There are many reasons why Africa is a continent dogged by poverty, war, corruption, disease, bad governance, etc., etc. One of the many reasons this is so is our inability to pay attention to detail. We have debated the issue of economic sanctions, for example, thousands of times and will, no doubt, be spending many, many more man-years of time, space, sweat and blood without ever being any wiser. How can we ever be any wiser when none of what is said make sense!
“Why do you put sanctions, if someone is wrong leave him and he will fail by his own mistakes? Why do you put sanctions if you know you are right and somebody is wrong?” argued President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.
“That’s means we are not sure if the man is wrong. Otherwise if he is wrong let him fail by his own his mistakes.
“If you put sanctions you are just aiding someone to use them as scapegoat for his own failures. I appeal to those who are imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe to lift those sanctions.”
The Americans went to great length to explain that they will lift the sanctions imposed on the Zanu PF leaders and entities with strong links to the party if the 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. The Americans even went on to spell out some of the things they would want to see happen; allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora the right to vote, free public media, a transparent and legal electoral process, etc. None of these things happened. Zanu PF failed to produce something as basic and fundamental for free, fair and credible elections as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake.
If President Museveni is “not sure” the July 2018 elections were NOT free, fair and credible, it is so because he is refusing to see what is before his own eyes.
Of course, Zanu PF is using sanctions as scapegoat for the regime’s own failures. It is no secret that Zimbabwe adopted the two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1990 to 95 and 1995 to 2000 because the country’s economy was in a real mess already. The regime could not blame the sanctions then because they were imposed in 2001!
“Why do you put sanctions if you know you are right and somebody is wrong?” The sheer stupidity of that question beggars belief! Surely, surely there is nothing wrong with an outsider telling us denying our own people their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of our country and even the right to life! As an ordinary Zimbabwean citizen whose has felt the heavy boot of the Zanu PF dictatorship on one’s neck these last 39 years, of course I am grateful to the outsider for his concern for my welfare. I am equally outraged by the breath taking stupidity and indifference of mine fellow African brothers and sisters to what Zanu PF has been doing in Zimbabwe.
Of course, the western nations will ignore President Museveni’s call to have the sanctions lifted with the contempt it rightly deserve. Of course the western nation have every right to decide who they will trade with and under what terms.
“I don’t agree with those who say Africa is weak. In 1960s, we were weaker than we are today but we were able to work together and support the struggle for freedom in southern Africa and succeeded,” continued President Museveni. said the Ugandan leader who took power after a protracted rebellion in 1986.
“We worked for the liberation of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Angola Namibia supported by socialist countries but our great effort was ours.”
What he did not say is that all independent African countries then, with the exception of those under tyrannical black rule, supported the imposing of UN sanctions on the colonial regimes in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, etc. The sanctions were considered necessary in ending white colonial oppression but they are now considered unnecessary in ending BLACK oppression!
President Museveni seized power in Uganda in 1986 and he since ruled that country with an iron fist. He has never held free, fair and credible elections and it is little wonder he saw nothing wrong with Mnangagwa doing the same in Zimbabwe. Indeed, he is in Zimbabwe supporting a fellow corrupt and vote rigging tyrant.
Whilst African leaders did unite in the fight to end white colonial oppression, they have not done the same when a fellow African leader has become an oppressor. Suddenly they all had problems defining what an oppressor is!
Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe’s last year elections were free, fair and credible. President Cyril Ramaphosa of S A has said the elections “went well!” It is not that these leaders do not know what constitutes free, fair and credible elections. They know. They are being vague, deliberately, so anything goes.
An elephant is an animal with four legs; so a rat, a lizard any animal with four legs will pass for an elephant. Little wonder the AU, SADC and all the other African organisations have all become popular exclusive clubs of dictators, tyrants and despots!
President Yoweri Museveni, we in Zimbabwe know that Mnangagwa rigged the elections, he is a corrupt and murderous thug, we know that the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse as long as the country remains a pariah state.
We know Mnangagwa is using sanctions as a scapegoat for the regime’s failures. We also know that sanctions are just another way of piling the pressure of Zanu PF to step down so we can implement the democratic reforms to stop the vote rigging. Of course, we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, want the sanctions to stay and are very pleased the sanctions are staying!
6 comments:
@ A T Kadada
“Have sanctions brought us to where we are as a nation or it is a scapegoat by the Zanu pf led government?
“The economy started a spiral down long before ZIDERA came into effect. When warvets, like soldiers of fortune, demanded gratuities that would bring the Zim dollar crashing sanctions were not in place. A myriad of things have brought Zimbabwe to this present day situation chief among this being corruption by Zanu pf from the former President to the lower level Zanu pf structures,” you said.
Well this is a breath of fresh air after decades of foul smelling Zanu PF propaganda. You have not only said sanctions are a scapegoat but given compelling evidence why that is so.
Zanu PF propaganda would insist the sanctions caused the Z$ to crash and pretend the war vets gratuities, the corruption, the mismanagement, collapse of the agricultural sector, etc. played no part. Indeed, Zanu PF propaganda is geared to say the Zimbabwe economy was robust and thriving until the day the sanctions were imposed.
During the 2008 to 2013 GNU when Z$ was scrapped, the price control lifted and the regime eased on the corruption for fear of scrutiny, etc. the economy did record a 12% growth rate after decades of negative growth. The sanctions were still in place during that period; proof the sanctions were not the root cause of the economic meltdown. Zanu PF propaganda machine has airbrushed the GNU period out of the narrative!
It is gratifying that there are people out there who are now willing to confront and confound Zanu PF propagandists and apologists with facts and tell off the regime. Thanks Kadada for reminding the emperor in no flattering terms that he is naked!
@ Tawanda Manjoni
“Here is why Mnangagwa's claim of ignorance doesn't wash. He knows no other job but being a Cabinet minister. He was part of the senior hierarchy of government from independence in 1980. He was State Security minister, so the omni-present spooks must have been advising about how corrupt the civil bureaucracy was getting over the years. Unless he was busy with other things,” you said.
“What was Mnangagwa doing as VP not to know that corruption is such a big issue in Zimbabwe? For starters, corruption trackers such as Transparency International were religiously milling out reports on the huge extent of graft in this country, local civil society and other watchdogs were doing the same and even the war vets were hollering about it. Wasn't he listening? If not, how come he started talking about corruption as if his political future hung on that?”
You nailed it there my brother, Mnangagwa knew the nature and extend of corruption in Zimbabwe. How could he fail to know when he is up to his eyes in the wholesale looting that is now the norm in Zimbabwe. But most significant of all, Mnangagwa will not and cannot up-root corruption because he cannot up-root himself.
“But that's not what will make people start thinking that he is a clever guy and vote him into office again,” you said.
Well there you are wrong, the people of Zimbabwe did not vote for Mnangagwa last year. He rigged the elections. The whole country’s state institutions, ZEC, Police, Judiciary, etc. are Zanu PF departments in all but name. They are all corrupt to the core and committed to keeping Zanu PF in power at all cost.
Mnangagwa is the godfather of corruption and he will not last a day as president if he tried to end corruption.
@ Eddie Cross
“WHEN Mthuli Ncube was appointed Finance and Economic Development minister, he quickly took charge at the ministry, appointing a new permanent secretary and several directors and publishing a Transitional Stabilisation Plan,” you say.
“He is not a politician and has no desire to be one, so he depends on the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) when he has to deal with those in the government who have different views to his own and who might want to protect entrenched interests.
“He quickly recognised that the existing path on which the economy was travelling was a road to nowhere. Had we maintained the policies of the Robert Mugabe era, we would have ended up in the wilderness — massively in debt and crippled by slow growth and unsustainable domestic consumption founded on subsidies and a bloated civil service. As the new permanent secretary (George Guvamatanga) said at the time, "we have to stop the bleeding and get the patient into ICU as quickly as possible"
You can sing Mthuli Ncube praised all day and all night that will not change the fact and reality on the ground: he did NOT stop the bleeding and the patient is dying a slow and agonising death!
Mnangagwa himself admitted that corruption was a serious problem when he took office. He promised to end corruption but has since admitted the he failed because it is “deep rooted”. How can he end corruption when corruption is what he and his fellow ruling elite live on and totally dependent on to retain their power. They are the godfathers of corruption.
Mnangagwa also realise the need to transform Zimbabwe from a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs into a democratic nation and hence the reason he promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. Many people suspected this was a promise he would never keep and they were right.
Professor Mthuli Ncube “is not be a politician,” you tell but one does not have to be a politician to know that Zimbabwe was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Of course, he knew that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and still he accepted the post of Finance Minister.
Minister Ncube has just proven to be one of those idiotic savant convinced he can deliver economic prosperity regardless of the country remaining a pariah state. He believed he could make a silk purse out of a sower’s ear! What makes his foolishness totally unacceptable is that it is the poorest of the poor who are paying with their very lives for his egotistic folly!
As for you Eddie Cross, shut up! You talk too much and none of it makes any sense! You were a senior MDC leader throughout the 2008 to 2013 GNU, you were blubbering non-stop, and the party failed to implement even one democratic reform!
@ Daily News
THE political and socio-economic crises in Zimbabwe is slowly edging towards the tipping point as espoused by the Registrar-General (RG) Office's failure to issue passports and standard national ID cards to citizens.
The RG's Office last week suspended the processing of travelling documents allegedly due to technical glitches although there could be more behind that story.
Indications are that the imploding economic situation in the country, characterised by little and intermittent foreign currency inflows, has seen important services competing for the little available money.
There is no point is asking Mnangagwa to act urgently to end the worsening economic situation. He has run out of ideas what to do a long time ago. The only thing he can do now is step down to allow the nation to implement reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections, a necessary prelude to getting a competent and accountable government. Sadly, stepping down is not in his DNA hence the reason he has resorted to use of wanton violence to silence dissent to his continued illegitimate and ruinous rule. We, the people, will have to demand that he steps down and mean it!
Mnangagwa must be given some respect, says Eddie Cross.
What respect does a corrupt, incompetent and murderous thug who has played his part in the establishment and retain of this de facto one-party dictatorship that has dragged the nation into this hell-on-earth deserve? I have said it once and I will say it again: Eddie, you talk too much and and say nonsense. Shut up!
“When I got home I was summoned to the Ministers Office and there I was given a transcript of my discussions with the Norwegian Secretary of State and I was given a severe warning from the Minister of State Security to 'never do that again, or else'. That was Mnangagwa,” said Cross.
Norway will be rightly ashamed of their role in this!
“I have been a Member of Parliament for ten years, during that time we have had many interchanges with Emmerson. He has a very sharp mind and a sense of humor but if you do take him on, expect no prisoners,” said Cross.
One does not need to do anything for Mnangagwa to go after you as we know only too well. He issued the shoot to kill order on 1 st August 2018 to subdue those protesting against yet another rigged elections and did the same again the last two weeks of January 2019 to subdue those protesting fuel price hikes. 6 and 17 unarmed civilians were shot dead in August and January, respectively.
Eddie Cross has had nothing but praise for Mnangagwa as president; one has to seriously question why anyone would consider someone with so much innocent blood on his hands suitable to hold the office of president! Eddie Cross has also hipped praise on Morgan Tsvangirai as a leader even when there was a mountain of evidence showing the latter was a corrupt, incompetent and a sell-out. To be frank, Eddie Cross himself has turned out to be incompetent and a poor judge of characters.
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