“Efforts by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Southern African Development Community executive secretary Dr Stergomena Tax to have sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe lifted have failed to bear fruit, after US President Donald Trump extended sanctions imposed on the southern African country by another year,” reported Fin24.
“Earlier this year, Ramaphosa spoke on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying Zimbabwe faces "serious, serious, economic challenges, and they can be assisted by the world if those sanctions are lifted”.
There is a mountain of evidence on the public domain proving that the two most important causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown in the past and present are:
- Corruption: in 2016 the then Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe, admitted Zimbabwe was “swindled out of $15 billion of diamond revenue”, after decades of denying corruption was a problem. No nation could sustain this level of economic haemorrhage much less prosper; especially a nation like Zimbabwe with a mere $10 billion GPD.
- Pariah state: Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. When Mnangagwa and his fellow November 2017 coup plotters seized power from Mugabe they went the extra mile to underline the regime was different from Mugabe’s regime using such terms as “new dispensation” and “second republic”. They even promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. Sadly, it was all empty rhetoric. Last July’s elections were flawed and illegal; 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement, Mnangagwa claims to have won 2.4 million votes which no one could trace and verify, etc. The result was therefore meaningless and void. Mnangagwa did not get the mandate to govern and the regime is per se illegitimate. By blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Zanu PF confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. Mnangagwa undermined his own “Zimbabwe is open for business!” drive to attract investors because no investor or lender wants to do business in a pariah state.
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has reached crisis point; unemployment has reached a nauseating 90% compared to SA’s 27% and 3/4 of the Zimbabwe population now live on US$30 per month which is less than 5% of the US$650 per month poverty datum line, basic service such as supply of clean water and health care, etc. The people of Zimbabwe need to find a solution to end the country’s economic crisis and political paralysis, they cannot afford to waste time on gimmicks and tomfoolery!
The key to ending Zimbabwe’s political paralysis and economic meltdown is holding free, fair and credible elections and thus end the country’s curse of rigged elections and pariah state. The sanctions imposed by the western is putting the pressure on Zanu PF thugs to accept the need for meaningful democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for free and fair elections, and hence the reason the sanctions must remain.
Those who continue to argue that Zimbabwe can remain a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt and vote riggings thugs and still enjoy economic recovery if the sanctions are lifted live in cloud-cuckoo-land. What every thinking Zimbabwean find insulting is those pretending the Zimbabwe elections were free, fair and credible when the country failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. They want the western sanctions lifted so they can confirm Zimbabwe’s position as a pariah state, a banana republic!
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I remember the day South Africa held her first democratic elections 27 April 1994, many people feared the elections would not be free, fair and credible. The country black clouds of bitterness and animosity from decades of brutal oppression under the apartheid rule made worse by the equally bitter and blood rivalry and mistrust amongst the blacks themselves hanging over it; the true democratic spirit would be near impossible to foster under such conditions. And yet, wonder of wonders and miracle of miracles, SA did hold free, fair and credible elections.
Many people have often criticized the late Nelson Madiba Mandela for failing to do enough to pull more black South Africans out of poverty, maybe he could have done more there. Still I believe his greatest legacy for SA is that he gave independent SA a democratic constitution complete with democratic state institutions. South Africans have complained about many things but they have yet to complain about rigged elections. SA has always held free, fair and credible elections, a blessing a country like Zimbabwe have yet to accomplish!
It is therefore disconcerting and patronizing that someone like President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is a great beneficiary of Mandela’s democratic legacy and worked with the great man himself, should now be turning a blind-eye at the grotesque and undemocratic abuse of power in Zimbabwe. How is it possible that President Ramaphosa would approve an election in which the authority failed to produce something as fundamental as a verified voters’ roll?
Of course, President Ramaphosa knows that the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown are decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The sanctions imposed by the west are more of an inconvenience to the Zanu PF leaders, there are not even in the top ten as the cause of the economic meltdown. Zanu PF has used sanctions an excuse to cover up its failures for. Of course, all blacks have hung their heads in shame that a leader of his stature should be so naïve and gullible to be repeating this foolish excuse himself!
After 38 years of rigged elections the people of Zimbabwe are dying, literally too, for the country to hold he first free, fair and credible elections. It is ironic that the people have not only to fight the Zanu PF thugs to win their freedoms, human rights and human dignity, they have to fight President Cyril Ramaphosa and all the other SADC leaders too! FCUK ME! Pardon my French, but this really is annoying. No wonder Africa has remained the poorest and most backward continent on earth, we have more than our fair share of village idiots for leaders! Madiba must be turning in his grave!
Senior government officials from South Africa arrived into the country yesterday for preparatory meetings of the third session of the Zimbabwe-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) amid indications that the $400 million National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) deal will be on the agenda.
The BNC, to be held next Tuesday, will be co-chaired by President Mnangagwa and his South African counterpart President Cyril Ramaphosa, coming hard on the heels of a similar fixture between Zimbabwe and Botswana last week
The deal between NRZ and a consortium led by the Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group (DIDG) and South Africa's Transnet has been hanging in the balance since 2017. Ambassador Manzou said the BNC will also review progress made on previously agreed projects.
This is just a waste of time and resources! Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. Zimbabwe has suffered under a serious economic meltdown because for decades investors have shied away from investing in the country resulting in the economic collapse. Investors do not do business in a pariah state and by blatantly rigging last year’s elections Mnangagwa confirmed that post-November 2017 coup Zimbabwe was still a pariah state.
Our South African friends are lying that Zimbabwe’s last year elections were free, fair and credible and by the same token they are lying that Zimbabwe remain a pariah state and still achieve any meaningful economic recovery.
Zimbabwe and the European Union are set to resume dialogue this month as part of re-engagement efforts the new dispensation led by President Mnangagwa is undertaking, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo has said. He said the sanctions imposed by the Western bloc, though unwarranted, were a temporary setback.
Minister Moyo also criticised the renewal of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the United States, but said they will not deter the formidable trajectory taken by the country to a new destiny of economic prosperity through Vision 2030.
The EU Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission was crystal clear that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections. The EU has certainly not fooled by Zanu PF. The only reason the EU is having this re-engagement regardless of Zimbabwe’s continued failure to hold free and fair elections and other serious human rights violations such as the shooting of unarmed civilians of 1st August 2018 and in January this year is EU greed trumping Zimbabwean human rights including human lives.
There are EU countries like Belgium that have been itching to resume trading with Zimbabwe, especially in diamonds, because they feel they have lost out to the Chinese, Israelis, Russians, Indians and other nation who have ignored Zimbabwe’s bad human rights record.
Minister Moyo said the Commonwealth was also ready to continue re-engagement and will send a delegation to Harare in the next few months to assess the situation following the group's observation of the July 30, 2018 harmonised elections.
If the Commonwealth was to readmit Zimbabwe then the organisation will have sold-out on one of its democratic values because the Commonwealth Election Observers condemn last July’s elections because of the many flaws and illegalities in the process. If the Commonwealth readmitted Zimbabwe under these circumstances, it will be one of the most shameful decision it the organisation’s history and one it will live to regret!
Former Police Commissioner General Dr Augustine Chihuri's family has been hit hard by financial challenges to an extent of petitioning the High Court for permission to sell an agro-residential plot in Goromonzi to pay school fees for three minor children.
The plot measuring 3,5 hectares, was registered in the name of one of Dr Chihuri's children, 20-year-old Miss Samantha Chihuri, but three other minor siblings have usufruct to the same property.
In terms of the law, one cannot sell a property in which minor children have personal interest without seeking permission from the High Court, which is the upper guardian of all children.
This is one of the inescapable realities about Zimbabwe’s looting brigade – after all the millions and some even billions of dollars they have looted most of them have failed to invest in wisely to be able to live off the loot and hence the reason they become destitute if they are weaned off.
It explains why Mnangagwa has done nothing to wean off all those coup plotters who are also known to be as corrupt as Chihuri and former CIO boss Bvonyongwe. It was not only the Police and CIO top brass who receive an additional payment from the diamond operations, the army top brass too received the payment and continue to do so to this day. VP Chiwenga will not be selling any of his 45 gold watches to pay his bills!
Last year's electoral process was full of flaws and illegalities both ZEC's results and MDC's own results did not make any sense and so no one can ever claim to be legitimate. So MDC's claim to "sort Mnangagwa's legitimacy" is nonsense because only the people can do that in a free and fair election.
For Zimbabwe to move on, both Zanu PF and MDC must step down, neither of the two have any mandate to govern, to create the political space required for the appointment of an interim administration. It is this administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms and entrusted to hold the country’s first ever free, fair and credible.
The refusal by Zanu PF and MDC to step down should be seen for what it is – they holding the nation hostage. There will not be any meaningful economic recovery until there is meaningful political change and so, in the end, both these two parties will be forced to go!
The extension of sanctions against the Mnangagwa regime came shortly after former US ambassador to Zimbabwe Bruce Wharton and ex-assistant secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, released a stinging paper alleging that Harare was now effectively under the grip of an unreformed military, which fronted the November 2017 coup.
Zanu PF rigged last July’s elections and in the wanton violence of 1 st August 2018 and January this year the regime was beating the nation into submission. No one can ever say Zanu PF has abandoned its corrupt and tyrannical ways to justify lifting the sanctions. No one! The EU is re-engaging Zanu PF not because the party has changed but out of greed! We therefore must thank the Americans for their principled stand in demanding free and fair elections!
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