When President Mnangagwa took over the reins of power from Robert Mugabe 18 months ago, he was cocksure he was going to revive Zimbabwe’s comatose economy. He was cocksure his “Zimbabwe is pen for business!” was going to attract a flood of investors and lenders.
Today, 18 months since the clarion call it is clear that the flood of new investments has failed to materialise, for whatever reasons. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime rigged last year’s elections and now realise they cannot rig economic recovery too.
With unemployment rate a nauseating 90%, the country’s basic services such as supply of water and health care all but collapsed, 3/4 of the population now living on US$30 or less per month, etc.; the economic situation is serious. It is socially, politically and morally unsustainable. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta know they MUST do something to revive the economy but, more pointedly, they know not what to do other than step up their use of violence to silence protest against the worsening economic situation.
“In the Second Republic, let us shun the culture of militancy, disharmony and demonstrations. We must develop a greater understanding of each other’s perspectives,” said Mnangagwa after launching the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF).
The regime has already passed a law making street protests illegal until all channels of wage negotiations have been exhausted. No doubt the regime will see to it that the negotiations are a long drawn out process taking months if not years!
The regime is banning all street protests such as the 1st August 2018 to protest the rigged elections and the January 2019 to protest the fuel price increases. As far as the regime is concerned all protests are a confrontation born out of failure to hold peaceful dialogue.
“Like one writer says, ‘Most problems would disappear if people talk to each other more, instead of talking about each other. Differing positions must be permissible within our country, however, these must never divide us or result in conflict,” continued Mnangagwa.
“Violence must never be used as a tool to gain a temporary advantage, at the expense of the people we must serve and protect.
“The old, retrogressive culture will only serve to widen our fissures and exacerbate our socio-economic challenges, and further delay the prosperity that our country so much needs and our people deserve.”
How long have the people of Zimbabwe called for the implementation of the democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for holding of free, fair and credible elections and you, Mr Mnangagwa, has dismissed the calls with contempt.
“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingohukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for reform) bark! And bark!) Mnangagwa has boasted on countless occasions.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year’s elections. The regime failed to release something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake.
When some people dared to vent their anger and frustration at yet another rigged elections, the regime unleashed soldiers with orders to shoot to kill. You did the same when the people dared to protest the fuel increase.
Mr President, you keep wittering about the need to talk; what is there to talk about when present the people with consequences of the fait accompli of your incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical oppression. All the people can do is cry but even that you do not want them to do - you want them to “talk”!
Mnangagwa is behaving like the bad wolf accusing the sheep, drinking down stream, of mudding his drinking water. Mnangagwa knows that the worsening economic meltdown is causing heart-breaking human suffering and many are dying of poverty related diseases and hunger, he is just looking for an excuse to ruthless silence all those who dare voice their suffering.
Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the elections to deny the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country and now he is seeking to deny them the right to peaceful demonstration to demand that the regime steps down. He rigged the election but has failed to rig economic recovery and is now seeking to deny the people the voice to protest their economic suffering and deaths.
11 comments:
@ Chuma
“In a display of pure arrogance of incumbency the Emmerson Mnangagwa administration yesterday continued on its deleterious path by banning the citizens’ right to register their discontentment through peaceful demonstrations,” you said.
“The ill-informed decision is a clear testimony that this quasi-military ensemble purporting to be a government of the people is itching for an adversarial relationship with the law abiding and peace loving citizenry.
“Simply put the criminalization of the only remaining mass communication channel is a clear declaration of war on citizens by this trigger happy junta regime.”
It should be remembered that by rigging the elections, Zanu PF has denied the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The regime thought it would rig economic recovery just as readily as it rigged the elections and now finds that was a bridge to far. By banning demos the regime wants to silence the people so they continue to suffer and die in silence like sheep in a slaughter house. The people own it to themselves to refuse this ultimate humiliation – we are human beings and not sheep!
What the people of Zimbabwe must do is make sure they take part in all future demos but go the extra mile to ensure the demos are peaceful. Make sure not even one stone is thrown in anger and no single tyre is set on fire. Do not give up the right to voice your concern, just do not give the regime the excuse to use violence.
The people of Sudan have shown us that people can hold peaceful demos, we can do the same
There are unjust laws just as there are unjust man. In Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta we have an unjust regime and hence a mountain of unjust laws. The regime blatantly rigged last year’s elections denying us, the people, a meaningful say in the governance of the country with the dire consequences of dragging the nation deeper and deeper into this economic and political hell-hole. The regime is now taking steps to make sure we all suffer and die quietly like sheep in a slaughter-house.
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so," said Thomas Jefferson.
The people of Zimbabwe have an obligation to stand for themselves and say no to the madness corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship destroying the nation. We are not that stupid and damn not to see the gross injustice being inflicted by Mnangagwa and his cronies and we can put an end to the madness if we put our hearts and minds into it!
@ silungish
If telling Mnangagwa to stop denying the people their right to peaceful demonstrations; to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life itself is sabotage then so be it! We now live in a country where the criminals are the ones enacting and enforcing the law, right is now the new wrong and everything has been turned upside down inside out!
@ silungisn
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to fight for one-man one-vote, freedom and human dignity. Here we are 39 years after independence and we are yet to hold our first free, fair and credible elections and those who dare to protest against this absurdity, they are shot died! This is sheer madness and it is insane to tolerate this foolishness even for one more day!
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs rigged last year's elections; they have no democratic mandate to govern, they must go. And they are going!
The African Union Peace and Security Council has with immediate effect suspended the participation of the Republic of Sudan in all AU activities until the effective establishment of a Civilian-led Transitional Authority, as the only way to allow the Sudan to exit from the current crisis.
About time, the sloth was finally roused out of its slumber by the shooting dead of 100 unarmed civilians! The AU has been an utterly useless body which the continent’s despot dictators have often used to hide their lawlessness. No wonder the continent has been the dark continent always blundering from one crisis into the next.
Themba Mliswa is just a Zanu PF thug who was booted out of the party and is now fighting hard to be welcomed back. What has Auxillia Mnangagwa ever done to stop her husband carrying out all the looting, vote rigging and political murders that have kept Zanu PF in power against the democratic wishes of the ordinary Zimbabweans? All she has ever done is help him squander the looted wealth and we bare supposed to thank her for that!
Mliswa should tell the nation where he got his farm and other amassed wealth from?
Zimbabwe and EU hold first talks in seventeen years
France24
Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and to end corruption as proof the country was breaking away from the pariah state under Mugabe. He has failed to delivery on any of these promises and anyone who thinks the country can remain a pariah state and still accomplish meaningful economic recovery is day dreaming.
The EU Zimbabwe election observer mission report did not mince its words on last year's elections. "The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," stated the final report.
"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."
On what basis is the EU restarting its re-engagement with this illegitimate Zanu PF regime?
There are many Zimbabweans who have sacrificed careers, life and limb to push for meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe. Re-engaging the illegitimate regime now will make all the sacrifice a waste of time, money and human lives!
We know that there are EU nations like Belgium who have been itching to lay their hands on Zimbabwe's diamonds and do not care about the suffering and deaths of blacks under this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship. Well there are some of us on the coal face of the Zanu PF dictatorship who care and are not going to take this blatant betrayal of the masses in Zimbabwe sitting down.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections as the EU election observer mission rightly noted in its report.
"The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," stated the EU final report.
"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."
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because for the last 39 years the nation and the world at large has allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and get away with it. Many Zimbabweans have sacrificed their careers, life and limb to put an end to this madness. Zanu PF rigged the elections, it is ipso facto illegitimate and must step down. It is insane to reward the regime with legitimacy and political power.
If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power till 2023 the party will rig that year's elections too. All this talk of the regime implementing the democratic reforms is just that - talk!
After 39 years of rigged elections the people of Zimbabwe deserve free, fair and credible elections and the only sure way of that happening is for Zanu PF to step down. Enough of this culture of appeasing the Zanu PF thugs and tyrants!
Zanu PF rigged 2018 elections and is, ipso facto, illegitimate. We condemn EU attempt to grant the regime legitimact by the backdoor especially when they would never ever allow such nonsense in any of the EU countries!
“The EU, the Commonwealth, the Americans, etc. all pronounce judgement on the 2018 elections even ZEC itself accept the process was not free, fair and credible,” admitted Tendai Biti. Let us be clear here, what the first three above condemned is the whole process which was loaded with flaws and illegalities.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," stated the EU final report.
So, whilst the EU and other condemn the whole election process and the results as meaningless. Tendai Biti and his MDC A friends have accepted the process and result of the parliamentary elections and they have also accepted the process of the presidential elections but disputed the result announced by ZEC. Chamisa claims he is the winner having garnered 2.6 million votes. He, just like ZEC, has failed to produce verified voters’ roll, all the V11 forms, summary of vote count at each polling station, etc so no one could verify the result. MDC is cherry picking and hence the reason the EU, Commonwealth, Americans or any of the other observers have never supported the MDC’s position.
Worse still, by participating in the flawed and illegal elections and then accepting some part of the election results the MDC and the rest in the opposition camp have given the flawed and illegal elections some measure of credibility.
The EU had first hand, front seat, experience of how Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections. It is an outrage that the EU is now pushing to re-engage this illegitimate regime without stopping to consider the dire consequences of that move.
Can the EU guarantee that Zanu PF will implement the democratic reforms to ensure 2023 elections are free, fair and credible?
There is a crying need for rational behaviour in Zimbabwe politics; Zanu PF rigged last year's elections and it is therefore illegitimate and must be treated as such. The policy of appeasing Zanu PF thugs was a foolish one and the country has paid dearly for it and must be allowed to put an end to this folly.
There is no doubt that the EU is seeking re-engagement for its own selfish economic interests regardless of the tragic cost in human suffering and deaths to the people of Zimbabwe. This callous indifference to the suffering and deaths of others is totally unacceptable and must be condemned!
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