In 2017 outsiders
not familiar with the Zimbabwean people’s warped thinking were rightly
surprised that Zimbabweans came out in their hundreds of thousands to support
the November 2017 military coup. The military coup was an internal power
struggle within Zanu PF and nothing to do with the ordinary people.
After 37 years of
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule the people were desperate for change but
the military coup was clearly offering to remove Robert Mugabe and a number of
the G40 leaders around him, and Mnangagwa and his Lacoste faction of Zanu PF
were taking over. The people were desperate to see the end of the Zanu PF
dictatorship; the emergence of one faction as the dominant one did not end the
dictatorship and so was of value to the masses.
Coming out in
support of Mnangagwa and Lacoste was as foolish as a goat celebrating the
victory of one clan of hyenas over another especially when all the fighting had
left the victors hunger and ready for a feast!
It did not take
long for the Zimbabwe public to realise the so-called Second Republic and the
old Mugabe dictatorship in all but name. Mnangagwa had promised “zero tolerance
on corruption”; corruption has instead increased as he was forced to put away most
of Mugabe loyalists out to pasture on very generous packages, to buy their
loyalty to him. Meanwhile he has had to appoint his own team they really
believe it is their turn to loot. And boy oh boy, their hunger for power and wealth
is insatiable and so too is their wastefulness.
If there were any
lingering doubts the Second Republic and its promise of democratic change was
con, all the doubts disappeared like morning mist when Mnangagwa and company
blatantly rigged the 2018 elections. When a few people gathered to protest, he
ordered the army to shoot to kill.
Zimbabwe is in this
man-made hell-on-earth because we have grabbed the solution that offered itself
as the right solution and run with it. If anyone thought the with the memory of
the November 2017 fiasco still fresh in our minds, Zimbabweans would be careful
not to repeat the same foolishness again.
There is no bigger
fool than he who never learn from the past, from experience. Trust Zimbabweans
to dive head-log into another shallow pool!
“This last Sunday's
CCC rally has clearly showed that Nelson Chamisa has an unmatched natural
connection with the grassroots and represents the best of this generation
giving a fresh start to Zimbabwe's political arena,” wrote Leonard Koni in an
article titled “Citizen Coalition for Change the only hope”.
“The question of who is biggest opposition leader in Zimbabwe between Nelson
Chamisa and Douglas Mwonzora has been put to rest.”
The choice before
the nation was never that of Chamisa vs Mwonzora no more than was it Mnangagwa
vs Mugabe in 2017. Chamisa and Mwonzora were both in the MDC from 1999 to 2018
when they fall out following the Chamisa’s seizure of the party’s leadership.
More significantly, the two gentlemen were in the GNU that failed to implement
even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they have all
participated in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Chamisa and
Mwonzora are both hell-bent on participating in the 2023 elections knowing
fully well Zanu PF is rigging these elections and that participating will give
Zanu PF legitimacy. They are participating regardless because they are after
the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait; they don’t care that the
nation is paying dearly for their greed.
The people of
Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders for the principal
purpose of delivering the democratic changes, reforms, necessary to stop Zanu
PF rigging elections. MDC leaders have not only failed to implement even one
token reform in the 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, but by participating in
flawed elections are perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Both Chamisa and
Mwonzora have proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent.
How one who has already proven to be corrupt and incompetent can still
represent the nation’s hope beggars belief.
Limit our choice
between Mnangagwa or Mugabe, Chamisa or Mwonzora is symptomatic of one who have
no clue what constitute a good and competent leader and so is forced to select
whoever they are presented with. Chamisa or Mwonzora is as meaningless to povo as
a mouse choosing a cobra or black mamba!
10 comments:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens.
Whilst the rest of the world has had the best of times and the worst of times, we in Africa have had the worst of times, the foolishness, the incredulity, etc., etc. with very little, if anything at all, of the best times, wisdom, etc. We are clearly getting our just deserve; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Chamisa and company have already proven beyond doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent and so what foolishness is this that compels us to have him as leader!
It beggars belief that a seemingly sane and articulate intellectual like Leonard Koni in joining the mob in praising Chamisa regardless of his pathetic track record of failures and down right betrayal.
As a people, one of our worst weaknesses is the failure to value truth, knowledge, reason, reality, anything that would otherwise be validated that careful analysis. We care about me, here and now and don’t give a damn about tomorrow much less next year and, with such a mentality, it is little wonder we value cheap popularity over truth and reality.
After independence in 1980 the popular thing to do was to join the mob and praise Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies to the rafters. And so the country’s intelligentsia joined Zanu PF in droves and those who did not, as a rule, criticize the regime. Go along to get along was the maxim of the day.
Of course, the right thing to have done was carrying out one’s civic duty of holding Mugabe and Zanu PF to democratic account from the word go!
Needless to say, Mugabe was quick to exploit the mental weakness in our society by recruiting and bribing the intelligentsia, so they led from the front in singing the regime’s praise. They were Mugabe’s prized hunting dogs, anyone who dare criticize the regime found themselves haunted right, left and centre.
The hunting dogs hunted in packs, and they had the public media to air their views, the sheer volume of the criticism was enough to bury the voices of dissent. If that failed, the regime used Parliament to pass oppressive laws and the Police and Judiciary to enforce them – all these state institutions stuffed to the rafters with intellectuals loyal to the regime.
Of course, Leonard Koni knows that Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends have already proven to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent and therefore cannot be the nation’s hope out of this mess. He also knows that the wildebeest herd have no clue what the democratic changes are much less how they were supposed to be implemented and therefore have never blamed MDC leaders for selling out on reforms.
The herd are following Chamisa out of ignorance and Koni, as with the rest of the intelligentsia, is following the herd out of political, pragmatic, call it what you wish, opportunism. We are stuck, we just repeating the same idiotic mistakes because we are blinded by opportunism to see the truth and reality.
@ Garikai Gutuza
“So what is the solution?
If you don’t have a proposal, I think you article is no use. You haven't contributed anything.”
I totally disagree with you!
If someone said the 21st US President was George Washington, for example. You will disagree with that because you know Washington was the first president. You don’t know who the 21st president was but that does not in anyway devalue your contribution that it was not George Washington!
If Chamisa has proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent, and nothing proves this more than the failure to implement even one democratic reform in 22 years, then Nomusa is right in say Chamisa can never be Zimbabwe’s “hope” out of this mess. Yes, she has failed to name an alternative but that is no excuse for pretending someone who has already proven himself to be utterly useless is the solution.
Just as one must google the answer to who was 21st USA President; we too must search for competent leaders with some common-sense, at least, and not just keep blundering replace one idiot with another!
Of course, Zimbabwe has competent men and women who are not corrupt and can make Zimbabwe great again; we just need to find them. Implementing the democratic reforms and draining the sewage swamp, which is what our present political system has become, will be a good starting point.
@ Garikai Gutuza
“Politics start with corruption all the funders do you think they fund for nothing. Corruption must be reasonable, corruption and politics is one (democratic politics)
For now in Zim we don't want any ideology we only need anyone who can unseat Zanu PF the rest will follow. We all know Chamisa had never said anything that makes sense much of his statements are childish, but he is our only hope to unseat Zanu lets support him others tinoramwira makudo munda.”
For someone to admit Chamisa is childish in one breath and then expect the same childish leader to unseat Zanu PF is an oxymoron particularly when the MDC has failed to implement even one democratic reform, the basic requirements for democratic change, in 22 years. If MDC had implemented the reforms we would not still be in this mess and, worst of all, to be repeating the same mistake over and over again.
@ Garikai Gutuza
“Wilbert Mukori start your political party and sell your ideas. To me i think you are one of those people who only criticizes and have alternative solution to the problem. For now we need change in Zimbabwe whether its a baboon or a fox that takes over it doesn't matter as long its change outside Zanu PF because our worry is Zanu PF.”
Well, if you think having a new political party is the answer, you should be glad about the launch of CCC.
In 2017 many Zimbabweans poured out into the street to celebrate the November military coup. They were so happy to see the back of Mugabe they did not care if “a baboon or a fox” replaced him! Within a matter of weeks, they realised that they should have cared because replacing Mugabe without end the dictatorship was just a waste of time!
Let me tell you here and now; CCC, just like Mnangagwa and his Second Republic, is nothing but the old corrupt and incompetent MDC by another name dressed up in yellow instead of red! The same incompetent MDC individuals who failed to implement even one reform and have been selling out by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy are at it again. They are now wearing yellow but are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. How anyone with even half a brain can see that as progress beggars belief.
If is not new political parties, excuses for participating in flawed elections, etc. that we need; what we need is the common sense to accept that it is insane to participate in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy especially after 42 years of rigged elections.
Police use water cannon on CCC rally in Gokwe!
As long as nothing is done to implement the democratic reforms to sever the umbilical cord and end Zanu PF capture of Police, ZEC, Army, etc.; free, fair and credible elections will remain a pipe dream.
Zanu PF has captured the state institutions making them departments of party in all but name whose primary purpose is to rig elections, denying the people their basic right to a meaning say in the governance of the country and ensure there is no regime change.
There have been many opportunities to end Zanu PF tyrannical control over state institutions the best of which came during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. It is a great pity that many Zimbabweans out there have failed to appreciate the importance of the GNU, even today with the benefit of hindsight. Like it or not Zimbabwe will never get out of the economic and political mess the nation is stuck in without first curing ourselves of the curse of rigged elections, and that meaning implementing the reforms.
The rules to ensure free, fair and credible elections are common sense and not rocket science. It is insane for anyone to believe in the oxymoronic notion of winning rigged elections, especial when the watershed 2008 elections have already proven that Zanu PF has carte blanche powers to rig elections.
@ Chinowaita
"He took, MDC T, he took Harvest House, he took Political fund, he recalled Councillors and members of Parliament.
After Zanu-PF and incapable President of Zimbabwe announced By election, Mwonzora followed the name MDC Alliance, thinking that there is mass support in a mere name.
Just few hours before the nomination court, a joker was thrown by the ever loved, most popular and the only solution so far, Nelson Chamisa.
There was a period during the struggle to end apartheid rule in SA when the rivalry between ANC led by Winnie Mandela and Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement reached nauseating heights. ANC cadres attacked and punished Biko’s supporters, forcing them to wear tyres dosed with fuel and set the tyre on fire!
The two groups were fighting the common enemy, white oppression but long before victory against apartheid was secured, they were fighting each other for supremacy even more viciously than they fought the white. The too the common maxim “If you are not with me, you are against me!”
MDC has been dogged by factional fighting ever since the party launch in 1999 and each time one group has broken away the two have attacked each other with the viciousness just short of the burning tyre necklacing. MDC greatest failure was failing to implement even one reform during the GNU. They have compounded their betrayal by insisting on participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
All the MDC leaders who were in the GNU are guilty of this, but venomous attack on Mwonzora would suggest he was the only one responsible to the failures. Mwonzora and a few others have because the fall guys of MDC’s failures allowing Chamisa and others to escape squeaky clean.
There is evidence to show Mwonzora has very little political following and therefore why some people are now obsessed about him instead of focusing on Chamisa and Mnangagwa, who are wielding a lot of power, beggars belief.
Of course, Chamisa and company are corrupt and incompetent as evidenced by their failure to implement reforms and by participating in these flawed elections are proving they have not changed one bit!
Unless the Zimbabwe electorate open their eyes and minds to the reality that the country’s political leaders are corrupt and incompetent and must be held to account the people will expend a lot of time and energy fighting each other whilst their common enemy, the corrupt leaders, walk away scot-free.
@ Masara
"Too often, the regime have been evasive and the truth has been optional. When they respond to legitimate questions with pre-prepared soundbites, or half-truths, or misdirection, or wild exaggeration, then respect for government and politics dies a little more. Misleading replies to questions invite disillusion. Outright lies breed contempt.
In our democracy, we must be able to speak truth to power. But, if democracy is to be respected, power must also speak truth to the people. And yet, in recent years, it has not been doing so.
There has been cynicism about politics from the dawn of time. We are told that politicians are "all the same", and this untruth conditions electors to condone lies as though they were the accepted currency of public life."
By the late 1990s the people of Zimbabwe concluded that Zanu PF was a corrupt and tyrannical regime whose continued stay in power was because the party rigged the elections – nothing to do with the democratic wishes of the people. The people realised that the only way to end the Zanu PF dictatorship was by bringing about democratic changes that would stop the regime rigging the elections. From there on the people have risked life and limb to elect Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders on the promise they would deliver the changes.
MDC leaders have been on the political stage for the last 22 years, 5 of which in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, but have failed to bring about even one meaningful reform. The GNU was our get out of jail card and MDC leaders failed to use it then and by participating in flawed elections they are giving Zanu PF legitimacy at the expense of evoking the card!
Those who continue to talk about the Zanu PF dictatorship post the 2008 GNU are missing the role MDC/CCC have and continue to play in perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship. When someone has the get out of jail card you question why they have not used it; the thick walls, the razor-fence and all the other top-notch security measures are totally irrelevant.
As much as it is Zanu PF thugs who are established, retained the de facto one-party dictatorship and are still in power today, it is nonetheless important to note that it is the corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent MDC/CCC who have been helping Zanu PF stay in power since the 2008 GNU. Without political legitimacy from MDC/CCC Zanu PF will be forced to sign another Global Political Agreement agreeing to the implementation of democratic reforms as happened in 2008!
Professor Jonathan Moyo has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of committing crimes against humanity by recruiting civilians to fight Russia.
Ukraine is currently recruiting civilians to join its fight.
Said Moyo: We're already handing out weapons and will hand them out to defend our country to everyone who wants and has capacity to defend our sovereignty, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming arming civilians and using them as human shields; a clear crime against humanity!
Moyo that the country was hiding under the notion of volunteerism.
The people of Ukraine had no choice but to fight, it was Putin who forced them to take up arms and fight and not President Zelensky!
It is rich for Professor Jonathan Moyo to be wittering about crimes against humanity! Was Robert Mugabe not guilty of crimes against humanity in the Gukurahundi massacre and the Nutty Professors worked with the dictator for decades and never said a word!
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has revealed that over 5 000 people registered to vote in Bulawayo since the mobile voter registration blitz was launched early this month.
Zec Bulawayo provincial elections officer Innocent Ncube, however, said the number could change after an ongoing audit
For the whole of last year only 3 000 registered to vote in all the country’s ten provinces. Now we learn 5 000 registered on one month in one province alone! ZEC has always managed to pull out figures be they of registered voters, cast votes, etc. like the magician pulling rabbits out of a hat! No wonder ZEC has never produced a verified voters’ roll; they don’t want some one Team Pachedu to reveal their vote rigging shenanigans.
The real shock is why has the MDC/CCC insisted in participating in the elections so flawed there was not even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll? Why?
To understand why MDC is hell bent in participating in flawed elections one must understand why they failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU – greed, the same greed behind their participating now.
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