Man is a creature of reason and those who have excelled in this have done very well, thank you, whilst those who have lagged behind have suffered. We, in Africa, have not done well at all and hence the reason the continent has remained the dark continent plagued by war, disease and chaos. Before independence in 1980 Zimbabwe was one of the top five richest nations in Africa with the potential to do even better. For the last decade the country has been the poorest nation in Africa; that speaks volumes on our score as creatures of reason.
One’s ability to reason can manifest itself in many, many ways; the ability to plan ahead, for example. Some chimpanzees are known to carry a carefully trimmed stick a great distance which they will then use to fish out termites. Mankind, with our bigger brain, are expected to do a lot more than that, of course.
One area we in Africa have fallen flat on our faces again and again and never ever seem to learn from our own past experience and that of others is governance. It was the Greeks, 2 500 years ago who came up with the solution of democracy, in which all citizens have a right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country, as the answer to the problem of governance. Reason and experience has shown that democracy works. And yet very few African countries have been able to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Zimbabwe’s rapid descend into the economic and political abyss since independence can be attributed to one thing - our failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The economic meltdown is a consequence of 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. The nation was (and is to this day) stuck with regime because the party rigged elections.
“Within the security sector and diplomatic community, there are three major scenarios being bandied about of what could happen in months ahead,” a source told the Independent. “There could be riots, a palace coup or impeachment, or rebooted inclusive talks. These situations are not mutually exclusive; they could happen simultaneously or in a quick succession of related events.”
Many people have been calling for the political dialogue leading to the Transition Authority (TA), a watered down version of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Political dialogue with help Zanu PF and MDC leaders “find each other”, some have argued. The last GNU did help the country’s political leaders find each other alright.
"We enjoyed serenity of politics during the GNU. That spirit must come back. It must come back,” cried out Jacob Mudenda, the Zanu PF Speaker of Parliament, in support of the TA.
The reason the politicians found each other and worked so harmoniously together is because the MDC, led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai, was careful not to implement even one democratic reform although this was the most important task the GNU was asked to do. Mugabe saw to it that MDC leaders enjoyed all the trappings of high office, ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowances, a $4 million highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. In return MDC leaders kicked reforms out of the window.
Of course Mudenda, Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leaders will welcome the TA and another period of serene politics in which no meaningful reforms are implemented and Zanu PF once again emerge with all its dictatorial powers untouched.
The Zimbabwe economy will not recover during or after the TA because everyone will know the regime is the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship with one or two MDC A leaders for window dressing. It will take a lot more than window dressing to restore confidence in investors and the nation at large and revive the economy.
At the end of the TA, with not even one meaningful reform implemented, Zanu PF will rig the elections just as the party did in 2013 , at the end of the GNU. Zimbabwe will still be a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs.
Another military coup or impeachment will just be yet another Zanu PF internal reshuffled no different from the November 2017 coup. After that Mnangagwa blubbered about “Second Republic”, New dispensation!” and “Zimbabwe is open for business!” We all know that was all hot air and events have proven this to be so. Another Zanu PF coup will not produce any significant change.
This Zanu PF regime rigged last July’s elections and is ipso facto illegitimate and a in-house coup will only highlight the legitimacy problem. Frankly, the nation and the world are getting sick to the back teeth of those Zanu PF “military assisted transition!”
Zanu PF will use brute force to suppress street protests and riots and the regime is been training and arming the Police, Army and CIO for this. The regime used brute force against those protesting against the rigged July 2018 elections and against fuel increases and the regime was roundly condemned for it.
Mnangagwa knows that shooting dead more protestors will only increase the regime’s isolation but, worst of all, that it will solve nothing. As long as the nothing is done, so far he has shown that he has no clue what to do, to end the economic meltdown there threat of street protest will remain.
History has shown that human being will not suffer and died in silence like sheep; sooner or latter they will cry out for justice, regardless of the brutality they face. In Zimbabwe the limit of human endurance has been exceeded, the cup is full and overflowing.
By using violence Zanu PF has delayed the day of change but that is not to say they stopped change happening. By rigging elections and using violence to stop peaceful demonstrations Zanu PF has left the nation with no other choice by to have violent change. No one can ever be certain of whether rioting will led to democratic stability or open the flood gate to chaos and more violence as happened in Libya or here in Zimbabwe in 1980!
After 39 years of rigged elections and the nation stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political paralysis is clear as day - to end the curse of rigged elections, implement the democratic reforms. Zanu PF is illegitimate and must step-down to allow the political space for the appointment of a new body tasked to implement the reforms.
Of the three solutions above, the only viable one is political dialogue leading to the TA. I agree 100% on the need for political dialogue so politicians can find each other, we tried that with GNU and it worked, but it did not solve the country’s economic and political problems hence the reason we are still in this mess! The real solution is staring us in the face.
Fourth solution is for Mnangagwa to step down and it is the only viable solution. We are in this mess because an age old problem of bad governance. Until we implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections Zimbabwe will remain stuck in this hell-on-earth hole Zanu PF dragged us into! Zanu PF is illegitimate and must step down; why keeping the regime in office especially when it will interfere with the implementation of the required reforms.
13 comments:
What Zimbabwe needs, desperately, is a stable and competent government not this corrupt, incompetent and unstable Zanu PF regime. Zanu PF rigged last year's elections, the regime is illegitimate and should not be in office was it not for the equally corrupt and incompetent MDC A who clearly do not care that the elections were rigged as long as they get some gravy train seats! They are objecting to Mnangagwa's win but only as a means to pressure him to give Chamisa a cabinet post!
Mnangagwa said the regime would abolish the use of foreign currency as legal tender once government has fixed the other economic fundamentals to ensure the Zimbabwe economy is stable and the Zimbabwe currency will also be stable. The economic fundamentals are still all over the place and the local currency will be as unstable as RTGS$ and the Bond Notes. Whilst the people have kept the foreign currency whenever they could now they will be forced to use the local currency only.
We are back to the 2000 to 2008 hyperinflation days. Ordinary people will be forced to sell all their foreign currency at low official exchange rate but can only buy foreign currency at the high black market rate. The chefs who can get foreign currency at give away official exchange rates are the only ones who stand to benefit from this.
Of course, it is totally unacceptable that Zanu PF scrap the use of foreign currency when the regime has done nothing to stop inflation!
Zanu PF has clearly failed to fix the nation's economic problems and must step down. The people should be clear what they want is for the regime to step down, it rigged last year's elections, it is illegitimate and the nation must end this curse of pariah state.
@ Witness
“It will work, those mobilising are the ones sabotaging the country, they do not know where to put the dollars they amassed through stealing as they are now illegal to use Mthuli is right, good economics at its best.”
Foreign currency will continue to be available on the black market and those who amass the foreign currency will use it outside Zimbabwe. So, the argument that foreign currency basket was scrapped to stop people amassing foreign currency is a fallacious one, to say the least. Besides the scrapping of the stable foreign currencies are forcing everyone to hold all their cash in the unstable local currency. It is not that people do not want to use the local currency, they have used it before and will do so again but on one condition – that it holds its own value against the foreign currency. If it cannot then they would rather trade in foreign currency that is stable.
The people are asking for stable local currency or else they should be allowed to use stable foreign currency - surely that is not too much to ask!
The real saboteurs of the Zimbabwe economy are those corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging officials who have failed to come up with sound economic policies to revive the country’s comatose economy and are now imposing an unstable local currency on a helpless people.
@ Nyamhunzi
“Multi-currency is not our currency. It has affected many Zimbabweans. It is a noble idea to use our local currency. Why do you cry to use a currency, which is not yours. Salaries were eroded, due to the use of the US. Brace it.”
You clearly have a very bad memory! The multi-currency was introduced in 2008 when the Z$ hyperinflation reached a record 500 billion%. Shops were empty, businesses closed, pensions, salaries and savings were all wiped out! Scrapping of the Z$ and introducing stable foreign currencies was the only logical thing to do to restore value in the currency.
Scrapping the foreign currencies at a time when the local currency is losing value will only take us back to the hyperinflation years. Inflation is already at 100% and growing exponentially by the day!
Zanu PF has not only failed to come up with economic policies to revive the country’s comatose economy but worse still the regime is making the same foolish mistakes of ten years ago – proof the regime has learned nothing from the past!
Zanu PF must step down!
If the truth be told (with the nation's very existence at stake, nothing but the whole truth must be told) all the opposition parties and candidates who participated in last year's elections KNEW that Zanu PF was going to rig the elections because not even one meaningful democratic reform had ever been implemented since the benchmark rigged elections of 2008. They also KNEW that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in the election regardless how flawed and illegal process happened to be. It was these few gravy train seats the MDC A and the rest in the opposition camp were after.
MDC A leaders like Tendai Biti, David Coltart and Nelson Chamisa himself were very pleased their party won a number of the bait seats hence the reason the party has accept the parliamentary election process and results as a free, fair and credible process and the result as legitimate. The party has refused to accept Mnangagwa as the winner of the presidential race on the grounds that ZEC's vote count was wrong although the count contained the same flaws and illegalities as the parliamentary vote count. Zanu PF leaders has also noted the cherry picking by MDC A.
"It is for this noble cause that His Excellency the President called for national dialogue across all political parties so we put our minds together to confront our challenges and work as a nation to move the country forward.
"I want to take this opportunity to clarify that dialogue is not the same thing with power sharing negotiations. Every time we go for elections to elect a Government, losers selectively choose components of the election results to accept and reject." Commented Minister of Information, Monica Mutsvangwa.
Chamisa and company are refusing to accept Mnangagwa's victory not because the elections were rigged but as a bargaining tactic to force Zanu PF into a power sharing Transition Authority. So if the TA was formed, it is clear MDC A will not be calling for any democratic reforms since they, like the rest in the opposition camp, were happy with the election process except vote count of the presidential race. Chamisa was happy with the failure to produce a verified vote voters' roll, lack of transparency, abuse of state food aid and other resources, etc.
Besides Zanu PF why would the party concede to implementing any reforms when it KNOWS MDC A will participate in the next elections even with no reforms implemented for the sake of the bait seats on offer. Zanu PF is almost certain to amend the constitution to create the post of "Leader of the Opposition" complete with cabinet member benefits just to avoid the fiasco of MDC A cherry picking!
I agree 100% the proposed political dialogue will help politicians "find each other" in sharing the spoils of high office but will do nothing implement the necessary reforms for free, fair and credible elections. If Zanu PF is not forced to step down free, fair and credible elections will remain a mirage 39 years after independence!
What is the point of having our own currency when it cannot hold its value against all the other foreign currencies. We are back to the bad old years of hyperinflation.
One and half years ago, Mnangagwa told the world "Zimbabwe is open for business"! He has beaming with confidence he would open the flood gate of investors and the country would be enjoying double digit economic growth rates. Professor Mthuli Ncube's turbo-charged policies and programmes had Mnangagwa believing there was absolutely nothing his regime could not do. The cold reality is there have been no new investors, the IMF and WB have refused to bankroll Zimbabwe's recovery projects as Ncube insisted they would, etc. Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has gone from bad to worse.
The scrapping of the multi-foreign currency, which had filled the gap for stable currency, is yet another blunder by this Zanu PF regime. Inflation is already at 100% and who would want to be paid in a currency that will lose half its value every month!
The only way out is for Zanu PF to step down; this idea of the party hanging on to power no matter what is an outrage!
In an interview with ZBC Mthuli said people are free to carry foreign currency but they are not allowed to use it to purchase anything inside the country.
Said Mthuli, "If you have US dollars on your person, in your bank account, your foreign currency or nostro account, it's your money, you can keep it there or do whatever you like, except that if you want to go into a shop in Zimbabwe you should change it into domestic currency"
People will trade in local currency and buy the more stable foreign currency. It is madness to keep the local currency for more than a few days. This need to convert local currency to foreign will fuel the inflationary pressure on the former.
Making sure we have free, fair and credible elections should be the Holy Grail but when you have politicians who are easily side tracked like these Zanu PF and MDC leaders this is proving a brodge too far!
I cannot believe we are back to the 2000 to 2008 years! People's life-time savings were wiped out and now it is happening yet again!
Man is a creature of reason but when those in positions of power and authority are NOT interested in truth, reality and reason. All they care about is absolute power and have stifled all debate and democratic competition denying the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life!
What has made our situation is Zimbabwe worse is that those the nation has risked life and limb to dismantle the dictators have themselves sold-out! Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends know Zanu PF rigged last year's elections but they have endorse the process as free, fair and credible because they were after a few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away. The MDC A have endorsed the parliamentary results as legal but would not do the same with the presidential result. They will do so as soon as Zanu PF concede a gravy train seat for Chamisa!
If Zanu PF had listened to the British's advice and created the position of Leader of Opposition complete with the cabinet limo and perks - Chamisa would have endorse Mnangagwa as legitimate without any of Con-Court challenge and all this farcical “inclusive dialogue”.
The one reform Zanu PF will implement before 2023 is creating Leader of Opposition post! Mnangagwa is not a bright person but even he must know by now that Chamisa would endorse last year’s as free, fair and credible and Mnangagwa as the legitimate president if he is offered a gravy train seat!
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the ticket they would bring about democratic change necessary for free, fair and credible elections. It is disheartening the MDC leaders have since given up on the democratic changes in return for a few gravy train seats for themselves!
@ Obert Gutu
Zimbabwe is already in a doom's day scenario - unemployment has soared to 90%, there 19 hours a day power cuts, there is no running water for months on end, health care and education have all but collapsed with staff paid enough to work 2 days a week, monthly inflation rate is already 80%, there is a shortage of most commodities, etc. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Zimbabweans are dying every month for want of food, US$5 per month medicine and other poverty related challenges. If this is NOT doom's day scenario then tell us what else has to happen to finally force you to open your eyes!
"Legitimacy is an issue - last year's elections were illegal, and not free and fair. All reasonable observers concede that," David Coltart, Treasurer General of MDC A admitted, finally.
The pressure is now on you, Mr Obert Gutu, VP of MDC - T and all the other sell-out opposition parties who endorse last year's elections as free, fair and credible and Mnangagwa and Zanu PF as legitimate to change your bull-s***t statement. When are you going to finally admit last year's elections were rigged?
We are not going to give you a moment's rest until you admit you sold-out during the last GNU by failing to implement the reforms and now you are propping up an illegitimate regime to gain favours! “Prophets of doom shall be put to shame!” No, it is the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out people like you who are profiting from the suffering and deaths of the people who have no shame and must be held to democratic account.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Peter Mutasa told the same briefing that if government does not revoke the ban on the use of multi-currency, workers would be left with no option, but to strike.
“If, by Tuesday, the government does not give us a favourable answer, we will mobilise for mass action. This we have made it clear. People are dying and it is not about us as union leaders, but the generality of Zimbabweans who are affected by this move,” Mutasa said, forcing Nzenza to react angrily.
“In cases where the holder of such an account intends to settle domestic transactions, they shall be required to liquidate their foreign currency account balances to the interbank on a willing-seller willing-buyer basis,” part of the directive read.
The order triggered an outcry on Tuesday evening, with most people accusing government of raiding their foreign currency accounts and yesterday morning, panicky account holders flooded banks to withdraw their money as uncertainty and confusion raged on.
The tragic economic consequences of the 2000 to 2008 hyperinflation should have taught all Zimbabwe governments that followed that inflation was the one thing they must not allow to return ever again. When inflation started surging upward above 10% the alarm bells should have started ringing. The monthly inflation rate was 80% already last week and there is no doubt the pressure was on to off load as much as possible the local currency in favour of the more stable foreign currency.
By banning the use of foreign currency as legal tender the government was forcing people to use a currency they clearly did not want because it was losing its value. The move only served to make people panic and reject the local currency with increased concern!
It is the government of the day’s duty to ensure the local currency is stable and this government has clearly failed in this regard and is now seeking to punish the people by forcing them to trade in a currency that is losing half its value every six week! All that will happen now is there will be even less economic activity, shop shelves will be empty, there will be more shortages, etc. There will be even more human suffering and many more will die unnecessarily!
The banning of the use of the foreign currency at a time when monthly inflation is already 80% and rising was just another foolish blunder by this illegitimate and incompetent Zanu PF regime. We should never forget that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and even the party’s partner in crime MDC A has now public admitted this.
"Legitimacy is an issue - last year's elections were illegal, and not free and fair. All reasonable observers concede that," admitted David Coltart, Treasurer General of MDC A, finally.
The only way to end this political and economic mess is for Zanu PF to step down so the country can finally implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. There is no other way out!
Malawi Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has assured development partners, business community and the private sector and the general public that Malawi is not in a crisis.
It is a crying shame that decades after independence the country cannot hold free, fair and credible elections. What some of our idiotic African leaders fail to understand is that the investors and the world at large do not need to be told that there is no crisis when they can see it with their own eyes.
The failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is a curse Africa must now deal with. Free and fair elections is the foundation on which good governance and economic prosperity can be built. Africa has remained the dark continent plagued by poverty, civil war, corruption and bad governance. Until we clean up our act, lay the foundation for good governance by ensure elections are free, fair and credible, there will be no end to our economic and political problems.
“We would like to assure developmental partners, the business community and private sector that as the DPP Government, we will ensure that the country remains peaceful; that business is not disrupted as we deal with the outstanding issues from the electoral process. We wish to emphasize that the country is not in a crisis and we look forward to the conclusion of the court processes in a peaceful manner so that the country can move forward,” said Dausi.
Can he assure the investors the elections were free, fair and credible? The evidence on the ground says otherwise!
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