“After swimming around in Alice’s pool of tears, the animals need to dry off, and the Dodo recommends a caucus race. There are no rules; all of the participants run haphazardly around in no particular direction, and everyone wins.”
Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Ever since Zimbabwe’s rigged July 2018 elections (why MDC has disputed the result beggars belief since they knew Zanu PF rigging the elections and they, like all the other opposition parties participated regardless) the country has grappled the challenge of the economic meltdown. (MDC leaders like Tendai Biti insisted the economic meltdown was worse under Mnangagwa than it was under Mugabe, a bit of self-indulgence nonsense as futile as comparing cobra to a black mamba - they are both deadly snakes.)
How to revive the nation’s economy has therefore become the country’s primary concern - the equivalent of getting wet animals to dry off.
Alice questioned the logic of a race in which there is no starting line, no finish line, no rules. But even the Dodo would question Zimbabwe’s caucus race for not only are there no rules but worse still, after one and half years of running around like headless chickens the economic is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss.
Someone has seeded the idea that getting Zimbabwe’s main political leaders, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa to meet will solve all the nation’s political and economic problems. There is nothing to support this, indeed all the evidence show this is a waste of time but that is exactly why it is a caucus race. The race has been gathering momentum as more and more people joined in.
“Like SADC, the church also tried to cajole the main political protagonists to put the people first and their interests behind, but met a brick-wall from the politicians who now stand accused by political observers of being selfish and myopic,” reported one of Zimbabwe’s leading papers, Daily News.
“A deadly cocktail of high unemployment that stands at over 90 percent, the devastating effects of a drought that has left more than 5,7 million people exposed to extreme poverty and inflation that stands over 500 percent only means that for nostalgic Zimbabweans the past where a unity governance brought some stability to the economy is more ideal.”
Zimbabweans have had two national elections post the 2008 to 2013 GNU in which to reflect over the events of that period. The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement.
Lest we forget, the GNU was necessary because not even SADC and the AU, known for endorsing dodgy elections, would accept Zanu PF’s claim of electoral victory of the 2008 given the blatant cheating in the March vote count and the wanton violence in the run-off that followed. The raft of reforms were designed to ensure there will be no repeat of the same cheating and violence.
The 2008 GNU failed to get even one reform implemented and hence the reason Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the 2013 and then 2018 elections.
The economic “stability” the 2008 GNU brought was transient, as we can now see with the economic meltdown. There was no significant inward investment because investors and lenders were disappointed with the failure to implement the political reforms.
“According to the World Bank, Zimbabwe's economy is expected to have contracted by 7,6 percent this year with prospects for growth dim due to a number of factors, such as endemic corruption and failure to attract foreign direct investment,” the Daily News acknowledged.
The WB, IMF and all the other international financial institutions have just told the Zanu PF regime that they will not give it any financial assistance because the regime’s reform programme is “off-track”. We can be 100% certain that the WB and investors will not be trouping back into Zimbabwe just because Mnangagwa and Chamisa shook hands and formed a new GNU, especially when they know it will not implement any democratic reforms, just as the 2008 GNU failed to do.
There is no cause for all this “nostalgic” hysteria over a new GNU; just a continuum of the pointless caucus race of the last 40 years.
What Zimbabwe needs is to finally stop wasting time and treasure and implement the all important democratic reforms and end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Zanu PF and MDC will never ever implement the reforms, a new GNU will not change that. We need to get a new body that will.
7 comments:
The people of Zimbabwe’s failure to asset their freedoms and rights soon after independence is one of the greatest mistake the nation has ever made and one we have paid dearly for and will continue to do so for many, many generations to come!
“It pays in the end to get the best in the beginning!” So claimed the Eric Davis advert.
Eric Davis was one of the top man’s wear shops in First Street, Harare before and after independence. You paid the top dollar for everything from the three piece suit, shirt, shoes right down to pocket handkerchief. But then everything was well made and of the best quality and it lasted.
One felt so comfortable and confident in an Eric Davis suit, shirt, etc.; one did not mind the price tag, it was worth every dollar.
We have all bought cheap stuff which we latter found to be so ill fitting we felt everyone must feel sorry for us. All the cheap stores should be force by law to warn their customers “You don’t pay much now but in the end will jolly well do so in emotion or some such way!”
Our independence should certainly have come with one such warning and saved us the tragic waste of resources, material and human, and the human suffering that followed. Zimbabwe could have become a successful and prosperous nation, it had the potential for it, but has instead become the basket case of a failed state.
Getting the country back on track will not be a walk in the park, if it can be done at all!
“You know where we are coming from and where we are going,” Mnangagwa said.
“We got problems as a country. But these are not problems that can force you to leave the party. These are problems that unite us to build our country.
“Yes, we have economic challenges, but they will pass.
“We shall come to a time when we shall say we went through hardships and hunger, but the period of plenty is coming.
Zimbabwe’s slide into the economic abyss has been relentless ever since the country attained her independence 40 years ago. The nation has failed to remove the party from office because it has usurped the people’s democratic and fundamental freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.
Mnangagwa was speaking at a rally at the Matizha business centre in Serima, Gutu on Friday where thousands of Zanu PF supporters were bussed to the venue.
The logic of bussing in supporters from far and wide, bribe them with freebies, threaten others, etc. is simple enough - it helps create the false impression the party has many supporters making the rigging of elections that much easier.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, just as the party has rigged other elections in the past, the party has no mandate to govern the country.
The challenge for Zimbabwe is to implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
The demand for the implementation of reforms before elections is being undermine by the country’s opposition parties who have all shown that they will participate in flawed and illegal elections. Zanu PF has learnt that as long as the party allow the opposition to win a few gravy train seats the party will be assured of their participation no matter what!
So instead of the challenge being about getting Zanu PF to implement the reforms it is more about stopping the opposition selling out and undermining the demand for reforms!
The failure by many, many Zimbabweans out there - many with excellent education qualifications and professionals - to understand that the GNU was about implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections speaks volumes of the type of people we are. Having failed to grasp what the GNU was about, it is no surprise that Zimbabweans have failed to hold MDC leaders to account for selling-out on implementing the reforms. How can they hold the MDC leaders to account over reforms when they have no clue what the reforms are about!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU managed to get the empty shops to fill up with goods and for basic commercial activities to resume but that was due to the scrapping of the Z$ - a week's work. The GNU partners had the rest of the five years minus one week to implement the reforms and yet failed to get even one reform implemented.
I agree, the IMF and the investors are not going to change their minds and invest in Zimbabwe just because Mnangagwa has added a few MDC manikins to his cabinet. The addition of the likes of Minister Kirsty Coventry and Professor Mthuli Ncube was supposed to have the same effect but clearly fooled no one of substance!
I agree, the pressure is mounting on Mnangagwa to include the MDC manikins to his cabinet. It will not take long thereafter to prove that Chamisa's claim to "having the key to unlock economic recovery" was just hot air!
It looks like reason alone will not be enough to make some people see the folly of another Zanu PF and MDC GNU. One can only hope that failure to revive the economic and attract the much need investment will finally open their eyes!
@ Elizabeth Marunda
“There is need to realise (on the part of those still stuck in the past) that the ballot should now be used and respected in elections and immediately thereafter proceed with developmental issues as a nation.”
I would like to play the Devil’s advocate here. Why should those who have enjoyed absolute power for 40 years now thanks to their ability to rig elections want to abandon the system that has worked so well and for so long knowing they will risk losing the elections? Why would they want to do that especially when they no there is no pressure for them to do so as the opposition will participate regardless how flawed and illegal the process happen to be as long as they the few bait seats are provided!
As for development, that is a bonus to Zanu PF leaders. Of course, they would wish to see Zimbabwe prosper but their number one priority is to secure absolute power for the party leaders and the opportunity to continue the looting and enjoy the extravagant lifestyles of the filthy rich they have now become addicted to!
@ MDC
“The ill-conceived statement by one Victor Matemadanda that anyone who wants cheaper goods must join the army is grossly misplaced and an insult to the suffering people of Zimbabwe,” said MDC statement.
“Matemadanda was implying that everyone should become a soldier if they want affordable goods and a decent life, yet it is impossible for every citizen to be a soldier. Every nation has diverse competences and thus giving reason for division of labour.
“There is no privilege at all in buying from a garrison shop as every citizen must be able to procure goods and services wherever they want.”
The tragedy here is that we have an opposition party that is so naive and utterly useless. Matemadanda was only restating something we have known for the last 40 years - i.e. Zanu PF will do anything to stay in power. The party has awarded pay increases for those in the uniform services whilst starving these in social services such as health and education, for example. As the country’s economic meltdown gets worse and worse, it is no surprise the regime will do anything to make those in the security services feel they are special, when they are not any more better off than the rest of us.
My greatest quarrel with the opposition is that they are the ones who not only failed to implement the reforms but are the ones giving Zanu PF regimes some modicum of credibility by participating in flawed and illegal elections!
Some of the countries affected by the virus that has recorded over 3500 deaths as of Saturday include China with 3070 deaths, Italy 197, Iran 145, South Korea 48.
African countries like Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal and South Africa have confirmed cases but no deaths have been recorded yet.
Zimbabwe's health care service has all but collapsed, most of our clinics and hospitals cannot supply something as basic as clean running water for Pete's sake. How will the country cope with something as demanding as corona virus when the nation with functional and well resourced health care systems are struggling to cope!
This is a wake-up call for all Zimbabweans to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. For the country to start repairing the damage in the health care services, the economy, etc. we need good governance and that is not going to happen until we end the curse of rigged elections!
@ Roving Eagle
I total agree, this government has not done enough to stop anyone with the virus getting through and, once in, there is very little to stop the individual spreading the virus far and wide!
We have allowed Zanu PF to destroy our economy, health care, everything and now we find ourselves paying dearly for it! God only knows how many lives will be lost if there is an outbreak!
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