If the truth be told, I have not paid much attention to the antics 1st August Commission of inquiry chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe of SA. I had expected the commission to be a farce, a complete waste of time and resources, I was wrong.
It has turned to be a complete waste of time and resources, yes, but worst of all it is political decoy delivered with flare and gusto. The primary task of the commission was to draw public attention away from the rigged elections and they have certainly done that; President Mnangagwa must be very pleased with the results!
It is all very well to hear former Zanu PF Chipangano thug, Jim Kunaka, confirm that last November’s military coup was indeed a coup detat and why it was necessary.
“A coup was held in November last year because the old guard had been outwitted by the G-40 team. They had to use guns because they had been completely outwitted,” said Kunaka.
“I know everything about the Zanu PF culture of violence. Remember I was a senior member of the ruling party.”
It was comical to hear Kunaka being denounced in turn by his former comrade, Lewis Matutu.
“Jim Kunaka has conceded perpetrating violence against the opposition and killing people for political gains live on TV before the commission of inquiry. All this was done under the oath. It is the duty of the law enforcement institutions to apprehend him and be charged under the laws of the land. He should not be allowed to get away with this!” said Matutu.
“If he was given instructions as he alleges, he must name those who gave him such orders if they do exist. Let him name those that were working with him. He just complicated his life because mhosva hairovi (crime does not rot like meat) he must be held accountable.”
But that is just it, Kunaka can name those who gave him the instructions to kill; just as the individuals responsible for the shooting of the seven civilians behind this commission on may be named; what difference will that make! In the 38 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule, over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood to establish and retain the de facto one party dictatorship we are groaning under.
In 99% of the cases the murders were never arrested even when many people had named. In the odd case where the criminals were arrested, tried and convicted; they were granted the ubiquitous presidential pardon, for Zanu PF thugs only of course, without ever spending a single night behind bars!
Indeed, one can go so far as to say this Commission of Inquiry’s primary purpose is to divert the nation’s attention from President Mnangagwa and his junta’s treasonous act of rigging the 30 July 2018 elections and the disastrous consequences of the worsen economic meltdown that followed. And full marks to all the commissioners, they have played their assigned roles with flying colours.
Zanu PF thugs have carte blanche powers to do whatever they considers necessary to secure their own and the party’s strangle hold on power. Last November’s coup was high treason the regime got Justice George Chiweshe to rule is “legal, constitutional and justified”.
The junta has just successful blatantly rigged the elections with the assistance of the corrupted ZEC. The whole election process was flawed and illegal, the regime even failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.
The election results were challenged in the Con-Court. The Judges ignored all the evidence put before the court, proving beyond doubt that the elections were rigged, because the evidence “was not collaborated by primary evidence in the sealed ballot boxes”, they argued.
The plaintiff’s request to have the ballot boxes opened was denied and the Judges themselves never asked to the boxes be opened. So, the Judge’s decision to endorse Mnangagwa as the winner were based on the assumption that the primary evidence in the sealed ballot boxes would have proven the elections were NOT rigged.
Of course, it was a nonsensical judgement. What was the point of asking the parties to this case to submit sworn affidavit if the judges are going to ignore that evidence and then conveniently ignore the opportunity to examine the primary source evidence they are insisting on!
The primary purpose of the Con-Court in the above case was to help the Zanu PF junta gloss over the glaring irregularities and illegalities and judge rigged elections free, fair and credible.
Of course, the regime knew that it had rigged the elections and many people would be furious about it. The regime, whose murderous thugs had clearly strained at the leash to keep the peace throughout the campaign period, unleashed the thugs at the protestors. The shooting dead of the seven civilians was meant to reminder all that the party would not tolerate any protests against the rigged elections.
The Motlanthe Commission; just like ZEC, the Con-Court, etc.; is a toothless dog with neither the bark nor bite. It is not the The commission will not name the individuals who pulled the trigger much less those who deployed them and gave the order of “Shoot to kill!” It is not in the commission’s remit.
Even if the commission named everyone of those involved here we can be certain of one thing this will do nothing to help restore the individual freedoms and human rights much less put right the immediate problem of rigged 30 July 2018 elections!
Indeed, it is now clear that the commission of inquiry was a cynical decoy to take attention away from the serious issue of the rigged elections and the economic meltdown that followed.
Last year the regime organised the 18 November 2017 street protest, carefully stage-manage theatrical to allow the public to let out some steam and it worked like a charm. This Motlanthe commission is yet another carefully stage-managed performance that has too worked like a charm.
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Addressing Parliament on Wednesday Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube said,"The 2 917 Youth Officers who still remain on the payroll, are being retired and the posts removed from the establishment, by end of December 2018.
"At its 38th Meeting of 5 December 2017, Cabinet re-affirmed its decision to terminate employment contracts of 3 188 Youth Officers as previously resolved.”
So it has taken over a year to finally lay off these youths! So when President Mnangagwa promised change a year ago he did not mean it! How typical!
President Mnangagwa is laying off the youths and at the same time he has just engaged another lot of deadwood in the form of ex-cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and other senior civil servants and party leaders who he “has redeployed” on their old post’s salary, allowances, etc.
So government is removing Zanu PF's green bombers off government payroll but only to replace them the party's old geezers whose misrule landed the nation into this fine mess in the first place. The Zanu PF revolving door!
What is laughable here is that Zanu PF leaders believe they are fooling everyone, especially the investors and lenders from whom the country is asking for help to revive the economy. No one is fooled, indeed it is impossible to fool the IMF, WB, etc. Zimbabwe has promised to repay some of its outstanding debt, until the money is paid these institutions will not budge!
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has held profound discussions with a coalition of business leaders under the Belgian based Private Investors for Africa (PIA) who appraised him on their desire for further investments in the country.
These would be investors would have read and understood the EU Election Observer Team's recent report and therefore will know that Zanu PF rigged those elections. If they did not know that, now they do! There is no need to ask how many of them still want to go ahead and invest in Zimbabwe.
There were a number of Belgians who were as keen as mustard to join in the scramble for Zimbabwe's diamonds and there is no doubt there will be some bounty hunters who are still keen to join. But other than these roughriders, there is no serious business person who would want to do business in a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. None!
"Unity is important for people to live in harmony, we want a unity of purpose for the economy to recover.
"As the President of Zimbabwe, I am aware that we cannot achieve development and progress without peace for it is the source of our happiness.”
Rich coming from the man who has just rigged the election and confirmed Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs who continue to say one thing but do something else. There is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery in Zimbabwe as long as the country remains a pariah state.
Attorney-General Prince Machaya has said without the express authorisation of the President, the Minister of Defence cannot unilaterally deploy soldiers to assist police.
He was commenting before the Motlanthe Commission on the High Court judgement that was issued by Justice David Mangota exonerating President Emmerson Mnangagwa from the deployment of the soldiers to restore peace on August 1.
"One of the conclusions the judge came to was that the Minister of defence was the one who had authorised the deployment of the defense forces on 1 August. My reading of it is that neither the applicant nor the respondent had placed that evidence in court and therefore the judge or the court reached the conclusion merely from perusing the provisions of the Public Order and Security Act Section 37. That conclusion was not based on facts before the court."
Machaya said the ruling is misplaced since the President is the only one who can deploy defence forces.
"In terms of the Constitution only the President can legally deploy the military in support of the police. How the deployed soldiers behave is clearly spelt out in POSA," he added.
Machaya conceded that when read in isolation POSA creates impression that defence Minister can deploy defence forces without authority from the President.
Prominent lawyer David Coltart concurred with Machaya and said, "This is a correct interpretation of section 213 of the Constitution which we have said ever since this tragedy occurred.”
Judge Mangota’s ruling was was politically mischief nothing more! Typical of this corrupt Zanu PF world where political dirty play is the norm!
Professor Mthuli Ncube almost admitted responsibility for the October price increases when he presented his maiden budget statement today. Month on month inflation rate for October 2018 stood at 16.44%, representing a 15.52% increase on the September level.
Said Mthuli Ncube, "The spike in prices of goods and services appears to have receded, confirming that the main price hikes were a spontaneous response to uncertainty and confidence issues."
Soon after his appointment, Ncube made a series of statements that spooked financial markets.
The cost of his blundering would have forced the minister to resign in stable and functional democratic nations.
The Motlanthe Commission is turning out to be a repeat of the 2011 to 2012 of the all parties Committee task to draft the new constitution Outreach programmes.
It was a foolish idea to ask ordinary people, who could not name even one thing right or wrong in the Lancaster House Constitution, to say what they wanted in the new constitution. And so the outreach programmes became a complete farce and waste of time as one party had its supporters asking thing and the other party's supporters asking for the exact opposite. Some of the participants were reading their demands from a piece of paper, proof they had been instructed. Some outreach programmes were cancels because they had turned into a brawling contest.
We have seen the regime's loyalists paraded before the Motlanthe Commission repeating their well rehearsed lines even when they are blatant lies. "The guns were fired pointing 45 degrees up to in the air!" one soldier insisted although the photographs and video he was asked to look at said the opposite. No doubt he was assured he will never be done for lying under oath! Those against the regime or out to tell the truth had their say. If MDC Alliance had decided to take part in the charade, we would have seen its supporters repeat their well rehearsed lines too.
When the new Constitution was finally produced it was a complete waste of time and the $100 million spent to produce it. MDC claimed it was "an MDC child" and would delivery and guarantee all our freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections. It did no such things as we now know. Paul Mangwana, the Zanu PF MP and co-chair person on the drafting committee boasted soon after the new constitution was approved in the March 2013 referendum that Mugabe had dictated the document. Of course, Mugabe did not want Zanu PF to lose its dictatorial powers and so it happened.
The Motlanthe Commission will produce its detailed report and make detailed recommendations and after all is said and done we will once again concluded that the commission was a waste of time and the $300 000 government had reportedly put aside to pay for it.
Those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat the same foolish mistakes over and over again. We certainly like our public theatricals that are a complete waste of time and a waste of money and, as you have rightly pointed out a decoy to draw our attention away from doing something about the rigged elections. We never learn!
@ Marko
“Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in Authority the people rejoice, but when the Wicked Rules the people mourn.”
Zimbabweans have mourned for 38 years and counting, where are the righteous people? Or are we a nation of wicked people and who are getting their just deserve!
Makoya Thulani Jubane
I too used to blame the leaders but I think we must move on. We, the people, must accept that these leaders are mortals just like you and me and to look at how they have completely messed up out lives one would think we are nothing more than annoying bugs. We only have ourselves to blame to allow other mortals to have so much power over us!
People get the government they desrve, we deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties, all 53 of them at the last election count!
I agree, the whole Commission of inquiry has been turned into a fuss. The rigging of the elections and the shooting of protesters to stop people protesting against yet another stolen elections; these are all very serious matters with far reaching political and economic consequences for the whole nation. But to look at the goings on at these public hears, one would think this is some primary school playground performance. “Kutungana kwembudzi!” as one would say in Shona.
“Jim Kunaka has conceded perpetrating violence against the opposition and killing people for political gains live on TV before the commission of inquiry. All this was done under the oath. It is the duty of the law enforcement institutions to apprehend him and be charged under the laws of the land. He should not be allowed to get away with this!” said Matutu.
Matutu knows, as does everyone else including the commissioners, there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe. The commissioners themselves know that Zanu PF rigged the recent elections, high treason in any country with rule of law, and the commissioners are being paid and paid well to help Zanu PF get away with high treason!
“Mnangagwa should not be allowed to get away with high treason!” to paraphrase Matutu!
“Motlanthe commissioners should not be allowed to get away with being the decoy and allowing Mnangagwa to get away with high treason!” We might as well say!
Zimbabwe has become the by-word for a failed state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and incompetent thugs. We the ordinary people have played our part in this sad reality by being the naïve and gullible victims of the misrule.
“Chamisa realised that if he expels Mwonzora, Biti is the most qualified candidate for the secretary-general post and he knows that Biti is more power hungry than Mwonzora and he (Biti) also has a large following and is too vocal meaning Wamba will have problems in controlling the party. So he decided that it’s better to have a weakened Mwonzora than a strong Biti,” said the source.
The culture of surrounding oneself with deadwood is a common one in Zimbabwe politics where debate is stifled and democratic competition is viewed as a divisive evil. Look at Mugabe, he had Simon Muzenda as his VP shunning away the likes of Eddison Zvobgo.
If Zimbabwe had been a healthy and functional democracy with serious democratic challenge for power then Mugabe would have opted for a more dynamic VP and thus increase the public confidence in the party as a competent party. Chamisa is doing the same thing here! And who suffers? The nation!
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