Tyrannical regimes have no respect of the law, fact, truth and reality. They will ignored well established historic facts that do not suit their narrative. In his recent article, “US sanctions shatter Zim's economic revival roadmap”, Elijah Chihota, a well known Zanu PF apologist, has been distorting historic facts to blame Zimbabwe’s economic mess on sanctions.
“By addressing the land question to correct colonial historical land imbalances, Zimbabwe seemed to have stepped on a lion's tail as Britain sounded the trumpet of distress,” wrote Chihota.
“Zimbabwe never interfered with the USA business interests, but because of the above dispute with Britain, the US took sides with the country's former colonisers. The result was the imposition of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) of December 2001. With it came the so called "targeted sanctions" which are not targeted after all but affect all people even those not on the sanctions list.”
There are a number of historic facts that Chihota has air-brushed out which must be reinstated.
- When the West imposed the targeted sanctions, they said these were imposed as punishment on the Zanu PF leaders for denying ordinary Zimbabweans their basic human freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life. Whilst it is highly probable that the West had another ulterior motives for imposing the sanctions, still it cannot be denying that Zanu PF was riding roughshod of the ordinary people. For the regime to belittle its corrupt and tyrannical rule is therefore to rub hot chilli into the open wounds it had inflicted on the long suffering masses.
- By 2001, the time the sanctions were imposed, the Zimbabwe economy was already in serious trouble. The country had already gone through two five-year economic reform programmes designed to revive the economy. The programmes failed to revive the economy because Zanu PF never implement the core reforms called for such as the reduction of the country’s bloated army, civil service and cabinet, end the mismanagement and corruption, etc. Indeed these core economic structural problems have remained to this day or be it have grown worse. Corruption, for example, has become so rampant the country lost $15 billion of diamond revenue alone in 2010 to 2014, according to Mugabe’s own admission.
- During the 2008 to 2013 GNU the Zimbabwe economy registered a 12% growth rate after a decade of economic decline. The country scrapped the Z$, after inflation had soared to a record 500 billion per cent, and one or two other things was enough to restore some order and sanity. The sanctions remained in place throughout the GNU and yet the country enjoyed so economic recovery; proof that sanctions are not the ones fuelling the economic meltdown.
- The Americans promised to lift all the sanctions if Mnangagwa honoured his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018. And they explained to him what exactly they were looking for. They wanted to see the 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora allowed to vote; a free public media; etc.; etc. Mnangagwa failed to deliver on any of these things and so the Americans are right to retain the sanction. Every Zimbabwean who appreciates the importance of ending the curse of rigged elections as the key to good governance, welcomes that decision.
- As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery. Investors do not do business with thugs for obvious reasons, they do not trust the thugs, there are too many risks, etc. Whilst Zanu PF can deny the reality, what the regime cannot do however is change reality. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is real and cannot be wished away.
“Learning from yesterday, today acts prudently lest by his actions he spoils the future.” This is the message encapsulated in Tiziano Vecelli’s (Titian) great painting, The Allegory of Age Governed by Prudence.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for 38 years Zanu PF has denied the nation the opportunity to learn from the past. We must change this here and now or we will continue to forfeit our chance get out of the mess and build a better and brighter future for ourselves and posterity.
Mnangagwa and Zanu PF rigged last July’s elections, the regime has no mandate to govern and it must therefore step down. If Mnangagwa et al are still in office in 2023; we can be certain of one thing - they will rig the 2023 elections and extend their corrupt and tyrannical rule. We must not let that happen!
10 comments:
You should respect historic facts. Zimbabwe's economy was already in trouble by December 2001 when the sanctions were imposed. Zimbabwe had two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP) to revive the economy but they both failed to do so because Zanu PF failed to implement the core reforms.
During the 2008 to 2013 the country enjoyed some modest recovery when the country scrapped the Z$ to end the 500 billion per cent hyper inflation. The sanction remain in place then; proof the economic meltdown had nothing to do with the sanctions.
Sanctions are serving a very useful purpose of piling the pressure on Zanu PF to step down, the regime rigged last year's elections and therefore has no mandate top govern. If Zanu PF is still in power by 2023 then the party will rig that year's elections just as readily as it rigged last year's elections. We must not let that happen!
@ Den Moyo
“Then Ncube went on a tirade like a small kid in a candy store describing the vast riches found in Zimbabwe. He talked of how the entire country was laying on gold reserves, diamonds all over with kids using them as stones to hit birds, chrome, lithium, etc. Then in that same statement, he denied that corruption was rife in the country, stating that corruption was being overplayed as the government was poor and there was nothing to steal in the country. Really, after all that hullabaloo about how rich the country was?” you said.
Ncube has introduced the 2% electronic transaction tax to target the country’s ¾ of the population in the informal sector, the street vendors, living on US$ 30 per month because they were not paying income tax. He has done nothing to recovery the $15 billion looted from the diamond industry alone. Of course, he knows that corruption is rampant; he has seen Chiwenga, Mnangagwa and the other Zanu PF bigwigs’ palatial mansions, fleet of posh cars, their extravagant life styles, etc. He is smart enough to know there are some things that are not to be talked about corruption in high places is one of the taboo subjects!
“Our advice to Mthuli Ncube is to stop wasting our precious time until he is ready to treat us as equals and listen to what we have to say than talk down to us as though we are ignorant.”
That was very sound advice, it is a pity you are talking to a brick wall. Professor Mthuli Ncube is one of many Zimbabwe professionals who know that Mnangagwa rigged the elections but will pretend the elections were free, fair and credible because he wants to keep his cushy job. Zimbabwe has more than its fair share of the Judas Iscariot of this world, they will sell their own mothers for a price and be proud they had a mother to sell.
As long as we have sell-outs like Ncube willing to prop up tyrannical regimes it is going to be a real struggle to end this Zanu PF dictatorship, now that it has taken root!
People should not confuse what Kirsty Coventry did in the swimming pool with what she is doing now, especially when it must be remembered she is propping up a regime everyone has said rigged last year's elections! I do not care how many Olympic medals she has won that does not give her the right to sell-out!
This comes after South African media reported in December last year that Pretoria had turned down a request from Mnangagwa’s administration for a US$1,2 billion bailout.
But South Africa’s Finance minister, Tito Mboweni — who accompanied Ramaphosa to the Harare BNC — later confirmed that Pretoria was indeed considering financial assistance to Zimbabwe.
The country’s International Relations minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, also weighed in subsequently — saying Ramaphosa’s government would grant Zimbabwe the bailout that it sorely needed to address its deepening economic crisis which triggered riots in January this year.
“We will help Zimbabwe as and when we are able to. If there’s anything we can’t do, I’m sure they can find help from other international parties.
“But they are our sister country and we’d like to help solve their problems. Any assistance we can afford, we’d like to provide it,” Sisulu, who was also part of Ramaphosa’s delegation to Harare, said.
Last month, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube also confirmed that Zimbabwe was seeking assistance from its biggest trading partner.
In a joint communique which was issued after yesterday’s meeting between Mnangagwa and Ramaphosa, the two leaders also said they were looking at increasing a standing credit facility between the central banks of the two countries — under whose facility Zimbabwe can access R100 million from the South African Reserve Bank.
“Other financing options beyond this are also being explored, for example, a facility from South African private banks to the Zimbabwean private sector and guaranteed by the South African government with an appropriate counter-guarantee from the Zimbabwean government,” the communique said.
In addition, Ramaphosa bluntly demanded that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his under pressure government provide a safe and conducive investment climate for South African companies operating in Zimbabwe.
Speaking earlier, Ramaphosa told the BNC that Zimbabwe, which also faces a severe drought this year, was worthy of the international community’s support to help revive its economy — repeating his previous calls for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.
“We want to see meaningful support being given by international development partners to Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe does deserve the support that the world can give,” said Ramaphosa.
Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections and everyone knows that including President Cyril Ramaphosa and as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country will never register any meaningful economic recovery.
Preside Ramaphosa can call for sanctions to be lifted and for “meaningful support” for Zimbabwe until he is coal-black in the face no one is going to listen to him. If SA was money to waste propping a corrupt regime, that is his democratic right to do so. He will not do this for long, that much is obvious, Zimbabwe has no problem spending money. What President Ramaphosa cannot do is tell other sovereign nation to join him in throwing good money into a black hole.
As a Zimbabwe, I do not thank President Ramaphosa for insult all the people in Zimbabwe fighting for meaningful democratic change by insisting last year’s rigged elections is the best we should aspire for. How patronizing!
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals Chief Executive Officer, Mr Zigora said it was difficult for Zimbabwe to make any procurement and purchase of medical supplies and sundries outside Zimbabwe as suppliers are rejecting money from Zimbabwe be it USD or not.
Meanwhile, the situation at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) has deteriorated beyond comprehension with evidence on the ground showing that the institution has recorded several fatalities in the maternity, burns, cancer and emergency wards over the past few months.
When HealthTimes visited the institution on the side-lines of the ongoing industrial action by senior doctors and consultants, hundreds of desperate patients were waiting in the waiting bays amidst indications that some had travelled from places as far as Masvingo, Kotwa among others only to be told to return home as doctors were only attending to emergency cases.
Senior doctors and consultants concurred that the situation at Parirenyatwa was no longer tenable and they vowed not resume normal work until the plea to address the equipment, drug and sundries issue has been resolved.
According to consultants, nurses in the burns wards are now forced to recycle and wash bandages for reuse owing to shortages of bandages, a situation which has seen patients succumbing to various infections while many fatalities have occurred as a result.
Dr Faith Muchemwa a plastic surgeon with Parirenyatwa Hospitals said a number of patients have died over the past few months from infections arising from burns and lack of sundries.
“There are no bandages in the burns wards, nurses are now washing bandages, those that would have even used before, just to ensure they cover the burns. However, a number of infections are being recorded from since
“Yes there may be issues of sanctions and foreign currency issues but there must be ways of managing these issues. I have said I want a healthcare team who are well supported and this is why i then decided that we have a forum where we can meet. When i was CEO of Chitungwiza Hospital, I could hear everything everyday and I would act swiftly, i like the same to happen here.
“If we feel like we have to change management, we will do it, we do not want to relax and sleep on the job, we have to perform. I was telling the Health Services board (HSB) that we need those performance appraisals. We might have sanctions and foreign currency issues but we need to be innovative and get around these challenges,” said Dr Moyo
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals Chief Executive Officer, Mr Zigora said it was difficult for Zimbabwe to make any procurement and purchase of medical supplies and sundries outside Zimbabwe as suppliers are rejecting money from Zimbabwe be it USD or not.
Meanwhile, the situation at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) has deteriorated beyond comprehension with evidence on the ground showing that the institution has recorded several fatalities in the maternity, burns, cancer and emergency wards over the past few months.
When HealthTimes visited the institution on the side-lines of the ongoing industrial action by senior doctors and consultants, hundreds of desperate patients were waiting in the waiting bays amidst indications that some had travelled from places as far as Masvingo, Kotwa among others only to be told to return home as doctors were only attending to emergency cases.
Senior doctors and consultants concurred that the situation at Parirenyatwa was no longer tenable and they vowed not resume normal work until the plea to address the equipment, drug and sundries issue has been resolved.
According to consultants, nurses in the burns wards are now forced to recycle and wash bandages for reuse owing to shortages of bandages, a situation which has seen patients succumbing to various infections while many fatalities have occurred as a result.
Dr Faith Muchemwa a plastic surgeon with Parirenyatwa Hospitals said a number of patients have died over the past few months from infections arising from burns and lack of sundries.
“There are no bandages in the burns wards, nurses are now washing bandages, those that would have even used before, just to ensure they cover the burns. However, a number of infections are being recorded from since these bandages won’t be that clean and at times there is no detergents to wash the bandages.
“We are not on strike, it is our desire to strike, we only can’t work under the current conditions, there is no water there is no soap sometimes to disinfect our hands during surgery. We are saying could we cut our cloth according to the material that we have.
“We only here that supplies are only two weeks strong now, so let’s put our heads together and say what can we do with what we have, things are bad and for me it is just very difficult to proceed under the current situation,” said Dr Wazara.
If things are this bad in a big referral hospital like Parerenyatwa how much worse in the small provincial hospitals and worse still rural hospitals! Like it or not the health services in Zimbabwe has all but completely collapsed!
This is really tragic! What makes our situation even more infuriating is that we have a regime that continues to waste money on the filthy rich ruling elite whilst starving the rest of the population of funds for the life and death necessities. A few weeks ago Zanu PF leaders took delivery of new trucks, a few weeks earlier Ministers had just received their new limos, in January Mnangagwa was on a jaunty on a hired jet costing US$25 million for ten days, etc.
The people are stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical regime as it is able to rig elections and use brute force to beat the people into submission. What a nightmare!
The tragic reality in Zimbabwe is that the ordinary people are caught between the rock and the deep blue sea with Zanu PF on the one hand and MDC Alliance on the other. Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections. The election process had so many flaws, irregularities and illegalities it is nonsense for anyone to claim they won those elections.
ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters' roll and failed to release a number of the V11 forms giving a summary of the polling station vote count for the individual candidate although these are all legal requirements, for example.
“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 Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission in its final report.
So Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta have no mandate to govern and they should step down.
Instead of the nation focusing all its energy on putting pressure on Zanu PF to step down the nation is being diverted by Chamisa confused call. He is accepting the results of parliamentary race but rejecting the presidential race. How he has done this is a mystery since it was the same ZEC, same unverified voters’ roll, same unreleased V11 forms, etc. involved in both races. Zanu PF has taken full advantage of the confusion Chamisa has created to reassert the whole election was free, fair and credible and the party’s candidates have the electoral mandate to govern.
Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa do not care that the electoral process was flawed and illegitimate as long as they are declared the winner. In other words, both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance do not care that 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, rural voters were frog marched to attend Zanu PF rallies and then to vote for the party, etc. as long as they secure a seat on the gravy train which is why failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the last GNU. It would be naïve to trust these two to implement any reforms now hence the reason the nation is caught between the rock and the deep blue sea.
ZIMBABWE'S trade opened the year in the negative, registering a $44,2 million deficit in January, latest data from the statistics agency has shown.
Figures released by the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZimStat) show that in January, the country imported goods and services worth $336,8 million against exports of $292,6 million.
However, the trade figures for January 2018 are still not available as the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, which is the source of merchandise trade data, has not provided them, according to ZimStat.
The bulk of the country's imports in the period under review remained heavily skewed towards consumptive products, which comprise fuel, wheat, medicines and vehicles, while exports were gold, flue-cured tobacco, nickel and chrome, among others.
The top four imports in the period under review were ranked as diesel, which guzzled $61 million, followed by unleaded petrol at $36m, aviation spirit ($9,6m) and durum wheat ($7,6m).
Where is the figure for the diamonds? In 2012 Edward Chindori-Chininga, former Zanu PF minister of mines, reported that there were no record of the quantity and quality of diamonds being mined in Marange and Chiadzwa or where the diamonds were being sold and for how much. Nothing.
In 2016 Mugabe admitted the country was “swindled” out of $15 billion in diamond revenue. Mugabe never arrested even one swindler and neither has Mnangagwa after all that rhetoric of “Zero tolerance to corruption!”
So people believe the country is being swindled of as much as $2 billion worth of diamonds every month. No wonder there is a scramble for Zimbabwe diamonds and the EU has lifted the sanctions on most Zanu PF leaders so countries like Belgium can join in the wholesale looting.
Zimbabwe will never register any meaningful economic recovery as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. The country must push for Zanu PF to step down so an interim administration can implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF will never ever allow the country to hold free and fair elections. Never! The ruling elite have too much to lose in losing the elections!
Zimbabwe's top hospital Parirenyatwa has run out of basic necessities like betadine and painkillers it has been revealed.
The issue came out during a meeting between Minister of Health Obadiah Moyo and Senior doctors on Wednesday. The doctors and consultants have put down tools citing inadequate equipment to use to treat patients and saying they are now producing deformed patients.
If a big referral hospital like Parirenyatwa has run out of basic necessities like butadiene and painkillers what more of the provincial hospitals and even worse the district hospitals!
It is interesting that just over two months ago Mnangagwa was at Parirenyatwa Hospital and acknowledge the sorry state of decay and rot at the hospital and in the health service in general. He promised to do something about it but has clearly done nothing just as he had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections only to blatantly rig the elections.
Indeed, from the hospital visit Mnangagwa was off galavanting all over Asia for 10 days in a hired luxury jet costing the nation a staggering US$25 million. In the face of such in your face extravagant waste, it is little wonder there is donor fatigue. For decades now the donor community has provided up to 98% of Zimbabwe’s medicinal needs, they are sick and tired of the thankless task.
The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the reality that they are responsible for holding the government to account; they have not taken this sacred task with the seriousness it demands and hence the reason the country is in this mess. If the people do not wake up then they will suffer and die. They are suffering and dying already but this is only the beginning there is hell-on earth still to come!
Government should seriously look at concerns raised by senior doctors over the dire situation at the country's public hospitals.
Yesterday, the senior doctors took their grievances to the street as they have realised it is the only way to draw government's attention.
Those in the know will tell you that it was the donors who had shouldered the bulk of the financial burden of Zimbabwe's supply of medicine, as much as 98%. When Zimbabwe's ruling elite are seen galavanting all over the world in 787 - 8 Dreamliner Jets costing US$ 25 million for 10 days it must have left a bad taste in the donors' mouths. Donors are sick and tired of their thankless task of bankrolling Zimbabwe's health, education, food aid, etc. whilst the country's ruling elite waste the nation's wealth of luxuries and the masses themselves just go along without even raising a finger to object.
It is great that the senior doctors have finally woken up and are taking the regime head-on. Still one has to ask why it took them so long to do so? Was it because they were comfortable with the status quo and are only now beginning to feel the heat!
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