“Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe has condemned acts of violence, while calling for dialogue to end the political and economic dilemma in the country,” reported Bulawayo 24.
"We strongly urge our governing authorities to urgently convene a round-table dialogue platform with all concerned players, actors and citizen representative groups to discuss the root causes of the unrest and the way forward that is inclusive and sustainable in the immediate to mid-term," read the statement.
Every thinking Zimbabwean out there will heartily welcome all genuine attempts to find a solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis. The emphasis is on GENUINE solution.
The crisis has been long in coming the nation’s unemployment rate did not soar to 90% over night, it has been 70% plus for the last 20 years. Our health care service has all but collapse and that too did not happen the last year or two; the rot started in the 1990s with savage budget cuts in the health sector.
"We strongly reiterate that violent expression and or violent repression will not help the situation and anyone affected, including both the governing authorities and citizens,” continued the Evangelical statement.
True, the use violence, be it on the part of the public or the authority, must be condemned. Still it is useful to understand the Genesis of violent protests in Zimbabwe.
Each time the people have tried to voice their concerns about their worsening economic situation, notably the students, the government has always swiftly moved in to violently disrupt the demonstration and silence all dissent.
What some people have failed to understand is that using brute force to silence all dissent, peaceful or otherwise, was the only option for the Zanu PF government that knew it would never address the citizen’s concerns and, worst of all, was not democratically accountable to the people through the holding of free, fair and credible elections.
In Zimbabwe the only demonstration that are permit are pro-Zanu PF and organised by the party. A few years ago war veterans, who have been as faithful as dogs to the Zanu PF dictatorship all along, found themselves at the business end of the whip when they tried to organise a demonstration against the regime. They were tear gassed, hosed with water cannon and savagely beaten up by riot Police just like everyone else.
Violence begets violence! It is not surprising that most of those taking part in demonstrations in Zimbabwe know they will face violence from the authorities and are themselves prepared to fire back.
In a determined effort to stay on top on the situation and beat all dissenters into submission the Zanu PF government has escalated its brutal response to public demonstrations by issuing “shoot to kill orders’! The very fact that there are still people on the street risking arrest and being shot underlines who desperate these people are for meaningful change.
The real tragedy here is Zanu PF is creating a pool of hardened citizens just like Ian Smith’s regime created the Zanu PF thugs. The dangers is if these street protest hardened citizens should ever get into power they too will be as intolerant and autocratic as the Zanu PF thugs the nation is fighting to remove!
We are seeing this autocratic tendency amongst some MDC leaders already, they deeply resent being held to account over their past performance. “I have been in the trench!” they would argue. The point exactly, after 19 years on the political stage, the party has failed to bring about even one democratic change!
President Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections, in keeping the Zanu PF tradition of holding on to power at all cost regardless of the people’s democratic wishes. The party have no clue what to do to ease the country’s worsening economic meltdown. The people, for their part, are desperate for a solution to ease their economic suffering; they are so desperate they are going out in the street knowing they risking being beaten and even being shot dead.
The only genuine attempt to find a way forward in Zimbabwe must be premised on talking truth to power. Zanu PF must be told in no uncertain terms that the party landed the nation in this mess because of 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule. And, of immediate importance, that the regime has no clue what to do to get the nation out of the mess and has no mandate to stay in power.
After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule Zanu PF must step down. It is not for Mnangagwa or anyone else in Zanu PF to decide what should happen next; the nation will decide that.
The only genuine solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is to be blunt, honest and speak truth to power: Zanu PF must go! After 38 years of appeasing the regime with the disastrous consequences we can all see, appeasement is now a luxury the nation can ill afford.
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"The Internet and social media shutdown has had the inevitable effect of stifling freedom of expression and the dissemination of information within and across the country's borders," said the cleric through the Tutu Leadership Fellows of the African Leadership Institute, a diverse group of civic, political and business leaders from 40 African countries, who are concerned with the governance and development of the continent.
"We call upon the…government to release all civic leaders and activists who have been arrested and detained over the protests. The duty to de-escalate the tensions rests in the hands of the government.
"We urge restraint by the…government in the handling of the situation and the treatment of …citizens. We also call upon the African Union to closely monitor the developments in Zimbabwe and make decisive interventions to ensure the respect for human rights and the rule of law within the mandate of its Charter.
"The Tutu Fellows stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe as they look forward to creating a better Zimbabwe for them and their children," Tutu Fellows said further.
Thank you Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Your support and words of wisdom are greatly appreciated especially by those whose situation is such they will never hear them but, one hopes, will benefit from is some way.
It saddens all thinking Zimbabweans that less than four decades ago all blacks were one in the fight to end white exploitation and oppression. The white had resorted to harassing, beating, arresting and even killing blacks in a futile attempt to silence all those crying out against the white racism and injustices.
Alas, we are today witnessing the same harassment, beatings, arrests and cold blooded murders perpetrated by blacks on fellow blacks. These are our brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts who are hunting us down and denying us our freedoms and basic human rights. There is nothing pleasant about being harassed, beaten, etc. but when it is being done by one of your own it is a stab and twist in the dagga!
Et tu, Brute?
Mnangagwa has cancelled trip to Davos to return home.
The only plus with him coming home is that the country will be saved million on the hired jet. His return will change nothing as the man has no clue what to do to revive Zimbabwe's economic fortunes.
Zimbabwe will struggle to get financial support from international financial institutions due to its high debt levels, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.
Gerry Rice, the IMF spokesperson, said the southern African country need policies that would stabilise the economy.
"I would say that of course Zimbabwe is facing major challenges and just in terms of the unrest, we encourage all stakeholders to collaborate peacefully in developing and implementing policies that will stabilise the economy and promote sustainable and inclusive growth," he said.
"On the overall economic situation, debt and the IMF, there has been no real change in what I have said here recently which is why Zimbabwe continues to be in a difficult situation regarding debt with protracted arrears to official creditors including multilateral creditors such as the World Bank which severely limits Zimbabwe's access to international financial support," Rice added.
"In terms of the IMF, Zimbabwe has, in fact, cleared its arrears to us, to the Fund, but our rules preclude lending to a country that is still in or under arrears to other international financial situations. So until that particular situation is resolved, we would not be moving forward with financial support for Zimbabwe.
By rigging last year’s elections Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. Investors have continued to shy away as they have done during Mugabe days. With no meaningful local and foreign investment Zimbabwe will never achieve any significant economic recovery. So the street protest triggered by economic meltdown will not stop.
We only way out of this mess is for Zanu PF to step down to allow the nation to appoint and interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
"Please don't turn back the clock!" tweeter Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.
Sadly, it is all too late, Mangagwa has already turned back the clock to the Ian Smith days when blacks were harassed, beaten, arrested and many killed for the sole purpose of maintaining the white colonial oppression and exploitation. Mnangagwa is harassing, beating, arresting and murdering people to silence dissent against the worsening economic situation and protests again rigged elections.
Harassment, beating, etc. are painful coming from whatever quarter but hurts even more when it comes from one's own.
Et tu Brute!
SOUTH Africa’s largest trade union, the Congress of South African Trade (COSATU) has reportedly thrown its weight behind a planned march by Zimbabweans living in that country on February 1, against the Zanu PF led government.
The march will be held in Pretoria as a follow up to the countrywide fatal protests held in the country last week following a 150 percent hike in fuel prices announced by the government.
Human rights activists have put the number of civilians killed during the protests at 12, including a police officer while about 800 people have been arrested.
It is all very well for Zimbabweans in the country and outside to call for Zanu PF to go but without thinking through what should happen next there is a real danger of some group of thugs hijacking the street protests and taking over power as happened a year ago with the Mnangagwa faction seizing power.
What Zimbabwe needs is to make sure the country implements all the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Nothing of substance will ever be accomplished until we end the corrupt autocracy Zanu PF fostered on the nation!
Zimbabwe is fast gaining a reputation as a nation of blunders, blundering from one world record blunder to the next. Here are some of the many blunders the nation has made in the last 40 years:
Gukurahundi “moment of madness” in which over 20 000 innocent and defenceless civilians were murdered by the Army for the sole purpose of establishing a de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship.
Violent seizure of the farms and other assets from the whites and perceived political opponents and critics by Zanu PF for political advantage resulting in the total collapse of the country’s once very productive agricultural sector.
The frantic printing of money as the answer to all the economic challenges fuelling the hyperinflation which peak at 500 billion per cent in 2008 when the Z$ was finally scrapped.
The blatant cheating and use of wanton violence in the 2008 elections. Even SADC and AU election observers known for approving some dodgy elections refuse to accept the Zanu PF victory as a true reflection of the democratic will of the people.
A year ago the country had a military coup which the incoming Mnangagwa government had the court rule as “legal. constitutional and justified”. Much as the world had wanted to turn a blind eye to the coup, after all it was booting out Mugabe who had rigged the elections to stay in power, the world could not turn another blind eye when Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections.
Unemployment has soared to 90%, 3/4 of the population now live on US$1.00 or less a day and most basic services such as health care have all but collapsed. What makes these economic figures even worse is that the country’s ruling elite are some of the wealthiest individuals in the world. The country University of Cambridge educated Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has just devised a 2% tax on electronic transaction aimed at raising $700 to $800 million per year from the country’s poorest and yet has left those costing the nation billions of dollars every month in lost diamond revenues untouched.
Zimbabwe has the most expensive fuel in the world.
“Zanu PF ndeye ropa!” (Zanu PF is a party of blood!) Zanu PF leaders have often boasted and the events of the last week have left no one in any doubt that this is not an empty boast!
After 38 years of blundering from pillar to post Zimbabwe is hurting to turn over a new leaf and do something right. Accepting that Zanu PF has failed is the first step in doing something right! Those who want Zanu PF to remain in office regardless of the mountain of evidence of Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence are doing so out of fear, they fear the regime will make the country ungovernable. To them I say “Zimbabwe is already ungovernable, the list of blunders above proves that point. We should be talking of finding a way out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF landed us in and not talking of excuses to stay put!”
This is really, really tragic that President Ramaphosa is still blubbering about sanction as the root cause of Zimbabwe's economic misfortune when he, of all people, should know that corruption is the biggest problem. Mugabe has admitted to the nation losing $15 billion in "swindled diamond revenue" in 2016. Mugabe never arrested even one swindler or recover one dollar in his year in office before he was booted out in the November 2017 military coup.
Mnangagwa said there would be "zero tolerance to corruption" and yet he too has not arrested one swindler or recovered one dollar. The diamond mining is still taking place and so too is the swindling!
President Ramaphosa's refusing to accept that Zanu PF rigged last July's elections, "elections went well", he insisted.
Zimbabwe's economy has no chance of any meaningful recovery as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Investors do not do business with thugs!
To say I am disappointed with President Ramamposa is an understatement. I never imagined that he would be this naive and incompetent. Never!
@ Professor J Moyo
5/10 It has become your modus operandi to use lethally armed soldiers for law enforcement. This is against domestic & international law. The Motlanthe Commission advised you on this but sadly its advice fell on your deaf ears. The army is an arm of war, not of law enforcement!
6/10 The wanton killings, brutal torture, rape & gruesome maiming of citizens with no access to treatment along with the internal displacement of persons & the siege of their homes, under the cover of an illegal Internet shutdown by your administration, were planned & systematic!
7/10 The savage violence against the people from 14 to 21 January, which include 6 days when citizens were not on the streets, was by the Army, Police, CIO agents & ZanuPF gangs who targeted your perceived political opponents. It was POLITICAL CLEANSING, a crime against humanity!
Professor Moyo all these you are saying are true and what is more they have been the norm in Zimbabwe for the last 38 years. In other words these things have been happening throughout the years you were in power at the very peak of your political power. You were Zanu PF’s chief strategist for decades, are you suggestion you did not know what the party was doing?
You, sir are a hypocrite, you are happily condemning Mnangagwa now because you are desperate for him to go so you can come back and take over from where he left!
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