Boisterous war vets abandon demo - proof, without Mugabe cajoling, they are not mindless thugs.

“Boisterous fighters of the liberation struggle had to abandon their planned demonstration yesterday, which was meant to show support of their embattled leader, Christopher Mutsvangwa, as well as stopping Higher and Tertiary Education Minister , Jonathan Moyo, from attending the Zanu-PF's Politburo meeting,” reported Fingaz.

No one with half brain is surprised that the war vets developed cold feet and called off their demo.

The war vets have become used to behaving as if they are a law into themselves notably when they carried out the often violent seizure of white owned farms and who can ever forget Jabulani Sibanda and his war vet thugs frog-marching villagers to Zanu PF rallies in 2008. Demonstrating against Zanu PF members were common place in 2014 with the purge of Joice Mujuru and her supporters, the modus operandi was for bussed in war vets or women’s league members to besiege the party offices and demand the ouster of the individual. This demo was not going to be the same as those in the past.

This demo against Minister Jonathan Moyo, a G40 faction member; this is the faction started and sustained with the tacit support of the president himself, and therefore the demo was tantamount to a demo against the Mugabe himself – a red line that no one ever dared to cross.  The very fact that the demo was undemocratic in that it was seeking to stop the Minister from attending the, for all intent and purpose, a private meeting made it worse. President Mugabe is renowned for his strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the law, if that is to his advantage even when the legality of the matter is not clear; when it is clear he relishes it!

The war vets were outwitted and outmanoeuvred by the Women’s League members who stage a counter demo targeting to occupy the same space at the same time to clash with the war vet’s demo. The women were supposedly demonstrating to express their thanks to President Mugabe for successfully chairing the AU for a year. What could be more innocuous than that!

Yes we are now in the realm of George Orwell’s Animal Farm with the “Thanks to Comrade Napoleon, how sweet this water taste!” Zimbabwe’s revolution has run its full course and it is now a fully-fledged dictatorship!  

There are those, especially in the MDC leadership, who have argued that MDC did not implemented any of the security sector reforms during the GNU because the Zanu PF hardliners would ignored the reforms anyway. The above story proves that war vets are boisterous as long as they know they have Mugabe’s tacit support, withdraw that tacit support which is what the reforms do by severing the undemocratic power and influence the president has over the Police and Judiciary. The instance the war vets know they will be arrested and punished like anyone else if the broke the law their boisterous arrogance will disappear like morning mist in the morning African sun.

The only reason MDC leaders failed to implement even one single democratic reform in five years of the GNU is because they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent! Of course MDC leaders sold-out!

Zim needs $1.5 b in drought relief, says VP Mnangagwa but why have we started with empty silos?

"Masvingo has 75 percent of maize being a write off while Matabeleland South has 65 percent write off. 30 percent of the rural communities, which is 3 million people are food insecure and they require food assistance. So we need US$1.5 billion from the private sector and other organisations to support the emergence relief programme," said VP Mnangagwa.

The regime has admitted that dams have dried up, while 71 percent of boreholes are mal-functioning and 16 000 cattle have already died. A lot more cattle will died before the next rainy season which in October, nine months away.

VP Mnangagwa I hope for the nation’s sake that your regime will raise the necessary money so that no one dies of starvation. There is no doubt that the country has been badly affected by the drought; other countries in the region have also been affected by the drought and they too are suffering. We in Zimbabwe must conduct a thorough judiciary investigation into the nation’s drought preparedness, especially if there is loss of even one human life due to starvation. There is no doubt that this drought is going to hit the nation very hard causing untold suffering because we were ill prepared for it.

  

The thorough investigation is necessary to establish the facts and lay to rest the generally held believe that the country’s man-made problems will have made the effects of the drought worse than it need be. There are two specific areas that must be thoroughly investigated;

1)      How much grain did the nation have at the start of the drought? Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of the region what happened?

It is a well-established fact the regime’s land redistribution polices has caused serious disruption in the agricultural sectors, which is bad enough. What will make it intolerable is if it turns out that a very significant amount of the land was given to Mugabe and his cronies and not the landless peasants as the regime has maintained throughout was the case.

The empty grain silos at the beginning of the drought will therefore be attributed to the insatiable greed of the politicians who seized the former white owned farms only to fail to put the farms to productive use and thus putting the food security of the entire nation at risk. This year with the severe drought the nation has ended paying dearly for this greed.

2)       How serious is the country’s corruption problem? How much of the $15 billion drought relief would the nation have raised from its own resources if the criminal waste from corruption was dealt with the sense of urgency the matter demanded given the seriousness of the drought.

According to Partnership Africa, a Canadian NGO monitoring the trade in illegal diamonds, President Mugabe pocketed $2 billion in 2012 alone from the wholesale looting going on in Marange and Chiadzwa. If this is indeed the case then no Zimbabwean need die since the country can fund the entire food relief with $ 0.5 billion left over to save the national herd. 

Musewe offers imaginary boom by "assumed" leaders to entice nation from GPA reforms.

If I had to name the greatest challenge of our generation since Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 then, without a moment’s hesitation, it is our failure to stop Mugabe imposing this corrupt and tyrannical one party state dictatorship. And, until we bite the bullet and end the dictatorship this nation is destined to remain in this political and economic hell-on-earth Mugabe has dragged us into!

Back in 1980 the nation had the choice of becoming a democratic nation in which the freedoms and basic human rights, including the right to free and fair elections and the right to life itself, were upheld and guaranteed for all Zimbabweans. Mugabe enticed us to take our eyes off the democratic goal with a promise of mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji” in Shona.

After 36 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and Mafia thuggery mass prosperity has turned into mass poverty. As the national economy started to sink Mugabe has become more and more repressive in a desperate effort to hold on to power; the regime has never held free and fair elections and used brute violence include the politically motivated murder of over 30 000 Zimbabweans.

The political and economic situation is now so bad; it is socially and politically unsustainable. The nation is once again looking at implementing the democratic reforms necessary to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus restore the freedoms and human rights Mugabe has systematically denied our people as the only way out of this hell.

History has the habit of repeating itself; Zimbabweans took their eyes off the democratic ball in 1980 because Mugabe promised them gutsa ruzhinji, they are in serious danger of taking their eyes off the ball again in pursuit of equally deliverable economic boom from the likes of Vince Musewe.

“Political power without principled leadership is dangerous. Absolute power corrupts absolutely while absolute poverty disempowers absolutely. This, we have seen here in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe we want is significantly different from the past and the present. However, if we are to get there we must think anew,” argued Vince Musewe in his latest bid to convince Zimbabweans that he has the key out of hell. (Nehanda Radio opinion)

“The leaders we want must promote a compelling national vision for our country driven by purpose and action. Leadership must be a privilege for those who have the competency to lead, and not a politically acquired right. If we assume that indeed we can get such leaders in Zimbabwe, the question would be; what should we expect them to do in order for Zimbabwe to rise?”

Vince has not been found wanting in giving details of what his visionary leaders can accomplish, unlike Mugabe’s vague gutsa ruzhinji Musewe has the numbers; he is promising to grow Zimbabwe economy from the present $15 billion GDP to $ 1 000 billion in 30 years. A Guinness World Record never achieved in human history.

The big question is where is he getting these visionary leaders to deliver his economic boom? All we see right across the political divide are incompetent and corrupt leaders!

What Musewe, like Mugabe before him, has failed to see and appreciate is the role Zimbabwe’s de facto one-party dictatorship has played in the country’s failure to produce quality leaders. The dictatorship stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition in public and within the ruling party Zanu PF itself; this is the oxygen people need to strive to great heights and, without it, complacency and mediocrity set in.

Musewe is asking us to “assume” he will get the quality leaders we want. Why assume, we already know what we need to do to get the quality leaders – implement the democratic 2008 GPA reforms! Musewe has given the most fallacious argument ever why we cannot implement the reforms.

Mugabe will never implement the GPA reforms because it would be “political suicide” for the tyrant, Musewe maintains. Of course, Mugabe would be committing political suicide to agree to democratic reforms; he is a murderous tyrant for Pete’s sake! Since when has any tyrant ever conceded to give up power without being forced to.

If you are serious about freedom and dignity of all man then you do not ask whether to abolish slavery because you will never get the slave and slave master to agree. You ask each whether they would ever give up their freedom and liberty to be a slave.

It is tempting, especially in Zimbabwe’s current economic situation, to take away one’s eyes from the ball of implementing the democratic reforms and end the tyrannical dictatorship. Democracy will deliver two things for the nation:

1)   Democracy will not deliver quality and visionary leaders every time, that will depend on such leaders being there and there being the quality electorate to find them. What democracy will do is do the next best thing, find best there is at the time at least most of the time.

2)   Democracy offers the nation the chance to learn from its past mistakes and to put things right unlike the dictatorship in which the nation will be stuck in a rut for 36 years and counting, as is our present case with Zanu PF.

Zimbabwe has had at least two clear chances to pick a just and progressive system of government, in 1980 and then during the GNU 2008 to 2013; we have wasted both these chances. The political chaos and economic meltdown the country is going through is unsustainable and thus offering us another chance to demand meaningful change, the only silver-lining on the stormy clouds; we must not waste this chance too! 

"To put the world to order, put the nation . . . self to order first," advised Confucius - Mugabe will do well to listen.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall,” said Confucius, the Chinese sage who died in 479 BC. Many would argue that it was his teaching and many others like who have laid the foundations of good governance and thus peace and economic prosperity of China.

Confucius “If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake!”

Zimbabwe’s history since independence has been one of tragic mistake after another with no corrections. 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has reduced the nation’s economy to a sorry state from what is was in 1980. Life expectancy, the qualitative and quantitative measure of a nation’s economic performance and people’s wellbeing, has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to a misery 34 years in 2004 when the last reliable analysis was done.

On the political front all pretence of Zimbabwe being a democracy with the respect of rule of law, freedom and human rights of its people including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life itself were smashed to pieces every early on after independence with the massacre of over 20 000 innocent people in the Gukurahundi operations to pave the way for the creation of the de facto one-party dictatorship.

“What was achieved by the gun cannot be undone by the pen!” Mugabe ranted and raved in 2008. He barking orders to his Zanu PF thugs and rogue war vets backed and directed by the CIO, Police and Army to harass, beat, rape and murder civilians in operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Who did you vote for!) He was punishing the people for daring to vote for the opposition in the March 2008 election in defence of his no-regime-change mantra.

  

As a country we have fallen flat on our faces a good many times and, sadly, many people gave up the dream of a free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe a long, long time ago. The few who have had the guts to get up have not done themselves any favours because they landed back on their faces time and time again as the nation has latched from one crisis to the next. Why?

The answer is simple and straight forward enough; it is not enough to fall and get straight up again, one must endeavour to learn what they did wrong to avoid making the same mistake again.

“When Confucius offered his wisdom, he was referring to a fundamental law in the universe: that life is a constant battle forward, and we win this battle by getting up each time and strapping a new piece of armour on (lessons we have learned),” explained Jake Anderson.

Instead of having an open and honesty debate to ascertain where the nation was going wrong the Zanu PF dictatorship has stifled all debate and instead has operated a propaganda system designed to brainwash the people. So instead of seeing the mismanagement and corruption as the root causes of the country’s poor economic performance, for example, the regime insisted there was no mismanagement and corruption and blamed the drought or “the illegal sanctions imposed by the evil British imperialists and Western allies”.

The people of Zimbabwe should have been confronting the tyrant and demand any end to his no-regime-change nonsense because to address the nation’s economic problems the nation must address the country’s bad governance problem causing it. But because of the brainwashing the nation has spent the last 36 years fighting the British and the West.

“Zimbabwe will never, never, never be a British colony again,” Mugabe has often said to stir up the anti-British rhetoric. He has played on the people’s fear of the colonial oppression of pre-independence so much so that people are always looking back they are not looking where he is taking them.

Instead of strapping ourselves with a new piece of armour to deal with tyranny, mismanagement, etc. the real problems that have dragged the nation these last 36 years; we are still strapped up to fight against these imaginary whites hiding in every bush, at the UN, everywhere plotting to recolonize Zimbabwe.

What is shocking is that so many Zimbabweans still believe Mugabe’s rhetoric and hen’s teeth stories and continue to believe his lies of blaming the West for the country’s problems even now with the benefit of 36 years of hindsight. It is not just the ordinary Zimbabweans are still naïve and gullible enough to believe Mugabe’s nonsense even the intellectuals like Vince Musewe are taken in.  

“I am sure that by now most of us have listened to President Mugabe's recent AU speech,” wrote Musewe. “I received numerous tweets from the rest of Africa on the issue applauding President Mugabe for providing leadership to Africa and telling it like it is. I choose to reserve my judgement on these assertions.

“However, I think it was a relevant speech in that Africa must realise that its fate cannot continue to lie in the hands of others. For far too long we in Africa have been masterminded by the West whose agenda may not necessarily coincide with our national interests, there is no doubt about that. Africans must take their place in the community of nations and shape their future unhindered by international geopolitical interests which seek to keep the advantages of the past.”

Mugabe was very encouraged by his fellow African leaders’ standing ovation to his anti-West rhetoric and is even more pleased to see there are still many Zimbabweans who are still under his devilish spell, especially highly respected intellectuals like Vince Musewe –  Zimbabwe’s answer to China’s Confucius!

Of course, as long as tyrants like Mugabe continue to get such rapturous applause to their fabricated lies blaming the West for Zimbabwe and Africa’s problems, they will be very encouraged not to do anything about their incompetence, corruption and murderous tyranny, are the root causes of the country’s economic and political demise.

To define a way out of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess one must look at not just the obvious things but also look beyond that, must think outside the box. It is not enough to fix the political chaos due to the incompetent leaders, the walls whose cracks we can see; and the economic collapse due to corruption, the leaking roof with the rusted corrugated sheets we can see too. We need to look at the foundation too because building will stand for long unless it built on solid foundation and so too with governments

Zimbabwe greatest weakness is the lack of sound intellectual thinking, the bedrock on which good, stable, just and prosperous government. For 36 years Mugabe has been able to bamboozle the nation and the continent at will with his bull and no African intellectual has ever stood up and exposed his anti-Western narrative for what it is – lies, lies and more lies! If anything the countries’ so called intellectual Professor Jonathan Moyo and of late Vince Musewe have all stripped over each other to praise the lies and propaganda.

“To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order.” advised Confucius. “To put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life.”

The is no doubt that Zimbabwe is a nation is total disorder; the country has nauseating 90% unemployment rate, has 18 out 24 hours power cuts, most cities and towns have no clean running water, the regime is failing to pay its civil servants let alone buy essentials like medical drugs. These are all a result of 36 years of gross misrule, a man-made problem and that man is Mugabe himself not the West.

It all very well to stand up at a world stage and call Westerners “pink nose” as Mugabe did at the AU summit and got cheap applause the tough reality is that 1.5 million Zimbabweans are going to starve if country does not get food aid. It is from the West we can expect to get that help; is Mugabe going to apologize or condemn the people to death to feed his misplaced ego.

Doctors to vote on strike action - if the situation does not demand it then nothing will.

“Zimbabwe's doctors are voting on whether or not to stage a full-fledged strike, over salaries. Doctors started casting their vote yesterday, with the majority said to be in favour of a strike,” reported Bulawayo24.

The economic mess in Zimbabwe has reached crisis point and beyond, if doctors do not go on strike over this then one is compelled to ask what else has to happen to finally push these doctors out of the white-coat complacence!

It is typical Zimbabwean mentality to always go out of one’s way to avoid taking decisive action even when the situation demands decisive action, in the vain hope that the situation will cure itself without our intervention. All Zimbabwean workers, unemployed, students, everyone should have been out on the streets years ago to demand action over the country’s decades of economic collapse and yet the whole nation has chosen to sit back and watch what happens!

Something has happened, true enough; everything has got progressively worse and worse, year after year! Unemployment has soared to 90% plus; the few lucky enough to still have a job like the doctors are so poorly paid many have left their jobs and the country; hospitals are so poorly funded they have no drugs; hospitals and homes have no clean running water; 18 out of 24 hours power cuts are the norm; etc.; etc.

This regime has ears but has not been listening; it has eyes but has failed to perceive anything. The country’s economic problems are a result of decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption; the chickens in their billions like red-billed quelea have finally come home to roost. It is the duty of every citizen to ensure those in power listen and take appropriate action to address problems before they get out of hand.

Mismanagement and corruption are man-made problems and therefore within the powers of the people to solve. If the people had been more diligent then these economic problems would have never got out of hand. Sitting at home and doing nothing has clearly failed to draw the regime’s attention; if the only way to get this regime’s attention is going on strike then so be it!

Today Zimbabwe's economic situation has gone beyond crisis point, it is socially and politically unsustainable, and per se demands that immediate action is taken to draw the regime's attention to this reality. Strike action is no longer an option, it is the only choice.

Twenty years ago when Zimbabwe’s economy showed all the signs of slowing under the strain of mismanagement and corruption and the people elected to do nothing it was the equivalent a doctor giving a patient with a broken leg painkillers and send him back home - it relieved the pain but will not fix the broken leg! The punched wound even showed signs of healing although the patient continued to complain of pain and thus never stopped taking the painkillers.

Today the patient is back, the leg wound has ruptured to reveal the reason why the patient had need the painkillers; the wound was healing on the outside whilst deep inside the rot continued. Gangrene has set in. With diligent attention the leg would have been saved, now there is nothing for it but to amputate.

For the doctors to vote not to go on strike is no different from the doctor who failed to treat the broken leg properly and allowing the gangrene to set in giving the patient painkillers once again; if that is not professional negligence, then I do not know what is! The economic situation demands strike action; if not then please tell me what else has to happen to warrant strike action!?

Zimbabwe’s political and economic situation is man-made and it is the responsibility of all Zimbabweans, doctors and nurses, workers and vendors, everyone to demand that this Zanu PF regime attends to the worsening national crisis before it is too late. If going on strike can stop the complete collapse of our health system then sure the strike is long overdue because our health system is already in ICU right now!

MDC finally admit "free and fair elections" are essential but have clearly given up ever securing them.

Zimbabwe has paid dearly for having had a breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent MDC during the GNU; they failed to get even one GPA democratic reform implemented in the five years of the GNU. But because MDC is the country’s only opposition voice after the rigged 2013, we are yet to suffer another five years of their plundering incompetence.

“The people of Zimbabwe deserve to be governed by a government of their own choice; freely and fairly elected into power in an electoral contest that passes the test of legitimacy. Nothing short of this will be acceptable,” wrote MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu.

A case of the spirit is willing but the brain is weak; the party appreciates that free and fair elections are absolutely vital in if we are ever to get out of this political and economic mess which is getting worse and worse, day by day. However, our chance of getting the critical reforms necessary for free and fair elections finally implemented before the next elections is slowly but surely disappearing too.

After failing to get even one reform implemented before the 2013 elections because they thought they would still win the election regardless of whatever Zanu PF’s vote rigging “shenanigans”, Tsvangirai said. If the truth be told it was because MDC leaders are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent and the events are proving that is indeed the case.

MDC tell they now appreciate the need for ensuring the next elections are free and fair and yet, now half way through the five years before the next elections, they have still done nothing to ensure the next elections are indeed free and fair. There two main reasons why they have done nothing and, unless they make a complete U-turn, nothing will ever be done:

a)      MDC do not have a clue what reforms must be implemented to ensure the next elections are free and fair.

MDC-T have come up with a list of electoral law reforms they say must be implemented, these are amendments to the existing laws to bring them into line with the demands of the new constitution adopted in March 2013.

“Voter registration has to be conducted continuously,” wrote Obert Gutu in his latest article. “Thus, there is also need to amend Section 17A of the Electoral Act. ZEC must take active steps to ensure that all eligible voters are registered as voters by making voter registration processes freely available throughout the country. Section 155(2) of the Constitution obliges the State to ensure that all eligible citizens are registered as voters.”

Another thing MDC have also been calling for is the updating of the country’s voting system to use the more technically advance biometric system so instead of a voter having to produce the ID to confirm they are who they say they are system will match their unique finger print and eye pupil details with those on the system captured when the register as voters. The Zanu PF has already secured the funding from UNDP to buy the system, so this is in the bag.

For example, in the 2013 elections NIKUV, the Israeli company, deliberately posting individual voter’s data to other constituencies instead of the ones the individual expected. Nearly a million voters failed to cast their vote on election-day. As long as Mugabe is still able to Zanu PF loyalists in ZEC, in the Police, Judiciary, Registrar General’s Office, etc. which he is because there are electoral law reforms seeking to stop him doing so; then is nothing to stop NIKUV doing exactly the same with the biometric data.

The 2008 GPA listed a raft of democratic reforms aimed at breaking the undemocratic hold Mugabe and Zanu PF has over ZEC, the Police, etc. to ensure their independence complete with the democratic checks and balance so they are able to carry out their set tasks delivering free and fair elections.

So insisting on a new biometric voting system but failing to ensure there is an independent ZEC to stop NIKUV corrupting the voters roll, for example, it down right stupid! 

b)      What must be done and by whom to implement the reforms.

Let us assume for the sake of the argument that MDC-T’s reforms are the right reforms and, if implemented, will finally deliver the free, fair and credible elections we are all after and “nothing short of this is acceptable,” as Gutu said. Would anyone in their right mind expect a tyrant like Mugabe to implement those reforms just because Tsvangirai and a handful of other opposition party have asked him to in a document called National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA)? Of course not!

SADC told Mugabe in no uncertain terms that they will never grant him political legitimacy he signed the GPA agreeing to implement the democratic reforms designed to deliver free, fair and credible election regardless of the political reality this would be political suicide to Mugabe as everyone knows he would never win such elections. SADC did not expect Mugabe to implement the reform, the expected MDC to do this.

Mugabe wielded a lot of political power in the GNU and SADC knew he would throw the spanners in the reform implementation process at every turn and that is why SADC were to remained the guarantor of the GPA throughout the GNU with the power to force Mugabe to honour the agreement.

Mugabe had his hands tied behind his back during the GNU and so it was a lot easier to have implemented the GPA reforms then. Now with the GPA having expired it is not easy certainly expecting Mugabe to implement shows MDC are politically naïve!

Actually Tsvangirai and his friends are asking Mugabe to implement the wishy-washy NERA reforms which will never deliver free and fair elections for exactly that reason - they will never ever deliver the dreaded free and fair elections and so Mugabe will never object to implementing them.

MDC for their party are not really committed to delivering free and fair elections especially now when the task in considerably harder than it was during the GNU. All they want to do is to be seen as having tried to deliver free, fair and credible elections.

MDC will take part in the next elections under the pretext that they forced Mugabe to implement some electoral reforms. If the elections are once again blatantly rigged, as is almost certain to happen with no GPA reforms implemented, Tsvangirai will kick up another dust storm complaining about how Mugabe rigged the elections just as he has always done then come up with a revised list of NERA.

MDC know that Mugabe will not want to win all the seats just as happened in 2013; even the tyrant would know that it would be prudent to have a sprinkling of opposition representation in the new government. MDC will contest the elections for the sake of these scraps Mugabe throws at the opposition.

It was taken the cream out of Tsvangirai and company to finally come to the realization that Zimbabwe needs free, fair and credible elections, sadly it was too late because the GPA, that had Mugabe’s hands tied, had expired. To expect Zimbabwe’s current opposition to confront Mugabe now and deliver free, fair and credible elections is to expect too much from these breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent individuals!

Of course they will pretend to fight for free, fair and credible elections, it is second nature for them to make promises they know they will never deliver; all they ever want now are the scraps Mugabe throws at them. 

If Zimbabweans want free, fair and credible elections then they must pressure Mugabe to accept the need to appoint an independent body that will be tasked to implement the GPA reforms to be then followed by the holding of free, fair and credible elections. This is the only way out of the political and economic hell we are now in!

Mujuru supporters being threatened reports NGO - more proactive NGOs to end violence.

"On 18 December 2015, at the inauguration of the substantive Headman Zvakaramba at Matsvitsi Village Ward 3 in Zvimba South, the guest of honour, Chief Zvimba Chikambi was asked to give a vote of thanks. Chief Zvimba began to attack smaller parties like the People First. He said he was aware of its activities in the area and the ruling party was not going to fold its arms and watch," reported Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).

What goes round comes round; Mai Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Jabulani Sibanda and the other People First Movement bigwigs are used to hearing or even directing the violence with them holding the thick end of the whip. Now they and their supporters are on the business end of the whip and they do not like it one bit. One does not need to ask Mai Mujuru whether she likes, of course she hates it!

They never raised a finger to stop the violence when they were in positions of power and authority to make a difference now all they can do is curse quietly. What goes round comes round.

The ZPP report showed that whilst the greatest number of perpetrates are Zanu PF operative on opposition members; there are nonetheless some Zanu PF to Zanu PF, opposition on opposition and the odd opposition on Zanu PF.

The Police have continued to turn a blind eye to Zanu PF politically motivated violence and each time they are involved they have descended on the opposition like a tonne of bricks from a great height whilst Zanu PF operative get a single finger slap on the wrist, at worst.

As the nation goes into election mode the political violence will swing into overdrive; in 2008 millions of people were harassed, beaten and /or raped. Over 500 were murdered in three months of the presidential run-off. The next elections have all the hallmarks that a fiercely fought contest given the ever worsening economic meltdown so Zanu PF popularity will once again be rock bottom and so the party will be forced to resort to its most tried, tested and never-failed method of securing victory – brutal violence.

It is clear that Zimbabwe's culture of politically motivate violence is now deeply ingrain in our national ethos and anyone who thinks it will go away, without the nation doing something to end it, is naïve. To end the scourge of political violence we need to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA which include reform of the Police and Judiciary to free these institutions from the clutches of Zanu PF to carry out their public duties without fear or favour.

ZPP and all the other civic organizations are doing a great job monitoring politically motivated violence but they must take a more proactive role and demand the implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms designed end this perverse culture. The reforms must be implemented before the next elections; any elections held before the reforms will be marred by fear and violence and therefore can never be a true reflection of the free democratic will of the people.