"Central government is destroying and suffocating local authorities through ministerial directives, corruption, procurement, land barons, partisan staff recruitment and non-implementation of devolution as per the constitution. This we will change," said Chamisa via Twitter.
Local authorities have been in the eye of the storm for failing to deliver
basic services such as refuse collection and tapped water.
If wishes were kisses
And kisses were songs,
I'd sing for you melodies
Vibrant and long.
By Sylvia Leigh
Of course, this is all wishful daydreaming on the part of
Chamisa. For him to reverse any Zanu PF policies he and his CCC friends must
first wrestle political power from Mnangagwa and company. They (MDC) had the
golden opportunity to do this by implementing the democratic reforms during the
2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one token reform and the chance
was wasted.
Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and the
rest is history.
Chamisa and company claim they will “win big” in 2023. It is
all wishful thinking, of course. How can they win the elections so flawed there
is no verified voters’ roll, rural voters are frog marched to vote for Zanu PF,
etc., etc.
“Zviroto zviroto, siyai zviroto mumba!” (Daydreaming is
daydreaming, one must not allow themselves to be carried away with their
daydreaming!) said the late Zanu PF dictator Robert Mugabe dismissively of also
late Morgan Tsvangirai’s claims of electoral victory.
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is there are many Zimbabweans out
there who continue to believe MDC/CCC’s nonsensical daydreaming of ending the
Zanu PF dictatorship without implemented the democratic reforms. Even if the
those involved in the vote rigging; the Army, ZEC, Police, etc.; were to switch
their loyalty from Zanu PF to CCC – which is what Chamisa and Morgan Tsvangirai
before have been actively promoting by promising they will all keep their
privileges and loot – this will not guarantee good governance.
The root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and bad
governance are the mismanagement, the rampant corruption and failure to hold
those in power to democratic account; which are, in turn, the by-product of the
political patronage system. Trading in one patron, Mnangagwa, for a new one,
Chamisa, will not end the criminal waste of human and material resources nor
promote debate, democratic competition and free elections – the prerequisites
for good governance.
11 comments:
Jacinda Ardern to quit: ‘I no longer have enough in the tank’
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has announced she plans to stand down next month after six years in the job.
She gave an emotional speech at the New Zealand Labour Party retreat saying, “I am human. And for me, it's time”.
New Zealanders have had mixed reactions to the resignation.
PM Jacinda Arden made the announcement yesterday and the laughing from Africa has not stopped. “What? She is not even 45 years old and has been in power for not even 6 years!
After 3 years in power it was already clear Robert Mugabe had run out of ideas and yet he had to be forced out kicking and scream after 37 years in power even at a ripe old age of 93 years. Mugabe died two years after the coup, it is said of heart break at being forced out of power!
Mnangagwa, who took over from Mugabe and had been the dictator’s henchman for 37 years, came into office with an empty and has been in power 6 years and is rigging 2023 elections to extend his stay in power.
Resign, that is the one word not in any African leader’s vocabulary. No wonder Zimbabweans and many in Africa are laughing their heads off! Resign after 6 years! Kikikikiikii! Resign at 45 years old! Kikikikikiiiiiii! “I no longer have enough in the tank!” Run on empty! Kikikikikikiiiii!
Nelson Chamisa keeps wittering about winning "big" the 2023 election and all the great things his CCC government will do. And yet he has done nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. He and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they wasted it because they are greedy and breathtakingly incompetent. And since the GNU debacle, they have all but given up on implementing reforms and have been trying "winning rigged elections"!
Chamisa and company are like the lazy farmer Unoka, in Chinua Achebe's epic Things Fall Apart, who blamed his ancestors for his poor harvest.
"‘Hold your peace!’ screamed the priestess, her voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void. ‘You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm," wrote Achebe.
"‘You Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe. When your neighbours go out with their axe to cut down virgin forests, you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labour to clear. They cross seven rivers to make their farms, you stay home and offer sacrifice to a reluctant soil.
‘Go home and work like a man!’”
Chamisa and company have been advised a thousand times, Zimbabwe will not end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance without first implementing the democratic reforms. They are too greedy and incompetent to get any reforms implemented and so continue to offer sacrifice to a reluctant soil, to win rigged elections.
“We have to be ready, prepared to win elections under the most adverse of conditions, to be able to overwhelm, overpower, overrun Zanu PF even without electoral reforms,” CCC Vice President Professor Welshman Ncube argued. He is conveniently forgetting the nation has risked life and limb these 23 years electing him and his colleagues to deliver democratic changes.
The truth is Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged elections and five more years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The country is in economic ruins, unemployment has soared to 90%, 50% of our people now live in abject poverty, basic services like education and health care have all but collapsed, etc. The present system has failed, it is socially, economically and politically unsustainable. We need to implement the reforms and end this tragic human suffering.
Chamisa and company will never implement the reforms; we need to find others who will. We really cannot afford to waste time and energy of “winning rigged elections”, zviroto!
@ Shumba
“It's now almost fifty years of bad governance , say very bad governance , yet we are not anywhere near a solution ,this year we are having election , allow me ,what we thing are elections and already there are arguments around what we might think are credible elections and yahhh the media is awash with the election thing ,allow me gentlepeople ( my invention) we are yet to work our way out of this debacle and as long as we remain armchair but very articulate people without going into the fray ,without us tackling our really problem ...esibayeni ready for slaughter....we will not solve this equation.”
I don't agree with you gentlemen, this is only a conundrum because we have failed to identify what needs to be done and then do it.
There are many out there who believed that participating in the flawed and illegal elections is the only solution even when it is clear that doing so will only give legitimacy to Zanu PF. This is just one example of doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. It is a waste of time trying to persuade these people to change their minds – there are some insane people out there and that is the reality.
In the present political situation, we cannot get any reforms implemented, it is too late. We cannot stop CCC and the rest in the opposition camp participating, they have their eyes fixed on the few gravy train seats on offer. What we can do is make sure everyone, even the village idiots out there, know that Zanu PF is rigging these elections and the opposition are participating out of greed.
By making it clear the election process is a farce, it is a farce, and no credible opposition would participate in the elections we would make it very difficult for SADC or anyone to endorse the elections and thus deny Zanu PF political legitimacy.
There are many golden opportunities to engage the public and make sure even the village idiots get the message. Except for one or two there has been a deafening silence from the rest. Like it or not silence in this case will be assumed to be consent, consented to participate in the flawed elections.
It is all very well to ask people to “go into the fray” and do what exactly? Join the 130 other political parties and fight over the few gravy train seats and give Zanu PF legitimacy?
Tsvangirai said he had been roped into the Zanu-PF five million votes agenda by "overzealous" supporters.
"It is not a secret that I have been very critical about Mwonzora for some time now. I also have been critical of the congress, well the supposed congress. I am not too bothered about it. I have had accusations of going to Zanu-PF. I am not bothered by it. Why would I go to Zanu-PF? What is there for me? " he said.
Well your father, Morgan Tsvangirai, forgot about implementing the democratic reforms during the GNU when he was offer the US$4 million Highlands mansion plus all the other trappings of high office. After the November 2017 military coup he endorse the coup and left his SA hospital bed in a huff when he was offered a new GNU – Zanu PF ditched him and the GNU when they got Mugabe to step down and the nation to accept the coup.
Given the opposition has lost political credibility for having failed to implement even one reform during the GNU, the future as a CCC politician is gloom and doom much worse in the Mwonzora led camp where the 2023 elections is certain to end many political careers. You would not be the first or last MDC/CCC leader to cut your losses and join Zanu PF – not that the future there will be rosy, it is dog-eat-dog there.
The Constitutional Court has refused to hear on an urgent basis an application challenging the flawed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission delimitation report.
The challenge was lodged by a Harare man Mr Tonderai Chidawu who approached the court to order the restart and to invalidate processes that took place in Parliament since the preliminary delimitation report was tabled on January 6 for lack of compliance with the Constitution.
Of course, we are being conned once again into believe Zanu PF is though and obsessed in doing everything by the book when the reality is the exact opposite! 43 years after independence Zimbabwe is yet to produce a verified voters’ roll! Why has ZEC never been held to account for failing to produce a verified voters’ roll all these years!
On May 10, 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. When he met his Cabinet on May 13 he told them that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” He repeated that phrase later in the day when he asked the House of Commons for a vote of confidence in his new all-party government.
Nelson Chamisa has spend all he has to offer “blood, toil, tears and sweat”, to quote Winston Churchill, on what he will do if he became president of Zimbabwe but has spend not a drop of blood, tear or sweat in implementing even one token reform to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. He thinks he can cherry pick, be president without doing any of the hard work of implementing the reforms and restoring the basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb at the hands of the Zanu PF regime by electing MDC/CCC and rejecting Zanu PF on the understanding the former will implement the democratic reforms necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, when they had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms, and they forgot about implementing the reforms. And ever since the failed GNU, Chamisa and company have participated in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few seats on the gravy train.
Chamisa and company are content with a share of the spoils of power and no wonder they are not expending anything to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections or ending the dictatorship. The challenge is on how long it is going to take for the people of Zimbabwe before they finally realise MDC/CCC have not only failed to implement even one token reform these last 23 years but have actually given up on reforms and free elections.
"Central government is destroying and suffocating local authorities through ministerial directives, corruption, procurement, land barons, partisan staff recruitment and non-implementation of devolution as per the constitution. This we will change," said Chamisa via Twitter.
With not even one reform implemented, Zanu PF will remain in power for many years and until then there will be no change. None!
@ Shumba
If political activism is participating in politics means leaving armchair and taking part in party politics then Zimbabwe takes the first prize given we had 130 political parties in the 2018 elections and had 23 presidential candidates.
The tragedy is all this activism has failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship particularly when the bottom line is by participating these people have given and are giving Zanu PF legitimacy. The antidote to this is clearly not having more of the same ill-advised, counter-productive and utterly meaningless political activism. What we need is well thought out activism.
We need to educate the ordinary Zimbabweans to understand that Zanu PF is rigging these elections and without reforms there will never be free and fair election. Educate them on how MDC/CCC sold out by failing to implement reforms and are selling out right now by participating in the flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for the sake of 30 pieces of silver. And what they, the people, must do to make sure Zanu PF does NOT get legitimacy at the end of the 2023 elections.
There are some people who are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections, I for one am not going to waste my time trying to convince then not to. Would I consider that a failure? Hell no! I know these Vis will be complaining Zanu PF “stole” the elections the morning after the vote but all too late to change the reality they gave Zanu PF legitimacy. I accept Zimbabwe has more than her fair share of VIs!
My number 1 task is to make sure no one, not even the VI, can ever say they did not know that Zanu PF is rigging the elections, CCC is selling out and that all participating are giving Zanu PF legitimacy.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's financially struggling administration has given senior Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) directors US$350 000 housing loans each in a desperate bid to appease critical players in the electoral matrix ahead of the crucial general elections later this year.
General elections in Zimbabwe are usually run by security agencies in violation of the constitution and the law to protect the incumbent and status quo.
For decades now, given the conflation between the ruling party and government, Zanu-PF has collapsed into state institutions and structures which continue to prop it up in elections, especially at the presidential election level.
Mnangagwa is selling the nation's jewels and destroying everying just for the sake of staying in power. And by participating in these flawed elections for the sake of a few gravy train seats CCC are helping Mnangagwa stay in power and destroy the country. This is the madness we are are facing and must stop!
Justice Priscilla Chigumba said the commission will deliberate on the recommendations.
‘‘We will gather as a commission to look at all recommendations and look at those that we can accede to and those we can’t accede to and we will compile our own report for His Excellency, the President and state our reasons for acceding to some recommendations and not acceding to others. We are going to take a look at all recommendations. In terms of timelines, the next election is likely to be between 26 July and 24 August, so that means we ought to be able to gazette the final delimitation report sometime end of January or Mid-February,” she said.
The important point here is that ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters’ roll and this has been on the national agenda all along. How many times have people asked ZEC to produce a verified voters’ roll. Zimbabwe has failed to a verified voters’ roll ever since the country’s independence in 1980.
So, Zimbabwe is going into yet another election with no verified voters’ roll. This madness must end!
We cannot stop the elections going ahead but what we can do is make sure Zanu PF does not get away with it. Zanu PF must not get legitimacy from a rigged election.
@ Mbofana
“However, Zimbabweans should be wary of repeating the mistake of 1980 - which, as a result of an obsession and blinkered goal of removing colonial rule, founded on racial segregation and subjugation - failed to meticulously study the man and party they elected into power.
Instead of carefully scrutinizing exactly what Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his ZANU (PF) party were truly all about - as opposed to what they portrayed themselves to be (that is, being branded as liberators, whose only desire was to see a free, equal and prosperous society) - the people of Zimbabwe settled on the simplistic goal of removing Ian Douglas Smith and his Rhodesia regime.
No one, or at least, very few, ever bothered to read through this façade of 'liberators' - because, they would have seen the brutal power-hungry corrupt group, which had callously and deviously hijacked the people's noble struggle for independence, for their own self-serving power ambitions.”
You have put your finger on our collective weakness, the obsessive focus on removing Zanu PF and failure to pay attention of who will replace the regime. The reason why we are still stuck with Zanu PF is because the MDC/CCC have been corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent and yet we continue to support the party regardless.
Indeed MDC/CCC have proven so utterly useless they have given up the fight to implement reforms and have settled down to participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a few gravy train seats. Like it or not MDC/CCC will never deliver any reforms and free elections.
FORMER Education minister, David Coltart has accused the ruling party, Zanu-PF, and its leadership of infiltrating the country’s private media to muzzle dissent.
Coltart is right but that is only half the story. Zanu PF has bought twin-cab trucks for all the country’s chiefs and motor cycles for the village heads plus the generous salary and allowances when many rural hospitals have no ambulances and the country has lost teachers and nurses in droves because of slave wages and poor working conditions. The chiefs and village heads are now de facto Zanu PF political commissars and gifts are down payments for helping the party win the 2023 elections.
The other day we learned the regime was paying US$350 000 cash and tax-free to CIO directors to match the same amount paid to deputy ministers. All the other securocrats, judges, civil servant will too receive similarly payments – down payments for helping Zanu PF rig the elections.
It is hypocrisy for Coltart to be complaining of private media selling out when that is what he and his MDC/CCC have done these last 23 years. MDC/CCC has failed to implement even one token reform in 23 years because they sold out. He and his colleagues are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections because they are after the US$40k for a house and US$60k for a car plus the generous salary and allowances MPs receive.
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