South Africa’s ruling party ANC Women League secretary-general, Meokgo Matuba, saluted United States Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris for being the first woman and woman of colour “to crash through one of the world’s highest glass ceilings”. A historic fact VP - elect Harris acknowledged and celebrated herself. “I will not be the last!” she remarked.
“Harris as the Vice-President of the US must be the voice of reason against white supremacy, patriarchy, and male chauvinism in US and across the globe,” remarked Ms Matuba.
“Serving under President Joe Biden, she must also be at the frontline to fight against imperialism and amongst others call for an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine land by Israel, an end of sanctions against Zimbabwe, Cuba and many other countries.”
Zimbabwe is certainly one country that is in serious trouble and every thinking human being out there would ask VP elect Kamala Harris to please ignore Ms Meokgo Matuba. Zimbabwe is not in a mess because of the sanction!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years because the regime has blatantly rigged elections to perpetuate its stay in power.
All the nation’s other problems of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, economic meltdown, the total collapse of basic services such as education and health, tyrannical oppression, the murder of over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans for political gain, etc., etc.; could not and can never be meaningfully addressed as long as Zanu PF remain in office.
Zanu PF has always sort to blame all the nation’s economic problems and even justify its tyrannical oppression on the targeted sanction imposed on the regime by the USA and other Western nations without ever producing and evidence to support its claim. Why should a village in the rural backwaters be denied their right to a meaningful vote because the West imposed sanctions of the regime? Why would the government punish its own people for something they have no control over?
It is bad enough that Zanu PF has used sanctions as a feeble excuse for refusing to implement the democratic reforms necessary for restoring the people’s freedoms and rights including the holding of free and fair elections. It is adding insult to injury when outsiders side with the regime and ignore the mountain of evidence to proving that sanctions are just an excuse.
SA has refused to accept that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections and is therefore, per se, illegitimate. The 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, compared to the 2.4 million Mnangagwa says voted for him to win the presidency. The regime failed to produce something as basic and fundamental for free and fair elections as verified voters’ roll. SA ignored all that and insisted the elections “went well!”
Of all people, VP - elect Harris would understand the importance of free, fair and credible elections and the critical importance of healthy and functioning democratic institutions. She can well image what a mess America would be in if President Donald Trump’s repeated call to “Stop counting the votes!” had been carried out.
Zanu PF stopped the vote counting in 2008 when it was clear the party was losing the elections. It took six weeks to count 5 million votes announce the cooked up result. Six weeks!
Why Ms Meokgo Matuba and ANC government are ignoring the cry of people of Zimbabwe for justice, freedom and human dignity and listen instead to Zanu PF lies and propaganda is a complete mystery!
Yes, the election of Kamala Harris as USA Vice President “crashed the highest glass ceilings”. It is a very important mile stone in America’s march towards creating an equal and just society, free of the old prejudices of colour, gender, religion, etc.
In Zimbabwe, we thought the country’s independence would mark the end of white colonial oppression and exploitation and restore all are freedoms and rights. How wrong we were. We remove the white oppressors only to replace them with one of our own. Ordinary Zimbabweans are still being denied their most basic and fundamental freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life!
How ironic that Ms Matuba is agogo celebrating human progress in far away land and yet is indifferent to Zanu PF dragging a nation into the sone-age in her own backyard! Indeed, in her foolishness, she is even asking for the Zanu PF thugs to be rewarded. She wants all the sanctions imposed on the thugs for failing to hold free and fair elections lifted!
Cry the beloved Africa! With leaders like Mnangagwa and Ms Matuba, with a knack for taking one step forward and three steps backward and view that as progress, it is little wonder Africans have remained rooted as mankind’s footstool!
15 comments:
It is interesting to note that ANC is rightly celebrating USA's progress in creating a free, just and progressive society. It is very disappointing to note that Zimbabwe has failed to hold free and fair elections dragging the nation backwards. ANC has turned a blind eye to this!
SA had the great fortune in having the iconic and visionary Nelson Mandela as its leader at the transformative stage of South Africa. He set the nation on a democratic path with strong and independent state institutions like media, police, judiciary, etc.
All the leaders who have followed Mandela have been mediocre at best otherwise just you run of the mill corrupt and incompetent. It is shocking that ANC leaders are still blubbering about sanction as the cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and yet they have heard about the billions of dollars the country is losing every month through corruption.
Of course, it is embarrassing that anyone can be so dumb and stupid to still be talking of sanctions when it is clear as day this is just a decoy and to do so on the international stage. Every thinking South African is hanging his/her head in shame over this ANC gaffe!
Of course, V P elect Kamala Harris will just ignore the call to lift the sanctions! She is smart enough to know right and wrong, to know Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic whose real curse is four decades of corrupt, tyrannical and murderous bad governance. And that the sanctions, fine tuned, will help bring about an end to this curse.
@ Nomazulu
“The opposition is in absolute chaos, a chaos to some extent of their own making. The leaders in the opposition lack maturity, leadership skills, courage, abilities, and capabilities to unseat Zanu. Nothing delights a despotic government of Zanu-PF than to see a divided opposition, said Wezhira. Our opposition today is in tatters as we speak, this statement is again an underestimate, we have no opposition to talk about today.”
Another thoughtful and thought provoking contribution, thank you!
“The opposition is in absolute chaos, a chaos to some extend of their own making. The leaders in the opposition lack maturity, leadership skills, courage, abilities, and capabilities to unseat Zanu PF,” you said.
You are on the money 100%! There is a mountain of evidence to prove the opposition is corrupt and incompetent but what use is the mountain of evidence to one who is as blind as blind-mole!
Remember it took many Zimbabweans nearly 20 years for them to finally accept that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants. These people consider Mugabe and company liberation heroes and heroines and would not have it any other way, even when presented with evidence of the economic decline and the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre.
MDC have been on the national political stage for 20 years, 5 of which in the GNU, and they have failed to implement even one reform. Worse still, by participating in flawed and illegal elections they are giving the elections some modicum of credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
MDC has not only failing to unseat Zanu PF they are giving the illegitimate regime legitimacy!
However getting the blind-moles, there millions of them I know because I counted them, out there to accept that MDC are corrupt and incompetent is near impossible. They will not accept that Chamisa is rouble rouser no more than they would not accept for 20 years that Mugabe was a dictator. Reason and even the reality of their own suffering will not move them.
The blind-mole cannot see because it is blind but there is no one more blind than he who close his eyes and mind and simple refuse to see!
You are trying to force Zimbabweans to open their eyes; good lucky!
@Mwembe
“You are so obsessed by highly educated cowards and fools .We are tired of pple who are educated but not leaders who we all know destroyed this country yes someone with 12 degrees destroyed our lovely country beyond repair. We Zimbabweans are very much happen with our opposition leaders who are standing with us under very difficult environment and do not want to just change them like underpants. So far so good the strategy our leaders are using is best bcoz zanu has failed to break them and the pple project which will end by removal of Zanu PF.”
You are the very epitome of the braindead political supporter, on both sides of the political divide, with the “Great leaders is always right!” mentality that has landed this country into this mess.
For one who is so critical of the “highly educated with 12 degrees” then why have you not boot out Chamisa, Biti, Coltart, Professor Ncube, Dr Khupe, etc., etc., etc. out of MDC? MDC has more lawyers than any other political party I know and yet the party’s Constitutional Court challenge of the July 2018 elections was a sick joke!
No Zimbabwean in his or her mind can possible happy with the reality of the economic meltdown because the nation is stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical government. What is there to be happy about Zanu PF rigging the 2018 elections all because MDC sold-out and failed to implement even one reform even when the village idiots had the golden opportunity to do so!
You, Mwembe, and hundreds of thousands braindead political supporters like you who will not listen to reason are the reason why the country is in this mess. It is a great pity that idiots like you have the right to vote. If you have no clue what is going on and are easily led astray, the right to vote can be a curse because more often than not you will vote and act to undermine your own best interests!
@Mwembe
“You are free to form your party which you can lead while you are in Germany thina vele we are not like mugodoyi the dog that follows everyone we are right with our leaders judging by what we hear every day in buses ,beer walls - churches hayi pple so far want mdc alliance and its entire leadership bcoz it has done nothing wrong to them so far.”
MDC A leaders hold public office and are pay by the public and are therefore democratically accountable to the public. The public include MDC A supporters and none MDC A supporters in Zimbabwe or out side Zimbabwe. Nomazulu is exercising her right to hold MDC A leaders to democratic account. If you do not like the heat get out of the kitchen!
Of course, Nomazulu is free to form her own party but she does not need you to prompt her. Whether she forms her own party or not she still has the right to hold anyone, anyone at all in public office to democratic account and to express her views on all matters of national interest freely.
There are many braindead political leaders and their blind-mole supporters out there who masquerade as democrats but cannot stand being held to democratic account. It takes real courage to ignore the foolish protestation of these idiots and express one’s views freely. If this was football; Nomazulu 11 Chamisa Chete Chete 0!
@ Maposa
"I wonder if these views and assessments are coming from an objective and scholar as it were. Perhaps i need to forgive this pen writer since she is not on the ground and have the feel. Unoiziva ZANU PF here?"
Rubbish you don't have to be a slave to condemn slavery!
Nomazulu or anyone else does not need to be "on the ground" to know that Zanu PF rigged the elections for the umpteenth time? And that Zanu PF was able to rig the elections because MDC had failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so.
Chamisa is once again promising that MDC A will not participate in the next elections without first making sure the elections are free, fair and credible. We have heard all this before; remember the "No reform! No elections!" 2014 party congress resolution!
A year latter party secretary general, Douglas Mwonzora, told New Zimbabwe the party would participate in the 2018 elections. He assured the world MDC would drag "Zanu PF kicking and screaming" to implement the reforms before the elections. Not even one token reform was implemented and MDC participated in the 2018 elections regardless.
MDC and the rest in the opposition camp know that Zanu PF gives away a few gravy train seats during national elections, bait to ensure the opposition participate and thus give the impression the elections were free and fair. MDC and the rest in the opposition camp have found the bait irresistible.
Chamisa has no plan to force Zanu PF to implement the reforms and come 2023 MDC A will participate in the elections with no reforms in place.
Why would Zanu PF implement any reforms and risk losing the elections when the party knows the opposition will participate regardless? Mnangagwa is dewy-eyed but not that stupid as to shoot himself in the foot!
Chamisa and company have given up on the fight for free, fair and credible elections. The opposition is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds; having been doing this ever since the failed 2008 GNU. The real tragedy Zimbabweans have their heads buried in the sand and refuse to see this political reality.
@Mwembe
“Wilbert Mukori You have started again your foolish hallucinations So according to you i have no right to say what i feel about what your Thata is saying .That foolish indeed from you . Think before you start saying a lot of rubbish.”
Read again what Nomazulu said, what you said and what I said! Nomazulu was holding MDC leaders to democratic account for their track record. She has every right, indeed a duty like all of us, to do so. You objected on your usual idiot grounds that she should form her own political party, etc.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 40 years Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have stifled debate along the similar idiotic grounds, they fought in the liberation war. We have fought hard to silence the Zanu PF thugs and will be damned if we are going to tolerate the same foolishness of the likes of you Mwembe.
Abednico Mwembe
I say I am lying and yet failed to name one lie I said!
I warned you of your binary mentality. You never voted for Mugabe because he was an idiot but you voted for MDC A because they are gods who have done no wrong! What a simpleton you are! Just because Mugabe was a dictator that does not mean Chamisa is a genius! Chamisa is just another mortal who also happened to be corrupt and incompetent as his track record shows!
GOVERNMENT has ignored demands for US dollar wages or Zimbabwean dollar equivalent by teachers, announcing Tuesday it had increased the educators’ salaries by 40 percent.
This will see a teacher now earning $18 000.
The amount is almost equivalent to US$180.
Addressing a post-cabinet media briefing in Harare Tuesday, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said government has noted its obligation to give teachers decent wages.
“Noting its obligations to pay a decent wage, Government has reviewed upwards the salary increase offer to Civil Servants to 40% which will be awarded to Deputy Director grade and below.
“In addition to the salary increase, the teachers will also be awarded a 10% risk allowance.
“The new basic salary package for the teacher is now ZW$18 237, which is above the Poverty Datum Line (PDL).
“This means that the compounded review percentage of the teacher grade salary is 1 284% since the beginning of the year. The lowest paid civil servant will receive a salary of ZW$14 528. This is effective from 1st November 2020.”
Zimbabwean civil servants fronted by vocal teachers unions have been demanding a return to US dollar wages arguing the country has, by default, re-dollarised and they could no longer afford paying rentals and also be able to feed their families.
Teachers have been on strike since the delayed resumption of the school calendar following an unprecedentedly long Covid-19 induced break.
Government insists it has no money to meet the wage demands by its restive workforce.
Last week ZESA increased its electricity charges by 50% with another increase in the pipeline. So the wage increase for the civil servants does not mount to much is everything else is going up by a bigger percentage! But let us put that to one side.
Where is government going to get the addition money to pay the 40% wage increase of the civil servants? The obvious answer is government will print more money and thus feeling inflation.
Inflation is already 838% year on year or 35% month on month. The 40% wage increase for the civil servants will be 35% out of step in four weeks time! The civil servants will need yet another wage increase just to stay where there are today! This is just a kitten chasing its own tail!
Zanu PF has no clue how to revive the country’s comatose economy but will never acknowledge that much less accept the people have a democratic right to elect someone else.
Mnangagwa and company believe they have the divine right to govern and hence the reason they have rigged elections these last 40 years. Zanu PF has held this nation to ransom for 40 years and now is determined to drag the nation over the edge into the abyss.
The country is in a serious mess and it is now up to the people to stand up and be counted or suffer and die like sheep in the slaughter house!
“Harris as the Vice-President of the US must be the voice of reason against white supremacy, patriarchy, and male chauvinism in US and across the globe.
“Serving under President Joe Biden, she must also be at the frontline to fight against imperialism and amongst others call for an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine land by Israel, an end of sanctions against Zimbabwe, Cuba and many other countries.”
The ANC busy bodies might as well have added "Kamala Harris MUST listen to us because we are the fountain of infinite wisdom!"
How the whole SA government has been conned by Zanu PF into believing that sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe's economic crisis, even in the face of the mountain of evidence of rampant corruption, is a complete mystery. The fountain of infinite wisdom conned by a braindead dinosaur!
Our African leaders would do a lot better on the world stage if only they would get off their high horses and stop behaving as they are God Almighty's blessing to the world - their assumed position when at home!
I wish Chamisa would stop mess around and speak in plane language: Is MDC A going to participate in the 2023 elections or not if no reforms are implemented?
MDC A has said it will not participate in the past but only to change its mind and participate. My bottom dollar is that MDC A will participate as before all this claim that the party has change its strategy is all just hot air!
@Mwembe
“Wilbert Mukori Everything you uttered is blood f......k lies . MDC alliance has never killed anybody in this country but your Mugabe killed thousands of pple and displaced millions .Every sentence you write is just lies making it difficult to select or point some.of lies from a huge pretender.”
It really is easy to see why Zimbabwe is in this economic mess and political paralysis; the country is cursed with mentally challenged voters. So your blind as a blind-mole loyalty to MDC is bases on the fact that party has never killed anyone!
True MDC A has never killed anyone and Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have murdered over 30 000! But I thought the people of Zimbabwe risked live and limb to elect MDC leaders into power so that they can deliver the democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and killing people. After 20 years, 5 of which they were in the GNU, MDC have failed to implement even one democratic change. Not one!
Chamisa admitted at the late MDC MP Kenny Dinah’s funeral the party accomplished nothing in participating in rigged elections. “Nyaya yokungoti elections in, elections out. Tapinda, tabirwa. Tapinda, tabirwa!” The MDC wildebeest herd cheered as this was a great achievement. The failure to implement any reforms, the rigged elections and the dire consequences of allowing Zanu PF to remain in office are all water off a duck’s back to these MDC wildebeests!
Nomazulu is spot on, MDC leaders are immature and they will never unseat Zanu PF and the people of Zimbabwe must now wake up to that political reality before it is too late. The people risked their life and limbs to elect MDC leaders to implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship clearly MDC is not up to the task and the people must find other people who will implement the reforms.
Biden was one of the key authors and sponsors of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA), the American law that brought sanctions on the country 2001.
For that reason, Mahiya feels there was no need to be excited about a change of leadership in Washington.
Zimbabwe's so-called new dispensation has seen high level corruption with individuals linked to Zanu-PF implicated, a situation that puts the country's international re-engagement hopes in disarray.
Both the US and Britain have recently called out Mnangagwa's government over the arrest of dissenting voices including journalists and opposition political party officials.
Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis has reached a tipping point; unemployment has remained at 90% for over a decade; as on 2019, 34% of the population was living in abject poverty, it is much worse now after corona virus; education and health care have all but completely collapsed because government cannot pay the workers a living wage; etc. This tragic situation cannot continue!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s crisis is four decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule. All the country needs to end the crisis is to end the curse of rigged elections. Zimbabwe must implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
Mnangagwa promised to hold free and fair elections when he seized power in the November 2017 military coup but pointedly refused to implement even one reform before the July 2018 elections. He has had two years since then to implement the reforms and has done nothing. The prospect of yet another rigged elections in 2023 is simply unthinkable.
Since Zanu PF will not implement the democratic reform, the party must step down to create the political space for the appointment of a body that will implement the reforms. All pressure must be brought to bear of Zanu PF to force the regime to step down. The economic sanctions on the Zanu PF ruling elite is an important part of the pressure cocktail mix!
Every thinking Zimbabwean is hoping President Joe Biden will review the 20 year old sanctions on Zimbabwe, the review is long overdue, to make them more focused, watertight and effective. Sell-outs like Professor Mthuli Ncube and opposition leaders who are working for the regime and participated in flawed elections for selfish reasons must be added to the sanctions list.
Zimbabwe’s next elections must be free, fair and credible and no stone must be left unturned to achieve this goal! For once, Mahiya is right the incoming Biden Administration is not going to lift the sanctions; it would be a betrayal of the long suffering Zimbabweans to do so.
@ Patrick
You can bet the ANC leaders would treat VP elect Harris the same way most African parents treated their children who had a better education than them. "We did not educate for to tell us that!"
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