MDC Renewal must first explain why not even one reform was implemented during the GNU

We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats welcome MDC-Renewal’s call for SADC “provide curatorship towards economic reform and a roadmap to free and fair elections”. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown demands the regional group’s serious attention. However, we believe SADC should play a supporting role give that it’s GNU solution of 2008 to 2013 failed to deliver the desired free and fair elections.

We dismiss with contempt MDC-Renewal’s call for SADC to revisit the group’s Election Observer Mission’s report on Zimbabwe’s July 2013 elections as futile exercise.

“We call upon progressive members of SADC to do the right thing and come out in the open in condemning the electoral farce that we saw in Zimbabwe on July 31,” said MDC-Renewal document.

“We know that this report has not been universally endorsed by all SADC member states and that there were dissenting voices even in the Observer Mission itself.”

Whilst it is true that the President Mugabe rigged the elections to review what happened during the elections alone would, at best, paint half the picture. To get the full picture, one has to look into why MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in their five years in the GNU.

If Mr Tendai Biti and Mr Morgan Tsvangirai are serious about moving Zimbabwe forward then they must explain to SADC, the world at large and most important of all to the people of Zimbabwe why they failed to get even one reform implemented in their five years in the GNU. Not one!

It was the breath-taking incompetence of MDC leaders including Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti himself who allowed President Mugabe to once again rig the elections landing the nation in this political and economic mess. Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders are the authors of Zimbabwe’s problems, they are the problem and per se they cannot be the solution too!

We propose that SADC and the international community should dwell on Mugabe to accept the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is the holding of free, fair and credible elections. He should step down to allow the formation of an interim administrative body whose primary task will be to implement all the democratic reforms and oversee the holding of free and fair elections.

The UN or some such country like Norway or Netherlands with past experience in nation building can facilitate the formation of the interim administration.

The people of Zimbabwe have suffered greatly and they deserve to see the country’s political problem of bad governance, which is the root cause of the economic crisi, finally addressed robustly and decisively. After their breathtakingly incompetence of the last five years no one can ever trust any of MDC leaders; all they after is how to get back on the gravy train. Zimbabweans are sick and tired of leaders who only care about their selfish interest at the expense of the very people to claim to represent.

Signed: Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-17354-Biti+urges+new+Zuma+%E2%80%98curatorship%E2%80%99+for+Zim/news.aspx

Zanu PF members fighting over a party that has long lost political power

Zanu PF Women League conference has finally started and the cat-fight for positions will decide the winners and losers. In the past, the winners were assured of political power, not so this time. Zanu PF’s continued stay in power will be decided on whether or not the regime fill the ZimAsset begging bowl necessary to stop the economic meltdown.

After a year of frantic begging to fill the ZimAsset begging bowl and failing to get even a dollar these Zanu PF women should have realised by now that Zanu PF’s hold on power was shaky, to say the least, and thus their own fight for power therefore meaningless.

Mugabe and Zanu PF bamboozled Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into doing nothing about the democratic reforms, how anyone could have been outwitted for five long years is itself a measure of just how breathtakingly incompetent MDC leaders are. When Mugabe blatantly rigged the July 2013 elections because no reforms had been implemented; the tyrant thought it was going to be plain sailing from there on, nothing of the sort. Mugabe faced his greatest challenge yet - the economy – and one impossible to cheat.

34 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and an all-out looting spree in the last 15 years have all taken their toll on the Zimbabwe economy. If the economy was a horse then it would be skin and bones. It is so weak it cannot even get up much less carry the mountain of weight piled on its back.

The rigged elections confirmed Mugabe and Zanu PF were back in office and instead of the mountain of load being taken off the horse’s back, it will be increased. It was going to be business as usual; the gross mismanagement, the rampant corruption, etc. were to pick up were these had left off when the GNU was form in 2009 when some sanity had prevailed. The local players gave up and donors and foreign investors too decided to avoid Zimbabwe as if it was a Biblical lepers’ colony. The national economy has responded by taking a dangerous nose dive since the 31 July 2013 rigged elections.

The economic meltdown has thrown millions into new depths of economic suffering and despair. This cannot go on for much longer, the people’s patience has been tested to its limit.

For 34 years Mugabe has rigged elections and bamboozled his political opponents to avoid regime change but now it is the empty ZimAsset begging bowl that is going to force him to finally accept regime change.

Sometimes it is the simplest things, the ones that one least expected, that trips the seasoned fighter. Chidya matovo akazodzipwa nedovo remhuru! So says the Shona adage. (The dog renowned for chewing through the toughest hides will choke on a calf’s hide!)

Mugabe, kariga n’ombe azorigwa nedemhe! (Mugabe the renowned bull wrestler has been floored by the begging bowl!)

Mugabe’s reign of corruption and terror is over and the decades of economic misrule have come back to haunt him out of State House.

All the scheming and back stubbing by Zanu PF Women League members will come to naught because the economic meltdown is already forcing the party of power. So these women are fighting over political power, something the party has already lost!  

Mugabe denounce the West - a tradition that is coming to an end!

President Mugabe denounces the West in his Heroes Day speech, as has become the norm; it is clear he will not be able to do this for much longer.

"As we mark the first anniversary of the 31st July 2013 harmonised elections successfully held under the provisions of a new home grown constitution,” said Mugabe addressing a Heroes Day gathering.

"We rejoice that the resounding victory enjoyed by Zanu PF put paid, put paid, put paid once and for all to the evil machinations of regime change that were being pursued by our erstwhile colonisers, working in cahoots with local misguided political charlatans and quislings."

When Mugabe bamboozled the “local misguided political charlatans and quislings” into doing nothing about implementing the democratic reforms and into endorsing the rubbish “home grown constitution” he thought he had it made. He went on to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections to secure his “resounding victory”.

Mugabe got the first inkling that the vote rigging would come back and haunt him when the USA, Australia and Canada refused to accept the elections were had been free and fair. The EU soon followed suit. There was a huge economic price to be paid for his lack of political credibility!

Mugabe had hoped that the relative ease with which he had rigged the elections would show he was the only game in town and the MDC was just a batch of incompetent armatures. Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends’ breath-taking incompetence was indeed so, so inexcusable that SADC and donors have deserted them in droves. The MDC leaders’ names are mud! Still that did not get Mugabe off the hook.

Mugabe’s blatant vote rigging did not earn him any brownie points but did the exact opposite. The vote rigging showed that Mugabe could not be trusted to up hold the rule of law and respect property rights. This scared off Western donors and investors alike from investing in the country. The vote rigging also showed that Mugabe was not willing to accept change or address the country’s underlying problems such as corruption. This scared even his traditional allay, the Chinese; no one wanted to fund Mugabe’s flagship economic recovery programme ZimAsset because it was clear there would be no economic recovery and being paid back.

Mugabe desperately needed the $27 billion for the ZimAsset plan to kick start the country’s stagnant economy. Having both the West and the Chinese refusing to finance the plan is proving to be the knockout blow of his political career. The mocking empty ZimAsset begging bowl is doing his head-in; without ZimAsset the national economy is set to certain economic collapse and it is bound to pull down him with it.

Yes, it is a time honoured Mugabe tradition to denounce the West at such public occasions just as it had been come the norm for him to rig elections. There was only going to be the odd occasion when he would not get away with the vote rigging – this is that odd occasion. It is no political opponent who will claim Mugabe’s scalp but the begging bowl. 

ZSD welcome Germany questioning basis of EU lifting sanctions against Mugabe regime

The Zimbabwe Social Democrats welcome the Germany government’s questioning the EU’s decision to lift sanctions against all Zanu PF leaders except President Mugabe and his wife given the regime’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections last year.

 “I do not know what they are using to justify the lifting of measures on President Mugabe. This can be best answered by the EU not Germany alone,” a Germany Official told a New Zimbabwe reporter.

Zimbabwe is stuck is this political and economic limbo because Mugabe rigged last year’s elections. The USA, EU and even the Chinese, President Mugabe’s long standing allay, have all refused to contribute anything to the Zanu PF regime’s flagship economic recovery plan, ZimAsset, because none of them can trust the regime to address the key economic problems like corruption and trust it to up hold the rule of law.

The regime’s failure to arrest the country’s economic meltdown, as exemplified by the empty ZimAsset begging bowl, has resulted in the country sinking to new depth of economic misery and despair. Unemployment has soared to 90% plus, many cities and towns do not have something as basic as clean running water, 300 000 or 80% of children have dropped out of school because their parents can hardly feed them much less have money to pay their school fees, etc.

The only way to stop Zimbabwe’s economic decline is for the country to hold free, fair and credible election; end this illegitimate Mugabe regime and replace it with a legitimate one that the nation, donors and investors can work with and trust. Mugabe has refused to accept this solution and holding out on the hope the promised EU re-engagement will mean EU bankrolling his $27 billion ZimAsset plan and thus end the economic meltdown.  

The EU should have maintain the sanction on President Mugabe and all his cronies as Americans, Canadians and Australians have done and not encourage the regime to think its legitimacy can be restore any other way other than by holding free and fair elections.  

The Copac constitution pushed through by the GNU in Harare last year was weak and feeble which is why it failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections. No among of tinkering with it now will transformer it into a democratic constitution much less reverse the reality of the rigged July 2013 elections.

We call upon the Germany government to use its influence to end this sicken EU game of  encouraging President Mugabe to think the EU will help him rig economic recovery. This is only postponing the day the regime goes at the expense of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe to whom everyday this economic meltdown means another day in hell.

There was no basis for EU lifting the sanction against all President Mugabe’s cronies just as there is no basis for re-engaging the Mugabe government. The EU has to realise that the regime equates re-engagement with the EU bankrolling the regime’s $27 billion ZimAsset plan, rightly or wrongly. The EU should at least make its position clear that re-engagement does not mean bankrolling ZimAsset and not hold out until November 2014 only to drop a token amount in the begging bowl! It will be cruel and inhuman to the ordinary Zimbabweans who would have paid dearly throughout.

Signed: Wilbert Mukori

Secretary General

Zimbabwe Social Democrats

zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com

Metamorphosis of hero to mercenary is not subtle but bold

Today 10 August is National Heroes Day, a day put aside for the nation to remember its fallen and those still very much with us heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle and of the other trials and tribulations of life. My childhood heroine and that of everyone in my village was VaMudisi.

Even to this day I remember my step-grandmother with her head always wrapped loosely in a large cloth two or three inches thick; much the same way one would wrap a light bulb whose glass is so thin and delicate a slight pressure or shock will shutter the glass. She had migraine headaches and when she was having one of the attaches, which was only too frequent for her, the woman was stop whatever she was doing sit down cross-legged with her head bowed low.

She had been to see specialist in Hospitals, tried every religious and traditional healers from near and far but all to no avail. Whilst other women in the village would carry the clay pot of water or bundles of firewood on their heads; my step-grandmother never ever carried anything on her head. She avoided anything that could trig another headache.

One day she had a visitor, vaMudisi; a little known traditional healer from a village a day or so walk from our village, she said she could cure migraine headaches. My step-grandmothers had tried everyone else so why no, she agreed to try vaMudisi’s roots and tree bark brew. Within days she did not need her elaborate head gear and by the end of the week she was carrying bundles of firewood on her head!

Everybody in the village was so pleased and none more so than my grandfather; he offered vaMudisi a heifer in payment for her service. It was a generous offer considering that the going price for specialist services like midwife was a goat if the new mother was from a rich family or a chicken if she was from a poor family. VaMudisi said no. My grandfather increased the price to two heifers and still she said no.

“Mbuya (grandmother) is my grandmother too!” explained vaMudisi.

A great meal was prepared of rice-meal sadza (thick porridge) and chicken in peanut butter sauce, a real and rare treat in our village, to celebrate the curing of the migraine headache. When vaMudisi left she was given several bags of maize, ground nuts plus a goat; my grandfather had learnt that her family was poor and had little to eat.

VaMudisi was to become a regular visitor in our village. She was in the neighbourhood and thought she would drop by to see “Murwere wangu!” (My patient!), referring to my step-grandmother. She would stay for a week or even two weeks and would nag about how she has missed some of that rice-meal sadza and chicken in peanut butter sauce. When she finally left she would again bags of grain.

As far as vaMudisi was concerned my step-grandmother was never cured of her migraine headache because she insisted in calling her “Murwere wangu”. And she exercised the doctor’s right to visit her patient as often, stay as long and bring along whoever she pleased. She would visit with her husband and two or three of their children. She visited two or three times a year and this went on for some time.

VaMudisi and her family were poor but only because they were lazy. My grandfather was rich, by our village’s standards anyway, because he worked hard. He and his wife were the type who prayed for good rains and earned a rich harvest. VaMudisi and her husband were the exact opposite; they prayed for a good harvest expecting the ancestors or whoever it was they prayed to provide the good rains and the labour too.

After vaMudisi refused his offer of two heifers in payment for her medical skills my grandfather became suspicious of the traditional healer’s motives particularly when he had learnt already that her family was poor. My grandfather was fastidious about everything including being fair.

Everyone in the village knew about this old man who sold hoes and axes, for example, how one could force him to reduce his price to half or less for a quick sell especially when the old man was thirsty for beer. My grandfather made it a point of honour to pay the old man the full going price.

When my grandfather offer vaMudisi two heifers he knew that was more than a generous price to pay for her skills but he would have paid it and be done with it. These two or three visits from vaMudisi and her leaving with bags of grain each time went against the grain. He was fastidiously fair and would never cheat anyone and by the same token he did not like being short changed other.

My grandfather, for the sake of his wife – for I am sure my grandmother must have told him to bite his tongue countless times-, allowed vaMudisi to visit and leave loaded with grain for a number of years. He must have decided enough was enough.

It was said whenever my grandfather had something he wanted to say but for one reason or other could not say it; whatever those inhibitions were would disappear once he has had a stiff drink! He confronted vaMudisi after a day of heavy drinking.

Let us just say he told vaMudisi his piece of mind or as my mother put it “Chakatadzisa imbwe kuseka kunyemana ichigona!” VaMudisi left his home empty handed that time and never returned. 

I later learnt that vaMudisi was not the traditional healer’s real name but a nickname short for mudisiwezvapasi (lover of the worldly things) given to her dirty habit of giving with one hand and make a big song and dance about it whilst taking with the other hand even more than she gave!

When you look at Zimbabwe today and compare it to where we were as a nation in 1980 few would doubt that we are worse off economically than then. Life expectancy, that all-encompassing qualitative and quantitative measure of a nation’s wellbeing, has plummeted from 68 years to a misery 34 years as of 2004 when the last data was available.

On the political front, unlike during white colonial rule, we now have a say in the governance of the country but that is true in theory only because the nation is yet to hold free, fair and credible elections.

There is no doubt that the nation’s liberation heroes and heroines who have ruled this nation for the last 34 years have undergone a metamorphosis after independence transforming them from heroes to mercenaries who, like vaMudisi, have taking away all the fruits of the nation’s hard work and leaving the rest impoverish economically and politically!

After 34 years of being rob blind by the very people who claim to be our liberators it is high time we told Mugabe and his cronies “Chakatadzisa imbwe kuseka kunyemana ichigona!” Tell Mugabe and his thugs; enough is enough, now fcuk off!  

Grace Mugabe blast Minister for stopping her seizing more land the shrilling drum before rupture!

Grace Mugabe blast Deputy Justice Minister Fortune Chasi for stopping her taking over land in Mazowe.

“I must be open and honest. In this constituency we have a new MP, I don’t know him personally but his name is Chasi and he is a problem. He is stressing me a lot, andishungurudza zvisingaite (he has given me so much grief),” she said. She is not alone on that.

Two weeks ago the Deputy Minister admitted last year’s elections were rigged breaking away from the strict Zanu PF position that they were free, fair and credible. Columnist Nathaniel Manheru was quick off the mark to denounce the Deputy Minister reflecting the seething anger in Zanu PF HQ, Chibuku House.

“I have committed myself to work with you … I will talk to your leadership, but I am very strict. I will be with you to ensure that your concerns are addressed,” said Grace, referring to her expected elevation as leader of the Zanu PF Women’s League.

The nation’s greatest concern is have the rights, freedoms, justice and liberty denied them all these years, notably the right to free and fair elections and the right to life. Just to be perfectly clear and she does not get big headed; these are our birth rights and we are here to take them as such and do not aspect Mugabe, her or anyone to bestow or deny as if their whim dictates.

“Vakuru vanoti kana chingoma choririsa chava kubvaruka!”  (The drum is loudest and sweetest just before it ruptures!) Blatantly rigged elections, $1 million birthday party, $5 million wedding bash, $ 5 million spent on bronze statues of Mugabe and now Grace, beaming with self-confidence and tyrannical arrogance, is already throwing her weight around and expects the whole nation to cow down in fear. Yap, the Zanu PF drum is playing its shrill and mawkish epilogue before it is heard no more! 

Entrepreneur Chingonzo did not impress President Obama but made an ass of himself

A 21-year-old Zimbabwean entrepreneur, Takura Chingonzo, on Tuesday afternoon, hit the jackpot; he interviewed President Barack Obama on stage at the US-Africa Business Forum in Washington. Sadly, like one other Zimbabwean, Richard Morgan Tsvangirai in 2009, he make a complete ass of himself!

“So in our working (Internet access),” Takura told the President and the audience and the world at large, “we came to a point in time where we needed to import a bit of technology from the United States, and so we were engaging in conversation with these U.S.-based businesses.  And the response that we got time and time again was that unfortunately we cannot do business with you because you are from Zimbabwe.”

“And I was shocked,” concluded Takura with well-rehearsed facial and body postures to match – an electric shock would not have stunned him more. “ -- this doesn’t make sense!”

The story is all a fabricated lie because the sanctions are targeted sanctions and Takura Chingonzo is certainly NOT on that targeted list. He admitted as much himself.

“These entities believe that Zimbabwe is under sanctions,” explain Chingonzo. “So what really can we do to do try and clarify this to make sure that we as the young entrepreneurs can effectively develop Africa and engage in business?” Really?

Think up a project be it in the internet access as is the case here or whatever, convincing financer and buyers, etc. was the really tough bit. So our model young Zimbabwean entrepreneur, Takura Chingonzo, jumped all those hurdles with flying colours but fall flat on his face when it came to American Business partner that he was not one of the one hundred or so Zimbabweans on the targeted sanctions list.

In 2009 President Obama had the then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has his first African leader invited to White House. The later was telling him a hen’s teeth story about why American should lift the sanction against Zimbabwe because Mugabe had changed. It was not until the rigged 2013 elections which resulted in Tsvangirai being kicked off the gravy train to finally convince his that the tyrant had not changed one bit.

Now as back then in 2009, President Obama was called upon to explain once again why America had imposed the targeted sanctions.

“The challenge for us in the United States has been how do we balance our desire to help the people of Zimbabwe with what has, frankly, been a repeated violation of basic democratic practices and human rights inside of Zimbabwe,” explained the President, for the umpteenth time

The President should have looked the up-start idiot straight in the eyes and asked him, “Takura Chingonzo where you not shocked at the blatant vote rigging last year by President Mugabe and his Zanu PF members? In this day and age and 33 years after independence why should millions be so callously denied such a basic right as the right to a meaningful vote?” Takura would have been shocked for real this time.

Of course last year’s blatant vote rigging had not shocked Takura, it had been water off a duck’s back. Still, he would have said that had indeed been very shocked and would have been obliged to repeat his earlier I-am-very-shocked theatricals. Everyone would have seen that he was just faking it and the shame of it all would have send a thousand volt electric shock down his spine!

The trouble with narrow minded people like Takura Chingonzo and Morgan Tsvangirai is as long as they are doing well they do not give a damn that millions others are suffering. The Zanu PF dictatorship is working for them and to hell with the millions the system is grinding into the dirty!

No doubt Takura will be invited to meet President Mugabe on his return to Zimbabwe for his sterling contribution to have the targeted sanctions lifted. Mugabe would only be interested to recruit him to work with the CIO, if he is not already; the tyrant has the Chinese working on how to monitor all the internet traffic and would what to beef that up!