“What we know is victory is certain, it’s only a matter of time. Every struggle has its own unique characteristics. We know exactly what we are doing – please do not panic,” Nelson Chamisa told his audience over the weekend.
If MDC knew what it was doing then why has the party failed to implement even one democratic reform in 20 years, 5 of which the party was in the 2008 to 2013 GNU? The party has never had any ideas what to do to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, as Dr Ibbo Mandaza has pointed out.
“Although in its name, logo, ideology and political programme the MDC was formed as a reform party, in direct opposition to Zanu-PF's anti-reform agenda, it is instructive that, since its formation, the MDC has squandered four major opportunities for reform headways in favour of making news headlines in the politics of the day, in the vain hope of either taking from or sharing with Zanu-PF the spoils of political power,” wrote Dr Ibbo Mandaza in The Standard.
“In the circumstances, the squandering of reform headways in favour of news headlines has been the bane of opposition politics in Zimbabwe. Despite if not in spite of styling itself as a pro-reform movement, the MDC has not had a theory of the case, that is a theory of change, based on the understanding of change through reforms as an incremental process driven by milestones that make headways towards incrementally achieving the objectives of the case.”
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had no idea what the democratic changes were; however, what they did know was that their election into public office was their ticket to join Zimbabwe’s exclusive ruling elite club and with that membership came the gravy train benefits and good-life.
The whole international community, including the usually reticent SADC and AU, condemned Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections as a farce because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence by Zanu PF. SADC leaders pressured Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights and to stop a repeat of the blatant election rigging of 2008.
MDC were the GNU partners entrusted the task of implementing the democratic reforms.
Robert Mugabe bribed his fellow Zanu PF cronies to abandon their revolutionary values of freedom, justice and prosperity for all and support him in imposing the de facto one party dictatorship in return for a share of the spoils of absolute power. They agreed. Mugabe contrived to do the same with the MDC leaders, bribe them with the trappings of high office in return for MDC abandoning reforms. It worked!
“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train spoils of power; they will not rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU, when asked why MDC was not implementing any reforms.
SADC leaders made a last minute desperate bid to get the Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postponed until the reform are implemented.
“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist Violet Gonda in 2017.
“Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections.
“Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”
MDC leaders paid no heed to SADC leaders’ stern warning and participated in the 2013 elections and, five years latter in the 2018 elections, for the same reasons they had failed to implement reforms during the GNU - they had no clue what the reforms were about and, besides, they were contend sharing the spoils of power with Zanu PF.
MDC leaders have tasted the sweetness of power; they love it and are hooked. It is true, the party has failed to implement even one reform in 20 years; none of the leaders will ever admit failure much less accept they must step down.
The party has no clue what to do to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, still MDC sees itself as the natural successor to Zanu PF, however long it takes to get rid of the regime.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC into power on the understanding the party will bring about the democratic changes the nation has been dying for. After 20 years MDC has not delivered even one change.
“Don’t underestimate the commitment of the children of change. The wave of change is unstoppable. Those who are trying to dismantle the people’s party are wasting their time. We are unstoppable -that’s an undeniable fact,” said Chamisa.
MDC leaders had their golden opportunity, during the 2008 GNU, to bring change and they wasted it. Ever since they have become as helpless in forcing Zanu PF to change as a feather, caught in a gust of wind, in changing the wind’s direction. MDC leaders’ primary concern is to hang on!
Chamisa’s unconstitutional seizure of power following Tsvangirai’s death in 2018, has done more to divide MDC than any other event in the MDC’s history. All the MDC factions will be participating in the 2023 elections even if not even one token reform is implemented. Zanu PF knows that and taking full advantage of it and so will resist implementing reforms for years to come.
As long as Zanu PF retains carte blanche power to rig elections, there will be no meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe!
Democratic change should have been done and dusted by now. And yet in 20 years, MDC failed has failed to get the process started by implemented even one reform. “Change is unstoppable!” nauseating coming from one who has failed to get change started in 20 years.
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THE chairperson of the CEO Africa Roundtable, Oswell Binha has described Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s much-taunted Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) “a story of missed targets”.
The TSP outlines policies, strategies and projects that guide Zimbabwe’s social and economic development interventions from 2018 to December 2020, simultaneously targeting immediate quick-wins and laying a robust base for economic growth for the period 2021-2030.
The poorest of the poor are the ones who have paid dearly for Minister Ncube's missed targets.
People Professor Mthuli Ncube knew this Zanu PF regime rigged the 2018 elections confirming the country's status as a pariah state. He only agreed to work with the regime for selfish reason and not out of any hope any good would come out of it. Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, has had no problems getting sell-outs willing to work for the regime and prop up its image.
People like Mthuli Ncube should be added to the sanctions list to send a clear message that those who will sell-out are not going to go unpunished!
In January 2020, teachers in Zimbabwe did not go back to work when schools opened. They said they were incapacitated, they did not have transport money to go to and from work and they did not have any money to buy meals to eat at work. They also said they could not afford to clothe themselves for work.
Not only that, teachers explained that with their meagre salaries, they could not afford to pay school fees for their own children at the same schools they taught at. They said they could not afford to buy uniforms, school shoes, stationery, textbooks and lunches for their school-going children. They also lamented about how they could no longer afford to pay domestic workers to look after their children while they were at work.
There were endless negotiations between the several teachers’ unions in the country but despite the back and forth, teachers and their employer (government) failed to reach a suitable compromise. Teachers decided they would go back to school, but they would only go on certain days. Some schools had lessons just once a week, others twice a week and the lucky ones got to have lessons on three days of the week.
In January 2020, teachers in Zimbabwe did not go back to work when schools opened. They said they were incapacitated, they did not have transport money to go to and from work and they did not have any money to buy meals to eat at work. They also said they could not afford to clothe themselves for work.
Not only that, teachers explained that with their meagre salaries, they could not afford to pay school fees for their own children at the same schools they taught at. They said they could not afford to buy uniforms, school shoes, stationery, textbooks and lunches for their school-going children. They also lamented about how they could no longer afford to pay domestic workers to look after their children while they were at work.
There were endless negotiations between the several teachers’ unions in the country but despite the back and forth, teachers and their employer (government) failed to reach a suitable compromise. Teachers decided they would go back to school, but they would only go on certain days. Some schools had lessons just once a week, others twice a week and the lucky ones got to have lessons on three days of the week.
Zimbabwe’s education standards have all but completely collapse so that children have not had a chance for a decent education for the last ten years, at the least. This is a lost generation and the nation will pay dearly for failing them.
We are who we are, “a shit-hole nation” as President Donald Trump so crudely put it; because we are a nation of gofer content to be led by the nose like a bull at the market! How else can one explain why so many Zimbabweans not only believe the bull-shit from the likes of Mnangagwa and Chamisa but continue to follow these buffoons!
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has continued three years after the launch of so-call Second Republic where there would be “zero tolerance on corruption”. Everyone knows that the wholesale looting of Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds has continued because Mnangagwa and many of his cabinet members are the Godfathers of corruption.
The consequences of the economic meltdown are there for even the most foolish to see; millions now live in abject poverty, the country’s health care and education services have completely collapsed. And yet again and again Mnangagwa keeps wittering about “Vision 2030 when Zimbabwe will be an upper middle income nation!”
There should be no Zimbabwean out there with even half a brain who does not know that MDC leaders sold-out big time during the 2008 to 2013 GNU by failing to implement even one reform. The party is the one giving Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in these flawed and illegal elections for Pete’s sake! It is obvious that Chamisa and company are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections with not even a token reform implemented.
“We know exactly what we are doing - please do not panic!” said Chamisa. Of course, MDC leaders KNEW exactly what they were doing during the GNU - selling out, “kudya vanyerere!” as the Zanu PF buffoons said.
MDC sells out and we find ourselves up to our eyes in this shit-hole and we are not to panic!
If Zimbabweans are serious about getting out of this shit-hole Zanu PF landed us into and MDC are doing their best to keep us there, then we must snap out of our sloth-like slumber are get the democratic reforms implemented and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Change will not come to those content to live in a shit-hole. And if we still believe Chamisa et al will implement the democratic reforms and deliver real change then we truly deserve to live in a shit-hole forever amen!
@ Nedson Shumba
“I think you are failed scribe you keep on blundering not using common sense on this article you write every time. Can i remind you again MDC is not ruling this country. How can they implement reforms when this country is ruled by the junta. Please you are equal responsible as a citizen can you also make an to put reforms you talking about.”
Nedson, let us have a conversation here.
You have asked “How can MDC implement reforms when this country is ruled by the junta?”
Would you agree that during the 2008 to 2013 GNU the country was not ruled by the junta but by a GNU committed to implementing the democratic reforms as agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement. MDC leaders, the reforming partners in the GNU, were expected to implement the reforms but they do not. The failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Why?
It was not the Zanu PF junta ruling the country during the GNU.
Chamisa said “We know exactly what we are doing - please do not panic!” So he must have known that he was selling out by agreeing to go into the GNU and then failing to implement even one reform!
I totally agree with you that no meaningful reforms will ever see the light of day as long as Zanu PF is in power. The way forward now is for Zanu PF to step down but the regime will never do that as long as it can claim to have legitimacy. By participating in these flawed and illegal elections, MDC is giving the vote rigging Zanu PF junta legitimacy.
It is foolish to keep complaining about the Zanu PF junta when we are the ones giving it legitimacy.
Do you, Nedson Shumba, believe Chamisa and MDC A will participate in the 2023 elections with no reforms in place?
@ Darwin Matthew
“You think you can out smart over 2 million voters who saw it worthy to elect Chamisa for Zimbabwe presidency. You as a singular? Ever since MDC Alliance was voted for as an official opposition party by the masses your tongue set wagging day and night like that of witchcraft practitioner, talking and cursing on innocent people accusing Chamisa of events happened the formation of MDC Alliance where Chamisa wasn't the principal the party. Why? Your accusations are selective and directed to one individual. Why? Its high time Zimbabweans start repelling and reject your untested and unfounded boring negative view about MDC Alliance. Viva Nelson Chamisa Viva.”
MDC leaders sold-out big time by failing to implement even one democratic reform when they had the golden opportunity to do so - that is a historic fact. Even if every Zimbabwean had voted for Chamisa in 2018 that would not change the historic facts and reality.
Zimbabwe is still in this shit-hole that Zanu PF landed us into because MDC leaders sold-out; that too is a historic fact. But, most important of all, Zimbabwe will never ever get out of this shit by bury our heads in the sand.
It will be very unforgivable for all these with the common sense and can see the country, let the village idiots, with their heads buried deep in the backsides of buffoons like Mnangagwa and Chamisa, have the final say on the matter!
“Viva Nelson Chamisa!” Enough of this shit!
Corruption has been institutionalised in Zimbabwe, the wholesale looting in Marange and Chiadzwa has cabinet approval, it was cabinet that granted the mining concessions that has allowed the holders to loot.
The late Edward Chindori-Chininga reported to parliament in 2012 that there were no records of the quantity and quality of diamonds, no record of where the diamonds were sold and for how much, no record of who the partners were and how much they earned from the mining activities, etc., etc. And all this was done so that all those benefiting from the mining concessions will have no cooperate or individual tax liabilities. None!
So both cabinet and Zimbabwe parliament know there is wholesale looting of diamonds and other resources in the country and they have all done nothing to stop it. ZACC, the Police and all the other state institutions know what is going on and they know it is all above board and legal.
It is no secret that Mnangagwa and many of his cabinet member are the Godfathers of corruption and they have legalised corruption, institutionalised corruption, this is why corruption cannot be uprooted as long as Zanu PF remains in power!
WATCH- Heartrending Scenes As Families Are Left In The Rains Following Budiriro Demolitions.
How have we come to this? This is not the Zimbabwe that liberation icons like Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi died for!!!!!
PANIC has gripped the ruling Zanu-PF party after two senior party officials on Sunday tested positive for COVID-19 with confirmed cases likely to go up as results of mass tests done recently continue to pour in.
Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu and the party's director for Information Tafadzwa Mugwadi are now in isolation at home together with affected members of their respective families.
The Zanu-PF COVID-19 scare comes as Zimbabwe has recorded 291 deaths with 10 of them having been recorded on Saturday only. Ministry of Health and Child Care COVID-19 statistics yesterday showed that there are 10 718 cases of the virus that have been recorded throughout the country.
When the ruling elite are affected, the testing and tracking has been thorough. When it is ordinary people involved the number of tests carried out is totally inadequate. Zimbabwe’s official corona virus cases and deaths is very, very low because the government have not been testing as per World Health Organisation recommendation.
Some day the truth will come out. The nation will know how many Zanu PF HQ tests were carried out compared to the tests carried out at Goromonzi or some such institution! Some one will have to explain the yawning discrepancy!
@ Abednico Mwembe
“We believe in Chamisa and come next election we will vote for him whether you.like or you do not baba you are just wasting your time writing looong loooong masipa it won’t change pple' s mind . You can form your party and contest and show everyone how to implement reforms under zanu instead of hallucinating about reforms which you know can never be implemented under zanu.”
Even now, with the nation’s economy in total meltdown, with the country’s basic services such as education and health care all but collapsed and with millions of our people now living in heartbreaking abject poverty; you still can not see what this is about. It is the very survival of Zimbabwe that is at issue here and not that of Nelson Chamisa or MDC.
By failing to implement the democratic reforms when MDC had the golden opportunity to do so the party has left the nation stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF regime all these years. Sweeping that historic reality under the carpet will save Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders’ political careers but what about the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans wallowing in poverty and despair waiting for changed that is not coming!
Your blind loyalty to Chamisa is all very well but it comes with a price tag - the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are paying dearly for MDC’s blatant betrayal. You are choosing not to see that reality, don’t expect everyone else to follow your example.
Chamisa et al are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs, they will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for - that is a historic fact. My job is to point this out and let those with eyes to see and ears to hear make up their own minds!
Of course, it is not all who see who perceive or hear and understand. Blessed are those who see and perceive; hear and understand!
As for you Mwembe, you are shallow, thick and slow; your brain has atrophied into a lump of fatty tissue impermeable to facts, truth and logic. It is not your fault you have the DNA of the Biblical wandering Jew!
Stanald Macho
Democracy only works when we have informed citizens who are diligent enough to hold those in public office, have held or aspire for public office to account regardless which side of the political divide the leader happens to be. Those advocating for blind loyalty are undermining democracy and good governance! Tyrants love blind loyalty, indeed dictatorships thrive on it!
@ Darwin Matthew
“Mind you,Zimbabweans can't just let go the party they help built to a formidable one for the last 20 years by a derailer like you, even if it can take nearly 100 years to dislodge oppressing regime like in South Africa, its worth it.Viva Nelson Chamisa the Son off the Soil Viva!!,Viva MDC Alliance the only party that gives ZANU sleepless nights Viva!!!”
Zanu PF leaders had many sleepless nights throughout the GNU years, the feared the possibility of one, just one, MDC leader breaking rank and tabling one democratic reform proposal. The gene would be out of the bottle and, as we all know, once out it cannot be put back again. Mugabe and company breathed a huge sigh of relief when the 2013 elections came with not even one reform proposal submitted.
Ever since the GNU Zanu PF has had no reason to fear MDC, indeed, Zanu PF has been very thankful of MDC because by participating in flawed and illegal elections Chamisa and company have given Mnangagwa and company legitimacy. Zanu PF would even fund the MDC to contest the 2023 elections if the later was broke, that is how much Mnangagwa and company need MDC to contest!
Another five years of Zanu PF is unthinkable!
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power so they would implement the democratic reform to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. MDC leaders have had many chances to do this but have failed; they are clearly not to the task and therefore must go.
I know you are failing to understand any of this stuff; you are just a simpleton you thinks the party is more important than the people. The tragedy is that simpletons like you have the vote and hence the reason why the country is in this mess. All one can do is explain this to you over and over again and hope that some of it will sink in!
After almost six months being treated in China last year, Chiwenga returned home appearing in fairly good health. He has made at least two trips to China since for review, flying in hired private jets.
In September, after being appointed health minister, Chiwenga stunned the country when he said his government was banning medical trips abroad by Zimbabweans which he said were bleeding the country of scarce foreign currency.
Chiwenga said Zimbabwean doctors would be barred from writing referral letters for patients to foreign hospitals, even as Zimbabwe's health facilities remain incapacitated to carry out certain operations due to years of under-investment by the Zanu PF government.
"We will not export our patients. We will not make referrals (to foreign medical facilities) for our patients. It's everybody," Chiwenga said. "Ministers are only about 20 but those who have been going out it's you, you, me, altogether. That export bill was too high and that's what we want to curtail. We want to do away with that, and it requires us to carry out restructuring from the village health worker right up to the quaternary hospital.”
Well we can now say that the promise to stop the ruling elite seeking health care services abroad was all the usual hot air!
Chiwenga also promised to revive the country’s health care services. Another blast of hot air as the health care workers are still on slave wages and the sector has all but collapsed.
"In learning institutions, a total of 332 COVID-19 cases were reported and the majority of these are asymptomatic, isolated and being monitored by rapid response teams in the respective provinces," Muchinguri said.
"Cabinet also wishes to reassure the public that the total number of infected learners and teachers out of a population of 4,5 million and 121 272 respectively, is very low. The environment at schools will continue to be monitored as previously undertaken."
She added: "We continue to urge the need for responsible reporting in this regard. The nation is further reassured that the ministries of Primary and Secondary Education and Health and Child Care will continue to strengthen the implementation of standard operating procedures at schools and public transport spaces in order to curb the increase in new infections."
While government insisted that there was no need to panic over COVID-19, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals yesterday, however, issued a statement to the effect that it had suspended visiting due to rising infections in the country.
"We suspended all the visiting times due to the surge in the number of COVID-19 local infections and an increase in reported cases within our institution. This measure has been necessitated by the need to protect in-patients, staff members and visitors," the hospital said in a statement.
There is no doubt that the number of corona virus cases and deaths recorded at Parirenyatwa Hospital alone is far higher than the official nationwide figures. This Zanu PF government has deliberately under reported the seriousness of the corona virus outbreak to create the false impression the regime has controlled the pandemic.
The price of not testing as widely as the WHO and common sense itself would dictate is many people with the virus are missed and thus allowed to continue mixing with the rest of society and thus spreading the virus! The nation owes it the dead, the living and posterity to investigate what has been going on in Zimbabwe as regard the corona virus.
“Certainly, wangu Mpofu. Hoping to shell out of this more rejuvenated to ferociously defend the Republic.
“This is a moment of meditation and isolation from the noisy outer court, listening to the silence within,” said Mpofu.
Zanu PF is conducting periodic Covid-19 tests after holding a mass test two months ago.
In August 26 people from the headquarters tested positive after 154 were tested.
Well, it must be said that corona virus has not spared the filthy ruling elite and their cronies.
Us the ordinary mortal have suffered the double whammy of abject poverty on the one side and the corona virus on the other! Corona virus has spread among the poor faster because we live crowded like rats without even such basics as clean running water. Many have died of corona and we have done what we have always done - bury our died and carry on!
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