"Don't bury your head in the sand. Don't have an ostrich mentality.
Zimbabwe needs you. We have a crisis, a governance crisis, a leadership crisis,
and that is a political problem that must be fixed," said Nelson Chamisa,
speaking on SA’s SABC.
"Zimbabwe is broken. Let us fix Zimbabwe. We need the support and helping
hand of Africa. South Africa must come to the show. Help us to resolve our
fundamental issues. Support the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe. It is not
about a political party, Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF has ceased to be a vehicle for the
emancipation of the people, a progressive vehicle."
"Support the people of Zimbabwe in solidarity. Come and help us.”
SA and SADC were the driving force forcing Mugabe and Zanu PF to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) in which the party agreed to the need for Zimbabwe to implement the raft of democratic reforms to restore the rule of law and the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free elections.
The task of implementing the reforms were left to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years because Mugabe bribed them and because they are breathtakingly incompetent. Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti and many others in the CCC were in the GNU and, to this day, they have never acknowledged it was them, not SADC, who sold out.
SADC leaders begged, literally, Morgan Tsvangirai and company not to take part in the elections until reforms are implemented. MDC leaders ignored the advice. Chamisa and company are the ones who have insisted on participating in flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
“Don't have an ostrich mentality!” What an outrage! You are the ones who sold-out and yet now has the chutzpah to insult those who tried to help. Chamisa must wash his foul mouth with bleach!
Whilst one can understand why SA and the rest of the SADC leaders gave up hope of helping Zimbabwe get out of the economic and political mess Zanu PF dragged the nation into after the pathetic performance of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends. SADC leaders have turned a blind eye to Zanu PF rigging the elections and a deaf ear to MDC leaders complaining about stolen elections.
SADC leaders have punished MDC leaders for failing to implement even one reforms when they had the golden opportunity to do so. However, it must be said, in punishing MDC leaders SADC leaders have punished the ordinary Zimbabweans too; they are at the coal face of the country’s worsening economic meltdown and political oppression. Indeed, SADC leaders are punishing the whole region because Zimbabwe’s economic chaos and political turmoil is now spilling into the rest of the region and beyond.
With no meaningful reforms implemented, Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections; that is as clear as day. SA and the rest of the SADC leaders must ignore foul-mouthed Nelson Chamisa et al, who are participating in these elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and condemn the flawed elections. Deny Zanu PF legitimacy and Zanu PF will once again be forced to sign another GPA, agreeing to democratic reforms.
There are many Zimbabweans
who accept the 2008 GPA was our get out of jail card and accept MDC leaders
sold-out by failing to implement the raft of reforms. And given a chance, the
new GPA will be that chance, these men and women will implement the reforms.
All the reforms!
16 comments:
FEASIBILITY studies of the shady US$1.3 billion petroleum pipeline project, whose cost has quickened from US$850 million to US$1.3 billion and will ultimately surge to US$4 billion, are nearing completion, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s allies continue minting it.
NYASHA CHINGONO
The controversial Coven Energy deal is fronted by South African businessman Errol Gregor, chairperson of Coven Energy Ltd, while Mnangagwa’s close associate Eddie Cross (pictured) is playing a pivotal role in setting up the project.
The ruling elite and their cronies have become filthy rich and they control every facet of the Zimbabwe economy. They stand to lose it all if there is regime change in Zimbabwe and hence the reason they will never allow free and fair elections in the country. One of the many challenges the opposition will have to deal with to win political power in Zimbabwe is the economic might of the country’s filthy rich and their foreign backers.
Anyone who thinks that Kuda Tangwirei, the Chinese looting diamonds in Marange, etc. will ever allow regime change is naïve. What the country needs is to implement the wide ranging democratic reforms under the auspice of another 2008 Global Political Agreement or something similar.
By participating in these flawed elections Nelson Chamisa are giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship.
John catalogued the country when it was the fastest growing economy in the world, and then catalogued it when it was the fastest shrinking economy in the world,” said Ben Freeth, spokesperson for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch and executive director of the Mike Campbell Foundation.
“In essence, he catalogued construction and then he catalogued destruction,” commented Ben.
Robertson also catalogued the time during full Chapter 7 United Nations sanctions when the economy was growing. In the 1970s, he put forward a proposal to give title deeds to the communal dwellers. It was turned down by the Rhodesian Front government of Ian Smith.
After independence from Britain in 1980, Robertson put forward the proposal again. It was also turned down by the government of Robert Mugabe for the same reason: the political authorities did not wish to relinquish control over the people by giving them ownership of the land that they lived on.
The land reforms, properly implemented, should have moved people out of the overcrowded rural areas and resettled them in the former white-owned farms and state land. Both the resettled and those who remained in the rural areas should have been given title deeds.
The chiefs and other tribal leaders have retained their strangle hold over the rural people, first enjoyed under white colonial rule, that has reduced them to nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF operatives and proxies. Giving people title-deeds will end the control and empower the people.
Every Zimbabwean must have the right to own the his house and the land on which it stands!
Thank you very much for all the wise words and wisdom you shared with us all. RIP!
ON Wednesday, a UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group confirmed critics' worst fears that there has been no change in the country's human rights record under President Emmerson Mnangagwa despite claims by the second republic that it has introduced sweeping reforms.
In its recommendations, neighbouring South Africa called on Zimbabwe to ensure the alignment of the Zimbabwe Humans Rights Council Act with the Paris Principles, and the Constitution and provide funding for the protection and promotion of human rights.
It's not surprising that South Africa has made those demands as it has provided shelter to thousands of undocumented Zimbabweans fleeing political persecution in Harare.
The roadmap to cleaning the country's human rights record is simple - perpetrators of human rights violations must be brought to book, investigations into circumstances leading to the post-2018 election killings and disappearance of Itai Dzamara must be instituted and alignment of laws to the Constitution among other reforms yearn for implementation.
Mnangagwa must open a chapter for human rights for the country to be readmitted to the community of nations. Any attempt at glossing over the necessary reforms to guarantee human rights will not take us anywhere.
Zimbabwe had its best opportunity ever to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship once and once for all during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, the opportunity was lost because Mugabe bribed the corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders to forget about the reforms. And since the GNU debacle the MDC idiots have been participating in flawed election out of greed and giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
The idea of Zimbabwe becoming a healthy and functioning democracy without first implementing the democratic reforms is nonsense. We need the 2023 elections declared null and void and clear the deck for the reforms!
Army recruiting trainee doctors but fail to state the wages being offered.
Chiwenga solved the low wages problem of the doctors by forcing all trainee doctors to join the army since the army, as with other security sectors, are better paid than civilians. With the country's worsening economic situation the army wages are not so great and before long the trainee doctors will be back on slave wages.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have to rig elections to stay in power, Zimbabwe's economy will only get worse.
Zimbabwe would not still be in this mess if MDC/CCC had implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU when they had the opportunity to do so. Worse still, by insisting on participating in flawed elections out of greed these CCC idiots are giving Zanu PF legitimacy. We really cannot afford to let this madness continue!
What happened during the 2008 to 2013 GNU is a matter of historic record, an open book for all to see for themselves. "Kutaurirwa hunyimwa!" (See for yourself and not rely of hear-say!) as one would say in say.
MDC leaders failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform in five years! Mugabe bribed the entire MDC leadership; cabinet members, MPs, senators the lot; with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the reforms. Of course, it was not just being corrupt, MDC leaders showed they are breathtakingly incompetent.
SADC leaders did their best reminding Tsvangirai and company ti implement the reforms and they were ignored. Lindiwe Zulu ended up being insulted by Mugabe, calling her a "street woman", because she pushed hard to get MDC to implement reforms.
It is an outrage therefore that SADC leaders should find themselves being insult by an upstart like Chamisa calling them "ostriches with their heads buried in the sand"; when it was none other than Chamisa and company who had sold out the people of Zimbabwe and the SADC leaders! No wonder SADC leaders have largely ignore MDC leaders ever since the end of the GNU.
The most important message to send out to the SADC leaders is that there are Zimbabweans who know SADC's sponsored GPA was the key to ending the Zanu PF dictatorship. Please ignore the foul-mouthed Nelson Chamisa and company. Please, please, give us another chance, another GPA!
CCC Diaspora Network for Change says in the new formation every citizen is a founding member…
“We are now all founding members of the new party Citizens’ Coalition for Change. We are all starting at ZERO, anyone can stand for any post.
Hello Founding Members of CCC!
Retweet if you are a founding member!”
I was one of the few people who were very disappointed to see thousands of Zimbabweans out on the streets welcoming the 2017 military coup. They were so glad to see the back of Robert Mugabe they forgot the military junta forcing him to step down is none other than the same thugs who had rigged elections and even staged the 2008 coup to keep Mugabe in power.
Yes, it was good that Mugabe was going but the head of steam was enough to force the junta itself to go too, if only the people had their wits about them. They were fooled by Mnangagwa’s promise to have “zero tolerance to corruption” and to hold free and fair elections. Mnangagwa did not even bother to implement even token reforms and went on to blatantly rig the 2018 elections. Corruption is still rampant today.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends’ greatest failure ever since the stepped on the Zimbabwe political stage in 1999 is failure to implement even one democratic reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU. The sell-outs have added insult to injury by participating in flawed election out of greed and give Zanu PF legitimacy.
The truth of MDC leaders’ record of corruption and incompetence was finally sinking in; many Zimbabweans were waking up to the futility of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. The relaunch of MDC as CCC with the promise “We are all starting at ZERO, anyone can stand for any post!” has many foxed. Come 2023, there will be a record number of applicants all vying to be the CCC candidates for every available position. They have all forgotten with no reforms, Zanu PF will rig the elections.
The public euphoria after the 2017 military coup is being repeated with the relaunch of MDC A; proof the Zimbabwean electorate are but branches of a willow tree, they swear even in the light breeze! They are easily fooled!
NEWLY formed Citizens Coalition for Change led by firebrand politician, Nelson Chamisa faces a legal hurdle over the party's abbreviation "CCC" and a yellow colour theme.
This follows an outcry by a fringe political formation namely Citizens Convergence for Change, which claims it has used the same acronym, CCC since inception in September last year.
In a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) dated January 28, 2022, the complainant party's secretary-general Farai Zhou, threatened to sue ZEC and Chamisa's entity for continuing to use the abbreviation.
She said consultations were also underway to establish whether the former MDC Alliance's new name "is not too close to our name to cause confusion to the reasonable vote".
The complainant says failure by ZEC and the Chamisa-led CCC to heed the call to adopt a variation of the acronym would attract litigation.
When contacted for comment over the matter, Chamisa ally Job Sikhala said the detractors were not worth the attention.
"Hachina basa. Handidaviri zvinhu zvisina basa (It is nothing, l doesn't respond to worthless stuff)," he said.
Anyone with half a brain saw this one coming from a long way off! Why Chamisa and co did not see this coming beggars belief. And Sikhala’s contemptuous dismissal of this only goes to show Chamisa and company have no respect of rule of law and will ride roughshod over the weak and powerless! In short, Chamisa and company are Zanu PF thugs in all but name, awaiting in the wings to takeover!
@ Arthur Mntungwa
“This Citizens Convergence thing was started by Jonathan Moyo, when he advised Chamisa over the need for a new trajectory. This Zhou person went on to steal the idea and claimed a political party. I don't see their litigation succeeding, especially if Jonathan comes in board to back Chamisa on this one. Why are people so desperate?”
It is true that Professor Moyo popularised citizen convergence but did not have a political party with that name registered with ZEC.
You should learn to look at the case before you and its merits and not allow the individuals involved cloud your mind.
This case could have been easily avoided by Chamisa and company because they already knew of this party Citizens Convergence for Change got media coverage when it registered with ZEC. This is yet another unnecessary distraction just as Chamisa’s seizure of power after Tsvangirai was an unnecessary distraction at a time when the nation should be looking at such important issues such as the corona virus, how to stop Zanu rigging the elections, etc.
It is bad enough that many ordinary Zimbabweans do not have a clue what the 2008 to 2013 GNU was about implementing democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free and fair and not a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008. It is an outrage that MDC leaders should be pretending that they too have no clue what the GNU was about because they were nagged by SADC leaders and others to implement the reforms.
There is no denying MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years because they were and still are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. Of course, Robert Mugabe took full advantage of the MDC leaders' weaknesses.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the trappings of power, they will not rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies when asked why MDC was not implementing the reforms.
It is therefore an absolute outrage that Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends have kept up the pretence that did nothing wrong during the GNU and, worst of all, should be blaming SADC leaders for the wasted opportunity to transform Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe will need help to get out of the mess we are in and we are not going to get that help by insulting those we want to help especially when we are the ones who let these people down badly last time they tried to help!
We really need to rein in lose cannon like Chamisa and company and this yellow euphoria is sending the wrong message - that we are not yet ready to admit our weakness and are so naive we treat corrupt and incompetent leaders as gods!
IN a development that could signal a scandalous vote rigging plot, former Chinhoyi mayor, Dyke Makumbi, shockingly discovered that his wife's name and five other people who were supposed to support his candidature were missing from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's voters roll despite having registered.
"Imagine my wife has always been my number one nominator over the years and all of a sudden her name is not found on the ZEC voters roll. Names of five other people l had selected as nominators for me to be eligible to contest the by-election couldn't be found. A computerised search also proved they had been removed, despite having participated in previous elections," Makumbi said.
"Cases like these bring in doubt the authenticity or correctness of the ZEC voters roll. This is probably the tip of the iceberg; hordes of people might be surprised to find themselves not on the voters roll regardless of being registered voters," he said.
The real surprise here is the sheer naivety of these opposition politicians. It seems Mr Dyke Makumbi is a seasoned political activist who participated in the 2018 elections and even got to be elected Mayor of Chinhoyi. Did he not know that the 2018 elections went ahead with no verified voters’ roll?
He cannot pretend that he did not know this because it was raised in the public media and MDC A and all those participating in those elections were reminded of the folly of participating in the elections without something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. They all ignored the warning.
They knew Zanu PF was rigging the elections and that participating would give legitimacy to Zanu PF. Still, they participated because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition. They found the enticement irresistible!
Indeed, ZEC has never ever produced a verified voters’ roll in the country’s history. The real reason Dyke Makumbi is complaining is the same reason Nelson Chamisa complained after the results of the rigged 2018 elections came out – he is fearful of becoming one of the losers of the few gravy train seats on offer!
Zimbabwe’s curse is that we are not only stuck with the vote rigging Zanu PF but to compound our problem we now have an opposition participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for a share of the spoils of power!
This is the stuff nightmare are made off!
Chamisa insisted in participating in the 2018 elections with no reforms because "MDC A had stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!"
"We won the elections in 2018 and we will win the elections again in 2023. The only difference is that, when we won the election in 2018 we could not secure our victory because of subjective and objective reasons but we have since corrected those," he now tells us.
Zanu PF is rigging these elections. No doubt Chamisa will complain, as before, that Zanu PF rigged the elections, the very thing his solid plan was supposed to stop happening. The bottom line is by participating the opposition will have given Zanu PF legitimacy, again!
When will this nightmare of MDC giving Zanu PF legitimacy ever stop
@ Arthur Contracting
"It's mentality which need to go. People are busy on blaming someone without offering solutions."
After decades of doing nothing to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance there is no denying we are now a failed state. And with each passing day we allow this situation to remain it has become harder and harder to wrestle power from the ruling elite, implement the democratic reforms and restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections.
Zanu PF ruling elite have enjoyed absolute power for decades and they are not going to give it up without a fight. They were forced to give up some of the power to the opposition during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, a wise move since the opposition has provided the much-needed sidekick to blame for many of the nation’s ills whilst providing legitimacy to the party regardless the flawed electoral process.
The opposition has all but given up hope of getting Zanu PF to reform and thus deliver free elections and has settled for the scraps left after the rigged elections. It is ironic that whilst the opposition has failed to deliver free elections they will fight tooth and nail to stop any alternative opposition from emerging. They have become vicious and territorial they hate the fellow opposition competitor more than the hate Zanu PF!
The tragedy is between Zanu PF thugs and these MDC/CCC sell-outs the nation is being dragged into the abyss. There is a real danger the nation will go beyond the point of no return, if we have not gone past it already!
@ CHITIMA
“Do you think ZANU PF will care if CCC and MDC boycott the polls. They will make Chinamasa an opposition leader and hold elections, and mind you they will beat up those who will run against their fake opposite. After the elections they will form a GNU with Chinamasa, making him the Prime minister.”
This argument has been made by those who either don’t understanding how the 2008 to 2013 GNU came about, what it was about, why it failed, etc., etc. And/or are pretending not to understand to hide Morgan Tsvangirai and his banded mongooses’ pathetic track record of corruption and breath-taking incompetence and to justify why the opposition has continued participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for a share of the spoils of power.
“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.
“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.”
This is a quotation from David Coltart from his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
Of course, the opposition knows boycotting election is the obvious thing and that Zanu PF will be pressured to accept reforms. They are not boycotting elections out of greed, they want the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait, and they know by participating they are giving Zanu PF legitimacy. That is exactly what Coltart is saying about, you are hearing it from the horse’s own mouth! “Raga kuyera nyoka negavi iyo iripo!” as one would say in Shona.
@ Chitima
If you accept that Zanu PF is rigging these elections it is nonsensical to say Chamisa and the rest in the opposition camp should participating in the flawed elections just to save Zanu PF the trouble of having to create its own opposition! How considerate!
It is laughable that many people happy consider POLAD politicians to be sell outs for joining POLAD but not for participating in the flawed elections. What gave Mnangagwa legitimacy in 2018 is the 23 presidential candidates and the thousands in the parliamentary and local council races. He was able to wave his hand and ask "Why would all these people participate in an election process that is flawed?" Why indeed!
The MDC leaders did not implement even one reform during the GNU for the same reason they have been participating in these flawed elections - GREED.
The tragedy in Zimbabwe is that we not only have corrupt and incompetent leaders, worse still, we have a naive and gullible electorate so blind they cannot even see what is there before their own eyes
@ Zimvigil
“Nelson Chamisa has appealed to President Ramaphosa’s government not to ignore the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe by ‘burying its head in the sand and having an ostrich mentality’. He was talking to the South African national broadcaster SABC on a visit following the launch of his new party Citizens’ Coalition for Change.
Chamisa said his former party the MDC had been infiltrated by Zanu PF. ‘The basket of bad apples has now been flushed out. We are left with purity. I must thank Mr. Mnangagwa for the splendid job to take away those who have been retarding progress, those who want money, those who want opportunities, those who want trinkets and trappings of office. We are on a mission, an emancipation project, a freedom project to free Zimbabwe. We are doing everything to make sure that no stone, no corner is left unturned. We don’t want the ballot to be replaced by the bullet.’
Appealing to the South African government, he said: ‘Zimbabwe is broken. Let us fix Zimbabwe. We need the support and helping hand of Africa. South Africa must come to the show. Help us to resolve our fundamental issues. Support the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe. It is not about a political party, Zanu PF. Zanu PF has ceased to be a vehicle for the emancipation of the people’.”
For the record, it was not SADC’s fault that the 2008 to 2013 GNU golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship was wasted. It was MDC’s fault! It is therefore rich that Nelson Chamisa should be accusing of any of the SADC leaders of having a “ostrich mentality!”
@ Shoniwa Shoniwa
“Wilbert Mukori Somehow persuaded to believe vaMukori, you're a status core activist, which isn't a crime though in a democracy.
Chamunongofanira kuita chete kubuda pachena, than to keep de-campaigning without offering solution. Form your own party and sell your ideas to the masses. Chamagwinyira ichi taneta nacho.”
People who want the status quo are Chamisa and his MDC/CCC who failed to implement even one democratic reform even when they had the golden opportunity to do so and then have been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. Chamisa has changed the party name and its colour but the leadership and, more significantly the direction of travel has not changed. They are still participating in flawed elections knowing fully well Zanu is rigging and that by participating they are giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
I am offering an alternative solution to participating to give Zanu PF legitimacy – do not participate and deny Zanu PF legitimacy! The argument that if CCC does not participate other parties will and give Zanu PF legitimacy are a fallacious argument all those participating are claiming the same. If anyone believes the election process is flawed and that participating gives Zanu PF legitimacy then they must not participate, period.
Besides, Zanu PF is giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate. The opposition are finding the bait irresistible, and Zanu PF knows that.
As long as the opposition participate and give Zanu PF legitimacy, Mnangagwa and company have no reason to implement even one token reforms. The opposition are hypocrites for giving all manner of feeble excuses for participating in flawed elections and the people who believe these excuses are naïve and gullible and, after 42 years of rigged elections, clearly deserve to be conned!
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