WOZA to vote yes in the referendum: out of ignorance!

WOZA announces that its members will be voting yes in the referendum! Kusaziva kufa! This is the one issue were quality leadership was called for and WOZA fell flat on their faces!

“Of the 92 demands, 60 were included in the Draft, 17 were partly acknowledged and
15 were not achieved,” said the WOZA statement. The statement did not say what the 92 original WOZA demands were, which had been included, etc. but the membership decided to give the Copac constitution a thumbs up.

“WOZA call on the government of national unity partners to walk the talk about zero tolerance for violence in all its forms and to ensure the police will act impartially to allow citizens to enjoy all their rights before during and after the referendum,” continued the statement.

WOZA members, of all people should know about Police brutality since they have been on the business end of the Police’s whips. But the statement clearly shows the group is not convinced the new constitution is robust enough to end the country’s culture of political violence and brutal oppression. Their appeal for an end to violence will fall on deaf ears.

The threat of political violence, a repeat of 2008, is real and for the nation to ignore this reality will be an act of folly for the nation will pay dearly for in broken limbs and human lives.

So “free and fair elections – free of violence” must surely be one of WOZA’s “not achieved” demands and now the membership think the nation can live without it. Well they are committing a serious and costly act of folly; because this is certainly one of must have demands!

WOZA’s appeal to Mugabe’s whim as a basis for ending the country’s culture of violence can only be born out of ignorance because no nation can build its hope for peace and justice on such a shaky foundation. The nation must be ruled by law and not the whim of a dictator.

US$ 2 billion diamond revenue lost: Biti appeals to the "law" of the Land - Mugabe's whim!

Finance Minister Tendai Biti said it was "criminal" that diamond mines and executives failed to submit their profits to the state. (Zimbabwe Mail 13 March 2013).

 

According to an international diamond watchdog, Partnership Africa Canada, at least $2 billion were stolen by Mugabe's cronies from Zimbabwe's eastern diamond fields last year alone.

"I will be appealing to both the President and Prime Minister to make these companies pay. We are beginning to lose our patience," said Minister Biti. "It is irresponsible and unpatriotic and a breach of our laws."

Laws, what laws? We all know that Mugabe is the law of the land and you are out there right now campaigning for a yes vote to a constitution dictated by the tyrant to reaffirm his dictatorial powers! By appeal to Mugabe you, Minister Biti, are tacitly acknowledge Mugabe’s supremacy over the country’s laws and courts including parliament itself!

The nation must be ruled by law, only strong and decisive laws can do that and not weak and feeble one like the Copac constitution, and not the whim of a dictator!

Kenya has avoided a repeat of 2008 violnce, Zimbabwe will not!

Ever since the election violence in both Kenya and Zimbabwe in 2008 people have tried to compare the two countries. Beside the violence the two countries also had unity governments but that is as far down the same path the two nations travelled after which they each two different routes poles apart.

Whereas Kenya has tackled the political violence of 2008 head-on; with some of these involved now awaiting trial in The Hague including the winner of the just ended elections, Uhuru Kenyata. In Zimbabwe, none of those responsible for the violence have ever come to trial. The Zanu PF Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa has even dismissed the violence as nothing but “a skirmish” although hundreds of thousands mainly MDC supporters and innocent people were beaten and/or raped and over 500 murdered.

Kenya has since produced a democratic constitution designed to maintain key institutions like the Police and Judiciary apolitical. Mugabe has refuse to implement all the democratic reforms and has even retain the fiercely partisan top brass in the Police, Army, CIO and judiciary in command at the time in 2008 still to continue running these key institutions.

The Copac constitution is nothing but a dictator’s creed whitewashed to give fool the gullible.

Kenya has enjoyed a free press for years now and during the just ended elections the presidential candidates had two televised public debates. Mugabe and Zanu PF have retained their strangle hold on the country’s large public print media whilst keeping a muzzle on the small private print media through oppressive laws such as AIPPA and POSA. The country’s electronic media, radio and TV, remains the exclusive domain of the Zanu PF controlled public media. PM Tsvangirai has yet to be interviewed on TV talking about his party and its policies.

There was certainly a desire by all parties across Kenya’s political divide to stir the country away from the totalitarian tendencies of the past regimes into the open calmer waters of democracy. Sadly the same cannot be said of Zimbabwe; whilst Mugabe fought tooth and nail to retain the dictatorship, Tsvangirai has turned out to be as politically spineless as a common garden slug for he allowed Mugabe to get away with everything!

Whilst Kenya has just had an election free of violence; the spectre of violence hangs large over Zimbabwe for everything behind 2008’s violence is still in place and are waiting to be launched! Zimbabwe’s next elections are set to be “bloodier” than 2008, admitted MDC Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone.

The only way to avoid the violence is for the people to vote NO in the upcoming referendum on the Copac constitution. It is none other than MDC who have taken it upon themselves to campaign for a yes vote in the referendum and time is fast running out for them to change their call!

Biti asking SADC to "vaccinate" against violence when a NO vote is the only cure now!

Finance Minister Biti said there was need to "vaccinate" the vote against violence as "self evidently in the last few weeks there have been signs, sprouting shoots of violence ... potential replication of the 2008 status quo."

The MDC has since the start of the year recorded over 120 incidents of violation and abuse of individuals, he said.

Two thirds of the six-million voters on the roll are dead, said Biti, discussing irregularities with the crucial list.

"But unfortunately those four million who are dead have had a tendency to resurrect on election day."

SADC has promised to look into these issues but other than put another Band-Aid on a broken leg! What the problem has needed all these years is decisive action – implement the reforms and stop all this pussyfooting.

The only way to vaccinate the vote against violence is by implementing the reforms; MDC can get the reforms implemented by telling the people the truth about this mess, admit there will be violence and thus tell the people to vote no in the referendum.

Tsvangirai's "Main Actor" foot-in-mouth-disease guff!

Tsvangirai in yet another “foot in the mouth disease” guff as one commentator called it!

“Ask yourself, had it been me who died and she had survived, what would have happened?,” Tsvangirai was quoted as saying by the NewsDay.

“One of the fundamental things is that the main actor doesn’t die if the film is still on.”

Veteran journalist and feminist Grace Mutandwa, reacting on Facebook, said: “After reading that, I just thought WOW! Is he suggesting that Susan was a ‘bit’ actress so it was okay because the main actor was still there, the show would go on?

“He really needs real advisers not just hangers-on who tell him what he wants to hear. Currying favour got us to where we are now – stuck in IMPUNITY SQUARE.”  Well Grace got that one right! If the nation does not wake up and realize where Tsvangirai is taking us with this yes vote than we will all pay very dearly for this folly.

If people vote yes in the referendum then we will go into the elections - a repeat of the 2008 violence!

The greatest tribune to Christpower Maisiri: make him the last victim of Mugabe violence!

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

I have evoked this prayer, not because I am religious, but because it encapsulated beautifully the three things I want to talk about today; change, courage and wisdom.

The upcoming referendum is the very last chance for Zimbabweans to achieve the democratic change that would propel us out of the desert of despair, dictatorship, into the green valleys of hope, democratic rule.

Zimbabwe is a de facto Zanu PF dictatorship and all political opposition has been routinely and ruthless silenced. The 2008 presidential run-off elections showed just how brutal the dictatorship could be when over a million Zimbabweans were internally displaced, hundreds of thousands were beaten and/or raped and over 500 were murdered.

The whole world was shocked by the wanton violence of 2008 and SADC instructed Zimbabwe GNU to implement a raft of democratic reforms whose end product was very clear and explicit: to deliver free and fair election and to stop the repeat of 2008 violence.

None, not ever one, of the reforms were implemented because Mugabe refused and MDC were too incompetent to force the issue. Although everyone could see there had been no change, still the people had accepted the hollow assurance from PM Tsvangirai that the coming elections would be free and fair and not a repeat of the 2008. 

The nation’s false sense of security was shuttered on Saturday 23 February 2013 when a 12 year old boy, Christpower Simbarashe Maisiri, the son of a MDC official in Headlands, was burnt to death after the hut the boy was sleeping in was deliberately torched by known Zanu PF thugs. PM Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends went into overdrive revising their lies that the nation was heading for peaceful elections to acknowledging that the Zanu PF dictatorship was indeed alive and very dangerous! 

"This election is going to be bloodier than 2008" admitted the MDC Home Affairs Minister, Theresa Makone on S W Radio Africa Hot Seat programme. Well that speaks volumes! This is an admission that the party’s hair cut changes in the Copac constitution will not bring free and fair elections – free of violence.

MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti said the party was sending a dossier to SADC giving details of the intimidations, harassment, beating and even murders. This the first time the party has ever spoken of this dossier!

A high power MDC delegation was sent off to SADC “to discuss among other things, the need for SADC to deliver a free and fair election,” a report on MDC party website read. This is a knee-jerk MDC response; they not only run to SADC but, worse still, they blame the regional body for the party’s own breath taking incompetence. It is not for SADC to “deliver free and fair elections” but for MDC to implement the reforms by seeing to it that the required laws are passed in parliament. MDC had the parliamentary majority so this should have been a breeze.

SADC have told P M Tsvangirai again and again, implement the agreed GPA reforms – follow the GPA roadmap – follow the yellow brick road. No doubt SADC will tell this high powered MDC delegation exactly the same thing - implement the agreed GPA reforms!

It was not until Christpower’s murder MDC had maintained that the party would not brook boycotting the elections. On 31 January 2013 following a high level MDC party retreat in Inyanga Nelson Chamisa the party’s National Organising Secretary "The people of Zimbabwe have embraced the MDC and have placed their hope in the party; hence, whatever the magnitude of the persecution from which ever quarter, the people will vote in their numbers for a new beginning and real transformation which will be brought about by the MDC government."

If we remove the political rhetoric and the pseudo machismo – we all know when the going gets tough Tsvangirai will once again have his mad dash for the Netherlands Embassy and the rest of the MDC leaders will disappear like mist in the morning African sun – we will have the chilling message: MDC will drag the nation through another election regardless the cost in broken limbs and lost lives.

After Christpower was murdered, MDC resubmitted the party’s old Conditions for a Sustainable Election in Zimbabwe (COSEZ), which include demands for a free media and the implementation of the reforms to dismantle the Mugabe dictatorships. And renewed the threat too; the party will not participate in any election unless the conditions are met.

Meanwhile on Saturday 2 March 2013 PM Tsvangirai was in Gweru for the launch of the “Yes” campaign on the referendum.

Let me help you unpack this MDC mess. Whilst MDC accepts that it is impossible to deliver free and fair elections without implementing the reforms, hence the resubmitted COSEZ, what the party fails to grasp is the reality that this Copac constitution is accepted in the referendum then the door to implementing reforms will be shut. It is nonsense to talk of amending a constitution that the populous has just adopted particularly when those amendments are the very reforms Mugabe has resisted all these last five years!

If the truth be told, and it must be told, MDC are quietly reverting to their chilling position; they will drag the nation through another election regardless the cost in broken limbs and lost lives!

 

 I was watching a wildlife documentary about wildebeest migrating in search of good grazing. They had to cross this flooded river and the point they happened to arrive at had steep banks, 30 feet drop. The more savvy zebra would look for a safer crossing point and if the river is flooded they would wait 3 or 5 days if necessary. Not so with the wildebeest; it was tails up and jump. Many broke their legs, many were swept away by the strong fast flowing flood and drowned and those that made it across had the impossible task of climbing the steep and slippery bank on the other side. What a carnage!

Zimbabwe’s 2008 chaotic and violent elections were carnage!

By failing to have the reforms implemented the country’s political leaders had let the nation down. After five years of bickering amongst themselves and wasting billions of dollars the GNU had brought the nation back to the same political situation as in 2008, the same dangerous river crossing point!

The referendum is giving the people their chance to decide whether the critical reforms implemented. The need for the implementing the reforms has not vanished, the reality of the repeat of the violence is still there and just because the GNU failed to implement them does not mean no one else can.

A “YES” vote in the referendum means people do not want the reforms and accept the politicians’ failure; it is yes to the violence; it is tails up and jump! There will be another carnage, a repeat of 2008 or worse!

A “NO” vote be a demand for the reforms to be implemented, a demand for a safer crossing point. Surely this is the common sense position.

Tsvangirai is the madman Chandagwinyira who will seat before a blazing camp fire on a roasting hot day because that is what he has set his mind to do. The truth only Mugabe has everything to gain from passing of this Copac constitution his dictatorial powers confirmed in the constitution. Tsvangirai will gain nothing from it and the people will lose everything. The only reason Tsvangirai is out there campaign for a yes vote is because he will not listen to reason. If the people, mainly out of ignorance, are foolish enough to follow Chandagwinyira then they will pay dearly for their folly!

If this Copac constitution is adopted then this will constitute the crossing point for the nation for decades to come; Zimbabwe’s elections will be a chaotic and violence affair, a carnage, for years to come. Frankly the world is fed up with Zimbabwe’s failure to sort out its political problems, the sanctions will be lifted regardless of the level of violence and we will be on our own.

This is the list of those who attended Christpower’ funeral: Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, The Right Honourable Morgan Richard Tsvangirai and his good wife, Mai Elizabeth Tsvangirai; the Right Honourable Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe; “x” number of Ministers; ”y” MPs and “z” hundreds of thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans. A great tribune indeed given he was only 12 years old.

When all is said and done what will be remember for generations to come is that Christpower died because the very politicians who buried him failed to implement the necessary reforms.

The greatest tribute the nation can pay to Christpower, in my humble opinion, would be if by his gruesome death the nation was shocked into realizing the urgent need to address this Zanu PF culture of violence decisive once and once for all and thus vote NO in the referendum. Let the name of Christpower Simbareshe Maisiri be entered in the annals of history as the last victim of Zanu PF wanton political violence! That will be some small recompense for this innocent life so ruthlessly and brutally cut short!

Chindagwinyira Tsvangirai campaigning for yes vote for rubbish Copac!

MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will headline a ‘Yes’ campaign rally in Gweru on Saturday as the party continues to canvass for national endorsement of the country’s draft new constitution

These are the rallies PM Tsvangirai and MDC will have the full support of the Police, indeed even Chipangano thugs will be harassing people to make sure they are every well attended!

This Copac constitution is the only thing Tsvangirai has to show for all his five years in the GNU and he has set his mind to getting the nation to accept regardless of the fact that it is not the democratic constitution the nation expected. This Constitution was "dictated" by Mugabe, a tyrant, for Christ sake; it is really naive to expect it to be a democratic one!

Tsvangirai ndiChandagwinyira, shavi rebenzi rinodziya moto zuva richibanda nokuti raira rafunga kuita chinhu ronobva rangara dzeve! Tsvangirai is possessed by the demon of the madman Chandagwinyira Blind Determination, who would seat by the camp fire on a roasting hot day because once he decides to do something absolutely nothing will ever stop him.