"I would like to be a friend of all and an enemy of
none," announced Zimbabwe’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Fredrick Shava,
after taking his oath of office.
"We are going to try our best to reaffirm our friendship with our
all-weather friends and we will also bring countries that have been disgruntled
by our land reform programme and imposed sanctions on us so that we talk to
them (West)."
Minister Shava has just started on the wrong foot!
Zimbabwe is facing a serious and existential threat from the
economic and political crisis that has dragged the nation deeper and deeper
into the abyss. And the root cause of the crisis is the 41 years of gross
mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawless that has turned the country
into a Banana Republic.
Last week the Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Dr John
Mangudya, said Zimbabwe has the resources to bankroll not only its economic recovery
but economic prosperity.
"We don't need anyone's money as we can do it on our own.
Sometimes it's just the mindset and belief to achieve that," Dr John
Mangudya told Business last week.
"Like what oil is to Nigeria, gold is to Zimbabwe. The
precious mineral alone has the potential to turn around the country's
fortunes.”
And yet for the last 41 years Zimbabwe has continued down this
path of economic ruins because of corruption. The RBZ has said the country is
losing an estimated US$1.2 billion every year to gold smugglers.
It is as clear as day that Zimbabwe much now do something address
the scourge of corruption and mismanagement and that something is implementing
democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections and bad
governance.
The Zanu PF ruling elite have done nothing to end corruption and
endemic misrule because they have remained unaccountable to the people. By
rigging elections, they placed themselves above the people who, without a
meaningful vote, are utterly powerless.
Many ordinary Zimbabwe have long realised the need for democratic
reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections as the only
way out of this hell-on-earth the nation finds itself stuck in.
It is therefore most disheartening that Zimbabwe’s new Minister of
Foreign Affairs is dismissing the West’s call for democratic reforms on the same
feeble grounds that the West is “disgruntled by our land reform programme”. And
has once again completely ignore the ordinary Zimbabweans demand the same reforms;
not only do we have no democratic vote, we have no voice either!
Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as education
and health care have completely collapsed and 50% of our people now live in
abject poverty. This economic and political situation is unbearable,
unsustainable and socially and economically reprehensible because it is wholly a
man-made crisis.
It is incumbent on every Zimbabweans to now demand the
implementation of the democratic reforms and restore the people’s freedoms and
rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life!
For 41 years Zanu PF has rod roughshod over us, denying us our
freedoms and rights. The regime has completely ignored our suffering and has
murdered over 30 000 to establish and retain the de facto one-party
dictatorship we lived under all these years.
Zimbabwe is standing on the very edge of the precipitous abyss and
must urgently implement meaningful democratic changes to stop going over. Dr
Fredrick Shava, cannot conduct the nation’s affairs on the same basis as his
predecessors, denying the need for change and ignore the tragic reality on the
ground, crying for change.
Zimbabwe cannot continue resist democratic change on the false
grounds that it is the West who are asking for change; it is not the westerners
who are living in abject poverty and hopelessness and despair. It is ordinary
Zimbabweans and they have been crying for change, a voice and a meaningful vote.
Zanu PF must embrace change, the days of the dictatorship are over!
6 comments:
We can say three things about Zanu PF:
1) Whilst the regime has grudgingly admitted the national economy is not doing well, it has never accepted it is the one responsible for poor economic performance. The party has down-played the effect of corruption and mismanagement treating them as nothing more that a seasonal flu rather than the cancer they are. The party has instead blamed the sanctions imposed by the West for all the nation’s ills and has always offer a thousand and one solutions to get round the sanctions. It has never admitted the solutions have not worked and never will.
2) Ever since the 2008 to 2013 GNU, Zanu PF has learnt that if it offered 1/3 or so of the elected positions plus the corresponding share of the annual Political Party Finance Act pay out as bait, the opposition will participate in elections no matter what! And that is exactly what happened, there 23 presidential candidates alone in the 2018 elections. The party has then pointed to the opposition participation as proof the elections are free, fair and credible. As long as Mnangagwa is confident the opposition will participate in the 2023 elections even if no reform implemented, he will resist demands for reforms.
3) Yes, with no democratic reforms Zimbabwe is doomed. Whilst F.W. de Klerk and his fellow Afrikan Nationalists, for example, had the intellect to see the futility of apartheid and accepted the need for change rather than drag the nation over the edge into the abyss. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are village idiots with not an iota of common sense, they will hang on to the dictatorship to the bitter end. They would rather burn down the whole country than see anyone else ruling it. They view Zimbabwe as their personal possession, “Chinhu chedu!” (Our thing!), as they have often claimed. And if they are not going to rule Zimbabwe and benefit from it, no one else is going to rule and benefit from it. No one!
Of course, Zanu PF does not own Zimbabwe, the country belongs to us all! The challenge is for Zimbabweans to stand up and claim their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and right to life! Stand up or be dragged over the edge into the abyss, it is that simple.
Zanu PF has always down-played the effect of corruption and mismanagement as the major root causes of the economic meltdown. As far as the party is concerned they are nothing worse than the seasonal flu rather than the cancer they are. The party has blamed the sanctions imposed by the West for all the nation’s ills without ever providing an evidence.
The party has always painted a rosy economic picture regardless of the sanctions; it has always offered a thousand and one solutions to getting round the sanctions including re-engaging the Wets. When it has failed to deliver the economic recovery, it has reverted back to blaming the sanctions.
Ever since the 2008 to 2013 GNU, Zanu PF has learnt that if it offered 1/3 or so of the elected positions plus the corresponding share of the annual Political Party Finance Act pay out as bait, the opposition will participate in elections no matter what! And that has worked out beautifully for the party. There 23 presidential candidates, over 130 political parties and thousands of independent candidates in the 2018 elections. Mnangagwa has pointed to the overwhelming enthusiasm of the participating opposition politicians as proof the elections are free, fair and credible. Why else did they participate otherwise!
As long as Mnangagwa is confident the opposition will participate in the 2023 elections even if no reform implemented, he will resist demands for reforms. With the MDC divided and each fighting for survival, Mnangagwa is super confident the MDC factions will participate in the coming elections!
With no democratic reforms and meaningful change; Zimbabwe is doomed.
Whilst F.W. de Klerk and his fellow South African Afrikan Nationalists, for example, had the intellect to see the futility of apartheid and accepted the need for change rather than drag the nation over the edge into the abyss. Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are village idiots with not an iota of common sense, they will hang on to the dictatorship to the bitter end. They would rather burn down the whole country themselves than see some one else ruling it. They view Zimbabwe as their personal possession, “Chinhu chedu!” (Our thing!), as they have often claimed. And if they are not going to rule Zimbabwe and benefit from it, then no one else will to rule and benefit from it. No one!
Of course, Zanu PF does not own Zimbabwe, the country belongs to us all! However it is our sacred duty for all Zimbabweans to stand up and claim their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and right to life! The grime but simple choice before today is to either stand up and put an end to this Zanu PF madness or be dragged over the edge into the abyss!
@ Hugh Jarse
Let us agree that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies have a big weakness, their are incompetent. Only some one who is breathtakingly incompetent would kill the goose that lays the golden egg; yet that is exactly what Zanu PF has done with the Zimbabwe economy. It is no surprise that the party has been equally incompetent on the political front. The question then is why have we failed to exploit Zanu PF's incompetence to end the Zanu PF dictatorship?
The answer is we, the people, have are equally incompetent, naive and gullible!
The 2008 to 2013 GNU presented the nation with a golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and we wasted the opportunity. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC who were tasked to implement the democratic reforms failed to implement even one reform in 5 years. And we, the people, failed in our duty to supervise the MDC!
@ Aloysius Lane
“Take heart fellow citizen, change is coming as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow. And it won't be due to anything done by the opposition. Change will come suddenly and brutally, leaving Zimbabweans stunned and amazed. It is just around the corner.”
By failing to bring about peaceful change we may when have left ourselves with no other option but violent change. The trouble with violent change is its is very disruptive and distractive and, worst of all, it does not always deliver positive change! The last thing we want is jump from the frying pan into the fire!
It is true that the real big loser in Zimbabwe are the ordinary people whom Zanu PF has denied their freedoms and rights. They are the ones on the coal face of the economic meltdown and political oppression. They are the ones who dying, literally too, for democratic change and not the West.
The people's failure to understand what their democratic rights were and to fight for them when deny has undermined their cause. Zanu PF has been able to ignore the people because they have been quiet!
@ Muama Hosini
“If all Zimbabwean Opposition parties, I mean All of them were to heed the call for demanding political reforms or else boycott elections if the incumbents doesn't want to listen to the demands of the masses through their respective opposition political parties in their diversity. I swear Zimbabwe would be a changed country for better as from 2023 general elections.
Surely Nomusa Garikai has Zimbabwe at heart, more notably, she has the solution to Zimbabwe's ruling party man made toxic political problems which has stalled the nation from moving on in terms of economic development and letting people enjoy life like their neighbouring country's nationals who used to be rated below Zimbabweans per capita earnings or spending some time back. But now Zimbabweans are most severely poverty stricken due to mismanagement and above all ordinary people are fooled by those who say the country have immense precious minerals but to a stunning surprise the proceeds from minerals don't gain the country anything, why? and label every dissenting voice which seek to redress the bad economic situation as Western controlled yet the elites have no clue to solving the country's economic disasters.”
What is interesting here is that the option to boycott elections would have never been on the table if MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so. They did not implement the reforms because they had the snouts in the feeding trough and for five years forgot about the reforms.
Zanu PF exploited this MDC weakness, greed, by offering a few gravy train seats as bait for participating in the elections regardless of the process being flawed and illegal. Once again MDC leaders could not resist the honey trap!
Frankly, the reason why MDC leaders have got away with the sell-out during the GNU and now with the participation in flawed elections is because the Zimbabwean people themselves are naïve, gullible and ignorant. They have no clue what is going on and so do not realise MDC leaders are selling out and they, the people, are the losers. If the people were not so naïve and ignorant they would have stopped and never again supported MDC leaders after selling out on reforms. There are somethings one can forgive selling out is not one of them!
The Zimbabwe electorate must snap out of their sloth-like slumber is the country is ever to get out of the hell-on-earth Zanu PF has dragged us into.
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