Zimbabwe is facing a very serious social and economic crisis that is now causing untold human suffering and deaths and is threatening the country’s stability and that of the whole southern African region. What is disappointing about this crisis is that it is man-made.
Zimbabwe has been stuck for 40 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. As much as the people have made a determined effort remove the regime from office; they have failed because Mugabe and his cronies have usurped the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Worse still, all efforts to dismantle the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship have all fit a brick wall because Zanu PF has insisted in being the one in charge of reforming the dysfunctional system. The party has made a big song and dance for every reforming step it has made; only to quietly take two or three steps backwards. Observe!
“We have taken note of European Union’s position with regard to its long-standing sanctions regime against Zimbabwe, and welcome its decision to further ease, albeit only slightly, those measures,” wrote Honourable Lt General (Rtd) Dr Sibusiso Moyo, MP (Zimbabwe) Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, as his signed statement proclaimed.
“We view this development as an acknowledgement of progress made in terms of the broad reform agenda we have set ourselves, and to which are fully committed. That reform agenda is a process rather than an event and it will take time to complete.
“We maintain that these and other sanctions measures imposed against Zimbabwe are unjustified and outdated; that they actually hinder our reform trajectory; and that all such measures should be removed - especially at a time when Government is confronted by the daunting consequences of natural disaster and devastating drought”
The sheer stupidity of it all is breath taking! I will just pick three points:
- Let is be absolutely clear here that the so called “broad reform agenda” we are being told this Zanu PF government has “set ourselves and to which are fully committed” is the dismantling of the corrupt, tyrannical and omnipresent Zanu PF dictatorship and restoring the individual freedoms and rights. These are the same freedoms and rights the nation fought the biter civil war to secure.
Instead of adopting a political system to guarantee the individual freedoms and rights Zanu PF fought hard to reject the multi-party democracy provisions in the 1979 Lancaster House Constitution. And, as we know, Mugabe had the provisions removed and imposed the de facto one party in the first decade of our independence.
Zanu PF shed the blood of over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans in the Gukurahundi massacre to force PF Zapu to sign the 1987 Unity Accord, marking the birth of the one-party dictatorship. And since the party has murdered over 10 000 to retain the dictatorship, 24 of them killed in the shoot to kill order to quell protests against the regime since the November 2017 military coup.
The November 2017 military coup removed Robert Mugabe and replaced him with Emmerson Mnangagwa and was heralded as a departure from the dictatorship into a new democratic dispensation. The people were promised free, fair and credible elections; the regime refused to implement even one token reform and went on to blatantly rig the July 2018 elections.
“That reform agenda is a process rather than an event!” the Minister tells us. Zimbabwe could and should have adopted a democratic constitution in which the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free, fair and credible elections were guaranteed, if the Zanu PF nationalist leaders had wanted to. Zimbabwe’s first elections in 1980 and all that followed could and should have been free, fair and credible.
Of course, free and fair elections are an event, Zanu PF wants it to be a process, a long drawn out process that has lasted 40 years and counting, because it suits the party’s no regime change dictatorial agenda!
The argument that the regime should be given more time to implement the democratic reforms given the “daunting consequences of natural disaster and devastating drought” underlines the arrogance and lack of sincerity with this regime. What is there in the drought that stopped Zanu PF producing a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement, for the July 2018 elections!
- The EU’s own 246 strong Election Observer Mission condemned Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections as a farce. “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 Mission’s Final Report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” it concluded.
There was absolutely no rational reason why EU rewarded Zanu PF for blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections by removing all those on the targeted sanctions list except Mugabe, his wife and Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). It is no secret that the EU lifted the sanction under pressure from member countries like Belgium who wanted to restore trading with Zimbabwe especially in diamonds and did not care that the EU was lifting the sanctions at the time when Zanu PF had just taken two giant steps backwards on democratic change.
The November 2017 military coup was heralded as “a military assisted transition” by none other than Lt General Dr Sibusiso Moyo, the coup spokesperson. He, together with fellow coup leaders, Air Marshall Perence Shiri and ZDF commander General Constantino Chiwenga, retired soon after the coup to take up positions as government Ministers and VP for Chiwenga.
Mugabe set up the Joint Operations Command (JOC), a junta comprising the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services, a select few from the party, Zanu PF with himself as the head and Mnangagwa as his assistant. JOC has always been the real power in Zimbabwe and the November 2017 coup has allowed many of its members to step out of the shadows, seize and exercise political power.
The JOC transformed Zanu PF dictatorship of post November 2017 coup rigged the July 2018 elections to consolidate its political hold on power and the very fact that some nations have tacitly endorse the regime as legitimate by ignoring the blatant rigging is a bonus to Zanu PF.
- The late Robert Mugabe has blamed all Zimbabwe’s economic problems on the “illegal sanctions imposed by the British Imperialists and their western allies”. It is now over a year ago since the EU lifted the targeted sanctions on every one except the three named above.
So, other than the USA and two or three other countries that still have targeted sanction on some Zimbabwean individuals and entities; Zimbabwe has been “open for business” with the rest of the world, Mnangagwa’s clarion call since taking over from Mugabe. Sadly, the much anticipated economic recovery in the post November 2017 coup has failed to materialised.
Indeed, during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when Zanu PF chaotic and tyrannical excesses were held in check and the country has its best prospect ever of ending the dictatorship, there was a 9% economic growth in 2009, up from negative minus 6% the year before. The sanctions remained in place throughout the GNU - proof that the root causes of the economic meltdown are corruption, mismanagement, pariah state, etc. and not the sanctions.
“To the extent that this latest easing of EU sanctions signals a reciprocal willingness to move forward, it is, of course, a welcome gesture,” concluded Minister Moyo.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs who have rigged the elections to stay in power against the democratic wishes of the ordinary Zimbabweans. 40 years of the corrupt and tyrannical rule have left the country in a serious economic mess, unemployment has soared to 90% and millions of Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is unsustainable.
The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political paralysis (the MDC opposition party has failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship even when it had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 GNU) is for Zimbabwe to implement reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
Since Zanu PF will not implement the reforms pressure must now be brought to bear on the regime to step down. Targeted sanctions are an integral part of this pressure; this is not the time for the EU to be easing its sanctions on the Zanu PF regime. The real welcome gesture from the EU is for the block to re-instate the sanctions!
7 comments:
The question is, are we where we are because of sanctions or corruption? Since the year 2000, Zimbabwe spoke of the crippling sanctions to the economy. This resulted in government adopting a Look East policy.
If sanctions were not in place the time Zimbabwe discovered diamonds, the country would be having first-class infrastructure, but because of sanctions diamonds were sold clandestinely at way below market price and for obvious reasons there was little accountability, if any.
Some would want to call this corruption, but no it was sanctions busting. Those that were calling for our diamonds to be sanctioned even during the Government of National Unity period are today at the forefront pointing at corruption in the diamond industry then, but all right-thinking individuals should be pointing fingers at them.
Today managers in State-owned companies and central government are not making decisions. The elephant in the room is the new stupid narrative of Corruption. So it is the new narrative that is the number one enemy to development, under sanctions.
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is over-stepping its mandate and is on a witch hunt. As a new republic, we need to start on a new platform where we put in systems, new ways of doing things and drawing a line against economic crimes.
Poor Obert Gutu, he and the other MDC leaders sold-out during his MDC days by failing to get even one meaningful reform implemented during the 2008 GNU. MDC has lost so much political credibility the party lost many of its financial backers and the financial squeeze has force the party to do some “load shedding” just as Zanu PF has been forced to with all the cut-throat factional fighting.
Obert Gutu is one of the MDC leaders who were thrown out of the mainstream MDC party. He contested for a parliamentary seat and lost the July 2018 elections as a member of the MDC-T faction led by Thokozani Khupe.
He, together with most of the other losing presidential candidates joined Mnangagwa’s Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) - a talk shop with no purpose or relevance in a democracy. They were all desperate to remain relevant and so they joined.
It is one thing praising POLAD, which Gutu and others have done with passion, but quite another to pretend corruption was caused by sanctions. In his desperate effort to remain relevant and ingratiate himself to Zanu PF, Gutu is now going for broke.
ZACC has confined itself with either catching the small fish, catch and release the medium size fish and doing nothing about the real big fish, the Godfathers of corruption. But even that is too much for Gutu and is accusing ZACC of witch hunting!
He wants all those responsible for all the looting to be forgiven, “Let us draw a line against economic crimes”. Music to the ears of everyone in Zanu PF HQ, but even the most naive and gullible amongst them must know this is a lead balloon that will never ever fly!
During his 2020 budget speech Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced the scrapping of maize subsidies among a host of other measures to reduce government's unsustainable expenditure budget. One month later the government was forced to reverse its decision as maize prices spiked beyond the reach of many.
No one is getting maize at the gazetted price and the commodity has become scarce
The continued subsidies have created an opportunity for arbitrage for a few select companies. The gazetted retail price for a 10kg bag of maize meal in Zimbabwe is currently pegged at Z$70. This is below the market price of Z$90 and less than half of the going price on the black market.
Since the last South Africa-Zimbabwe Bi-National Commission, South Africa's government hasn't been visible regarding the unfolding events in Zimbabwe. President Cyril Ramaphosa's government should use the 2020 Bi-National Commission to be upfront with Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration regarding the link between food insecurity and macro-political and economic instability.
As South Africa and regional leaders continue to pamper the Mnangagwa administration instead of nudging it towards reforms, Zimbabwe moves closer to a fully-fledged humanitarian emergency with ripple effects across the region. A collaborative approach is urgently needed as the implications run across SADC.
Ringisai Chikohomero, Researcher, Peace Operations and Peace Building Programme, Pretoria
It must be really infuriating for the World Food Programme, the USA, the EU and the other donors who have spent US$200 million sourcing maize to feed the 7.7 million Zimbabweans facing starvation to learn that some on the beneficiaries of the food aid are not getting it because the distribution has been corrupted and politicised.
It would have been easy to force this vote rigging Zanu PF regime to step down so the country can have another GNU arrangement as happened in 2008 if everyone had stood firm in dismissing the July 2018 elections as a farce. Although SADC and the AU did not categorically endorse the elections as free and fair, they confined their reports to talking about how peaceful the election process, up to voting day at least, had been. They did not say anything about such glaring flaws and illegalities as the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll.
Still SADC and AU leaders must now accept that Zanu PF has not implemented any political reforms to stop another rigged elections in 2023. They must accept that if nothing is done now to appoint a body to implement the reforms then it is clear the 2023 elections will be rigged. SADC and AU leaders owe it to the people of Zimbabwe and the whole region to make sure Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections are free, fair and credible.
@ Cliff Chiduku
To better appreciate the power behind the storm brewing in Zanu-PF, which was sparked by the former youth league leaders, it is important to understand the "problem-reaction-solution" or the "Hegelian dialectic" matrix as coined by German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
First, a crisis is created, designed to elicit a certain reaction from the members of public. In turn, the people would demand answers and would willingly accept a pre-planned new order solution; a solution that always involves actions or legislation that never would have passed under normal circumstances.
The problem-reaction-solution entails a leader or government to create or exploit a crisis which it blames on others (false flags). The mass (povo) is then forced to react by asking the same government or leader for assistance. False flags are underground operations usually conducted by leaders or governments which are made to appear as though they have been performed by other entities. At this stage, people would be desperate for help and would be willing to give up their rights. The government then offers the solution that was planned long before the crisis.
Power-mad leaders have since time immemorial been manufacturing crises, only to emerge as knights in shinning armour and appear to be sorting out the problem.
Most people have embraced the notion that getting Chamisa and Mnangagwa to kiss and makeup will get the nation out of the economic mess for a number of reasons:
1) Now that Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” is dead in the water people have no choice but to look elsewhere for answers.
2) Chamisa has said he has “the key to end Mnangagwa’s illegitimacy and to unlock foreign assistance”; many people believe him.
3) There are those who do not believe Chamisa’s claim but in the absence of any other solution are willing to try anything.
Your suggestion that this is a well orchestrated Hegelian dialect problem-reaction-solution is giving Zanu PF undue intellectual credit. The party has blundered from pillar to post all these years. The dialogue being proposed will lead to the formation of another Zanu PF and MDC GNU although the 2008 GNU accomplished nothing. Neither Zanu PF nor MDC leaders have the common sense to see they are making the same mistake.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and incompetent thugs who have rigged elections to stay in power these last 40 years. The idea that an illegitimate regime can be transformed into a legitimate one by adding a few MDC manikins cabinet ministers is laughable!
"We import everything, maize, wheat, cooking oil, carrots, potatoes; everything!" said RBZ Governor.
So why is Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube saying has a trade surplus? Is this why he has been under reporting the foreign aid received from such countries as China and the USA to use it to boast our foreign currency export earnings.
A shrinking economy and triple-digit inflation are taking their toll on Zimbabwe’s dollar.
They’re causing a widening gap between the currency’s official and black-market prices, despite Zimbabwe having one of the world’s highest interest rates.
The Zimbabwe dollar has weakened more than 20% this year on the black market to 28.7 per U.S. dollar, according to marketwatch.co.zw, a local website. The official exchange rate is almost 60% stronger at 17.7.
Policy makers held the southern African nation’s key rate at 35% on Monday in an effort to rein in inflation that was probably above 500% at the end of 2019. Among countries tracked by Bloomberg, only Argentina has a higher base rate, at 44%.
What is so, so annoying here is that Zimbabwe would have been spared all this suffering and anguish if only Morgan Tsvangirai had implemented the democratic reforms and dismantled the Zanu PF dictatorship when the country had the chance to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Worse still the opposition’s treasonous activities are continuing to this day! By participating in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections the opposition have given the illegitimate Zanu PF regime some modicum of credibility.
We have had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship in the past but have failed to use these get out of jail cards because the opposition politicians are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. Before we do anything, we must sort out the problem of sell-out opposition. When all your effort to water the garden is rendered useless because you are a leaking bucket, it makes sense not only to acknowledge the problem but to fix it.
By participating the opposition are giving credibility to a flawed and illegal process; how is that helping the nation?
@ Mikis 4 sure
The solution is for us to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
We have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the ticket they will implement the reforms the nation has been dying for. After 20 years, MDC has failed to get even one reform implemented, we need to not only acknowledge this but to do something to ensure we have competent opposition leaders to implement the reforms.
Yes Zanu PF is the root cause of the nation's economic and political mess but we will never remove Zanu PF from office until we have a competent and focused opposition that will not be so easily corrupted they spend 20 years on the political stage and have nothing to show for it.
If you are going to cut down a tree, it makes sense to spend two hours sharpening the axe and fell the tree in one hour than spend the whole day making a racket and achieve nothing!
The MDC opposition is not fit for purpose, those who cannot see that after 20 years of wasted opportunities they need visit the optician or something!
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