“SaBuku pamberi, (Zanu PF) district chairman shure navanhu, councillor aripovo. Kwava kunovota.” (Village headman will be in front, (Zanu PF) district chairman behind with the people and the local councillor will be there too. People will then go and vote!) explained President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a leaked audio video. See facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=search&v=1050575252264830
“Tinoziva Polling Station imwe neimwe inemarisuti ayo. Tinoziva
kuti paPolling Station vanhu vaabvepi, vapinda napapi. Rufu haruna zhira, a
vota anezhira!” (We know the voters registered at each Polling Stations. We
also know everyone who votes came from. Death does not leave a tracible track
record, voters do!)
Zimbabweans have known that Zanu PF has reduced many voters,
especially in the rural areas, into medieval serfs totally beholden to the Zanu
PF leaders and their proxy village heads, chiefs, war veterans, etc. Frog
marching people to attend Zanu PF rallies and then to vote for the party is
just one of the many ways Zanu PF is rigging these elections.
In the watershed March 2008 elections Zanu PF was forced to
implement many reforms making these elections the nearest the country had ever
come to holding free, fair and credible elections. Morgan Tsvangirai garnered
73% of the votes in the presidential race, according to Robert Mugabe’s Freudian
slip. Zanu PF stopped ZEC announcing the results. The results were finally announced
after six weeks. Tsvangirai’s 73% had been whittled down to 47%, enough to
force a run-off.
The run-off saw the worst cases of election related wanton violence.
Zanu PF unleashed party youths and liberation war veterans, foot soldiers, to destroy
property, harass, beat and rape the people; punishment for rejecting Zanu PF in
the March vote. The heavy duty stuff of abducting and killing was carried out
by Police, Army and CIO personal deployed in “Operation mavhotera papi” (whom
did you vote for), as the party called it.
“What was won by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!”
thundered Robert Mugabe, cheering and applauding the wanton violence!
Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the race and Mugabe
won the one-horse race with 84% of the vote.
SADC and the AU, who had always turned a blind eye to rigged
Zimbabwe elections until then, joined the rest of the international community
is condemning the 2008 elections for the blatant cheating and wanton violence.
No one would recognise Zanu PF as the legitimate government forcing the party
to sign the SADC proposed 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Zanu PF agreed to the need for the country to implement a raft
of democratic reforms designed to restore the rule of law and stop a repeat of
the blatant cheating and wanton violence in future elections. A Government of
National Unity (GNU) comprising Zanu PF and the two MDC factions was formed and
tasked to implement the reforms.
The GNU failed to implement even one token reform in five
years of the GNU. Robert Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of
high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough, they forgot about the
reforms.
The failure to implement even one reform in five years and
thus waste this golden opportunity to end the curse of rigged elections and bad
governance constitutes one of the darkest chapter in Zimbabwe’s history. Worse
still, we have clearly learned nothing from MDC leaders’ betrayal because we
continue to trust they, blindly.
When SADC leaders realised that not even one meaningful
reform was implemented, the advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not
to participate in the 2013 elections until reforms were implemented. “If you go
into the elections next month, you will lose. The elections are done!” SADC
leaders told MDC leaders to their faces at SADC summit in June 2013.
As we know, MDC leaders paid no heed to the SADC leaders’
warning. By participating in the flawed elections MDC leaders have given SADC
leaders the excuse to once again turn a blind eye to Zanu PF rigging elections
as one of the MDC leaders, David Coltart, confessed in his book.
“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,” confessed
Coltart, in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in
Zimbabwe.
“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.”
It is nearly one decade since the June 2013 SADC summit and warning
of the sheer folly of MDC participating in a flawed and illegal election
process. Boycotting the election was the “obvious” thing to do back then; today
high treason to continue participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu
PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate the people’s suffering and deaths.
As we can see Zanu PF has become even more arrogant in its blatant
cheating and use of violence to secure electoral victory. As long as the party
knows that the opposition will participate, out of greed, and give the regime
legitimacy Zanu PF will continue to blatantly frog marching the voters, denying
3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote punishment for the western
imposed sanctions, etc., etc.
Here are the three main reasons why continued participation
in flawed elections cannot be justified:
1) 1) When the process is so flawed and illegal and
participating produces no significant gain.
2) 2) When participating gives legitimacy to the
flawed process and results and thus help perpetuate the tyrannical oppression,
especially after 42 years and counting of Zanu PF rigging elections.
3) 3) When one is participating out of selfish gain
and offering feeble excuses as cover. The argument that CCC must participate or
else Mwonzora will and give Zanu legitimacy is nonsense because Zanu and Zapu
boycotted Ian Smith’s 1978 internal settlement and denied him legitimacy although
Muzorewa and others participated. Mwonzora is just the modern-day Muzorewa. Besides,
one will not participate in flawed process out of principles regardless of what
others are doing.
18 comments:
ZIMBABWE risks sinking into a deeper power crisis amid reports that the country's power utility Zesa is on the brink of collapse due to an unsustainable tariff regime, NewsDay has learnt.
The power utility is also said to be drowning due to a US$37 million legacy debt, mostly caused by mining companies, revenue leakages, corruption and mismanagement over the years.
Government has insisted on unsustainable tariffs, largely to avoid a public outcry as the country heads towards the 2023 polls.
Currently, Zesa charges the equivalent of US$0,02 per kWh versus generation and import costs of between US$0,09 and US$0,11/kWh.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The Second Coming
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Except that for Zimbabwe this is just the relentless march deeper and deeper into the abyss. The march started soon after independence in 1980 and has continued without a pose ever since. A fear can see the corruption, the mismanagement and the sheer stupidity of dictatorship but even fewer have dared to speak up and save themselves and the nation.
If the truth be told, we have all known that Zanu PF has reduced the rural voters especially into nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to their overbearing land lords, Zanu PF and its proxies. The party has frog marched the people to vote for Zanu PF for donkey years.
The real big question that must be asked is why the opposition has continued to participate in these flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy?
The 56 year-old former first lady, who had serious political ambitions at the time of the coup, is said to be spending most of her time in Singapore, and when she is in Zimbabwe, she retreats to her rural home in Zvimba, west of Harare.
Mr Mugabe's daughter Bona and her husband Simbarashe Mutsahuni Chikoore are fighting in the courts to block the government from redistributing part of the vast farm, which was also seized from a White Zimbabwean by the dictator.
The couple accuses the government of unilaterally seizing sections of the property they were allocated in 2017 without considering their investments and farm utilisation.
On the other hand, the government argues that the 1,804 hectares is beyond the stipulated maximum farm size that can be owned by a single family.
In 2019, President Mnangagwa said a land audit had revealed that Grace Mugabe's widow owned 16 farms and indicated that excess properties would be seized.
Using her moniker, the Zimbabwean ruler said: "I know of one lady, ‘Stop It!', who has about 16 (farms) yet the law says one family one farm."
Although the land audit report that revealed that top ruling party officials and government mandarins amassed vast tracts of land during the chaotic land reform programme was handed over to the president in December 2019, no action has been taken against the former first lady or any other owners of multiple farms.
Corruption is not ease to root out especially when one has to be in a position of power and authority to do so. Most of those who get into such positions are, more often than not, tempted to use the position to feather their own nest. And once they have joined the corrupt ruling elite, they stop going after the corrupt because their see them as one of their own.
Mnangagwa will never stamp out corruption in Zimbabwe because he is the godfather of corruption himself!
@ Muzokomba villager
“OUR failure to rise above the mediocrity of petty political party politics is the major reason why Zimbabwe is in shambles today.
As Zimbabweans, we have got accustomed to the tendency of looking at everything through political lenses.
We have allowed meaningless politics to divide us and, unfortunately, we simply cannot break free from these chains.
It is all about Zanu-PF or Citizens Coalition for Change or MDC, etc. This is the sad reality of our time.”
You are right, we are stuck in this hell-on-earth of our own making because we are obsessed about the mediocre issues at the expense of what really matters. Years of mental inactivity has resulted in our brain ossifying into useless fatty tissue. To ask someone whose brain has turned into useless fat to think is as meaningless as expecting a snail whose depth of vision is just a few inches to see and comprehend the image in the distant horizon!
Right now Zimbabweans are stuck with this Zanu PF dictatorship because we cannot even agree what constitutes free, fair and credible elections, for example. Many are hell bent on participating in these flawed and illegal elections, because they believe CCC can win rigged elections even after 42 years of rigged elections! Of course, it is insane but when one’s active brain has shrunk to the size of a hen’s egg it is a very rational decision!
LOCAL Government deputy minister Mariam Chombo has disclosed that government is planning to splash on traditional leaders to cushion them against economic turbulences.
Chombo, who said she was not at liberty to disclose the figures, told NewsDay early this week that traditional leaders played a significant role and deserved a comfortable lifestyle.
She said government would review their allowances, put them on medical aid, service their vehicles and allocate them fuel.
The opposition Citizens Coalition Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday accused Zanu-PF of trying to buy the loyalty of traditional leaders with trinkets ahead of the 2023 general elections.
CCC spokesperson accused the ruling party of trying to bribe chiefs ahead of the elections to ensure they force-march their subjects to vote against the opposition party.
"We condemn this brazen attempt to buy the loyalty of chiefs with trinkets. We respect the role and importance of traditional leaders but we are opposed to them being used to participate in partisan politics," Mahere said.
"Traditional leaders must be non-partisan and put the interests of the citizens they lead ahead of any partisan agenda."
It is interesting to note that CCC readily acknowledge the political reality of Zanu PF traditional leaders to frog marching rural voters to vote for the ruling party. President Mnangagwa himself was boasting of doing exactly that in a leaked audio.
Zanu PF has increased the number of Polling Stations and created the Polling Station specific voters’ roll so that the traditional leaders and party officials can keep tags on who voted and for whom. “Rufu haruna zhira, a vota anezhira!” (Death does not leave a tracible track record, voters do!) boasted Mnangagwa.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends have known about Zanu PF frog marching voters and many other vote rigging tactics but have chosen to ignore this political reality because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate regardless of the flawed process.
Indeed it is for the same reason, greed, that MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
Advocate Fadzayi Mahere and her CCC colleagues will participate in these elections regardless of all the vote rigging shenanigans, Zanu PF knows that and hence the reason the party will ignore CCC posturing. The big question is can Zimbabwe afford another rigged elections and another five more years of this Zanu PF tyrannical rule? Or to put is differently: Can Zimbabwe afford this blatant CCC sell out to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the dictatorship?
Part 1 of 2
Kate Hoey, member of the House of Lords in the UK, told the House that they visited Zimbabwe together with other lawmakers ahead of the 2018 elections and wrote a “depressing report” that also indicated how surprised they were of Laing’s close Zanu-PF ties.
“In 2018, just before the last presidential election I, along with the right honourable Conor Burns, visited Zimbabwe to write a report for the UK branch of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association on the possibilities of a free and fair election and the chances of Zimbabwe rejoining the Commonwealth,” Hoey said.
“We did not put Zimbabwe out, of course: it left. It was a depressing report. The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (Zec) was not impartial and the voter roll was inadequate, for starters. The constitution was being ignored, so we wrote of our disappointment and surprise that our ambassador at that time seemed to be so close to the ruling Zanu-PF party,” she said.
However, Hoey saluted the current UK ambassador to Zimbabwe, Melanie Robinson, for doing a great job.
“I have to say that the current ambassador is doing a great job and is widely respected,” Hoey added.
She said they sounded warnings that Mnangagwa was not a reformist and likely to perpetuate Mugabe’s heavy-handedness.
“Many of us in the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Zimbabwe at that time tried to warn of the danger and futility of expecting change from Mnangagwa. Not for nothing is he known as the crocodile. We were dismissed by some as needlessly pessimistic and lacking understanding of his desire to change but, as forecast, the pattern set by Mugabe was carried forward with sustained intensity and vigour, complying with plans cunningly crafted with the help of the military. Those had been planned for some time. Unfortunately too many of the agencies working in the country and too many diplomats initially fell for his lies and rather evil charm,” Hoey said.
“We were told that a new chapter of peace, economic efficiency and prosperity would be opened up. They have certainly opened up a new chapter, but it is the same horror story of corruption, greed and violent oppression. The only expertise Zanu-PF has ever shown, I am afraid, is in brutality, lying, theft and terror.”
In 2018, Laing was forced to deny Hoey and Burns’ allegations that she showed bias towards Mnangagwa and mocked then MDC-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa in the run-up to the elections.
Part 2 of 2
In 2018, Laing was forced to deny Hoey and Burns’ allegations that she showed bias towards Mnangagwa and mocked then MDC-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa in the run-up to the elections.
She was also under fire for being aloof following the army-led 1 August 2018 shootings that killed six unarmed civilians.
“We were disappointed at how every element of civil society and politicians outside Zanu-PF had the belief that the UK embassy — and in particular the ambassador is biased in favour of the incumbent regime,” the report read.
“Huge offence was taken that our ambassador wore a Mnangagwa scarf outside 10 Downing Street earlier this year on her visit to the UK. This offence and fear of bias was compounded when the first person to re-tweet it from his official account was Mnangagwa himself.”
“The embassy organised a dinner for us to meet some Zimbabweans and we found that most were supporters of Zanu-PF. Indeed prior to the dinner the ambassador was openly ridiculing the leader of the MDC-Alliance,” the two MPs said in their critical report.
On 5 August 2018, Laing took to microblogging site Twitter to deny reports of ridiculing Chamisa.
“I certainly did not ridicule Chamisa who I recognize as a major political figure in Zimbabwe. I believe he and I have a good relationship and we meet regularly. We had a good meeting just before election, discussing his plans if he won, and we spoke soon after,” she said.
In 2016, even the late former MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned of the Western diplomats’ views on Mnangagwa as a reformist in apparent reference to Laing.
“I was with one of the ambassadors who was talking about Mnangagwa being a pragmatist, but I said he is a pragmatist on other issues, but a hardliner on issues of governance and democracy,” he said then.
“Mnangagwa’s statement confirms that he is a hardliner, he has always been and not the reformist and pragmatist that some in the diplomatic community have begun to think he is.”
MP Kate Hoey, as she was then in 2018, and her team were right in dismissing Mnangagwa as a thug who could not be trusted to implement any meaningful reforms. The British government should have listened to her and not the UK Ambassador Laing and Professor Stephen Chan who advised closer ties with the Mnangagwa regime.
The fly in the ointment with MP Kate Hoey’s report was the failure to question why the MDC A had stubbornly refused to listen to calls to implement democratic reforms before elections. “The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (Zec) was not impartial and the voter roll was inadequate, for starters. The constitution was being ignored, so we wrote of our disappointment and surprise that our ambassador at that time seemed to be so close to the ruling Zanu-PF party,” she said.
Indeed, ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters roll in the country’s 42 years history. And yet the opposition has insisted in participating in such flawed and illegal election. Why?
CCC is hell bent on participating in the 2023 elections with not even a token reform implemented. How long are we going to allow this circus to continue?
The fourth reason why continued participation in flawed elections cannot be justified:
4) When the people participating in the flawed elections are the ones who failed to implement even one token reform when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. There is no denying that MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the reform during the GNU. They failed to implement even one reform because they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. If MDC/CCC leaders failed to implement even one reform when they had the chance to do so, it is naïve to believe they will have, somehow recovered from their serious weaknesses, to redeem themselves.
The people who have failed to understand the GNU was about implementing reforms, even now with the benefit of hindsight are the ones who are foolish enough to trust the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders with the destiny of the nation.
Zimbabwe is in this hell-hole not only because the nation has had the great misfortune of having corrupt and incompetent leaders, true and serious as this has been, but worst of all we also have some of the most ignorant and naive people on earth! It takes the biscuit for one to believe such oxymoronic nonsense as “winning rigged elections” especially after 42 years of rigged elections!
"We did not have MDC until 1999 so it came from us.
"We were not good shepherds. We lost some sheep in our flock and they have come to haunt us," Mohadi said while officially opening the workshop on Friday.
"If we had listened to the workers, we would not be having this MDC headache.
"This opposition party did not exist until 1999…the party has come back to haunt us and cause us headaches.
"These lost sheep are giving us sleepless nights. It's a daunting task to get rid of them but we should do it through votes."
Zanu PF is ramping up its vote rigging machinery, there is no way Zanu PF will ever lose an election in which the party has carte blanche powers to rig the election. Still the party needs to maintain the pretence that CCC can win rigged elections.
Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends know that Zanu PF is rigging these elections and that by participating in these flawed elections they are giving Zanu PF legitimacy. It is in Zanu PF’s interest to string CCC along just as the party had done during the GNU days stopping MDC implementing reforms!
CCC are participating in these flawed elections for the sake of the few seats Zanu PF is giving away to entice the opposition. MDC did not implement any reforms for the same reason – greed – Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and the forgot about the reforms.
Ever since the 2008 GNU Zanu PF has learned that it can retain its dictatorial powers as long as it gives away a few seats to the opposition to maintain the façade Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy. MDC/CCC have played along giving Zanu PF legitimacy for the share of the spoils of power.
It is now for the ordinary people to realise MDC/CCC have sold out on reforms and free elections. It is for the people reject and denounce this Zanu PF and CCC devils’ pact now and not be dragged into yet another rigged elections.
@ Mbofana
“Hundreds more lives could have been saved had the same body swiftly intervened before the disputed and violent 2008 presidential elections - when it became apparent that the Robert Gabriel Mugabe ZANU PF regime was intent on staying in power by any means necessary, and was baying for blood - especially, following the ruthless tyrant's embarrassing defeat at the hands of the opposition's Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
Similarly, so far, nearly 4,000 civilians have been killed in the terrorist conflict in Mozambique, which began in October 2017, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Date Project (ACLED) - on top of over 856,000 displaced, more than half of which being children (UNICEF).
Where was SADC when this war was clearly brewing - since this was seen coming, based on numerous intelligence reports, as well as the undeniable severe impoverishment Mozambicans in the north of the country, who were bound to easily be roped into some form of rebellion?”
SADC like the AU and many other African bodies has been a great disappointment, they pathetic track record speaks for itself. However, we cannot deny that the SADC sponsored 2008 to 2013 GNU was Zimbabwe’s get out of jail card. The fact that not even one reform was implemented in five years was because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold out. SADC leaders even tried to get the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented. MDC leaders once again sold out and participated against the regional leaders’ advice.
It is disheartening that even now with the benefit of hindsight many Zimbabweans out there still have no clue the GNU was about reforms and much less that MDC sold out.
The lack of quality leaders in SADC is itself a reflection of the pathetic leaders at national level and within society itself. Cream will rise to the top from quality milk and if you have sewage, you get scum. If we are serious about getting quality regional, national and continental leaders then we must do something to end the curse of ignorant, naïve and gullible electorate!
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections and those who are ignoring this political reality ignored the call to implement reforms even when they had the golden opportunity to do so. MDC/CCC are participating in these flawed elections for the same reasons the failed to implement reforms - greed and incompetent.
The very fact that millions of Zimbabwe have no clue, even now with the benefit of hindsight, that the GNU was about implementing democratic reforms and hence they failure to see MDC for the sell outs they are speaks volumes of the ignorance and naivety of the electorate.
Democracy as the government of, by and for the people, only works when you have an informed and diligent people! We don't!
Mangwana declared war against Chikanza after the UK-based scribe tweeted questioning Harare’s ongoing corruption, which the first family is facilitating.
Below are the comments and the link to threats on Chikanza’ by the government spokesperson, Nick Mangwana.
This is the reason why the patriotism act had to be tabled in parliament. Government has no issues with journalists practising their profession. However, the likes of Simba Chikanza need some remedial lessons on patriotism.
What is worrying is that this Zanu PF regime has the 2/3 majority in parliament to pass this patriotism act and then to implement these “remedial lessons on patriotism” as it sees fit.
We had the golden opportunity to get out of this political and economic mess during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when all we needed to do was implement the raft of democratic reforms Zanu PF had agreed to in the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC who were tasked to implement the reforms sold out and failed to implement even one reforms. Worse still, MDC/CCC are the ones insisting on participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for the sake of a few gravy train seats.
Zanu PF is rigging these 2023 elections and CCC are participating to give the regime legitimacy and freedom to continue oppressing our people. This is a nightmare that must be stopped by exposing MDC/CCC leaders for selling out on reforms and free elections. Deny CCC political credibility and you deny Zanu legitimacy!
@ Chief Chiduku
"I encourage Zimbabweans living abroad and those living in the country, civic society, and most importantly, the international community, to exert pressure on government to start putting in place the mechanisms to enable Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote next year."
During his visit to the UN General Assembly in September 2018, President Mnangagwa promised the diaspora vote in 2023. Last June Patrick Chinamasa, Acting Zanu PF Spokesperson, announced that Zimbabweans in the diaspora will be denied the vote as long as the sanctions imposed by the West remained.
Why Zimbabweans must be denied the fundament right because of what outsiders said or did beggars belief. This is like a man who quarrel with his neighbour and goes home to beat his wife and children!
Denying the 3 million plus in the diaspora the vote is just one of the many ways Zanu PF is rigging these elections. These elections should not be going ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging. MDC leaders had the opportunity to implement the reforms; they wasted it. And now they are the ones insisting on participating in these flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating the dictatorship.
The call to all thinking Zimbabweans is to stop participating in these flawed elections, expose MDC/CCC leaders as sell outs and deny them political credibility. Deny CCC credibility and you rob Zanu PF of legitimacy!
"If you want to say Zec has rigged elections or that something has not been done correctly, then we need substantive evidence. There is a provision of the Electoral Court in the Electoral Act where you should take all these matters," Mangwana said while addressing a peace-building youth caucus in Harare recently.
However, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) deputy spokesperson Ostallos Siziba said there was enough information in the public domain to expose Zec's malpractices.
"The cocktail of evidence of elections being rigged is not only in the political market, but in the courts. There are cases contested in courts that we have taken to court as CCC in Manicaland over elections proving beyond doubt that there is chicanery happening within Zec. Zec must pass the credibility and transparency tests. It's very unfortunate that Mangwana would utter such arrogant statements," Siziba said
The real question here is: why is MDC/CCC participating in these flawed elections when it is has “cocktail of evidence of elections being rigged”, crystal clear Zanu PF is rigging these elections? And more pointedly, CCC know that ZEC is not going to change their modus operandi precisely because everyone knows all these calls reforms are just political posturing!
CCC is hell bent on participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of selfish greed.
For the record: this was NOT an off record, in fact the FL called me via video herself on the official newsdesk phone.
2ndly, she broke trust by threatening me during the interview.
It is a fact that Zimbabwe is a failed state and at the root of this is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. After 42 years of enjoying absolute power the Zanu PF ruling elite have grown greedy and arrogant just as the ordinary people have become powerless and poor. The situation is not sustainable, no nation can survive when 50% plus are living in abject poverty with no basic services such as education and health care.
Zanu PF is doing everything in its tyrannical powers to do to silence dissent and maintain the status quo. By resisting democratic change Zanu PF is leaving no other option for change other than violent revolutionary change. Change is nature and those who resist change are delaying change, at best; at worst, they are rejecting peaceful change for violent change.
Zanu PF is dragging this nation down a dangerous route!
The country has recorded 249 262 positive cases, with 242 500 recoveries and 5 483 deaths.
There is one thing that has no changed – Zimbabwe’s testing, tracing and tracking remains one of the worst in the world; it has become the regime’s way of keeping the country’s official cases and deaths artificially low.
Kate Hoey, MP in the House of Lords said in 2018 they visited Zimbabwe together with other lawmakers ahead of the 2018 elections and learnt of Laing's close links to the ruling Zanu-PF party.
"In 2018, just before the last presidential election I, along with the Right Honourable Conor Burns, visited Zimbabwe to write a report for the UK branch of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association on the possibilities of a free and fair election and the chances of Zimbabwe rejoining the Commonwealth," Hoey said.
"We did not put Zimbabwe out, of course… It was a depressing report. The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (Zec) was not impartial and the voters roll was inadequate, for starters. The Constitution was being ignored, so we wrote of our disappointment and surprise that our ambassador at that time seemed to be so close to the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The criticism of Ambassador Laing is completely justified, she failed to give quality information as time has since proven.
I am disappointed by Lady Kate Hoey and her colleagues’ failure to question the MDC A’s insistence on participating in flawed elections, so flawed ZEC had failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, as she correctly pointed out. CCC is hell bent on participating in the 2023 elections with not even a token reform implemented.
How long are we going to pretend not to notice that it is the opposition is giving Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in these flawed elections!
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state governed by corrupt, incompetent thugs who rig elections to stay in power there will never be any meaningful economic recovery. It is sad that many Zimbabweans including well educated men and women have yet to accept this simple reality much less deal with the problem with the sense of importance and urgency the matter demands
Full-blown Zimbabwe teachers strike looms. Will the full-blown strike address the elephant in the room - the pariah state? If the answer is no, the pillars on which the dictatorship stands will remain untouched, then the strike is a waste of time and energy.
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