"Trump will agonise if he loses the presidency" says Mutodi - yes, but unlike you, would never rig to stop regime change N Garikai

There those who have argued that the targeted sanctions imposed by USA and other western countries on the Zanu PF leaders and a few companies associated with the regime have missed the target and should be scrapped. “Sanctions have become the most convenient excuse used by the regime for Zimbabwe’s economic failures,” they argued.

The counter argument was that sanctions highlight the regime’s repeated failure to uphold basic human rights including the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Yes, the failure to police the sanctions has meant the targeted individuals have found many ways to circumvent the sanctions. But even then, it was important that the sanctions stayed; the symbolic significance of the sanctions was just as important. 

Time has proven those who wanted the sanctions to stay, right! 

"US sanctions against Zimbabwe are aimed at achieving regime change-continuation of measures citing political & economic reforms is telling. Ironically, the US has befriended many rogue regimes well known for extrajudicial killings, genocide & corruption,” twittered Zanu PF Deputy Minister of Information, Dr Energy Mutodi.

The deputy minister was responding to the recent decision by USA US President Donald Trump to extend the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leaders by another year.

"Mr Trump has missed a glorious opportunity to open a new page in the ZIM-US relations. Agonisingly, he may not be there to see another sanctions review anniversary, with Joe Biden in hot pursuit to take over the Presidency.”

There are four key points worth noting here:

1. First and foremost, the sanctions are aimed at forcing Zanu PF to hold free, fair and credible elections and to accept the reality that such elections can result in regime change, if that is indeed the democratic wish of the majority of the electorate. Zanu PF has been rigging elections because the party cannot stomach the prospect of being booted out of power! 

1. President Trump will certainly be very disappointed if he was to lose the elections this November but, like it or not, that is no excuse for him to even try to deny the American people their fundamental right to decide who is going to be their next president! (No doubt Mutodi and his Zanu PF friends would only be glad to show the Americans a few vote rigging dirty tricks!) The irony here is that President Trump would have been furious, rightly so too, if four years ago, he had been cheated of victory.

1. Zanu PF is not denying it has failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections the deputy minister is pleading that the US has turned a blind eye to other rogue regimes and therefore must do the same with Zanu PF. 

1. The most important point here is that Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF regime for the last 40 years and counting. The party has usurped the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. The economic meltdown has forced unemployment to soar to dizzying heights of 90% and millions of our people now live in abject poverty. The nation is facing a serious existential threat and the solution is to dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship and restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. Of course, every thinking Zimbabwean out there welcomes the retention of the sanctions as a way of forcing Zanu PF to accept democratic reforms. We want regime change, we are desperate for regime change. Fcuk you, Mutodi, and all your fellow Zanu PF thugs, for landing Zimbabwe in this mess with your no regime change nonsense!

LWF Secretary calls for Mnangagwa and Chamisa dialogue - must aim to free hostages and not to legitimise regime W Mukori

Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Secretary General, Dr Martin Junge, add his voice to those calling for Mnangagwa and Chamisa to meet. 

"He (Mnangagwa) referred to the efforts of the government of creating a platform for dialogue and expressed that he was keen to engage in dialogue to solve the country's problems," Dr Junge said, after his meeting with President Mnangagwa.

"I know from other parts of the world that when we have to remind ourselves of the need for dialogue and peace, it is because there is tension, frustration and fragmentation.

"So I was grateful to see the church in Zimbabwe also calling for dialogue because we know all over the world that the harder the issue is, the more you need to talk.” 

The first thing Dr Junge should have done was to understand the problem is Zimbabwe. If he had done so then he would have realised the sheer futility of the of the Zanu PF and MDC dialogue.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country is in economic ruins and political paralysis because the nation was stuck for 40 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. The people have failed to remove party from office because the party rigged elections. 

The solution is self-evident; implement the democratic reforms designed to stop the vote rigging and thus end the curse of rigged elections. Sadly, this has proven easier said than done. 

Zanu PF, the country’s ruling party for the last 40 years and counting, has not implemented the reforms nor will it ever do so for the simple reason that the party leaders have benefited from dictatorship. They have enjoyed absolute power and they live in palatial mansions, have vast business empires and are enjoying extravagant lifestyles. They are not going to risk all this in a free and fair elections!

Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office. Never ever!

The country’s main opposition MDC leaders have had many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms and thus end the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. They have wasted each and everyone of the opportunities. They have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent; they have failed to implement even one meaningful reform in 20 years and counting of the political stage. Not one! 

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF thugs. By rigging the July 2018 elections President Mnangagwa confirmed Zimbabwe was indeed still a pariah state contrary to his post the November 2017 military coup promise to change. 

The IMF, WB, AfDB and all the other international lenders have just publicly announce that they will not give Zimbabwe any financial assistance because the country’s political and economic “reforms are off-track”! In short, they will not bankroll a pariah state!

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery because investors and lenders alike do not want to do business with thugs. Period!

Whatever political arrangement that comes out of proposed dialogue between Zanu PF and MDC, it will be near impossible to deny it is Zanu PF dictatorship in all but name. The 2008 to 2013 GNU in which these two party were the partners failed to implement even one meaningful reform and it is naive to believe the new partnership will do any better. 

If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in office till 2023, even in a power sharing arrangement; the party will see to it that no meaningful reforms are implemented and then will go on to rig the 2023 elections. 

The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis not the traditional one seeking a democratic compromise between the two main political parties Zanu PF and MDC. Zimbabwe is not a democracy it is a dictatorship. The solution is a radical one, we must totally reject the dictatorship, break it up.

“The harder the issue is, the more you need to talk!” True, but you must understood that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies not only rigged the July 2018 elections but have been rigging elections for the last 40 years. They are holding the people of Zimbabwe hostage to their insatiable greed for absolute power and wealth. 

The principle purpose of the dialogue with Mnangagwa is to free the hostages and not to legitimise his illegitimate regime! 

Upgrading prestige stadia at expense of neglected local hospitals - why not, ruling elite don't use latter N Garikai

Work on the upgrading of the National Stadium in Harare and Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo has started in earnest. The Chronicle is full of coloured pictures of the work been done at the latter stadium. 

Am I surprised that the regime has moved swiftly to upgrade the stadia and yet has done nothing about the rot and decay of the country’s clinics and hospitals including Parerenyatwa and Mpilo Hospitals an stone-throw away from National and Barbourfield Stadium respective?  No I am not! 

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has again and again made decisions that simply defy logic. In Zimbabwe it is the tail that wags the dog! Bizarre!

In Zimbabwe unemployment has soared to the dizzying heights of 90%, basic services like education and health care have all but completely collapsed and 34% of the population now living in abject poverty. I will bet my bottom dollar that at least 90% of the people of Zimbabwe would have never voted for upgrade  the country stadia given all the other pressing issues. 

As we can see, the country’s ruling elite did vote for the upgrading of the stadia. The total collapse of the country’s health care services, for example, does not bother them one bit. They go to SA, India, China, Singapore, etc. for all their medical needs and have done so decades! 

The economic and social situation in Zimbabwe has reached new alarming heights and yet the ruling elite continue to be oblivious of it all. 

Bulawayo has just increased its health care charges by 700% and so even more people in the city will be forced choose death over life. Aware of the increase in number of deaths, no doubt, the City has also increased its burial charges. The deceased’s relatives are being punished for dead relative, for the economic meltdown, for the foolishness of putting stadium over hospitals, etc., etc. 

Of course, the ordinary Zimbabwean has never had any meaningful say in the governance of the country, they have been denied their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. It is the ruling elite who have the veto over all matters in Zimbabwe, they are the ones to blame for the country’s corruption and mismanagement behind the economic meltdown. And yet it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who are being punished by the ruling elite for the latter’s misrule - that is what makes the whole story so tragic and bizarre! 

The only way to end the madness in Zimbabwe is for the ordinary people to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms design to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers and to restore the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs, there will be no meaningful economic recovery and such foolishness as upgrading stadia at the expense of hospitals will continue. The need to implement the democratic reforms and end this political madness has never been more urgent than it is now with human lives at stake! 

First IMF and other lenders and now all the donors - they will not bankroll a pariah state. Simples! W Mukori

Zimbabwe is in this dire economic, social and political situation because of 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness earning us the pariah state label. Mnangagwa himself acknowledged this reality when he seized power from Mugabe in November 2017 otherwise why else did he promise to end corruption and, most important of all, to hold free, fair and credible elections.

We all know that corruption is still rampant and Mnangagwa himself has publicly acknowledge this. His excuse is that it is "deep rooted"! We all know that most of those behind the rampant corruption before he took over in November 2017 are still in power today. So it is no surprise then that corruption has continued post November 2017 coup.

Mnangagwa failed to implement even one token democratic reform without which it is impossible to have free, fair and credible elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll for the July 2018 elections. Of course, the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible and no one is under any illusion that there were ever meant to be!

"Zanu PF ichtonga! Igotonga! Imi muchigo hukura! Nokuhukura!" (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for reforms) bark! And bark!) was the first thing Mnangagwa told his Zanu PF hardliners when he return from SA within hours of Mugabe resigning. 

He has said this before the coup and was just reassuring his supporters that when it came to Zanu PF's claim to the divine right to rule by right of conquest, nothing had changed. Nothing!

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. The Zanu PF dictatorship is notoriously wasteful of the country's human and material resources and it is near impossible to do business in the country. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery because investors and lenders will continue to shy away from the country. 

The IMF, WB, AfDB and all the other international financial institutions have never given the Mnangagwa any financial assistance since November 2017, contrary to the repeated assurances that the assistance was coming, especially by Zimbabwe's very flamboyant and cocksure (until now, at least) Minister of Finance, Professor Mthuli Ncube. These institutions have now made it clear that they are not going to bankroll a pariah state! 

Now even the donors are walking out too! “International Donors Losing Patience With Zimbabwe” reported Spotlight Zimbabwe. The publication went on to list USAID, UKAID, EU, Canadian, Swedish, Swiss, Norwegian and Germans. Many others have or will soon pack the bags and walk away. 

For the last 40 years we, Zimbabweans, have allowed Zanu PF thugs rid roughshod over us, denying us our freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. The international community has done its best to encourage us to stand up for our rights and provided the ambulance service at the bottom of the cliff. After 40 years of this madness, they are clearly sick and tired of helping people who are doing little, if anything at all, to help themselves.

If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about ending the economic meltdown and the tragic human suffering and deaths it is causing they know what they must do - end the pariah state! Simple!

CCJPZ call for umpteenth multi-stakeholders dialogue - enough nonsense, just demand end to pariah state N Garikai

“Catholic bishops have called for a multi-stakeholders platform to discuss the socio-economic and political crisis in the country, but ruled out the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), a grouping of fringe political parties which performed dismally in the 2018 elections fronted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa as a platform,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“In an interview on the sidelines of the launch of a meeting to foster co-operation between the Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJPZ) and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission on Friday, the CCJPZ chairperson, Bishop Rudolf Nyandoro, said dialogue to solve the political crisis in Zimbabwe should not be a preserve of politicians, but all citizens.”

This is becoming a monotonous monologue! “All-stakeholders political dialogue” to talk about something we all should know by now but CCJPZ will not say it!

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and humanitarian crisis is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections that has left the country stuck for 40 years now with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime. The country needs financial assistance to kick start its comatose economy but will not get a single dollar because no one wants to do business with this pariah regime. 

The de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship has denied the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the country has paid dearly for the 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has earned the nation the pariah state status. Enough is enough! 

This Zanu PF regime is illegitimate and must step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the reforms, hold free and fair elections and thus finally end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

We all know, or should know by now, that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs. After 40 years of pretending that we are a healthy and functioning democracy we need to be honest with ourselves and start calling a spade, spade; especially now with the nation’s very survival now on the line. 

We do not need an all-stakeholders’ conference to say what we all know and have known all these last 40 years - that Zanu PF has been rigging elections to impose its tyrannical rule on the nation. We demand and end to rigged elections, pariah state and bad governance. 

We demand the implementation of the reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections. Just say it, Bishop Nyandoro. For Pete’s sake, just spit it out!

Confirmed, IMF will never ever fund a pariah state Zimbabwe and already humanitarian crisis shifts into overdrive W Mukori

Last week the IMF, WB, Paris Club, AfBD and all the other international financial institutions finally confirmed that they will not give Zimbabwe the financial assistance the country needs to end the worsening economic meltdown. 

“In a statement after concluding a visit to the country this week, the IMF said Zimbabwe is experiencing an economic and humanitarian crisis, with macro-economic stability a challenge,” reported New Zimbabwe in an article whose head lines screamed IMF, AfDB Give Thumbs Down To Zimbabwe’s Reforms.

The humanitarian crisis is well and truly upon us! 

Bulawayo City Council has just increased its health care charges by a staggering 700%. Basic consultation fees for adults has gone from $5 to $96.41, a child above five years from $2 to $72.30 and expecting mothers pay $361.52 up from $30. 

There are many ways of denying someone a product and one way is to price it beyond the individual’s economic reach. Health care is not a luxury like a month long holiday in Singapore or buying another posh car Valentine’s Day present for Mum; it is a life and death matter. 

No one should ever have to be force to choose to die and yet this is what the poor in Bulawayo and across Zimbabwe are being forced to choose given the country’s worsening economic meltdown! Make no mistake about it the death rate in Zimbabwe has risen significantly in line with the worsening economic situation and it is set to get worse. 

What makes Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis both heartbreaking and infuriating is that this is, largely, a man-made crisis. The economic meltdown is man-made and could have been easily avoided. Easily!

“The government that came to office following the 2018 elections adopted an agenda focused on macro-stabilisation and reforms. This was supported by a staff-monitored programme from the IMF, adopted in May 2019, but is now off-track as policy implementation has been mixed,” the IMF statement explained.

It turns out that the Zanu PF regime has been secretly printing more paper money to finance government’s humongous spending appetite. This is the root cause of the country’s run away hyperinflation which has surged from single digit a year ago to 800% plus today. 

In an effort to contain inflation government has all but completely abandoned funding public welfare services such as education and health pricing them beyond the reach of the poorest in society.

Ending corruption is another long standing task which IMF was disappointed but not surprised government has failed deal with. 

Of course, the IMF did not expected President Mnangagwa and his regime to stamp out corruption. He and most of his senior government and party officials are the Godfathers of corruption in Zimbabwe, as long as they remain in power they will continue to use state institutions and machinery to protect their corrupt activities. 

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies rigged the July 2018 elections make sure they remain in power to protect their selfish interest like corruption hence the reason the reforms are “off-track”. 

By blatantly rigging the elections Mnangagwa confirmed Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs; a badge the country earned in the late 1990s and has worn ever since.  

And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state; Zanu PF will never ever implement the economic reforms to put the country back on the recovery track and, in turn, the IMF, WB, etc. will never ever waste a single dollar fund reforms doomed to fly off the rail! Never ever.

Zanu PF got the nation into this economic mess by turning Zimbabwe into a pariah state and to rig elections to retain its iron grip on power and keep the country a pariah state. Stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and the party’s strangle hold on power will be broken.

Zanu PF is holding the nation to hostage and will not allow the implementation of democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for free, fair and credible elections.  

Zanu PF leaders spear headed the fight to end white colonial rule and ever since the country attained her independence the party has denied the populous their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. 

Mnangagwa and his fellow Zanu PF cronies have paid lip service to holding free, fair and credible elections; they believe they have the right to blatantly rig the elections to secure their hold on power. They believe Zanu PF has, near as damn it, the divine right to rule Zimbabwe; the right of conquest! And we, the people, are hostage to fortune!

34% of Zimbabwe’s population now live in extreme poverty, it is single digit in the neighbouring countries, which meaning they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less other basic necessities of life such as clothes, shelter and health care. Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis is shifting from shocking numbers living in heartbreaking abject poverty into overdrive, as the numbers of people are dying unnecessarily soar!

The answer to end the humanitarian crisis is to demand the implementation of the reforms and thus end the curse of rigged elections and pariah state. 

It is for us, the people of Zimbabwe, to demand the restoration of our freedoms and rights, not IMF or anyone else. We are hostage to fortune but only because we allowed Zanu PF thugs turn their tyrannical whim into a divine right. 

"Kamba must be turning in his grave at heartbreaking oppression today" - rubbish, never bothered him alive P Guramatunhu

It was the Spanish-American writer and philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it!”

We, in Zimbabwe, have yet to sit down and learn from the last 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. And before we have even started, we are being bombarded by village idiots not only falsely claiming there is a material difference between the Zanu PF dictatorship under Mugabe to the same under Mnangagwa but worse still portray the former period as a golden age of unparalleled peace, justice, tranquility and economic prosperity! 

“In just one year, the human rights environment has deteriorated to such an extent that it is heartbreaking for me.

"I am sure for Walter Kamba, had he been alive, he would see so much suffering and the hopes for Zimbabweans for a better future under a new government dashed,” said Ms Navanethem Pillay in a recent Walter Kamba memorial lecture.

Whilst no one would deny the human rights situation in Zimbabwe is heartbreaking. Still, the present is situation is but a continuum of the past which, if the late Walter Kamba had been as conscientious and prudent as Ms Pillay is portraying him to be, would have been equally appalled. If he was appalled, he certainly did not show it much less do anything to stop it. 

Indeed, as the chairperson of the Election Supervision Commission in post independent Zimbabwe and Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe Walter Kamba was placed in an opportune position to nip in the bud the curse of rigged elections. He chose to turned a blind eye to it all. 

Even after the blatant vote rigging and near fatal shooting of an opposition candidate, Patrick Kombayi, in the 1990 elections all Kamba and his fellow commissioners ever did was write a report! 

A report Mugabe ignored as he went on to pardon the two CIO operatives convicted of the attempted murder of Kombayi. The two were acting in the interest of the late Simon Mudenda, the Zanu PF candidate in that election. They never even spent one night in prison! 

Ms Navanethem Pillay is a South African top lawyer and human rights defender and a former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner. She is no stranger to Zimbabwe and its culture of political violence. She visited Zimbabwe in her UN capacity in 2012 and commented on this very scourge of election violence.

“I was able to raise many areas of concern from a human rights point of view, such as nonrecurrence of violence that occurred in the last elections and what steps are being taken to protect ordinary people from such violence,” Pillay said, following her meeting with Zimbabwe GNU leaders in May 2012.

She was warned that no meaningful reforms had been implemented and that time was fast running out! She did not listen and instead produced a wishy-washy report suggest everything was fine and the next elections would be free, fair and credible. All nonsense as we now know!

“In every facet of life, deterioration of civil and political and economic social and cultural rights has reached crisis proportions,” Ms Pillay told her Walter Kamba lecture audience.

As if to suggest during Mugabe’s day, when she was here last, things had never ever “reach crisis proportions”!

Trying to compare Mugabe’s Zimbabwe to what the country asunder Mnangagwa is just as futile as comparing a cobra and a black mamba - these are deadly snakes, there is no such thing as being better off being bitten by one and not the other!

For your own information, Ms Pillay, the late Walter Kamba was just one of the many Zimbabwean professionals who have compromised their professional ethics and self-respect for thirty pieces of silver. 

He knew that Zanu PF was a party of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs, he knew the regime appointed him to spruce up its tarnished image. He accepted the cushy job and pinched his nose. Of course, Kamba is a sell-out and he knew it himself. 

When Kamba finally stepped down as Vice Chancellor of UZ, he complained of “interfering hands in the running of the University”. He did not have to say it himself because everyone was saying it to themselves “And throughout your tenure as VC, you have done nothing to stop those interfering hands!”  

To be fair Walter Kamba was not the only sell-out Zimbabwean professional; both Mugabe and Mnangagwa have had little trouble recruiting professionals to spruce up the image of the party and government. There is Professor Jonathan Moyo, Professor Mthuli Ncube, Tendai Biti and his MDC friends, Minister Kirsty Coventry, etc., etc. 

Hacking off the 37 Mugabe years; sanitised them as having been better than the last 3 Mnangagwa years; will help us forget and forgive Mugabe. But if we are to learn all the important lessons from the Zanu PF dictatorship, then discard the Mugabe years; they are not just the Genesis of the dictatorship but the Old Testament! 

“Kakangamwira Mugabe, kukanganwa chezuro nehope!” (To forgive and forget Mugabe is to forget yesterday’s trials and tribulations with night’s sleep!) as one would say in Shona.

We in Zimbabwe must remember Robert Mugabe as a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant. Mnangagwa was his pupil who learnt well from the dictator and has taken over from where he left off. As for Walter Kamba, he was just one of the many sell-out Zimbabwean professionals; we have the great misfortune of having many, dead and alive.