There is a mountain of evidence proving that the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown are 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. The reason why the nation has been stuck with this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime for all these years is because the party rigged elections.
MDC has had many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship. Sadly, MDC leaders has proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.
Zanu PF has always wanted absolute power and has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to secure the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship. And it was and still remains the only chief beneficiary of MDC’s failure to implement the reforms; but would not think so given the torrent of abuses from Zanu PF leaders and its apologists have been heaping on the MDC leaders.
Zanu PF leaders have dismissed MDC leaders as puppets of the West, amount the many other derogatory things.
But Zanu PF is not averse to doing a volte-face; make the MDC puppets their masters of their western puppeteer masters; just to suit the party’s irrational narrative.
“In his (2020) state of the nation address (SONA) the MDC A leader shocked the nation by his loud silence on sanctions,” wrote Dr Masimba Mavasa wrote.
“ZANU PF has always said the opposition is after destroying the gains of independence and hurt the citizens of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is now groaning under the heavy yoke of the Economic down turn. The person who is causing this lunacy is among us and is Nelson Chamisa.
“Do economic sanctions destabilize the governments they target? A form of foreign pressure, sanctions are typically meant to alter the policies of other countries. There is much pessimism on whether they ever work. Economic pressure works in at least one respect: it destabilizes the leaders it targets and it destroys the citizens of such a country.”
The real tragedy of Chamisa’s 2020 Agenda is that it is not offering a roadmap on how the democratic reforms necessary to end the curse of rigged elections will finally be implemented.
As for the Western imposed sanctions, they are helping putting the pressure on Zanu PF to implement meaningful reforms; hence the reason they must stay. Whatever economic damage they have caused is nothing compared to the damage brought about by corruption and misrule.
Indeed, the sanctions must be extended to include even more Zanu PF leaders and political collaborators such as the Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, and opposition leaders like Nelson CHamisa and Tendai Biti. The MDC leaders will never implement any meaningful reforms without a kick in the back side!
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“Zimbabwe had been isolated from potential trading partners for a long time due to illegal sanctions imposed on it by the West. Sanctions have been causing a lot of economic challenges and affecting development in the country. Unlike many other African countries that were progressively developing owing to investment from foreign investors, Zimbabwe has been lagging behind and this has been a major stumbling block on its economic growth,” said Chido Chikuni.
This is just an ostrich burying its head in the sand. Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who have rigged elections to stay in power all these last 40 years. As long as the country remains a pariah state there will be hope of economic recovery and those wittering about sanctions are just wasting the nation’s time.
@ Eddie Cross
What followed was one of the greatest heists in world history. The ministry took over the claims and in 2008 they established six companies with the right to mine diamonds on the site.
In the next eight years an estimated US$24 billion in rough diamonds was extracted from an area of 60 000 hectares of alluvial sand and soil in the Marange area. After costs of about US$7 billion, nearly US$17 billion in raw diamond revenues vanished. Even the President said at one stage that US$15 billion was "missing". It makes the UK "Great Train Robbery" look like pocket change.
At the time we were busy destroying our commercial agriculture for political reasons and the mining industry was drawn into the crisis. Small chrome miners and the hundreds of thousands of artisanal gold miners began to compete for access to resources. Pitched battles ensued and were encouraged and even financed by buyers who wanted raw chrome and gold for export.
The buyers paid very little for both and fortunes were made — one such buyer has just imported a Bugatti which has a gold flecked paint job – US$3,5 million it cost him.
In the mayhem, formal mining operations were invaded and their owners denied access to their own mines. In open pit operations sometimes hundreds of small-scale miners fought each other to maintain their hold on small areas of land.
And so we gradually became one of the larger gold producing countries with the potential, so I am told, to take our place in the front ranks of global gold producers. But once again it is on the basis of a chaotic and increasingly criminal industry that is impoverishing its primary participants. We are close to being classified as producers of ‘blood gold' with all that that implies.
On a smaller scale we are repeating the mistakes of our diamond industry and in the process failing to gain the advantages of our amazing natural resources and human capital. So what do we do?
It is shocking about this story is that Eddie Cross knew about the extend of the corruption when MDC was in a position to do something to end it during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. But chose to do nothing. Worse still, he has known all along that corruption in Zimbabwe was rampant and it has continued in the post November 2017 government of President Mnangagwa and yet he has remained the the regime’s most passionate supporter to this day.
We cannot deny that we had the opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship and corruption. Sadly the golden opportunities fell into the wrong hands, into the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders including Eddie Cross and company.
Zimbabwe is caught up in a serious economic and political crisis which has forced millions into abject poverty and political paralysis hence the reason the nation is seemingly incapable of extricating itself out of this man-made hell-on-earth.
Zanu PF and its brigades of apologists like Dr Mavaza have made it very difficult for the nation to focus on the real big issues such as the need to restore the people’s right to a meaningful vote by bring up trivial matters such as sanctions. Even if sanctions has had a significant effect on the economy, why should the nation be denied the benefits of good governance which free, fair and credible elections bring just because the West justly or otherwise imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe! Where there should be clarity people like Dr Mavaza bring chaos and confusion for their own selfish and foolish reasons.
Of course it is foolish, no Zimbabweans has benefited from the economic and political chaos Zimbabwe is is today. No, not ever the Zanu PF ruling elite. Even the Mugabes with all their Blue Roof mansion, multiple farms and millions of dollars business empire are happy because they know they will never hold on to their looted wealth for long.
@ Makwirivindi
Could not agree with you more; Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office especially now when they are not under any pressure to do so. During the 2008 GNU Zanu PF had agreed to implementing reforms and SADC, as the guarantor of the agreement, would have put the party under pressure to do so if Mugabe had been the one refusing to implement the reforms.
MDC know they will never get Zanu PF to implement any meaningful reforms; they are making these claims confident the ordinary Zimbabweans do not understand what the reforms are about and so will never hold the party to account!
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has in recent days reportedly told Vice President, Rtd General Constantino Chiwenga, that he’s ready to step down as Zanu PF and government leader if the army deems so, and take a presidential exit package which includes all his current benefits and state provided security for life, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has been told.
What Zimbabwe needs is the implementation of the democratic reforms followed by the holding of free, fair and credible elections and thus put an end to the culture of rigged elections and bad governance.
The Zanu PF dictatorship is imploding the centre cannot hold. When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe the coup plotters were convinced they would revive the country's fortunes. That did not happen and now the coup plotters want Mnangagwa out. No doubt they think Chiwenga will revive the country's fortunes. This is just wishful thinking because as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the economic will never recover.
We witnessed a fraught slowing economy bad relationship with major partners including the United States. But the president maintained an open for business policy. ZANU PF has steered the nation to success despite the difficulties.
Zimbabwe has been relentlessly sliding deeper and deeper into the economic abyss. Unemployment has remained a nauseating 90% plus; the country’s health and education services have all but collapsed; 90% of Zimbabweans are living in poverty, according to WB report; etc. And yet someone has the audacity to call this “success”!
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is reportedly targeting farms belonging to former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi, former Manicaland provincial minister Mandi Chimene and other top allies of the late president Robert Mugabe as he goes for broke in his move to swat the G40 apparatchiks, The Standard has learnt.
Government recently dispossessed Robert Zhuwao, Mugabe's nephew, of his Zvimba farm and also seized former Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo's farm in Mazowe measuring 622,9 hectares.
On Wednesday, government again repossessed Concorpia Farm in Mazowe from G40 kingpin, former Local Government minister and Zanu-PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere in what it described as a downsizing and re-planning exercise, according to a letter by Lands minister Perrance Shiri.
But The Standard is informed government is also targeting Mzembi and Chimene's farms for seizure. The seizure letters have already been drafted and await delivery, according to sources.
Also on the radar is Moyo's former deputy, Godfrey Gandawa, whose 160-hectare Dundazi Farm is being targeted.
"Mzembi is going to lose his Banquest Extension Farm in Masvingo," a well-placed source revealed.
"Also to be seized will be Chimene and Gandawa's farms. Kudzai Chipanga [former Zanu-PF youth league leader]'s farm will be turned into yet to be established Manicaland State University.”
Zanu PF seized the farms from the whites to give them to party loyalists mostly who have failed to make use of the farms and thus turning the country from the breadbasket of the region to the basket case of a failed state.
When there were no more white-owned farms to be looted the Zanu PF thugs started fighting amongst themselves over the ever shrinking national wealth. Zanu PF is imploding, the party leaders’ insatiable greed for power and wealth is the party’s Achilles’ heel. Zanu PF thugs’ appetites have farms, diamond mines and loot was only matched by their prodigal waste of the same. Zanu PF is imploding because there is no loot left to satisfy the party faithful and so they are fighting each other over the scraps!
"He is an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery.”
Ambassador Dell was spot on but even he would have never imagined that MDC would prove to be such a dead weight burden round the nation’s neck! The party did not only waste the golden opportunity the country has ever had to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship by selling out during the GNU, the party has ever since given legitimacy to this murderous and illegitimate Zanu PF regime!
MDC’s 2020 Agenda is no different from all the other party political posturing designed to give the impression the party knows what it is doing and is going to bring about all the changes the nation has been dying for. MDC has failed to bring about even one democratic change in all its 20 years of the party’s existence and that is not going to change.
Ever since the selling out during the 2008 GNU Zanu PF has learnt just how useful MDC was to keeping Zanu PF in power and it will be no surprise to hear many of the MDC leaders are Zanu PF double agents!
“Morgan Tsvangirai a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment,” wrote then USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell in a leaked cable.
"He is an indispensable element for opposition success … but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power. In short … Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery.”
Ambassador Dell was spot on but even he would have never imagined that MDC would prove to be such a dead weight burden round the nation’s neck! The party did not only waste the golden opportunity the country has ever had to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship by selling out during the GNU, the party has ever since given legitimacy to this murderous and illegitimate Zanu PF regime!
MDC’s 2020 Agenda is no different from all the other party political posturing designed to give the impression the party knows what it is doing and is going to bring about all the changes the nation has been dying for. MDC has failed to bring about even one democratic change in all its 20 years of the party’s existence and that is not going to change.
Ever since the selling out during the 2008 GNU Zanu PF has learnt just how useful MDC was to keeping Zanu PF in power and it will be no surprise to hear many of the MDC leaders are Zanu PF double agents!
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