Mnangagwa living in constant fear of coup - as long as the economic meltdown remains so too will coup threat P Guramatunhu

 'Mnangagwa makes hast military appointment amid coup threats' - screamed the headlines in Bulawayo24. 

“President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made forced cross-cutting changes to his Presidential Guard (PG) Brigade several months after his wife Auxillia clashed with one of the most senior officers in the unit,” read the report.

“According to The News Hawks, The changes reflect Mnangagwa's continued coup-proofing strategy and search for stability in the military forces which brought him to power through a coup in November 2017.”

Robert Mugabe spent the last decade of his time in office in constant fear of street protest and/or a military coup. The nation was rest, they wanted to see something done to stop the growing tide of abject poverty fuelled by the country’s economic meltdown. 

Mugabe could not do anything to end the gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and the crass lawlessness making Zimbabwe a pariah state; the root causes of the economic meltdown. That is to say, he could not do anything to end Zimbabwe’s pariah state without dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship which had kept him and his Zanu PF cronies in power ever since the country’s independence in 1980. 

So, unable to do anything to end the economic meltdown Mugabe was a sitting dock. The coup he feared, knew was coming but just did not know when, did come. Mugabe was woken up in the small hours of 15 November 2017 with an AK47 Rifle’s business end pointing up his backside! It was game over for him! 

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe following the November 2017 military coup, he was smart enough to know that his hold on power was totally dependent on him ending the country’s worsening economic meltdown. He did hit the ground running with his clarion call “Zimbabwe is open for business!” 

It has been three years since the coup and Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is decidedly worse than ever. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” is dead in the water.

Frankly, “Zimbabwe is open for business!” was doomed to fail. Zimbabwe’s economy was in meltdown before the coup precisely because the country was a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. After the coup, Zimbabwe was still a pariah state or be it under a new dictator! Investors and lenders, whom Mnangagwa was targeting with his clarion call, are a shrewd and savvy lot; they were not going to fall for empty promises, rhetoric and cheap marketing gimmicks!

Indeed, the very fact that Mnangagwa went town to sell “Zimbabwe is open for business!” speaks volumes of the man. The world will remember Mnangagwa and his team in their trademark multi-coloured scarfs, a flock of Southern Hornbill with their red wattles distended; what a spectacle. He clearly believed his on cheap propaganda; a dead give away, this is a man of little intellect way out of his league.

Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before, cannot address the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness without dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship, his power base. It is naive to think one can revive the comatose economy and somehow still keep the dictatorship; the two are mutually exclusive. And so, again like Mugabe, Mnangagwa finds himself a seating duck; forever fearful of the street protests and/or military which he knows is coming. 

Mnangagwa’s fear of street protests is so intense as shown by the sheer brutality he has use to stamp it out. His fear of the coup is just as intense as seen by the number of times he has promoted, shuffled and/or fired security services personnel. But as long as the economy continues in its nose-dive the pressure for meaningful political change will only increase. 

Grace Mugabe talked of how her late husband was sleeping with one eye open because the fear of social unrest or a coup was relentless. Having one eye open was not enough to stop the 15th November 2017 coup. Now it is Mnangagwa’s turn to live in fear. He can double his security every month, sleep with both eyes open if he can, etc., etc.; this will not stop the social unrest and/or coup. 

As long as there nothing is done to end the economic meltdown, the pressure for real and meaningful political change will never go away.  

By rigging the elections and thus frustrate the opportunity for peaceful democratic change, Zanu PF has left the nation with no alternative but to resort to violent street protests and/or military coup as the only way to achieve meaningful political change. Rigging elections has postponed change and kept Zanu PF in power but this has a price tag - when change comes there will be violence. 

Robert Mugabe and none of his immediate family were shot in the November 2017 military coup. A few people lost their lives and a number of G40 leaders are in exile and fearing for the safety and lives. There could well be rivers of blood in the next coup!

"You are spying on me," the First Lady reportedly railed at Samson Murombo, then commanding officer of 1 Presidential Guard. Murombo has since been reshuffled.

"Get away! I'm just a mere woman, a grandmother. Go shoot Mnangagwa, I ask for pardon. Don't shoot me, I have children. Just shoot Mnangagwa, because I know this is all about him.”

You sowed the wind and now must reap the whirlwind!  

Mnangagwa discovers top dog straitjacket has no wriggle room especially now that coups are "legal"! W Mukori

 "Zanu-PF has a constitution and under that constitution, we sit as a congress to elect our president," said Zanu PF acting national spokes-person Patrick Chinamasa.

"In 1977, a lot of the leaders had fallen by the wayside. The most senior person in rank remaining was (the late) Cde Robert Mugabe and at the congress in Chimoio, he was elected president of Zanu then," Chinamasa said.

"In November (2017), exactly on the basis of the precedence of 1977, exactly that is what happened when it became very clear that our constitution was being trampled upon by the G40 cabal and that they were threatening the stability of the nation, the party moved in and we elected, at our December congress, President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa as leader of Zanu-PF.”

Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs with no regard to rule of law and the constitution much less the truth, not even historic facts. 

Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs whose greed for absolute power and wealth is insatiable. They have ridden roughshod over the ordinary people denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful elections and even the right to life. 

Mugabe was able to hold the party together for the first 30 years after independence only because there was a lot of wealth, loot he then dolled out to the party leaders to feed their ever growing appetites. The power and loot was the glue that held Zanu PF together. 

The Zanu PF thugs’ are corrupt, incompetent and wasteful and with time their appetites for loot grew exponentially, by the late 1990s the Zimbabwe economy was in serious trouble.

Mugabe seized white-owned farms, the only other asset of value left, to give his very demanding and wasteful cronies. The farm seizures resulted in the collapse of the agricultural sector and with it the economy. 

To make matters worse, Zanu PF started printing money fuelling the hyperinflation which, by 2008, reached the nauseating heights of 500 billion percent! Zimbabwe’s economy completely collapsed, and has never ever recovered; trigging the dog-eat-dog for the scraps amongst the Zanu PF thugs. 

Chinamasa contradicted his early claim that Zanu PF an orderly party that respected the rule of law and the constitution. Mnangagwa’s 2017 succession was not a smooth transition but a messy and ruthless affair culminating in the bloody November 2017 military coup.

"Behind the scenes, a lot took place, but it is too early to say. The further from November 2017, the more likely we are going to tell you,” confessed Chinamasa.

"We are yet to heal. Those were the worst ever days in the chapter of the life of our President, Cde ED Mnangagwa, worse than the hanging sentence because then, it was the enemy he had chosen to fight against notwithstanding any consequences."

Mnangagwa’s clarion cry following the November 2017 coup was “Zimbabwe is open for business!” He was cocksure it would revive the economy generating the much need loot to doll out to his restless Zanu PF cronies. The expected flood of investors and lenders in answer to his call has never materialised. “Zimbabwe is open for business!” is dead in the water and Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is even worse than before the coup. 

Chimanasa said the succession in Zanu-PF was a straitjacket and while it allowed everyone to manoeuvre "within the straitjacket, no one could manoeuvre outside it". 

Mnangagwa knows that his position as leader of Zanu PF and government is not secure. He is reportedly building a bunker complex, such is his fear of another military coup. In the November 2017 coup Mugabe lost the crown, that is as much wriggle room as he got!  Mnangagwa may got get even that much wriggle room in the straitjacket he is wearing; he may well lose his head and the crown upon it! 

Mnangagwa got Justice George Chiweshe to rule the November 2017 coup “was legal, justified and constitutional”. The judgement has comeback to haunt him. Everyone knows that Zanu PF party elections are rigged and that leaves a military coup as the short cut to power and glory, particularly now there is a legal precedence too. 

As for the ordinary people, there really is no wriggle room, full stop. Zanu PF thugs have become addicted to the absolute power and the loot it has brought them over the last four decades. It is bad enough they are not having their fill because of the economic meltdown; they are not going to risk losing the scraps too by risking losing power in a free, fair and credible elections. No way!

When Mnangagwa got into power following the November 2017 military coup, he promised, amongst many other things, to hold free, fair and credible elections. He did not implement even one token democratic reform. Not one! 

Whilst everyone who observed Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections condemn the election 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 Observer Mission final report.

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

Indeed, it was impossible to trace and verify anything given ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll;  a legal and common sense requirement. Why all Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, all 130 of them, participated in the July 2018 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections is only a mystery to those who do not know just know corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders are. 

During the 2008 to 2013 GNU Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms which, implemented, would have ended the curse of rigged elections and bad governance once and once for all. The task of implementing the reforms fall to Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders. They failed to implement even one token reform because Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, the ministerial limos, the generous salaries, the US$ 4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. The MDC leaders had the snout in the feeding trough and forgot about the reforms for next five years! 

Ever since the failure to implement the reforms MDC and the rest of the opposition camp have participated in the elections knowing fully well with no reforms Zanu PF would rig the elections. They did so because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats, bait, to entice the opposition to participate regardless. It has worked! 

Nelson Chamisa has been making the usual noise, demanding the implementation of “comprehensive reforms to end the culture of disputed elections”! Zanu PF know when push comes to shove, Chamisa and his MDC A friends will be filing their nomination papers even with no verified voters’ roll! 

“As far as we are concerned 2023 election is a forgone conclusion. In fact it is over before the people have vote.” Chinamasa declared with the confidence of one who knows exactly what he talking about. Confidence born out of 40 years of rightly predicting a landslide Zanu PF election victory every time without failure. 

Mugabe survived as Zanu PF top dog and head of state for 37 years because he had loot to buy blind loyalty and could bend and even break the party rules to suit his selfish megalomania needs. The country’s economic meltdown changed all that; without the loot down payment blind loyalty evaporated like the morning mist under the African sun. 

Mnangagwa has no loot with which to buy blind loyalty and so his hold on power is tenuous the more so that military coup is now “legal, justified and constitutional!” 

Anyone outside of Zanu PF cannot aspire to govern Zimbabwe, as long as Zanu PF retains the carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections, thanks to MDC leaders who have all but sold-out on the fight for free, fair and credible election.

Zanu PF is a party of corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Zimbabwe’s economy under Zanu PF stewardship was doomed to collapse because no economy can sustain for long the criminal waste of human and material resources; 40 years of Zanu PF misrule has left the Zimbabwe economy in ruins. 

Zanu PF itself was doomed to implode. With the economy in meltdown, Zanu PF thugs were going to fight each other to the death over the scraps; the centre will not hold and the party will implode.  

Zanu PF is sinking into the abyss under it own dead weight. But as long as Zanu PF remain in power, the governing party, the party will drag the whole nation into the abyss with it. It is for the people to end Zanu PF’s strangle hold on the nation or suffer and dead the consequence of continue Zanu PF tyrannical rule.

The people can end Zanu PF rule by demanding the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free, fair and credible. Just because MDC leaders have sold-out on free and fair elections does not mean we too must throw in the towel!

2017 coup targeted "criminals around Mugabe" and now it is payback time - we are but mice to Zanu PF thugs N Garikai

 Three years ago at 04.00 hours local time on 15th November 2017 Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) spokesman, Major General Sibusiso Moyo, addressed the nation and the world at large, live on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Television.

"Fellow Zimbabweans, following the address we made on 13 November 2017 which we believe our main broadcaster, ZBC and The Herald, were directed not to publicise, the situation in our country has moved to another level," he announced.

"Firstly, we wish to assure the nation that His Excellency, The President, of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Cde R.G Mugabe and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed. We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice. As soon as we have accomplished our mission we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.

"To both our people and the world beyond our borders: We wish to make it abundantly clear that this is not a military takeover of Government. What the Zimbabwe Defence Forces is doing is to pacify a degenerating political, social and economic situation in our country which if not addressed may result in violent conflict.” 

Fast forward to today, three years latter, it is common cause to say the “degenerating political, social and economic situation” has continued and the threat of social unrest or worse is as real now as it was in 2017. A situation that has not gone unnoticed by some of those like former ministers Professor Jonathan Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere, etc. G40 leaders, the targeted “criminal around Mugabe who are committing crimes”. The G40 leaders are answering back with growing confidence.

“Either we organise or we agonise. If we continue looking at the situation as it is and expect that on its own, it will resolve itself, I think that won’t just happen like that,” argued Kasukuwere in a public discussion dubbed “Operation Restore Legacy, Unpacking the Democratic Transition in Zimbabwe”.

“The situation we find ourselves in as Zimbabwe is not the first time in the world over or in Africa.

“You recall we had such a situation in Nigeria. There was serious persecution of journalists, politicians and this all has to do with the role of the military at any given point when they take on the political platform and basically try to start directing the political affairs of any given country.

“In our situation, in Zimbabwe, we appear like we are in a political cul-de-sac. There is no defined pathway on how to proceed… Let’s take up the battle straight to the administration each and every day they must start to understand that the pain in our society is now unattainable.

“I believe the collective aspiration of the people of Zimbabwe will be much greater a force than any other thing that we have. Whether there are guns, whether they arrest us.

What is lacking in my view is a concerted push to change our situation.”

Three years ago the people of Zimbabwe came out in strong support of the military coup and poured in the streets in their thousands to demonstrate their support. After 37 years of Mugabe rule they wanted “to give Mnangagwa a chance”. 

Now, three years latter, the talk is “Mugabe was better than Mnangagwa”! Kasukuwere and company are growing confident of staging a political comeback in the coming elections in 2023.

The truth is the November 2017 military coup was nothing but a musical chairs, Mugabe and a few around him were eliminated but those who remained were just as corrupt, incompetent, tyrannical, etc. All talk of “Second Republic and New Dispensation” was just a marketing gimmick to give the impression Zimbabwe had changed when in reality nothing of substance had changed.

Kasukuwere et al have targeted the military as the root cause of the rot in Zimbabwe just as the November 2017 coup had targeted his and his colleagues, most of whom are now in exile. This is just nonsense because the military has always played a major role in Zimbabwe politics. We have all heard of the Joint Operation Command, a junta, comprising the top brass in the Police, CIO, Army and Prison Services plus a few select individuals from the party head by Mugabe with Mnangagwa as his deputy. 

The Police and CIO’s top brass belonged to the Mugabe and G40 faction whilst the Army belonged to the Mnangagwa and Lacoste faction. Former Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuru played no part in the coup and in being hounded because he was in “the wrong basket”, as Mugabe would put it. 

Mnangagwa offered musical chairs Zanu PF, Kasukuwere et al are offering revolved door Zanu PF. Those who are now supporting Kasukuwere are as naive and gullible as those who supported Mnangagwa three years go. There is no difference between Mnangagwa and Kasukuwere in so far as that both are corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and power hungry thugs. There is no difference between a viper and a cobra in being deadly snakes especially to a mouse; to these Zanu PF thugs we are mice! 

"Trump promised an elixir for their racial anxiety" said Obama - Thank God and democracy Trump ruled for one term W Mukori

 “It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted,” CNN quoted an excerpt from former US President Barack Obama's upcoming memoir, A Promised Land.

“For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, [Trump] promised an elixir for their racial anxiety.”

Obama has said many insightful things and that is up there in the top ten in my view. 

President Donald Trump’s four years in office has been divisive and his handling of the corona virus pandemic has been a complete disaster. The Trump administration’s sheer incompetence in the handling of the virus turned a crisis into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion. 

As of today, 17 November 2020, 11.3 million Americans had the corona virus and 248 424 have died of the virus. The bill for the damage to corona virus has done to the economy is yet to come. Of all the developed country; indeed America is the most developed and prosperous nation on earth; and yet America has the worst per capita corona virus cases and deaths. The worst by a long country mile! 

The November 2020 USA elections where going to be a referendum of Trump’s handling of the corona virus. The corona virus cases were once again rapidly increasing in line with the dreaded second wave of infection and there was no vaccine, something Trump had promised repeatedly ever since the outbreak. (The first promising vaccine was announced days after the voting day, 3rd November.)

Donald Trump polled 70.7 million votes, more votes than Barack Obama or any other winning American President in recent memory, and still he lost to Joe Biden who polled 74.9 million votes. 

Trump had galvanised his support base and they turned out to vote for him in droves. The white supremacist primeval instinct, the driving force behind the slave trade for which many lives were sacrificed to end it. Even long after slavery was abolished the racist instinct have resurfaced again and again. 

Former President Barack Obama is right, the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 was a knee-jerk reaction many of the white supremacist to America’s election of a black person into White House. For the next four years Trump had shown he had no time for all the political niceties of racial harmony emboldening the white supremacist to no end. By the time of the November 2020 elections the white supremacist were invigorated and determined to see their man re-elected for “Four more years!” 

Trump’s disastrous track record on America’s standing with the rest of the free world, his handling of the deadly corona virus still wrecking havoc to the nation’s health and economy, etc.; all matter not at all. One does not reason with the KKK, the organisation would have never ever existed if the members were rational!

Trump lost the 3rd November 2020 elections because he did not only galvanised his white supremacist base but he also galvanised all the Americans out there who realised he stood for the return of the KKK and the public lynching of blacks for no other reason than the colour of the sick. The cold blooded murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the shooting dead Breonna Taylor and many other blacks by the Police, the very people who should be protecting them: was the wake-up call for the ant-Trump base. It certainly hardened their resolve to vote him out on 3rd November. 

Yes Trump lost the November 2020 elections but it was a close call. 

Now that the white supremacist's primeval instincts have been awakened who know how long it will take the beast back in the cage again and what mischief they will cause until then. 

President Donald Trump’s epitaph: All he ever did was stoke America’s racial divide for selfish gain. Thank God and democracy he only served one term!

"MDC A #OneMillionCampaign will fight rural voter apathy" - feeble excuse to contest flawed elections for umpteenth time P Guramatunhu

 “Mdc Alliance Namibia greatly appreciates and admires the historic innovation since the inception of the political behemoth to invade rural constituencies in preparation of the harmonised elections in 2023,” said MDC A Namibia District statement in support of party youths to target one million new rural voters in the #OneMillionCompaign. 

“As a district, we are committed and dedicated to meaningfully contribute towards this noble cause since our Youths are the most vulnerable victims of Zanupf’s gross misgovernance. We applaud our Youth Assembly led by Chairperson commander Obey Tererai Sithole and his vibrant team for the initiative to fight vote apathy especially from our youths who treat themselves as second class citizens.” 

The rural people are the poorest of the poor in Zimbabwe and, given Zanu PF is responsible for the country’s economic meltdown, one would expect the opposition to have no problems getting support from the rural voters. The exact opposition is in fact the case. 

Zanu PF coercive tactics of using state assistance to buy votes backed by the use of brute force has reduced the rural voters into nothing but medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing landlords. 

Before the 2018 elections Mnangagwa bought each and everyone of the country’s traditional chiefs a twin cab truck; at a time when many district hospitals did not have a working ambulance service, for example. Chief Fortune Charumbira, President of the Chief's Council, publicly proclaimed that all the chiefs will be campaigning for Zanu PF in the coming elections. 

The Chiefs together with the Zanu PF operatives have harassed the rural voters forcing them to attend Zanu PF rallies and to vote for the party. This is normal practice in Zimbabwe.

Zanu PF’s 2/3 majority in parliament is from rural votes from the medieval serfs! 

The prospect of holding the 2023 elections with no meaningful democratic reforms implemented is nauseating. The country must implement the democratic reforms to ensure Chief Charumbira and his fellow chiefs are forced to honour their constitutional obligations to be apolitical. The practice of politicising state aid must be stamped out. 

It is not that the MDC leaders and their supporters do not know that of Zanu PF’s use of Chiefs and other blatant vote rigging political shenanigans; they do. They also know that Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut is more ruthless in the rural areas than in the urban areas hence the reason the urban centres have remain opposition strongholds. 

To give the impression Zimbabwean elections are a free, fair and credible multi-party elections Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats, bait to entice them to participate in the flawed elections. What is worth noting here, that the opposition politicians were well aware this is a honey pot trap; one they found irresistible! 

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, MDC A Senator and Treasurer General, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear the elections would not be free, fair and credible and yet MDC leaders participated in the elections.

“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,” wrote Senator Coltart.

“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.”

Participating in the flawed elections not only gave the process credibility but also gave the vote rigging, per se, illegitimate Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy. 

After the 2013 elections, MDC-T resolved at its next party congress not to participate in future elections until reform are implemented. “No reform! No elections!” All the other MDC factions endorsed the resolution. 

As the 2018 elections draw near, the smell of honey was in the air, the “No reform! No election!” resolution was abandoned without even by your leave. A number of the MDC factions did form the MDC Alliance coalition to better their chance of winning the bait seats; boycotting elections was the last thing on their minds. 

After the 2018 elections, MDC A has complained of Zanu PF stealing the elections, at least the presidential race, and has once again called for “implementation of comprehensive democratic reforms” BEFORE the 2023 elections. 

As the 2023 elections approach, the smell of the honey will once again become irresistible, MDC A will participate in the elections with not even token reforms implemented. The campaign to recruit one million rural party supporters will just be one excuse for participating with no reforms implemented. 

Without implementing the democratic reforms the rural voters will remain a medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing traditional Chiefs and other Zanu PF operatives. The 2023 elections must be free, fair and credible in which everyone, including rural voters, exercise their right to a meaningful vote fear or coercion. 

“MDC A #OneMillionCompaign will fight rural voter apathy and treat themselves as second class citizens!” It is down right foolish to expect the rural voters who have been reduced into medieval serfs to vote freely especially it is none other than the MDC A that has repeatedly failed to implement the democratic reforms to end their bondage!

MDC A is gearing to participate in the 2023 with no reforms implemented; all talk of implementing reforms is the usual hot air. Whilst we cannot stop them, we can see to it no one is left in any doubt MDC A are doing this out of greed. Mnangagwa will never implement any reforms because he knows MDC will participate regardless, they opposition cannot resist the few gravy train seats bait, the honey pot trap. 

During the 2008 to 2013 Zanu PF leaders learnt that the party will not have to implement any democratic reforms as long as it can bribe the MDC leaders to participate in flawed and illegal elections. Ever since, MDC has been running with povo hare, paying lip service to reforms, whilst hunting with the Zanu PF hounds, giving legitimacy to rigged elections.  

The whole world must know that MDC A and all the opposition parties who participate in Zimbabwe’s flawed and illegal elections have no politically credibility. None! 

A discredited opposition cannot give credibility to the flawed and illegal election process. A discredited election process cannot give the vote rigging per se illegitimate Zanu PF regime even token legitimacy! Without reforms the 2023 elections will be null and void and, this time, Zanu PF’s illegitimacy will be beyond dispute! 

What Zimbabwe needs to reset its failed political system is to implement the reforms and hold free, fair and credible elections. Ever since the 2008 GNU the greatest impediment to implementing the reforms is not Zanu PF thugs but MDC sell-outs. Stop MDC conniving with Zanu PF and the latter will have nowhere to hide and the nation will finally have the reforms implemented.

Pray, President Biden upgraded ZDERA mark 2 effect democratic change in 20 months not another 20 years N Garikai

 “Mnangagwa's govt taking initiative to woo Joe Biden, Washington!” reported Daily News. 

"From the historical narration, the election of Biden may mean more of the same for Zimbabwe, although we believe that a lot of water has gone under the bridge,” commented Zanu-PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa.

"Having said all this, we are urging our minister of Foreign Affairs to immediately engage the incoming US president's administration and bring to his attention the reality that for sanctions to target the country's economic pillars like they are doing is not promoting democracy.

"It is this sanctions law (the USA's Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, ZDERA) that has prevented Zimbabwe from getting support from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank and the African Development Bank.” 

What Zanu PF must be reminded, in they have conveniently forgotten, is that President-elect Joe Biden was one of the senators who sponsored ZDERA in 2001. He will not need anyone to remind him that the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe is a hell lot worse now than it was in 2001. The revision of ZDERA, to make the targeted sanctions more effective and to produce the desired meaningful democratic changes, is long overdue. 

The targeted sanctions must be expanded to include the targeted individuals’ family and cronies. Unlike the last 20 years, the sanction must be ruthlessly enforced. 

Individuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister of Finance, have agreed to work for the regime knowing Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and is therefore illegitimate. Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders have participated in flawed elections giving the process some measure of credibility and the result some modicum of legitimacy. All these individuals are propping up this Zanu PF dictatorship for selfish reasons and they must now be added to the sanctions list.

Trump called for vote counting to stop but was powerless to do anything beyond tweeting endlessly about it. In 2008, Mnangagwa ordered voting counting to stop and it stopped immediately. It took the next six weeks to cook-up the vote count (six weeks to count 5 million votes) to reduce Morgan Tsvangirai’s 73% votes, according to Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, to 47%, enough to justify a run-off. Such is the enormity of Zimbabwe’s democratic deficit.

America is having a problem getting President Trump to concede electoral defeat and to orderly vacate the White House after he was in office for only four years. How much more difficult would it be to get him to leave if he had been in office for four decades and had corrupted the judiciary, legislature and all the other state institutions; as has happened in Zimbabwe!

Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins and political paralysis. Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed, millions are now living in abject poverty, etc. Zimbabwe is facing a serious existential threat, the country is standing on the edge of the abyss. 

What the country needs to turn away from the brink is an end to the decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule. We need to implement democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. 

As long as Zanu PF remains in power there will be no meaningful reforms implemented and so all pressure must be brought to bear to force the regime to step down. The targeted sanctions from the USA, EU and other western nation are an important part of this pressure to force change.

So President Biden replace the outdated 2001 ZDERA with the upgrade and update ZDERA mark 2 designed to deliver the desire democratic changes in Zimbabwe in 20 months not another 20 years. If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office until 2023, the party will go on to rig that year’s elections too! It will be bad enough for Zanu PF to remain in power until 2023; it is simply unthinkable that the party should rig the elections and extend its rule by yet another 5 years! 

ZDERA mark2 and all the other economic and political measures must end the Zanu PF dictatorship by 2023, at the latest, without failure!

"Real issue in Zim is crisis of (Zanu PF) leadership" said Biti - but that is only the half of it! P Guramatunhu

 “At the end of the day the real issue in Zim is a crisis of governance and leadership.

“The nation carries the burden of illegitimacy, of corrupt incompetent clueless and incompetent leadership. Collectively we change gears and put an end to this .It’s time for change,” argued Hon Biti.

All this is true but it is wilfully incomplete, Biti always leaves out the juicy and tragic part. He loves talking about how much the nation is suffering under Zanu PF but does not say how the regime would be history if he and his fellow MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms and stopped Zanu PF rigging the elections. 

MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 GNU. They failed to get even one reform implemented because they sold-out, they were busy enjoying the trappings of high office and forgot about the reforms. 

“The nation carries the burden of illegitimacy,” Biti tells us but would not say that it was his and MDC’s continued participation in flawed and illegal elections, they are after the few gravy train seats bait, that has giving credibility to the flawed elections and, by extension, legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. What is more, Biti and company knew this all along as David Coltart has admitted in his book. 

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the 2008 GNU, gave details of how Zanu PF was flouting the electoral rules in the upcoming 2013 elections. It was clear the elections would not be free, fair and credible and yet MDC leaders participated in the elections regardless.

“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,” wrote Senator Coltart.

“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.”

Tendai Biti and company went on to participate in the 2018 elections even thou it was clear Zanu PF would rig these elections too and even after a number of the MDC factions had formed a coalition, MDC Alliance. Biti and company found the Zanu PF bait irresistible!

Zanu PF has ignored calls to implement the democratic reforms and end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance and so the coming 2023 elections will, once again, be flawed and illegal. However, Tendai Biti and the usual suspects will participate giving the elections credibility and the result some modicum of legitimacy! 

“The nation carries the burden of (Zanu PF) illegitimacy!” that is only the half of it! The other half, the unspoken and yet an even greater burden, is MDC sell-outs. If MDC leaders had not sold-out, the Zanu PF dictatorship would have been dismantled by now! 

Even since the 2008 GNU, MDC leaders have been hunting with the Zanu PF hounds and, for PR purposes, continued to run with the povo hare. Sadly, the Zimbabwe public has yet to realise what is going on and until they do, the country will continue on its relentless 40 year march into the abyss! 

“At the end of the day the real issue in Zim is a crisis of (Zanu PF) governance and leadership!” No, it is a crisis of Zanu PF and MDC governance and leadership!