“For years, South Africa trusted in behind-the-scenes contacts to alleviate Zimbabwe’s political and economic problems. But those troubles have continued to mount. By stepping up pressure, and by working with Washington on reform guidelines, Pretoria can help Harare find a way out of its crisis,” argued International Crisis Group in the article How South Africa Can Nudge Zimbabwe toward Stability.
Whilst Pretoria and the rest of the world can do a lot to help end Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis it must be said that all their efforts will come to nothing if we, the Zimbabwean people, are seen to be doing nothing to help ourselves, at best. Or, at worst, keep shooting ourselves in the foot!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU was a golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and we wasted that opportunity. And, as if that was not bad enough, many Zimbabwe have failed to appreciate what the GNU was about even to this day. Indeed, some even have the chutzpah to blade SADC leaders for our own failures.
The West, especially the Americans, went the extra mile in trying to get Mnangagwa to honour his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections following the November 2017 military coup. The Americans gave him a checklist of the reforms needed to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
As we know Zanu PF ignored the reforms and went on to blatantly rig the July 2018 elections.
What is more, it was not only Zanu PF that ignored the reforms! The MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa and the rest of the opposition camp ignored the call for reforms too. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, a legal as well as a common sense requirement, and still the opposition participated in the elections regardless.
By participating in the flawed and illegal elections, the MDC A et al gave the process credibility and, by extension, the result legitimacy. The opposition knew this and still they proceeded out of greed, as David Coltart readily admitted.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” wrote Senator Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
As a way forward the International Crisis Group is call for a Zanu PF and MDC A coalition government.
“Given the entrenched corruption at the top of the ZANU-PF government that risks sinking the country, it is clear that only a broader-based ruling coalition can create the kind of foundation for good governance that the country needs. South Africa and the ANC should thus maintain pressure on the government to enter talks with the opposition and civil society to review possible economic reforms that keep front and centre the interests of Zimbabwe’s people and not just its ruling party.”
Only someone who have failed to grasp or does not want to grasp the political reality in Zimbabwe would suggest a Zanu PF and MDC A coalition as a way forward. We have been here before, the 2008 to 2013 GNU was even better than a coalition in that the GNU partners were obliged by the 2008 Global Political Agreement to implement the raft of democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. As we know, the 2008 GNU failed to implement even one reform in five years. It is naive to suggest a coalition would do any better.
After 40 years of rigging elections and getting away with it, Zanu PF must be told in no uncertain terms that the people’s right to free, fair and credible elections is not a privilege. And therefore the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections must be implemented in full; it is not an à la carte menu but table d’hôte.
If Zanu PF goes ahead and hold the 2023 elections with no reforms in place, as the party has done repeatedly in the past, then Mnangagwa and company must know that this time the election will be declared null and void. Zanu PF will not be allowed to get away with another rigged elections.
The MDC leaders sold-out big time by failing to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. By participating in these flawed and illegal elections the opposition is giving legitimacy to a vote rigging regime. This is totally unacceptable and must stop forthwith.
No stone will be left unturned to make sure all those opposition politicians who participated in these flawed and illegal elections are exposed for what they are - sell-outs! A discredited opposition will not give legitimacy to a vote rigging Zanu PF government.
Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis has dragged on for 40 years and counting because we, the people of Zimbabwe, have shied away from dealing with the curse of rigged elections, the elephant in the room. Today the country is standing on the very edge of the abyss; millions of our people are living in abject poverty and basic services like education and health care have all but collapsed; this is a do or die situation.
We must implemented the democratic reforms, restore the right of all Zimbabweans to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and thus finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 2023 elections must be free, fair and credible or will be declared null and void!
“How South Africa can nudge Zimbabwe toward stability!” SA, SADC and the West have done their best to nudge Zimbabwe in the right directions without much success because we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, out of ignorance, etc., were not ready to move. Pray, we are finally ready to deal with the vote rigging gadflies!
12 comments:
Conclusion
South Africa should have every incentive to help its neighbour Zimbabwe avoid tipping into collapse. Having favoured quiet diplomacy for decades, Pretoria has now adopted a much more critical stance toward Zimbabwe’s failures of governance. It has also taken the first steps toward coaxing Harare into convening a national dialogue, ending political repression and embarking on meaningful economic reforms. These steps have had limited effect, however, as Harare continues to block South African efforts to engage with Zimbabwe’s opposition figures and bring them into the same room with their ZANU-PF counterparts for meaningful dialogue. Pretoria should not give up. It should work with Western donors on a roadmap for reforms that could lead to sanctions and debt relief. It should also help Harare see the importance of finally embarking on this long overdue journey. The alternative to reform is likely to be more instability in Zimbabwe and quite possibly in the region.
SA and SADC were behind the 2008 to 2013 GNU, which had more bite than the coalition being proposed now, it failed to get even one meaningful reform implemented because Zimbabweans themselves were not ready for democratic change. It is naive to suggest the coalition will do any better given the same players in the GNU are involved.
The way forward is for Zimbabweans themselves to finally stand up tall and be counted. We have allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and get away with it, this must now stop. If the 2023 elections go ahead with no democratic reforms then the elections must be declared null and void; period.
Having a corrupt and incompetent opposition like MDC has not helped our fight for free and fair elections. MDC leaders sold-out by failing to implement reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Worse still, the MDC has been participating in flawed and illegal elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy. This must too be stopped!
You are right, the commissioning of the two additional generators at Hwange Power Station plus one or two other power generation projects will not be enough to meet Zimbabwe’s power needs let alone enable the country to become a net exporter of power. This is just a mirage just as vision 2030 turning Zimbabwe into an upper middle income nation is also a mirage.
What the people of Zimbabwe have failed to understand is that Zanu PF would happily engage the nation on Power Stations, vision 2030, Zanu PF’s land distribution policies, anything and everything except anything to do with political reforms. The party has ring-fenced anything that threatens its de facto one-party dictatorship as no go areas.
Zanu PF has allowed the nation to talk until we are all coal-black in the face about economic policies as long as it is understood that when all is said and done it will be left to the Zanu PF government to decide what to do.
So we should not be concerned about whether the two generators will meet the country’s energy needs, that the two generators are 40 years overdue, etc. We should be totally focused on why the nation has been denied a meaningful say for 40 years! Unless we secure the right for every Zimbabwean to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country we will always be chasing mirages and with leaders like Mnangagwa, midnight mirages!
NEARLY half of Zimbabwe's population, including the urban poor face hunger by March this year, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday as it launched an appeal for an additional US$204 million for food aid.
Zimbabwe has suffered successive cyclone-induced droughts, while the COVID-19 global pandemic and a comatose economy increased poverty levels and food insecurity.
"With millions of Zimbabweans devastated by a year of drought, rising hyperinflation and COVID-19, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed for an additional US$204 million to support over four million of the most food insecure over the next six months," WFP said in the statement
Mnangagwa claimed the country had made many successes towards attaining its upper middle income, vision 2030, and yet the country is still failing to produce enough to feed her own people. Ever since Zanu PF seized the farms to give them mainly to the party loyalists the country has lost its breadbasket of the region accolade.
Zanu PF has poured billions of dollars into its command agriculture policies only for the money to be looted.
How anyone can ever believe Zimbabwe’s economy can recover much less thrive without reviving the agricultural sector and ending the scourge of corruption beggars belief!
Zimbabwe’s revival hopes are anchored on implementing the democratic reforms and ending the curse of rigged elections; nothing of any substance can ever be accomplished until we cure ourselves of this dictatorship!
CHILDREN between the ages of zero and 14 constitute 84 295 out of the 1 356 000 people living with HIV, with more than 90% of them infected through mother to child transmission.
In a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, John Mangwiro, Vice-President and Health minister Constantino Chiwenga lamented the plight of children who continue to be infected at a time interventions and medicines to prevent HIV transmission were available. He was speaking on the occasion of the 4th quarter of the National Validation Committee meeting on dual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV and Syphilis held in Harare yesterday.
Zimbabwe has suffered from the double whammy of corruption and corona virus, by the time the country was hit by corona virus it was already in weak and feeble from the crippling effect of corruption and mismanagement. Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have been creaming-off the nation’s wealth to build their sprawling mansions like Blue Roof and C&M and to bankroll their extravagant lifestyles whilst even key services like health care and education were starved of funds.
Corruption has remained rampant despite promises by Mnangagwa to stamp it out after he took over from Mugabe in 2017. VP Chiwenga is in China right now for medical attention; all paid for from the billions of dollars looted from diamonds and other resources.
There will be no meaningful economic recovery as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs!
The water treatment plant has been shut down several times this year because of shortages of chemicals used in treating water and incapacitation.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently ordered an urgent allocation of $9,3 million to council water treatment plant after the facility shut down due to shortage of chemicals.
The money is expected to go towards equipment and chemicals for the waterworks, particularly chlorine and aluminium sulphate.
The city is owed nearly $2,2 billion dollars by the government, companies and residents in unpaid rates.
Kiya kıya! How does this government expect the council to supply something as basic as clean water when it does not pay its bills!
The nation needs a clean start and that means restoring the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The right to free, fair and credible elections is the holy grail and everyone must now ensure 2023 elections are free and fair without fail!
@ Tinashe Muzamhindo
I'm failing to understand what the national dress code will help our economy, and what is the key objective prior to the project? We have ailing state companies like Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, NRZ, Cold Storage Commission, and many others, it is my hope that Government must set their priorities right, by redirecting expenditure to the mainstream economy. Economy is production, and increase in exports, therefore by settling our balance of payments. National Dress Code must be done by corporate world or backed by corporate world using corporate social responsibility ( CSR).
After 40 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement and rampant corruption the real surprise here is that there are some people who still expect the regime to “set its priorities right!”
If it was not for the fact that Zanu PF has been rigging elections the party would have been booted out of office years ago. The focus here should be on making sure the country has free, fair and credible elections as the only way the nation can finally free itself from the regime’s strangle hold.
Zanu PF has ring-fence democratic reforms, free and fair elections, regime change, corruption and a few other topic as no-go areas and many people have accepted this as a matter of cause. Like it or not as long as Zanu PF remains in power there will be no meaningful economic recovery and those who fail to see this simple reality can talk about national priories, etc. until they are coal-black in the face; nothing will change.
Foreign currency reserves rose due to increased exports which grew 6,9% to US$3,43 billion in the first 11 months of the year from 2019 due to the performance of the forex auction.
Further, international remittances rose 40% to US$1,45 billion in the 11 months of the year compared to US$1,04 billion during the comparative 2019 period. Overall foreign currency receipts rose 17% to US$5,76 billion in the 11 months of the year from a comparative of US$4,92 billion last year.
Both RBZ Governor, Dr John Mangudya, and Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube, know that one of the great impediments to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery is the scourge of corruption. The two know that the wholesale looting of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa, for example, has continued untouched for decades now. Why?
One of the factors that have contributed to corruption is man and woman who have held powerful positions in society, who have known of corruption and even aided in its cover up but have said nothing for selfish reasons. Both Mugabe and Mnangagwa have had no problems recruiting such man and woman. None!
The old adage, you can take the horse to the river but you cannot make it drink, is imperative when the horse is a sovereign nation. SADC did give Zimbabwe the best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The fact that Zimbabwe failed to implement even one reform in five years was Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ doing not SADC leaders.
The ordinary Zimbabweans are to blame for elected corrupt and incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai.
In a leaked cable back to Washington the 2004 to 2007 USA ambassador to Zimbabwe Chris Dell described Tsvangirai as “flawed and indecisive character who would become an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got into power.” He came to this conclusion after meeting the guy a handful of times.
Tsvangirai and his banded mongoose friends did get into power, in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and ambassador Dell was proven right again and again and again. SADC leaders tried their best to remind the MDC banded mongoose to implement the reforms and they were ignored.
The very fact that there are still many Zimbabweans who continue to follow MDC leaders blindly like sheep regardless of the mountain of evidence MDC leaders are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent is itself proof Zimbabweans are not yet ready for a healthy and functioning democratic system of government.
Even if SADC and the international community were to, somehow, arm-twist and bamboozle Zanu PF and their MDC acolytes, into implementing all the democratic reforms and the nation finally held it first ever free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabweans will have their freedoms and rights in the morning and by the following morning they will have lost everything, traded for a t-shirt, a piece of meat or a beer!
Democracy demands that the people must have a burning desire to learn and to think for themselves. Zimbabweans are not yet ready to give up their sloth-like mental slumber. They prefer to be led by the nose like a bull and so end up being led by “flawed and indecisive characters” like Tsvangirai or worse still corrupt, vote rigging and murder thugs like Mugabe and Mnangagwa.
@ Newsday
Zimbabwe was no exception to this league of autocrats, notwithstanding the fact that two years earlier, in November 2017, it had experienced a coup that promised the flourishing of democracy.
It was a coup that was well-choreographed for both the international and domestic audiences.
It is wrong to suggest that anyone of substance in the international community was impressed by the November 2017 military coup. Indeed, many laughed at the foolishness of presenting the coup as “military assisted transition!” Only an idiot would believe the lead balloon will fly!
The domestic audience, led from the front by the opposition, welcome the coup. The thing about Tsvangirai and his MDC banded mongoose friends is they are corrupt, incompetent and opportunists, the coup plotters knew that and exploited the weakness. Mnangagwa and company invited the banded mongoose to join the crowds marching in support of the coup. This was important in showing the world that the coup had popular public support.
Once Mnangagwa and company had managed to get Mugabe to resign and there was no danger of the coup being rejected, they forgot all the power sharing promises they had given the opportunists banded mongooses. The MDC leaders were reminded in no uncertain terms that the coup was an internal Zanu PF affair, stay out.
The November 2017 military coup was about removing one dictator and replacing him with another dictator, it beggared belief that anyone would be so foolish as to equate it to ending the dictatorship itself! The banded mongooses did but only because they have long forgotten the people elected them to end the dictatorship.
MDC leaders have given up the fight for free, fair and credible elections; they have accept Zanu PF’s carte blanche dictatorial powers as an unchangeable reality. Ever since the failed 2008 GNU, MDC has turned a blind eye to Zanu PF rigging the elections, indeed they have participated in the flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats.
Morgan Tsvangirai and company had jumped in support of the November 2017 coup because they hold it would lead to the reconstitution of the GNU in which they will hold cabinet positions and receive the ministerial limo, generous salaries, etc., etc. The new GNU was not going to get even one reform implemented.
In 1863, USA President Abraham Lincoln exhorted his listeners to resolve
that these who had lost their lives in Gettysburg Battle “shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Zimbabweans have all aspired for freedom hence the reason those who fought in the liberation war have often been referred to as freedom fighters. As for what kind of government the nation was should have this was not clear but even before independence the people were clear they wanted “One man, one vote!”
Since independence in 1980, Mugabe and now Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have ridden roughshod over the people, denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life!
It has become fashionable to all demand their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. As for what government, they want a democracy, “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.”
The tragedy is the Zimbabwean populous does not have what it takes to have a healthy and functioning democracy and hence the reason the country is not a democracy or is it ever likely to be until the people have what it takes.
To be a government by the people meanings the people themselves must at least have an idea where they are, where they want to go and how they intend to get there; show willingness to see reason and to think for themselves. Zimbabweans prefer the sloth-like slumber and are content to be led by the nose like a bull. It is little wonder the nation has found itself led by breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent leaders like MDC or worse still by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs like Mnangagwa and company.
SA and SADC did nudge Zimbabwe form the 2008 to 2013 GNU which was then tasked to implement the democratic reforms designed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Not even one reform saw the light of day because Zimbabweans themselves did not have what it took to end the dictatorship and replace it with a democracy. They still do not have what it takes; the world can do all the nudging it wants that will change nothing!
This has been a very informative panel discussion. It is nice to talk! In Zimbabwe it has been the voice of Zanu PF leaders and their cronies that has been heard for the last 40 years.
Zanu PF has a 2/3 majority in parliament and therefore the party will push through any law it wishes. This proposed patriotic law will sail through.
What is most relevant here is that Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections just as the party has rigged elections in the past. What Zimbabweans should have recognised by now, after 40 years of rigged elections, is to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
All the proposed solutions put forward here are attempts to close the door after the horse has bolted. Like it or not this will change nothing.
@ The Newshawk
AS the drama of recalls of MPs and councillors continues to unravel within the strife-torn opposition MDC, we trace the roots of the crisis back to May 2014 when the party was deeply divided before and after its watershed congress. The party had previously been split in 2005. The splits have continued and seem never-ending.
March 2014: A crisis engulfs the party soon after it lost heavily to Zanu PF in the 2013 general election as the heavyweights blame each other for the loss. At the centre of it all is 33-year-old Nelson Chamisa.
The accusations were that the loss, especially in the parliamentary poll, was a result of imposition of candidates for which he was blamed in his capacity as the party’s national organising secretary.
Blame is also heaped on party leader Morgan Tsvangirai (pictured) who was accused of overstaying in power and had leadership qualities questioned. Secretary-general Tendai Biti and treasurer-general Elton Mangoma emerge as leading figures opposed to Tsvangirai. Running battles are frequently fought at Harvest House, the party’s national headquarters in Harare, with the Biti faction, as it came to be known, mostly on the receiving end. Biti was on the verge of splintering as his predecessor Welshman Ncube and his group had done in 2005.
It was USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, who said in a leaked cable to Washington that Tsvangirai "was a flawed and indecisive character". He did tacitly say the same of the rest of the MDC leaders, why would they have someone like that for a leader if they were not flawed and indecisive themselves. And so a party led by corrupt and incompetent individuals was doom to imploded and so MDC has imploded.
The only reason why MDC still continue to have supporters is because the Zimbabwean electorate are some of the most naive and gullible individuals on earth!
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