“Today Zimbabwe stands on the edge of the precipice, and it
is no time for prevaricating, but one for action. The political crisis must be
addressed with urgency, and we can see no other way than the steps we have
outlined,” surmised Ibbo Mandaza in an article titled “There is no other way
than a National Transitional Authority (NTA) in Zimbabwe” in Bulawayo 24.
.
Yes, Zimbabwe is standing on the edge of the precipitous
abyss but unless we know and understand what we did wrong, all these last 40
years to get to the edge of the precipice; our next urgent, without
prevarication, step could well take us over the edge. He acknowledges that the
nation is on the precipice because of bad governance and proposes this NTA a
solution.
“Behind all the problems lies the failure of governance and
political leadership, and the latter is not exclusive to Zanu-PF, but bedevils
all political parties without exception,” argued Mandaza.
“It is this realisation that prompted the Zimbabwe Heads of
Christian Denominations (ZHCoD) call for the Sabbath, the establishment of the
National Convergence Platform (NCP) last year, and the call for political
settlement, national dialogue and a transitional arrangement. This call is now
more urgent than ever in the face of the apparent inability of the government
to address the Covid-19 crisis.”
This is just nonsense. If Mandaza believes, as stated above,
that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems is bad
governance and that both Zanu PF and the entourage of opposition parties are
all beyond the pale then he can not endorse ZHCoD’s NTA proposal too. The
Church leaders are calling for Zanu PF and MDC leaders to settle their
differences and form the NTA.
It was Zanu PF and MDC’s failed leadership that frog marched
the nation these last 40 years to get us where we are today, standing on the
edge of the precipice it is insane to even suggest the same failed leaders, or
be it under a new title, will lead us away from the precipice.
As long as Zanu PF and MDC leaders are allowed to play any
role in the NTA, it will be a Zanu PF government in all but name, and the next
step will be over the edge into the abyss!
“The partial solutions to previous crises — Lancaster House,
the Unity Accord, the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the coup — did not
address the fundamental problem: the politics and the lack of a genuine,
people-centred social contract,” continued Mandaza.
The primary purpose of the 2008 GPA was for the GNU partners
to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to end the blatant
cheating and wanton violence and ensure future elections were free, fair and
credible. The GPA was not perfect but it could have achieved its primary
objective. It failed to so for two reasons, one, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC
friends sold-out. They failed to implement even one reform in five years.
Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, ministerial limos,
generous salaries, a US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. and, with their
snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders forgot about the reforms.
The second reason for the failure was the people themselves.
For all the decades of clamouring for democratic change, the overwhelming
majority of Zimbabweans had no clue the primary purpose of the GPA was to
implement the reforms, what those reforms were, how they were to be
implemented, etc., etc. The people failed to effectively supervise Tsvangirai et
al to make sure they implemented the reforms and not just waste time enjoying
themselves.
A healthy and functioning democracy demands an informed and
diligent electorate. A democracy is a government by the people for the people;
the people are the master and those holding public office are their servants.
How can the people hold the politicians to democratic account if they have no
clue what the politicians are doing?
Of course, we the people, have let ourselves down badly by
failing to take our responsibility to make sure we have good, competent and
accountable leaders at all times. We are standing on the edge of the precipitous
abyss today not because we took a wrong turn two or five years ago! We have
been down this ruinous path for the last 40 years.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political hell-on-earth
because of 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruptions and tyrannical
rule by Zanu PF. The party blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections, the party
does not have the democratic mandate to govern, it is illegitimate. The corona
virus outbreak has brought into sharp focus the critical importance of a competent
government because Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence have made a bad situation
worse.
“The global pandemic will take a heavy toll on the health
sector, with many lives being lost and raise poverty to levels not seen in
recent times, including worsening food security. A domestic collapse also would
have potentially adverse regional effects, where spill-overs are significant,”
confessed Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, a begging
letter to IMF. He was begging for a bailout to avoid Zimbabwe imploding.
The IMF has ignored him completely because IMF and the international
community regards Zimbabwe as a Banana Republic ruled by corrupt, incompetent
and vote rigging thugs. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state then the
country will into implode into economic and political chaos.
What the country needs to do is take a step back; Zanu PF
must step down and allow the appointment of an totally independent body that
the IMF and the international community can trust to implement the democratic
reforms and thus end the country’s pariah state curse. To admit Zanu PF leaders
are corrupt and incompetent and yet still want them back in the NTA is the kind
of irrational thinking that got us to the edge of the precipice in the first
place and, if followed, will take over the edge.
“Think, that you may not walk over the edge of the precipitous
abyss: the spirit indeed is willing, but the intellect is weak!” to paraphrase
Jesus’ warning.
14 comments:
Journalist Hears Why China Is Extremely Good To Black Govt Officials, In Obadiah Moyo’s Own Words. China gives African leaders 15 to 20% kick backs and hence the reason African leaders are filthy rich!
China has also help corrupt African regime to stay in power by devising and bankrolling their vote rigging schemes! The Chinese bankrolled Mnangagwa's rigged July 2018 and as a thank you he allowed them back into the country back to Chiadzwa and Marange diamond fields!
You want Zanu PF and MDC to have their dialogue and the join the other stakeholders to form the NTA and do you really think such an authority will ever do anything other than what Zanu PF wants?
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the party has no mandate and must step down. Why some people are bending over backward just to appease Zanu PF thugs beggars belief. The truth is appeasement is what got us into this mess and it is naive to think we will avoid the last step into the abyss by appeasing Zanu PF!
Ncube admit the country is facing a catastrophic implosion.
Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs and the IMF and the international community have had enough excuses from the regime. It is now up to us Zimbabweans to force this regime to step down or it will drag us all over the edge into the abyss!
@ Prisca Ncube
“This is the only way forward. This idea is not new, must be accepted by all political parties.”
The NTA Mandaza is proposing will have both Zanu PF and MDC playing a major role. The NTA will be nothing but the 2008 GNU by another name. The 2008 GNU failed to get even one reform implemented and this NTA will not do any better. We are just going round and round in circles here and calling it “only way forward”!
The only way forward is for Zanu PF to step down, the party rigged the July 2018 elections. It has no mandate to govern and must go. Both Zanu PF and MDC are the ones who dragged us into this mess, they are to have no role in the NTA. The only way forward is for us to stop going round and round in circle, to stop appeasing those who should be punished for rigging elections!
The IMF and the rest of the international community have refuse to give Zanu PF a bailout, even with the country under this covid-19 threat, because they are sick and tired of dealing with a pariah state. If you think they will be fooled by Mandaza’s Zanu PF centric NTA then you have learned nothing!
@ Prisca Ncube
“With all due respect, Wilbert, instead of shooting down Mandaza's suggestion of an NTA this is the moment people like yourself and others embraced this idea as an entry point. I confess that I like your consistency in politics, but at this point in time, can you please be in a position to listen to someone's opinion and build on it. Mandaza's suggestion of an NTA needs you and many that will bring the idea forward instead of shooting it down like that. We need to work on this idea if you found it not appealing accept and we build on it.”
With all due respect, Prisca, which would you rather I should be truthfully or agreeable?
Let me make my position very clear. The whole July 2018 electoral process was flawed and full of illegalities such as the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll such a process cannot deliver a legitimate result and therefore the parliamentary and presidential result is null and void. I totally dismiss MDC’s targeting of the presidential result as the only one that is illegitimate as cherry picking.
Since the 2018 elections failed to produce a legitimate government, we need an interim administration, this would be Mandaza’s NTA, to implement the reforms and make the next elections are free, fair and credible. The bone of contention is Mandaza, ZHCoD and many others have been calling for NTA in which Zanu PF and MDC play a role in the formulation of the NTA. I believe inviting Zanu PF to play a part will be a big mistake.
Let’s be truthful and frank here, Mandaza, ZHCoD and the rest have all, explicitly or tacitly, endorse Zanu PF as the legitimate government following the July 2018 elections. If it was not for the worsening economic crisis, they would have allowed Zanu PF to stay in power, as has happened countless times in the past when Zanu PF rigged elections. Whilst they see the need for political change to save the country from certain economic total meltdown, they cannot however look Zanu PF thugs straight in the eyes and tell them they illegitimate and must step down. And so Zanu PF is been given a role in the NTA for no other reason than to appease the thugs!
I believe it is Zanu PF that has dragged the nation to the edge of the precipice and to give the party any role in the NTA will only allow the thugs to push the nation over the edge.
Indeed, I believe many people are being pushed over the edge right now. Zanu PF is refusing to test for covid-19 as aggressively as it should because the regime, just like the Chinese, does not want the nation to know how many people died of the virus. China was being secretive but at least the government did mobilise the necessary resources to stop the spread of the virus in China; Zanu PF is doing nothing else other than hiding the truth from the nation!
To be agreeable to Zanu PF playing a role in the NTA is like agreeing to building a house on quicksand. I know it will never stand and I would rather be truthful and say so now even if that means being classified as disagreeable!
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa reached 6783 on Sunday and the death toll has risen to 131.
This means another eight deaths were confirmed on Sunday – two in the Western Cape, two in Gauteng and four in the Eastern Cape.
The number of confirmed cases increased from 6336 on Saturday to 6783 on Sunday – up by 447 cases in one day. But this seemingly high number stems from more than 15 061 new tests that were conducted, out of the 245 747 that had been done to date.
SA has certainly been testing aggressively, at least compared to Zimbabwe that has done only 6 000 as of four days ago when the last test results were announced. SA has done 245 747 out of a population of 60 million. Zimbabwe’s population is 15 million, ¼ of that of SA, and should have done 60 000 tests and yet has only done 6 000 or 10%! Zimbabwe’s 40 cases and 4 deaths is a complete fabrication and the nation will pay dearly for it!
I thought the nation had reached a consensus and rejected the ZHCoD’s Sabbath proposal because it was offering another 2008 Zanu PF and MDC GNU. The last GNU did not work and the new one would suffer a similar fate. Mandaza agreed on this.
“We reject any suggestion that a government of national unity is a realistic solution. The previous experience was an exercise only in temporary stabilisation, but mostly a respite to allow the political parties to position themselves for elections. The only outcome was a short period of lessening the hardship for the ordinary people, but followed by sustained economic decline, vicious political infighting in the main political parties, a coup and the consolidation of the securocrat state, a flawed election, and the re-emergence of political violence. There is no reason to believe that a new government of national unity will be any different,” he wrote above.
Then why he is giving the ZHCoD’s proposal fresh legs here?
Mandaza is calling for “A mediated engagement between the representatives of the national dialogue and the political parties to determine the structure and function of the NTA.”
It goes without saying that it will be tough enough to persuade Zanu PF to share power and a none-started ask the party to have no role since Mnangagwa firmly believes he won the July 2018 elections and has the nation’s mandate to govern. A NTA in which Zanu PF has a role is just as doomed to fail as the one proposed by the Church leaders above.
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections confirming the country was still a pariah state of the Mugabe days and hence the reason the country is still in this mess. We should stop messing around trying to appease Zanu PF. Zanu PF must step down and f-off! The NTA must not have Zanu PF in it, period!
Zimbabwe has not recorded any new coronavirus cases in three days despite testing just over 3 000 people according to briefings from the Military of Health.
The last two cases were recorded on 29 April, bringing the total to 34.
The ministry yesterday tested 920 people but it did not release results.
It has so far tested 11 647.
The people of Zimbabwe will only be too familiar with how the nation was given the run-around when it asked for such things as the verified voters’ roll. The law said ZEC must realise a verified voters’ roll at least a month before nomination day. No verified voters’ roll was ever realised!
One gets the feeling that it will be infinitely easier to get a hen’s teeth than getting the true figures of confirmed corona virus cases and deaths in Zimbabwe!
@ Madzima
“The only solution to seize opportunities for economic stability, development and growth is to push this regime for engagement and reform to ensure a stable and peaceful transition to democracy and our freedoms.”
How do we push the regime to reform when it is the one picketing millions of dollars every month from looting?
“Think, that you may not walk over the edge of the precipitous abyss: the spirit indeed is willing, but the intellect is weak!” to paraphrase Jesus’ warning.
Well we have sleep-walked this far to the edge of the precipice these last 40 years, that is a life time of not thinking!
What is so disappointing here is that it is people like Dr Ibbo Mandaza, to whom many people look to do the thinking who are leading from the front in the sleep-walking. Of course, he knows that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are incompetent, corrupt and murderous tyrants, they only reason they have remained in power all these four decades is because they rigged elections.
SADC leaders allowed Zanu PF to play a part in the 2008 to 2013 GNU to appease Mugabe and company by giving them a soft landing. The idea of giving the thugs yet another soft landing and risk the regime taking the nation over the edge is simply too great.
Indeed the country is in this mess precisely because we would not open our eyes and demand our freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Sure the way forward must be that people demand the full restoration of their freedoms and rights, NOW!
Zimbabwe can remain a pariah state and step over the edge into the abyss or can break with the past and demand the restoration of democracy and good governance and thus step back from the precipice! There is no halfway house!
@ Prisca Ncube
“Wilbert I am talking about the NTA and not 2018 elections. I am saying lets put our heads together and make the NTA work by polishing it to acceptable standards. The confrontational approach in case of NTA is not encouraging at all. I am not entertaining 2018 elections but to see that the NTA is a workable alternative solution to our quagmire.”
We are indeed in a quagmire and, trust me, no one would be more pleased than I to see Zimbabwe step back from the brink. I do not believe that the NTA being proposed in which the corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF tyrants who frog marched us this far right up to the edge of the precipice are returned in power or be it under a new name of NTA will do anything else other than push us over the edge.
I believe even the hardest nuts amongst the Zanu PF hardliners are releasing the seriousness of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and how the covid-19 pandemic has made things infinitely worse. I see these Zanu PF hard nuts agreeing to a NTA; they did agree to the GNU in 2008 when they were caught between a rock and the deep blue sea, the situation a hell lot worse now that then.
Can they be trusted to their right to loot and end corruption? Can they be trusted to agree to implementing the democratic reforms to take away they carte blanche powers to rig elections?
The answer to both questions has to be NO! Only someone who is naïve will believe that!
For your own information, I am not the only one who does not trust this Zanu PF regime. The IMF, WB, AfDB and most other international financial institution do not and hence the reasons they walked out of Zimbabwe a few weeks ago. I am sure you have heard of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s letter to the IMF and others begging for a bailout. They ignored him completely!
You have to understand that Zimbabwe is in this mess precisely because for the last 40 years we have made the foolish mistake of allowing Zanu PF thugs to do as they pleased. So now they believe they have the right to rig elections and stay in power.
You must understand that we are at the very edge of the abyss, allowing these Zanu PF to remain in power means maintaining the status quo, means take the step forward into the abyss. If you are serious about taking the step back from the brink that means breaking from the past, that means ending Zanu PF’s rule!
@ Prisca Ncube
“Mandaza said in his document only technocrats will be part of the NTA.”
Actually, what Mandaza said is “A mediated engagement between the representatives of the national dialogue and the political parties to determine the structure and function of the NTA.”
We both know that both Zanu PF and MDC will never ever agree to “structure and function of the NTA” in which they play second fiddlers to some technocrats much less be left out in the cold.
The decision here is as clear as day; either we appease Zanu PF or demand that Zanu PF steps down and save the nation.
We cannot have both! Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the party is illegitimate and therefore asking it to step down is the most natural thing to do.
We want a healthy and functioning democracy? There can be no better way of stating that than by holding Zanu PF to democratic account for the rigged July 2018 elections, everyone will know we are stepping back from the brink and will never ever travel down this road ever again.
“If you rig the elections we will never ever be allowed to get away with it!” And whatever precedence we had set before now will be obliterated as if it never happened! If there is going to be blood shed to force Zanu PF thugs to give up power; then it a cause worth dying for. I would rather die fighting to step back from the brink than be pushed by the regime after appeasing it with absolute power for umpteenth time!
Zimbabwe has been dying to do the right thing; trust me, demanding that Zanu PF steps down and reasserting the people’s right to a meaningful vote is the right thing!
Zimbabwe will get $7 million from the World Bank to fight the coronavirus pandemic despite being in arrears with the Washington-based lender.
The lender will mobilize $5 million from its Global Financing Facility Trust Fund to support the nation’s health response to the outbreak and redirect about $2 million from its ongoing Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project to support affected communities, a World Bank spokesperson said in an emailed response to questions.
The support will come from the bank’s trust funds and partners because Zimbabwe isn’t current on its debt-service obligations with the institution and therefore can’t access funds through its regular financing channels, the lender said.
Has the WB appointed a third party to supervise the disbursement of the money, as Strive Masiyiwa had suggested? Without proper supervision some of the money will end up paying the bill of the US$70 000 per hour chartered plane or some such extravagant waste!
We have a corrupt and incompetent regime that saw nothing wrong with building sprawling multi-billion dollar mansions like the Blue Roof whilst even key the nation’s schools and hospitals were allowed to rot and decay. The prospect of having such a corrupt and incompetent regime at a time like now is the worst curse one can ever imagine. The sooner Zimbabwe can rid herself of this corrupt and tyrannical regime the better for us all!
@ Nyamungure
You are not the only who has made the mistake of thinking the 2008 GNU was about saving the country from economic collapse.
“The current urgent crisis is more economic than political so it needs more of economic technocrats. Zanu agreed to GNU more because of economic pressure than political. The same last resort move is at play in their minds this time around,” you said.
The reason why Mugabe and Zanu PF agreed to the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) was because no one, including SADC and the AU, would accept Zimbabwe’s 2008 election results giving Mugabe a 84% victory in the presidential run-off was a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people.
The GPA was all about implementing the democratic reforms to make sure the blatant cheating in the March 2008 vote count and the wanton violence of the run-off would never be repeated.
The task of implementing the reforms were left to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends and, as we know, the failed to implement even one reform. Zanu PF rigged the 2013 and 2018 elections and hence the reason we are still in this mess.
Whatever economic recover MDC leaders brought during the GNU, without the political reforms the economic gains were all temporary.
MDC leaders “sat, ate and did nothing” during the 2008 GNU as Chamisa admitted last July. Many Zimbabweans do not want to believe him or their own eyes, let alone some one like me.
Still the historic fact is MDC leaders sold-out on implementing the reforms and since the 2008 GNU they have participated in elections giving Zanu PF rigged elections credibility for selfish gain. We need a NTA but surely it is insane to allow individuals who have already proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs to still play even a minor role!
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