The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accused Mnangagwa of having an "infantile and embarrassing love of flying.”
Well if the truth is to be told Zimbabwe’s leaders’ love of the gravy train extravagant lifestyle is insatiable and is so infections anyone in any position of power and authority has the bug! It is all very well for Jacob Mafume to be blubbering about about Mnangagwa’s “infantile and embarrassing love of flying” and yet during the 2008 to 2013 GNU his party said nothing because all the MDC leaders had their snouts in the feeding trough. Indeed, they were so engrossed in the gravy train spoils of power they failed to implement even one democratic reform!
Last year’s elections should have never taken place, not without first implementing the democratic reform necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Zanu PF was cunning enough to offer a few gravy train seats and all the goodies that go with it as bait. The opposition candidates were tripping over each other to join the rat race.
Even when it was evident that Zanu PF had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, it was not going to force the glassy-eyed opposition from contesting. Greed had everyone in the opposition camp like fleas in a chicken coop.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” confessed David Coltart in his book The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
David Coltart was a senior MDC-N leader and Minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The flawed and illegal election process he was talking about was for the 2013 elections. It was greed that stopped him and his fellow opposition members from doing “the obvious”.
Instead of admitting that it was greed that drove the opposition to go for the gravy train scraps Zanu PF was offering at the expense of the all important national goal of free, fair and credible elections; he offered a feeble excuse. Blaming lack of unity and mistrust for their insatiable greed!
Indeed, the MDC factions did unite just before the 2018 elections and there was no talk of boycotting the elections then. It was as clear as day that Zanu PF was going to blatantly rig the 2018 elections as the party had rigged the 2013 elections.
Many MDC members had lost their gravy train seats in the 2013 elections and the intervening five years had turned their glassy-eyes into flaring match-sticks. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was ever going to stop them participating in the 2018 elections regardless how flawed and illegal! And lo-behold, nothing did!
The MDC's Harare East MP Tendai Biti said on Twitter: "The usurper declares two days of mourning. Our people did not require mourning, they required effective disaster management. They required schools to be closed and communities evacuated. This did not happen. Then the usurper has the indecency of running away during mourning.”
Yes oh wise one but why are you so keen in bolting the stable when the horse has already bolted. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs would not be in power today if you and your MDC friends had implemented the reforms designed to stop the regime rigging the elections.
Indeed the country would have made significant progress in forcing Mnangagwa and his junta to step down since last year’s rigged elections was it not for MDC confusing the issue with this stupid claim that Chamisa won the presidential race. Of course, it is a stupid claim because everyone with half a brain agrees the election process was flawed and illegal and therefore it is nonsense for such a process to produce a legal result.
The only reason Chamisa has refused to give up this totally irrational claim is greed. He does not care that 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote (37%, give there were 5 million registered voters), there was no verified voters' roll, etc. as long as he secured a gravy train seat.
Every time MDC leaders read of Zanu PF leaders' extravagant lifestyle their blood boils with envy. They only condemn the extravagance to please the naive and gullible electorate who have failed to notice MDC leaders' greed even after the events of the GNU years!
So instead of advising Mnangagwa and his corrupt and incompetent ministers at every turn, especially when we all know they never listen to anyone anyway; Tendai Biti should do something useful for a change - shut up.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders like David Coltart, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, etc. into power on the understanding they will bring about the democratic changes the nation has been dying for. After 19 years on the political stage MDC leaders have failed to bring about even one meaningful democratic change. Not one!
Whilst MDC leaders were once seen as part of the solution they are now part of the problem; they are corrupt and incompetent just as Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical.
The solution to Zimbabwe’s problem of 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF is that the party must step down. It rigged last year’s elections and therefore has no mandate to govern. As for Chamisa and his MDC Alliance; they should shut up; they are corrupt and incompetent and make a lot of noise!
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MDC leaders are right in condemning Mnangagwa's "infantile love of flying" but the truth is the nation would not be stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship if MDC leaders themselves had no been guilty of the insatiable greed for gravy train extravagant lifestyle. MDC failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU because their had their snouts buried in the feeding trough they had no time for little else!
MDC leaders are condemn Mnangagwa's extravagant gravy train lifestle out of envy, they wish they were on the gravy train too, and not out of concerned for public well being!
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has hired a luxurious private jet for his trips locally and regionally, with the Airbus A318-100 being kept on standby ahead of his trip to South Africa tomorrow.
Mnangagwa is certainly spending a lot of man-years globe-trotting at great expense to the nation. He is doing nothing when he is home and he that does not change when he is out of the country. The only reason why people want him to stay at home is that he is not spending millions then on the endless but useless trips!
The Standard reports that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has hired a luxurious private jet for over a week. The Standard interviewed George Charamba who said that the jet which was hired from Dubai at the cost of $12,500 an hour, remained in Zimbabwe on standby for a trip to South Africa by Emmerson Mnangagwa this week.
Said Charamba:
Then coming to the Bulawayo issue, the aircraft you are talking about came in on Thursday and has been here preparing to take the president to South Africa for the Sadc Solidarity Conference on Western Sahara, scheduled for 25-26 March 2019 in Pretoria.
“We booked the aircraft to be here until it brings back the president from the summit on Tuesday. If you were going to check, the aircraft is currently at the tarmac of the domestic flights and it is cheaper to hire the aircraft for days than to hire it on the day when the president wants to fly out.
Let me pre-empt you; I know you would want to ask why not use scheduled flights for the president. Here is the tricky issue. One, it is very risky to do that for both the president and the airline. In this case, we are talking of a national airline which has one aircraft to service all its routes. If the president was to use a scheduled flight, it means that all the luggage in that flight will be opened and subjected to search by our security systems
This does not make any sense because:
1) There is no doubt that Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him has been bitten by the travel-bug, there is no way he would be doing so if he was paying the bill out of his own pocket.
2) Even if one was to put aside whether all these trips are necessary, surely there must be other cheaper ways. How much would it have costed the nation to ask the national airline to fit in an unscheduled flight just to carry the President and his entourage? The money the government is paying for the hired Jet for this trip alone would have paid the wages of a standby crew for the national airline for the whole year!
3) Zimbabwe is a poor country facing teething economic problems for which the country is failing to deal with such as food aid, shortages of medicine, the aid to help the Cyclone Idai victims, etc. Whilst outsiders have stepped in to help the extravagant lifestyle of Mnangagwa and this government has left a bitter taste in the mouth of donors. If the country has money to splash on luxury jets, palatial mansions for the ruling elite, posh limos for ministers, etc.; surely it must have enough money to help the millions of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty. Zimbabwe’s greatest problem is certainly not that the country is poor but that it has its priorities upside down and inside out!
4) It is for the people of Zimbabwe to step up and do something to remove this corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and utterly useless Zanu PF regime that has dragged the nation into this hell-on-earth mess. As long as Zanu PF is able to rig the elections there is no hope of ever removing the regime from power even after 38 years of ruinous and murderous misrule. Zanu PF must be pressured to step down a.s.a.p. and certainly before the 2023 elections. Or else the nightmare of the last 38 years will continue and only get worse!
The post-Robert Mugabe administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa fancies itself a new dispensation. That is a useless fantasy, of course. Things are as old in the "new" administration as they ever were, sometimes worse.
Thank you Tawanda for the warning! Zanu PF is still the party of corrupt and murderous thugs, nothing has not changed.
I will say this for the umpteenth time, Zanu PF must be forced to step down, the party rigged last year's elections and therefore has no mandate to govern the country. If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023, the party will rig those elections and we will be in the same position we are in right now - stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime!
In its flagship report released Saturday, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said slowing economic growth, deteriorating terms of trade (as commodity prices fell), loosening fiscal policies and re-evaluation of cross-border risks in international financial markets have made debt servicing by African governments more difficult.
Zimbabwe, alongside Chad, Mozambique, South Sudan and Sudan, are in debt distress. Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central Africa Republic, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritania, São Tomé and Zambia have a high risk of debt distress.
Zimbabwe’s GDP has shrunk a great deal especially in the period 2000 to 2010 when the country’s agriculture and commerce and industry shrunk by 50 to 80%. It is little wonder the nation was unable to service’s loans and hence the debt distress. This was made worse by the country’s mountain of debt, Zanu PF had been borrowing and spending as if there was no tomorrow but with very little to show for it.
Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube has increased the tax base by introducing adding the 2% tax on all electronic transactions above $10, the jury is yet to decide whether this has increased the government revenue because the its introduction has also resulted in a 16% drop in economic activities.
The government should be looking at increasing GDP by reviving economic production as a way of increasing revenue. This is proving impossible whilst the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs! Zimbabwe needs meaningful political reform to end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Those, like Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube who think the country can achieve meaningful economic recovery whilst it remains a pariah state are naive!
“It is clear Mnangagwa would rather be anywhere else than be here at home, where people are crying out for leadership. Zimbabweans deserve a leader who will put them first,” said Jacob Mafume, MDC Alliance spokesperson.
Well said Comrade Mafume but will that do anything to get Mnangagwa and Zanu PF out of office? The answer is no. There is nothing of note that MDC has said or done for the last 19 years to end Zanu PF’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. The nation is desperate for solution(s) out of this hell and not more and more grandstanding rhetoric and posturing!
If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power until 2023, the party will rig those elections as readily as it rigged last year's elections. Our greatest challenge now is to make sure Zanu PF steps down a.s.a.p. to allow the nation the time and space to implement the reforms necessary to stop it rigging the next elections! Zimbabweans must now think seriously about how they are going to get Zanu PF to step down. We already know that Mnangagwa is corrupt, incompetent and, worst of all, that he will stop at nothing to rig elections and stay in power. If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power until 2023, the party will rig those elections as readily as it rigged last year's elections. Our greatest challenge now is to make sure Zanu PF steps down a.s.a.p. to allow the nation the time and space to implement the reforms necessary to stop it rigging the next elections!
Zimbabweans must now think seriously about how they are going to get Zanu PF to step down. We already know that Mnangagwa is corrupt, incompetent and, worst of all, that he will stop at nothing to rig elections and stay in power.
"The ZCTU is the one that organised the very successful shutdown, but then the authorities thought it was us the children who had organised that mistaking a child for the mother but I can tell you when we organise it will be bigger, it is true there were some people who became violent but that does not take away the people's right to demonstrate, unions world over are there to represent the people and the ZCTU did the right thing," said Chamisa.
Apparently, in preparation for possible demonstrations Mnangagwa recently revealed that his government will acquire anti-riot gear for the police.
The Zanu-PF leader who only a fortnight ago confessed to having deployed the army that killed civilians on August 1 last year and in mid-January this year said he only deployed the feared military because the police were ill-equipped to contain the demonstrations, "the only people we can call in is the army to stop the destruction and bring law and order".
In a country with 90% unemployment rate, where basic services such as health care have all but completely collapsed, etc. the people have good reasons to be bitter. Whilst one readily acknowledges the need for the demos to press for meaningful economic change one is loathed to join MDC Alliance’s demos because they are NOT going to deliver any economic change.
Chamisa’s primary concern is to pressure Mnangagwa to give him a seat on the gravy train. He has not said how that will help revive the country’s economy, other than the suggestion that he and his MDC Alliance members have more economic acumen than the blundering Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies. MDC give the example of the economic recovery during the last GNU as proof of their competency in running the nation’s affairs.
The truth of the matter is the economic recovery during the 2008 GNU was largely due to the scrapping of the Z$, removal of price controls and a few other common sense policies. The economic recovery of 2008 cannot be repeated again because things are different.
The single most important impetus for meaningful economic recovery this time has to be the ending of the curse of rigging elections and pariah state. Including Chamisa in the pariah state will do nothing to change the character of the regime.
Neither Zanu PF nor MDC have a solution to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. The solution is for Zanu PF to step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the reforms for free and fair elections. Zanu PF and MDC had the chance to implement the said reforms during the 2008 GNU but failed to get even one reform implemented; it is naïve to think they will do so now.
A thematic committee of the political parties established to identify a mediator failed to reach consensus, and has advised Mnangagwa to "urgently convene a high-level meeting of political party leaders to resolve this impasse through consensus," the document says.
Zimbabweans have become experts at wasting time. Mnangagwa’s inter-party dialogue is a waste of time just as his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a waste of time.
Investors had shied away from investing in Zimbabwe because the country was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. All Mnangagwa did in the November 2017 military coup was remove Mugabe, the top dog in the Zanu PF dictatorship, and replacing him with himself, Mugabe’s number two. For him to then believe that change was enough to open the flood gate of investors only showed how little he understood the problems in Zimbabwe. He is making the same foolish mistake again.
By blatantly rigging last year’s elections Mnangagwa has confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state. The idea that Zimbabwe will somehow cleanse itself of the pariah state status if it formed some unity government including the corrupt, incompetent and compromised opposition is laughable!
Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, it is illegitimate. Forget the nonsense from the boastful Chamisa saying he will give Mnangagwa legitimacy. It is only the people of Zimbabwe in a free and fair election who can give legitimacy!
The only way out of this mess is for Zanu PF to step down and allow the nation to implement the democratic reforms leading to free, fair and credible elections.
Meanwhile, a Mauritius based firm, Afrigran Trading, has terminated its cereal supply contract with National Foods Limited (Natfoods) after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) failed to honour a US$55 million debt on behalf of the local agro-processing firm.
RBZ, which is battling a foreign currency crunch, assumed the debt after entering into an agreement with Natfoods, which paid the full amount owed to Afrigran Trading to RBZ.
This Zanu PF regime keeps saying that it is making progress and yet every indicator shows the country is nose-dive into the abyss. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the nose-dive into the abyss will continue because no investor will want to do business with thugs!
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