It is no secret that both PF Zapu and Zanu PF have each wanted to impose one-party state in Zimbabwe. The compromise position was for the two parties to come together but all past attempts to unite the two had failed as the leaders would not agree on how the spoils would be shared.
The signing of the 22 December 1987 Unity Accord between PF Zapu and Zanu PF; or be it under duress for Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu colleague, they have maintained it was the only way to end the Gukurahundi massacre; offered the chance two parties the chance to merge and then impose a de facto one-party dictatorship.
As the two parties who spearheaded the war to end white colonial rule they felt they had the right and as the ruling party, the political power and clout, to impose the dictatorship. However to sugar-coat the bite pill, Zanu PF has always insisted the de facto one-party state promoted unity, peace and economic development and prosperity. All lies!
The de facto one-party state has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition turning Zimbabwe into a nation where only one voice and opinion was heard, tolerate and counted - that of Zanu PF. Zanu PF has enjoyed carte blanche powers to rig elections and rule as it pleased.
With no one to hold the Zanu PF leaders and government to democratic account it is no surprise mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness became rampant with the economic and political consequences we can see today.
“Local church and traditional leaders say Zimbabweans need to unite in addressing day to day challenges and support the vision of President Emmerson Mnangagwa for the attainment of a middle-income economy by 2030,” reported Bulawayo 24.
Zimbabwe was a middle-income nation in 1980 when the country gained her independence and the last 40 years has been a relentless march to the bottom. 90% of our people are classified as poor and 34% of them are living in extreme poverty, according to a WB recent report. And yet for all but 3 years out of 40 Zimbabwe has been a de facto one party state. So it was not for lack of unity the country is poor!
Indeed, the country is poor because for 40 years we have all been forced into the Zanu PF straitjacket where we all sing the party’s praises and dare not say the truth.
"We want to express particular appreciation for your (Mnangagwa) sensitivity on calling upon the nation to pray. Our indigenous churches are rising up in unity. We have felt as we prayed and listened that as churches we must acknowledge before God that Zimbabwe is a blessed nation. Even when there have been challenges we want to thank God for leaders who have been sensitive to the people," said Rev Andrew Wutawunashe of the Family of God Church.
"As traditional leaders, we have been trying to work with the churches for the good of the nation. Traditional leaders are from God. This is very good for this country. We were waiting for this moment as a country. National thanksgiving and dedication is something that has been missing in our society. Let us inculcate values of gratitude in our society," joined in Chief Fortune Charumbira.
The truth is Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. We can bury our heads in the sand and pretend the de facto one-party state is useful for the nation. But after 40 years of this and with the nation now on the brink of total economic meltdown and political instability it will be insane to continued pretending.
By failing to stamp out corruption and, most important of all, honour his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections; President Mnangagwa has confirmed that Zimbabwe is still the same pariah state he inherited from Mugabe. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, there will be no meaningful economic development. No one likes to do business in a pariah state; there is just too much economic chaos and lawlessness.
The National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service was held under the theme: "Counting our Blessings – Let us through home grown unity affirm work and pray to achieve our national vision”.
40 years of Zanu PF dictatorship under the disguise of unity was NOT a blessing but a curse!
For the umpteenth time; what Zimbabwe needs right now is for Zanu PF to step down, the regime is illegitimate since July 2018 elections were flawed and illegal and therefore could not produce a legitimate result. Zanu PF stepping down will create the political space for the nation to appoint an interim administration tasked to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
The dictatorship has given Zanu PF the carte blanche powers to rig the elections and to cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance; we need to implement the reforms. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is so bad hundreds of people are now dying everyday of easily treatable ailments; we need solutions and no more gimmicks. Zanu PF must step down now!
“It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune,” wrote George Orwell in his epic book Animal Farm.
“You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!"
But by the end of the book even the dumbest of the dumb animals open their eyes and mind to the reality that the pigs had become just as oppressive as the human beings with whom they now freely interacted and looked like.
After 40 years with the country’s economy in a serious mess and the nation gripped with the political paralysis it is shocking that Mnangagwa is still able to line up his ducks so they can sing the praises of the dictatorship and rigged elections!
12 comments:
@ Zimvigil
“But despite Mnangagwa's vacuous promise that 'the worst is over', Zimbabweans know that nothing the President says can be believed and that, as we approach a new decade, the future is still bleak, with little to hope for under a mafia regime drowning in deceit, incompetence and corruption.
“On the political front, hopes of talks between the government and the opposition faded when Mnangagwa insisted that he would not engage with MDC president Chamisa outside the Political Actors' Dialogue (POLAD) that he set up with the fringe political parties who took part in the 2018 elections.”
Whilst I agree that political dialogue under POLAD will be a waste of time as all who join the grouping must first endorse 2018 elections as having been free, fair and credible and that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are legitimate. In other words POLAD will never implement any meaningful reforms. The last thing we want is yet another rigged elections!
But by the same token I also view Chamisa’s proposed dialogue was a waste of time too. Chamisa accepts the parliamentary elections as having been free, fair and credible what he rejects is the presidential elections result. Whatever power sharing arrangement to come out of these talks will mean Zanu PF will still have its 2/3 majority in parliament. That parliament will never implement any meaningful reforms, of that we can be 100% certain.
Chamisa’s proposal is just as foolish as POLAD in that it will never deliver free, fair and credible elections. Never!
In a wide-ranging interview, Zacc chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo said the anti-graft body was not happy with the slow pace by the NPA in pushing prosecutions.
She said of the over 600 dockets they had opened, at least 100 have been fully investigated, with 74 involving high-profile figures.
"Zacc investigates and then sends the papers to the NPA, but the Attorney-General is being brought on board to help fight corruption. We are bringing on board as many people as possible," she said.
"There are high-profile cases which include ministers, MPs, judges, CEOs (chief executive officers) and MDs (managing directors); we are targeting everyone involved in corruption and we will investigate everyone. We urge all those with evidence which may lead to convictions to come forward.
"There should be convictions in court, but we need prosecution (NPA) to up their game. Once we start seeing convictions in court, it gives public confidence that we are not just doing a catch and release game.”
But that is what you have been doing by your own admission!
“Corruption is deep rooted!” Mnangagwa himself has admitted and everyone knows exactly what he meant.
Not even one Zanu PF leader will pass a lifestyle audit read in conjunction with their tax returns. Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo and her husband Minister Sibusiso Moyo will fail and so will almost everyone in cabinet including Mnangagwa himself.
The idea that Zanu PF ruling elite can weed out corruption is just as nonsensical as asking Zanu PF to implement democratic reforms to stop the party rigging elections. Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office and by the same token Zanu PF will never punish themselves for being corrupt!
VICE-President Constantino Chiwenga has flown back to China for a medical review and is expected back home soon, President Mnangagwa has said.
The President revealed this yesterday while addressing congregants during the third edition of the annual National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Grounds in Bulawayo.
"I wish that as we pray, we also remember to pray for Vice-President Chiwenga who is back in China for medical review. He will be back in the country soon," said President Mnangagwa.
Zimbabwe’s health care service has all but completely collapsed and the ruling elite have stop using the local service, to underline this reality. And yet the gathering at the Trade Fair was “to count the blessing” of the 40 years under this Zanu PF dictatorship. The sheer foolishness of it all is breath taking!
The National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service which was established in 2017 is a gathering of Christian believers who will be praying for the nation. The service is commemorated by a lot of churches throughout the country.
"Hard work pays, we cannot achieve Vision2030 without working. Vision2030 depends on the investment of each and every one of us.
As a government, we have accelerated our quest in achieving the national vision. All the good comes through hard work, therefore, we must work for it.
Zimbabweans are not the poorest nation on earth because they are not hard working, far from it they are one of the most hard working people on earth. They are poor because the country has had the great misfortune of being ruled by one of the most corrupt and incompetent, vote rigging tyrants to ever walk the earth.
In 2016 Mugabe admitted the country was being “swindled out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue alone”. He never arrested any of the swindlers and it is now over two years since taking over and Mnangagwa too is yet to arrest one diamond swindler. The wholesale looting of the nation’s resources is still going on to this day.
How ironic that Mnangagwa should be asking Zimbabweans to work even harder knowing this is just a futile exercise given the ruling elite’s greed for power and loot is insatiable!
@ Patrick Zhuwao
Whilst I am not a member of MDC, I however respect the democratic expression of Zimbabweans who electorally expressed their wish for Chamisa to be president of Zimbabwe.
Excelgate is a book which purports to reveal how Zimbabwe’s security services, working in cahoots with electoral officials and ruling party officials manipulated the 2018 elections results using an excel spreadsheet.
This is rich, coming from someone who has said nothing whilst the same thugs rigged one election after another for 37 years and only now finds his voice because the beneficiary of the rigged elections is someone else and not his uncle!
The truth is the whole election process is so flawed and illegal that it is nonsensical to talk of a legitimate result. Excelgate has failed to dispel the fact that there was no verified voters’ roll, failed to produce verified V11 forms, etc., etc. This is the reason why no one of substance has even taken Chamisa’s victory seriously.
Zimbabwe Drought, Hunger Likely to Run Into 2020, Fewsnet Says
What makes Zimbabwe's situation particularly annoying is that even in a good season the country has failed to produce enough for its own people; this for a country that was, once upon a time, the breadbasket of the region.
The need for Zimbabwe to sort out its problem of bad governance is a reality the nation can no longer afford to ignore!
Whilst it is true that the PF Zapu and Zanu PF marriage was gun marriage in every sense of the word, PF Zapu was prompted to say the “I do!” by the gun. Still, it cannot be denied that PF Zapu leaders have played their part is building and retaining the dictatorship ever since the Unity Accord and had their share of the spoils of power.
It is a historic fact that a former PF Zapu leaders, has always held the office of Minister of Home Affairs and that over the years the Police have been notorious for their partisan behaviour. The Minister has never ever lifted a finger to stop them! Never!
This culture of turning a blind eye to the excesses of the Zanu PF dictatorship as long as one has a share of the spoils of absolute power is at the very heart of why Zimbabwe is a failed state.
Opposition leaders like Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, David Coltart, Welshman Ncube, etc., etc. have all betrayed the nation. Mugabe offered the MDC leaders ministerial limos, generous salaries, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. and they forgot about implementing the reforms.
Zanu PF has never had any problems recruiting Zimbabweans to join its cabinet from the late Bernard Chidzero to Minister Mthuli Ncube, Minister Coventry, the 26 President Advisors, etc. They all readily swore Zanu PF was legitimate and the elections were free, fair and credible even in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Minions like Wutawunashe, Chief Charumbira, etc. are just a small sample of Mnangagwa’s Animal Farm ducks all lining up to sing for the dinner.
Even village idiots like Wutaunashe and Chief Charumbira can see that vision 2030 is just a mirage that the nation has been chasing for 40 years now; they also know that Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections, indeed Charumbi helped in that; and yet they still support the dictatorship because they are getting a share of the spoils of power. They don’t give a damn that millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are paying dearly, first with lost freedoms and rights and treasure and now with their very lives too, for the dictatorship.
@ Ntombi Langa
“I did not read much just that one sentence put me off. I wonder why people would like to reduce zapu in the mud of Zanu. To my knowledge zapu has never wanted a one party state. To reduce zapu this low is not only ignorance but silliness of the highest order. Zapu and zanu are two parties with distinct differences in ideologies.”
Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
It is a historic fact that both PF Zapu and Zanu PF wanted Zimbabwe to be a one-party, a PF Zapu and Zanu PF respectively, dictatorship. Speak to any of the party leaders and they will relate countless cases of how the two parties tried to eliminate the other.
Both parties discarded one man, one vote a long time ago; in a one-party state there is no such thing!
You can bury your head in the sand, that will not change the past and, worse still, will not stop you repeating the mistakes of the past!
@ Silungisani Ndlovu
“In Zimbabwe free, fair and credible elections is the USA,EU and British Puppies MDC-ALLIANCE Party win..so all Liberation Movement Government if win elections they are rigged...elections of one men one women vote came with the Colonialist crooks..but they don't like the Liberation Movement Government to win elections...Western Governments discredit them...that Nonsense.”
Why do you discuss free, fair and credible elections only in the context of what the USA, EU and British want and say? Why do you not discuss it in the context of what we, the people of Zimbabwe, want and say?
Do you think the 3 million Zimbabwe in the diaspora who were denied the vote last year, not only have a right to vote but have every right to be pissed off with a regime that treats them like dirty?
Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs fought in the war of independence but only to take the whites’ place as the new oppressors in the land. They did not care about liberating the ordinary Zimbabwean; that should be clear to all by now!
@ Kefi Mavuso
“The ZANU PF party won’t step down for fear of prosecution. What is needed is for all Zimbabweans regardless of our alliance stand march to the state house and let ED we no longer need ZANU PF to usher the country to prosperity. Find competent lawyers to run the country for at least a year while the people debate the way forward.”
If there is one thing that Mnangagwa knows is factual it that he rigged July 2018 elections. So when he said the elections were free, fair and credible; he knew he was lying but, most important of all, that he would get away with the blatant lie.
The overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans out there have no clue what constitutes free, fair and credible elections. If 10% of them understood what free, fair and credible elections were and that they were being short changed. They would also know that the consequence of rigged elections is the economic meltdown the country is experiencing right now. Trust me, they will be demanding that Mnangagwa steps down and he would.
Even if Zimbabweans were to march to state house and Mnangagwa was forced to go one way or the other; as long as you will be hard pushed to get 10% who understand was constitutes free, fair and credible elections, the country will not be out of the woods. Some clever Aleck will highjack that revolution and we will have the making of a new dictatorship.
"Even when there have been challenges we want to thank God for leaders who have been sensitive to the people,” said Wutawunashe.
Of all the stupidity I have heard this last decade this must be counted in the top ten!
Mnangagwa has spent the last 40 years riding roughshod over the people's freedoms, rights and dreams for the selfish purpose of establishing and retaining the Zanu PF dictatorship. 90% of our people are poor and 34%, more than a third, live in extreme poverty, according to WB report. The regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabwe and 24 of them since the 2018 rigged elections.
Mnangagwa "sensitive to the people"; what a sick joke!
One of the reasons why Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess is that we have an unusually large slice of our people who have again and again shown their willingness to sell-out the nation for a cut of the spoils of power.
Zanu PF is one of the most corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regimes to walk the face of the earth but it has never had any problem getting Zimbabweans to do its dirty work.
Church leaders like Wutawunashe, traditional leaders like Chief Charumbira, opposition leaders like Nelson Chamisa and Thokozani Khupe, media mingles like Trevor Ncube, world renowned athletes like Coventry, University professor like Mthuli Ncube, etc. have all sworn that Mnangagwa is a democrat who has never rigged elections, etc. All for the purpose of thirty pieces of silver!
Like it or not Zimbabwe will never get out of this hell-on-earth it is stuck in as long as the minions like Wutaunashe are allowed to sell-out the nation, cash in their ill-gotten gains and get away with it.
“We will turn up the heat in the fight for freedom & decent life for every Zimbabwean,” said Chamisa.
One is compelled to ask why you have not done so all these last 20 years, especially during the GNU when MDC had its greatest opportunity to do so?
SADC had managed to get Zanu PF to agree to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms everyone agreed were necessary for free, fair and credible elections. All MDC leaders needed to do then was implement the reforms. You failed to get even one reform implemented in five years!
“The crisis in Zimbabwe is man-made!” That is stating the obvious what you should have said is MDC has played its part in this crisis. Anyone who expects MDC to help solve the crisis is naive, to say the least. How can Chamisa and company be part of the solution when they are also part of the problem!
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