Spotlight Zimbabwe’s report that Zimbabwe’s military thugs are now planning to remove Mnangagwa should be taken very seriously. After all these are the same thugs who staged the military coup in November 2017 and having got away with that coup they believe they will get away with another coup!
”Mnangagwa’s days in office are now numbered," wrote Spotlight Zimbabwe, quoting a military attache. "Most Zimbabweans are not aware that Mnangagwa's tenure as president was discussed before the November coup that toppled Mugabe.
“An elite delegation of military officers travelling with Chiwenga met with Chinese generals, who were told that the current leader will be in power for no more than three years. Our military sees him (Mnangagwa) as a stopgap measure for stability, and he is just but a figurehead with no real power. His presidency expires in 2020, and we are going to see a retired general taking over soon to finish his term, like what Mnangagwa did to Mugabe.
“The military general coming in will then lay the ground for a civilian leader agreed upon by the Joint Operations Command (JOC). They already have four former ministers’ names who served under Mugabe in mind. This is the shock you people can't see coming.”
According to Spotlight Zimbabwe, “intelligence information at hand also suggests that the army is reportedly not happy with Mnangagwa's failure to fix the economy and that he has allegedly been signing off the country's mineral resources and land assets for a song without their approval.”
The very fact that these military thugs expected Mnangagwa to revive the Zimbabwe economy after the November 2017 military coup proves just how naive these thugs are!
The confidence with which Mnangagwa launched his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra soon after the November 2017 coup left no one in any doubt that Mnangagwa and all those around him were 100% cocksure he would revive Zimbabwe’s economy. The team expected a flood of investors to answer his call.
Investors had shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe for decades because the country had earned a reputation as a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Therefore to attract investors back into the country it was clearly it was not enough to remove the old dictator Mugabe; Mnangagwa and his supporters were warned of this but would not listen.
The coup in November 2017 was above all about wrestling power from Mugabe who was threatening to hand it over to his wife and making sure power remained in the hands of the JOC junta. There was no way the JOC was going to risk life and limb in staging the coup and then lose power in free, fair and credible elections 8 months latter. The junta had no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections in 2018. None!
But by blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Mnangagwa et al confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state and all hope of any meaningful economic recovery evaporated.
Mnangagwa is a ruthless thug and there is absolutely nothing in his whole life to suggest the man had any common sense. The very fact that his November 2017 coup partners are disappointed he has failed to fix the economy only goes to show just how naive they are to have expected him to accomplish such a feat!
So now the same naive army personal are planning to replace Mnangagwa with a retired general in 2020 who will in turn be replaced by civilian in 2023. No doubt these army thugs are confident their political appointees will each make sure Zanu PF’s grip on power will remain unshaken and still deliver the elusive economic revival, Mnangagwa had failed. How naive!
For the umpteenth time, as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse!
There is growing national and international pressure to force this Mnangagwa Zanu PF regime to step down because everyone knows the party rigged last July’s elections.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report.
The country’s worsen economic situation is helping to pile on the pressure for Zanu PF to step down.
Indeed, those in the army thugs are talking of another coup precisely because they can see that Mnangagwa’s hold on power is slipping the worse economic situation gets. The army thugs are naive to believe their political appointee will do any better nor would he/she have time to prove otherwise.
Zimbabwe’s military thugs got away with the November 2017 military coup because the world was desperate to see the back of Mugabe; the world will not look so kindly to yet another coup particularly since the last coup failed to end the country’s curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Even leaders like President Cyril Ramaphosa of SA who have been bending over backward to give this Zanu PF regime some modicum of credibility by pretending last elections were free, fair and credible, would find it impossible to keep up the pretence!
The truth is Mnangagwa and his November 2017 putsch have failed to get away with that coup because they failed to stop the economic decline. “It is the economy, stupid!” as former US President Bill Clinton would say, that floored JOC junta. Staging a second coup would earn the coup plotters a hangman’s rope!
13 comments:
These Joint Operation Command thugs live in their own make believe world. They staged the November 2017 coup to make sure that the Zanu PF dictatorship remained in power with themselves at the heart of it so they can continue to loot and enjoy absolute power. Their naivety was in believing that the regime can continue in its wasteful and tyrannical ways and yet still revive the country's comatose economy. The root cause of the country's economic meltdown was the criminal waste of human and material resources under this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship and only an idiot would believe the country's economy would recover whilst the same criminal waste of resource is allowed to continue.
Mnangagwa thought he could keep the dictatorship and still deliver economic prosperity. After nearly a year and half in power, the penny has finally dropped that he cannot do it. His fellow coup plotter are now planning to have him removed from office and replaced by yet another thug who too believe he wiser than King Solomon; he believes he can keep the dictatorship in place and still deliver economic prosperity!
Well the nation and the world at large has run out of patience with this voodoo economics. Zanu PF rigged last year's elections and the regime must step down. Zanu PF does not have the divine right to govern the country and therefore the party must stop holding the nation to ransom!
@ Maseko
November 2017 coup was not lie. That Mnangagwa has failed to revive the economy is not a lie. The worsening economic meltdown has the junta worried that it will lose power and so it has every reason to boot out Mnangagwa in the hope that his successor will revive the economy.
The real lie here is that Zimbabwe can some how achieve a meaningful economic recovery whilst the country still remains a pariah state! Mnangagwa thought he could do so and now it is clear he could not! “Kupenga komupengo. Penga udzoke!” (This was all madness of a madman. Time has cured his madness!) as one would say in Shona.
@ Professor Mthuli Ncube
“Zimbabwe is on a journey of reform. Nobody ever said it wouldn’t be a bumpy ride; but the most important thing is that the journey has begun, and we are heading in the right direction.”
This are the rantings of a lunatic in love with hearing his own voice and does not care that what he is saying does not make any sense. The two biggest problems behind the country’s economic meltdown are corruption and lack of investor confidence. Professor Ncube has done nothing to address these two impostors and therefore it is nonsense for him to be talking about his reforms reviving the national economy.
Zimbabwe lost $15 billion in diamond revenue alone in 2010 to 2014, according to Mugabe’s own admission. He never arrested even one of the looters or recover one dollar. Mnangagwa vowed to have “zero tolerance to corruption” and yet he too has failed to arrest one looter and recover one dollar.
We know the looting is still going on because the looters continue to build palatial mansions, have a fleet of posh cars, have 45 gold watches, enjoy extravagant lifestyles, etc.
Investors have shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe because the country is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. Mnangagwa keeps wittering about Zimbabwe post November 2017 coup being a “new dispensation” a “second republic” as if it has shed-off its pariah state status. It is all aspirational rhetoric; Zimbabwe is no more a democracy that North Korea, insisting in calling itself a Democratic Republic has changed nothing.
The real tragedy for Zimbabwe is that the ordinary people are being forced to make more and more economic sacrifices for which they will be no gain because the ruling elite continue in their wasteful ways. The poor are breaking their backs push-starting a car up hill whose tank is empty and in the driver’s seat in a idiot who has the hand-break on and the car in reverse gear!
“We are heading in the right direction!” Indeed!
Well this reports confirms one thing, that the military junta ruling in Zimbabwe is now painfully aware that Mnangagwa has failed to delivery economic recovery and that the regime's hold on power is now under serious threat. The regime blatantly rigged last year's elections but has since learned that rigging economic recovery would be a bridge too far.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is serious, unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as health care have all but collapsed, etc. The situation is socially, morally and politically unsustainable. Zanu PF's hold on power is under serious threat and the junta is now aware of this and it the regime's own foolish way is proposing dumping Mnangagwa for a retired general. No doubt the retire general thinks he will wave his magic wand and Wallah Zimbabwe's economy will be thriving once again.
The people of Zimbabwe were foolish enough to see the replacement of Mugabe with Mnangagwa in the November 2017 coup as enough to bring about change; they will not make the same mistake again! This time the nation wants the dictatorship itself dismantled.
It was the gun that forced Ian Smith and his Rhodesia Front to give up power. It is the economy, not the corrupt and incompetent opposition, that is forcing Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to give up power. Rebuilding the shattered economy will be a challenge and a half!
Jonathan Moyo, Robert Mugabe, Grace Mugabe, Patrick Zhuwao and the rest of the G40 members have everything to worry about with talks of the Lacoste Zanu PF faction breaking up. Jonathan Moyo is smart enough to know the Lacoste faction is breaking up because it has failed to revive the country's economic meltdown. He knows that both the G40 and Lacoste factions are responsible for the economic meltdown and the nation's anger is directed at them both.
Whilst Lacoste faction did not declare an all out war against the G40 member after the November 2018 coup because Lacoste members did not want to incriminate themselves the same cannot be said of the next government to emerge after the collapse of Lacoste. To the ordinary Zimbabwean there is no difference between Lacoste and G40 members when it comes to looting and hence the reason Jonathan Moyo and Mnangagwa have every reason to worry the demise of the last Zanu PF faction.
When Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters seized power back in November 2017 they never doubted for even one minute that they would have any problems reviving the country's comatose economy. Indeed within days of being sworn president Mnangagwa was already flying all over the world and telling us "Zimbabwe was open for business!" He firmly believed that his taking over from Mugabe was in itself all the world needed to know to convinced it Zimbabwe had been transformed, the new dispensation was complete.
The expected flood of investors never happened because the world knew it would take a lot more than removing one dictator and replacing him with another dictator to change Zimbabwe from a pariah state to a democratic nation. Mnangagwa's coup plot partners accept the reality that Mnangagwa has failed to revive the economy and also accept the reality that the party is losing its iron grip on power because of its failure to revive the economy. The Joint Operation Command members are now saying that they will throw Mnangagwa under the bus rather than risk losing power.
What the junta members have failed to accept is that the people of Zimbabwe are not going to fall for the same trick, replacing Mnangagwa with a retired general will not be seen as progress as happened in November 2017. This time the nation want to have a meaningful say in who governs the nation.
Local government minister July Moyo has said government had put in place mechanisms to ensure that all donations received for Tropical Cyclone Idai victims are recorded and accounted for to ensure transparency and accountability.
He urged those donating to coordinate with government officials on the ground in order to ensure that donations are distributed equally among the affected.
Since when has Zanu PF ever accounted for anything? In last year’s elections ZEC was required by law to produce a verified voters’ roll at least one month before nomination day. It has never produced the verified voters’ roll even to this day. The Con-Court was very careful to call for sealed ballot box evidence, “primary source evidence”, in the election result challenge but never to demand to see that evidence because a close examination of the voters’ roll in each box would have uncovered the shambolic state of the roll and hence the reason why ZEC refused to release it!
The only mechanism Zanu PF has established will be to ensure all help is distributed by party officials through official party structures and all recipients of the help are left in no doubt that without the party’s help they will get nothing. This was the same mechanism used by the party during last year’s elections as noted by election observers.
“Observers widely reported on efforts to undermine the free expression of the will of electors, through inducements, intimidation and coercion against prospective voters to try to ensure a vote in favour of the ruling party. Such practices also included direct threats of violence, pressure on people to attend rallies, partisan actions by traditional leaders, collection of voter registration slips and other measures to undermine confidence in the secrecy of the vote, manipulation of food aid and agricultural programmes and other misuses of state resources,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report.
So Minister Moyo, please do not insult our intelligence, the mechanism you have established is to make sure Zanu PF controls all the donations and the party has an excuse to pressure everyone to use the party structures.
After 37 years of Mugabe's corrupt and tyrannical rule most people were pleased to see the dictator go. The nation was stampeded into supporting Mnangagwa and his Lacoste faction when Grace Mugabe was presented as the alternative.
VP Chiwenga can see that Mnangagwa has failed to deliver any meaningful economic recovery and staging another coup to remove him would be a clever move just as the November 2017 was a clever move designed to blame Mugabe for all Zanu PF's failures. I do not think the people will buy that it is only Mnangagwa who blamed and more significantly that VP Chiwenga will do any better!
Chiwenga is comrade disaster!
Although China has never imposed sanctions of any nature on Zimbabwe it has, nonetheless, refused to give Zimbabwe soft loans and the lines of credit the country has been asking for, for the same reasons the IMF and WB cut the loans and lines of credit to Zimbabwe as far back as 2000 - Zimbabwe does not pay back its debts. It should be noted that the IMF and WB stopped lending money to Zimbabwe a year before the US government imposed these ZIDERA sanctions.
Zanu PF's cheating and wanton violence in 2008 Zimbabwe elections were so bad that not even SADC and AU election observers would endorse the process as free and fair. SADC forced Mugabe to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging future elections. The Government of Nation Unity of Zanu PF and two MDC factions led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai was formed and given the task to implement the reforms. Sadly, MDC leaders sold-out and failed to get even one reform implemented.
SADC leaders did not want the 2013 elections in Zimbabwe to go ahead without first implementing the reforms but once again MDC leaders ignored the sound advice. Why President Cyril Ramaphosa has endorse last year's rigged elections contrary to SADC leaders' own position of 2013 beggars belief.
Why President Ramaphosa blames sanctions and not corruption for Zimbabwe's economic ills is yet another mystery!
It is ironic that the Chinese have had a more meaningful say in the governance of Zimbabwe than most Zimbabweans.
The failure by Zanu PF to deliver a half decent economy in the face of all the country's vast wealth and potential have left the ordinary people with no choice but to demand change even in the face of brutal repression. China's iron grip on Zimbabwe is weakening just as Zanu PF's iron grip on the country is weakening.
The Chinese, for whatever reasons, have failed to honour all the mega deals they promised Mnangagwa when he seized power from Mugabe. And now Mnangagwa's own fellow coup plotters are admitting that he has failed to deliver on the economic recovery and the pressure on the regime to go is growing by the day. China will no doubt sign another tranche of mega deals with Chiwenga if he seized power but the people of Zimbabwe will not care, they want Zanu PF to go!
"We will not get into the streets and go out without achieving our goal. Be prepared for action, Masvingo get ready. We want to see everyone from Masvingo in Harare when we give the green light. We are not going back because we know who the people voted for. If we do not defend the people's vote, we risk having a situation where no one will vote for us in future elections because they will say we vote for you and you do not defend our vote," said Chamisa.
Zimbabwe is in a real economic and political mess, of that there is no doubt. On the economic front unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%, basic services such as the supply of clean running water and health care have all but collapsed, etc.
On the political front the country has a corrupt and vote rigging ruling party being aided and abated by now other than the opposition. The opposition had five years to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and they failed to get even one reform implemented.
Chamisa keeps wittering about being the winner of last year’s presidential elections although all the respectable election observers have condemned the elections as flawed and illegal. Zec failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. Why any opposition candidate took part in such a meaningless process beggars belief.
Both ZEC on behalf of Mangagwa and Chamisa have failed to produce the V11 forms, the summary sheets of the votes count at each polling station to justify the votes they claim to have won. So no one has ever verified their claim; they expect the people to take their word for it!
Zimbabwe should be focused on getting Zanu PF to step down and getting and interim administration to implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible. Instead the nation is wasting time on Chamisa’s childish blubbering!
“We are not going back because we know who the people voted for!” Why did you fail to produce the V11 so people can see for themselves where the 2.5 million votes you say you got came from! All Chamisa care about is for him to get on the gravy train; he does not care about the country ending the curse of rigged elections and end the economic meltdown!
@ Renagade
When Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters seized power back in November 2017 they never doubted for even one minute that they would have any problems reviving the country's comatose economy. Indeed within days of being sworn president Mnangagwa was already flying all over the world and telling us "Zimbabwe was open for business!" He firmly believed that his taking over from Mugabe was in itself all the world needed to know to convinced it Zimbabwe had been transformed, the new dispensation was complete.
The expected flood of investors never happened because the world knew it would take a lot more than removing one dictator and replacing him with another dictator to change Zimbabwe from a pariah state to a democratic nation. Mnangagwa's coup plot partners accept the reality that Mnangagwa has failed to revive the economy and also accept the reality that the party is losing its iron grip on power because of its failure to revive the economy. The Joint Operation Command members are now saying that they will throw Mnangagwa under the bus rather than risk losing power.
What the junta members have failed to accept is that the people of Zimbabwe are not going to fall for the same trick, replacing Mnangagwa with a retired general will not be seen as progress as happened in November 2017. This time the nation want to have a meaningful say in who governs the nation.
Why is this a binary choice of either Mnangagwa or Chiwenga? Why are we not allowed to look beyond these two? The two rigged last year's elections and imposed themselves on the nation just as Mugabe and Mnangagwa had rigged past elections to impose Zanu PF on the nation.
Unless we break the mold, dismantle the corrupt and oppressive de facto one-party state we will forever be stuck with Zanu PF or, at the very best, one corrupt and incompetent opposition party after another as has happened in other nation that have removing the post independent ruling party but failed to dismantle the dictatorship.
If Zanu PF, in one form or other, is allowed to remain in power until 2023 then the de facto dictatorship will never be dismantled even if Zanu PF as a party was to lose the 2023 elections! If there was ever a time for the people to look beyond the here and now, this is that time!
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