It was the great Physicist, Albert Einstein, who said insanity was doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
My aunt, whose husband worked at a mental hospital, told me a story of a mental patient using a leaking bucket to water the garden. Within minutes the patient would be soaked in water and mud but making very little progress in watering the garden. Someone may even remind the patient that he was not making progress because of the leaking bucket.
The patient would pause, suddenly aware the bucket was leaking. He suggested carrying the bucket on his head, beaming with pride at this ingenuous solution. Of course, all he succeeded in doing is get himself soaked in water and mud from head to foot.
For years, I thought I knew what insanity meant. Now, I realize just how easily seemingly rational people can be transformed into doing the same repetitive acts, over and over again expecting a different result, one associates with the insane.
Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess. 41 years and counting of rampant corrupt, gross mismanagement and tyrannical rule have reduced the middle income nation with a promising future in 1980 into one of the poorest nation on earth. Zimbabwe has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship all these last 41 years; the party rigged elections and hence the nation’s failure to remove it from office.
It took the nation twenty years to finally arrive at the consensus that Zanu PF was remaining in office because the party rigged the election. The solution was for the nation to demand democratic changes to ensure free, fair and credible elections. The people have risked life and limb these last 21 years to elect MDC leaders into power on the strengths the party would bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for.
After 21 years and counting, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC leaders have failed to deliver even one democratic change. Not even one change!
Since the GNU debacle MDC leaders have all but abandoned the core task of implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. The party leaders have been participating in flawed and illegal elections, knowing fully well that Zanu PF still enjoyed the dictatorial powers to rig elections. The new MDC strategy and belief is to win rigged elections – carrying the leaking bucket on the head – and, even after two election disasters, there are some who continue to advocate this as the solution to end Zanu PF rule.
Leonard Koni is certain the Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A will win the 2023 rigged elections, his latest Bulawayo 24 article says it all - “Zanu-PF afraid of Nelson Chamisa”.
“Today
the regime (Zanu PF) and its political surrogates including Thokozani Khupe,
Douglas Mwonzora and foul mouthpieces are working hard around the clock and
determined to bar MDC-Alliance powerful leaders who are vocal to the inept and
clueless government to contest in the forthcoming 2023 harmonised elections,”
Koni claimed.
“Those who think that Douglas Mwonzora, Thokozani Khupe and Morgen
Komichi have become all of a sudden political gladiators must have their brains
examined by a specialist.”
Very few thinking Zimbabweans out there would dispute the fact Thokozani Khupe, Douglas Mwonzora and Morgen Komichi are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. The three were senior leaders in the MDC during the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one democratic reform, proving there and then that they were corrupt and incompetent. What the three have done ever since, such as participate in flawed elections and thus giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF, was piling more damning evidence they are sell outs.
Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti and many other MDC A leaders were Khupe and Mwonzora’s colleagues in the MDC throughout the GNU and therefore are equally guilty of failing to implement the reforms. And Chamisa and company are equally guilty of participating in flawed and illegal elections in 2013 and 2018.
“The whole of last year Zanu PF under Mnangagwa spent much of its time and resources working extra hard during the Covid19 pandemic trying to annihilate and frustrate the MDC-Alliance,” Koni argued.
Anyone familiar with the MDC family story knows that Chamisa seized power following Morgan Tsvangirai’s death in February 2018 and that it was this that has brought about the implosion in MDC-T and MDC A. By refusing to accept his wrongdoing Chamisa has made a bad situation worse.
Blaming Zanu PF for MDC’s implosion is just as foolish as Zanu PF blaming the sanctions for country’s economic meltdown. Everyone knows that root cause of the meltdown is the rampant corruption and gross mismanagement and the sanction’s contribution is tiny.
No doubt portraying Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A colleagues as squeaky clean, although they are peas from the same pod as Mwonzora and company, will help the former win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait to entice the opposition to participate in these flawed elections.
As long as Zanu PF retains its dictatorial powers to blatantly rig the elections, not even one token reform has been implemented since the July 2018 elections, Zanu PF will win another landslide victory in the 2023 elections.
Leonard Koni’s claim that Zanu PF is decimating Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A because the Mnangagwa is afraid of losing the 2023 elections is therefore nonsense. Koni knows that MDC A will never ever win rigged elections, the claim that Zanu PF is afraid of MDC A is a cheap give away to fool the naïve and gullible just as the mental patient above was fool by suggestion to carry the bucket on his head. Carrying the bucket on the head was not going to stop the leak no more than the rhetorical claim Zanu PF was afraid on MDC A going to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
It is
now just over two years to the July 2023 presidential and parliamentary
elections, there is no time to implement any meaningful reforms. It is clear
the 2023 elections will be flawed and illegal, Zanu PF will once again blatantly
rig the elections. After 41 years of rigged elections it will be insane to
participate hoping for a different result – hoping to win rigged elections.
14 comments:
@ Arthur Mntungwa
“ZANU and its Shona supporters are responsible for dividing Zimbabwe. Recognising each others differences and affirming them for the common purpose of national unity, how is that fanning tribalism? Do you even know what tribalism is? Tribalism is only when ones tribe is used to disadvantage them. Not your ZANU definition. SA recognises these differences, but Mzansi is one of the most united nation in Africa. I have never come across a South African, who is not proudly South African, yet in Zim there are plenty!”
Zanu PF misrule has destroyed Zimbabwe and everyone except the few Zanu PF ruling elite has suffered. You have created the narrative to single out the Ndebele as the one marginalised because that suits your tribal agenda. You see the suffering of the Ndebele but not that of the Shona of anyone else.
Mugabe imposed the de facto one-party dictatorship because he believed he and his Zanu PF cronies were special, a cut above all others, and hence the reason Zanu PF alone should rule. You are no different from Mugabe in your myopic and foolish way and would drag the nation into another senseless blood shed just as Mugabe did!
@ Arthur Mntungwa
“Wilbert, explain why we have companies like Hwange Colliery where the top management and leadership is almost 100 percent Shona, yet it is a company in deep rural M,atebeleland?
Give us an example of such a company dominated by people from Matebeleland, that is found in Mashonaland?
How do you explain the huge disproprotionate numbers of Shonas working kwaMsitheli/ Mhlahlandlela? Are Shonas the majority people in Matebeleland? Explain their disproportionate numbers at the Beitbridge Border post? Show us one Border Bost in Shona regions where Matebeleland dominates? Stop talking nonsense!”
Can we agree that if you are a Zimbabwean, you are free to work anywhere in Zimbabwe. And unless you can provide the evidence to support the suggestion Hwange Colliery or any company in Zimbabwe has been discriminating some people on gender, race, tribe or whatever then provide the evidence.
Indeed, your suggestion that a company in one province must have the majority of top manager from that province is against to principle you are free to work anywhere in Zimbabwe.
Any Zimbabwean, other than the Zanu PF ruling elite and the corrupt and sell-out opposition after the few gravy train seat, who freely participate in the 2023 elections will be very foolish indeed because they will only give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. Their participation will prove two things: first that they have learned absolutely nothing in the 41 years of our independence and the centuries of human history.
Second and more significantly, that they are indeed incapable of learning. If they can still believe and follow blindly these MDC leaders and not see them for the corrupt, incompetent and sell outs they are, even with the benefit of hindsight and a decade of having the truth on the GNU explained to them, it is clear they will never learn.
These Zimbabweans are like Boxer, the horse, in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, it took him months to learn the first 5 letters of the alphabet. It took him a further couple of months to learn the next 5. By the time he did, it was discovered he had forgotten the first 5 letter. Everyone gave up!
If Zimbabweans can be conned by someone like Nelson Chamisa into believing he is a competent leader even after all the 21 years of blundering from pillar to post and down right selling out during the GNU then their brain has indeed ossified into fatty tissue. It is naïve to ever expect to have a healthy and functioning democracy with an electorate with fat for brain!
Zanu PF has refused to implement even one reform. It is clear the regime will rig the 2023 elections. It is also clear the MDC leaders and the usual opposition opportunists will fight over the few gravy train seat Zanu PF is offering as bait. Let us wait and see how many ordinary Zimbabweans will be foolish enough to be lured into participating (not counting those coerced by the regime)!!!!
@ Abednico Mwembe Mwembe
“We have told you many times that no reforms will happen as long zanu will be still alife and in power but bcoz you are so foolish you fail to grasp simple logic and get some sense. If zanu can re do the constitution to suit its need surely only a lunatic can hallucinate about reforms. ZANU must go first then reforms will follow in the absence of zanu that is priority number one. ZANu is the problem .in this country and it must go as the solution for our woos as a country.”
MDC leaders did have the opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU they failed to get even one reform implemented. Are we to assume they did so because they believed MDC will win rigged elections?
You lot have been participating in flawed and illegal elections that Zanu PF was free to rig and have failed to remove the regime. How many more time are you going to try?
All the MDC leaders are after is the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering and only supporters like you still expect MDC to win election and form the next government. You are the brain-dead Zimbabwean Patrick is talking about. No amount of reasoning can make any difference to you my friend, your brain is just a lump of fatty tissue, decades of mental inactivity have left their mark.
The soul purpose of Koni's article is to deceive the naive and gullible MDC wildebeest herd and the desperate Zimbabweans who know no better into believing that Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A will win a landslide victory in 2023 and they must participate. Koni is portraying Chamisa as a competent leader whom the clueless Zanu PF buffoons are frighten of. Mnangagwa and his cronies are clueless, true,but they have a trump card - they are set to rig the election. Something Koni does not even acknowledge.
As for Chamisa and his MDC A being competent, nothing could be further from the truth. These are the same individuals who failed to implement even one reform when they had the golden chance to to so. They have been participating in elections ever since for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait. They knew Zanu PF was rigging the elections and they would never win more than just a few seats. They also knew that by participating they are giving the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
Of course, they have been selling out , knew it and did not care. All they care about is a share of the spoils of power.
Koni knows all that too, he just wants the MDC wildebeest herd to participate so Zanu PF wins the landslide plus the legitimacy and hence all the exaggerations and lying. Koni, how much is Mnangagwa paying you to sell your own people?
SENATE will today vote for the passage of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Number 2 Bill, whose proposed amendments have been rejected by civic society groups, the opposition and ordinary citizens due to clauses that seek to give unfettered powers to the Presidency.
Last week, the Committee Stage of the Bill to amend the 2013 Constitution was passed without amendments in Senate due to Zanu-PF's numerical advantage.
On Thursday, opposition MDC senators made spirited attempts to reject clause 13 of the Bill, which deals with the tenure of the office of judges and their retirement age, which has been pushed from 70 to 75 years.
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told senators that the tenure of Constitutional Court (ConCourt) judges would only be 15 years.
The damage to the nation was done when MDC leaders failed to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when the nation had its best chance ever to do so.
MDC leaders like playing to the gallery especially to their naïve and affable MDC wildebeest herd; they are making a big farce over this Amendment Bill No 2 to impress their supporter. The truth is Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections, has the 2/3 majority and can do as it please.
The people of Zimbabwe should be discussing the reality of Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections; the regime has not implemented even a token reform and, with two years to go, is not going to implement anything. People must make sure they do NOT make the mistake of participating in these flawed elections and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy AGAIN.
Forget Amendment Bill No 2, it is water under the bridge!
People like Jacob Ngarivhume participated in the July 2018 elections knowing fully well that the election process was flawed and illegitimate. ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll for Pete's sake! They also knew that by participating they would give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. Ngarivhume and company participated in the flawed elections regardless because they also knew that Zanu PF was offering a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition. These they found irresistible!
Ngarivhume is one of the opposition opportunists who failed to win any of the bait gravy train seats. He is eyeing to contest in the next elections and all these 31 July protest, Mbare cleaning, etc. are to make sure his name remains in the public eye giving him a head start in the rat race.
Yes, rat race! There really is no rational in participating in these flawed elections that have left the nation stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The nation will never have free, fair and credible elections as long as this cosy political marriage of convenience is allowed to continue in which Zanu PF rigs the elections and the opposition participate to give it legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats.
If we are ever going to have free, fair and credible elections then we must demand the implementation of reform and reject these Zanu PF and opposition fraudulent elections. People like Ngarivhume are opposition opportunists just like their MDC cousins!
Diaspora remittances have overtaken foreign aid, as Zimbabweans abroad sent home over US$1 billion in 2020, the highest ever contribution made to the local economy, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said.
The remittances surpassed the previous year's amount of US$635.7 million, exceeding projections made by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which had projected to receive US$940 million by year end
How ironic that the regime welcomes the diaspora’s financial contribution but continues to stubbornly deny the 3 million or so in the diaspora the vote.
Soon after the 2018 rigged elections, President Mnangagwa assured everyone Zimbabwean in the diaspora will have the vote “next time”. This was a promise he clearly had no intention to keep just like his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections; to stamp out corruption; etc.
The Zimbabwe economy has been in steady decline because of the Zanu PF misrule. Most of the US$ 1 billion remittance was spent of basic needs such as food, medicine, school fees, etc.; with very little spend on any investments. And so the need for more remittance has been growing.
Like it or not, diaspora remittances are not only helping the ordinary Zimbabwean survive but are also helping to sustain the Zanu PF dictatorship itself. The regime buys the foreign currency from the recipients with Z$ and using the foreign currency to bankroll the ruling elite’s extravagant lifestyles.
Impeccable party sources last week said the MDC-T leadership ordered opposition legislators to criticise the Bill publicly in Parliament, but when it comes to voting, some of its members must assist Zanu-PF to garner the much-needed two-thirds majority in Senate.
The Constitutional Amendment No 2 Bill sailed through the Lower House on a 191 majority against only 22 MPs from the MDC Alliance and four from Mwonzora's faction who opposed it
Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and senate and so the party will do as it pleases. The real challenge was to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and getting the 2/3 majority. The horse has bolted and it serves no purpose to bolt the stable door!
Zanu PF is set to rig the 2023 election and the only way to stop this is to refuse to participate in the elections until the reforms are implemented. The reason why MDC leaders have religious participated in these flawed elections is because they knew Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait. They could not resist the bait.
“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 (2013) elections,” admitted Senator David Coltart in his book.
“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.”
MDC leaders have been selling the people’s agenda of reforms and free and fair elections to Zanu PF in return for a share of the spoils of power. It is imperative that Zimbabweans open their eyes, reject the cosy Zanu PF and MDC marriage of convenience and demand free and fair elections.
It is clear the 2023 elections will not be free and fair because Zanu PF has not implemented even one token reform. The people must put their collective foot down and refuse to participate and demand the flawed elections be declared null and void! People should stop wasting time on the Amendment Bill No 2, it is water under the bridge.
IN AN ominous message for the opposition, Zanu-PF says it wants all people who have supported the West's sanctions on Zimbabwe to be barred from taking part in the 2023 polls.
In that light, the ruling party says, it wants a provision - barring the likes of MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa - inserted into the mooted Patriotic Bill, which authorities want to become law as soon as possible.
Speaking to the Daily News at the weekend, Zanu-PF chief whip, Pupurai Togarepi, said it was unacceptable that some opposition leaders continued to support sanctions against the country
MDC leaders betrayed the nation by failing to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship when they had the golden opportunity to do so – during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Now the nation is paying the price for it!
People should not participate in the 2023 elections because Zanu PF has refused to implement reforms to ensure the elections are free, fair and credible.
I have and many others have publicly supported the retention of the sanctions as a way to pressure Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections. And so, I would not lose sleep to hear I am denied the right to participate in a flawed and illegal election process which I had already public said I did not want to participate in.
@ Abednico Mwembe Mwembe
“Leonard Koni was talking about Zanu being afraid of Chamisa but you as usual you went out of topic talking about reforms which have nothing to do with what Koni said. Reforms that you always talk about will only happen when donkeys grow horns.”
Well, you have missed the point Patrick made which is; Koni is building up Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A into something they are not. With its carte blanche powers to rig the elections, Zanu PF will have another landslide victory and therefore have nothing to fear from MDC A. Koni wants the MDC A wildebeest herd to believe their party is going to win the rigged elections and will then participate with their usual blind zeal. If the herd was to know the truth, i.e. that MDC A has no chance of winning the rigged elections, the penny will finally drop, and they would do the obvious thing – refuse to participate.
The MDC herd was told they would win the 2013 elections with a landslide, when that did not happen they were told the party will never again participate in any future elections without implementing the reforms. They were talking into participating in 2018 with no reforms in place after Chamisa assured the herd “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Koni is made one of the many contributions, why MDC A should participate in the 2023 elections with NO reforms. Of course, it is just another lie!
Just because MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform when they had the chance to do so does not mean we do not need reforms and/or no else can do it. MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent trust me there are hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans out there who are competent and have the common sense to get the reform implemented.
The brain-dead MDC herd have the vote and Zanu PF is taking full advantage of the herd’s stupidity. By participating in flawed and illegal elections the MDC leaders and herd are giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF!
MDC has failed to win rigged elections since 2013 and it has not yet occurred to MDC herd that Zanu PF does not have the right to rig elections. This is simple and rational to everyone else but not the MDC herd, it will take a quantum leap in their imagination!
Constitutional Amendment Bill (Number 2) sailed through Senate this afternoon after it got the required two thirds majority.
At least 65 Senators who included Zanu-PF legislators and traditional leaders voted for the passage of the Bill while 10 Senators voted against.
From the reading of the voting pattern, some MDC T Senators voted for the Bill despite a decision by their party leaders led by Sen Douglas Mwonzora to oppose it during debate
This is because there were more than 15 Senators from the MDC T Senators in the Chamber yet only 10 voted against it.
The support of the Bill from some MDC T Senators is attributable to a clause that seeks to extend the women's quota by two more terms, a provision that was popular among women legislators.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi described the passage as historic while Sen Mwonzora said he will accept the result.
The Bill seeks to extend the women's quota, remove a clause on running mates, extend tenure of medically fit judges beyond 70 years and give impetus to the devolution agenda.
This sums up MDC leaders beautifully; they have made a big kerfuffle of opposing the Bill know all along that the Bill will sail through because Zanu PF had not only the numbers but that when push came to shove the MDC legislators did not have the political spin to oppose whatever Zanu PF wanted even when such opposition was merely symbolic!
I have said it hundreds of thousands of times but it is well worth saying millions of times: MDC leaders are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. If the people of Zimbabwe are ever going to get out of the economic and political mess the nation is stuck in then they replace MDC leaders men and women who will implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. MDC leaders have given up on this important task, they are sell-outs and up to no good!
@ Abdullah Amir
“Wilbert Mukori ignore this Mwembe guy. Not worth reasoning with.”
I totally agree with you that Mwembe is brain-dead and therefore his brain is impermeable to reason. However, I think it is a big mistake to let village idiots like him spread their foolishness on such respected forum as Bulawayo 24 where other impressionable minds may accept it as truth.
Mwembe and Koni should join the other Zanu PF apologists and spread their nonsense on such sites as The Herald, Chronicle and many other sites pretending to Independent when they are not. You will never read anything of substance on these Zanu PF sponsored site; not even a critical comment, there have a team of attendants who will delete.
I totally agree with the Bulawayo 24 and other truly independent site to publish everything including propaganda articles from the likes of Koni. The challenge if for you and me to point out the falsehood and let the read make up their own mind.
I am not afraid to engage Koni, Mwembe and all the acolytes and apologists in Shake-Shake, I have heard they are now so many of them they occupy two floors. I have superior weapons – facts, truth and reason – against their inferior weapons – denials, nonsense, lies and damned lies!
It is said that lies have short legs and that is why they never go very far. After 41 years of Zanu PF lies and propaganda, the truth is coming out and the regime has nowhere to hide.
@ Hugh
Well that is very true, Zanu PF has rigged elections for 41 years now and the ordinary Zimbabweans have done very little to stop the rot.
Zanu PF has used its coercive power to stay in power but even then there have been a number of opportunities for Zimbabweans to end the dictatorship and they have failed to do so.
As for the MDC leaders, it is sad to see how the people have been outwitted by the likes of Tsvangirai and Chamisa. The very fact that many Zimbabweans have been as loyal as dogs to these corrupt and incompetent individuals is itself a measure of how naive and gullible the people themselves must be.
How many Zimbabweans will participate in the coming flawed and illegal 2023 elections regardless of all the warning that doing so will only give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy will show just how many brain-dead Zimbabweans there are still out there! No doubt millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora will be denied the vote and they will cheer and applaud the process regardless!
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