Prosper Mutseymi, CCC MP chief whip’s gallant and defiant denial
the US$40 000 was a loan and not a bribe can best be described as bikini – revealed
a lot but concealed the essentials. Let’s unpick it.
"On Tuesday, the CCC hosted a parliamentary caucus
convergence in Harare to look at things affecting Zimbabwe, we discussed the
much-published US$40 000 loan granted to Members of Parliament (MPs). What I
want to say is that the US$40 000 loan is above board and it's not a
donation," said Mutseyami.
"The loan is, therefore, not a surprising Executive instrument, but one
that went through due process of appropriation and it's provided for in the
Constitution of the country and it's not a donation and it is above
board."
Rumour has it that Mnangagwa wanted to give the US$500 000
and US$350 000 bribe to his ministers and deputy ministers and was forced to
extend it to MPs shut them up! And the proposed bribes were approved by cabinet
and sailed through parliament.
Of course, there is no constitution provision to allow
bribes and corruption but then there is no constitutional provision to allow rigged
elections, military coup, etc., etc. When the 2017 military coup happened –
surprise! High Court Judge George Chiweshe said the coup was “justified, legal
and constitutional!”
"Over the years, different loans have always been
provided for Parliament. Most common of these loans have been vehicle loans of
US$55 000 up to US$60 000 in some cases depending on the portfolio the
honourable member holds," continued the CCC chief whip.
"Loans have always been repaid, where there have been defaults. Parliament
has instituted legal proceedings and court records are public. In some cases,
vehicles have been seized at tollgates like for myself, honourable Chalton
Hwende and honourable Caston Matewu.”
Of course, he is being very economical with the truth! He
knows that many of these loans are never repaid. A few years ago, parliament
approved a bill writing off US$3 billion of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe unpaid
loans to the ruling elite. Morgan Tsvangirai never paid back the US$4 million
for the Highlands mansion. And Mutseyami should say how much of the car loan he,
Hwende and Mtewu had repaid before they were recalled as MP!
“Parliament plays a critical role of making laws for the
good order of Zimbabwe. However, as the third arm of the state, its most
important function is that of holding the executive to account and more
importantly demanding accountability over the use of Zimbabwe's resources,” argued
Mutseymi, finally getting to the jest of the matter.
“Despite this important role, the executive has over decades systematically
debased and weakened the role of parliament. Parliament has been underfunded
and parliament has been treated as a constitutional inconvenience by an executive
that is not accountable and is not prepared to be held to account.”
Of course, parliament is feeble and utterly useless as are
all the other state institutions like Police, Judiciary, etc., etc. Zimbabwe is
a de facto one-party dictatorship in which the state president holds
dictatorial powers and uses the patronage system, the bribes, to hold everyone
beholden to him.
The people of Zimbabwe realised in the late 1990s that as
long as Zanu PF continued to enjoy these dictatorial powers including the carte
blanche powers to rig elections nothing will change. Nothing! The nation needed
implement democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect
now late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC/CCC friends into power on the promise
the party would implement the democratic changes the nation was dying for. They had their golden opportunity to implement
the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one
reform because Mugabe saw to it that they were received all the trappings of
holding public office including these bribes disguised as loans.
If the good life had blinded the MDC leaders from the
seriousness of their folly in failing to implement even one democratic reform
during the GNU the political reality of Zanu PF blatantly rigging the 2013
elections brought them crashing back to earth. And yet, even then they would
not do the right thing and boycott the elections because they were content with
the few gravy train seats Zanu PF was giving away as bait.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a
coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the
(2013) elections,” 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.”
In an interview Isaac Mugabi in 2015 Tendai Biti too
condemned the follow of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF
legitimacy.
“Look, you can't keep on participating in flawed
electoral processes that serve to give big benefits to dictators such as Robert
Mugabe. Mugabe has perfected the art of winning elections. So it will be very
foolish for the opposition to continue legitimizing these sham elections which
don't deliver. This country will go through a serious economic crisis in 2020
caused by Zanu PF. And yet, this is the only country where a government doesn't
perform, it is encouraged by a super majority in parliament,” said Tendai Biti.
“So, you can't continue subjecting Zimbabweans to processes
where their hopes just get crushed.”
And yet that is exactly what these MDC leaders have been
doing participating in elections so flawed that MDC failed to win power even
after polling 73% of the votes in the March 2008 election. It is interesting to
note that Tendai Biti attended the press conference addressed by Mutseyami and,
no doubt, would not have cared to be reminded what he said in 2015!
The bottom line is Zimbabwe is a pariah state presided over
by a dictator dolling out bribes to the ruling elite to buy their blind loyalty
to his continued rule. People like Mutseyami, Biti, Coltart, Chamisa all know MDC
wasted its golden opportunity to implemented reforms during the GNU and that
without reforms the Zanu PF dictatorship will remain in power.
9 comments:
GOVERNMENT has handsomely rewarded war veterans by availing mining concessions to them to ostensibly boost its chances of turning the mining sector into a US$12 billion industry.
The development was announced by Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa during a post-Cabinet media briefing in the capital on Tuesday.
"Cabinet received and adopted sundry updates of the mining sector as presented by the minister of Mines and Mining Development, Winston Chitando. The sundry update is towards the US$12 billion mining industry," Mutsvangwa said
"Cabinet also approved a number of special grant applications in the following categories, extension to current special grants which have suddenly been exploited, empowerment of war veterans mining syndicates and strategic development and expansion projects towards the US$12 billion milestones."
GOVERNMENT has handsomely rewarded war veterans by availing mining concessions to them to ostensibly boost its chances of turning the mining sector into a US$12 billion industry.
The development was announced by Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa during a post-Cabinet media briefing in the capital on Tuesday.
"Cabinet received and adopted sundry updates of the mining sector as presented by the minister of Mines and Mining Development, Winston Chitando. The sundry update is towards the US$12 billion mining industry," Mutsvangwa said
"Cabinet also approved a number of special grant applications in the following categories, extension to current special grants which have suddenly been exploited, empowerment of war veterans mining syndicates and strategic development and expansion projects towards the US$12 billion milestones.
Zanu PF is destroying the nation’s resources to appease a few in the regime’s desperate effort to hang on to power at all costs. The gold panner has people digging everywhere with no regard on other people’s interests or long term consequences.
ABOUT 70,3% of Zimbabweans have no access to clean water, prompting such development partners as ActionAid to drill solar-powered boreholes in some parts of the country, government has revealed.
In a speech read on his behalf, Harare Metropolitan secretary Tafadzwa Muguti said: "The availability of water and sanitation, however, remains a huge challenge in the country. Assessment by government at the onset of NDS1 (National Development Strategy 1) revealed that the situation remains weak with uneven outcomes. For example, 29,7% of households in the country have access to improved water sources and sanitation. In the past, this has resulted in the outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid."
Muguti said to enhance water provision; development partners like ActionAid Zimbabwe had supported borehole initiatives, funded by the Canadian embassy and ActionAid International's Humanitarian and Resilience Team between 2019 and 2020.
He said the project would result in an increase in access to potable water for 77,3% of the population, and at least 90% by 2025.
Are we really that helpless that we need outside donors to help us provide something as simple and basic as clean water!
@ Godfrey
When 2017 happened most had hope, most hoped things would get better. Most thought "surely things were bad, could it get any worse?" Many screamed from hilltops and rooftops "give them a chance". Some of us had misgivings about the whole situation, we were called unreasonable naysayers for doubting. A lot of fundamentals were not in place to indicate that we were heading for better times.
Newsflash, regime change is not illegal or treasonous by the way, every 5 years the national constitution triggers a series of events to give citizens a chance to change regimes. Elections are a platform for regime change.
This is true, it is a great pity many are sleep walking into this hell-on-earth of our own making. The “give them a chance” euphoria of 2017 was symptomatic of those who cannot think and they understanding of issues of potato-skin deep. The very fact that it was none other than the MDC leaders leading the madness from the front , Morgan Tsvangirai left his SA hospital bed in a huff, goes to show we are being led by idiots.
We are not going to get out of this hell-hole until we take the responsibility of educating ourselves on what is going on. In this space age when the history and knowledge of the ages is available to all there is no excuse for ignorance. None!
@ Eddie Cross
THE electrical power crisis that has enveloped southern Africa has its roots in our post-liberation history. Prior to that, the utilities created by the States of southern Africa exhibited considerable foresight and planning. This was led by the power utility of South Africa which had visionary leadership at the time and like China in the past 50 years, turned their huge coal reserves into a cheap source of electrical energy. They installed enough power generation capacity to feed their own markets and to supply the deficit in their neighbours.
In Zimbabwe and Mozambique, their governments invested massively in the Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams with a combined capacity of 3 600 megawatts of cheap hydro electricity. The Kariba Dam remains the largest man-made dam in the world in terms of water storage capacity. These investments were well ahead of their time and contributed massively to regional power demand.
Southern Africa moved from the era of colonial and white domination to Independence and democracy and the new governments took for granted their self-sufficiency in power and did little to make the necessary investments to maintain self-sufficiency and to replace aging infrastructure. By the time they woke up to the fact, it was already too late to avoid a crisis in supply and distribution
Zimbabwe has enormous reserves of coal and despite the problems associated with coal-fired power stations, this is an opportunity we cannot ignore. I think we have to look to new high technology coal-fired plants that would limit emissions to a great extent and be clean.
The Indians have just completed such a plant at Mamba and even though it is quite small (300 megabytes) it is very clean and may be the sort of project we can replicate here.
There are solutions to the power crisis we face, but they require support by the global financial industry and the private sector.
In addition, we have to learn from past mistakes and make sure that corruption and poor decision-making do not derail these efforts.
You are right that Zimbabwe’s electricity power shortage, like so many other things, is a self-inflicted wound born of decades of corruption and poor decision-making. It is all very well to say “we have to learn from the past mistakes and make sure that corruption and poor decision-making do not derail” efforts to solve our problems when you, Mr Eddie Cross, are doing everything to maintain the status quo! The present political system has failed and it is idiotic to think we can have good governance and somehow still retain the Zanu PF dictatorship.
We need to implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free and fair elections. We had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and you and your MDC friends sold out and failed to implement even one reform. Ever since you have cosied up to the Zanu PF dictatorship and keep wittering about economic recovery. There will be no meaningful economic recovery as long as Zimbabwe remain a pariah state governed by corrupt and incompetent thugs!
THE authorities will take extraordinary measures, including the removal of all barriers hindering investment in the energy sector, to ensure that Zimbabwe does not face severe power shortages next year, President Mnangagwa has said.
This comes as top officials have said Zimbabweans can look forward to a bright Christmas as the country is expected to have enough electricity for the festive holidays due to the coming on stream of Hwange Unit 7, fresh power imports from Mozambique and reduced consumption from busineThis ss and industry.
Writing in his column for this publication, the President said Government is intensifying efforts to boost power generation through a raft of measures, including funding the repair of antiquated generators at the Hwange Thermal Power Station and immediately opening up the sector to new investors.
This is just nonsense! Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and incompetent thugs who rig elections to stay in power. The economic recovery Mnangagwa expected with is “Zimbabwe is open for business!” did not happen because Zimbabwe is a pariah state. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, there will be no meaningful economic recovery.
Power generation projects take five years plus to go from drawing board to the generators coming on stream. So, it is naïve to talk of the load shedding ending early next year, just a few months away!
The electricity shortages started in late 1990s and have grown worse and worse over the years. Load shedding is here to stay and the promise the situation will change next year is just hot air.
Team Pachedu
@PacheduZw 11/4/22
ZEC IT consultant: AFRICOM
ZEC domain owner: AFRICOM
ZEC domain registrar: AFRICOM
ZEC web developer: AFRICOM
ZEC DNS server host: AFRICOM
ZEC file server host: AFRICO
ZEC web server host: AFRICOM
ZEC mail server host: AFRICOM
The Military owns AFRICOM.
@ZECzim must be sued!
The constitution is crystal clear that ZEC should ensure the proper custody of the voters rolls. Third-parties like Africom compromise this mandate, especially given the fact that the Voters Roll with faces leaked and ZEC denies releasing it. The High Court ruled that only ZEC should have it.
Comments:
1. And you hear someone saying @ZANUPF_Official wins elections. They were not prepared for this, now they will resort to violence and intimidation. Thank you Pachedu.
Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and here is another truck load of evidence to prove it. We know that Chamisa and company are going to participate in these flawed elections regardless. CCC’s flagship “winning in rigged elections” strategy on mass voter registration in dead in the water. By 30 May 2022 only ¼ million had registered as voters or 4% of the party’s own 6 million target. The question one must ask is Why is CCC hell bent on participating in these flawed elections?
Answer: the same reasons MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the GNU – greed and incompetence.
After 42 years of rigged elections; how long are the people of Zimbabwe going to allow this Zanu PF and CCC sell out and insanity continue? The least people can do here is refuse to be a part to this shameful façade. The next step is to denounce the process and demand that SADC does not grant the regime legitimacy.
Zimbabwe has spent US$2 billion dollars investing in energy products: $533 million, financed by China’s Sinohydro, to expand Kariba power station and add 300MW of capacity, and US$1.4billion for new units at the Hwange Thermal power station, to add 600MW to the grid. Hwange however has suffered Covid-19 pandemic-related and payment delays.
“We have not invested when we were supposed to,” according to energy expert Victor Utedzi. He founded the solar farm Centragrid, 30km (19 miles) north-west of the capital, and is in the process of expanding it from a 2.5MW to a 25MW plant.
“There is no easy and quick solution to power problems,” he told the BBC.
“A simple PV solar power plant [takes] three to four years [to set up]. Thermal power plants, to plan and raise financing to build, takes about a decade. A project like Batoka [Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station] – our energy regulator says to expect it in 10 to 15 years. These are the large projects you need to dent the problems we are facing. You never come out of it in a short period of time.”
Zimbabwe plans to import 500MW of power from neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia, but crisis-hit South Africa is also competing for the same power to shore up its shortfall. Zimbabwe has already spent over a billion US dollars in imports over the last decade but financing for renewable energy remains low.
“Investors are not certain they will get their money out,” Mr Utedzi said. “There is a need to create conditions that have attracted financing that others in the region have.”
The government believes the problems are temporary and targets 3,500MW of power generation within the next two years. In the short term it says one more unit at the Hwange thermal power station will be commissioned by the end of the year, adding 300MW to the grid, and that water levels are beginning to rise again at Kariba.
While these won’t end the power outages, Wella Chidziva hopes that it will enable the lights to be turned back on in time for Christmas.
Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess, 42 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship has left the country’s economy in ruins and the nation a failed pariah state that no one would want to do business with. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state nothing of substance will ever change.
Mnangagwa has already claimed government will have the power crisis sorted out by early next year. This is just nonsense, a simple solar plant takes two to three years from planning to supplying power, as pointed out above. Mugabe talked of mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji” and never tired; he delivered mass poverty. Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was a lead balloon that never took off. He should have learned the lesson but clearly did not since he still keeps making these outrageous promises! It is all because he rigs elections and knows the people will never hold him to account on any of his idiotic promises!
@ Moe
That's what you get for supporting clueless coup plotters who are completely bereft of ideas except force and maiming. Zanu is a mafia organization only good at looting. Imagine 42yrs after so called independence mukuita iron clothes nepoto inopisa. Back to the stone age."
Hit the nail on the head!
@ Chitando
You started well by acknowledging Zanu would not win a free and fair election. But being a scatter brain you are, you failed to acknowledge that the 2023 elections will NOT be free and fair, just like so many others in the past.
“CCC please have 100%, well trained, dedicated and patriotic Polling Agents throughout Zimbabwe. We want to protect our win!!!!!” you say. Zanu PF is rigging these elections by stopping CCC registering its supporters, for example.
As of 30 May ZEC announced that only ¼ million new voters had registered, that is 4% of CCC’s own target of registering 6 million new voters. The horse has already bolted! And so even if CCC was to got the 100% trained Polling Agents, they will be protecting an empty stable!
The 100% trained Polling Agents is just another one of CCC’s idiotic “winning in rigged elections (WIRE)” strategies that is dead in the water since seeks to protect the win that is not there! CCC are participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats. These WIRE strategies are designed to placate the naive and hide the party leaders’ greed.
Zanu PF is rigging these elections and after 42 years of rigged elections, this is the problem we must address and end this insanity of rigged elections and bad governance. Zanu PF and CCC cannot hold this nation to ransom, enough is enough!
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