VP Mujuru is like a foul mouthed old woman cursing non-stop but come the storm she is clutching the Bible

Zimbabwe is a nation ruled by fear. It was fear that had VP Mujuru reaching for her Bible over the weekend and talk of peace. She has been an active member of the Salvation Army but this weekend she was quoting from the Bible extensively with seriousness, urgency and earnest few had never seen in her. Some people are capable of that dipolar behaviour.

In my village there was this old lady, vaMujeke, who could curse and swear in the foulest language I have ever heard in my whole life. She would remonstrate her displeasure by flashing her naked behind in the direction or face of whoever had annoyed her. She was the Sheila Mutsenhu, the Zanu PF activist who stripped down to her bra and knickers before the US Ambassador to protest the sanctions, of her time. It did not take much to get her running full throttle and forming at the mouth cursing and swearing and once in full flow she would go on for hours. The one thing that stopped her dead in full flow was lightening.

There was nothing like the clap of lightening to shut up vaMujeke and send her scouring for somewhere to hide. On one occasion she happened to be wearing a red head scarf, a bad colour that ‘attracted’ lightening; she whip it off her head and hid it in the nearest place she could find which happened to be a clay-pot. The home owner was not amused to find a dirty head scarf in their culture milk. She was also known to put out the fire with whatever she found handy. I went to bed hungry one night when she happened to seek shelter in our home.

As the storm progress one could hear her mumbling something, the closer and louder the lightening clap the louder her mumbled. It was something religious; you could hear Jesus and God in the mumbling. At her home, it is said she would clutching the Bible. 

Fear has turned VP Mujuru to the holy book with vaMujeke’s zeal! She talked of fear and nothing else.

Mujuru said the Church was there to help people live peacefully together and to mould God-fearing citizens.

She also said that people should generally not be afraid of the living, but of the All Mighty God, who saw everything that took place under the sun.

“Ndozvatauyira pano kuti tidzorwe munzira dzedu dzisinakururama, tidzorwe mukuita kwedu, mumatauriro, mafambiro nemagariro edu, pavepo nerugare munyika yedu yakafirwa, yakasunungurwa nevapenyu nevakaenda, tibatsire vatungamiriri vedu kuti runyararo rwuripo rwuve runyararo rwechokwadi (We are here for this Church gathering to be guided by God and the Church so that we behave ourselves, speak well and live well, so that there will be peace in the country that many people sacrificed their lives for),” said Mujuru.

 “We cannot respect a God we have not seen when we cannot respect each other. We were created in his own image. It delights the Lord to see his people living in peace.”

Peace what peace, madam?

For 34 years since independence the one thing Zimbabwe has yarned for but was denied is peace, justice and human dignity. This corrupt and oppressive Zanu PF dictatorship has left millions economically destitute and has terrorized the people denying them a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life itself. The regime has murdered over 30 000 innocent people in its 34 years in power. VP Mujuru as a senior member of the regime has done nothing to end the corruption and oppression. Indeed she is a chief instigator and beneficiary of some of the corruption and looting that has been going on.

Last November she went one step further than the Zanu PF modus operandi of pretending there was no corruption and no political oppression and that the country’s economic problems were all caused by the “illegitimate sanctions imposed by the evil West”. She publicly denied the stories of rampant corruption in parastatals like PSMAS and denounced those who had uncovered the stories as agents of regime change. To a long suffering Zimbabwean public, the victims of the rampant corruption, she might just as well have spit in our faces and flashed her naked behind, vaMujeke style.

The on-going factional fighting in Zanu PF of the last few months has seen VP Mujuru being hunted down like an animal by her former Zanu PF colleagues in the fight for power. The storm has been gathering pace and she is frightened out of her wits and she is now feverishly turning to the Bible and praying for peace.

I would like to believe that God is not so easily fooled by cynical people like vaMujeke or VP Mujuru who treat his key commandment to “treat others as we would want them to treat you” with the uttermost contempt but only to become super religious when the lightning storm  approach.

Mugabe has corrupted the war vets turning them into custodians of tyranny!

I was struck by two stories this weekend involving two former liberation struggle individuals who have been corrupted to serve this Zanu PF dictatorship at the expense of the nation.

The first story was about some war vets who have pledged to support the war vet thug Jabulani Sibanda who is under pressure to resign from the chairman position because he did not support Grace Mugabe’s bid for power. He had the chic of dismissing it as a “bedroom coup”; which it is but that is beside the point. The point being that Sibanda has been going around the country intimidating and harassing people to support and vote for Mugabe and Zanu PF, riding roughshod over their basic rights including the right to a free and meaningful vote.

The war vets backing Sibanda claimed 'fought for a Zimbabwe that recognises freedom of expression’. They clearly do not have a clue what they are talking about! Sibanda and the those war vets accompanied him have been systematically denying the populous their freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life particular during the 2008 elections.

The war vets backing Sibanda even threaten a second Entumbane (the fighting pitting Zanu PF former freedom fighters against PF Zapu former freedom fighters soon after independence resulting in many being killed) if Sibanda was force out of office.

If these guys are going to have another Entumbane then they must know that they will be fighting for Zanu PF dictatorship or to settle their own selfish scores and not for freedom or human rights for the ordinary Zimbabweans!

In the second story, the nation learnt that the Zimbabwe Ex-Political Prisoner Detainees and Restrictees Association (ZEPPDRA) members ‘converged in Harare to deliberate on several issues affecting them’. No doubt they must have deliberated at lengths on the abject poverty that is affecting the whole nation. 72% of Zimbabweans are now considered poor because they live on less than $1.25 a day. 16% or 2 million are way below that, they live in abject poverty.

Even Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira and Enos Nkala have not been spared the economic hardships; they lived the last years of their lives in abject poverty and died paupers. No doubt many of the ZEPRDRA members have been caught in the dragnet; many of them will poor and some will already be living in abject poverty.

ZEPPDRA Chairman, Victor Kuretu said his executive is in support of the move taken by the revolutionary party ahead of its national elective congress of elevating Dr Mugabe to lead the Women's League. How sad!

Here was the ex-detainees’ chance to say something profound about how the country has completely lost direction; how a few in power have betrayed the values of freedom, liberty, justice and human rights and human dignity for selfish political gain. These are values they were imprisoned to secure for all Zimbabweans and not just the few in power. These are the values that underpin good governance and the nation is in this political and economic nightmare precisely because the ruling elect have denied the people freedom, liberty, etc.!

Corruption is now so rampant it is soaking up all the nation’s wealth forcing millions into poverty and despair. It is clear that Zanu PF does not know what to do.

As ex- liberation struggle war vets and prison detainees and as fellow victims of the worsen economic meltdown, the war vets and ZEPRDRA should have added their voice to the growing chorus calling on Mugabe and Zanu PF to step down and allow for fresh free, fair and credible elections. For this is the only way out of this mess.

Instead the war vets back Sibanda, a ruthless thug propping up this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The ZEPPDRA endorse Grace Mugabe as chairperson of the Zanu PF women’s league. It boggles the mind how that is going to help the nation get out of this mess!

Has Mugabe infiltrated and corrupt all the organisations representing all those involved in the struggle for independence so that they are all controlled by stooges who never understood freedom, liberty and any of the other values the war of independence was fought for? It is little wonder that the nation is in a real mess; the custodians of freedom have now become the custodians of tyranny! 

Mzembi paints a rosy Zimbabwe in 2018 knowing it is the nose-ring Zanu PF will use to win the elections!

Minister Walter Mzembi is in UK to promote tourism in Zimbabwe. In an interview on the BBC Hardtalk programme the Minister talked of not just repairing and reconstructing Zimbabwe’s collapsed infrastructure back to its pre-independence state but to do more. He talked of increased power generation to meet the nation’s energy requirements, most of the nation’s roads will be dual carriage way, build a new boom tourist town in Victoria Falls complete with casinos and Disney theme park, etc., etc. All these projects will be completed and fully operational by 2018.

“You make it sound so rosy, with everything fixed in a short space of time,” remarked Stephen Sackur. “I wonder whether you and the Zimbabwe government live is an alternative parallel word!”

Stephen Sackur, the BBC interviewer, reminded the Minister of the economic reality that Zimbabwe has failed to attract any meaningful foreign direct investment for decades because of its objectionable indigenisation laws and lawlessness, could not borrow any money for IMF or any other institute because it already a $10 billion debt it was failing to service, etc.

Stephen Sackur’s remarks had no effect on the Minister who continued in his artistic endeavour to paint a glorious bright future for all Zimbabweans! Of course there is no chance of any of the projects coming to fruition to have any meaningful impact of the lives of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe let alone restore their standard of living to what it was in 1980.

Yes the Minister and the Zanu PF government live in their own world; like all politicians the world over they too have to promise the electorate a better life but unlike everyone else, they do not have to deliver any of their promises and hence can afford to make the most outlandish promises they can. The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown unemployment is Mount Everest high and millions are already living in abject poverty so it is important that the regime conjure a glorious bright future to count balance the crashing depths of misery and despair the nation has sunk into.

Zimbabweans have been conditioned to believe that the greater the suffering and misery today the brighter their tomorrow will be. Mugabe has told them, their tomorrow is always just behind the horizon. One thing is clear to all, except for the few ruling elite, their todays have been decidedly worse than their yesterdays and yesteryears.

Of course there is a limit to what the placebo of hope can do even with a naïve and gullible electorate – the Zimbabwe electorate is one of the most naïve and gullible in the world. Mugabe and Zanu PF have managed to stay in power for over 34 years regardless of the regime’s proven track record of never delivering on their promises; the regime promised mass prosperity but has delivered mass poverty and worse; because the regime is not accountable to the people. Indeed, if anything it is the people who are accountable to the regime.

Mugabe and Zanu PF have made it clear that they will not tolerate any regime change. They have instituted a political system to safe guard their ‘no regime change’ mantra; they lead the electorate by the nose like a bull and a savage yank on the nose-ring has had the electorate on its knees dazed from the excruciating pain.

As long as Mugabe and Zanu PF can resist all attempt to have the democratic reforms, necessary for free, fair and credible elections, implemented then the party is assured of electoral victory in the next elections. The party will still have the nose-ring on the electorate and another savage yank will have the nation on its knees, bleeding and dazed.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have implemented the democratic reforms when they had the parliamentary majority, SADC backing and five-years of the GNU’s life to do so. Zanu PF now holds all the trump cards; forcing the tyrannical regime to accept implementing any reforms now is going to be a Herculean task.

The Zimbabwean electorate will have to first of all take their understanding of democratic change beyond the present superficial level of rally slogan of repeated chanting “Change! Change!” without knowing what exactly they wanted changed. Understanding the required changes for free, fair and credible elections is not rocket science although one has to put some effort.

The people of Zimbabwe expect that Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to arrest all those who disturb the peace, for example, because that is what the citizens the world over expect the Police to do. Yet in Zimbabwe Zanu PF thugs have been allowed to intimidate, beat, rape and even murder people for no other reason than that they dared to belong to another political party other than Zanu PF. The democratic reform required here is to ensure ZRP is independent to carry out of its duty to maintain peace and rule of law without the partisan bias.

At present it is the State President alone who has the say in the appointment and firing of Police Officers making the ZRP beholden to him/her, his/her whim and political party. Parliament must have the power hold senior Police Officers to account for the performance of their duties and block the appointment of those considered unsuitable and get those not up to scratch removed from office.

If the Zimbabwe electorate had understood the importance of the reforms then they would not have elected a bunch of individuals who are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent to carry out this important task, in the first place. Second, the electorate would have forced MDC, corrupt and incompetent as they are, to implement the reforms.

The Zimbabwean people must now understand the democratic reforms and force Mugabe and Zanu PF to implement the reforms. If they fail to do so then the nose-ring will stay and they can be sure Zanu PF will savagely yank it repeated just to remind the voters who is the boss. In between the elections Zanu PF Ministers like Mzembi will talk of the extravagantly glorious and bright future just over the horizon; the placebo of grinding poverty and dashed hopes and dreams – a Mugabe speciality!

Chamisa, unmoved by the rigged 2013 election, scampered for the Bible after recent MDC-T elections!

There is nothing more sickening than someone with no sense of right and wrong quoting the Bible and pretending that they are divinely inspired when they are not!

“As I was praying yesterday, I was reminded of the story of the sons of Issachar who knew the times and what ought to be done for Israel,” wrote “saint” Nelson Chamisa.

Are we to concluded that the Lord God of Abraham and Isaac failed to inspire this latter-day son of Issachar with “what ought to be done for” Zimbabwe throughout the five years of the GNU. God only knows how many times mortals like SADC Heads reminded Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders to implement the democratic reforms for that was what Zimbabwe needed then and still need today to stop Mugabe and Zanu PF rigging elections. Zimbabwe is literally dying to have its first free, fair and credible elections after all these years after independence.

“We failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also made a mistake,” admitted Chamisa’s former MDC collegue, MP Samuel Sipepa Nkomo.

At least people like Sipepa Nkomo has had the guts to admit that MDC made some serious mistake which more than can be said about the likes of Nelson Chamisa.

MDC failed to implement even one democratic reform out of the whole raft of reforms agreed in the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Not even one! Why? Because the MDC leaders are corrupt, Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of power including the $4 million Highlands mansion for their leader Tsvangirai and they forgot about the reforms. The MDC leaders failed to comprehend the critical importance of the reforms in delivering free, fair and credible elections, the pre-requisite of good governance; and thus showing they are breathtakingly incompetent.

So Nelson Chamisa did not listen to SADC Heads advising him and his fellow MDC leaders to implement the reforms throughout the five years of the GNU. He, like the other MDC leaders, had his snout in the feeding trough enjoying the endless feast Mugabe providing them – at taxpayers’ great expense, of course. For a year after the rigged elections he has never had the humility to admit he betrayed the nation by failing to implement even one reform. It took a rigged MDC-T party election to send him scooting for the Bible for divine inspiration!

“Oh God, you are wonderful!! Let the revelation of your word be our great source of hope and glory. I am waiting upon your faithful word and righteous promise,” prayed ‘saint’ Nelson. “It is well my brethren.”

Well gone are the days when you used to share ‘quality’ time with ‘pastor’ R G Mugabe, he would have help you here. We all know what you want Nelson – another chance back on the gravy train!

Tendai Biti calls Tsvangirai an 'illiterate dictator' after following him blindly for 14 years!

Tendai Biti goes to the river and back again on Morgan Tsvangirai, calling his former party president an “illiterate dictator”.

“His problem is that he is structurally weak and has turned himself into an illiterate dictator in the mould of Mobutu Sesse Seko and that is the horrible part of all this. It is a sad day for democracy,” said Biti in an interview with New Zimbabwe.

“He has confirmed the same hubris we have all been accusing Robert Mugabe (President) of and because he realises he is a weak individuals thinks plastering this over though a dictatorship will help him.”

One has only to look at Tsvangirai’s track record of failures and blunders ever since he emerged on the public stage as the leaders of the MDC. Not that he ever achieve anything even in his previous role as Secretary General of ZCTU.

The former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, 2004 to 2007 called Tsvangirai a “flawed and indecisive character” in private report back to Washington but leaked and published in Wikileak. The Ambassador came to that conclusion after meeting Tsvangirai a handful. Of course time was to prove the Ambassador right time after time as our Hamas crude missile blundered from pillar to post.

Mr Biti has known Tsvangirai since the formation of the MDC in 1999 (assuming he had just arrived from Mars and therefore did not know him before then). What boggles the mind here is did it take Biti until 2014 to finally realise that Tsvangirai was an “illiterate dictator”?

The greatest blunder for which the nation and history will never ever forgive Tsvangirai and his MDC friends is the failure to implement the democratic reforms. The party had the majority in parliament, the backing of SADC and had a five-year window of opportunity to implement the reforms. And yet not even one reform was implemented. Not even one draft proposal was ever tabled in parliament. Not one!

It is nonsense to hold Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader alone, responsible for this serious dereliction of one’s duty and betrayal of the people. After all one did not expect an “illiterate dictator” to draft any constitutional reform; he did not even know where to begin. The nation expected those around him, like Mr Tendai Biti, himself a lawyer by profession to draft such proposals.

There is nothing to suggest that anyone in any of the two MDC factions tabled any democratic reform proposal. Indeed all the MDC leaders came out with guns blazing in support of the weak and feeble Copac constitution including Tendai Biti. They promised the people the new constitution would deliver free, fair and credible elections and so people should vote for it in the March 2013 referendum. And so the nation did and passed the new constitution with a massive 95% yes vote.

Mugabe and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections five months later. The failure to implement the reforms coupled by the weak and feeble new constitution meant Mugabe had a field day.

Mugabe appease Mujuru with futile faction inquiry before he delivers the coup de grace!

Reports of the Zanu PF politburo meeting last week shows that some of the docile members have for the first voiced their displeasure at the way VP Joice Mujuru was been ill-treated. Sadly, it seems it is all too little too late!  

"Gumbo took no prisoners and accused Mnangagwa of plotting to denigrate Vice President Joice Mujuru. He accused the Mnangagwa faction of plotting another coup and when an angry Mnangagwa tried to stand up and defend himself, he was told by Mugabe to sit down," said on one of the high level sources.

The politburo reportedly rejected Oppah Muchinguri’s report of Grace Mugabe’s rallies which the latter had used as her platform to denigrate VP Mujuru. The report was reportedly silent on the accusations against Mujuru and the demands for her to resign. As a way forward Mugabe proposed setting up a commission of inquiry to investigate the existence of the factions within the party.

What some people fail to appreciate here is that the events of the last two months have forced the Mnangagwa faction, at least, to come out in the open and declare its intention – to be the dominant faction and be the one to choice who replaces Mugabe. The gene is out of the bottle and there is no putting it back now.

The Mnangagwa faction has already had a head start in campaigning for dominance by doing so under the cover that it was Grace Mugabe thanking party members for electing her to lead the party’s women’s league. The Mujuru faction was stopped having its own campaign rallies or at least replying the scathing attack against its candidate, Mai Mujuru, because Mugabe had banned all electioneering and speaking to the press.

The second point most people have failed to appreciate is that factional fighting in Zanu PF are not just about political power and dominance but even more significantly about economic survival. The regime has been struggling to pay the bloated civil servant wages let alone anything else. The need to reduce the size of government right across the board is clear for all to see and what better way of doing so that dumping members of the losing faction.

All Zanu PF party members are aware of the depths of economic despair and misery likes of the late Nathan Shamuyarira had sunk after he was cast out from the privileged ruling elite circle. They know that is the fate that awaits most of the members of the losing faction. No wonder even the most, up to now docile, politburo members like Gumbo were speaking out in support of their factional leader and “taking no prisoners”. There is simple too much at stake not to speak – the outcome will decide who continues to eat well and who starves!

After all the years of saying and doing nothing about Mugabe’s abuse of power and murderous tyrannical rule it is too late for anyone to assert themselves now. In this case, it is futile because the damage against Mai Mujuru has already been done; she is mortally wounded politically and Mugabe is waiting for the opportune moment, the congress, to deliver the coup de grace.

Just before the politburo meeting Mugabe publicly told the party supporters, conveniently bussed in by the Mnangagwa faction, vote Mai Mujuru out at the up-coming congress.

Establishing a commission of inquiry in the factionalism in Zanu PF is a meaningless gesture (there are factions whether they are officially acknowledged is a matter of indifference) designed to appease (makes Mujuru supporters feel they will have another chance to speak out, to what end and purposes even they have no idea) and, most important of all, confuse the Mujuru factions.

She is not going to rally her followers for fear of being accused of leading a faction. Meanwhile the Mnangagwa faction will intensify their activities and even infiltrate the Mujuru faction under the guise of investigating factionalism in preparation for the elective congress!

Throughout the GNU Mugabe kept Tsvangirai guessing what the tyrant was up to whilst giving all the slack to make him believe MDC will win the July 2013 elections. Mugabe delivered his coup de grace on Tsvangirai on election-day and the MDC leader did not see it coming. Mugabe has a similar a similar surprise for Mai Mujuru, she too will not know what hit her! 

Zanu PF factions counter accusations a necessary preamble for the savage fight to follow

Grace Mugabe has been uncompromising in her demand to have VP Mujuru “baby-dumped” because the VP is the leader of faction seeking to force her husband out of office. The Mujuru faction has come up with its own counter accusation; accusing the Mnangagwa faction, of who Grace is their stalking horse, of seeking regime change. 

“It’s unfortunate that we are witnessing Tsholotsho Two, the people who were involved in the Tsholotsho declaration are now also involved to bring a regime change,” said Rugare Gumbo. Gumbo is from the Mujuru faction.

What these Zanu PF idiots, from both factions, have failed to see is that ‘no regime change’ has creating a political system designed to retain power at all cost including denying the majority of the people a meaningful say and even murdering innocent people and to reward those committed to this ethos was always doomed to fail. The system is inherently inefficient and wasteful because it stifles debate, competition and meaningful accountability and every soon the ugly faces of mismanagement and corruption will emerge.

The waste of resources, human and material, will lead to poor economic performance and the fall in the standards of living, particularly those with no political power. The people will, naturally, become restless in the face of increasing economic hardships. The ruling elite’s response is to become more oppressive to ensure there is no regime change but since this does not address the core problem of the criminal waste of resources it easy to see why this becomes a vicious circle.

In the case of Zimbabwe decades of vicious circle of increasing political repression encouraging more corruption and waste leading worsening economic performance have resulted in rampant corruption and total economic meltdown. The latter has result in unemployment soaring to 90% plus; forced 300 000 or 80% of children out of school because their parents are too poor to pay their fees; 16% or 2 million people are now living in abject poverty or on less than $1.25 per day; etc.

The economic hardship have not spared the ruling elite either as the countless stories of Zanu PF party grandee like the late Nathan Shamuyarira and Enos Nkala who lived the last years of their lives in abject poverty.

 Of course this vicious circle designed to condemn more and more people into a life of abject poverty and despair was unsustainable; the vicious circle was bound to be broken and the political system founded on ‘no regime change’ ended with regime change.

The factional fighting going on in Zanu PF right now, although each faction claims to be the one defending ‘no regime change’ in their own macabre way, is in fact a regime change agenda in response to the worsening economic reality. Each side has realised that the system is relegating too many people into poverty and despair but instead of seek a holistic change of the system they want the size of the ruling elite reduced and are fighting to ensure it the other faction that remain in power.

Accusing each other of being corrupt and counter revolutionaries is a necessary preamble; it helps to justify the savagery that is to follow! History belongs to the winning side; revised versions of heroic exploits of VP Joice Mujuru shooting down a helicopter during the war of independence claiming it was all a lies, for example, have already started to come out. The winning side will come out with shocking details of how corrupt and tyrannical the losers were!

What Mujuru and Mnangagwa and their respective factional supporters must realise is that the nations will only end corrupt system that has forced millions into a life of poverty and hopelessness by instituting a political system that allows regime change. The half-way solution of one faction dumping another but still retaining the ‘no regime change’ mantra is not acceptable; it too will collapse just as surely as this Zanu PF was doomed to collapse.