It is heartening that many Zimbabweans are finally
taking the country’s economic and political situation with the seriousness the
matter demands. After decades of burying their heads in the sand and accepting
whatever propaganda the political leaders said people are now beginning to
question everything, as they rightly should!
The people of Zimbabwe must now wake up to the
reality that the country is in a man-made serious mess after 38 years and
counting of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and murderous tyrannical
rule. Fortunately, like all man-made problems, it is within our, we the
citizens of Zimbabwe, power to get the country out of this mess all that is
required on our part is that we stop burying our heads in the sand and pay
attention to what is going on.
It is not enough to say we want a better Zimbabwe
where we all live in peace and prosperity. This is not a fairy tale with its
usual “They all lived happily ever after!” ending. If we are serious about a
peaceful, just and prosperous Zimbabwe, then we must work for it. We must
understand what has gone horribly wrong these last 38 years, learn from the
mistakes and fix what we can going forward.
What went wrong? The devil is always in the detail.
Detail matters. Detail is everything!
“The reported moves by the international community
to bring Zimbabwe's political protagonists to the table should be lauded by all
peace-loving and poverty-weary Zimbabweans,” stated The Standard Editorial.
As stated above, the devil is in the detail.
“Zanu-PF may want to grandstand and make credulous claims about a so-called new dispensation and President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ability to turn Zimbabwe's economic fortunes around, but facts on the ground show that this cannot and will not happen in the foreseeable future,” continued the editorial.
“The fact that nine months after taking to the helm of the country Mnangagwa has totally failed to provide one proof of this capacity is more than enough evidence he and his party alone are unable to lift Zimbabwe out of its misery.
“As it is, the situation on the ground is increasingly becoming frightful. Prices of goods and services are rising every day while basic commodities are fast getting scarce.
“There are already serious shortages of medicines in the country's hospitals while other commodities such as cement are now being found only on the black market where prices have shot through the roof.
“Zanu-PF may want to grandstand and make credulous claims about a so-called new dispensation and President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ability to turn Zimbabwe's economic fortunes around, but facts on the ground show that this cannot and will not happen in the foreseeable future,” continued the editorial.
“The fact that nine months after taking to the helm of the country Mnangagwa has totally failed to provide one proof of this capacity is more than enough evidence he and his party alone are unable to lift Zimbabwe out of its misery.
“As it is, the situation on the ground is increasingly becoming frightful. Prices of goods and services are rising every day while basic commodities are fast getting scarce.
“There are already serious shortages of medicines in the country's hospitals while other commodities such as cement are now being found only on the black market where prices have shot through the roof.
“One good example of a question that Mnangagwa and
his fellow government leaders and advisors have failed to answer is: what is it
in aid of to spend millions of dollars on expensive brand new vehicles for
chiefs while hospitals do not have ambulances?”
There is no doubt that President Mnangagwa and his
junta are not offering the nation a way out of the economic and political mess
we are in, The Standard made a convincing case of that. Indeed one has only to
point to the mess the country is in to prove Zanu PF’s incompetence. The junta’s
argument that it was Mugabe and the “criminal elements around him” who are to
blame for the 37 years of misrule must be dismissed with the contempt it
rightly deserves. Mnangagwa and his junta friends were not only at the heart of
the Zanu PF regimes throughout the 37 years, they are the ones who ruthlessly
imposed the Zanu PF dictatorship on the nation.
What The Standard failed to answer is: if President
Mnangagwa and his junta are corrupt and incompetent, as many would readily
agree, then how is it possible they won a landslide victory in this year’s
harmonised elections?
This is a rhetorical question! The Standard, the
international community now trying to get Zanu PF and MDC to form a GNU, everyone
including President Mnangagwa himself tacitly admitted in talking about “peaceful
elections” and leaving out “free, fair and credible”. Everyone knows that Zanu
PF rigged the elections to impose the same corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical
dictatorial rule of yesteryears.
The British MP, Kate Hoey, who was in Zimbabwe to
observe the elections talked of Mnangagwa as “mark 2 Mugabe” who “cleverly
rigged the elections” and “does not deserve international support”.
Indeed all this frantic effort by “international
community to bring Zimbabwe's political protagonists themselves” is nothing
more than a cowardly attempt by the same international community to have sanitise
the vote rigging Zanu PF regime with a dusting of MDC leaders so they can
pretend they are not dealing with the vote rigging Zanu PF junta.
It is naïve, to say the least, to expect this
dusting of MDC leaders to make any difference in a Zanu PF dominated government
particularly when the MDC leaders have themselves proven beyond doubt to be
breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.
“The government needs to set its priorities right and behave like mature leaders who have the people's welfare at heart. Mnangagwa must come down from his high horse and seek the assistance of Nelson Chamisa, who has proved to be a politician who has good ideas and a very huge following in the country,” argued The Standard, recommending the MDC.
“Chamisa, too, must heed the calls of the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe who are crying for food on the table, good health, houses to live in, jobs and an end to decades of misery.”
“The government needs to set its priorities right and behave like mature leaders who have the people's welfare at heart. Mnangagwa must come down from his high horse and seek the assistance of Nelson Chamisa, who has proved to be a politician who has good ideas and a very huge following in the country,” argued The Standard, recommending the MDC.
“Chamisa, too, must heed the calls of the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe who are crying for food on the table, good health, houses to live in, jobs and an end to decades of misery.”
Nonsense! The MDC had five years during the last
GNU to implement the raft of democratic reforms, their primary task then. They failed
to get even one reform implemented because they had their snouts in the feeding
trough, enjoying the trappings of gravy train high office; they completely
forgot about the reforms.
The only sure ticket out of the political and
economic hell-on-earth we find ourselves in is for the country to implement the
democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. Until we do
this the country will never ever got out of this hell-hole. Never ever!
President Mnangagwa and his junta promised to hold
free, fair and credible elections, they have failed to keep their promise. With
the country is serious economic and political peril, this is not the time to appease
the junta with utterly pointless coalitions.
What we need to do is look the junta straight in
the eyes and tell them all they have failed to hold free and fair elections,
they must now step aside for others can implement the reforms and get this
nation out of this hell. After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, the
Zanu PF dictatorship must now be told in no uncertain terms that it cannot hold
this nation to ransom for another day longer!
“Chamisa, Mnangagwa must find each other for the
people!” argued The Standard. This is just a feeble excuse to allow Zanu PF to
remain in power when the junta should be held to account for failing to hold
free, fair and credible elections. This will do nothing to get the nation out
of the hell-on-earth Zanu PF landed us in or alleviate the people’s suffering.
If anything, this will make matters worse as Zanu PF thugs will only seek to tighten
their grip on power, making holding of free and fair elections an ever receding
mirage.
5 comments:
Those who are seeking the GNU are doing so out of desperation. The accept that Zanu PF is made out of corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who will never accomplish anything even if their own lives depended on it. They accept that the junta rigged the elections to stay in power at all cost. So instead of addressing the core problem of the junta rigging elections to stay in power they are now asking the junta to at least take some MDC leaders in the hope they will improve the quality of the regime!
The junta will never allow itself to be influence by the MDC as Zanu PF leaders are arrogant and all Mr-Know-It-All in their own right. Besides MDC leaders are themselves useless as they have already provenduring the last GNU.
We must stop messing around and deal the core problem of rigging elections decisively. President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections; he failed to keep his promise. He and his junta must be told in no uncertain terms they failed and must step aside to allow other who will deliver on this key requirement for the nation getting out of the mess.
Opposition MDC Alliance principal Tendai Biti coasted to a landslide victory over Zanu PF candidate and then deputy finance minister Terence Mukupe in one of the more closely watched contests of the disputed elections.
Former finance minister Biti polled 20, 592 votes against Mukupe’s 8, 593 votes in a constituency that includes the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s (ZRP) Morris and Tomlison police depots.
The ZRP only resumed normal duties days later chaperoned by military police in an operational shift that development that has continued even after elections.
“Ordinarily, Zanu PF should not lose Harare East because of the presence of police cantonments there, but there was a reaction to November 2017,” said an official who preferred not to be identified.
The problem was also evident during the deadly August 1 post-election violence in central Harare when the police “took too long to act against the opposition protestors”.
Anyone in the know would not be surprised!
Pharmaceutical Wholesalers’ Association (PWA) chairperson
Valerie Musere told a weekly paper the situation was deteriorating with each passing day. The last allocations were done in May. Second quarter allocations were about half of the first quarter (about $8 million vs $15 million).
So the country is running out of life saving drugs but has been spending millions of dollars buying new vehicles for Zanu PF candidates in the recent elections, Chiefs, party leaders, rogue war veteran leaders, etc., etc. It is not that the country is poor; it is rich, very rich. The country's problem is the failure to make the right decisions!
Those western countries like UK, Germany and Canada who are hell bend on letting Zanu PF stay in power after rigging the elections so the regime can continue to make the same foolish decision will have to step in and buy the country the necessary drugs. They must fill the hole Zanu PF is digging. They must arrange to have plane loads of cash coming in the country because knowing these Zanu PF as I do their appetite for spending is the one thing that has grown exponentially without failure!
It would be irresponsible for the UK, Germany and Canada to let the ordinary people die due to lack of medicines when they are the nations who wanted Zanu PF to remain in power against the express wish of the ordinary people who would have voted the regime out of office if Zanu PF was finally forced to hold free, fair and credible elections which is what those demanding that Zanu PF be held to account for rigging these elections want!
"It is heartening that many Zimbabweans are finally taking the country's economic and political situation with the seriousness the matter demands. After decades of burying their heads in the sand and accepting whatever propaganda the political leaders said people are now beginning to question everything, as they rightly should!" you said.
Yes, people have shown some interest in what is going on in the country. Sadly, it is out of desperation and, as we all know, desperate people do desperate and irrational things.
Our friend at The Standard has argued and argued well that Zanu PF will never bring about the economic recovery the nation is desperate for. So where is the rational in arguing for Zanu PF to still stay in power after 38 years of Zanu PF misrule particularly when everyone knows the party rigged the elections to stay in power.
There is no excuse, other than laziness, why, in this day and age, the people do not know anything in enough detail to make the right decision. Even on the rigged elections, it is interesting to note that many Zimbabweans do not seem to know what constitute free, fair and credible elections and hence have no clear cut position on whether the elections were rigged.
Even on the issue of ZEC failing to produce a clean and verified voters' roll; some people consider that water off a duck's back, particularly once leaders like Chamisa have accepted the nonsense.
Nations get the government they deserve, we certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its coterie of corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians who follow Zanu PF like Saturn and its many moons. Ignorance remains a serious problem with our people, if they know anything at all it is at a very superficial level. It is no wonder they are forever blundering from pillar to post.
MDC Alliance official Descent Bajila has said the alliance principals have unanimously resolved that the parties in the alliance must unite to be one party.
He said sometime in May this year, the MDC National Council passed a resolution on the need for "unconditional unification" of the MDC formations.
The MDC leaders have proven beyond all reasonable doubt that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent that did not change when they separated and will not change even if they merge again! One of the country's greatest weaknesses is that we have a very naïve and gullible electorate who follow blindly like sheep to the slaughter. After MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU, the party was deserted by SADC and the international community but not the sheep!
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