”After the SADC election observers virtually said the 23 August 2023 Zimbabwe elections are not representative of popular opinion and submitted their report. It was then for SADC to decide,” commented Former SA President Thabo Mbeki.
He then went on to explain that an identical scenario had indeed arisen when Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections had failed to produce a legitimate result because of the blatant cheating after the March vote and the wanton violence during the presidential runoff.
“Zimbabweans then came together and agreed on a Government of National Unity (GNU). It was a response to what had happened in the elections that had failed to produce a legitimate winner,” he explained.
“As a national leader, what must inspire you is to act in the best interest of the nation and not what is good for you as leader.
“Zimbabwe’s current leader must consider what is in the best interests of Zimbabwe is the situation of this kind?”
Very sound advice indeed!
There is no denying that the 23 August Zimbabwe elections were a sham. It is therefore treasonous arrogance that both Zanu PF and CCC have refused to accept this political reality by accepting the ZEC results, taking their respective oaths of office and taking their respective gravy train seats. This government is not legitimate because the elections process was so flawed and illegal it did not produce a legitimate result.
Pretending the election was free, fair and credible and thus dragging the nation deeper and deeper into this political crisis is certainly NOT in Zimbabwe’s best interest.
A new GNU is the way out just as it was the way out in 2008. With one qualification; whilst the 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to implement even one token democratic reform to stop the repeat of the 2008 blatant cheating and wanton violence, hence the reason why we had the shameful flaws and illegalities; no stone must be left unturned to ensure all the democratic reforms are implemented without failure!
Here is a piece of advice to former President Mbeki; please advise your blundering ANC colleagues to stop poking their big noses in Zimbabwe's business.
Last year the party made an ANC party congress resolution “not to allow regime change in Zimbabwe”! What the devil was this about? It is the people of Zimbabwe alone, in a free, fair and credible elections who decide who governs the country. What right does ANC have in interfering in Zimbabwe’s democratic process?
Worst of all, it is now clear that ANC is hell bent on interfering in Zimbabwe’s electoral process to fulfil its party resolution to stop regime change in Zimbabwe and keep Zanu PF in power regardless of the people of Zimbabwe’s democratic wish.
Whilst the SADC and AU election reports were clear and unambiguous in their condemnation of the 23 August elections as a sham that did not produce a legitimate winner. President Mbeki agrees on this point. It therefore beggars belief why SA present President, Cyril Ramaphose, and the full compliment of ANC government and party leaders attended Mnangagwa’s swearing in ceremony. He was one of only three Heads of State to grace this otherwise illegal process.
Worse still President Ramaphosa has dismissed the damn flaws and illegalities in the SADC election report as “challenges that have occurred anywhere including America”. This is a deliberate and calculated attempt to water down the report and grant this illegitimate Zimbabwe government legitimacy. ANC is doing this for one purpose and one purpose only, to stop regime change in Zimbabwe and fulfil its November 2022 party resolutions.
Zimbabwe is a failed state. 43 years stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime complete its the entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties have left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis. The only sure way out of this mess if for the country to implement the democratic reforms and cure ourselves of this curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
By rightly condemning the 23 August 2023 elections as a farce SADC and the AU were giving Zimbabwe another chance to have a new GNU and implement the democratic reforms. President Ramaphosa is sanitising the SADC report for the sake of imposing Zanu PF as the legitimate government and thus denying Zimbabwe the chance to implement the reforms.
ANC is hell bent to stop regime change in Zimbabwe purely for selfish purposes. The party is facing elections in SA next year, 2024, and is concerned that a regime change in Zimbabwe, especially if it was followed by some economic recover, would set a precedence South African voters may want to follow and thus end ANC’s rule after 30 years.
There is absolutely nothing for Zimbabwe to gain from the imposition of Zanu PF on the nation but every thing to lose by perpetuating the failed state and, worst of all, snatching away the chance to implement reforms.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ANC friend are imposing Zanu PF on the people of Zimbabwe for selfish political gain. The people of Zimbabwe are nothing more than pawns in ANC’s selfish political games. This SA government is sowing the seeds of enmity between our two nations. Stop it! For heaven sake, stop it!
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According to the SADC observer mission preliminary report, the Zimbabwean election which ushered President Emmerson Mnangagwa back into power and restored Zanu PF’s parliamentary majority, was fraught with irregularities and did not meet regional and international benchmarks governing the running of credible polls.
Ramaphosa, who has come under fire at home and abroad for both congratulating and attending Mnangagwa’s inauguration, said the SADC observer mission report merely pointed out challenges to be addressed as opposed to it declaring the Zimbabwean poll as unfree and unfair.
“If one looks at that report,” Ramaphosa said, “it actually says there were challenges; challenges with regards to a number of things that have got to do with the election.
“Many countries throughout the world have such challenges; the United States is prime example with regards to the last election.
“They (observers) have said in the report, as I read it, that certain things need to be improved.
“They have not declared the election as invalid, unfree and unfair; they have highlighted certain challenges.”
According to the SADC election observer mission report, Zimbabwean institutions key to the running of the controversial poll failed to conduct themselves in an independent and transparent manner.
Ramaphosa said, “what was said by representative of the observer mission still got to discussed in SADC because it’s not a final report.”
He added, “Those are challenges that need to be addressed.
“Well, there is lack of transparency, they (observers) need to come up with the details and I would say, yes, let the details be put forward so that we can deal with them.
“So, we are waiting to receive that report at SADC level so that we can deal with it because if anything, it was an interim report.
“So, once the report is put to the SADC body, we will then debate it and we will also hear representations from Zimbabwe as well as the SADC observer mission.”
Ramaphosa on Tuesday repeated his demands for the unconditional lifting of Western imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in his address to the UN General Assembly.
He said sanctions were also hurting his country which was forced to carry their burden of a calamitous Zimbabwean economy in one form or another.
The South African leader is viewed a disappointment by both his countrymen and Zimbabweans for failing to use his country’s influential status as a regional leader and a model democracy to deal with the root causes of the troubled neighbour’s endless crisis.
Ramaphosa is watering down the SADC and AU reports that condemned the 23 August 2023 election as a sham that could not produce a legitimate result. He is now misrepresenting the reports claiming they noted some challenges that must be address but did not discredit the results. He is doing all this for one purpose and one purpose only to stop regime change in Zimbabwe even at the cost of defying SADC’s own report and against the interests of Zimbabwe.
ANC vowed to not to allow regime change in Zimbabwe is November last year and that is exactly what the it is doing now. We, the people of Zimbabwe, must raise our voices and protest. If there was ever a time to be heard - this is it!
Thabo Mbeki acknowledge 23 August 2023 failed to produce a legitimate government and advised Mnangagwa to "act in best national interests as Mugabe did in 2008".
Mbeki must reprimand Ramaphosa for poking his big nose in Zimbabwe's internal affair by falsely claiming SADC report did not condemn 23 August 2023 election process for the sake of stopping regime change in Zimbabwe.
https://www.zimeye.net/2023/09/22/mbeki-advised-mnangagwa-to-put-best-national-interests-above-self-must-reprimand-ramaphosa-for-interfering/
South Africa is experiencing the negative consequences of the leadership failures within Zimbabwe's ruling party, Zanu-PF, which have resulted in migration chaos and an increased burden on the country's social services.
These sentiments were expressed by South Africa's opposition leader, Mmusi Maimane, who criticized President Cyril Ramaphosa's stance on Zimbabwe's sanctions at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Maimane accused Ramaphosa and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of siding with dictatorship and supporting oppressive leadership.
ANC has vowed to stop regime change in Zimbabwe just as Zanu PF has vowed to rig elections to stay in power and the two parties are using the sanctions as the excuse for their actions.
The people of Zimbabwe have the inalienable right to a meaningful say in the governance of their country. Who gave the ANC government in SA or Mnangagwa the right to deny Zimbabweans this right, sanctions or no sanctions?
Ramaphosa is watering down the SADC election report for the sake of stopping regime change in Zimbabwe. He has not succeeded yet and so the fight is not over. Ramaphosa is poking his proboscis is Zimbabwe's internal affairs. it will be punched raw. If he succeeds in imposing this illegitimate Zanu PF regime then ANC must know that the people of Zimbabwe will not forget this insult for generations!
The Greeks said there are three kinds of people; the idiots, tribe and the citizen.
Zimbabwe’s present political system has managed to produce idiots, lots and lots of idiots, whose political ethos is summed by Boxer, the horse in Animal Farm, "Napoleon is always right!" maxim.
It did not matter how foolish Mugabe, Mnangagwa, Tsvangirai or Chamisa have been, they have always had the wildebeest herd supporting and defending them no matter what! If one dared to hold any of these leaders to account, which is not just a right but a sacred duty of every citizen, they became public enemy number one. Holding all the leaders to account was the sure way to get fire from all sides, guaranteed!
The present political system is rotten to the core and both Zanu PF and CCC are a product of the system. They have thrived in it and nothing makes them more ill at ease than being asked to adopted democratic practices! It is naive to expect any one of these buffoons to implement the transformative reforms to turn this dysfunctional system into a healthy democratic system, to turn idiots into citizens who can think for themselves and are able to see the bigger picture and not the blinked tunnel vision of idiots.
Why would we need the same idiots who failed to implement even one token reform during the last GNU? If we are serious about implementing the transformative reforms designed to turn this dysfunctional autocracy into a healthy democracy then we must appoint a body to carry out this task without weighing it down with excess baggage of hang-on whose contribution will be to undermine reform at every turn!
Both Zanu PF and CCC leaders would like a seat of the gravy train. The new GNU must not be a gravy train. And these leaders must go and not be allowed to hold the nation to ransom.
@ Welly
“@Wilbert Mukori , I plead with you to please answer my question. Without Zanu and CCC, how do you propose that the necessary legal reforms be made? My layman's understanding is that Parliament is responsible for formulating laws in our country.”
Since the August 2023 elections were so flawed and illegal and thus failed to produce a legal result, Zimbabwe does not have a president, MPs, senators or local councillors. The GNU does not have elected office bearers they are all appointed.
In the 2008 GNU it was agreed all those who had been declared the winners in the 2008 elections would all be appointed plus a few more others such as Tsvangirai and a number of MDC - Mutambara including Mutambara himself were appointed into the GNU.
It must be remembered the primary task of the last GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to ensure the cheating and wanton violence of 2008 would never be repeated ever again. The very fact that not even one token reform was implemented in the five years proves just how wilfully incompetent and useless those appointed into the GNU were.
The primary task this new GNU is once again to implement the democratic reforms. One would expect there will be due diligence to make sure those appointed will implement all the reforms without failure. And one obvious disqualification has to be all those who were in the last GNU and failed to get even one reform implemented.
All those who are expecting Zanu PF and CCC leaders to be in the new GNU are doing so because they fear the two parties would make Zimbabwe ungovernable if they are not included. It goes without saying that the country is in this mess because of the decades of misrule by these parties.
It is high time the nation stood up to these thugs and told them a simple home truth: NO ONE HAS THE DIVINE RIGHT TO GOVERN ZIMBABWE.
Indeed, if the reforms were fully and properly implemented this is the home truth the GNU must deliver and guarantee without failure. The GNU team must not be compromise in anyway.
Mnangagwa reiterated in his UN GA speech that Zimbabwe's 23 August 2023 elections were free, fair and credible. He clearly does not know what constitutes free, fair and credible elections, even now with the benefit of hindsight.
It was a big mistake to have appointed these Zanu PF and MDC/CCC leaders in the 2008 to 2013 GNU and entrusting them the all important task of implemented the democratic reforms to ensure the vote rigging and the wanton violence of 2008 would never be repeated. As we know not even one token reform was implemented.
The new GNU MUST implement all the democratic reforms without failure. It would be unforgivable to appoint any of the leaders who failed the nation last time into the new GNU. Criminal!
No one has the right to rule Zimbabwe much less to hold the nation to ransom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRwi8SHYwck
Of course, any one with a brain would be frustrated with MDC/CCC's failure to implement even one reform in 23 years! But of course if you do not have a brain, you will not be frustrated. You know nothing and so a blissfully ignorant!
n a statement issued yesterday, CiZC highlighted that Zimbabwe's disputed elections have had negative consequences for the region. They held an online discussion titled "Zimbabwe's Post-Election Legitimacy and Way Forward" to address the issue.
The organization concluded that it was in SADC's best interest to take bold steps in finding a lasting solution to the Zimbabwean crisis, which continues to affect the region adversely. CiZC emphasized that SADC has a crucial role in holding the Zimbabwean government and its institutions accountable.
They stressed the importance of a SADC-facilitated dialogue process involving all stakeholders to address the issue of disputed elections in Zimbabwe. This process should not result in a political pact, and civil society and other stakeholders, including the church, should play critical roles.
SADC must not be bullied by SA’s ANC regime into watering down the SADC election report and grant Zanu PF political legitimacy. President Ramaphosa want Zanu PF to stay in power for selfish reasons.
The fight before is to ensure we have a new GNU and competent people are appointed to implement ALL the democratic reforms and not the dead wood of last GNU.
This is just nonsense. Is Zimbabwe a democratic country? The answer Mnangagwa would give is yes. Only yesterday the stood on exactly the same spot and proclaimed to the world that Zimbabwe had free, fair and credible elections. And yet even the SADC and AU, known for rubber stamping rigged elections, dismissed the elections as a farce.
Zimbabwe is a fail state, the text book case of a failed state. And so are we going to say democracy as a system of government has failed in Zimbabwe?
Mnangagwa would suggest a de jure one party dictatorship. What we have had all these years was a de facto one party dictatorship and, no doubt, he is sick and tired of having to rig elections.
Zimbabwe is a failed state because the nation has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical dictatorship that has rig election to stay in power.
The political system is so oppressive it has failed to produce quality leaders with the ruling party and the opposition. The opposition is so corrupt and incompetent it has failed to implement even one token democratic reform in 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU.
Of course, it is nonsensical to say democracy has not worked in Zimbabwe when we have failed to hold even one free, fair and credible elections in 43 years! It is equally true most African country are not a healthy and functioning democracy.
Indeed of the 54 African country one would be lucky to find more than a handful one can say are functioning democracies. And most if not all of that handful will be among the tiny few stable and prosperous African countries.
It has become fashionable for African leaders to use every opportunity to blame others for all Africa’s problems and who better to blame than the last colonial masters, more so because they are the ones insisting on democratic accountability, fixed terms, etc.
Meanwhile Africa has new colonial masters in the form of the Chinese and Russians and most of our problems today are emanating from the East and nor the West!
There is nothing wrong with democracy as a system of government or unAfrican. Indeed all African leaders want democracy whilst they are fighting for power and hate it only because they do not want to be held to account!There is nothing new or original in that, it is a universal human weakness and we in Africa must learn to accept the advantages of democracy far out weigh the disadvantages!
Ramaphosa complained that Europe did not ask HIM foe his view before they banned flights to and from SA to contain the spread of corona virus. He accused Europe of being paternalistic and disrespectful.
Fast forward to today! Ramaphosa is disregarding the SADC and AU reports condemning 23 August 2023 Zimbabwe elections as farce for the purpose of granting Zanu PF legitimacy and imposing the regime on the nation. ANC passed a party resolution last November "not to allow regime change in Zimbabwe!"
Ramaphosa is not being disrespectful here, this is state terrorism comparable to what Russia is doing in Ukraine. ANC hypocrisy and arrogance must be condemned in no uncertain term!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj64W3Cj5Mo
The ruling elite are send to SA, India, China, etc for health care at public's expense . Meanwhile even a big city like Mutare does not have equipped hospitals, no ambulances, etc. The nation cannot have regime change because Ramaphosa will not allow regime change in Zimbabwe even after SADC and AU had said Zanu PF rigged the elections. This is a nightmare.
@ Nigel
This is tedious. After all the media coverage of the SADC and AU reports condemning the 23 August elections as a face, you want to tell me you do not know what the report said! It is not me who is passing wrong information but those in denial the 2023 elections were rigged!
He complain that Europe did not ask for his views before they banned flight into their own countries not into SA. Yet he and his ANC colleagues made a party resolution "not to allow regime change in Zimbabwe" and are now imposing Zanu PF on the nation even after SADC and AU had said Zanu PF rigged the elections. So SA has the right to decide who rules Zimbabwe and not the people of Zimbabwe! The sheer arrogance and stupidity of it all beggars belief!
South Africa has many problems, but some are of our own doing and we walk in them with our eyes open.
But what is our president doing this week at the United Nations General Assembly?
President Cyril Ramaphosa uses this platform, which is given to all heads of state once a year, to ask for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe. He argues that this does not promote growth and development, but causes greater harm to Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe is a failed state because it is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical thugs. The people of Zimbabwe have failed to remove this Zanu PF regime from power these last 43 years because the party rigs elections. It is infuriating that President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ANC government have not only accepted the Zanu PF narrative that Zimbabwe is in economic ruins and political paralysis because of the sanctions imposed on the regime by the West. But worst of all ANC has taken it upon itself to impose Zanu PF on the people of Zimbabwe.
SADC and AU have condemned the 23 August 2023 Zimbabwe elections as a sham. President Ramaphosa has decided to over rule the two bodies and grant Zanu PF legitimacy regardless.
So is President Ramaphosa and ANC friends now saying until the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF by the West are lifted SA is going to impose its own unilateral sanctions on the ordinary Zimbabweans - their right to a meaningful vote will be suspended.
Who gave President Ramaphosa and ANC the right deny the people of Zimbabwe their right to a meaningful vote? Zimbabwe is a sovereign nation and not some province of SA! The issue of sanctions is totally irrelevant!
This is a more diplomatic way of saying Zimbabweans are a naive and gullible lot. People believed Chamisa's lies that CCC was winning big because he had plugging all vote rigging loop holes. It is insane to believe such lies especially after 43 years of Zanu PF mafiosi rigging elections!
The ancient Greeks said there three types of people, the idiots (who refuse to think and will make the same mistakes over and over again), the citizens (who are capable of rational thinking and will see the logic of rule of law and importance of treating others as one would want to be treated) and the tribe (who is halfway house between the two).
What the ancient Greeks should have said is that some nations are composed of idiots. It is now over 2 500 years since the ancient Greeks offered mankind democracy as a rational system of government and we, in Zimbabwe are still experimenting with Darwinian survival of the fittest, autocracy and anarchy!
I bet, 2 500 years from now Zimbabwe will still be grappling with the curse of rigged elections! Talk of unpleasant truths people don’t want to hear!
Ramaphosa: Remove sanctions on Zimbabwe. They're badly affecting its economy.
ED: Zimbabwe's economy is the fastest growing in SADC.
Actually it is easy to see why Zimbabwe’s economy may register very impressive growth rate! The Zimbabwe economy is in a real mess, in the period 2000 to 2008 alone the economy shrunk by a record 50% and unemployment soared to over 80%, for example. When you starting line is this low, a single project or a good harvest of a cash crop like tobacco can result in a double digit economic growth rate in Zimbabwe but only fraction of percentage growth in a comparable country whose economy is dooming.
In 2009 Zimbabwe registered 12% economic growth rate, for example, and yet the GNU government had not done anything spectacular other than scrap the valueless Z$ and end the price controls. A competent Zimbabwe government should achieve double digit growth rate in the first decade. So there is really nothing to write home about with Mnangagwa’s 3% given the sorry state of Zimbabwe’s economy!
People elected MDC/CCC to implement reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging elections. How many reforms have they implemented in 23 years, 5 of which in the GNU? Actually the problem is Zimbabweans who are so narrow minded they can only seen good or bad and therefore having decided that MDC/CCC are good they will not see the party's failures! Only an idiot would still defend MDC/CCC given the party's track record!
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