Zanu PF’s ethos is that the party would rather destroy Zimbabwe, burn it down into ruins, than allow anyone else ruling the country! “Shaisano!” as one would say in Shona.
40 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left the country a pariah state in economic ruins.
“Highly secretive cartels linked to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga are reported to have taken over the operations of key state-owned companies, including private firms covering mining, agriculture and energy,” reported Bulawayo 24.
President Mnangagwa blames the country’s economic meltdown on “heinous sanctions”!
"Be that as it may, we cannot allow those heinous sanctions to hold us back. We have enough resources in our country; we have several nations of goodwill to partner. We must stay on course and focus on our efforts until we defeat these sanctions," said Mnangagwa, addressing mourners at the burial of the late Douglas Nyikayaramba, Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Mozambique.
"The situation is gradually improving and stabilising. Various indicators are pointing towards recovery and positive growth.
He went on to urge Zimbabweans "resist to be used as willing tools by those advancing myopic, narrow and alien agendas burnt to slow down and reverse our gains of Independence. We are a united, caring and peace loving people.”
This is really a nightmare!
- Sanctions have become a scapegoat for the economic meltdown to draw attention away from the real causes, gross mismanagement and corruption. The country’s late dictator, Robert Mugabe, admitted in 2016 to the country being “swindled out of US$15 billion in diamond revenue”. He never arrested even one swindler nor recover one swindled dollar. Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance on corruption” when he took over three years ago. He has not arrested any swindler nor is he going to do so ever! How can he when he and his fellow Zanu PF ruling elite are the Godfathers of corruption.
"The cartels impact Zimbabweans in multiple ways – entrenching their patrons' hold on power, retarding democratisation, destroying service delivery for citizens and creating an uncompetitive business climate – which leaves Zimbabweans poorer, more severely under-served by their government and disempowered to hold the state to account,” as the Maverick Citizen’s damning report, ‘Cartel Power Dynamics in Zimbabwe’, aptly put it.
Zimbabweans can see with their own eyes how the ruling elite have creamed off the nation’s wealth to become filthy rich whilst the majority sink into abject poverty and despair. Sanctions did not stop Mugabe build his sprawling US$2 billion Blue Roof mansion whilst the country’s referral like Parerenyatwa and Mpilo Hospitals had no equipment, staff and regularly ran out of something as basic as pain killers!
- If the heinous sanctions are indeed the root cause of the economic meltdown and government has already identified “several nations of goodwill to partner”, then why 20 years since the sanctions were imposed are they still crippling the economy?
- Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as education and health care have been starved of funds for decades they have all but collapsed and 50% of our people are living in abject poverty. It is really infuriate to keep talking of economic “recovery and growth” when there are no such signs!
- “We are a united, caring and peace loving people.” How convenient! Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the nation, denying the people their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. Even now with the nation’s economy in ruins, millions facing heart breaking hardships and the nation’s stability and survival on the line Zanu PF continues to resist calls for peaceful change and hold the nation to ransom!
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However, in a recent paper titled; "Rigged Elections and The Rise of the Authoritarian Pandemic", Chamisa decried the let down by neighbouring mature democracies who cannot disappoint Zanu-PF due to relations gained during the liberation struggles of the SADC regional countries.
He, however, described such a relationship as "very retrogressive."
"The problem is counterparts that have a better culture of democracy, like South Africa, show an unhealthy reluctance to censure wayward peers. This is often done under the guise of brotherhood stemming from the liberation struggles," he lamented.
"This is deeply retrogressive because liberation without proper democracy is meaningless. Maturing and more stable democracies like South Africa should see their peers for what they truly are: reactionary elements that have subverted the essence of liberation of the African people."
Chamisa observed Africa may have defeated colonial rule, but it was still cowering under the weight of repressive rule because of a few African elites who came in as ‘liberators’.
Zimbabwe cannot be compared to many other African countries in that Zimbabwe’s MDC opposition has had the opportunity to implement the democratic reforms but failed to implement even one reform in 5 years of the GNU. SADC leaders are really disappointed that MDC leaders including Chamisa have never accepted it was they, not SADC leaders, who sold out.
SADC leaders begged, literally, MDC leaders to postpone the 2013 elections until the reforms are implemented. They were ignored! MDC not only participated in the 2013 elections but went on to do the same in 2018. All signs are MDC will be participating in 2023 elections knowing Zanu PF will rig the elections.
The mistake President Ramaphosa made in 2018 was to endorse Zimbabwe’s elections as having “gone well” when he knew the elections were blatantly rigged.
This is really a nightmare; the bully has his boot on your throat and is asking you to publicly apologise for calling him a bully!
For 40 years and counting the nation’s economy has been sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss because of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. We can see the results of the gross mismanagement from the once upon a time productive farms that are now laying idle whilst the nation is starving.
We can see the results of the corruption from the sprawling US$2 billion Blue Roof mansions, fleet of posh cars and the unparalleled luxury lifestyles of the ruling elite. How can the nation survive much less prosper in the midst all of this criminal waste of human and material resources!
And yet we are being bullied, bamboozled, thrown into jail and even murdered in cold blood into accepting that the root cause of the country’s economic meltdown is not mismanagement and corrupt but “heinous sanctions!”
For 40 years now these Zanu PF thugs have ridden roughshod over us, denying us our freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.
The grime reality is that Mnangagwa and company will never admit the de facto one party dictatorship they have imposed on the nation has failed, the economic recovery they keep wittering about is mirage. Millions are suffering and many are dying of poverty and in damn anguish. The dictatorship has failed and it must be dismantled and replaced with a system where freedoms, rights and dignity of all, not just a few at the expense of majority, Zimbabweans are guaranteed and sacred.
The sanctions are just one pressure point on the regime to force it to accept reforms and therefore the sanctions must not only stay but be enhanced. Zanu PF and company approved the sanctions imposed on Ian Smith to force his regime to change; sanctions were necessary then and even more so now!
Zimbabwe must stand up and demand meaningful democratic reforms or, one by one, they will be crashed by the tyrant’s boot into the dust!
If Mnangagwa does not implement meaningful democratic reforms before the 2023 elections, the expectation is he will not, then these elections must and will be declared null and void. Mark my words and mark them well!
As for Mnangagwa’s “We are a united, caring and peace loving people!” nonsense. There can only be one answer to that - two finger salute!
What is this, collective amnesia!
History will say Morgan Tsvangirai was the leader of the MDC during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The party had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Tsvangirai and company were bribed with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the generous salaries and perks, the US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. And with their snouts in the feeding trough they forgot about the reforms.
MDC failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Not even one!
USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, Chris Dell, said in a secret cable back to Washington that Tsvangirai was "a flawed and indecisive character who will be an albatross round Zimbabwe's neck".
Time has proven ambassador Dell was not only right, Tsvangirai was corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Not only Tsvangirai but the entire MDC leadership has proven they too are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent.
One had hoped that by now, with the benefit of hindsight, MDC supporters would have finally opened their eyes and see Tsvangirai for the sell-out and utterly useless leader he was! Sadly, the MDC family is one of naive and gullible individuals given to following blindly like sheep. No wonder the country is up to its eyes in this "shit hole", as former USA President Trump called it. Worse still, unless these naive people open their eyes the nation is not getting out of the shit hole!
"President Tsvangirai was our Moses!" How nauseating!
@ Koni
“This epitome of throwing the baby out with the bath water should not be tolerated.
Where on earth have you heard of a President saying that, "this is the official opposition party" referring to MDC-T, an opposition political party which they have created and imposed on people, yet we have over 20 opposition political parties in Zimbabwe.
I think it was a slip of a tongue. He actually wanted to say that MDC-T has become their newly born baby project which they were going to partner and work very hard to decimate, finish the unrepentant and unfashionable MDC-Alliance which lacks patriotism.”
You can accuse all you want Zanu PF of creating the chaos, division and implosion that has beset MDC-T/ MDC A ever since the High Court ruling condemning Chamisa’s presidency of the party as unconstitutional. The truth is Chamisa’s seizure was indeed unconstitutional and therefore the troubles that have bedevilled the party are of Chamisa’s own making.
Has Zanu PF taken advantage of MDC’s troubles? Of course!
It should be remembered here that Zanu PF is bedevilled by its own demons. The economic meltdown, for example, has marched on even after the launch of the Second Republic because Zimbabwe is still a pariah state or be it with a new top dog! The economic meltdown is fuelling the internal factional wars in the party as leaders fight over the ever shrinking national cake.
Of course, a weak and clueless Zanu PF would want a feeble and useless opposition!
By blaming Zanu PF for their own problems MDC are only digging their own political grave; they are showing the world they do not even have the common sense to admit when they have done something wrong!
@ Newsday
“Because it has been protracted for such a long time, the undemocratic environment has bred opportunistic opposition characters disguised as democratic movements.
Part of the reason is that, the financial benefits of being in opposition politics have grown exponentially compared to the days of Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere and others.
These were inspired by the love for their country while today's politics is now a multi-million-dollar donor-sponsored industry with less or no accountability.
This is why, while the economy is on a free-fall, politicians are getting wealthier. It can be safely said that for established politicians, both ruling and opposition, any change will alter their income, so things must stay the same.
It is indeed a proverbial case of the apple not falling far from the tree. Main opposition and ruling parties are both cut from the same cloth. They exhibit undemocratic, regional and tribal tendencies.
For as long as national politics remains tribal and regional, it is impossible to foster democracy and development. Tribal and regional politics implies that leaders serve their own tribes first before the nation and this is divisive and it breeds conflict.
Before it became what it is today, the United States of America was a mix of English, Dutch, Scots, Irish, French, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Greeks, and others but its constitution created one American identity which overcame these divisions.
That is the same way they dealt with religion and how they grew their democracy. Democracy is not an event but a process. One day we will get there.”
Some of what you said makes sense, the opposition is just as corrupt, incompetent and predatory of povo as the ruling party. There was never such a thing a democracy in Zimbabwe.
When Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies made it clear they wanted a de facto one party state; the intelligentsia, who should have been the bulwark in defence of democracy, abandoned their post on mass. They either joined Zanu PF in the spirit of if you can’t beat them join them or, at the very best, said nothing in the spirit of going along to get along.
The opposition is made up of people who have been squeezed out of Zanu PF and are taking advantage of the later losing popular support and are offering themselves as the alternative. They claim to offer democratic change and democracy just as Zanu PF offered freedom and liberty, once in power the opposition have forgot about democracy just as Zanu PF thugs forgot about freedom and liberty. That is exactly what the MDC leaders have done these last 20 years!
“Democracy is not an event but a process. One day we will get there.” That is being naive, to say the least. Zimbabwe started on the wrong footing and has been travelling in the wrong direction and therefore to suggest that we are making progress and will get there regardless bespeaks of one who has no clue where they are going.
The ZANU PF leader, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa has extended the COVID-19 Lockdown by a further 2 weeks. His statement is expected to build on the strong foundation laid by the arrival of Sinovac vaccines earlier this morning, the ministry of Information said in a statement.
This is just kiya kiya! What would have changed in two weeks?
Even if Zimbabwe was receiving enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone by midnight tonight (it is receiving 200 000 far short of the 10 million to reach head immunity) it will take 3 weeks for the people to develop the anti-bodies and be protected. To lift the lockdown before the 3 weeks would be foolish!
The country's covid-19 cases and deaths are far higher than the regime's official figures and the people of Zimbabwe must open their eyes and see the tragedy before us all. Zanu PF has blundered from pillar to post in its handling of the corona virus pandemic and the nation has paid dearly for this!
Zimbabwe was already in a real economic mess with its health care service all but collapsed before the corona virus outbreak because of decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. The pandemic has dragged us into new health and economic depths and recovery will be long and hard even with the most competent leaders much less with the same corrupt and murderous Zanu PF thugs.
The issue of good governance is now the number one issue this nation can ignore at its own peril!
PROGRESSIVE Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has challenged government to establish an inclusive Covid-19 schools’ assessment taskforce before the re- opening of schools for 2021.
The teachers’ representative group says it has it on good authority that government will be announcing new schools opening dates at the end of this month.
In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said teachers are ready for schools opening but are worried about the lack of preparedness on the part of the government.
“It is also prudent to pay teachers a living wage before schools open so that they are motivated, capacitated, dynamic, innovated and enthusiastic. The time for the restoration of the salaries of teachers’ purchasing power parity to US$520 to US$550 is now. This way we can ensure that once schools open there would be meaningful teaching and learning in schools,” said Zhou.
It is real disappointing that during the last lockdown, March to September 2020 the government did nothing to resolve the outstanding salaries issue and so it resurfaced when the lockdown was lifted causing serious disruption. We are going to see this repeated again!
The truth is Zanu PF has failed to revive the national economy and so education and health care have been starved of funds. The security services sectors have done a lot better underlying the reality on the ground - Zimbabwe is a Police State.
@ Nomazulu
“We need to ask ourselves critical questions; is foreign aid good for Africa? What purpose is it intended for? Is aid helping the people it is intended to assist in alleviating hunger and poverty in African communities? When did foreign aid to Africa start? Why is there still abject poverty of unimaginable levels existing in our societies especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa?
Dr. Dambisa Moyo calls foreign aid to Africa “dead aid” because it has made the continent poorer. Why do we continue to cling on to foreign aid that does not benefit African communities?
The same question should be asked: why donor institutions are dishing out aid to African countries even though the aid, since its inception, has done truly little to show for it. Who is benefitting on the other end of the donor-recipient equation?
It is not the poor African communities but the elite within African top governments. To play the blame game: the African elite benefit immensely from aid. Aid is used prop up despotic governments by buying arms; instruments to suppress the common population. This fact is not a secret, but it is well known even the donors themselves.”
Another thought provoking article, thank you.
If the truth be told Africa’s ruling elite have creamed off wealth every quarter and whenever they can. Indeed, the ruling elite have shown some restrain when it comes to foreign aid especially when the misuse can be easily traced. Look at Zanu PF has been doing in Marange and Chiadzwa where no one can hold the looters to account!
In 2012 the late Edward Chindori Chininga revealed in a parliamentary report that the foreign companies and their local partners mining the diamonds were not keeping any records of the quantity and quality of diamonds, to whom the diamonds were sold and for how much, who got what share of the loot, etc. The mining concessions did not ask for such records to be kept and so no records. All this was for the purpose of paying cooperate tax and individual tax.
You have heard of James Bond’s licence to kill now you know of a licence to loot too!
Turning off all foreign aid will deprive the ruling elite of a source of income, that is true but it will also make the poor who depend on this aid - or be it after the ruling elite have taken their lion’s share - poorer.
To be honest, many foreign donors have walked away from assisting anyone in Zimbabwe precisely because the aid has been wasted; donor fatigue.
Foreign aid has failed to end poverty in Africa because it was never meant to do so. Foreign aid is supposed to help one get started, like seed to a farmer from which he supposed to plant and then harvest a hundred fold. If he cooks the seed, well he will have a meal instead of hundred meals!
Our task in Africa is stopping the ruling elite feasting and wasting the nation resources whilst the majority starve! We have not done this with the diligence and urgency the matter demands and have paid dearly for it!
"If they are sincere on dialogue, they must join others in Polad," Mpofu thundered in the interview with the Daily News On Sunday.
He also said the MDC Alliance was, as things stand, already behind other political parties which chose to join Polad when it was established soon after the 2018 elections - and hence, it "will have some huge catch up to do" if it decided to join the platform now.
In addition, he said, Zanu-PF saw "no reason whatsoever" for the formation of another inclusive government with the opposition, given that the ruling party had won the mandate to govern the country alone from the people in 2018.
"Zanu-PF is ready for the 2023 elections. We are counting on our electoral mandate renewal to continue our work towards Vision 2030.
They "will have some huge catch up to do!” What exactly has POLAD done ever since its formation?
What Obert Mpofu said of note is rule out the proposed political dialogue leading to even the formation of another GNU with the power to implement reforms. Zanu PF is determined to remain solely in charge of the government agenda.
What Obert Mpofu and his Zanu PF colleagues must know is that if the 2023 elections go ahead with no reforms then this time the plebiscite will be declared null and void even if the usual suspects in the opposition sell-out and participate in the flawed elections. The game is up!
@ Newsday
I thought the primary purpose of the media was to educate and inform the readers. I know misinform and brainwashing is the primary purpose of the Zanu PF controlled public media; has Newsday join them too?
“The MDC Alliance was Tsvangirai's brainchild having realised that to defeat Zanu-PF all genuine opposition parties needed to unite. So the move by those breaking away from the MDC Alliance for personal glory is truly making Tsvangirai turn in his grave,” you say.
Tsvangirai sowed the division that have torn MDC apart by appointing two additional VP.
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb electing Tsvangirai and company into power to bring about democratic changes the nation has been dying for for over 40 years now. MDC failed to implement even one reform during the GNU because the leadership were corrupt and incompetent. What then are you wittering about “opposition unite”!
“In politics, the people are the real court,” you further argue.
“Judicial processes don't cast votes and those trying to ruin the MDC Alliance know it and the day of reckoning is coming. In short, those running up and down pretending to be fulfilling the Supreme Court judgment are digging their political graves.”
The Supreme Court judged on the simple matter of whether what Chamisa did in seizing power following Tsvangirai’s death was in accordance with the MDC’s own constitution. If the News Day is educating the reader then it has to agree with the Court but if its purpose is to confuse the readers then it bring in nonsense. How the people voted in the 2018 elections have no bearing on what Chamisa did and did not do in seizing power!
OPPOSITION Zapu has called for talks led by a neutral person before the 2023 polls.
Zapu believes that the talks will end Zanu-PF's monopoly of using state apparatus during election campaign periods.
The president Isaac Mabuka told Southern Eye that talks before elections would ensure a level playing field, which will avoid electoral disputes.
"As Zapu, we are really prepared for talks. However, a neutral person must lead the process and all parties should be treated equally. We cannot be in such a rich country and yet we are very poor,'' Mabuka said.
The opposition also accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of bias in its execution of duties during elections.
Zapu said that the government should hasten to demonstrate both at home and abroad, that it is serious about political reforms, as well as instilling national unity in the country.
Every Zimbabwean with half a working brain will support the call for democratic reforms. After 40 years of rigged elections we cannot continue this carry on where people go through a utterly meaningless charade called an election in which Zanu PF blatantly rig the elections and we all complain of rigged elections.
Surely we must know what constitutes free, fair and credible elections, have the discipline to demand the conditions are met before we participate.
Many opposition parties have participated in flawed elections because they were after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait. We need to identify the sell-out opposition opportunists and make sure the people know them.
The 2023 elections will divide the opposition into two distinct camps those who have been paying lip service to reforms and free and fair elections and those who will stand firm on their demand for reforms.
The opposition believes Zanu-PF wants to reclaim urban councils by deploying repressive strategies, which for long it has been using in rural areas.
However, MDC Alliance Local Government secretary Sessel Zvidzai [SZ] in an interview with our senior reporter Moses Mugugunyeki [MM] thinks otherwise.
The former executive mayor of Gweru and one-time Local Government deputy minister during the government of national unity said all Zanu-PF's efforts to win the urban vote by hook or crook would hit the brick wall.
Zvidzai is putting a brave face! Zanu PF came out of the 2008 to 2013 GNU will all its carte blanche dictatorial powers intact, MDC leaders had the opportunity to implement the reforms and fluffed their lines. Ever since MDC’s disastrous failure to implement the reforms the party has settled for the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.
MDC leaders will participate in the flawed 2023 elections, chasing the few gravy train seats as usual but will be very lucky to win as many of these as in 2018. The dog-eat-dog in fighting that has torn MDC apart following the Supreme Court ruling declaring Chamisa’s seizure of power was unconstitutional has left the MDC weaker now than ever. Zanu PF will exploit the weakness to increase its own political influence.
Mnangagwa tells Politburo to defeat MDC in 2023 election
MDC's failure to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU was one of the greatest thing to happen to Zanu PF in the party's fight to stay in power. The divisions that have torn MDC into pieces since the High Court ruling declaring Chamisa's take over in 2018 violated the MDC constitution was a bonus. Zanu PF's strangle hold on power has never felt more secure than it is right now. No wonder Mnangagwa is in a bullish mode and can't wait for the 2023 elections!
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