Tyrannical regimes are hard to change because they not only brainwash the populous but worse still they brainwash themselves – they start to believe their own lies and propaganda – making it next to impossible to reason with them.
“Our country has since independence remained as one of the most peaceful and politically stable countries in the region,” said President Mnangagwa.
“Today’s celebrations come just two weeks after the country’s crucial harmonised general elections. These were held in a peaceful environment where our citizens were able to exercise their democratic rights without fear or intimidation.
“Allow me to extent my sincere appreciation to the whole of Zimbabwe for observing peace before, during and after the harmonised election. This has made us a proud nation.”
Until a few years ago, the regime was still boasting of Zimbabwe being the “most prosperous” country in the region. With the country now confirmed as the poorest nation in Africa the regime has quietly dropped all reference to the country’s economic performance.
Still with unemployment soaring to dizzying heights of 90% and 75% of the population now living on US$1.00 or less a day it is not surprising that many Zimbabweans have left the country. At least 30% of the country’s population are political and/or economic refugees or illegal migrants, who will be shocked to hear Zimbabwe is the most stable country in the region.
On the political front, Zimbabwe has never ever held free, fair and credible elections. President Mnangagwa has been at the head of Zanu PF’s culture of political violence; the intimidation, harassment, beatings, rape and even cold blooded murder of political opponents. Yes, compared to 2008 and 2013 elections, these elections were peaceful.
It is interesting to note that until a few weeks before voting day 30 July 2018, President Mnangagwa had insisted these elections would be “peaceful, free, fair and credible.” He has since dropped everything else only to focus on peaceful.
He knows that no one in their right mind would ever judge elections in which there was no free public media, no verified voters’ roll, were Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes, etc. free, fair and credible. Of course, Zanu PF rigged the elections.
President Mnangagwa, by rigging these elections you have just confirmed that Zimbabwe is still the pariah state of the Mugabe era, you have been trying hard to distance yourself since last November’s coup. You have just dashed all the hopes of the desperately needed economic recovery because no investors want to do business with vote-rigging thugs.
As the reality of very little inward investment and worsen economic situation sink in there will be a new wave of Zimbabweans leaving the country and it will be just a matter of time before those remaining go on the street to protest the inhuman economic hardship they are facing.
Zimbabwe is the most unstable country in SADC and its continued instability is now a serious threat to the development and stability of the whole region. What is there for you, President Mnangagwa, and us, the people of Zimbabwe, to be proud of in being one of the “shit-hole” of Africa, as US President Donald Trump would put it!
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The reality that these elections will never pass the litmus test of free, fair and credible elections is dawning on President Mnangagwa and his cronies. They have yet to appreciate the consequences of the country being dismissed as a pariah state and the economic consequences of the country sinking even deeper into economic despair!
If President Mnangagwa's loud scarf was supposed to herald the dawn of the new dispensation many people will now feel cheated as the reality of Zimbabwe the pariah state now reassert itself. I have not heard President Mnangagwa talk of the new dispensation it is a matter of time before the loud scarf goes!
Zanu PF has rigged elections in the past; the world has always made some noise about the elections not being free, fair and credible but in time the world has always accepted Zanu PF's electoral victory as fait accompli. Will this be one time the party will finally fail to get its wish!
To the victims of injustice, it appears that the wheels of justice have stopped turning; after 38 years of rigged elections Zimbabweans were convinced the wheels of justice had fallen off a long, long time ago! It would be good to see Zanu PF finally held to account for blatantly rigging elections. All signs are that Zanu PF will not get away with anther rigged election!
In 1980, when the country attained her independence, Zimbabwe was one of the top five richest nations in Africa and today, 38 years later, it is the poorest country in Africa. 75% of the people in Zimbabwe now live on US$1.00 or less a day and the country's poorest of the poor live in rural areas. So, on the face of it, one would expect Zanu PF, whose 38 years of misrule have brought about the country's economic decline, to be hated with those worst affected by its misrule - the rural voters.
If Zimbabwe was a healthy democracy in which the rural voters had their democratic freedoms and rights, the rural voters would hate Zanu PF with a passion. The only year when the rural voters when the rural voters had something close to freedom to vote for whoever they wished was the March 2008 and they rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF. Sadly for the them, the result was never allowed to stand as Tsvangirai's 73%, according to Mugabe's Freudian slip, was whittled down to 47% to force the run-off. The voters were then punished for having rejected Mugabe in the first vote forcing them to vote for Mugabe in the run-off. The rural voters saw some of the worst Zanu PF barbarism.
The relationship between Zanu PF and the rural voters is that of the feudal land lord and the serfs and the wanton violence of 2008 and 2013 showed this graphically. This year Zanu PF deployed the party thugs, the rogue war veterans, Chiefs and other traditional leaders the party had used in the past to harass, beat, rape and even kill the rural voters. This time they were instructed to remind the rural voters what would happen to them if Zanu PF was to lose these elections. "Operation harvest fear", the party insiders called it.
This panel discussion has failed to acknowledge that the rural voters are serfs, there was no free public media, ZEC failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll, Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes, etc., etc. It is little wonder they came to an erroneous conclusion the elections were free, fair and credible.
I do not think many people with half a working brain bothered to listen to the end of this video, why bother!
@CGTN
China gives Zimbabwe a super computer.
The most worrying question still remains: why did China help Zanu PF rigged this year's elections just as it has done consistently for the last 38 years?
China Railways has proposed the construction of a $2.5bn rail link between the neighbouring states of Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. As with the high-speed, east-to-west links in Kenya and Tanzania, the aim will be to give landlocked countries - and the Chinese companies operating there - access to Indian Ocean ports.
This is all very well for China, this is not well for Zimbabwe this project is putting China's needs first and those of Zimbabwe a distant second. Only a democratic Zimbabwe can ever put Zimbabwe's interest above all other outsiders' interests. As long as Zimbabwe remains a de facto one-party state aided by countries like China to rig elections this country will never break free of foreign influence.
It is suspected that the number of people who succumbed to the disease could be higher as some cases were not reported after Gweru City Council allegedly concealed the disease for close to a month before it was discovered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Midlands provincial medical director Dr Simon Nyadundu said close to 130 people were treated for suspected typhoid on Heroes' Day alone, while two others died.
Zimbabwe's health care services has all but collapse and for decades now the nation has lived knowing with no clean running water and no working sewage system the danger of a serious outbreak of such a disease typhoid or cholera was real.
Zanu PF has just spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying cars for all the party's candidates in last month's elections but even a big city like Gweru has no money to make sure the city's residences have clean running water! This is simply sickening.
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