Nelson Chamisa met former South African president Thabo Mbeki and this is what he had to say:
"We want dialogue that is meaningful, where the political will to change for the benefit of Zimbabweans outweighs political expediency. Dialogue must deliver true change and real reforms. When we shake hands let us be agreeing to truly walk in the same direction, a new direction.
"Democracy can't exist without a true commitment to happiness, freedom and peace. Our political impasse cannot continue. We stand firm on the principle that none but ourselves can bring about the true change we need. Real issues affecting us all must be at the heart of any dialogue.”
Former President Mbeki has gone to meet many of the other opposition leaders who have already acknowledge Mnangagwa and the Zanu PF regime as the legitimate winners of last year’s elections; a sign Mbeki is in the country to talk MDC to join POLAD.
There is nothing in Chamisa’s twitter to suggest Mbeki will take the Zanu PF bull by the horns and tell the regime it is illegitimate and must step down. Nothing!
By blatantly rigging last year’s elections, failing to stamp out corruption, shooting innocent protestors, etc. President Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. All his wittering about the November 2017 coup delivering a new democratic dispensation is all just hot air!
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
The claim by Nelson Chamisa that his proposed dialogue and shaking hands with Mnangagwa will be enough to revive the economy is just another blast of hot air. The inclusion of a few MDC leaders in the Zanu PF cabinet will not change the fact that this regime rigged last year’s elections and hence change the country’s pariah state status.
No one will be fooled by the addition of a few MDC leaders into this Mnangagwa regime; just as no one was fooled by the inclusion of Professor Mthuli Ncube, Kirsty Coventry, etc. into the cabinet. The new administration will be a Zanu PF dictatorship in all but name.
All Chamisa is after is a chance to be minister and get back on the gravy train. MDC had no vision to share during the 2008 GNU and it has no vision now.
It is clear, President Mbeki is pushing for a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU. The two parties failed to get any meaningful democratic reforms implemented during the 2008 GNU they will do no better now.
Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is dire; unemployment has remained at 90% ever since the hyperinflation years of 2004 to 2008; 90% of the population are poor with 34% now classified as extreme poverty according to a recent WB report; country’s health care has all but collapsed; etc. The country needs a working solution to end the crippling economic meltdown and it is so, so disappointing that all we will get is yet another political gimmick.
SADC had the chance to redeem itself for failing to get the Zimbabwe crisis resolved during the 2008 GNU. It is clear President Mbeki’s proposed solution of giving power to Zanu PF will never works and the chance is, once again, being wasted. Thanks for nothing President Mbeki!
7 comments:
It is becoming increasingly clear that President Mbeki is pushing a Zanu PF agenda rather than what is good for Zimbabwe. He wants Zanu PF confirmed as the legitimate government and for the party to be in the driving seat going forward. Zimbabwe is in this mess precisely because the country has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship that rigged elections to stay in power.
What is good for Zanu PF is to have its illegitimate status changed to legitimate and its iron grip on power secure not only for now but going into the 2023 elections by leaving the party in charge. The party will see to it that there are no meaningful reforms implemented.
What Zimbabwe needs desperately is to break this cycle of Zanu PF rigging elections and staying in power to make sure no meaningful reforms are implemented and so the party is able to rig the next election to start a new cycle.
Making sure that Zanu PF steps down so the reforms can be implemented and thus finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance is THE HOLY GRAIL of Zimbabwe politics. No stone should be left unturned to make sure Zanu PF steps down and the reforms are implemented! Nothing else matters, nothing!
@ Tinashe
“The 41 year old and Former Minister of ICT carries a legitimacy tag around him which brings an end to the national crisis. The former Organising & Vice President of the MDC plays a critical role to ensure there is peace and stability in the country. The legitimacy and confidence is entangled around him and this make him an important figure to bring closure to the legitimacy problems which ED and his team are facing. This has been proved by his official meeting with former South African President Thabo Mbeki who flew to Harare last night to resolve the political impasse between Zanu PF and MDC led by Nelson Chamisa.”
This is all just egotistic nonsense!
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate because last year’s elections were marred by flaws and illegalities and it is nonsense to talk of winners and losers. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete sake.
The EU and many other observers dismiss the elections as a farce whose process lacked “transparency, traceability and verifiability”.
Political legitimacy and mandate to govern is derived from winning the majority votes in a free, fair and credible election. There is no clause in the constitution saying this political power can be exercise by Nelson Chamisa or anyone else for whatever reason. None!
So all this talk of “The 41 year old and Former Minister of ICT carries a legitimacy tag around him which brings an end to the national crisis.” is all a figment of your imagination.
Chamisa has been peddling this bull to help pressure Mnangagwa to give him a cabinet position. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will still be illegitimate and Zimbabwe still a pariah state with or without MDC member in the cabinet.
As for you, stop talking nonsense!
Charamba had revealed that Mbeki’s mission in the following words, “Correct! The former President of South Africa offered his stature and access globally to help push Zimbabwe’s agenda to have sanctions removed and to ensure reconnection with the rest of the willing world.”
On the brew prepared for Chamisa yesterday, one Ntando Ncube had tweeted saying “Something is brewing here,” when Charamba responded saying,
“True; it did! The issue is when the brew will be served, and how many will lose their way home and into oblivion!!”
Accepting that this illegitimate Zanu PF regime is legitimate is tantamount to accepting that last year’s elections were free, fair and credible. That is simply unacceptable because the worst thing that can happen is do allow Zanu PF to stay in office till 2023 and so allow the party to rig those elections and start yet another cycle of rigged elections followed by five years of looting and bad governance!
The single most important task for us is to break the vicious cycle of rigged elections by making sure Zanu PF steps down to allow the implementation of the democratic reforms. Zanu PF will never implement the reforms and reform itself out of office, that is now obvious.
Leader of the opposition MDC, Nelson Chamisa spoke with what sounded like a changed heart after meeting former South African president Thabo Mbeki yesterday to suddenly announce that the standoff existing between his party and the ruling ZANU PF over the 2018 elections which the MDC says were rigged, needs to come to an end.
Chamisa was never going to get Zanu PF to implement any meaningful democratic changes given Zanu PF was taking its 2/3 parliament majority into the power sharing arrangement.
Chamisa will get his cabinet position and then pressure will be on him to deliver on his promise to get the sanctions lifted and to revive the country's economy. He will failed to deliver on both fronts!
@ Dzingai Kamamba
“There is need to appreciate efforts being made by SA Presidents both former and current. All for our own good.”
These South Africans are telling us that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is being caused by sanctions and would not even mention the rampant corruptions as problem. Mugabe admitted the nation was being swindled out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue. He never arrested even one diamond swindler nor has Mnangagwa.
S Africans booted out Jacob Zuma after he was accused of corruption because they know how damaging corruption can be to a country. But, being the neighbours from hell they are, they want Zimbabweans to keep their corrupt leaders!
ZEC did not even produce a verified voters’ roll so no one, except Zanu PF thugs, who voted last year. Ramaphosa insist the elections “went well”. Why did he not do the same in SA?
“You do not need to show tempers to express yourself like you did here.”
When 90% of the population is unemployed; hundreds are dying everyday because there are no doctors, nurses, etc.; etc. all because of bad governance. You know it is bad governance and some village idiot is forcing to keep the corrupt and vote rigging thugs; if you do not get angry about that then it must be because you are just a village idiot yourself.
You have no clue what is going on around you, you are such an idiot you fight those you are helping you! The real tragedy is village idiots like you have a vote and hence have a tendency of dragging the whole nation into a mess by supporting tyrants!
“You cite other vises like corruption and u less the impact of sanctions as if you do not know how devastating they are to our economy. Its wonder we have u among our educated but not learned. Think outside the box of the American and MDC A propaganda.”
Even if all you are saying is true, why should ordinary Zimbabweans be denied the right to a free, fair and credible elections just because Zanu PF leaders have quarrelled with the west! The argument that Zanu PF will implement reforms if sanctions are lifted is a fallacious nonsense.
The root cause of Zimbabwe economic meltdown is corrupt and the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.
Zanu PF maintains that last year's elections were free, fair and credible; an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean. How can the elections be free and fair when 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, there was no verified voters' roll, etc., etc..
Yes President Thabo Mbeki is not new to the Zimbabwe political and economic crisis and has tried to address this very issue of rigged elections. He is the one who signed the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) on behalf of SADC as the guarantor. the agreement was that Zimbabwe will implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections in future.
Sadly, not even one meaningful reform was implemented in five years and hence the reason we are here again, 2018, still talking about rigged elections.
Zanu PF and MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 GNU and to ask the same individuals to implement the reforms is naive to say the least!
Those who even mention the lifting of sanctions as a condition for implementing the reforms are very insulting and patronising in the extreme. The right to free, fair and credible elections like the right to life and all the other universal accepted human rights are sacrosanct and inalienable and therefore that Zanu PF has willy-nilly denied many Zimbabweans their basic freedoms and rights is tantamount to declaring the individuals are not humans and therefore are not entitled to these freedoms and rights. This is high treason!
I totally agree, S African leaders’ are feigning not to know what corruption is and yet they are the ones who booted out Jacob Zuma for state capture and corruption. They are feigning not to care if elections are rigged and yet they are the ones who have been very careful that their elections are free, fair and credible. I bet SA would have been up in flames if the country had failed to produce a verified voters' roll!
After 39 years of rigged elections and the country spiralling into economic chaos it is shocking that S Africans should be the one cheering and applauding Zanu PF for rigging the elections. When you neighbour's house is on fire you do not come with a gallon of petrol just to make sure the house is burnt to ashes. Only a neighbour straight from hell would do that!
Of course, S African leaders are guilty of patronising Zimbabweans – democracy, free elections, ending corruption these things are good for S Africa but not for Zimbabwe. You lot deserve a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship; here we will do everything to help kept Zanu PF in power!
We must stand firm in our demand to end the dictatorship! It will be very foolish indeed if Zimbabweans allow the nosy neighbours from hell carry the day.
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