If I was in a position to do so, I would make reading
George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm compulsory reading for all Zimbabwe for two
reasons:
1) 1) The book is an allegorised allusion to
the betrayal of the Russian Revolution by Joseph Stalin and his acolytes. The
are many parallel with the betrayal of the Zimbabwe Revolution by Mugabe et al
or be it the later is a hell lot more chaotic.
2) 2) By making it compulsory reading one hopes
the nation will finally learn why we are in this seemingly intractable mess of
our own making.
I would go one step further and pay commission to sequel to
the book in which the Boxer, the horse, supported by the sheep try to take over
the farm from the pigs; which is where we are in our political history in
Zimbabwe.
To those who have not read Animal Farm, Boxer took as
much time to learn the five letters of the alphabet as the average animal took
to learn the whole alphabet. It took him just as long to learn the next five
letters and by that time he had forgotten the first five letters. The sheep are
even worse than Boxer; they only thing they mastered was slogans which they
would repeat without knowing what they meant!
Chamisa and his MDC cum CCC friends are Boxer and the
wildebeest CCC herd are the sheep.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect
MDC into power for the express purpose the party would implement the democratic
changes necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 22 years, 5 of which
in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC has failed to implement even one token reform. Not
even one!
There is evidence to suggest MDC leaders failed to
implement the reforms because they are corrupt. Yes, Mugabe did bribe them with
the trappings of high office and with their snouts in the feeding trough they
forgot about the reforms.
Still, it would be rich to believe every one of 110 MDC MPs,
40 Senators, 30 Ministers and deputy Ministers, 2 Deputy PM and the PM
Tsvangirai himself were duped for five years of the GNU. The truth is the MDC
leaders were and are to this day not just greedy but worst of all they are
breathtakingly incompetent. Like it or not MDC leaders have failed to implement
even one reform because they have never understood what the reforms are much
less how they were to be implemented.
The MDC supporters, the sheep, have repeated the “Change!
Chinja!” slogans and the party has returner change its name even after
rebranding but they too have no clue what the changes are. And so when MDC sold
out during the GNU by failing to implement even one reform the followers were
none the wiser and so never took the leaders to task.
Many people have advised MDC leaders on the folly of participating
in the elections without first implementing the democratic reforms they did not
listen just as they did not listen when advised to implement reforms. And so
the nation has been dragged into one meaningless elections after another only
to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Right now Chamisa et al are hell bent on participating in
the 2023 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF is set to rig them and that, by
participating, CCC will, once again, give Zanu PF legitimacy. It really is a
political nightmare!
"The CCC BY-ELECTIONS LANDSLIDE VICTORY has put the
world on notice that CCC is the next government in ZIMBABWE. On this, Zanu PF
is panicking and cowardly disrupting our Citizens dialogue Assemblies,” Chamisa
posted on twitter.
"The road to 2023 must be signposted by Pre-Election Pact on Reforms
(PREPARE)."
"It's about 60 weeks to the 2023 general election.
Any dialogue must be about reforms & the road to 2023 not a GNU. As
Zimbabweans, we must find each other to avoid a yet another disputed election
and all it's undesired consequences. We need a Pre-Elections Pact on Reforms (PREPARE).
"Whoever Wins an undisputed mandate in 2023 must then unite the nation, a
credible inclusive Team ZIMBABWE and deliver prosperity and happiness. The next
5 years must be about nation building-transforming and developing our economy
not just politics and unseemly politicking."
There will be no meaningful reforms implemented before
the 2023 election even if Zanu PF was arm-twisted to do it; with 60 weeks to
go, there is no time. Chamisa knows that. And so Zanu PF will blatantly rig the
2023 elections just as it has done in the other elections in past. Chamisa and
company know that too!
Still CCC will participate in these flawed elections flawed
elections because they also know that Zanu PF will be giving away a few gravy train
seats to entice the opposition to participate. Zanu PF needs the opposition to
participate to give the flawed process some modicum of credibility and
legitimacy. Chamisa et al are participating out of greed, pure and simple; they
are after the few gravy train seats on offer.
As the main opposition party in the 2018 elections,
Chamisa felt he and his MDC A friends were entitled for more than just the few
gravy train seats they had won. Mnangagwa rebuffed his demands. Once beaten
twice shy! This pre-election pact is Chamisa asking Mnangagwa to agree to
appoint some CCC leaders into cabinet or agree to paying them as shadow
ministers.
Mnangagwa would happily agree to this pseudo pre-marital
agreement was if Chamisa dropped all this talk of reforms. Mnangagwa created
the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) for the sole purpose of rewarding all the
opposition presidential candidates in the 2018 and would have no problem paying
a bit more to rewarding Chamisa and company.
However, to get the POLAD benefits the members had to
publicly endorse the elections were free and fair and Mnangagwa was the
legitimate winner. Chamisa must endorse the elections are free and fair and
thus rule out the need for reforms.
The claim that this “Team Zimbabwe” will transform and
develop the country is just wishful thinking. Everyone will know that Zanu PF
will be calling the shots and, worst of all, the country will revert to its
present status of a pariah state with the Zanu PF dictatorship back in power at
the end of the day.
SADC proposed the 2008 Global Political Agreement forcing
Zanu PF to agree to the implementation of the democratic reforms. And so, the
2008 to 2013 GNU had chance of transforming the country if the reforms were
implemented. The inclusive government Chamisa is calling for is nothing but a
variation of the existing POLAD, no meaningful reforms will be implemented
because Zanu PF, the principal player, insists the elections are free, fair and
credible.
A revolution once betrayed develops its own inbuilt
mechanism of self-perpetuating. Russia is stuck with the Stalin style corrupt
and tyrannical totalitarian dictatorship. Likewise, Zimbabwe is stuck with the
Zanu PF corrupt, chaotic and tyrannical dictatorship. Chamisa and his MDC/CCC
friends are so corrupt and incompetent, they will never change anything, they
are just Zanu PF acolytes in all but name.
10 comments:
Part 1 of 2
CCC President Nelson Chamisa wants elections in Zimbabwe to be postponed for 7 years, Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba says.
Writing on his weekly Saturday column in the state-owned Herald, Charamba said, "Chamisa and his MDC then, his Triple C now, are behind the Mutata-Magaya proposal of an election sabbatical under the pretext of a national dialogue."
Charamba was referring to the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHoCD) call for a 'Sabbath' on political contestation in Zimbabwe to allow for the rebuilding of trust and confidence and chart a way forward towards a comprehensive economic recovery path in a non-political environment.
Said Charamba, "They want elective politics suspended for a minimum of seven years, during which cross-party elites join hands in some consensual pact of dictatorship. Even certain sections of the media and the academia have bought into this.
Part 2 of 2
"Those rejecting this falsely consensual, holy benediction to dictatorship, are traduced as hardliners. You can see how intraparty dictatorship threatens to spill over into national space, with holy men as diligent midwives!"
He further asked Zimbabwens if the proposal was an ideal one coming from the party that projects itself as a champion of democracy.
"Do we want that for our Nation? Ever at all? And coming from avowed apostles of democracy? Until the snake bites him dead, how do you not believe it when a snake charmer tells you the mamba is man's best friend?"
Lest we forget, the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders into power on the understanding the party will bring about the democratic changes necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Not only has these MDC leaders sold out by failing to implement even one reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU; they have insisted in participating in these flawed elections knowing fully well that they were giving Zanu PF legitimacy in doing so.
Now they are seeking to do what even Zanu PF itself has not dared to do – not just rig elections, cancel them!
For the ordinary person free, fair and credible elections is their only chance to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Of course, only a fool would ever accept giving up their birth right only chance to hold the corrupt and incompetent ruling elite to account. To give up the right to vote is tantamount to going into battle without a weapon.
MDC/CCC are supposed to implement democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections and good governance and not to deliver coup grace to the weak and corrupted state institutions to create a dictatorship!
How is it possible that MDC/CCC leaders were elected to deliver democratic changes as the party name implies and yet them have failed to implement even one reform in 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU.
Worse still, how is it possible that the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans, many of them well educated too, still have no clue MDC leaders have sold out big time, even now with the benefit of hindsight! Yes, the nation is desperate for change but still that is a feeble excuse for sheepish following sell outs!
Chris Dell, USA ambassador to Zimbabwe 2004 to 2007, was right Morgan Tsvangirai was "a flawed and indecisive character who would become an albatross round the nation's neck if he ever got into power!" What the ambassador said about Tsvangirai was equally true about those around him. MDC did get into power and have become the milestone dragging the nation into the crashing abyss!
There is a mountain of evidence out there proving MDC/CCC leaders are corrupt and incompetent forcing Zimbabweans to read Animal Farm will not make much difference. The lessons from the book will be water off a duck's back. It is tragic that so many Zimbabweans are so thick, shallow and slow and worst of all they have the vote!
Said Moyo, "Some things from Zambia are too much. A whole President meeting and posing for pictures with a mere Brigadier General, just because he's Uncle Sam's boy? Even Uncle Toms would cringe. Bad optics!"
The statement did not go down well with Kalimbwe who said, "Jonathan Moyo stop attacking our leader, we aren't Uncle Tom's boys. Our politics has suffered huge blows from failed political leadership. We're now building up; a Zambia freely educated, a stabilizing currency and an Economy strong enough to accommodate the dreams of every Zambian!
"Moyo played a central role in destroying a once bread basket of SADC, a county that had a bright African future. On the other hand, we're shaping Zambia into an envy of African democracy; one where power is transferred peacefully from one freely elected President to the next. (sic)"
Professor Jonathan Moyo is in exile because he helped to create the Zanu PF dictatorship, the monster that could only be changed by a military coup. Who is he therefore to be pontificating about who Zambia’s President should and should not meet!
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki has refused to give a positive answer to a request by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address the African Union Heads of State summit.
Faki said Zelenskyy made a renewed request on Thursday.
"I received a call from #Ukraine foreign minister @DymytroKuleba. He renewed a request from president Zelenskyy to address @_AfricanUnion Heads of State & his wish to develop closer ties with the AU. I insisted on the need for a peaceful solution to the conflict with #Russia." Tweeted Faki.
This is not the first time the AU has blundered, failed to be decisive and is once again on the wrong side of history. It should be said, it is not going to be the last time knowing the sheer mediocracy of the AU leaders.
Johannesburg, April 29 (Reuters) – South Africa may be entering a fifth COVID wave earlier than expected after a sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days that seems to be driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants, health officials and scientists said on Friday.
The country that has recorded the most coronavirus cases and deaths on the African continent only exited a fourth wave around January and had predicted a fifth wave could start in May or June, early in the southern hemisphere winter.
South Africa has reported more than 3.7 million COVID cases and over 100,000 deaths during the pandemic. On Thursday, the WHO’s Africa office flagged the rise in South Africa’s infections as the main driver of an uptick on the African continent.
Senior health official Nicholas Crisp also said on Friday that the country had enough vaccine doses and was not planning to procure more. He added the government was not intending to buy Pfizer’s (PFE.N) COVID treatment pill Paxlovid for public sector patients, partly because it was very expensive.
SA has the highest reported cases and deaths per capita in Africa largely because it is one of the few countries in Africa who figures can be trusted. Countries like Zimbabwe with still 247 784 cases and 5 469 deaths are way off the mark!
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The failed to implement even one token reform because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. They have never admitted they sold out and are lucky that most Zimbabweans out there had no clue what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold out.
Anyone, anyone at all, who believes even for one second that Chamisa and company can now come up with an agreement with Zanu PF forcing the later to agree and implement any meaningful democratic reforms is naive. If MDC/CCC failed to get even one token reform implemented during the last GNU when they had the trump cards; majority in parliament, senate and cabinet, a Zanu PF signed undertaking to implement reform and SADC as the guarantor of the agreement; what hope is there of doing so now when Zanu PF holds all the trump cards!
Chamisa and company are just using the pressure born by the country's worsening economic situation to pressure Zanu PF to concede more of the spoils of power to himself and his friends - payment for their help in giving Zanu PF legitimacy. It is all about power, CCC leaders do not care about reforms, free elections and the worsen economic situation other than the latter giving they increased leverage.
Indeed, Chamisa and company are even asking Zanu PF to agree CCC and Zanu PF should rule without even bothering to hold elections for seven years, according to George Charamba.
"They want elective politics suspended for a minimum of seven years, during which cross-party elites join hands in some consensual pact of dictatorship. Even certain sections of the media and the academia have bought into this," said Charamba.
"Those rejecting this falsely consensual, holy benediction to dictatorship, are traduced as hardliners. You can see how intraparty dictatorship threatens to spill over into national space, with holy men as diligent midwives!"
Even Zanu PF has never dared cross the double red lines of cancelling elections and have dismissed the CCC proposal with the contempt is deserves.
To continue to trust Chamisa and company is the most foolish thing the people of Zimbabwe can do. We must demand the reforms before elections!
Ignorance is a curse and we are a cursed people! One had hoped that by now Zimbabweans have learned that their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country is sacred and well worth dying for because without it all the other freedoms and rights, including the right to life itself, cannot be safe guarded.
The right to free, fair and credible elections was at the very heart of our fight to end white colonial oppression and exploitation. Indeed it was the heart and sole of the fight for independence.
It is therefore very sad to note that in the country's first elections to usher independence Zanu PF leaders made it clear the bush war would continue if the party lost the vote. The people voted to end the war and in doing so lost their right to a free vote to this day.
It is shocking that the MDC/CCC leaders, whom the nation have entrusted the task of implementing the democratic reforms and give back the people their lost right to free and fair elections, should be the ones proposing to take away the heavily compromised rigged elections by cancelling elections altogether. Worse still the foolish proposal has been water off a duck's back to many Zimbabweans out there.
We really have a long way to go before we can ever hope to have a healthy and functioning democracy in Zimbabwe. With people this ignorant, even if we were to implement all the reforms it will be no surprise that the people will reckless give up their rights and freedoms at the drop of a hat!
CCC leader Nelson Chamisa has denied reports that he is engaged or seeking to engage President Emmerson Mnangagwa on forming a coalition government under any other other name.
Chamisa was responding to reports by the Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba who said Chamisa was behind the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations proposal to have a 7 year election Sabbatical.
Said Chamisa, "I am not engaged with Mnangagwa on any dialogue regarding a government structure. The only dialogue and pact I have called for is the pre-election pact that must be done. I also disagreed with the proposal by the churches to have a sabbatical on elections and said we only need a sabbatical on election violence."
This is just a cocktail of semantics and nonsense!
“Whoever wins an undisputed mandate in 2023 must then unite the nation, a credible inclusive Team ZIMBABWE and deliver prosperity and happiness,” said Chamisa earlier.
There is no time before the 2023 elections to implement reforms and so Zanu PF will rig the 2023 elections and how that can ever be an “undisputed mandate” beggars belief. No doubt Chamisa believes if he accepts the result then Mnangagwa will have an “undisputed mandate” which is nonsense because only free, fair and credible elections can ever produce such a mandate. But let’s pack that aside.
The pact is calling for the winner “to unite the nation (and create) a credible inclusive Team Zimbabwe”. If that is not calling for a government structure including the opposition, I don’t know what is!
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC cum CCC friends are corrupt and incompetent, they failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so. Anyone who expect this lot to get any reforms implemented or accomplish anything of substance is naïve, to say the least.
I, therefore, direct authorities at ZUPCO and the responsible Ministry to heed this call and bring back order in the sector. There are no residential areas which are more important than others.
All communities must be treated equally, for this is the true meaning of our hard-won independence and the current development drive that leaves no one and no place behind.
Similarly, the incidence of non-remittance of payments for medical aid and pensions for workers by organisations will not be tolerated.
I call upon workers to expose situations where they notice cases of corruption and maladministration within organisations and institutions.
Private-owned commuter omnibuses (kombis) were banned in 2022 as a way to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. They remain banned but have been pirating some routes, illegally, capitalising on ZUPCO’s failure to offer transport timeously.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, Zanu PF acknowledging failure is one thing but holding free elections to allow the people to have a meaningful say remains an illusion, there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
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