“My critical thinking would be, opposition should focus on talking points and references and guidelines and framework of the agenda. Whether POLAD or GPA or any other frameworks, dialogue remains dialogue, I think the focus should be on the framework. POLAD is a creation of Zanu PF as an institution, and they are using it as a basis of any talks with regards to the court outcome of July 30 elections, and anything outside that is anon-starter,” argued Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo
“So whoever would be advising opposition must focus on the talking points. Suppose there is a resurgence on the economy, what is going to happen to the opposition?”
Well you are spot on, Zanu PF hardliners are interested in talks for talks-sake; they will never ever agree to meaningful political reforms much less get them implemented. Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office.
Zanu PF will never ever win a free, fair and credible elections, of that there can be no if, but or maybe. After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, given a chance in a free, fair and credible election, the people will vote for anyone, anyone at all, just to rid themselves of Zanu PF.
So, what will be the purpose of advising the opposition on what talking points to focus on, when one already knows these will be talks for talk-sake!
President Mnangagwa launched POLAD in May last year, nine months ago; at a time when the economy was already in serious trouble as witnessed by the soaring cost of living, shortages, January 2019 fuel price hike protests, etc. If POLAD was expected to address the nation’s teething economic problems, then the forum members were expected to hit the ground running and, by now, the nation would be expecting significant signs of economic recovery.
There are no signs of economic recovery. Indeed, there are signs of the economic meltdown getting even worse than ever.
POLAD was talk for talk-sake and thus it is no surprise Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has continued on its nose dive POLAD or no POLAD. Launching yet another talk for talk-sake platform will too have no effect on the country’s worsening economic meltdown. None!
“Suppose there is a resurgence on the economy!”
“The Mnangagwa administration has virtually no productive tax base and no one who will lend to it on the scale required, so policy on the fly is the order of the day—layers of contradiction, distortion, graft and increasing chaos—a ‘ramshackle edifice’ that will grow larger and more precarious as the months roll by,” predicted Stuart Doran, in The Strategist ASPI.
“Downward trends and further economic shocks may trigger more instability before the year is out, but they are, ultimately, symptoms, not causes. They are weather vanes that speak of the present and warn us of the imminent, yet they are not seminal and are poor indicators of the longer term.
“For those who would try to read the swirling tea leaves, broader and deeper factors are the better bet. The word ‘system’ is inadequate because the core of it is more profound, more organic and more enduring than that. Zimbabwe is what it is because of a political subculture, centred on the ruling party, that has hegemony and subjugation as its highest ideals. Violence, disdain, paranoia and plunder are among its natural progeny. It is fundamentally antithetical to genuine political competition, dissent and notions of stewardship.”
In short the ramshackle edifice is collapsing, it is nonsense to talk of Zimbabwe’s economic resurgence, not whilst Zanu PF remains in power. Economic resurgence; might as well ask what happens if water started to flow upstream and worry about Mount Everest drowning!
Still, it is the country’s worsening economic situation which, in the end, will hold swear as to what happens in the end. Zanu PF has so far used its coercive power to brow beat the populous into submission. But there is no denying that worsening economic situation is forcing more and more people to voice their dissent with the dictatorship.
In the end the people will overcome their fear of the Zanu PF regime and demand an end to their economic hardships.
“It is the economy, stupid!” as former US President Bill Clinton, once said!
10 comments:
"Suppose there is a resurgence on the economy, what is going to happen to the opposition?"
This is a sick joke! Zanu PF is the one that has dragged the nation from middle-income status to become the poorest nation in Africa. If the party had any common sense, then why did the regime do nothing to stop the rot all these last 40 years.
As long as Zanu PF remains in power, there will be no such thing as economic recovery in Zimbabwe.
I agree that "economy will never recover as long as the politics is not sorted!"
Still I do not believe "only support from the west will recover the economy, and that won't happen without the MDC." The west has already dismissed the July 2018 elections as a farce and by participating in such flawed and illegal elections, MDC proved beyond all reasonable that they are a corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless lot!
The Kuwadzana scenario was an "embarrassment" to Mnangagwa but it was a lot more than that to the nation. When a leader says he will deploy the army to beat up the people, for whatever reason(s) this is no laughing matter especially a leaders who has deployed the army with orders to shoot to kill!
What we have here is a regime that blatantly rigged the 2018 elections, shoot 7 unarmed civilians dead for protesting yet another rigged elections and is now making it know that it will do the same to silence all dissent and criticism. This is a matter we must take very seriously especially given the country's worsening economic situation. We must not allow ourselves to be reduce to being as helpless as sheep who suffer and die in silence!
As we join the Majongwe Must Go chorus let’s remember the PTUZ you want to grab from us has not found it easy to be standing today. Many got maimed others died.22 years of confronting dictatorship and brutality. Handeitione. 2030 ndinenge ndichipo.
This is no different from Zanu PF thugs claiming there will be no regime change because they are the ones who liberated Zimbabwe!
I have never denied that the Gukurahundi massacres took place and never will. The massacre took place in Mat provinces and Midlands province mostly and the other provinces were spared of the beatings, harassment, destruction of property and cold blooded murders.
After the signing of the Unity Accord between PF Zapu and Zanu PF in 1987 the whole nation suffer the consequences of the corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyranny of the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship. No region or tribe was spared the consequences of misrule and therefore it is nonsense to talk of any region being marginalised.
Mugabe never believed that his reign would ever end but we all know it did. Mnangagwa and his cronies are turning up the brutal oppression because they know the worsen economic situation is making their strangle hold on power more and more tenuous.
If a regime cannot provide even the most basic health care service then it really has no reason to be in office. None!
The pressure for Zanu PF to step down now is increasing by the day. I, for one, would be very disappointed if Zanu PF is still in office come 2023 elections. The party will rig those elections, of that we can be 100% certain. Unthinkable!
@ Dobbs
Zanu PF promised the nation one person one vote, freedom, liberty and economic prosperity if they joined the party. People did but since 1980 none of these things have materialised. The party has even murdered over 30 000 Zimbabwe to establish and retain the de facto one party dictatorship the country is groaning under.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends promised to bring democratic change and Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect them into power. Tsvangirai and company sold-out and failed to implement even one reform even when they had the golden opportunities to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Right now MDC are the once giving this vote rigging and, per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime some cover of legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power.
The people of Zimbabwe are desperate for change but, I hope, not so desperate as to fail to learn the lessons of their past political blunders. They did not ask Zanu PF how the party was going to do to make sure the party kept its promises to delivery one person one vote, etc.? The people repeated the same foolish mistake in giving MDC their support and vote. This is a mistake the country can ill afford to make yet again.
So what is in it for the people if they join your People Power Movement? The last thing the nation wants is remove the Zanu PF dictatorship only to replace it with just another dictatorship!
Mzembi and Gandawa were part of Zanu PF’s G40 faction, a grouping of senior Zanu PF and government officials who were removed from office following an army-led coup that dislodged long serving President Robert Mugabe November 2017.
“We are a political party that believes Zimbabwe belongs to all who live in it. The mission of the People’s Party is to establish for the first time in our history, a fair and just society which will enable the people of Zimbabwe to unleash their talents and ingenuity so that their potential can be fully realised,” Msipa wrote in an email to the Westminster Foundation Sunday night.
The Westminster Foundation is a UK-based philanthropic organisation.
In the email, Msipa also asks the foundation to assist the people of Zimbabwe to “liberate themselves”.
“We further believe that we work together with you in assisting the people of Zimbabwe to liberate themselves, stop human rights abuses, eradicate poverty and enhance economic emancipation.
“We trust this is in order and hope to engage with you shortly to spell out our way forward.”
As a Cabinet Minister, Mzembi served in the Ministry of Tourism and had a short stint as a Foreign Affairs Minister before his ouster in November 2017.
He skipped the country while on bail facing fraud charges during his time as head of the Tourism Ministry.
Gandawa is also facing charges of abusing Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund’s (ZIMDEF) money.
According to the email, the two politicians are holed up in South Africa.
They join their former G40 counterpart and ex-Local Government Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere in establishing political movements with plans to contest Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections.
“The mission of the People’s Party is to establish for the first time in our history, a fair and just society which will enable the people of Zimbabwe to unleash their talents and ingenuity so that their potential can be fully realised!”
That is a very noble mission indeed! But given the new party’s leaders were very senior member of Mugabe’s government for, God’s knows how many donkey years, one has to ask why did these individual do something to make these things happen back then?
But, more importantly, they knew the Mugabe regime denied the people their basic human freedoms and rights, hence they readily acknowledge these will be “for the first time in our history”; why have they done nothing to stop the oppression of the people?
Mzembi, Gandawa and the rest of the other G40 Zanu PF faction leaders are no different from their Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and the rest of the Lacoste Zanu PF faction leaders; they are all corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who have never care about the ordinary person.
The only difference between Mnangagwa and Mzembi, other their names and other trivial details, is that the former is in power and the latter is aspiring to unseat him.
The people of Zimbabwe should spend all their time, sweat, blood and sinew in getting Zanu PF to step down, implement all the democratic reforms designed to completely dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and rebuild in its place a healthy and functioning democratic system guaranteed to secure and deliver the freedoms and rights of all our people for all time.
It would be criminal to waste this golden opportunity to get out of the hell-on-earth mess Zanu PF landed us and seek a newer world!
“Come, my friends,
’T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Excerpt from Ulysses – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Millers have imported 30 000 metric tonnes of bread-making wheat to replenish the depleting cereal stocks.
The consignment, which arrived in Harare Sunday, marks the first phase of private wheat imports by millers using their own foreign currency after the state in November okayed grain imports by corporates and individuals.
“We are complimenting GMB wheat stocks which are depleting and we want to avoid the last-minute rush when the country runs out of the bread making raw material,” said GMAZ media and public relations manager, Garikai Chaunza.
“This batch is coming from Argentina and is valued at US$12 million and it’s free funds sourced by millers,” he said, adding that, “We said they have a long-term plan of bringing in more cereal.”
The millers’ spokesperson said they had also sourced maize for roller-meal production.
“Our logistics team is in South Africa finalising the importation of 50 000 tonnes of maize grain from that country and we expect to receive the consignment in two weeks’ time,” said Chaunza.
“We have a history of not failing the nation in as far as ensuring food security is concerned. Our records and history speak for themselves,” he said.
The country consumes 110 000 tonnes of maize every month.
How the mighty have fallen; we used to be the breadbasket of the region and now we are dependent on food aid - so poor we cannot pay for the imports.
It is all very well to hear the millers are “using their own foreign currency” but where are they getting it? Are we not looking at reintroducing the US$ by stealth, the millers will insist in being paid in US$ splitting the nation into a country of plenty for those with foreign currency living cheek and jowl with the starving forced to accept the worthless Z$!
insanity is trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result!
After 40 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule that has brought total economic ruins to the nation; it is insane to now expect the same corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs to delivery peace and economic prosperity. Insane.
Mnangagwa came up with his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" slogan. It was just an empty slogan because other than removing one dictator and replacing with another Zimbabwe had not changed one bit. But coming up with an empty slogan was the best he could do!
Now that it is clear, even to him, that no one was fooled by the empty slogan he is reverting to his default setting - using brute force to maintain his strangle hold on power! How anyone can ever think that his shoot to kill policy will translate into economic prosperity beggars belief.
Yes Zanu PF hardliners will resist meaningful political change but they have, per se, accepted that the economic meltdown will continue. If Zanu PF thugs think they can continue to enjoy absolute power and continue with the wholesale looting and somehow have economic resurgence then they have learned nothing these last 40 years. Economic prosperity is born out of sound economic policies and not voodoo economic policies!
Zanu PF is imploding, the party has been held together by the looted wealth and now that the pickings are getting thin on the ground, the economic meltdown is taking its toll even amongst the ruling elite, the thugs are fighting each other for the scraps. It is nonsense to argue that Zanu PF's rule will last for much longer!
We should concern our selves with how best to manage the Zanu PF demise. We must price the nation free of the tyrannical regime's iron grip; we must not the regime drag the nation into the abyss with it!
We must think what we will put in its place once the Zanu PF dictatorship is dead and buried!
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