Mnangagwa will want Mugabe caged and Moyo hunted down and killed.
Bhasikiti was in the wrong basket in supporting Mujuru faction, was in the wrong basket when he belonged to the Mutasa group in ZimPF and now is in the wrong basket again in supporting the MDC Alliance given its foolish determination to contest flawed elections.
President Mnangagwa has said he wanted free and fair elections but everyone can now see that is a lie. The Americans and Canadians have been calling on the Junta to do something practical to ensure free and fair elections and not just pay lip service to the subject. It is a crying shame that outside are more focused on what needs to be done to ensure free and fair elections than the country's opposition politicians.
Chamisa still continue to witter about having "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections". Everyone knows that is just the usual grandstanding of the clueless MDC leaders.
MDC leaders lost all political credibility when the failed to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. By continuing to insist in taking part in flawed election the MDC are putting themselves beyond the pale. It is not surprising to find Bhasikiti in the MDC Alliance basket, he is just one corrupt and incompetent ex Zanu PF thugs bound to feel perfectly at home in the company of MDC's corrupt and incompetent leaders.
War veterans who gathered for their provincial meeting at Masvingo Poly last Saturday questioned their representative in the politburo Victor Matemadanda's sanity after he reconvened the meeting in order to speak in front of ZBC cameras. That is nothing compared to the campaign for Zanu PF all war veterans are being collared to participate in.
Zanu PF has used war veterans to carry out its dirty work of threatening and intimidating the ordinary people into voting for Zanu PF. This started in the 1980 elections, died down and then picked up again in the late 1990s. The war veterans only seemed to notice Mugabe's "dictatorial tendencies" as they called them when the regime failed to keep its promise to make the war veterans rich. Many of the war veterans are, like the majority of other Zimbabweans, living in abject poverty.
The war veterans are out intimidating the ordinary people to force them to vote for President Mnangagwa and his Junta although there is nothing to suggest the Junta has drop the dictatorial streak that landed the country in this economic mess.
The war veterans are in fact undermining the efforts to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and keep the dictatorship in power regardless of all the evidence that the dictatorship is the root cause of the country's economic and political mess. They are supporting the imposition of another dictator in the selfish hope that he will make them rich even if he will not revive the national economy.
There is evidence already that the much hoped for foreign investors the regime was counting on to spar the economic recovery are not coming. The regime's failure to hold free and fair elections has left investors and any level-headed person in no doubt Zanu PF is still a party of lawless thugs. The war veterans are right now playing their assigned role of intimidating people and frog marching them to vote for Zanu PF.
If anyone deserve to live in abject poverty it is these war veterans who have sold their very souls to the devil and even now with the benefit of hindsight continue to be a willing tool in a dictator's hand! Mnangagwa has the same dictatorial tendencies Mugabe had and the war veterans are imposing him just as the impose Mugabe on a nation desperate to end dictatorial rule!
"Now that I have attempted to give an account of some of your publicly expressed opinions and beliefs about me and ZAPU, and have also tried to summarise the more important events that took place as well as actions or non-actions during the course of the three years since our independence, and have some bearing on your attempt to impose a one- ZANU Party State on the people of Zimbabwe, I give hereunder my reactions," wrote Dr Joshua Nkomo in June 1983.
"In retrospect, I now believe that I and ZAPU were deceived and cheated by you and your party when you talked of unity, reconciliation, peace and security. I now honestly and sincerely believe that when you invited us to take part in your government you believed that we would reject your offer and set ourselves up in strong opposition to you and thereby label us disgruntled rejected plotters."
Very interesting. It is a great pity that Dr Nkomo was never given a chance to say what happened before a properly constituted commission of inquiry for the sake of establishing the historic facts. Still the day there is a proper regime change in Harare, every effort must be made to appoint the said commission a.s.a.p. whilst some of those involved are still alive.
What happen in Zimbabwe during the Gukurahundi years has affected us all in that Mugabe was able to establish his de facto one-party dictatorship and it has survived to this day! Mugabe murdered 20 000 to establish the dictatorship and has since murdered a further 10 000 to retain it! The dictatorship is the root cause of the country's economic meltdown that has left forced unemployment to soar to dizzying heights of 90%, left ¾ living on US$1.00 or less a day, etc.
Dismantling the dictatorship has become the nation's number one post-independence challenge; the country's economic recovery is totally dependent on the nation dismantling the dictatorship. Nothing of any substance can ever be accomplished as long as Zanu PF continues to ride roughshod over the people's freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life! Nothing!
Chamisa and the rest of the MDC leadership can ignore all they want the fact that President Mnangagwa has not implemented even one reforms and therefore Zanu PF is rigging these elections as readily as it has rigged past elections. This so called "Road to victory!" is just another road to yet another defeat!
It is disappointing that it is foreigners like the Americans, Canadians and SADC who are taking the matter of making sure elections are free and fair with the seriousness the matter demands.
Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged elections and instead of making sure this is so MDC are giving the flawed process credibility by taking part!
War veterans in Masvingo province are demanding the return of Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Jabulani Sibanda, Claudious Makova and Kudakwashe Bhasikiti among others back to Zanu-PF.
Matemadanda encouraged the war veterans to seek public offices in the upcoming elections, saying people without liberation war credentials were leading Zanu-PF astray.
"It's your time comrades, take those positions from councillors to MPs. Don't allow people without liberation war credentials to take those leadership positions - we know that you are capable leaders. I want to see you in parliament and in councils," said Matemadanda.
It was people with "liberation war credentials" who have been leading Zanu PF and the nation these last 38 years, ruthlessly imposed on the nation by none other than Matemadanda and his posse of rogue war veterans, and look where they have landed the nation! It is insane that the nation should remain locked in this failed Zanu PF dictatorship because the country has had the great misfortune of having myopic people like Matemadanda as its liberators.
The last 38 years have established beyond all doubt that having liberation war credentials does not make one a great leader. We must accept this historic fact, and embrace a more progressive and liberal point of view - leaders must be elected on the basis of their understanding of the problems the nation is facing today and going forward as decided by the majority in a free, fair and credible election!
We must end this insidious and corrosive culture that have turned yesteryear's liberators into today's oppressors. For how much longer are those who fought in the liberation war going to hold the nation to ransom? Matemadanda and his rogue war veterans must accept that they have a vote, not a veto, same as everyone else. We must end this vicious cycle.
"The MDC-T was formed on the basis of constitutionalism, but, and may his soul rest in peace, Tsvangirai had unfortunately given himself powers that were not there in the constitution, resulting in rolling conflicts and now the split. Welshman Ncube (MDC), Tendai Biti (PDP), Elton Mangoma (RDZ) and many others at some point once quit the party citing the same reasons of un-constitutionalism on the part of our departed leader," said Lovemore Moyo, former MDC-T chairman.
Of course, Moyo is spot-on! When the party failed to get even one reform implement during the GNU the donors and SADC deserted the party in droves. The ordinary Zimbabweans should have done the same, if they had been awake! All those who continue to work with MDC are time-wasters because the party is led by breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent individuals; it will never accomplish anything of note!
Ncube wrote on Twitter, "I love @nelsonchamisa as a Christian brother. And the best he expects from me is truth not physcophancy. So far he has not impressed me as a mature politician."
You are not the only one! Chamisa, like everyone else in MDC, had the golden opportunity during the GNU to implement the reforms and change Zimbabwe for the better and they wasted it.
SADC leaders warned MDC not to take part in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. 'If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!" SADC leaders warned.
But MDC leaders had wool in their ears and so they did not hear. As we know Zanu PF went on to rig those elections. What is disappointing is that MDC leaders are dragging the nation into yet another flawed election.
Chamisa says he has "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!" But anyone with half a brain knows that is just nonsense. It is impossible to be impressed by any MDC leaders especially the likes of Chamisa!
Chinono, what is the point of buying an expensive 200km/hour bullet train to run on railway track whose speed limit is 70 km/hour? Zimbabwe is full of Mugabe's white elephants such as the Olympic size swimming poll built in Chitugwiza for the All Africa Games but has long since fallen into disrepair.
The 3/4 of people in Murewa, like the rest in Zimbabwe, live on US$1.00 or less a day. They can hardly afford the bus fare into Harare much less the air fare. They are having sleepless nights because they want jobs, decent schools, etc.; the last thing they would be dreaming of is having a multi-million dollar airport suitable for Airbus 500 passenger planes!
After spending months cheering and applauding the corrupt, vote rigging and murderous Mnangagwa and his Junta you have now switched to cheer the corrupt and incompetent head-in cloud cuckoo land Chamisa and MDC. No wonder the country is in a real mess!
As MDC we are saying to Mnangagwa remove soldiers from ZEC and stop intimidating our rural people, said Ncube while addressing thousands of Mashonaland Central supporters.
Meanwhile, Mutambara urged people to make use of technology in exposing ZANU PF shenanigans.
"We should make use of technology whenever you see ZANU PF acting barbaric record the incident and post on internet for the whole word to see, it is high time we end ZANU Pf dominance in Mashonaland Central."
Well if "using technology whenever you see Zanu PF acting barbaric and post on internet" is one of MDC Alliance's "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging" then we are in serious trouble because Zanu PF's vote rigging strategies are a lot more subtle and diverse to be stopped by such grade one measures!
SADC leaders have recommended that MDC leaders should not take part in the elections until the reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement are implemented. The only reason MDC leaders have refused to listen is greed.
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious - withdraw from the elections," explained Senator Coltart.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
It is ironic that foreigners like the Americans, Canadians and SADC leaders are the ones pushing Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections and it is MDC who are, by insisting in participating in flawed elections, are making it easier for Zanu PF to get away with rigged elections!
@ Mbombela
Are you saying that Zanu PF has never used war veterans, Army, Police and CIO to intimidate, beat, rape and even murder innocent civilians for selfish political gain? If you are, then I refer you to the many documented cases that took place in 2008. Since there have not been any meaningful reforms carried out since then, it is clear the party has continued to use this modus operandi to achieve its selfish political goals.
These elections should not be taking place until reforms are implemented, the only reason they are going ahead is opposition greed!
@Kenso
The issue here is whether the nation should vote for ED even if he fails to implement the democratic reforms and thus hang on to the dictatorial powers to rig these and future elections?
If the Junta is not a dictatorship then why is it refusing to give up the dictatorial powers?
If the Junta is a dictatorship, and all the evidence proves that it is, then it is very foolish to support it even on the assumption that it will revive the economy.
You can be certain that no foreign investors will want to invest in a country ruled by thugs! Ask yourself why foreign investors have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe all these years? No investors wants to do business in a country in which the next regime change has to be another "military assisted transition"!
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