“Let me be clear: Zimbabwe's crisis will not be solved by another election. What we face is not merely a political problem but a comprehensive national emergency requiring a fundamental reset.
Through a series of SAPES Trust Policy Dialogues and consultations with diverse stakeholders, we have crystallised a proposal that has gained remarkable momentum across political and social divides: The convening of an All-Stakeholders Conference to seek a durable solution to Zimbabwe's decades old crisis.
Central to this proposal is the establishment of a National Transitional Authority (NTA) to prepare the ground for a durable peace and national prosperity.
This is not a coup by other means, nor is it an attempt to subvert democracy.
Rather, it is a recognition that democracy itself requires institutional foundations that have been systematically eroded in Zimbabwe.
We propose a time-limited intervention to rebuild these foundations before returning to electoral politics.
The NTA would replace both executive and legislature for three to five years with a singular mandate: undertaking the comprehensive reforms necessary to restore Zimbabwe to stability and set the stage for genuine democracy.
Its composition would be strictly non-partisan — respected Zimbabweans from home and abroad with demonstrated integrity and competence, who would be barred from seeking political office for five years following their service.
Critics will ask: Why not simply push for free and fair elections? The answer is painfully evident. Our electoral system has been so compromised that even technically "free" elections cannot yield legitimate outcomes.
The judiciary has been politicised, security services weaponized, media captured, and electoral bodies compromised.
Elections under these conditions merely recycle our problems rather than addressing them.
We propose that the NTA's mandate focus on four critical areas:
First, restoring constitutional governance and rebuilding respect for our constitution across all institutions.
Second, reforming key institutions - particularly the judiciary, security sector, and electoral commission - to guarantee their independence and professionalism.
Third, transforming our electoral framework to ensure future elections are not just free but legitimate and uncontested.
Finally, stabilising our economy through comprehensive reforms addressing debt, monetary policy, land rights, and productive capacity.
This is not a partisan agenda. It is an agenda that puts Zimbabwe first. The proposed reforms would benefit citizens across political divides by creating a functional state that delivers for all rather than enriching a few.
Some will question whether such a transition is possible without the consent of the current power-holders.
This is a legitimate concern, but not an insurmountable obstacle. International experience shows that when citizen pressure combines with regional and international support, even entrenched regimes can accede to transitional arrangements — particularly when their own long-term interests are better served by orderly transition than chaotic collapse.
Our proposal begins with a convening of an All-Stakeholders National Conference bringing together citizens committed to national renewal, followed by a structured national dialogue to define the transition framework, culminating in a political settlement that scaffolds the NTA.
The church and Zimbabwe's diaspora will play a crucial role. Our scattered children carry not just remittances but skills, connections, and perspectives vital to national regeneration.
The NTA would create channels for their meaningful participation in rebuilding the country many were forced to leave.
Let me address potential skeptics directly: Is this proposal idealistic? Perhaps. But "realistic" approaches have delivered us to our current catastrophe.
Is it ambitious? Certainly. But Zimbabwe's challenges demand nothing less than ambitious solutions.
The alternative to bold action is not stability but continued decline. Our economy cannot sustain further deterioration.
Our youth cannot endure more years of joblessness and hopelessness. Our institutions cannot withstand further erosion of legitimacy and capacity.
Zimbabwe's potential remains extraordinary — abundant resources, strategic location, and most importantly, talented and resilient people.
What we lack is not capacity but leadership, national vision and a governance framework that harnesses rather than squanders this potential.
The moment for half-measures has passed. Zimbabwe requires fundamental transformation.
The All-Stakeholders Conference we propose and the resultant National Transitional Authority offers a pathway — not to utopia, but to a functional state where citizens' basic needs are met, rights respected, and future secured.
The choice before us is stark: bold renewal or continued decline. For the sake of generations past who sacrificed for this nation, and generations yet unborn who deserve to inherit its promise, let us choose renewal.
Will this be easy? Of course, not because of entrenched interests in the ruling party, business and the opposition. If it was easy, it would have been done long ago.
*Ibbo Mandaza is the convenor of the National Steering Committee for a New Zimbabwe and director of the Southern African Political Economy Series Trust.”
I totally agree that Zimbabwe's crisis will not be solved by another “contested”election. The question that you must ask yourself is; Who are these people who have “contested” the elections time and time again?
Answer: MDC/CCC leaders and their brain dead followers! The former failed to implement even one token reform in 25 years including the 5 GNU years and have been participating in flawed elections out of greed. They have conned their followers top participate telling them they have devised strategies to win RIGGED elections. The brain dead mob have believed the idiotic lies even after 45 years of Zanu PF rigging elections?
Alas! Chamisa chete chete brigade are brain dead and they number in their millions.
Even if your proposed NTA was to implement all the democratic reforms. With an electorate with an overwhelming number of brain-dead voters; how long will that democratic system last before we revert back to the present failed totalitarian autocracy?
We need to educate the voters, an ignorant, naive and gullible electorate is a curse to democracy. We are not ready for a healthy and functioning democracy.
17 comments:
@ Lynnet
"ZANUPF hates criticism, opposition does too!
ZANUPF hates accountability, opposition does too!
ZANUPF Officials refuse to step down after they are found wanting, opposition does too!
ZANUPF steal stands in cities, Opposition does too!
ZANUPF calls everyone with different views Mutengesi , opposition does too!
ZANUPF leaders are rich while leading poor people, opposition does too!
The ONLY difference is that ZANUPF controls the state apparatus and they kill with impunity, if opposition get a chance will they not kill too?"
You are spot on. We have not done ourselves any great favours by failing to hold opposition leaders to account all these years and it is no surprise they too now believe they too are demigods who are not accountable to us, mere mortals!
Tangwena was one of the very few black nationalist leaders who had some working grey stuff between his ears! He refused to be bribes, a common trap many others have failed to avoid!
USD 950k bridge, varume ibayiwo muchitinyara mava kuti jairira manje.
The looters have become rich and powerful they can bribe all the voters and officials alike to guarantee their electoral victory and even the opposition to participate to guarantee their legitimacy!
@ Emmanuel Zeller Gumbo
“It is hypocritical to applaud @daddyhope when he exposes corruption and demands accountability from ZANU-PF, yet attack him when he holds the opposition to the same standard. Accountability is not selective, it applies to all leaders, regardless of political alignment.
The decision to block Chin’ono on X for demanding accountability reflects a worrying intolerance to criticism. This is especially troubling from someone who claims to be an alternative government in waiting. If such behavior is displayed without state power, what happens if it’s gained?”
Hear, hear!
The single most important duty of every citizen to society is to hold the leaders to account. It is a great pity that in Zimbabwe most of our have the tribesman mentality and thus believe they own the leaders blind loyalty. Leaders like Chamisa have exploited this weakness to no end and hence the reason why he has conned the people to participate in flawed elections time and again on the basis of idiotic lies such as the claim he plugged vote rigging loop holes. Millions of his followers believed these lies out of blind loyalty!
@ Traore
You forgot to mention that VP Chiwenga goes to China for his medical needs. Why? Is he untouchable? You speak well against corruption and yet blindly support one of the country’s corrupt leaders.
All leaders must be accountable to the people and there must be no “untouchables. Gudo Guru is a corrupt and murderous thug just like Mnangagwa and Mugabe. Get that into your thick head!
A serious road accident involving 16 journalists and support staff from The Masvingo Mirror has left several injured, including three senior bureau chiefs, following a devastating crash near Mutimurefu Prison along the Masvingo-Mutare Road on Sunday.
The group was returning from a strategic planning workshop held at Nyuni Lodge when the commuter bus they were travelling in overturned three times at the 25-kilometre peg, carrying with it a one-month-old infant. The accident resulted in multiple injuries, with victims now receiving treatment at two hospitals in Masvingo.”
Quick recovery to all the injured.
The problem of road accidents is one of the many problems in Zimbabwe in need of urgent redress! Alas! the problem will remain as long as we have done nothing to address the underlying political problem of bad governance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSAa8jWZbz4
Now that the Geza revolution is all but died, we must get back to the thorny issue of how are we going to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and replace it with a healthy and functioning democracy and good governance.
Dr Ibbo Mandaza has put back on the table the National Transition Authority of technocrats. I do not see that happening before the 2028 elections because none of the individuals in power today will ever agree to giving up power. This is nothing short of the belling the cat!
However if the 2028 elections were judged to be flawed and illegal and, the critical aspect that has been noticeably lacking in the past, Zimbabweans finally refuse to participate in the flawed elections in numbers; SADC and AU will deny Zanu PF legitimacy and force the formation of the GNU/NTA. The biggest challenge is getting the brain dead electorate to finally open their eyes and their minds to the sheer folly of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy, give a few gravy train seats to opposition leaders and to perpetuate their own suffering.
@ Kriados
“He who started this knows how to run it.” Who are you talking about and what did he start? Some people love hiding their ignorance in mystery and/or Biblical verse!
@ Garry Masamba
“While there is nothing from the Geza revolution 2028 is coming when we don’t have opposition. If the situation remains like this Chamisa will do a one man band and elections will be rigged and we will on the same position like all the other years. Guys let’s discuss an alternative.”
We do have a solution to our political problem: stop participating in flawed and illegal elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy, give a few gravy train seats to the opposition and for the ordinary people perpetuate their suffering.
Both Zanu PF and the opposition will be participating in the flawed 2028 elections because each has something to gain from participating. The only people who should NOT participate are the ordinary Zimbabweans because they have absolutely NOTHING to get from doing so other than perpetuating their own suffering.
Ordinary Zimbabweans have been participating in these flawed elections since the 2013 elections out of ignorance - they are so ignorant and gullible they have been conned to participate on the basis of idiotic lies of the opposition winning rigged elections. After 45 years of Zanu PF rigging elections one would think the penny should have dropped, they are being conned, by now. It has not dropped and in many cases it will never ever drop!
The challenge is stopping the brain dead participating in the flawed elections to perpetuate their own suffering. And that is easier said than done! You cannot reason with the brain-dead!
@ DR Mpofu
"Do you remember the 1996 Presidential election? Who were the contestants? Was it Dumbutshena or Abel Mozorewa contesting Robert Mugabe. They withdrew but Mugabe continued with the election. I don't think a boycott will work."
Zimbabwe has participated in more rigged elections and accomplished nothing than the boycotted elections and yet you are quick to say "boycott will not work"!
The opposition have participated in flawed elections even election observers have condemned the process as flawed and illegal. In 2023 even SADC and AU condemned the elections and still CCC leaders took up the gravy train seats, insisting they had funded the election campaign.
As much as SADC and AU condemned the process they could not deny Zanu PF legitimacy. What did you want SADC and AU to do?
Zimbabweans knew by participating in their millions and opposition leaders taking up their seat, they would give Zanu PF legitimacy. It seem some people are dumb enough to think they can have the cake and eat it too; they can participate and never have to accept the consequences of their folly.
To be blant, most Zimbabweans have no clue of the sheer folly of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy - they will do whatever Chamisa tell them. They are no more than a blindman being led into the ditch time and time again. Except they are not blind but have elected to close their eyes and minds. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know Chamisa lied about plugging vote rigging loop holes and that they were foolish to believe him. And yet they believed him and it was not the first nor last time either!
Chamisa will con millions of Zimbabweans to participate in flawed 2028 to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate their own suffering! Of course, we are not ready to end the Zanu PF dictatorship nor our own suffering, we have not suffered enough' even after 45 years of rigged elections and bad governance.
Sadly many Zimbabweans are so myopic they will never admit opposition leaders are in Zanu PF’s deep pockets. Such blind loyalty to leaders makes a complete mockery of the concept that citizens must be diligent in their duty of holding leaders to account!
@ Chin’ono
If Zimbabweans were clever they would indeed know by now that the “best thing that has ever happened to Zanu PF” is to have opposition leaders the likes of Chamisa, you said. You are right. MDC/CCC leaders are Zanu PF team B in all but name, playing to make sure team A wins and has legitimacy.
As we can see, Zimbabweans are NOT clever. They have no clue Chamisa and company have sold out; even after 25 years with not even one token democratic reform implemented the people still continue to trust MDC/CCC leaders to deliver the democratic changes the nation has been dying for ever since our independence in 1980.
Zimbabweans trust and follow leaders like Chamisa blindly just as Boxer, the horse in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, trusted and followed Napoleon, the pig, blindly.
Boxer was stupid. He took as long to learn the first five letters of the alphabet as others took to learn the whole alphabet. It took him just as long again to learn the next five letters and by then he had forgotten the first five. He struggled to formulate even one coherent idea even on the easiest of subjects.
Boxer took to accepting whatever Napoleon said without question. On one occasion he did question and all doubts he had evaporated when he heard the instructions were from Napoleon. “Napoleon is always right!” was his person motto!
“Napoleon is always right!” resonates with Chamisa chete chete because Boxer and the Chamisa chete chete brigade have one big thing in common - they are brain dead.
The ancient Greeks, the fathers of democracy; were right to say democracy, government of the people, for the people and by the people; will only work if the said people are educated, knowledgeable, objective and can think for themselves. The single most important duty of the people in a democracy is to hold those in power to account and people who cannot think for themselves will never perform that sacred duty. Never!
Chamisa conned the brain dead Chamisa chete chete brigade to participate in the 2023 elections because he told the mob he had plugged all the vote rigging loop holes. Of course, it was an idiotic lie; what matters is the mob believed him, no questions asked.
Chamisa himself admitted that Zanu PF was rigging the elections before the voting stopped and has been complaining about it. Still many of his blind followers we not admit he had lied about plugging all the vote rigging loop holes.
Indeed nothing vexes the Chamisa chete chete brigade member more than to hear any one calling Chamisa a liar! The tribesman mentality is so strong many consider Chamisa a demigod!
@ General
MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform during the GNU because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office. No guns were used! Do not try to ignore historic facts just to suit your tunnel vision mentality!
@ Mujuru
So if Chin’ono said the sky is blue, some thing we both knew to be factual, you will stop believing the sky is blue because “a card fraudster” said it?
@ Shelton
Zimbabwe is drowning because of the sheer stupidity of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy because millions believed Chamisa’s idiotic lies. If educating the people does not matter, then tell me what matters?
@ The Clan
Chamisa did not participate in the Glen View by-elections so do not read too much into what happened!
@ Nohoreka
"(1) He would not boycott the flawed election because he was pocketing money from candidates. (2) He would not fight to dismiss the rigged elections because he had pocketed money already. (3) He could not stop his MPs from a shameful inauguration because they bought those positions. Now we know, right from the CCC MPs."
Alas! The nearly 2 million who were conned to participate in the 2023 elections and voted for Chamisa & Co. do not know any of these things! Worst of all, it will be a day’s work to con them to participate in flawed 2028 elections!
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