Mnangagwa and Zanu PF do not like anything that threatens the regime’s iron grip on power. The soaring numbers of corona virus cases and deaths in Zimbabwe have been an eye opener for many Zimbabweans. Until three weeks ago, Zimbabwe continued to boast of having some of the lowest per capita corona virus cases and deaths in the region.
Whilst SA had 1 million corona virus cases 25 000 death at the start of 2021. One would expect Zimbabwe’s figures to be roughly 1/4 those of SA given the heavy human traffic between the two countries. Instead of 250 000 cases and 6 000 deaths Zimbabwe had 13 000 cases and 380 deaths!
The last three weeks have seen the number of corona virus cases and deaths in Zimbabwe soar; the hospitals were being overwhelmed. And yet, officially, Zimbabwe’s corona virus cases and deaths remained very low. It is little wonder that Zimbabweans have started to ask some searching questions and demanding to know what the hell is going on?
Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 cases and deaths and the real figures on the ground simply do not make any sense!
“We must stand together arm in arm holding each and one another like a united people,” Mnangagwa told the nation.
He did not need to say anything more, we all know what he was not saying: “Those questioning the government’s reports and handling of the corona virus pandemic are threatening national unity and they will be punished!”
The social media ruckus on corona virus cases and deaths died down as if one had used a whole tanker to put out a campfire! Zimbabweans have, once again, been cowed into silence. They are doing what they have always done; grit their teeth and suffer in silence and bury their dead along the way.
This time, they will have a hell lot more heart breaking suffering and a hell lot more dead to bury because 40 years of Zanu PF misrule has left Zimbabwe weak and feeble and ill prepared to deal with the corona virus pandemic. And Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence since the pandemic outbreak has only made the situation worse!
The IMF, WB and other financial institutions and nations have refused to grant Zimbabwe debt relief and have cut their financial and material aid to the country for two very good reasons:
- Zimbabwe is a rich nation with the overwhelming majority languishing in abject poverty but only because of the country’s 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness.
- Corrupt and mismanagement in Zimbabwe are now so rampant that donors are loathed to help because whatever they donate will either be looted by the country’s corrupt ruling elite or be wasted.
The bottomline is Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic ruled by corrupt and incompetent leaders who think they have the divine right to govern. The country is a pariah state hence the economic mess, with the economy in ruins and millions of our people living into abject poverty; and political paralysis, as both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have proven to be corrupt and incompetent.
Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, is using fear of brute force to subdue the people and stop them demanding competent and accountable government.
Unity does not mean the people giving up their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life.
The corona virus pandemic has brought home the heavy price Zimbabwe is paying for the 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule, the country was in economic ruins and ill-prepared before the virus outbreak. And, unless people grits their teeth and end this nonsense of tyrannical dictatorship masquerading as unity, the years ahead are going to be the toughest yet the nation has ever seen.
For the last 40 years Zimbabweans have cowed down to Zanu PF’s cowardly threats only to see the regime, emboldened, follow this with shocking acts of brutality.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies let it be known that the country’s bush war would continue if the party lost the 1980 elections. And so the people voted to end the war, at least they thought so.
Mugabe had wanted a one-party state in Zimbabwe and in 1983 he seized his chance and launched the Gukurahundi massacre - the war the people had dreaded and against defenceless civilians and launch from the comfort of Army barracks and not the bush!
"Those who give up liberty for a little temporary safety neither deserve liberty nor safety,” said Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers.
“We must stand together, a united people. Or dare otherwise and be damned!”
We in Zimbabwe gave up our freedoms and rights for peace and development but after 40 years of this Banana Republic, with over 30 000 innocent civilians murdered in cold blood and over 50% of the population now living in abject poverty; there is no denying it that we were cheated.
The all important question is: have we learned the lesson - in this instance, that holding this Zanu PF regime to democratic account will force the regime to be focus on the corona virus challenges and thus save many Zimbabweans from unnecessary suffering and deaths!
1 comment:
@ Zimvigil
“In a scathing attack on the British government, published in the UK's Guardian newspaper, Michelle Kambasha a 28-year-old 'publicist', says Zimbabwe's cautious handling of the pandemic has made it feel safer than Britain. 'It's no secret that England's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been at best lacklustre and at worst fatal', she said. In contrast, 'many African countries, scarred by previous pandemics, realised quickly that there was very little room for error, and did what they needed to do . . . . governments like Zimbabwe's did as much as they could.’”
Of course, Ms Kambasha is free to go back to Zimbabwe however she must respect the truth and facts as must us all! She should know by now that Zimbabwe’s official corona virus cases and deaths are not a true reflection of the situation on the ground in the country.
Zimbabwe has carried out one of the lowest covid-19 tests per capita in the world; when SA was carrying out over 44 000 tests per day in December, Zimbabwe was barely doing 1 500 tests per day. With 1/4 the population of SA we should have been doing 11 000 tests per day.
Keeping the cases and death figures down by not testing is foolish because it only means you have no idea how the virus is spreading. Indeed, by failing to test and isolating those with the virus the nation has left the infected people in the community spreading the virus! Many more people have the virus and many more will die regardless of what the officials say.
Zanu PF is under reporting the covid-19 figures to hide the regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic, if we Zimbabweans are going to bury our died and the truth; that is our choice.
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