"Suppose there is economic resurgence" - not whilst Zanu PF rules, water flowing uphill to drown Mt Everest N Garikai

“My critical thinking would be, opposition should focus on talking points and references and guidelines and framework of the agenda. Whether POLAD or GPA or any other frameworks, dialogue remains dialogue, I think the focus should be on the framework. POLAD is a creation of Zanu PF as an institution, and they are using it as a basis of any talks with regards to the court outcome of July 30 elections, and anything outside that is anon-starter,” argued Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo

“So whoever would be advising opposition must focus on the talking points. Suppose there is a resurgence on the economy, what is going to happen to the opposition?”

Well you are spot on, Zanu PF hardliners are interested in talks for talks-sake; they will never ever agree to meaningful political reforms much less get them implemented. Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office. 

Zanu PF will never ever win a free, fair and credible elections, of that there can be no if, but or maybe. After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, given a chance in a free, fair and credible election, the people will vote for anyone, anyone at all, just to rid themselves of Zanu PF.  

So, what will be the purpose of advising the opposition on what talking points to focus on, when one already knows these will be talks for talk-sake! 

President Mnangagwa launched POLAD in May last year, nine months ago; at a time when the economy was already in serious trouble as witnessed by the soaring cost of living, shortages, January 2019 fuel price hike protests, etc. If POLAD was expected to address the nation’s teething economic problems, then the forum members were expected to hit the ground running and, by now, the nation would be expecting significant signs of economic recovery. 

There are no signs of economic recovery. Indeed, there are signs of the economic meltdown getting even worse than ever. 

POLAD was talk for talk-sake and thus it is no surprise Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has continued on its nose dive POLAD or no POLAD. Launching yet another talk for talk-sake platform will too have no effect on the country’s worsening economic meltdown. None! 

“Suppose there is a resurgence on the economy!”

“The Mnangagwa administration has virtually no productive tax base and no one who will lend to it on the scale required, so policy on the fly is the order of the day—layers of contradiction, distortion, graft and increasing chaos—a ‘ramshackle edifice’ that will grow larger and more precarious as the months roll by,” predicted Stuart Doran, in The Strategist ASPI.

“Downward trends and further economic shocks may trigger more instability before the year is out, but they are, ultimately, symptoms, not causes. They are weather vanes that speak of the present and warn us of the imminent, yet they are not seminal and are poor indicators of the longer term.

“For those who would try to read the swirling tea leaves, broader and deeper factors are the better bet. The word ‘system’ is inadequate because the core of it is more profound, more organic and more enduring than that. Zimbabwe is what it is because of a political subculture, centred on the ruling party, that has hegemony and subjugation as its highest ideals. Violence, disdain, paranoia and plunder are among its natural progeny. It is fundamentally antithetical to genuine political competition, dissent and notions of stewardship.”

In short the ramshackle edifice is collapsing, it is nonsense to talk of Zimbabwe’s economic resurgence, not whilst Zanu PF remains in power. Economic resurgence; might as well ask what happens if  water started to flow upstream and worry about Mount Everest drowning! 

Still, it is the country’s worsening economic situation which, in the end, will hold swear as to what happens in the end. Zanu PF has so far used its coercive power to brow beat the populous into submission. But there is no denying that worsening economic situation is forcing more and more people to voice their dissent with the dictatorship. 

In the end the people will overcome their fear of the Zanu PF regime and demand an end to their economic hardships. 

“It is the economy, stupid!” as former US President Bill Clinton, once said!

"Mnangagwa is the legitimate leader" said MDC leader - chastise vote rigging deniers, slap them with sanctions P Guramatunhu

“Here we go!” I sighed! The minute I saw the name Eddie Cross as the author of the article in Zimeye. I expected nonsense from him and nonsense I got! 

“Mr. Mnangagwa could then claim, for the first time, to be the legitimate leader of Government, even though his victory was with a tiny majority. It was only at that moment that we saw a new dispensation of sorts emerge in the form of the first really Mnangagwa controlled Cabinet,” stated Eddie Cross.

How can Mnangagwa ever be “the legitimate leader of government” when the whole election process was flawed and illegal? The regime denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc.

Mr Cross was a senior member of the MDC that had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU which would ended Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig elections. MDC leaders were warned not to take part in 2013 and then 2018 elections without first implementing the reforms. They would not listen out of greed, as one MDC leader, David Coltart, confessed. 

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections,” confessed Coltart in his book.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

The EU, Americans, the Commonwealth and everyone else with any democratic credential worth talking about who observed the July 2018 Zimbabwe elections dismissed them as a farce. 

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report. 

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”

Mnangagwa was able to count this by pointing out that all Zimbabwe’s opposition parties had participated in the July 2018 elections regardless of the 3 million in the diaspora denied the vote, no verified voters roll, etc., etc. And, crown it all, all those who did participate have all endorsed the process as having been free, fair and credible. 

Chamisa has challenged the presidential race result but that was on one very specific aspect, the vote counting by ZEC. The Constitutional Court has since ruled in favour of Mnangagwa. Having accepted ZEC’s authority and conduct in the elections process it is nonsensical for Chamisa to reject the authority and judgement of ZEC’s sister judiciary institution, the Constitutional Court. 

It is worth noting here that Mr Eddie Cross, is a senior MDC leader and colleague of Chamisa, and he has endorsed Mnangagwa’s elections as legitimate and legal. 

Chamisa and the other MDC leaders have agreed to endorse Mnangagwa as legitimate if he agreed to share out the spoils of power with MDC.

“Holocaust denial, the denial of the systematic genocidal killing of approximately six million Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, is illegal in 16 European countries and Israel. Many countries also have broader laws that criminalize genocide denial,” explained Wikipedia

“Of the countries that ban Holocaust denial, some, such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Romania, were among the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and many of these also ban other elements associated with Nazism, such as the expression of Nazi symbols.”

One can understand why these nation passed such laws; the genocides took place, these are historic facts and the individual nations were sick and tired of being dragged back over the same issues by the few who refused to accept the truth for whatever reasons! 

Zimbabwe is stuck in this political and economic mess because the country has failed to remove this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime from office these last 40 years. The party has rigged elections denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

So to get out of this mess, the country needs to hold free, fair and credible elections and for that to happen we need to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. 

It is therefore very frustrating Zanu PF blatantly rigs elections and the country’s opposition politicians are the ones, for selfish reasons, are the once siding with Zanu PF in falsely claiming the elections were free, fair and credible. It was bad enough that Eddie Cross and company sold-out in failing to implement the reforms during the GNU it is intolerable that they are now propping up this illegitimate Zanu PF dictatorship by participating in flawed and illegal elections. 

The people of Zimbabwe must have stop supporting MDC and the rest of the Zimbabwe opposition party who participate in elections with no reforms implemented. These politicians are no longer fighting for free and fair elections with us, ordinary people; they are now content with rigged elections as long as they get some of the spoils of power. 

The international community must add Zimbabwe’s opposition candidate on the sanctions’ list because they are now as guilty of the rigged elections as the Zanu PF politicians themselves.

We can agree to differ on many things but not on truth, reality and facts. After 40 years of rigged elections and with the nation is serious economic and political trouble as a consequence, we cannot afford to be wasting another minute arguing on what constitutes free, fair and credible elections! So those who continue to deny Zanu PF rigged July 2018 elections must be chastised, period! 

"Will send the army to beat you, if you are causing drought!" Freudian slip of the man of blood - even he cannot stop change N Garikai

In a circular to local hospitals, Health and Child Care Permanent Secretary Agnes Mahomva announced that Ante-natal ward per day will now cost $200 at Parirenyatwa Hospital, $160 at central hospitals such as Mpilo and United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), $120 at provincial hospitals and $80 at district hospitals with the same amounts being charged for post-natal care.

Caesarean birth will now cost $2 500 at Parirenyatwa Hospital, $2 500 at Central hospitals and $1 500 at provincial hospitals and $1 000 at district hospitals.

In a country where unemployment has soared to 90% plus where are the poor expected to get the money from?

Only the other day Mnangagwa was saying he was going to stop schools hiking school fees. So, it is ok to increase hospital fees but not school fees!

The 600% hike will only fuel inflation as everything else will go up in price. This is just a rat race; you cannot pull out or slow down or you will be trampled by the stampeding herd and yet know you are just going round and round in circles. It just a matter of time before you collapse of exhaustion! 

Zimbabwe is caught up in a rat race and as long as Zanu PF remains in power; the nightmare will continue. 

It is now clear that Mnangagwa has no clue how to revive the country’s comatose economy, just like Mugabe before him. And, also just like Mugabe, the worsening economic situation has not in anyway dampen Mnangagwa’s determination to remain in office! 

“Danotiziva kati van voKuwadzana vasingadhi kuti mvura inyaye. Taingoti Army kombayi tirove!” (If we knew it was people from Kuwadzana who are causing the drought. We would just tell the Army, to round and beat them!) said Mnangagwa, addressing a rally in Kuwadzana.

The same crowd he had just told he will stop the school fees going up. The people know the promise to stop fees going up will never be honour but they all know the threat to use the Army was not an empty threat. 

Zimbabweans know the Freudian slip to use the Army and other state security institution to silence dissent and criticism was the number one issue on Mnangagwa’s mind! Violence is his bread and butter speciality and would issue the shoot to kill order at the drop of a hat as he did in August 2018 and again in January 2019. 

The Kuwadzana crowd was stunned and subdued by the Mnangagwa’s casual and jocular demeanour with which he said this. The nation knows, Zanu PF’s response to the country’s worsening economic situation will be to use brute force to silence dissent and criticism. We are all expected to suffer and die is silence like sheep!

Zanu PF regime have no clue what to do to revive the Zimbabwe’s economy. 

When Mnangagwa launched “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra in 2017; he was cocksure it going to open the flood gate to new investors and investment. Two years down the line, it is clear investors have continued, as in the Mugabe years, to shy away and the mantra is dead in the water. 

Still, Mnangagwa’s failure to revive the economy, the truth must have sunk in by now, has not dampened his determination to stay in power. Indeed, his failure, it seems, has only hardened his resolve to stay in power no matter what! 

“If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.” Boswell: Life of Johnson

This is the underlying self-preservation principle governing our lives. 

Well, in Zimbabwe, the madman is in State House and he has more than a stick in his hand; he has all the state security machinery behind him and, as we know, has no qualms using it to silence dissent and criticism.

Zimbabwe is being torn apart the poor are dying, literally, for change of government; as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the economic meltdown is set to get worse. The ruling elite are using brute force to silence dissent and criticism in defence of the pariah state.

The tragedy here is the ruling elite are deluding themselves in believing they are stopping change. Change is nature. The best Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs can do is delay change but they are now running the risk of closing the door to peaceful change in favour of violent and revolutionary change.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs rigged the July 2018 elections, they have no mandate to govern the country and they must step down now, spare the nation more human suffering and deaths and, more significantly, spare the nation the agony of violent and chaotic change! 

"In 2020 give God a chance to help" - He helps those who help, not shoot, themselves P Guramatunhu

“First, the year 2019 was one of the hardest for us as citizens. The socio economic situation deteriorated and life continued to be harder for ordinary Zimbabweans,” said Jacob Ngarivhume, President of Transformer Zimbabwe, in his New Year address to the nation.

You are 100% correct that the nation is in a serious economic mess and, since Zanu PF has no clue what to do to revive the economy, the situation is set to get worse. The party rigged the 2018 elections but has since discovered it cannot rig economic recovery too. 

It must be stated here and now that Zanu PF would not have rigged the 2018 elections and, so far at least, get away with it; if it was not for the Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition. There is no denying that Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU which would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorial powers to rig elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!

MDC leaders went on to participate in the 2013 elections knowing fully well that with no reforms in place Zanu PF would rig the elections. And, worst of all, they knew that by taking part in the flawed and illegal elections they were giving credibility to the flawed process, as one MDC leader, David Coltart admitted. 

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” confessed Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Mr Jacob Ngarivhume and his Transform Zimbabwe party joined hands with four MDC factions and other opposition parties to form MDC Alliance (MDC A) to contest the 2018 elections. They all knew that Zanu PF was rigging the elections, which as we know happened, and that by participating they were giving the illegal process credibility and, thus, giving illegitimate Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy. 

“We must build a common vision for our nation. We must stand up to fight together. Indeed we are stronger together….” Prayed Ngarivhume.

“And of course we should not forget that our hope as a nation is in God. We must agree that we need to give GOD a chance. We have tried ALL we can as people but to no avail.

“Let 2020 be the year we give GOD a chance as a nation!”

What common vision did you and your fellow opposition members offer the nation by participating in an illegal 2018 elections and thus giving the illegitimate Zanu PF regime credibility? 

The best MDC A can do for the nation right now is to publicly admit, by participating in the July 2018 elections, the party sold out big time. The party must then admit that both the parliamentary and presidential elections were rigged, both Zanu PF regime and Mnangagwa are illegitimate and must step down.

God helps those who help themselves and not those who shoot themselves in the leg by knowingly giving credibility to an illegal process out of selfishness and greed!

MDC leaders have not gone from hunting with the Zanu PF hounds to now sleeping with the enemy. The sooner the ordinary Zimbabweans wake up to this political reality and stop following these sell-out blindly like sheep, the sooner the nation hope to get quality leaders who will, finally, implement the reforms.

"A prosperous 2020" said ED - not when failed to hold free elections and plant sapling of good governance W Mukori

“As your Listening President and a Servant Leader, I will continue engaging with you and listening to your concerns so that we walk hand in hand, together in unity, love, peace and harmony towards a prosperous Zimbabwe,” said Mnangagwa!

“Listening President!” You have just blatantly rigged the elections, for umpteenth time it must be said, denying us, the people, a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

3 millions in the diaspora were denied the right to vote, a very large number considering Mnangagwa garnered 2.4 million and declared the winner. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement, and so no one who was on the voters’ roll, who voted, etc. 

Rural voters were subjected to the usual intimidation and harassment by traditional leaders and party operative, reducing them into nothing short of medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing landlord, Zanu PF.  

The EU and all the other election observer with any democratic credential have all dismissed last year’s election as a farce. So Mnangagwa switches off the mic, the amplifier, and all the democratic means for people to express their voices and has chutzpah to claim he heard us! 

By failing to stamp out corruption; failing to keep his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections; etc. Mnangagwa has confirmed that, contrary to his claim of Zimbabwe being “new democratic dispensation and Second republic”; the country is still a pariah state of Mugabe days. 

And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!

“There is indeed, much more to look forward to in the New Year. Tomorrow is a better and brighter day. I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year,” Mnangagwa continued.

Rigging elections and thus confirming Zimbabwe’s pariah state status, was the easy bit; rigging economic recovery, given the pariah state, is proving mission impossible! 

Mnangagwa has denied the people of his Zimbabwe a democratic voice because he and his Zanu PF cronies did not want to be told that they have failed and must go. So he is “a listening president” hearing the voices of an imaginary electorate. 

The sorry state of the country’s economy is spelt out in the 90% unemployment rate; the soaring hyperinflation; the 90% of the population now classified as poor with 34% of them living in extreme poverty, according to a recent WB report; most of the country’s hospitals have all but closed and hundreds are dying of easily treatable ailments; etc. No amount of Zanu PF propaganda and coercion will force Zimbabweans to mistake abject poverty for economic prosperity! 

There are some Zimbabweans who have argued that Mnangagwa should be given the benefit of the doubt. “Give him a chance, to turn the economy around!” They argued. 

It is now over two years since the November 2017 military coup that booted Mugabe out of office and still there is nothing to make one believe Zimbabwe has or is ever going to turn the corner. Mnangagwa’s vision 2030 with its promise of middle income status for the country is just a mirage; same as Mugabe’s vision 2000, vision 2020, etc.

“Wishful thinking is hoping to feast on a bushel after bushel of mangoes in the future when you have never planted even one mango sapling,” my late father would often say. “Plant ten saplings and your wish will come true!”

Mnangagwa has had the last two years to plant the saplings to give hope in a future economic recovery; by failing to stamp out corruption, to hold free and fair elections, etc. he has continued with Mugabe’s destructive ways, cutting down the few mango trees for selfish gain. 

Holding free, fair and credible elections to end the country’s curse of rigged elections, bad governance and pariah state is the mango sapling Zimbabwe must plant to secure economic recovery and prosperity. 

“Happy and prosperous New Years!” Mnangagwa said this last year and the year before that and yet year after year the country’s economic meltdown has got progressively worse and not better. With nothing done to end the curse of bad governance, 2020 is not going to buck that trend. 

The people of Zimbabwe must demand that this illegitimate Zanu PF regime steps down now to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the requisite reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. 

The tragic human suffering brought about be the worsening economic situation is the compelling case why this vicious cycle of rigged elections and tyrants hearing imaginary voices must be broken now. 

The right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country is not just a key fundamental right, it is also the essence of good and accountable government. The charade of being denied a voice and tyrants boasting about listening to the people’s democratic voices but not be allowed to continue even for one more day. Enough is enough!

"Mat provinces are marginalised" blabbered Ruhanya - post Gaddafi Libya is a mess because of similar foolishness P Guramatunhu

The Zanu PF dictatorship is imploding, the regime was rotten to the core and the centre can not hold. 40 years of this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical misrule has left the country in economic ruins and the Zanu PF thugs are fighting each other to the death over the ever shrinking national cake. 

The nation has good reason to worry about how the Zanu PF dictatorship will end, as things stand the party is sinking into the abyss but still retains' strangle hold on the nation. The danger of Zanu PF dragging the nation into the abyss with it is real. 

We must find ways of implementing the democratic reforms, end the curse of rigged elections and thus price free of Zanu PF's political strangle hold. A serious and urgent challenge! 

We must also think of what kind of Zimbabwe we want post the Zanu PF dictatorship. The 1980 independence took us from the frying pan of white colonial oppression into the fire of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. We must learn from that mistake and taking every precaution to avoid repeating the same mistake. 

"I agree and support my compatriots who say Mat provinces are marginalized. Let's speak against this and promote equal opportunities for all regions without ambiguity and let's desist from defending stupid things. Why should people come to Harare for nursing interviews!!!" said political commentator Pedzisai Ruhanya.

This is just the type of cheap but very dangerous divide and rule politicking that, if not slammed down forcefully, could see post Zanu PF Zimbabwe ending up like post Gaddafi Libya. 

In a country where unemployment has soared to 90%, there is no water and electricity and health care has all but collapsed, schools are closing, etc.; are we expected to believe that there are some region(s) in Zimbabwe that are prospering and none of these problems exist? If there are, then Mr Ruhanya must name them and not just make insinuating but unfounded comments. 

How is holding nursing job interviews in Harare singling out and “marginalising” Mat provinces and is not doing the same to all the other remaining seven provinces? 

Four decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule have left the nation in economic ruins and traumatised, everyone is angry and mistrustful. The last thing the country wants is some village idiot like Ruhanya stoking the anger and mistrust with falsehoods of one region or tribe being "marginalised". 

The Zanu PF dictatorship is imploding and the task of rebuilding the nation from the ruins will be tough enough without making it mission impossible by wasting the nation's time, resources and, God forbid, human lives fighting regional and tribal rivalries. 

Look at what has happened to Libya since the death of that country’s tyrant, Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi. The dictator was cornered and killed in 2011 and yet, nearly decade latter, the country is still at war! 

No doubt, many Libyans think they are settling old scores, not knowing they are in fact making complete fools of themselves. They were all victims of the Gaddafi dictatorship and by making sure the post Gaddafi Libya enjoyed peace, justice and economic prosperity for all should have been their number one priority. Of course, it is folly to let themselves be dragged into this futile regional conflict that has left the country in a worse economic and political state than it was during Gaddafi! 

Post Zanu PF dictatorship Zimbabwe must be spared the fate that has befallen post Gaddafi Libya. And to be certain of that goal, we must not spare the whip and spoil village idiots like Ruhanya whose foolish blabbering knows no bonds! 

Jonathan Moyo's book, EXCELGATE is a mastery of deception: focuses on vote computation and ignores flawed process N Garikai

Jonathan Moyo knows Zanu PF has been rigging elections for donkey years, especially since his rejoining the party in 2000. He is just being very selective on what he says.

“I studied electoral politics in Zimbabwe: 1985-92 & published VOTING FOR DEMOCRACY. In 2000 I managed ZanuPF election campaign as a consultant; in 2002 as information minister & in 2013 as   a campaign manager. In 2018 I used my contacts & experience to write EXCELGATE!” he said.

In his first book Moyo was an academic and the book was to inform. He has said very little about Zimbabwe electoral politics in the period 2000 to 2017 because it would have been self incriminating. It is no secrete that he was mastermind behind Zanu PF vote rigging activities. His last book focuses on what Mnangagwa did that was new and left out all the dirty that could easily be traced back to Moyo’s vote rigging manuals. 

How convenient!

“Looking back over the last 20 years, the people have squandered three opportunities for real change in 2000; then 2009 to 2013; and in 2017 when ZanuPF & the Army dug their own grave only for the people to fail to bury the two. Now there's yet another opportunity: 2020!” confessed the sell-out Moyo.

In 2000 Zanu PF use the white farm invasions as cover for using violence against its political opponents. Indeed the farm invasions violence flared up again and again during elections for the next decade. Jonathan Moyo has often boasted of being the one who help Zanu PF win the elections post 2000 era.

The opportunity to bring about meaningful democratic change during the 2009 to 2013 GNU was lost because Zanu PF bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, very generous salaries and allowance, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders forgot about implementing the reforms. There is no doubt that Jonathan Moyo played a major role in keeping making sure MDC leaders where distracted throughout the five years! 

The only change Jonathan Moyo wanted to see following the 2017 military coup was for the people, SADC and the world at large to reject the coup and reinstating Mugabe and yours truly, Jonathan Moyo himself. 

Jonathan Moyo and his fellow G40 members who were booted out of Zanu PF in the November 2017 coup are still entertaining hopes of staging a comeback. Hence the reason Moyo and company are very careful to blame everything that has gone wrong in Zimbabwe on Mnangagwa and his fellow November 2017 coup gang. Moyo and his Excelgate book is laser focusing on Mnangagwa as the only one who is illegitimate and not the whole Zanu PF regime!

“While there are many wrongs surrounding Zimbabweans today, a particularly insidious wrong that's crying out for righting is the stolen 30 July 2018 presidential election, preceded by the 15 Nov 2017 military coup & followed by brutal massacres on 1 Aug 2018 & 14-28 Jan 2019!” Jonathan Moyo argues. 

Jonathan Moyo’s book is about the dodgy compilation, on Microsoft Excel Sheet format and hence the name of the book with the gate borrowed from Richard Nixon’s infamous Watergate scandal, of the presidential election results from the 11 000 plus Polling stations. 

Moyo has failed to mention 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, that ZEC failed to produce a verifies voters’ roll, that there was no free public media, that the usual partisan behaviour of the Chiefs reduced rural voters into medieval serfs beholden to Zanu PF abused, etc. All these things render the whole election process flawed, illegal and meaningless. It is nonsense to expect that such a flawed electoral process could therefore produce a legitimate result even if the compilation of the result had been above board.

It was no accident that Moyo has ignored the denying of Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc. Most of these flaws and illegalities are the norm in Zimbabwean elections and the glaring hypocrisy of flagging then now would have been too much even for seasoned sell-out and hypocrite like him. 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. And the way forward has to look at implementing the democratic reforms to stop all the flaws and illegalities and not just the Excelgate ones only. It is only by implementing all the democratic reforms that we can expect to dismantle the dictatorship and not just remove one dictator. 

“Compatriots, much as I would like to, sadly I'm unable to wish you a happy & prosperous new year not because of anything personal but because happiness & prosperity are no longer possible in Zimbabwe due to the live coup against the will of the people!” professed Professor Jonathan Moyo.

Happiness and prosperity have not been possible ever since this corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF regime got into power in 1980. Of course, Professor Moyo must accept personal responsibility for the sorry state the nation is in because it was his work, as the party’s self proclaimed chief strategist and propagandist, that enable Zanu PF to have an iron grip on power and for it to last 40 years and counting.