When it was reported that Ms Petina Gappah, the Zimbabwean international law expert and author, organised President Emmerson Mnangagwa World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland; I thought she was being very naïve.
President Mnangagwa went to Davos to woo investors and financial institutions to return to Zimbabwe after two decades of shying away. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” President Mnangagwa told everyone who cared to listen.
“You said that you need to correct for the bad economic situation Zimbabwe found itself in,” he was asked in one of the interviews he gave in Davos. “You pointed to international isolation. You would acknowledge, would you not, that it was also bad decisions by the Zimbabwe government over many years?
“The government, the ruling part; of whom you had been a key figure for many years, in many role; that made those bad decision?”
“That is correct!” President Mnangagwa ready agreed but only to bring in the land issue in the next breath – proof President Mnangagwa and his Junta regime were not ready to acknowledge the truth about Zanu PF’s dictatorial tendencies much less abandon them!
Whilst President Mnangagwa was shrewd enough to acknowledge that Zanu PF needed to shed off its pariah-State imagine to attract foreign investors. It was also clear that he and his coup plotters were not prepared to give up the party’s dictatorial powers that had kept the regime in power since independence. That is why a Zimbabwean like Ms Gappah should have known President Mnangagwa and his Junta would not give up Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers, knowing these are the individuals who had been the heart and soul of the dictatorship all these years.
Soon after the November 2017 coup, President Mnangagwa went out of his way to promise that Zimbabwe would hold free, fair and credible elections. But that was lip-service to take the sting out of the reality of the coup.
The point is, there was really no point wasting time and money in wooing Western investors back to Zimbabwe when it was clear Zimbabwe was still being ruled by lawless thugs! It is therefore shocking that Ms Gappah should now be defending her decision to organise ED’s Davos jaunt.
"MDC is criticizing ED for necessary travel. How did they think the reengagement they proposed in their 2013 manifesto would work? Did they think Zim would be part of some global WhatsApp group? Is ED supposed to just retweet stuff from Munhumutapa and make lots of Facebook LOLs?" Ms Gappah twittered.
So even with the benefit of hindsight, Ms Petina Gappah still fails to recognise the ED regime as nothing more same pariah Zanu PF dictatorship or be it with a new leader. She is naïve but so naïve she cannot even realise that foreign investors are a very politically shrewd lot; they, alike her, were never fooled by such gimmicks as calling a coup a “military assisted transition!”
11 comments:
@ Farai
Zimbabwe is in a serious political and economic mess and the only way out is for the country to have meaningful democratic reforms. ED and his Junta are trying to deceive the nation by pretending that this regime is different from the Mugabe dictatorship when it is not. Mnangagwa has promised free and fair elections and yet has stubbornly refuse to implement the democratic reforms to make this possible.
Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rig election and people like Gappah have no business helping and abating this corrupt, vote rigging and murderous regime!
@ Ndlovu
Of course, there is a problem with anyone supporting a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous regime. Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic and political crisis and those helping to perpetuate this Zanu PF dictatorship must be held to account for it!
Dhewa Igwee
Wrong the GNU was about implementing the democratic reforms first and foremost. Zimbabwe had rigged and violent elections in 2008 and the reforms were to ensure that will never ever happen again. Of course, it was idiot to fail to implement the reforms.
By the way, it was never a question of fix the economy or the reforms; there was no reason why MDC failed to fix both!
You trouble is you have never understood what the GNU was about and what could be done. Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, you still have no clue what the GNU was about. And yet think you know enough to hold an opnion!
One does not boycott elections to please or displease someone else; you boycott elections because you accept it is the only logical thing to do! So, stop give excuses for doing the foolish thing!
It is not the number of the opposition parties that matter here; in 2013 there were five or so opposition parties and that did not stop MDC contesting the flawed elections. Why should the increase in the opposition parties to over 100 make any difference?
@ Moses Makoni
If you call me a fool and fail to produce the evidence, you insult me. However, if you called me a fool and produced the evidence, then you are not insulting me. You are telling me the truth and confirming who I am - a fool.
Patrick produce the evidence why Gappah was a fool. The very fact that she failed to see her foolishness even with the benefit of hindsight proved that here was not just an ordinary fool but a shallow minded one who is thick and slow!
You are either refusing to see the evidence or you are too thick to see it.
There are millions of ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives is a living hell today because we have had 38 years of corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Idiots like Gappah are helping ED and his Junta con the nation for the selfish purpose of extend the life of the dictatorship. That is something fools like Gappah and you will not be allowed to do!
We want free, fair and credible elections, nothing short of that will be accepted. You mess around with that then you are a fool and will be told so in no uncertain terms!
Moses Farai Makoni
You do not eat houses and yet you still build one at great expense. Time spent in searching for competent leaders is time well spend because we are in this hell-hole today because we allowed thugs to rule and ruin our lives!
After 38 years of corrupt, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship anyone with half a brain would be calling for change. It is not a surprise that there are many who are braindead who would allow the madness to go on. It would be foolish to let the braindead have the final say on this matter.
If ED and the Junta do not implement the reforms and the elections are NOT free, fair and credible then the whole process will be declared null and void - that is the final say on the matter!
@ Moses Farai Makoni
"My friend Junta this Junta that..... we don`t give a f*** about that. All we want to know is what the competing parties will do for us. Stop talking about your competitor Sell yourself, sell your strong points. I guarantee you until the opposition appreciates this they are in for a serious hiding," you argue.
Well if you are one of the millions out of work, living on US$1.00 or less a day, economic and/or political refugees in the diaspora, etc. then you should care about what happens to this Junta. Because as long as the Junta remains in power, your life will continue to be a misery.
There is no point in talking about the opposition because no quality opposition will ever emerge out of the present stifling political system. Zanu PF has made politics a dangerous occupation in which only thugs thrive we need quality and visionary leaders to be ruling the land not thugs. If we want the quality leaders then we must clean up our politics and make politics a theatre of ideas and not a place for gangsters, looters and murderers to sell their services to the highest bidder!
Zanu PF has turned Zimbabwe into a sewer pond in which scum will rise to the top. If there is an life in that sewage pond then it is crocodiles feeding on shit. We must implement the democratic reforms, drain the swamp, and refill it with clean oxygenated water in which fish can live and thrive.
To look for quality opposition in Zimbabwe today is like to go fishing in a sewage pond! You will catch plenty of crocodiles but not even one fish!
@ Tawanda Majoni
"The administration intended to fool us into believing that it was genuine with fighting corruption. It would always be good for the name and image of the Mnangagwa government to fight corruption or give the impression of genuinely fighting graft in public places and elsewhere. That would quickly divert people's attention from the fact that the military helped remove Mugabe, not because it is concerned about good leadership, but wanted a big chunk of the power cake for itself," you said.
"In turn, being seen to be fighting corruption would sanitise the new establishment and the coup. That is vital ahead of the 2018 elections which the modified Zanu-PF needs to win. An anti-graft campaign would also put the dispensation in good stead with external investors and the international community."
You are 100% correct there; the junta was smart in "diverting people's attention from the fact that the military helped remove Mugabe, not because it is concerned about good leadership, but wanted a big chunk of the power cake for itself!"
The Junta also THOUGHT its anti-graft and promise to hold free and fair elections would fool the foreign investors. Sadly, that was not to be. There have been no takers of ED's "Zimbabwe is open for business!" clarion cry. The investors could see through all the lies, they could see the thugs had no intention of holding free and fair elections!
President Mnangagwa was quick to promise free, fair and credible elections and now finds himself in the untenable position of rigging the elections and still keep up the pretence the elections are free and fair. These elections are going to be declared null and void, period!
Former President Robert Mugabe signed many mega deals with China in 2015 but most of the deals came to naught! The same will happen to these mega deals with China.
My sister helped with the Davos trip but sadly, even she, will have to admit the flood of foreign investors that was to follow has never materialised! Zimbabwe has just had a coup, underlining the country is ruled by thugs, did Gappah really believe foreign investors will be fooled into believing Zimbabwe is now a democratic nation and ruled by the law?
If my sister Gappah was so easily conned what more my relatives in the rural back waters who have been brainwashed by Zanu PF lies, propaganda and damned lies all their lives!
@ Sarah
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because of 38 years of Zanu PF misrule. The nation could not get rid of Zanu PF because the party rigged elections. The task before us today is to implement the reforms and make sure elections are, from now on, free, fair and credible. If ED cannot get the reforms implemented, then we must get someone else who will!
You, Sarah, and many of you Zanu PF apologists are failing, or pretending, to get your heads round the issue of free, fair and credible elections as the basis of good governance. Thank God there a few Zimbabweans who understand what the nation needs to get out of the mess Zanu PF landed us in!
Zimbabwe has some well-educated and very articulate people; Ms Gappah is certainly one of these people. Sadly, many of these well educated people lose their heads the minute someone waves a bribe in the face.
I refuse to accept that someone as clever as Petina would have been sold to the idea that ED and his thugs were democrats who would go on to hold free and fair elections. The opportunity to hobnob with the ruling elite was just too good to mist. Even when it became obvious the foreign investors, the people the Davos trip was targeting, were not fooled by the thug to democrat transformation. Petina has continued to pretend and defend the transformation for no other reason than to justify her own blind support of the Junta.
She wants to continue to hobnob with the Junta regardless these are the same corrupt, vote rigging and ruthless thugs they were before the November coup.
Whilst everyone is fighting to end the Zanu PF dictatorship so the nation can move one, there are many who are fighting to promote the dictatorship for the sake of the bribe and/or a chance to hobnob with the thugs. Talk of sleeping with the enemy, we have plent of political and moral prostitutes!
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