On Sunday Zimbabwe will observe its 30 year of independence.
When Zimbabwe’s history is written; in the fullness on time, when the truth the whole and nothing but the truth of Mugabe’s years is an open book for all to see, Mugabe will not be considered the father of the nation but the man who crashed the nation’s dreams and hopes.
How did he manage to hang on to power for all these years? The answer would be simple enough; he was a canning political operator, yes; but, more significantly, he was a heartless brute who destroyed the nation’s economy, sending inflation into the Guinness Record Book, sending unemployment soaring to 95%, public services like health and education completely collapsed, etc. He had no qualms about shedding thousands of innocent blood of his fellow black Zimbabweans all for one single purpose to retain political power.
The history would not be complete without mentioning that Mugabe was also very lucky in his evil drive to retain power in having man like Morgan Tsvangirai as his opponent. It was Tsvangirai’s shear incompetency that allowed him to retain his position as president, particularly after the sham 2008 presidential run-off.
The most acceptable end to Mugabe’s reign of terror is to make all the lies, deceit, corruption and murder exposed in his life time. Before he dies, he must face the music; that would be poetic justice!
Friday, 16 April 2010
Monday, 12 April 2010
STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN ITS GONE BE ROUGH, TOUGH AND SLOW BUT WE GONE MAKE IT. YES ZIMBABWE!
There are some songs that sums up a situation so beautifully that there is nothing else for one to add. The following Mel & Tim songs is one of those songs that says it all for Zimbabwe in this, the darkest hour in our history.
Mel & Tim Starting all over again
Starting all over again is going to be rough
For us, we're going to make it
Starting all over as friends is going be tough
On us, we gotta face it
We lost what we had
That would hurt us so bad
Set us back a thousand years
But we going to make it up
Though I know it's going to be tough
To erase the hurt and fears
Starting all over again is going to be hard
But I pray to the Lord to help us make it
Starting all over again is going to slow
But we both know, we gonna make it
We gotta take life as it comes
Never fuss about it, what's right or wrong
It's an uphill climb, to the finish line
We gonna try, we gonna try, just one more time
We gotta take life as it comes
Don't make any fuss about it, what's right or wrong
We gonna make it up, though I know it's gonna be rough
To erase the hurt and fears
Starting all over again is going to be rough
For us, we're going to make it
Starting all over as friends is going be tough
On us, we gotta face it.
Mel & Tim Starting all over again
Starting all over again is going to be rough
For us, we're going to make it
Starting all over as friends is going be tough
On us, we gotta face it
We lost what we had
That would hurt us so bad
Set us back a thousand years
But we going to make it up
Though I know it's going to be tough
To erase the hurt and fears
Starting all over again is going to be hard
But I pray to the Lord to help us make it
Starting all over again is going to slow
But we both know, we gonna make it
We gotta take life as it comes
Never fuss about it, what's right or wrong
It's an uphill climb, to the finish line
We gonna try, we gonna try, just one more time
We gotta take life as it comes
Don't make any fuss about it, what's right or wrong
We gonna make it up, though I know it's gonna be rough
To erase the hurt and fears
Starting all over again is going to be rough
For us, we're going to make it
Starting all over as friends is going be tough
On us, we gotta face it.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
MUGABE SPENTS US$10 MILLION REFURBISHING STADIUM WHILST SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS STILL REMAIN IN A DEPLORABLE STATE!
The Chinese handed over the refurbished national stadium at the cost of US$ 10 million. The stadium had fallen into a state of neglect for lack of maintenance; it had been closed to the public for the last three years. This is a fate that had befallen all Zimbabwe’s infrastructure from roads, schools, hospitals and not just the stadium.
How does one justify spending US$ 10 million on refurbishing the national stadium when Pararenyatwa and Harare Hospitals, for example, the country’s biggest referral hospitals are in such a deplorable state there are no proper facilities to take patients’ blood sample let alone x-rays? This is yet another example of tyrannical regimes, accountable to no one, getting its priority wrong. Mugabe and his equally repressive Chinese backers are quite happy to spend millions on a prestige project at the expense of the public good.
China's human rights record is one of the worst in the world, it is hardly surprising then that the Communist regime in China should support other repressive regimes. The biggest mistake was made in 1948 when an inherently repressive regime like the Chinese Communist Party was allowed a permanent seat in the US Security Council and a veto. We the poor in unstable countries prone to tyrannical governments, especially in Africa, have paid dearly for it.
How does one justify spending US$ 10 million on refurbishing the national stadium when Pararenyatwa and Harare Hospitals, for example, the country’s biggest referral hospitals are in such a deplorable state there are no proper facilities to take patients’ blood sample let alone x-rays? This is yet another example of tyrannical regimes, accountable to no one, getting its priority wrong. Mugabe and his equally repressive Chinese backers are quite happy to spend millions on a prestige project at the expense of the public good.
China's human rights record is one of the worst in the world, it is hardly surprising then that the Communist regime in China should support other repressive regimes. The biggest mistake was made in 1948 when an inherently repressive regime like the Chinese Communist Party was allowed a permanent seat in the US Security Council and a veto. We the poor in unstable countries prone to tyrannical governments, especially in Africa, have paid dearly for it.
Friday, 9 April 2010
TSVANGIRAI ASKING WEST TO LIFT SANCTION AGAINST MUGABE: HE IS BEYOND THE PALE!
“Kana wadya gudo chidya gono!” so goes the Shona saying. The literal translation is; if you have to eat a baboon then you will be advised to pick a fat and healthy one and not a puny and sick one. It seems Prime Minister Tsvangirai got the wrong end of the stick; this was never meant for doing something really stupid.
Ever since Mugabe starting holding back declaring the election results of the March 2008 elections, in the end it took five weeks to announce the results, everyone else except Tsvangirai smelt a rat. Mugabe went the full hog when he deployed his thugs, the Police and Army to terrorise and murder the electorate to force them to vote for him in the presidential run-off of 27 June 2008. Not even the normally see-nothing, hear-nothing and say-nothing African Union Election Observer would endorse the run-off as a free and fair election and therefore a true reflection of the electoral wish of the people of Zimbabwe. The international community refused to recognise Mugabe as the legal president of Zimbabwe leaving the dictator out in the cold. It was Tsvangirai who got Mugabe off the hook.
No one in their right mind who have even consider forming a power sharing government with Mugabe- not after the shameful and murderous way he had “won” the run-off. No one, that is, but Tsvangirai. And Tsvangirai being his usual stupid self did not only agree to a power sharing arrangement but agreed to one in which the dictator had all his dictatorial powers and Tsvangirai had nothing but some token power.
After a whole year of Mugabe kicking Tsvangirai in the teeth at every turn, one would think Tsvangirai had learnt his lesson and would want to end one-sided relationship. The idiot is off to Europe in the next few weeks as head of an MDC delegation to ask the European Union to lift the targeted sanctions imposed on the dictator and his inner circle.
The sanctions were imposed on Mugabe in 2002 after failing to hold another free and fair election. The June 2008 election violence was a lot worse than the 2002. Mugabe has foiled all attempts to have those responsible for the past political violence punished and he has not disbanded his party’s militia. There is already a significant increase in politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe. So why should the EU lift the sanctions; people ask?
Even some of PM Tsvangirai’s cheer leaders, Professor John Makumbe for example who have always put a positive spin in every Tsvangirai blunder in the past, are questioning what the ordinary people would be gain from having the sanctions lifted. Mugabe and his cronies would be free to travel and access all the wealth they ferreted away. The need for fresh elections is self evident and with the sanctions lifted the EU would have no stick with which to gorge Mugabe to hold free and fair elections.
Tsvangirai is banking on the hope that his policy of appeasement will some day work and turn the dictator into a democrat! It is the people of Zimbabwe who have paid dearly for Mugabe’s years of corrupt and repressive rule. They are at the cutting edge. Tsvangirai has never stopped to think of them.
Tsvangirai was promised the post of Prime Minister and he was willing to do anything including betraying the very principles he said he stood for and the people who risked their lives to elect him. He was desperate, desperate to have a taste of political power. He is no different from the multitude of all the other Zimbabwean politicians before him and in power today.
Mugabe must be chaffed to bits to see Tsvangirai argue his case before the West. Mugabe has always accused Tsvangirai of being “the West’s puppet” and treated him with utter contempt. But sending the puppet back to his masters with Mugabe pulling the strings would tickle the dictator no end!
“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict,” President Barak Obama in his inaugural address, “or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
Mugabe has not only his fist tightly clenched but has again shown he will not hesitate to use it to hammer those who dare criticise his oppressive and ruinous reign of terror. And people like Tsvangirai want the whole world to sweep aside all the misery and suffering he has inflicted in the past and continue to inflict on the ordinary Zimbabweans does not matter. If the cold blooded murder of the innocent by the very people entrusted to protect them does not matter; what does?!
It is bad enough that one should ever have do something completely stupid. Still, one should come back to one’s senses sooner or later. “Penga udzoke!” as the Shona would say. Sadly Tsvangirai is beyond the pale, he is devoid of any common sense.
Ever since Mugabe starting holding back declaring the election results of the March 2008 elections, in the end it took five weeks to announce the results, everyone else except Tsvangirai smelt a rat. Mugabe went the full hog when he deployed his thugs, the Police and Army to terrorise and murder the electorate to force them to vote for him in the presidential run-off of 27 June 2008. Not even the normally see-nothing, hear-nothing and say-nothing African Union Election Observer would endorse the run-off as a free and fair election and therefore a true reflection of the electoral wish of the people of Zimbabwe. The international community refused to recognise Mugabe as the legal president of Zimbabwe leaving the dictator out in the cold. It was Tsvangirai who got Mugabe off the hook.
No one in their right mind who have even consider forming a power sharing government with Mugabe- not after the shameful and murderous way he had “won” the run-off. No one, that is, but Tsvangirai. And Tsvangirai being his usual stupid self did not only agree to a power sharing arrangement but agreed to one in which the dictator had all his dictatorial powers and Tsvangirai had nothing but some token power.
After a whole year of Mugabe kicking Tsvangirai in the teeth at every turn, one would think Tsvangirai had learnt his lesson and would want to end one-sided relationship. The idiot is off to Europe in the next few weeks as head of an MDC delegation to ask the European Union to lift the targeted sanctions imposed on the dictator and his inner circle.
The sanctions were imposed on Mugabe in 2002 after failing to hold another free and fair election. The June 2008 election violence was a lot worse than the 2002. Mugabe has foiled all attempts to have those responsible for the past political violence punished and he has not disbanded his party’s militia. There is already a significant increase in politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe. So why should the EU lift the sanctions; people ask?
Even some of PM Tsvangirai’s cheer leaders, Professor John Makumbe for example who have always put a positive spin in every Tsvangirai blunder in the past, are questioning what the ordinary people would be gain from having the sanctions lifted. Mugabe and his cronies would be free to travel and access all the wealth they ferreted away. The need for fresh elections is self evident and with the sanctions lifted the EU would have no stick with which to gorge Mugabe to hold free and fair elections.
Tsvangirai is banking on the hope that his policy of appeasement will some day work and turn the dictator into a democrat! It is the people of Zimbabwe who have paid dearly for Mugabe’s years of corrupt and repressive rule. They are at the cutting edge. Tsvangirai has never stopped to think of them.
Tsvangirai was promised the post of Prime Minister and he was willing to do anything including betraying the very principles he said he stood for and the people who risked their lives to elect him. He was desperate, desperate to have a taste of political power. He is no different from the multitude of all the other Zimbabwean politicians before him and in power today.
Mugabe must be chaffed to bits to see Tsvangirai argue his case before the West. Mugabe has always accused Tsvangirai of being “the West’s puppet” and treated him with utter contempt. But sending the puppet back to his masters with Mugabe pulling the strings would tickle the dictator no end!
“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict,” President Barak Obama in his inaugural address, “or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
Mugabe has not only his fist tightly clenched but has again shown he will not hesitate to use it to hammer those who dare criticise his oppressive and ruinous reign of terror. And people like Tsvangirai want the whole world to sweep aside all the misery and suffering he has inflicted in the past and continue to inflict on the ordinary Zimbabweans does not matter. If the cold blooded murder of the innocent by the very people entrusted to protect them does not matter; what does?!
It is bad enough that one should ever have do something completely stupid. Still, one should come back to one’s senses sooner or later. “Penga udzoke!” as the Shona would say. Sadly Tsvangirai is beyond the pale, he is devoid of any common sense.
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
THE TRUTH ABOUT MUGABE LOYALISTS' CORRUPT PAST IS STARTING TO COME OUT!
A Daily Times reported that a Harare Councillor who implicated Zimbabwe business tycoon, Philip Chiyangwa and Zanu PF Minister, Ignatius Chombo in a land scam was now living in fear. Mugabe loyalists are not only corrupt, when it comes to silencing those who might spill the beans on them, they are ruthless.
In a country where most people found it next to impossible to do business people like Philip Chiyangwa, Gideon Gono and a few Mugabe loyalists not only survived but actually thrived and boomed. Either they are exceptionally bright and shrewd business men or women or else they are as corrupt as can be. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence t suggest that they are the latter.
People like Chiyangwa and Gono thrived most as Zimbabwe’s corruption and lawlessness soared into the stratosphere. These individuals, the nation will some day find out, that they paid very little corporate tax if anything at all and instead benefited greatly from countless scams. Gideon Gono, for example, was the paymaster of the various dubious schemes supposedly to encourage Zimbabwe’s new farmers, who are mainly Zanu PF loyalists, to make productive use of the farms they seized from the commercial white farmers. The recipients pocketed the generous subsidies and the farms still remained fallow. Gono, himself the owner of “Africa’s best Chicken Farm” – his own words, would have benefited from these schemes too.
It is ease to see why someone like Philip Chiyangwa could end up owning a fifth of Harare if he can buy land for a song and resell it for a fortune as this story suggests.
The truth about Zimbabwe’s new rich was bound to come out. For years their greed has known no limits. They amassed wealth on the back of the suffering and misery of millions honest Zimbabweans; such ill got fortunes are like house of cards, it will collapse under the lightest breeze of business scrutiny
As we say in Shona “Rinemanyanga hariputirwi!” – No matter how hard some people may try to hid the truth, it will always come out!
In a country where most people found it next to impossible to do business people like Philip Chiyangwa, Gideon Gono and a few Mugabe loyalists not only survived but actually thrived and boomed. Either they are exceptionally bright and shrewd business men or women or else they are as corrupt as can be. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence t suggest that they are the latter.
People like Chiyangwa and Gono thrived most as Zimbabwe’s corruption and lawlessness soared into the stratosphere. These individuals, the nation will some day find out, that they paid very little corporate tax if anything at all and instead benefited greatly from countless scams. Gideon Gono, for example, was the paymaster of the various dubious schemes supposedly to encourage Zimbabwe’s new farmers, who are mainly Zanu PF loyalists, to make productive use of the farms they seized from the commercial white farmers. The recipients pocketed the generous subsidies and the farms still remained fallow. Gono, himself the owner of “Africa’s best Chicken Farm” – his own words, would have benefited from these schemes too.
It is ease to see why someone like Philip Chiyangwa could end up owning a fifth of Harare if he can buy land for a song and resell it for a fortune as this story suggests.
The truth about Zimbabwe’s new rich was bound to come out. For years their greed has known no limits. They amassed wealth on the back of the suffering and misery of millions honest Zimbabweans; such ill got fortunes are like house of cards, it will collapse under the lightest breeze of business scrutiny
As we say in Shona “Rinemanyanga hariputirwi!” – No matter how hard some people may try to hid the truth, it will always come out!
Monday, 15 March 2010
HOW TO CONFRONT A DICTATOR: KNOCK HIM DOWN, DISARM AND PITY HIM AFTERWARDS!
“How do you confront a dictator using democratic means?” Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai asked. He was speaking at the launch of “Cries from Goromonzi – Inside Zimbabwe’s torture chambers.”
This should have been a rhetorical question for the PM, after all he has spear-headed the nation’s confrontation with Mugabe for the last twelve years. Sadly this was a genuine question from a man who clearly has the foggiest idea as to what the answer is. As the report clearly shows, ten years of Tsvangirai’s type “confrontation” has very little. Mugabe’s hold on power and his dictatorship is stronger than ever!
What people should be asking Tsvangirai today is; did he ever ask himself how he was going to confront Mugabe when he first assume the mantle of leader of MDC, Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and therefore main challenger to Robert Mugabe’s continued rule twelve years ago? By then, Mugabe’s reputation as a ruthless dictator was well established and beyond doubt. Tsvangirai should have had a clear strategy on how to deal with the dictator from the word go; after all he was not the first person to face a dictator.
“How do you confront a mad man, wielding a stick?” That is a challenge that Caveman has faced since the dawn of time.
“Knock him down, disarm him and pity him afterwards!” is the answer.
With time the stick has become a spear, a Samurai sword, an AK rifle or, God forbid, a nuclear weapon. And instead of just one madman the number has grown from a handful of gangsters to dictator with an army a million strong. The answer, however, has remained remarkably the same; knock him down, disarm and pity him afterwards. There is nothing in Tsvangirai’s political career to show he had mastered any of these basic rules.
If the mad man is threatening the peace and/or human life; then “knocking” him down in some cases will have to mean killing him. Violence begets more violence and therefore the use of force must be considered only when all democratic and peaceful means have been exhausted and failed. It is the nature of ruthless dictators to refuse to see reason and thus seem to continue in their destructive and selfish ways; they will become even more arrogant if they are certain no force will ever be used against them. Therefore, the use of force must never be ruled out in the confrontation with a ruthless dictator.
Tsvangirai had no army and it was not a viable proposition for him to start some insurrection. His biggest stick with which to hit Mugabe and his cronies was to remind them that they will be called to account for all their past human rights violation no matter how long it took to end their reign of terror. Instead of being firm and uncompromising on this, Tsvangirai has been weak and feeble; keener to appease Mugabe than to end the latter’s dictatorial rule.
Tsvangirai has used “none violent” confrontation as any excuse for doing nothing. Mugabe has moved from having the Police turning a blind eye to the lawlessness of Zanu PF thugs to the Police, Army and other State Security organs playing an active roll in the political violence and murder of Mugabe’s critics and opponents. Whereas the real champions of none violence Mahatma Ghandi and Dr Martin Luther King Jr, for example, would have organised peaceful demonstrations to expose this serious breach of the Police duties and responsibilities to the public. Tsvangirai has done nothing.
Tsvangirai’s greatest chance to “disarm” Mugabe was in June 2008 after the sham presidential runoff. Mugabe declared himself the winner but the international community refused to acknowledge him as the “dually elected” president of Zimbabwe. Mugabe was on the hook and here was a really chance to force him out of office and end the nightmare of his rule. It was Tsvangirai who left him off the hook!
The legitimacy of the Zimbabwe government was to be based on September 2008 GPA, a power sharing agreement, between Tsvangirai and Mugabe. In the GPA, Mugabe got all his dictatorial powers back and, to add salt to injury, Tsvangirai has been trying to sell the white-washed dictatorship as embodiment of democratic change the nation has been seeking all along!
The past ten years of Tsvangirai leadership has been a repeated lesson on what one should never do when confronting a dictator – appease him! The desperate political situation in Zimbabwe has played a part in pushing the people into accepting Tsvangirai as their champion to confront the dictator Mugabe. But Tsvangirai’s pathetic political performance in the last ten years shows he has neither the strategic plans nor the common sense to confront a canning fox like Mugabe.
Zimbabweans must now look for some one to get the nation out of this mess; Tsvangirai’s blundering has only help give Mugabe the time and space to regroup when the dictator look weak and vulnerable.
This should have been a rhetorical question for the PM, after all he has spear-headed the nation’s confrontation with Mugabe for the last twelve years. Sadly this was a genuine question from a man who clearly has the foggiest idea as to what the answer is. As the report clearly shows, ten years of Tsvangirai’s type “confrontation” has very little. Mugabe’s hold on power and his dictatorship is stronger than ever!
What people should be asking Tsvangirai today is; did he ever ask himself how he was going to confront Mugabe when he first assume the mantle of leader of MDC, Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and therefore main challenger to Robert Mugabe’s continued rule twelve years ago? By then, Mugabe’s reputation as a ruthless dictator was well established and beyond doubt. Tsvangirai should have had a clear strategy on how to deal with the dictator from the word go; after all he was not the first person to face a dictator.
“How do you confront a mad man, wielding a stick?” That is a challenge that Caveman has faced since the dawn of time.
“Knock him down, disarm him and pity him afterwards!” is the answer.
With time the stick has become a spear, a Samurai sword, an AK rifle or, God forbid, a nuclear weapon. And instead of just one madman the number has grown from a handful of gangsters to dictator with an army a million strong. The answer, however, has remained remarkably the same; knock him down, disarm and pity him afterwards. There is nothing in Tsvangirai’s political career to show he had mastered any of these basic rules.
If the mad man is threatening the peace and/or human life; then “knocking” him down in some cases will have to mean killing him. Violence begets more violence and therefore the use of force must be considered only when all democratic and peaceful means have been exhausted and failed. It is the nature of ruthless dictators to refuse to see reason and thus seem to continue in their destructive and selfish ways; they will become even more arrogant if they are certain no force will ever be used against them. Therefore, the use of force must never be ruled out in the confrontation with a ruthless dictator.
Tsvangirai had no army and it was not a viable proposition for him to start some insurrection. His biggest stick with which to hit Mugabe and his cronies was to remind them that they will be called to account for all their past human rights violation no matter how long it took to end their reign of terror. Instead of being firm and uncompromising on this, Tsvangirai has been weak and feeble; keener to appease Mugabe than to end the latter’s dictatorial rule.
Tsvangirai has used “none violent” confrontation as any excuse for doing nothing. Mugabe has moved from having the Police turning a blind eye to the lawlessness of Zanu PF thugs to the Police, Army and other State Security organs playing an active roll in the political violence and murder of Mugabe’s critics and opponents. Whereas the real champions of none violence Mahatma Ghandi and Dr Martin Luther King Jr, for example, would have organised peaceful demonstrations to expose this serious breach of the Police duties and responsibilities to the public. Tsvangirai has done nothing.
Tsvangirai’s greatest chance to “disarm” Mugabe was in June 2008 after the sham presidential runoff. Mugabe declared himself the winner but the international community refused to acknowledge him as the “dually elected” president of Zimbabwe. Mugabe was on the hook and here was a really chance to force him out of office and end the nightmare of his rule. It was Tsvangirai who left him off the hook!
The legitimacy of the Zimbabwe government was to be based on September 2008 GPA, a power sharing agreement, between Tsvangirai and Mugabe. In the GPA, Mugabe got all his dictatorial powers back and, to add salt to injury, Tsvangirai has been trying to sell the white-washed dictatorship as embodiment of democratic change the nation has been seeking all along!
The past ten years of Tsvangirai leadership has been a repeated lesson on what one should never do when confronting a dictator – appease him! The desperate political situation in Zimbabwe has played a part in pushing the people into accepting Tsvangirai as their champion to confront the dictator Mugabe. But Tsvangirai’s pathetic political performance in the last ten years shows he has neither the strategic plans nor the common sense to confront a canning fox like Mugabe.
Zimbabweans must now look for some one to get the nation out of this mess; Tsvangirai’s blundering has only help give Mugabe the time and space to regroup when the dictator look weak and vulnerable.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
TSVANGIRAI ADAMANT NEW CONSTITUTION NECESSARY FOR FREE ELECTIONS - NONSENSE!
Does Tsvangirai ever stop to think before he makes all these outrageous public statements! So Tsvangirai is “adamant” free and fair elections are only possible after we have produced a new constitution. What nonsense!
1) The GPA gave the GNU 18 months to produce a new constitution. The GNU is now 12 months old and nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done. And it is not the people but the politicians who are holding back the whole process. At this rate we could wait for another four years and still have nothing to show for it. This GNU was imposed by politicians like Tsvangirai on the people it is ridiculous to hold the nation hostage to a process that was imposed on them.
2) Even if the people were to accept for this torturous constitution writing process to run its course; what guarantees do we have that it will be any better than the one we have now? None. Mugabe wants – and there is a man in this GNU who has always got what he wanted - the new constitution to be based on the Kariba draft, which is just a rehash of the present constitution.
3) Even if Mugabe was to be pressured – at present I can not see where that kind of pressure would come from, but let us just assume it was done – into accepting a people driven constitution. What is there to stop him using violence during the referendum to ensure the new constitution is rejected. According to Tsvangirai, there can not be free and fair elections without the new constitution. By extension, there will therefore be widespread violence during the referendum since the new constitution will not be active then!
4) Even if a new democratic constitution was passed after passing through all the hops and the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of lives; what is there to stop Mugabe disregarding the new constitution and once again use violence to achieve his political goals? We are in this pickle precisely because Mugabe is a law unto himself, he is not going to have a Saul-to-Damascus type transformation just because someone flashes in his face a new constitution.
The GNU was Tsvangirai’s idea and it has proved to be a total disaster. Instead of admitting that and move one; all Tsvangirai is seeking to do is extend the life of the GNU under the pretence that it must write a new constitution.
Zimbabweans must address the thorny problem of how to ensure national elections are free and fair now. Tsvangirai’s hare-brain schemes are designed to kick the problem into the tail grass on the vein hope that the problem will go away. Of course that will never happen, indeed time was made Mugabe even more arrogant and ruthless!
1) The GPA gave the GNU 18 months to produce a new constitution. The GNU is now 12 months old and nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done. And it is not the people but the politicians who are holding back the whole process. At this rate we could wait for another four years and still have nothing to show for it. This GNU was imposed by politicians like Tsvangirai on the people it is ridiculous to hold the nation hostage to a process that was imposed on them.
2) Even if the people were to accept for this torturous constitution writing process to run its course; what guarantees do we have that it will be any better than the one we have now? None. Mugabe wants – and there is a man in this GNU who has always got what he wanted - the new constitution to be based on the Kariba draft, which is just a rehash of the present constitution.
3) Even if Mugabe was to be pressured – at present I can not see where that kind of pressure would come from, but let us just assume it was done – into accepting a people driven constitution. What is there to stop him using violence during the referendum to ensure the new constitution is rejected. According to Tsvangirai, there can not be free and fair elections without the new constitution. By extension, there will therefore be widespread violence during the referendum since the new constitution will not be active then!
4) Even if a new democratic constitution was passed after passing through all the hops and the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of lives; what is there to stop Mugabe disregarding the new constitution and once again use violence to achieve his political goals? We are in this pickle precisely because Mugabe is a law unto himself, he is not going to have a Saul-to-Damascus type transformation just because someone flashes in his face a new constitution.
The GNU was Tsvangirai’s idea and it has proved to be a total disaster. Instead of admitting that and move one; all Tsvangirai is seeking to do is extend the life of the GNU under the pretence that it must write a new constitution.
Zimbabweans must address the thorny problem of how to ensure national elections are free and fair now. Tsvangirai’s hare-brain schemes are designed to kick the problem into the tail grass on the vein hope that the problem will go away. Of course that will never happen, indeed time was made Mugabe even more arrogant and ruthless!
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