“There are no imaginative skills on how to move the country forward internally and externally, be it economic and political in both the ruling party and the opposition of Nelson Chamisa,” wrote Nomazulu Thata, commenting on Professor Stephen Chan’s recent video interview.
Professor Stephen Chan is a blundering idiot masquerading as an intellectual. He has made many very serious blunders on Zimbabwe politics in the past and talked about one such blunder in his interview. He admitted to advising the British Secretary of State for Africa to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration following the rigged July 2018 elections. He argued the British to give Mnangagwa a chance.
Other luminary personalities who had observed Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections, notably Labour MP Kate Hoey, dismissed the elections as a farce and argued the international community not to give the illegitimate Zanu PF regime any support.
It was a great pity that the British government accepted Professor Chan’s advice and not that of MP Hoey. We, in Zimbabwe, have paid dearly for that blunder to this day!
I do agree with Professor Chan’s gloomy assessment of the sorry state Zimbabwe is in. He is right to say there is a lack of imagination, internally and externally, as what to do to get the country out of the mess. The irony is the solution has been hiding in plain sight all along; if only we would open our eyes and minds to see it.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s economy in ruins. 40 years of stifled debate and democratic competition has forced quality out of public life leaving the field open to corrupt and incompetent individuals on both sides of the political divide.
We need to implement the democratic reforms to promote free debate and competition and to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
Since Zanu PF government will never implement the reforms, the party will never reform itself out of office, we must appoint an independent body that will implement the reforms.
Zanu PF must step down to allow the political space for the independent body that will implement the reforms.
“Zanu PF will never step down!” many have argued. Of course, they will step down; they have done is before already!
Zanu PF was forced to step down following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections. The international community, included the usually reticent see nothing SADC and AU, refused to endorse Zanu PF’s claim of electoral victory and legitimacy.
By participating in the July 2018 elections Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition parties gave the flawed and illegal process credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy. Just one of the many decisions proving the compete lack of quality and imagination on the part of Nelson Chamisa et al!
The EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and all the other nations and organisations with any democratic credentials worth a spit condemned the 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 EU Mission final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Given such a damning report, the decision by Professor Chan and the British to let Mnangagwa off the legitimacy hook beggared belief and showed a complete lack of imagination.
The pressure on Zanu PF to stop down should have been brought to bear immediately following the rigged 31 July 2018. The pressure can still be brought to bear even now, the failure to revive the economy is putting Mnangagwa under renewed pressure.
Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections confident he would go on to “rig” economic recovery. His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call has failed to attract the flood of investors. The corona virus pandemic has made a bad situation even worse, the crisis has now turned into a real tragedy.
Before the corona virus outbreak, 34% of the Zimbabweans were already living in extreme poverty; the number has surged upward.
Basic services such as health care and education have all but collapse because of decades of poor funding. Teachers and health care personal have been on strike for months on end demanding a living wage and safe working conditions. All civil servants have just been awarded up 500% wage increase taking the pittance wage of the lowest paid teachers from US$30 to 157 pm. The PDL in Zimbabwe is US$650 pm.
With inflation already at 838% year on year, the wage hike will be eroded away within a few months and everyone will be out of strike again.
With more than a third of the population living in extreme poverty, no health care service, no education for the children, etc. Zimbabwe’s future is bleak. And as long as the country remains a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs; the situation will only get worse.
Zimbabwe could have been saved from this tragic end if only Zanu PF had been stopped from turning the country into a pariah state. The country can still be save from sinking even deeper into this man-made hell-on-earth by implementing the democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections. Only that is needed is the courage and resolve to demand that the illegitimate Zanu PF regime steps down and stop holding the nation to ransom.
Yes, Professor Chan is right, there really is shocking lack of imagination here. When a corrupt, incompetent and, for all intend and practical purposes, braindead thug like Emmerson Mnangagwa is viewed for 40 years and counting as an all powerful demigod; there is a daft lack of imagination all round.
9 comments:
@ Nomazulu
"There are no imaginative skills on how to move the country forward internally and externally, be it economic and political in both the ruling party and the opposition of Nelson Chamisa. In 2018, Mnangagwa appointed a technocrat Mthuli Ncube to be Finance Minister to boost the new dispensation's image internationally, entice direct foreign investment, the readmission of the Commonwealth membership, and colonial master UK taking fiscal responsibilities from where they stopped. However, Minister Mthuli Ncube is professionally challenged to turn the Zimbabwe's economy from an informal sector to a vibrant one; he says what was possible about Indonesia. Indonesia was as once a poor country dominated by informal sector: it was assisted by the government that uplifted them from the informal base to a banking economy in the region. Instead, the Finance Minister is taxing the informal sector he is supposed to empower and uplift to make the economy vibrant. Said Prof. Chan.
Even the all-weather friend China that can cough out 9 Billion US dollars to get Zimbabwe out of the woods, is hesitant/reticent to assist Zimbabwe because it does not have a productivity plan; no transparent and accountable financial cash flows that can convince friendly China to open up its purse and help.
An implosion is imminent in Zimbabwe. There is no government that can oppress its citizens forever, it did not matter how powerful they can be.
What is even painful is that we do not have a "maturing opposition" as an alternative to Zanu PF in the event of it losing grip of power. We have been saying this for a long time now. We need to reread the articles that Wilbert Mukori has been lamenting for years, telling us about how irresponsible a leader MDC-Chamisa is: prior to that, Mukori is one of the few bloggers who openly critiqued MDC-T under Tsvangirai, how they missed a golden opportunity to implement reform, given a chance by then mediator South Africa and SADC in 2009 – 2013. Having enjoyed the gravy train for 5 years they came out empty-handed with nothing to talk about in the GNU with Zanu. "Not even one single reform was implemented!" Said Mukori.
The clash between Thokozani Khuphe and Nelson Chamisa is personal and tribal than ideological. Both politicians do not have the "maturing" edge that Prof. Chan talked about. What he said in the interview was that politicians are not concerned about the welfare of the suffering population, but about money, and about power positions. Only! Was there any maturity in Chamisa to grab power from Khuphe, immediately after the death of Tsvangirai? Is that maturity to try to burn Khuphe and Mwonzorwa in a hut during a funeral of Tsvangirai?
I concur Prof. Chan's depression because I am equally depressed. I have lived with the hope of going back to Zimbabwe to do one or two projects for young women and girls before I die. Time is not on our side, we are ageing, it is not possible to fight two revolutions in a lifetime. We feel we did our part in the liberation struggle of the 1970s. We were sent by our political parties to be empowered for economic liberation of this great country, but here we go. I am deeply depressed about the politics of Zanu PF and the opposition politics equally."
Addressing government officials, among them Cabinet ministers, following a tour of infrastructure built under the Beitbridge Redevelopment Project, Mohadi said the "junta" would not be dislodged by "dogs barking at the rising moon", in apparent reference to the media and opposition parties expos-ing the Zanu-PF government's inadequacies.
"People call us junta, the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) is a war veteran, Vice-President (Constantino) Chiwenga is a soldier, I am a soldier, (Housing) minister (Daniel) Garwe here is a soldier and we will rule not minding what the media says. We will continue to rule. Civilians will not," he said.
"Those of you who are like dogs barking at the rising moon, you can come back home because the moon will continue rising. There is nothing wrong in coming back home.”
When more than 34% of the population are now living in abject poverty, the country’s education and health care services have all but collapsed, etc. these are not dogs barking at the moon. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is economically, morally and politically unsustainable and there is a crying need for change.
This continued arrogance by Zanu PF thugs that they have the divine right to rule the country regardless of their failures and tragic consequences is totally unacceptable. Zanu PF is pushing this nation into dangerous waters. We want peaceful change and by frustrating all efforts to achieve this Zanu PF is leaving no other option but to have violent change.
Mohadi and his Zanu PF cronies will be held to account for all the death and destruction violence will bring!
As for change, it is coming because the present course is unsustainable. Human being will die quietly like sheep to the slaughter.
@ Frank
It is totally unacceptable that we should find ourself fighting for our freedoms and human rights all over again!
CHURCHES have encouraged Zimbabweans to remain hopeful about the country's future, as they continue to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa to engage MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa to help resolve the country's myriad challenges, the Daily News reports.
This comes after church leaders met Mnangagwa and Chamisa separately last month, in a bid to nudge them to talk.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference spokesperson Frederick Chiromba said Zimbabweans should not lose hope.
"People must remain hopeful because our God is alive and he can solve everything. As churches, we need to find a formula for us to bring all people to the negotiating table," he said.
This is nauseating! Both Zanu PF and MDC have already proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent. The two parties had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
Just what else does Zanu PF and MDC have to do before some of these village idiots finally admit the two parties are the problem and not the solution.
"People must remain hopeful because our God is alive and he can solve everything. As churches, we need to find a formula for us to bring all people to the negotiating table!” Please do not bring the name of God into your stupidity. Why would God want a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship kept in power after 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule?
"I call upon all peace-loving citizens to play their part in this journey and help fight violent crime, corruption and subversion spearheaded by malcontents whose only mission is to try to grab power unconstitutionally and violently for their own personal, greedy purposes and against the dictates of democracy and constitutionalism," Kazembe said.
"... the abuse of social media and the scourge of fake reportage, which are often motivated by subversive intentions, will remain closely monitored to protect peace and stability in the country.
"Let's be reminded that the peace we are enjoying did not come by accident. There are some among us, some Trojan horses, working day and night to try to cause chaos in our nation.”
The economic situation that has left over 34% of the people living in abject poverty, basic services such as education and health care all but collapse, etc. is unjustified and unsustainable. Human beings, even those under the most oppressive regimes, will not continue to suffer and die in silence like sheep to the slaughter forever; they will rebel and demand change. After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, change is coming to Zimbabwe.
If Zanu PF continues to stifle peaceful change then the party leaves only one other route for change - violent change. Zanu PF leaders will be held to account for all the death and destruction that the violence will cause.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into office on the promise they would bring about the democratic changes, as the party name implied, to end the curse of rigged elections. MDC has been on the political stage for 21 years, 5 of which they were in the GNU, and they have failed to implement even one token reform. Not one. If that does not prove there is a shocking lack of imagination in MDC then I do not know what else would prove it.
The very fact that many Zimbabweans out there have failed to get their heads round what the democratic changes the nation has been dying for are, even now with all the benefit of hindsight and countless articles to explain the subject; only goes to show just how shallow, thick and slow these people are. Democracy can only function when the electorate are smart enough to hold those in power to democratic account. A voter with no clue what is going on will never hold those in power to account.
When you have corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless politicians, which is what we have, then you need a competent electorate otherwise you are well and truly stuck. Zimbabwe is stuck as we can see; ruled by braindead thugs for 40 years and counting!
“On point Zinasu President. Resistance is the language of the oppressed!”
“The incumbent’s illegitimacy is confirmed by the excessive use of force and coercion against citizens.
Faith in brute force often mislead unpopular rulers to mistakenly rely on guns, imprisonment, teargas and terror to subjugate and muzzle citizens.
Ultimately, citizens will always win,” President Chamisa said in a statement.
“Resistance is the language of the oppressed!” This is just another catch phrase, a slogan, repeated endless, without thinking and devoid of meaning. Resistance is not an end in itself but a means to an end.
After 21 years of MDC on the political centre stage, 5 of which in the GNU; the party has failed to bring about even one change. You had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU and “you sat, ate and did nothing”, as you have admitted yourself.
Yes, Mnangagwa is illegitimate but by participating in the flawed and illegal elections you gave him some modicum of legitimacy.
What is the point of you playing a leading role in the resistance when you get the chance to deliver change you sell-out?
The government of Malawi took a sudden turn at the weekend as they completely ignored the gross crimes against humanity committed by Emmerson Mnangagwa and his administration which have been condemned by the United Nations, and have made both local and international business to lose trust in the zanu-pf leader.
Instead of complaining about the crimes personally sanctioned against the nation’s civilians by Emmerson Mnangagwa for over 37 years, the recently sworn in president Lazarus Chakwera’s local envoy chose to rather concentrate on so called sanctions on a few ZANU PF entities between 2002 and 2020.
There is overwhelming evidence to show that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Zanu PF maintains sanctions are the root cause but the regime is only hiding behind a finger. Why anyone would want to endorse such nonsense beggars belief!
@ Prisca Ncube
“You can differ with his opinion without insulting him as a blundering idiot masquerading as an intellectual. This kind of comment is below the pale. We all know that Professor Chan is an international respected academic, are you fighting that?”
I hear what you are saying my dear sister. You and me have agreed on many things and differed in others. When we have differed we have both been civil about it, as you have shown above. I put it to you that we have remained civil and respectful because our difference were small and the consequences of our difference marginal.
The decision by the British and Americans to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration and give him a chance to prove himself was a monumental blunder because it gave Zanu PF the modicum of credibility and legitimacy and gave the party time to dig in and consolidate.
The consequences of have Zanu PF back in office is the worsening economic meltdown, the increased political oppression and, worst of all, the hopelessness gripping the whole nation. We all know Zanu PF has dug in and flashing the regime out now is not going to be a walk in the park.
Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections and this was not the first time either, Zanu PF has rigged elections for 40 years for Pete’s sake. Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s henchman for 37 years and was responsible for the cold blooded murder of of 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans for the purpose of establishing and maintain the de facto one party dictatorship.
Professor Chan claimed that he has visited Zimbabwe on 80 different occasions and has written books on the country and its people. How then is it possible that you got it so hopelessly wrong to mistake braindead, corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs with a track record of over 40 years for democrats would deserved a chance to prove themselves?
The only answer to that is Professor Chan is in fact a blundering idiot masquerading as an intellectual and said so. Considering the millions of Zimbabweans who are paying dearly for his blunder, this needed to be said and I make no apology for it.
Indeed, if Professor Chan had any shred of conscience then he must write a dissertation admitted his advice to the British to give Mnangagwa was a fcuk up and grovel before the people of Zimbabwe in apology for the suffering and deaths it has brought!
There is a time and place for niceties but there is also a time when has to call a spade a bloody spade!
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