War veterans "dump Mugabe" but not yet ready to dump dictatorial rule.

"In 2008, they mobilised us to set up various bases to campaign for them in different parts of the country. We were forced to work against our own brothers and sisters but after that, they didn't do anything to appreciate our efforts," said Manicaland war veterans chairperson Angeline Muponda.

"We are now growing older but we have nothing to show to our kids, we are struggling to feed our families and pay school fees for our children. We have suffered enough; we want to tell Zanu-PF that we don't eat slogans."

If only I had forced the likes of Mutsvangwa, Mahiya, Maponda and all the other war veterans who have expressed similar sentiments to pay a penny each time they complained of how Zanu PF has used them and then discarded them like used toilet paper; I would be a billionaire in my own right!

There are two things these disgruntled war veterans have failed to grasp. First, they must stop pretending that they were in anyway coerced to harassing, beating, raping and even killing innocent Zimbabweans to impose the de facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship we have today. They have done all this dirty work out of greed, they were cock sure Mugabe will reward them for helping him become a dictator by granting them a share of the absolute power, the social influence and the material wealth.

“War veterans and collaborators, have over the years served as Mugabe and Zanu-PF's political power dynamos, playing particularly significant roles to keep the nonagenarian on the throne in the hotly-disputed 2000 and 2008 national elections which were both marred by serious violence and the murder of hundreds of opposition supporters,” wrote Bulawayo 24 Staff reporter in the article War collaborators dump Mugabe.

Mugabe, as the war veterans themselves have now finally realised, use and abused the war veterans and discarded them. Most of them are living in abject poverty, just like the rest of us, the innocent victims of the decades of corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship.

The war veterans owe the nation an apology for betraying the liberation war values of freedom and justice for all in helping Mugabe impose the dictatorship; regardless of whether they are one of the lucky few who were rewarded by the tyrant or one of the many who were kicked in the teeth and now languishing in poverty and despair.

Second, it is clear that most of these rogue the war veterans have not only failed to accept they were wrong and thus repented for doing Mugabe’s no-regime-change dirty work but, worse still, they will do this again. The war veterans have failed to see that the de facto one-party/one-man dictatorship IS evil and is the root cause of the nation’s economic meltdown and political chaos. It is therefore not enough that Mugabe must go but the whole dictatorial system of government must be uprooted and destroyed.

The war veterans have been demanding that the current dictator, Robert Mugabe, must go and replaced by VP Mnangagwa. Those war veterans who have already been kicked out of Zanu PF are realigning themselves with Mai Mujuru or MDC with the view of forcing the electorate to support these just as they have done for Zanu PF. We do not want another dictator or dictatorship!

We want to implement all the democratic reforms design to stop war veterans or anyone from terrorising the people and rigging the vote for selfish political gain. We want the next elections to be free, fair and credible!

There is a "deafening" call for Mugabe to step down - it is us who need wake-up call. By P Guramatunhu

“As calls from Zimbabweans, including opposition supporters, war veterans and even some in Zanu-PF for President Robert Mugabe to step down get almost deafening, it is becoming increasingly desirable for the nonagenarian to listen to the voice of reason - for the sake of his young family,” reported the Daily News.

The truth of the matter is President Mugabe will never ever stand down because he accepts that he has failed and feels sorry for the people who have suffered all these years. It is not in the nature of a tyrant to acknowledge he has failed much less to give up power. He will have to be forced out of office kicking and screaming or dead!

Like every other public official, if asked, President Mugabe will be adamant that he has served the people of Zimbabwe well, they love him to bits and he has some unfinished business still to do even after 37 years in office. He is here to serve the nation; although he is not as strong physically and mentally as he was in the days gone by he will soldier on regardless, he is the servant of his people.

The real reason he will not step down is that absolute power is sweet and addictive and after a few years one is hooked. After 37 years of enjoying absolute power and the earthly luxuries it brings, giving it up now is simply unthinkable! It is not uncommon to hear of heroine addicts failing to pay their rent because they spent the money buying the drug. Absolute power is an even stronger addictive drug; it is no surprise that President Mugabe spent $36 million globetrotting last year whilst public hospitals under and up the country had no money to buy something as basic as painkillers.

People should not waste time asking President Mugabe to step down, that will never happen, but focus on why those within his own party Zanu PF and the opposition have failed to force him to give up power.

When Margaret Dongo dismissed Zanu PF leaders as “vakadzi vaMugabe” (Mugabe’s subservient concubines) many of us laughed and soon forgot about it. She was on to something and we were foolish not to pay heed to her warning. President Mugabe is a control freak who has surrounded himself with some of the most incompetent, corrupt and useless public leaders one can ever imagine. Zimbabwe has never held a cabinet meeting in 37 years unless Mugabe was there to chair it; is it any wonder that even now, when Mugabe can hardly stay awake for more than a few hours and weak and frail from ill health and old age, still not even one of his subservient concubines has dare to force him to give up power.

The opposition MDC had its golden opportunity to force President Mugabe out of office by making sure the 2013 elections were free, fair and credible. All Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had to do was implement the democratic reforms. The tyrant bribed the lot with the trappings of high office and the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai, in return they kicked the reforms into the tall grass.

SADC leaders tried them best to get MDC to implement the reforms but were ignored.

Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections. SADC leaders blamed MDC leaders for this accusing them of “enjoying themselves during the GNU and forgetting why they were there!” Of course, SADC leaders were right; MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent and the sold-out during the GNU.

In the last 37 years, there have been many opportunities to end Mugabe’s corrupt and tyrannical rule; sadly, there was no competent politician in the opposition camp and even less likely within Zanu PF itself, to take advantage of one of these opportunities.

We, the electorate, have played our part in this by failing to elect quality leaders. By failing to see people like Tsvangirai and Mujuru for the corrupt and incompetent leaders they are, even with the benefit of hindsight of their past blunderings, we are telling the whole world that we are not yet ready to good governance.

Even if we managed to get President Mugabe to step down tomorrow the chances are we will replace him with either Mnangagwa, Mujuru or Tsvangirai – the nation is so desperate to see the back of Mugabe that many will consider anyone of the three a very significant improvement. We all know that each one of the three is corrupt and incompetent and that should be enough to disqualify them from ever holding public office much less hold the highest office in the land!

We are desperate for change only because we have never made the effort to think through what qualities we should be looking for is a good and competent leader and then go out and seek one.

People get the government they deserve and in Zimbabwe we certain deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and opposition parties. The economic misery of decades of mismanagement and corruption have caused untold human suffering and many, many deaths but clearly not enough to wake us up from our sloth-like slumber and force us to take the business of select quality leaders with seriousness and urgency the matter demands!

It is not the call for President Mugabe to step down that we want but rather the call to the electorate to stop recycling corrupt and incompetent leaders and look for quality leaders who will not only remove the dictator but replace oppressive dictatorship with the open and progressive democratic rule. If we are serious about wanting an end to the economic meltdown and democratic rule we will have to do a lot more than shout for Mugabe to step down!

American erred in electing Trump; they will learn, they always do - beauty of democracy. By W Mukori

In 9 days’ time America, will be witness the peaceful hand over of power from President Barack Obama to President-elect Donald Trump. It is this willingness to renew itself that has made America such a dynamic and successful nation.

President Obama is leaving office with a staggering 56% popularity rating, one of the highest of an outgoing president in American history. He certainly has plenty of gas in his tank and would has won if he had contest the election. He could not contest because he had served his maximum two four-year terms decreed in the American Constitution.

Incoming president Donald Trump could well turn out to be one of the worst US President, he has not yet moved into White House and already dark sinister shadows such as the allegations that the Russians hacked his Democrat challenger in last November’s elections are already hanging over his presidency. If electing Donald Trump was a big mistake, the American people will pay for the mistake, like everyone else; scrutinise what went wrong from all possible angles, learn all there is to be learned from the mistake and, in four years’ time, kick Mr Trump out of White House – something many of us cannot do.

To be the President of America, one is subjected to a rigorous selection process first the grinding mill of the party’s primaries where one must prove to party members that he/she is the best followed by an even tougher national electoral process. Anyone can be the president of America as long as they can garner the majority vote in free, fair and credible elections.

Maximum fixed terms of two four-years or two five-years is reasonable; any reasonable competent leader can accomplish a lot in that time. Even if a leader is foxed to leave office when they still have gas in the tank, it is no lose; they can burn the gas by contribute to the nation in many other ways. The main emphasis for fixed maximum terms is renewal as contrast to stability.

The incumbent regime will always have the advantage over the new comers because we all fear change, specially the unknown. Indeed, it is this fear of change and that totalitarian regimes and tyrants exploit to justify the imposing of one-party cum one-man dictatorship. The difference between stability and stagnation is as subtle as woodland and grassland, who is to say!

Still, after 37 years in power and the country in an economic mess and political upheaval and, due to old age and ill health, Mugabe now 92 years old, is physically and mentally exhausted. He took office when President Jimmy Carter, the 39^th US President, was in White House and now America is going to have its 45^th President. Mugabe not superman and the sorry economic state of Zimbabwe bears testimony to his blundering incompetency and greed.

Whatever ideas Mugabe had in he first took office in 1980 it was soon clear that they were not working because Zimbabwe’s economy has been in decline ever since. The only reason he has managed to stay in power regardless of his growing reputation as a corrupt incompetent and murderous tyrant is because he rigged elections. Zimbabwe has yet to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Mugabe has already said he intends to contest next year’s presidential elections. He will be 94 years old. After 37 years of enjoying absolute power and all the influence and material wealth that comes with it; Mugabe and his family are now so addicted to it they cannot give it up. It was the prospect of giving up her “Gucci” lifestyle that forced Grace Mugabe to take up politics and spear head the booting of former VP Joice Mujuru out of Zanu PF because she was the greatest threat to Mugabe’s continued rule. She is eyeing the presidency herself and thus has crossed swords with VP Mnangagwa who too is hoping to succeed Mugabe. Meanwhile Grace wants her husband to remain in power ever if he cannot stand up; she will “buy a wheelchair for him and wheel him around herself,” she said.

“There are no cats in America and the street are paved with cheese! But back home in mother Russia … hihihiiii!” so lyrics from American Tail.

 Well, America has certainly been a land of opportunity for the great majority of people who called it their home. And the key to America’s success is its ability to reinvent itself, especially at the highest level – government.

In Zimbabwe, our fight for independence has turned into a nightmare; the country is to all intend and purpose the Garden of Eden and yet we have long lost our bread basket of the region and are starving. The insatiable greed of the ruling elite, the fat cats, knows no bounds. And, for our part, we the people, cannot even articulate what we need to have free, fair and credible elections; even now, 37 years after independence and with the benefit of all human history!

As we watch the swearing into office of President Donald Trump; remember that even if electing him was a mistake, Americans will learn from the mistake and emerge an even stronger nation for it. To err is human and the beauty of a healthy and functioning democracy is it forcing you to learn from the mistake.

In Zimbabwe, we have not only been stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical regime for 37 years but worse still we are at sixes and sevens as to what to do to end its iron grip on power. Meanwhile the tyrant is squandered $36 million, according to recent reports, in the first 10 months of 2016 on globetrotting at a time when even major hospitals have no money to buy something as basic painkiller.